Royal Assassin

On the journey home, Burrich warns Fitz that rumors are spreading about a wolf being seen with him. Later, on the road back, Burrich repels Nighteyes fiercely from a distance when Fitz lets their Wit-bond intrude on the conversation. Their party is met by Regal’s guards, who deliver a scroll announcing that King-in-Waiting Verity is dead. The news shocks Fitz, Burrich, and Kettricken, all of whom now realize that nothing stands between them and Regal's malevolent intentions but the ailing King Shrewd. Aware that Regal will move swiftly to take the throne, at which point he will be all but unstoppable, Burrich asks Fitz to use the Skill to confirm whether Verity is really dead. Fitz admits that he cannot do so: His Skill allows him to maintain a tenuous link with Verity, but once that link is severed—as it was during the battle—he cannot reestablish it on his own. The coterie members could reach out to Verity, but they cannot be trusted. As a last resort, Fitz notes that King Shrewd himself could probably do so if Fitz lent him his strength. The plan is dangerous to both Fitz and Shrewd, but Burrich and Fitz agree that there is no other choice. 

Back at Buckkeep, Cook Sara tells Fitz that Regal is taking full credit for the Neatbay victory and that rumors are circulating questioning the timing of Kettricken’s pregnancy. The Fool, now dressed in fine clothes provided by Regal, warns Fitz against acting rashly, reminding Fitz that Regal believes Shrewd ordered his mother Desire’s poisoning; in fact, she died because of her own addiction to alcohol and various intoxicants. Fitz realizes that the coterie members may all have been secretly doing Regal’s bidding all along, and that much of the violence and destruction that has occurred in the last several years may be part of Regal’s elaborate pursuit of vengeance for an imagined wrong.

At a feast that night, Regal publicly accepts praise for the victory, diminishes Kettricken’s heroism, and announces his plan to move the ailing King Shrewd and the Queen to Tradeford Castle in Farrow for their “safety.” Kettricken refuses, but she is forced to relent when the confused King Shrewd, her sworn monarch, pleads with her not to leave his side.

Chade’s journal speculates that Verity’s Skilling may have inadvertently drawn the Forged ones toward Buckkeep. Skilling is a concentrated form of empathy, and Chade hypothesizes that the Forged ones—robbed of all emotion and all ability to comprehend the emotions of others—somehow sensed the presence of this emotional conduit and were hungry for what they had lost. He admits that this is pure speculation, but notes that immediately after Verity left for the Rain Wilds, the influx of Forged ones toward Buckkeep seemed to abate somewhat. 

Fitz and Burrich go to King Shrewd’s chambers, where Kettricken and the Fool are already attending the King. Fitz tells them his suspicion that Verity is alive and proposes using his own strength to help the King use the Skill to contact Verity. The Fool protests, fearing the effort will kill the frail monarch, but Shrewd agrees. They make contact, and Verity confirms he is alive before forcefully breaking the connection to spare his father. The attempt leaves Shrewd near death and Fitz drained. Burrich and Kettricken cover up the incident by pretending Fitz is drunk. Afterward, Fitz heads for Molly’s chambers to see that she is all right, but Nighteyes alerts Fitz to an unseen presence. Fitz detects Will—one of the coterie members—hidden in an alcove, spying on him. He realizes that Will is a more subtle and dangerous enemy than he knew. Chade summons Fitz and scolds him, explaining that his actions have forced Regal’s hand, putting the King and Queen in immediate danger. Now fearing for their lives, Chade begins planning their escape. To maintain the ruse that he believes Verity is dead, Fitz has Chade cut his hair short in a traditional sign of mourning. 

Fitz speaks to Patience and Lacey in Patience’s chambers, which have been stripped of furnishings. Patience complains that Regal is removing everything of value from the castle, claiming to be sending the items to Tradeford Castle for the comfort of the King. Patience doubts many of the items will ever arrive in Tradeford, implying that Regal is in fact selling them off and pocketing the money. She also reveals that she, Lacy, and Fitz himself are among those who will be left behind at Buckkeep after Regal and Regal departs with the King, Kettricken, and his chosen nobles. Before Fitz leaves, Patience asks whether he knows how Kettricken is doing, revealing that Kettricken slipped and fell on the stairs to her garden and may have lost her pregnancy. Alarmed, Fitz rushes to the Kettricken’s chambers, where he learns from a ladies’ maid that she has not lost the pregnancy and will recover. He then climbs to the garden and finds that most of Kettricken’s valuable statues have been removed. He also finds that someone has deliberately smeared grease on one of the stone steps—the likely cause of Kettricken’s fall. The Fool finds Fitz and reports that Regal is withholding King Shrewd’s pain medicines in an attempt to torture him into revealing what he knows. Fitz is determined to act, though he does not yet know what he will do. The Fool makes Fitz promise that if he takes the King away from the castle, he will take the Fool as well.

To create a diversion, Fitz conspires with Kettricken to fake the loss of her pregnancy using chicken blood. The ploy works, drawing Regal and his healer, Wallace, away from the King’s chambers. Fitz then neutralizes the remaining guard at the King’s door with Nightmist, a powder that causes the guard to collapse, but Chade, who is already inside with Shrewd, warns him to leave.

Later, Fitz finds Molly, who tells him she is leaving Buckkeep for good, explaining that there is now someone else in her life who must come first. When she demands to know what Fitz does that prevents him from spending time with her, Fitz confesses that he is a king’s assassin. Molly says she does not believe him, then accuses him of saying it to impress or manipulate her; her decision to leave was already made, rooted in the fundamental incompatibility of their lives, and she departs permanently.

Fitz meets with Chade to devise a plan for the King. Chade has given Shrewd an herb that causes him to sleep while his body heals from the strain of Skilling to Verity, but he will soon wake up, and they need to get him out of the castle before that happens. If Regal learns that the King knows Verity is alive, he will seek to kill him to prevent him from speaking. Fitz relays Kettricken’s suggestion that they take him to her people in the Mountains. Fitz believes the idea is ridiculous, as the ailing King would never survive the journey, but Chade points out that the King is even less likely to survive much longer in Regal’s presence. Since no one would imagine that they might try to take him to the Mountains, this may be their safest course.

Fitz informs Burrich and Queen Kettricken of Chade’s plan: They will escape with King Shrewd and travel to the Mountain Kingdom. Later, while sitting alone at Verity’s map table, Fitz spontaneously makes Skill contact with Verity. Verity confirms he is alive but cannot return, then warns that another is trying to break in and listen on their Skilling—one of Galen’s coterie—and breaks the contact. Afterward, Fitz finds Justin dazed in the hall outside. He considers killing him but decides against it. Soon after, Duke Brawndy of Bearns, speaking for all the Coastal Dukes, offers Fitz their allegiance if he will declare himself King-in-Waiting in opposition to Regal.

Fitz refuses the title but agrees to lead them and hold Buckkeep for Verity’s heir after Regal departs inland. Brawndy then offers his daughter Celerity’s hand in marriage, but Fitz defers, arguing that he would only place Celerity in danger by making her his wife while his own position is so precarious. Brawndy accepts this explanation. When Fitz tells Chade of the pact, the old assassin is concerned, fearing it will spark a civil war. Nonetheless, he proceeds with the escape, scheduled for the night of Regal’s King-in-Waiting ceremony, and it is Fitz who proposes that Nighteyes guide the party out through a secret gap in the walls; Chade accepts after a pause.

At Regal’s self-coronation as King-in-Waiting, Chade uses tricks to create ill omens, such as blue-flamed candles. Afterward, Fitz goes to King Shrewd’s chambers. In a moment of lucid despair, the King asks Fitz to help him Skill to Verity one last time. As they connect, Shrewd’s consciousness simply fades and vanishes. Fitz then realizes that Justin and Serene had long been fastened to the King like leeches, siphoning his Skill strength and explaining his slow decline; forsaking the dying King, they now try to fasten to Fitz and drain him through the Skill.

Nighteyes uses the Wit to repel them. The Fool, witnessing the King’s death, accuses Fitz of murder. Chade appears dressed as the Pocked Man, having frightened Wallace away; he gives Fitz carris seed, and then leaves with the hysterical Fool. Fueled by vengeance and the drug, Fitz takes the King’s knife and hunts down the coterie members. He kills Serene in her chamber, then chases Justin into the Great Hall and stabs him to death before the entire court. A massive brawl erupts between Regal’s Inland guards and the Buckkeep guard. In the chaos, a guardsman named Blade grabs Fitz, allowing him to be knocked unconscious and captured.