Assassin's Apprentice - Страница 77

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“Before the wedding?” I asked incredulously. “Don’t you think the death of the bride’s brother might lead her to cancel it?”

“It would be no more than temporary if she did. I have her well in hand, boy. She is easily dazzled. That end of this thing is my concern. Yours is getting rid of her brother. Now. How will you do it?”

“I’ve no idea.” That seemed a better answer than saying I had no intention. I would return to Buckkeep and report back to Shrewd and Chade. If they said I had chosen wrongly, then they might do with me as they wished. But I remembered Regal’s own voice, from so long ago, quoting Shrewd. Don’t do what you can’t undo, until you’ve considered what you can’t do once you’ve done it.

“When will you know?” he demanded sarcastically.

“I don’t know,” I hedged. “These things cannot be done recklessly or sloppily. I need to study the man and his habits, explore his chambers, and learn the habits of his servants. I must find a way to—”

“The wedding is two days hence,” Regal interrupted. The focus of his eyes softened. “I already know all the things you say you must discover. Easiest, then, for me to plan it for you. Come to me tomorrow night, and I will give you your orders. Mind this well, bastard. I do not want you to act before you have informed me. I would find any surprise unpleasant. You would find it deadly.” He lifted his eyes to mine, but I kept my face a careful blank.

“You are dismissed,” he told me regally. “Report to me here, tomorrow night, at the same time. Do not make me send Sevrens to fetch you. He has more important tasks. And do not think my father will not hear of your laxity. He will. He will regret not sending Bitch Thyme to do this little deed.” He leaned back heavily and yawned, and I caught a whiff of wine, and a subtle smoke. I wondered if he was learning his mother’s habits.

I returned to my chambers, intending to ponder carefully all my options and formulate a plan. But so weary was I and half-sick still that I was asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow.

22
Dilemmas

...

To the dream, the Fool stood by my bed. He looked down at me and shook his head. “Why cannot I speak clearly? Because you make it all a muddle. I see a crossroads through the fog, and who always stands within it? You. Do you think I keep you alive because I am so entranced with you? No. It is because you create so many possibilities. While you live you give us more choices. The more choices, the more chances to steer for calmer water. So it is not for your benefit, but for the Six Duchies that I preserve your life. And your duty is the same. To live so that you may continue to present possibilities.”

*

I awoke in precisely the same quandary I had gone to sleep in. I had no idea of what I was going to do. I lay in my bed, listening to the random sounds of the palace awakening. I needed to talk to Chade. That was not possible. So I lightly closed my eyes and tried to think as he had taught me. “What do you know?” he would have asked me, and “What do you suspect?” So.

Regal had lied to King Shrewd about Rurisk’s health and his attitude toward the Six Duchies. Or, possibly, King Shrewd had lied to me about what Regal had said. Or Rurisk had lied about his inclinations toward us. I pondered a moment and decided to follow my first assumption.

Shrewd had never lied to me, that I knew, and Rurisk could have simply let me die instead of rushing to my room. So.

So Regal wanted Rurisk dead. Or did he? If he wanted Rurisk dead, why did he betray me to Kettricken? Unless she had lied about that. I considered. Not likely. She might wonder if Shrewd would send an assassin, but why would she immediately decide to accuse me? No. She had recognized my name. And known of Lady Thyme. So.

And Regal had said, twice last night, that he had asked his father to send Lady Thyme. But he had likewise betrayed her name to Kettricken. Who did Regal really want dead? Prince Rurisk? Or Lady Thyme or me, after an assassination attempt was discovered? And how did any of it benefit him, and this marriage he had engineered? And why was he insisting I kill Rurisk, when all the political advantages were to his living?

I needed to talk to Chade. I couldn’t. I had to somehow decide this, myself. Unless.

Servants again brought water and fruit. I arose and dressed in my annoying clothes, and ate, and left my chambers. This day was much the same as yesterday. The holiday atmosphere was beginning to wear on me. I attempted to employ my time to advantage, enlarging my knowledge of the palace, its routines and layout. I found Eyod’s, Kettricken’s, and Rurisk’s chambers. I also carefully studied the staircase and support structures to Regal’s. I discovered that Cob slept in the stables, as did Burrich. I expected that of Burrich; he would not surrender the care of Buckkeep horses until he left Jhaampe; but why was Cob sleeping there? To impress Burrich, or to watch him? Sevrens and Rowd both slept in the antechamber of Regal’s apartments, despite a plentitude of rooms in the palace. I tried to study the distribution and schedules of the guards and sentries, but couldn’t find any. And all the while I watched for August. It took me the better part of the morning before I could find him in quiet circumstance. “I need to talk to you. Privately,” I told him.

He looked annoyed and glanced about to see if anyone were watching us. “Not here, Fitz. Maybe when we get back to Buckkeep. I’ve official duties, and—”

I had been prepared for that. I opened my hand, to show him the pin the King had given me so many years ago. “Do you see this? I had it from King Shrewd, a long time ago. And with it, his promise that if I ever needed to speak to him, I need only show it and I would be admitted to his chambers.”

“How touching,” August observed cynically. “And had you some reason for telling me this story? To impress me with your importance, perhaps?”

“I need to speak to the King. Now.”

“He isn’t here,” August pointed out. He turned to walk away.

I took hold of his arm, turned him back to me. “You can Skill to him.”

He shook me off angrily and glanced about us again. “I most certainly cannot. And would not, if I could. Do you think every man who can Skill is allowed to interrupt the King?”

“I have shown you the pin. I promise you, he would not regard this as an interruption.”

“I cannot.”

“Verity, then.”

“I do not Skill to Verity until he Skills to me first. Bastard, you don’t understand. You took the training and you failed at it, and you really have not the slightest comprehension of what the Skill is about. It is not like hallooing to a friend across a valley. It is a serious thing, not to be used except for serious purposes.” Again he turned away from me.

“Turn back, August, or regret it long.” I put every ounce of menace I could into my voice. It was an empty threat; I had no real way to make him regret it, other than threatening to tattle to the King. “Shrewd will not be pleased that you ignored his token.”

August turned slowly back. He glared at me. “Well. I will do this thing, then, but you must promise to take all blame for it.”

“I will. Will you come to my chambers, then, and Skill for me now?”

“Is there no other place?”

“Your chambers?” I suggested.

“No, that is even worse. Do not take it amiss, bastard, but I do not wish to seem to associate with you.”

“Take it not amiss, lordling, that I feel the same about you.”

In the end, on a stone bench, in a quiet part of Kettricken’s herb garden, August sat down and closed his eyes. “What message am I to Skill to Shrewd?”

I considered. This would be a game of riddles, if I were to keep August unaware of my true problem. “Tell him Prince Rurisk’s health is excellent, and we may all hope to see him live to old age. Regal still wishes to give him the gift, but I do not think it appropriate.”

August opened his eyes. “The Skill is an important—”

“I know. Tell him.”

So August sat and took several breaths, and closed his eyes. After a few moments he opened his eyes. “He says to listen to Regal.”

“That’s all?”

“He was busy. And very irritated. Now leave me alone. I fear you’ve made me a fool before my King.”

There were a dozen witty replies I could have made to that. But I let him walk away. I wondered if he had Skilled to King Shrewd at all. I sat down on the stone bench and reflected that I had gained nothing at all and wasted much time. The temptation came and I tried it. I closed my own eyes, breathed, focused, opened myself. Shrewd, my King.

Nothing. No reply. I doubt that I Skilled at all. I rose and went back into the palace.

Again that day, at noon, Kettricken ascended the dais alone. Her words today were just as simple as she announced that she was binding herself to the people of the Six Duchies. From this moment hence she was their Sacrifice, in all things, for any reason that they commanded it of her. And then she thanked her own people, blood of her blood, who had raised her and treated her well, and reminded them she did not change her allegiance out of any lack of affection for them, but only in the hopes that it would benefit both peoples. Again the silence held as she descended the steps. Tomorrow would be her day to pledge herself to Verity as a woman to a man. From what I understood, Regal and August would stand beside her tomorrow in Verity’s stead, and August would Skill so that Verity might see his bride make her pledge to him.

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