Assassin's Apprentice

The narrator, Fitz, briefly discusses the rumors surrounding King Taker, who was either a noble hero or a bad sailor. The people of the Six Duchies descended from the Outislanders, retaining their bloodline—and their mysterious psychic Skill—in the royal household.

Upon arriving at Buckkeep, Burrich tends to the royal stables and sends Fitz with one of the dog boys, Cob, to be fed with one of the dog boys. Cob leaves Fitz in a castle walkway while he gets food from the kitchens, and passersby interrogate Fitz about his parentage; his refusal to speak irritates a man, who threateningly approaches Fitz. Fitz responds by “repelling” the man, pushing him away with his mind. Fitz runs away with Nosy and hides under a building. He returns to Burrich that night, who cleans him up and tells Fitz that he had to lie to the King about his absence. Burrich explains to Fitz that Chivalry’s abdication is causing all sorts of problems in the kingdom.

The next day, Fitz grows overwhelmed with the chaos of the castle courtyard. He and Nosy go to the town and find friends, a girl named Molly “Nosebleed” Chandler and a boy named Kerry, who call Fitz “Newboy.” Nosebleed is the only daughter of a candlemaker who has an alcohol addiction. Fitz sees her father beat her for running away with the boys and “repels” the man, knocking him unconscious. To Fitz’s confusion, Molly is distraught by her father’s seeming death.

Fitz spends most of his days in town with his friends, melding his mind further with Nosy’s and learning how to live with Nosebleed and Kerry’s guidance. He takes small jobs as an errand boy, earning pennies and learning the tricks of the town and various trades, including “fish buying, net mending, boat building, and idling” (39). This ends when Burrich catches Fitz and Nosy stealing sausages. Burrich threatens to whip Nosy, and when the dog reacts, he realizes with horror that Fitz and Nosy are sharing a mind.

Burrich tells Fitz that his bond with Nosy, which he calls the “Wit,” is unnatural and must be repressed since it makes men unworthy of being men and eventually turns them into beasts themselves. Fitz tries to explain that nobody taught him how to use the Wit—it came naturally—which upsets Burrich further. He explains that Fitz must not succumb to the Wit and dirty his royal blood. 

When Fitz resists, Burrich tries to take Nosy away; Fitz repels him, but Burrich recovers quickly. Burrich takes Nosy outside, and Fitz experiences a flash of pain as his bond with Nosy is severed. Believing Nosy to be dead, Fitz refuses to speak to Burrich and collapses in fever. Burrich tends to him afterward but prevents Fitz from bonding with any animal.

The next two years of Fitz’s life are spent under Burrich’s constant attention; he recovers from his grief over Nosy but gets little time with his friends from the town. As an adult narrator, Fitz realizes that he and Burrich were equally lonely: Burrich had been just as abandoned by Chivalry as Fitz was, yet they blamed each other for their loneliness.

Fitz avoids the other children in the keep, as well as the Queen and Regal, who despise him. Verity, on the other hand, gives Fitz toys and treats him pleasantly when they encounter each other.

One day, nine-year-old Fitz is playing with the puppies in the Great Hall after a feast when King Shrewd enters with Regal and his young Fool. The King is annoyed when Regal dismisses Fitz as having no value, reminding Regal that they must make something of him before someone else does. He implies that he wants to find a use for Fitz—potentially the “diplomacy of the knife” (53)—astounding Regal. The King kneels before Fitz and pins the royal signet on his shirt, marking him as the King’s possession. He promises that Fitz will always have access to his chambers. Regal protests, insisting that the Queen will not like it, but the King warns Regal not to have treasonous thoughts. They both leave Fitz alone, with the Fool making an incomprehensible gesture at Fitz before he follows them.

Burrich is disappointed that Fitz gained the King’s attention and tells him that he must follow a stricter schedule now since he will be learning how to be a member of the royal house. To Fitz’s dismay, he is given a room in the keep, separating him further from Burrich. Burrich reassures him that he can still sleep in his room above the stables if he wants.

Burrich cleans Fitz up and gives him a horse, a pregnant mare named Sooty. He forces Fitz to learn to ride her without using the Wit and teaches him to eat in the great hall with the royal household. Fitz is also sent to weapons training with Hod, a stern woman, and improves in weaponry over the week.

The narrator tells the story of King Victor, who conquered Sandsedge and brought its queen to his palace to serve as a tutor to his children before marrying her, making her Queen Graciousness.

The next day, Fitz is brought to Mistress Hasty for new clothing, and she comments on his resemblance to Chivalry. When he receives his new clothing some weeks later, it has the emblem of the royal house stitched on it with a red line cutting through it to mark him as born outside of marriage. Burrich advises him to pick a name and new crest for himself, but Fitz refuses, wanting someone who loves him to name him.

Fitz remains incredibly lonely until one night when he wakes up and sees an old man with a pockmarked face standing at the foot of his bed. The man commands Fitz to follow him and leads him high into a tower. The old man settles Fitz into his new quarters and explains that King Shrewd has chosen Fitz as his “man.” The old man introduces himself as Chade Fallstar and tells Fitz that nobody else must know that he exists because he will be teaching Fitz how to be an assassin for the King. Chade has Fitz clean the tower’s quarters with him. They share conversation and a light meal, and Chade gives Fitz a copper bracelet as a marker of the reality of their conversation.

Fitz is late to the stables the next day, earning a reprimand from Burrich and sparking a conversation about Chivalry’s nobility and Regal’s lack of decorum. Burrich advises Fitz to act like a prince even though he isn’t one, and Fitz realizes that Burrich wants to make Chivalry proud enough to come home. Burrich, however, admits that nothing can make Chivalry come back, especially not the way he was.

The narrator explains that leadership in the Six Duchies progresses exclusively by birth order, not by gender, and that nobility and leadership are synonymous with stewardship—a bad steward might lose his holdings. Queen Desire, the current queen and Shrewd’s second wife, is not well regarded because she raised Regal, intending to make him king by ignoring the birth order.

Fitz looks forward to learning from Chade in their nightly sessions. At first, Chade gives him harmless tasks around the castle, but then he assigns larger tasks, like stealing a traveling show’s puppets to ensure that a certain tale is told or convincing a horse to pretend to be lame so that a nobleman stays extra days at the keep. His first truly important task is stealing a note from a visiting noble from Regal’s bedroom. Fitz always finds his own way of performing his tasks while obeying his own rules, such as refusing to harm animals.

One night, Chade wants Fitz to steal something from the King’s chambers. Fitz refuses this act of disloyalty against the King. Chade is angry, believing that Fitz does not trust him and accusing him of disloyalty. Chade furiously sends Fitz to bed; Fitz is tormented by his choice between staying loyal to the King and losing Chade.

He spends the next few days in a haze of sickness and grief, overhearing muffled arguments from different adults about his state and who should care for him. Burrich finally realizes that he’s emotionally hurt and demands to know why; Fitz expresses that he’s “so alone.” Burrich lets him take care of a runt puppy for a day to keep his mind busy, although he doesn’t allow him to form a mental link with the pup.

That night, Chade tells Fitz that his demand was a test. He hugs Fitz, promising never to test him like that again. The King summons Fitz and explains that the test was his idea, not Chade’s; Fitz then surprises the King by stealing a silver knife from his plate in full view. That night, Fitz drives the knife into the center of Chade’s mantel.

The narrator briefly discusses the Skill names that royalty are given; some believe that it binds the quality to the child, but the more ancient belief is that it was an accident of mistranslation when the Outislanders moved inland.

Several years after Fitz begins training, his attention wanders under the teaching of Fedwren, the man who teaches reading, writing, and calligraphy. Fedwren is impressed with Fitz’s work and offers him an apprenticeship to become a scribe. Fitz wants to leave Buckkeep, but when he brings it up to Chade, Chade tells him that if he leaves the castle, he becomes a threat to the King, which could endanger his life.

Later, Fitz goes to town for the first time in over a year to buy things for Fedwren. He finds Molly fighting someone and is shocked at how much older she looks and that she no longer goes by Nosebleed. She eagerly welcomes him back into her life; they share knowledge of herbs, and when Fitz reveals that he can read, Molly asks him to read a letter from her mother. They go to Molly’s house, and Fitz reads the tablets, revealing her birth name, Molly Nosegay. Molly gives Fitz candles in payment for the service, and he shyly tells her that the name Nosegay suits her.

As Fitz heads back to the town, he spots Regal and Verity galloping back to the keep dangerously fast. They stop and tell him that Chivalry has just died. As they leave, Fitz contemplates running away and never returning but dutifully returns to the keep anyway.