Читать книгу The Complete Farseer Trilogy: Assassin’s Apprentice, Royal Assassin, Assassin’s Quest - Робин Хобб - Страница 32

The art of diplomacy is the luck of knowing more of your rival’s secrets than he knows of yours. Always deal from a position of power. These were Shrewd’s maxims. And Verity abided by them.

‘You have to get August. He’s the only hope Verity has.’

We were sitting in the greyness before dawn on a hillside above the palace. We had not gone far. The terrain was steep, and I was in no condition for hiking. I was beginning to suspect that Regal’s kick had renewed Galen’s old damage to my ribs. Every deep breath stabbed me. Regal’s poison still sent tremors through me, and my legs buckled often and unpredictably. Alone, I could not stand, for my legs would not support me. I could not even cling to a tree-trunk and hold myself upright: there was no strength in my arms. Around us in the dawn forest birds called, squirrels were gathering stores for the winter and insects chirred. It was hard, in the midst of all that life, to wonder how much of this damage was permanent. Were the days and strength of my youth already spent, and nothing left to me but trembling and weakness? I tried to push the question from my mind, to concentrate on the greater problems facing the Six Duchies. I stilled myself, as Chade had taught me. Around us, the trees were immense, with a presence like peace. I understood why Eyod would not cut them for timber. Their needles were soft beneath us, the fragrance soothing. I wished I could just lie back and sleep, like Nosy at my side. Our pains still mingled together, but at least Nosy could escape his in sleep.

‘What makes you think August would help us?’ Burrich asked. ‘If I could get him out here.’

I pulled my thoughts back to our dilemma. ‘I don’t think he’s involved with the rest of it. I think he is still loyal to the King.’ I had presented my information to Burrich as my own careful conclusions. He was not a man likely to be convinced by phantom voices overheard in my head. So I could not tell him that Galen had not suggested killing August, and therefore he was probably ignorant of the plot. I was still not sure myself of what I had experienced. Regal could not Skill. Even if he could, how could I have overheard Skilling between two others? No, it had to be something else, some other magic. Of Galen’s devising? Was he capable of a magic that strong? I did not know. So much I did not know. I forced myself to set it all aside. For now, it fitted the facts I had, better than any other supposition I could imagine.

‘If he’s loyal to the King, and has no suspicions of Regal, then he is loyal to Regal as well,’ Burrich pointed out as if I were a witling.

‘Then we’ll have to force him, somehow. Verity must be warned.’

‘Of course. I’ll just walk in, put a knife to August’s back, and march him out of there. No one will bother us.’

I floundered for ideas. ‘Bribe someone to lure him out here. Then jump him.’

‘Even if I knew someone bribable, what would we use?’

‘I have this.’ I touched the earring in my ear.

Burrich looked at it and almost jumped. ‘Where did you get that?’

‘Patience gave it to me. Just before I left.’

‘She had no right!’ And then, more quietly, ‘I thought it went to his grave with him.’

I was silent, waiting.

Burrich looked aside. ‘It was your father’s. I gave it to him.’ He spoke quietly.

‘Why?’

‘Because I wanted to, obviously.’ He closed the topic.

I reached up and began to unfasten it.

‘No,’ he said gruffly. ‘Keep it where it is. But it is not a thing to be spent in a bribe. These Chyurda can’t be bribed anyway.’

I knew he was right about that. I tried to think of other plans. The sun was coming up. Morning, when Galen would act. Perhaps had already acted. I wished I knew what was going on in the palace below. Did they know I was missing? Was Kettricken preparing to pledge herself to a man she would hate? Were Sevrens and Rowd dead yet? If not, could I turn them against Regal by warning them?

‘Someone’s coming!’ Burrich flattened himself. I lay back, resigned to whatever happened. I had no physical fight left in me. ‘Do you know her?’ Burrich breathed.

I turned my head. Jonqui, preceded by a little dog that would never climb a tree for Rurisk again. ‘The King’s sister.’ I didn’t bother whispering. She was carrying one of my nightshirts, and an instant later the tiny dog was leaping joyously around us. He romped invitingly at Nosy, but Nosy just looked at him mournfully. An instant later, Jonqui strode up to us.

‘You must come back,’ she said to me without preamble. ‘And you must hurry.’

‘Hard enough to come back,’ I told her, ‘without hurrying to my death.’ I was watching behind her for other trackers. Burrich had risen and taken a defensive posture over me.

‘No death,’ she promised me calmly. ‘Kettricken has forgiven you. I have been counselling her since last night, but only lately convinced her. She has invoked her kin-right to forgive kin for injury to kin. By our law, if kin forgive kin, no other can do otherwise. Your Regal sought to dissuade her, but only made her angry. “Here, while I am in this palace, I can still invoke the law of the Mountain People,” she told him. King Eyod agreed. Not because he does not mourn Rurisk, but because the strength and wisdom of Jhaampe law must be respected, by all. So, you must come back.’

I considered. ‘And have you forgiven me?’

‘No,’ she snorted. ‘I do not forgive my nephew’s murderer. But I cannot forgive you for what you did not do. I do not believe you would drink wine you had poisoned. Not even a little. Those of us who know best the dangers of poisons tempt them least. You would have just pretended to drink, and never spoken of poison at all. No. This was done by someone who believes himself very clever, and believes others are very stupid.’

I felt rather than saw Burrich lower his guard. But I couldn’t completely relax. ‘Why can’t Kettricken just forgive me and let me go away? Why must I come back?’

‘There is no time for this!’ Jonqui hissed, and it was the closest I had seen to an angry Chyurda. ‘Shall I take months and years to teach you all I know about balances? For a pull, a push, for a breath, a sigh? Do you think no one can feel how power slews and tilts just now? A princess must endure being bartered away like a cow. But my niece is not a playing-piece to be won in a dice game. Whoever killed my nephew clearly wished you to die also. Shall I let him win that toss? I think not. I do not know whom I wish to win; until I do, I will let no player be eliminated.’

‘That’s logic I understand,’ Burrich said approvingly. He stooped and hauled me suddenly to my feet. The world rocked alarmingly. Jonqui came to put her shoulder under my other arm. They walked and my feet marionetted across the ground between them. Nosy heaved himself to his feet and followed. And so we returned to the palace at Jhaampe.

Burrich and Jonqui took me right through the people gathered throughout the grounds and palace to my room. Actually, I excited little interest. I was just an outlander who had had too much wine and smoke last night. People were too absorbed in finding good places from which to view the dais to worry about me. There was no air of mourning, so I assumed the word of Rurisk’s death had not been released. When we finally entered my room, Jonqui’s placid face darkened.

‘I did not do this! I only took a nightshirt, to give Ruta a scent.’

‘This’ was the disassembly of my room. It had been thoroughly if not discreetly done. Jonqui immediately set to putting things right, and after a moment Burrich helped her. I sat in a chair and tried to make sense of the situation. Nosy, unnoticed, curled up in a corner. Unthinkingly, I extended comfort to him. Burrich immediately glanced at me, then at the woebegone dog. He looked away. When Jonqui left to fetch wash-water and food for me, I asked Burrich, ‘Have you found a tiny wooden chest? Carved with acorns?’

He shook his head. So they had taken my poison-cache. I would have liked to prepare another dagger, or even a powder to fling. Burrich could not always be beside me to protect me, and I certainly couldn’t fend off an attacker, or run away in my present condition. But my trade-tools were gone. I would have to hope I wouldn’t need them. I suspected Rowd was the one who had been here, and wondered if this had been his last act. Jonqui returned with water and food, and then excused herself. Burrich and I shared wash-water, and with some help I managed to change into clean, if simple, clothes. Burrich ate an apple. My stomach quailed at the mere thought of food, but I drank the water, cold from the well, that Jonqui had brought me. Getting my throat muscles to swallow still took conscious effort, and I felt as if the water sloshed unpleasantly inside me. But I suspected it was good for me.

I felt each moment ticking by, and wondered when Galen would make his move.

The screen slid aside. I looked up, expecting Jonqui again, but August entered on a wave of contempt. He spoke immediately, anxious to do his errand and depart. ‘I do not come here of my own volition. I come at the bidding of the King-in-Waiting, Verity, to speak his words for him. This is his message, exactly. He is grieved beyond telling by …’

‘You Skilled to him? Today? Was he well?’

August seethed at my question. ‘He was scarcely well. He is grieved beyond telling at Rurisk’s death, and at your betrayal. He bids you draw strength from those around you loyal to you, for you will need it to face him.’

‘Is that all?’ I asked.

‘From the King-in-Waiting, Verity, it is. Prince Regal bids you attend upon him, and swiftly, for the time of the ceremony is only hours away, and he must be attired for it. And your cowardly poison, no doubt meant for Regal, has found poor Sevrens and Rowd. Now Regal must do with an untrained valet. It will take him longer to dress. So do not keep him waiting. He is in the steams, to try to restore himself. You may find him there.’

‘How tragic for him. An untrained valet,’ Burrich said acidly.

August puffed up like a toad. ‘It is scarcely humorous. Have not you lost Cob as well to this scoundrel? How can you bear to aid him?’

‘If your ignorance were not protecting you, August, I might dispel it.’ Burrich stood, looking dangerous.

‘You, too, will face charges,’ August warned him as he retreated. ‘I am to say to you, Burrich, that King-in-Waiting Verity is not unaware of how you attempted to help the bastard escape, serving him as if he were your king instead of Verity. You will be judged.’

‘Did Verity say so?’ Burrich asked curiously.

‘He did. He said you were once the best of King’s men to Chivalry, but apparently you had forgotten how to aid those who truly serve the King. Recall it, he bids you, and assures you of his great wrath if you do not return to stand before him and receive what your deeds merit.’

‘I recall it only too well. I will bring Fitz to Regal.’

‘Now?’

‘As soon as he has eaten.’

August glowered at him and left. Screens cannot be effectively slammed, but he tried.

‘I have no stomach to eat, Burrich,’ I protested.

‘I know that. But we need time for this. I marked Verity’s choice of words, and found more in them than August did. Did you?’

I nodded, feeling defeated. ‘I understood also. But it is beyond me.’

‘Are you sure? Verity does not think so, and he knows of such things. And you told me that was why Cob tried to kill me, because they suspected you of drawing on my strength. So Galen believes you can do it, too.’ Burrich crossed to me, and went down stiffly on one knee. His bad leg stretched awkwardly behind him. He took my lax hand and placed it on his shoulder. ‘I was King’s man to Chivalry,’ he told me quietly. ‘Verity knew it. I have no Skill myself, you understand. But Chivalry gave me to understand that for such a taking, it was not as important as the friendship between us. I have strength, and there were some few times that he needed it, and I gave it willingly. So I have withstood this before, in worse circumstances. Try, boy. If we fail, we fail, but at least we will have tried.’

‘I don’t know how. I don’t know how to Skill, and I certainly don’t know how to tap someone else’s strength to do it. And even if I did, if I succeeded, I might kill you.’

‘If you succeed, our king may live. That is what I am sworn to. And you?’ He made it all seem so simple.

So I tried. I opened my mind, I reached for Verity. I tried, with no idea how, to draw strength from Burrich. But all I heard was the twittering of birds outside the palace walls, and Burrich’s shoulder was only a place to rest my hand. I opened my eyes. I didn’t have to tell him I’d failed; he knew. He sighed heavily.

‘Well. I suppose I take you to Regal,’ he said.

‘If we did not go, we would be forever curious as to what he wanted,’ I added.

Burrich did not smile. ‘You have a fey mood on you,’ he said. ‘You sound more like the Fool than yourself.’

‘Does the Fool talk to you?’ I asked curiously.

‘Sometimes,’ he said, and took my arm to help me up.

‘It seems as if the closer I walk to death,’ I told him, ‘the funnier everything seems.’

‘To you, perhaps,’ he said crossly. ‘I wonder what he wants.’

‘To bargain. There can be nothing else. And if he wants to bargain, we may be able to gain something.’

‘You speak as if Regal follows the same rules of common sense as the rest of us. I’ve never known him to do that. And I’ve always hated court intrigue,’ Burrich complained. ‘I’d rather clean stalls.’ He pulled me again to my feet.

If I had ever wondered how deadroot felt to its victim, I knew it now. I did not think I would die of it. But I did not know how much of a life it would leave me either. My legs trembled under me, and my grip was uncertain. I could feel random muscle-twitches throughout my body. Neither my breath, nor the beating of my heart was predictable. I longed to be still, where I could listen to my own body and decide what had been done to it. But Burrich guided my steps patiently, and Nosy drooped along behind us.

I had not been to the steams before, but Burrich had. A separate tulip bud enclosed a bubbling hot spring, tamed to use as a bath. A Chyurda stood outside it; I recognized him as the torch-bearer from the night before. If he thought anything odd about my reappearance, he did not show it. He stepped aside as if expecting us, and Burrich dragged me up the steps to enter.

Clouds of steam fogged the air, carrying a mineral scent with them. We passed a stone bench or two; Burrich walked carefully on the smooth tile floor as we approached the source of the steam. The water rose in a central spring, with bricked sides built up around it to contain it. From there it was channelled in troughs to other, smaller baths, varying the heat by the length of the trough and the depth of the pond. The steam and the noise of the falling water filled the air. I did not find it pleasant; I laboured just to breathe already. My eyes adjusted to the dimness, and I saw Regal soaking in one of the larger baths. He looked up at our approach.

‘Ah,’ he said, as if well-pleased. ‘August told me Burrich would bring you. Well. I suppose you know the Princess has forgiven your murder of her brother? And in this place, at least, by doing so she preserves you from justice. I think it a waste of time, but local customs must be honoured. She says she considers you part of her kin-group now, and so I must treat you as kin. She fails to understand you were not born of a lawful union, and hence have no kin-rights at all. Ah, well. Will you dismiss Burrich and join me in the springs? It might ease you. You look very uncomfortable, held up like a shirt on the washing-line.’ He spoke so genially, so affably, as if unaware of my hatred.

‘What do you wish to tell me, Regal?’ I kept my voice flat.

‘Will not you send Burrich away?’ he asked again.

‘I am not a fool.’

‘One could argue that, but very well. I suppose I must send him away, then.’

The steam and the noise of the waters had cloaked the Chyurda well. He was taller than Burrich, and his cudgel was already in motion as Burrich turned. If he hadn’t been supporting my weight, he could have avoided it. Burrich turned his head, but the cudgel hit his skull with a terrible, sharp sound, like an axe biting wood. Burrich fell, and I with him. I landed half in one of the smaller ponds. It was not scalding, but nearly so. I managed to roll out of it, but could not regain my feet. My legs would not obey me. Burrich beside me lay very still. I reached a hand toward him, but could not touch him.

Regal stood up, and motioned to the Chyurda. ‘Dead?’

The Chyurda stirred Burrich with a foot, gave a curt nod.

‘Good.’ Regal was briefly pleased. ‘Drag him back behind that deep tank in the corner. Then you may go.’ To me, he said, ‘It’s unlikely anyone will be coming in here until after the ceremony. They’re too busy jostling for positions. And back in that corner … well, I doubt if he’ll be found before you are.’

I could make no response. The Chyurda stooped and seized Burrich by the ankles. As he dragged him away, the dark brush of his hair feathered a trail of blood on the tiles. A dizzying mixture of hatred and despair rolled with the poison through my blood. A cold purpose rose and set in me. I could not hope to live now, but it did not seem important. Warning Verity did. And avenging Burrich. I had no plans, no weapons, no possibilities. So play for time, Chade’s counsels advised me. The more time you create for yourself, the better the chance that something will present itself. Delay him. Perhaps someone will come to see why the Prince is not dressing for the wedding. Perhaps someone else will want to use the steams before the ceremony. Engage him somehow.

‘The Princess …’ I began.

‘Is not a problem,’ Regal finished for me. ‘The Princess did not forgive Burrich. Only you. What I have done to him is well within my rights. He is a traitor. He must pay. And the man disposing of him was most fond of his Prince Rurisk. He has no objections to any of this.’

The Chyurda left the steams without a glance back. My hands scrabbled weakly on the smooth tile floor but found no purchase. Regal busily dried himself all the while. When the man was gone, he came to stand over me. ‘Aren’t you going to call for help?’ he asked brightly.

I took a breath, pushed down my fear. I mustered as much contempt for Regal as I could find. ‘To whom? Who would hear me over the water?’

‘So you save your strength. Wise. Pointless, but wise.’

‘Do you think Kettricken will not know what happened?’

‘She will know you went to the steams, unwisely in your condition. You slipped beneath the hot, hot water. Such a shame.’

‘Regal, this is madness. How many bodies do you think you can leave in your wake? How will you explain Burrich’s death?’

‘To your first question, quite a few, as long as they are not people of consequence.’ He stooped over me, and gripped my shirt. He dragged me while I thrashed weakly, a fish out of water. ‘And to your second, well, the same. How much fuss do you think anyone will raise over a dead stableman? You are so obsessed with your plebeian self-importance that you extend it to your servants.’ He dumped me carelessly half on top of Burrich. His still-warm body sprawled face-down on the floor. Blood was congealing on the tiles around his face, and still dripping from his nose. A slow bubble of blood formed on his lips, broke with his faint exhalation. He lived yet. I shifted to conceal it from Regal. If I could survive, Burrich might have a chance also.

Regal noticed nothing. He tugged my boots off and set them aside. ‘You see, bastard,’ he said as he paused to catch his breath. ‘Ruthlessness creates its own rules. So my mother taught me. People are intimidated by a man who acts with no apparent regard for consequences. Behave as if you cannot be touched and no one will dare to touch you. Look at the whole situation. Your death will anger some people, yes. But enough to make them take actions that would affect the security of the whole Six Duchies? I think not. Besides, your death will be eclipsed by other things. I’d be a fool not to take this opportunity to remove you.’ Regal was so damnably calm, and superior. I fought him, but he was surprisingly strong for the indulgent life he led. I felt like a kitten as he shook me out of my shirt. He folded my clothes neatly and set them aside. ‘Minimal alibis will work. If I made too much effort to appear guiltless, people might think I cared. They might start then to pay attention themselves. So, I simply know nothing. My man saw you enter with Burrich after I had left. And I go now to complain to August that you never came to talk with me so that I might forgive you, as I had promised Princess Kettricken. I will reprimand August most severely for not bringing you himself.’ He looked around. ‘Let’s see. A nice deep hot one. Right here.’ I clutched at his throat as he levered me up to the edge, but he shook me off easily.

‘Goodbye, bastard,’ he said calmly. ‘Pardon my haste, but you have quite delayed me. I must rush to dress myself. Or I shall be late for the wedding.’

And he tumbled me in.

The pool was deeper than I was tall, designed to be neck-high on a tall Chyurda. It was painfully hot to my unprepared body. It drove the air from my lungs and I sank. I pushed feebly off the bottom and managed to get my face above water. ‘Burrich!’ I wasted my breath on a shout to someone who could not aid me. The water closed on me again. My arms and legs would not work together. I blundered into a wall and pushed myself under before I could once again surface and gasp in some air. The hot water was loosening my already flaccid muscles. I think I would still have been drowning even if the water had been only knee-deep.

I lost count of how many times I floundered to the surface, to gasp a breath. The smooth, worked stone of the walls eluded my palsied grip, and my ribs stabbed with pain each time I tried for a deep breath. My strength was flowing out of me, lassitude flowing in. So warm, so deep. Drowned like a puppy, I thought to myself as I felt the darkness closing. Boy? someone queried, but all was black.

So much water, so hot and so deep. I could not find a bottom any more, let alone a side. I struggled feebly against the water, but there was no resistance. No up, no down. No use fighting to stay alive inside my body. Nothing left to protect, so drop the walls, and see if there is one last service you can render your king. The walls of my world fell away from me, and I sped forth like an arrow finally released. Galen had been right. There was no distance in Skilling, no distance at all. Buckkeep was right here, and Shrewd! I shrieked in desperation. But my king was intent upon other things. He was closed and walled to me, no matter how I stormed around him. No help there.

My body was failing, my thread to it was tenuous. One last chance. Verity, Verity! I cried. I found him, flailed at him, but could find no purchase, no grip. He was elsewhere, open to someone else, closed to me. Verity! I wailed, drowning in despair. And suddenly it was as if strong hands gripped mine as I scrabbled up a slippery cliff, gripped and held tight and drew me in when I would have slipped away.

Chivalry! No, it can’t be, it’s the boy! Fitz?

You imagine things, my prince. There is no one there. Attend to what we do now. Galen, calm and insidious as poison as he pushed me aside. I could not withstand him; he was too strong.

Fitz? Verity, unsure now as I grew weaker.

From I knew not where, I found strength. Something gave way before me, and I was strong. I clung to Verity like a hawk on his wrist. I was there with him. I saw with Verity’s eyes: the freshly-decked throne room, the Book of Events on the great table before him, laid open to receive the recording of Verity’s marriage. Around him, in their best finery and most costly jewels, the few honoured ones who had been invited to witness Verity witnessing his bride’s pledge through August’s eyes. And Galen, who was supposed to be offering his strength as a King’s man, was poised beside and slightly behind Verity, waiting to drain him dry. Shrewd, in crown and robe upon his throne, was all unknowing, his Skill burned and dulled away years ago by misuse, and him too proud to admit it.

Like an echo, I saw through August’s eyes as Kettricken stood pale as a wax candle on a dais before all her people. She was telling them, simply and kindly, that last night Rurisk had finally succumbed to the arrow-wound he had taken on the Ice Fields. She hoped to please his memory by pledging herself as he had helped arrange, to the King-in-Waiting of the Six Duchies. She turned to face Regal.

In Buckkeep, Galen’s claw of a hand settled on Verity’s shoulder.

I broke into his link with Verity, pushed him aside. Beware Galen, Verity. Beware a traitor, come to drain you dry. Touch him not.

Galen’s hand tightened on Verity’s shoulder. Suddenly all was a sucking vortex, draining, trying to pull everything out of Verity. And there was not much left to take. His Skill was so strong because he let it take so much from him so fast. Self-preservation would have made another man hold back some of his strength. But Verity had been spending his recklessly, every day, to keep the Red Ships from his shores. So little left now for this ceremony, and Galen was absorbing it. And growing stronger as he did so. I clung to Verity, fighting desperately to reduce the loss. Verity! I cried to him. My prince. I sensed a brief rallying in him, but all was growing dim before his eyes. I heard a stirring of alarm as he sagged and caught at the table. Faithless Galen kept his grip on him, bent over him as he went to one knee, murmuring solicitously, ‘My prince? Are you quite all right?’

I flung my strength to Verity, reserves I had not suspected in myself. I opened up and let go of them, just as Verity did when he Skilled. ‘Take it all. I would die anyway. And you were always good to me when I was young.’ I heard the words as clearly as if I had spoken them, and felt the breaking of a mortal bond as strength flowed into Verity through me. He waxed suddenly strong, beast-strong, and angry.

Verity’s hand rose to grip Galen’s. He opened his eyes. ‘I shall be fine,’ he said to Galen, aloud. He looked around the room as he rose to his feet again. ‘I but worried about you. You seemed to tremble. Are you sure you are strong enough for this? You must not attempt a challenge that is beyond you. Think what might happen.’ And as a gardener pulls a weed from the earth, Verity smiled, and pulled from the traitor all that was in him. Galen fell, clutching his chest, an empty man-shaped thing. The onlookers rushed to attend him, but Verity, replete now, lifted his eyes to the window and focused his mind afar.

August. Attend me well. Warn Regal his half-brother is dead. Verity boomed like the sea, and I felt August quail at the strength of the Skilling. Galen was too ambitious. He attempted that which was beyond his skill. A pity the Queen’s bastard could not be content with the position she gave him. A pity my younger brother could not dissuade his half-brother from his misplaced ambitions. Galen overstepped his position. My younger brother should take heed of what comes of such recklessness. And August. Be sure you tell Regal privately. Not many knew Galen was the Queen’s bastard and his half-brother. I am sure he would not want scandal to soil his mother’s name, or his. Such family secrets should be well-guarded.

And then, with a force that put August on his knees, Verity pushed through him to stand before Kettricken in her mind. I sensed his effort to be gentle. I await you, my Queen-in-Waiting. And by my name, I swear to you I had naught to do with your brother’s death. I knew nothing of it, and I grieve with you. I would not want you to come to me, thinking his blood on my hands. Like a jewel opening was the light in Verity’s heart as he exposed it to her that she might know she had not been given to a murderer. Selflessly, he made himself vulnerable to her, giving trust to build trust. She swayed, but stood. August fainted. That contact was gone.

And then Verity was shoving at me. Back, get back, Fitz. That’s too much, you’ll die. Back, let go! And he cuffed me like a bear, and I slammed back into my silent, sightless body.