He pushed back his chair. ‘Well, I could deal with it better if I knew enough to expect it,’ he said. His voice rose as he did. He stalked to the window and stared out over the sea. Then he turned his head to glare at me over his shoulder. ‘What else have you not told me?’
Had we been alone then, I might have told him about how the dragon had threatened Nettle and how she had dismissed the creature. But I did not wish to speak of my daughter in Dutiful’s presence, so I only shook my head. He turned back to gaze out over the sea.
‘So we may have another enemy to face, besides the cold and ice of Aslevjal. Well. At least tell me how big is this creature? How strong?’
‘I don’t know. I’ve only seen her in dreams, and in my dreams, she shifted her size. I don’t think we can be sure of anything she has shown us in dreams.’
‘Oh, well that’s useful,’ Chade replied, discouraged. He came back to the table and dropped into his chair. ‘Did you sense anything of this dragon last night?’ he suddenly asked me.
‘No. I didn’t.’
‘But you did Skill-walk.’
‘Briefly.’ I’d visited Nettle. I wasn’t going to discuss that here. He didn’t seem to notice my reticence.
‘I did neither. Despite my best efforts.’ His voice was as anguished as an injured child’s. I met his eyes and saw, not just frustration there, but pain. He looked at me as if I had excluded him from some precious secret or wonderful adventure.
‘Chade. It will come in time. Sometimes I think you try too hard.’ I spoke the words, but I wasn’t sure of them. Yet I could not bring myself to say what I secretly suspected: that he had come to these lessons too late, and would never master the magic so long denied him.
‘So you keep saying,’ he said hollowly.
And there seemed nothing to reply to that. For the remainder of our session, we worked through several exercises from one of the scrolls, but with limited success. Chade’s discouragement seemed to have damped all his ability that day. With hands linked, he could receive the images and words I sent him, but when we separated and moved to different parts of the room, I could not reach him, nor could he touch minds with Dutiful or Thick. His growing frustration disrupted all of us. When Dutiful and Thick departed to their day’s tasks, we had not only made no progress, but had failed to equal the previous day’s level of Skill.
‘Another day spent, and we are no closer to having a working coterie,’ Chade observed bitterly to me when we were alone in the room. He walked over to the sideboard and poured brandy for himself. When he gestured questioningly at me, I shook my head.
‘No, thank you. I’ve not even broken my fast yet.’
‘Nor I.’
‘Chade, you look exhausted. I think an hour or two of rest and a solid meal would do you better than brandy.’
‘Find me two empty hours in my day, and I’ll be happy to sleep,’ he offered without rancour. Chade walked to the window with his cup and gazed out over the water. ‘It all closes in on me, Fitz. We must have this alliance with the Out Islands. With Chalced and Bingtown warring, our trade to the south has dwindled to a trickle. If Chalced defeats Bingtown, as it well may, it will next turn its swords against us. We must ally with the Out Islands before Chalced does.
‘Yet it isn’t just the preparations for the journey. It’s all the safeguards I must put in place to be sure Buckkeep runs smoothly while I am gone.’ He sipped from his cup then added, ‘In twelve days we depart for Aslevjal. Twelve days, when six weeks would scarcely be enough time for all I must arrange so that things will run smoothly in my absence.’
I knew he was not speaking of things like Buckkeep’s provisions and taxes and the training of the guard. There were others who routinely administered all such systems and reported directly to the Queen. Chade worried about his network of spies and informants. No one was certain how long our diplomatic mission to the Out Islands would take; let alone how much time would be consumed by the Prince’s quest to Aslevjal. I still harboured a fading hope that his ‘slaying of the dragon’ would be some strange Outislander ritual, but Chade was convinced there was an actual dragon carcass encased in glacial ice and that Dutiful would have to uncover it enough to sever the head and publicly present it to the Narcheska.
‘Surely your apprentice can handle those matters in your absence.’ I kept my voice level. I had never confronted Chade over his choice of apprentice. I was still not ready to trust Lady Rosemary as a member of the Queen’s court, let alone as an apprentice assassin. As a child, she had been Regal’s tool, and the Pretender had used her ruthlessly against us. But now would be a poor time to reveal to Chade that I had discovered who his new apprentice was. His spirits were already low.
He shook his head irritably. ‘Some of my contacts trust only me. They will report to no one else. And the truth is that half of my knack is that I know when to ask more questions and which rumours to follow. No, Fitz, I must resign myself that though my apprentice will attempt to handle my affairs, there will be gaps in my knowledge-gathering when I return.’
‘You left Buckkeep Castle once before, during the Red Ship War. How did you manage then?’
‘Ah, that was a very different situation. Then, I followed the threat, pursuing the intrigues to their hearts. This time, in truth, I will be present for a very critical negotiation. But there is still much happening here at Buckkeep that needs to be watched.’
‘The Piebalds,’ I filled in.
‘Exactly. Among others. But they are still the ones I fear most, though they have been quiescent of late.’
I knew what he meant. The absence of Piebald activity was not reassuring. I had killed the head of their organization, but I feared another would rise to take Laudwine’s place. We had gone far to gain the respect and co-operation of the Witted community. Perhaps that mellowing would leech away the anger and hatred that the extremist Piebalds throve on. Our strategy had been that by offering amnesty to the Witted, we might steal the force that drove the Piebalds. If the Witted were welcomed by the Farseer Queen into common society, welcomed and even encouraged to declare their magic openly, then they would have less interest in overthrowing the Farseer reign. So we had hoped, and so it seemed to be working. But if it did not, then they might still move against the Prince, and attempt to discredit him with his own nobles by showing that he was Witted. A royal proclamation that the Wit-magic was no longer to be considered a taint could not undo generations of prejudice and mistrust. That, we hoped, would fall before the benign presence of Witted ones in the Queen’s own court. Not just boys such as Swift, but men such as Web the Witted.
Chade still gazed out over the water, his eyes troubled.
I winced as I said them, but could not keep the words back. ‘Is there anything I could do to help?’
He swung his gaze to meet mine. ‘Do you offer that sincerely?’