Fools Quest by Robin Hobb
Shine blinked. She spoke quietly, in a puzzled voice. “He tricked us. The Chalcedean who seemed kind. He found us and he took us back to Dwalia. And Vindeliar and a few of the others. They were hiding because Chalcedeans were near. Almost as soon as she saw us, she made us all hold hands. ” She scowled suddenly. “As if it were a game. A children’s game. Soula held my hand too tight, digging her nails in. The bitch …”
Her voice ran down. I held my breath. Let her talk. Ask no questions. I could see how fragile she was, how tenuous her focus on us. She reached toward Riddle suddenly with a shaking hand and her voice went breathy. “Dwalia took out a scroll. And a glove, a very thin glove with silver on the fingertips. But it wasn’t pretty. She put it on. And she touched the stone and—”
“Shun! Sweet Eda be praised! It’s you! Shun!”
Foxglove had halted my guard a respectful distance away and the Rousters had bunched behind them. Lant and Perseverance had ridden forward to see why they had halted, and now he flung himself from his horse and raced toward her.
“Lant!” she cried, and then she shrieked, “Lant! Lant!” She flung herself into his arms and I did not want to see the terrible race of emotions that went across his features. I hoped no one else could know what they meant. He held her, but not as she clung to him. He held her as a thing lost to him, while she wrapped herself in his arms as if she had finally and safely reached home.
“I thought you were dead! I saw them kill you. And then they kidnapped me!” Her dull calm was gone. Safe in his embrace, her hysteria was rising.
“Shine. What stone? Where?” Riddle demanded. He seized her by the shoulders and turned her back to face him. She tried to hold on to Lant’s shirt but at Riddle’s warning glance, he surrendered her and stepped back. Did he look relieved to have her taken from his embrace? She looked confused and panicky, but Riddle put his fingers on her chin and turned her face to his. “Shine. Look at me. We may be able to get Bee back right now. What stone did they enter? How long ago?”
She stared at him, blinking once as if she was trying to put her memory in order. I knew that feeling. Her crying had been too intense for tears. Her nose was running and her cheeks and nose were bright red. She finally spoke. “Last night. Dwalia led them. They all held hands. I was at the end, with Kerf. And Soula. At the last moment Bee leaned down and bit his wrist. He was so surprised he let go of me. But Bee didn’t let go of him. She dragged him into the stone. He went in screaming. ” Her voice lifted on her last sentence, as if that gave her satisfaction. She turned back toward Lant, obviously baffled at how he had released her.
Riddle tugged her back to face him.
I tried to keep my voice level and calm. “Shine. You have to guide us back to that stone. Now. I must go after Bee. ”
She moved her gaze slowly from Riddle’s face to mine. Her eyes grew flinty and her voice childish. “You left us through a stone. And then they came. You shouldn’t have left us. ”
“I know that and I’m so sorry. But you are safe now. And we need to find Bee so she will be safe, too. ” I spoke very simply, as if she were a child. I recalled that fragmented thoughtfulness that follows torture or extreme hardship. Shouting at her would do me no good.
She leaned toward me and whispered, “No. We have to get far, far away. They may come back out of the stone. And there were still some soldiers roaming the forest there. I left the fire burning to lure them and I took the horse and left as quietly as I could. I wish the white horse hadn’t followed me. So easy to see her in the night. I would have killed her to keep her from following if I’d had a knife. But I had nothing. Nothing at all. And it got too dark for me to find my way. So I found a thick grove of trees and hid there until daylight. ” She drew a breath. “I rode through the forest until I found a road. We galloped and galloped until the stupid horse wouldn’t gallop anymore. And then I found you. ”
“You have to guide us back to the stone. See all the guards we have with us? They’ll protect you this time. ”
She lifted her eyes and looked at the waiting troops. Then she narrowed her expression. “I don’t think I could find that place again. Even if I wanted to. Please. We have to get far, far away from here. ”
“We will,” Riddle assured her. “But first we have to go back for Bee. ”
She stared at him, taking deeper and deeper breaths until I feared she would break out into a shriek. “You don’t understand. I can’t go back there!” Her eyes grew very round and black. “After Bee dragged Kerf in. We, we were … There were more Chalcedeans nearby. Dwalia had said so. But they went into the stone and left us, Soula and me. And Soula, she started screaming and hitting me, and trying to follow them into the stone. I had to make her be quiet. And … she was part of them, the ones that had ruined our home and dragged us away. So I … I killed her. I think. ”
Page 224
“You had to kill her,” I said. I could not let her dwell on that. “You had to kill her, and your father will be so proud that you did. It was the right choice. Shine. What stone?” My heart was racing. Nettle and Dutiful had told me there were no records of Skill-portals in this area. Had they lied to me? I felt a flash of anger, followed by the fear that the stone was unknown because it was defective.
But my effort to reassure her and focus her mind failed badly.
She turned her head slowly to me. “My father?” she asked dully.
“Our father. ” Lant’s voice broke on the word and I wanted to strike him. Not now, not now. But he spoke on. “Lord Chade is your father. ”
She blinked at him. The look on her face reminded me of a foundering animal. She would go down soon and with her my chance to find Bee. She spoke slowly. “Lord Chade is your father, you mean. You told me your secret … the night before …”
Her eyes widened. No, don’t let her thoughts go back to the night she was raped and kidnapped. I tried to keep my voice calm. “I must know where the stone is, Shine!”
Lant held up a shaking hand. “Let me speak. Let it be said before your guard gets here. Let me tell her and have it over it with! I can bear this no longer. ” He looked at her, his face full of tragedy. “Shun—Shine. You are my sister. Shine Fallstar. Lord Chade is father to us both. ”
She stared, her gaze going from me to Riddle and then to Lant. “It’s a poor jest,” she said brokenly. Her bottom lip quivered. “If you love me at all, you will take me away from here, as fast and as far as we may go. ”
Lant gave me an agonized look.
Sometimes it is better to rip off the bandaging quickly. “Of course he loves you,” I reassured her. “He is your brother. He would never let you come to harm. ”
She snapped her head around to stare at me. “My brother?”
Riddle was staring at us, aghast. Some secrets could not be preserved safely, not without risking terrible consequences. I spoke softly. “Lord Chade is father to you both. ” I took a breath and tried to speak kindly. “And now you must guide us back to the stone. Where Bee disappeared. ”
She gaped at me. Then her head swiveled again and she looked at her brother. What did she see there? The same resemblances I had seen once I had known to look for them? “Lant,” she said in a fading voice, as if she called to him from across a great distance. And then she went boneless, sliding to the road in a heap. The heavy fur coat collapsed around her and, lying there, she suddenly reminded me of a very thin winter-killed deer. Riddle dropped to his knee beside her and put fingers at the side of her throat. He looked up at me. “It’s been too much for her. She’s done, for now. And we can’t wait for her to come to her senses. We’ll have to follow her tracks back. Summon Foxglove to take her?”
Lant made a sound of remorse and pain. I took his upper arm before he could fall to his knees beside her. I spoke close by his ear. “Not your fault. And it would be best if you let someone else tend to her for a time when she comes round. She will need time, just as you did.
“Let go of me!” Lant demanded in a low voice. At least he had the presence of mind to be somewhat subtle.
I smiled and spoke softly, gesturing as if speaking of concern for Shine. I gradually eased the pressure on his arm as I did so. “When you can control yourself, I’ll stop controlling you. There are too many people watching for you to indulge your emotions right now, or to have any heartfelt conversations with Shine about who your father is and what it means to her. So you will mount up and ride beside Riddle and me, you will help us follow her tracks back to that stone, and we will leave her care to Foxglove and my guard. Understand?”
He did not like it. I did not care how he felt. I watched his face and saw the moment when he recognized that logic was on my side. He ceased struggling and I left him standing with the horses while I went to speak to Foxglove and Riddle. Shine might have been awake but she was not stirring. Her eyes were slits and she made no comment as I asked Foxglove to create a travois for her to ride on. Foxglove nodded grimly and began to order some to find sturdy branches and others to gather firewood and create a fire so that Shine might have hot food and drink before she was moved, and I conceded that. I took Lant, Riddle, and my few remaining Rousters and began to ride slowly back down the road in the direction from which Shine had come. I chose not to notice that Perseverance trailed behind us, Motley on his shoulder. The boy had witnessed Lant’s revelation. I’d deal with it later. This section of the king’s highway traversed a forested area with some farms and smallholdings. The short winter day would soon fade. I wondered how far she had galloped the brown and how tired he had been to start with. I wanted to hurry. I could not afford to miss the trail.
Page 225
I broke the Rousters into pairs and sent them ahead of us at a gallop with directions that at every crossroads, two should peel off from the main body and ride down each tributary. If any pair saw anything to indicate that two horses had emerged from the forest onto the road, one should halt near the disturbed snow and the other was to ride back to me immediately. They rode off at a breakneck gallop, perhaps hoping to redeem themselves.
For a time Lant, Riddle, and I rode in silence at a more measured pace, scrutinizing the road to either side. Perseverance, still leading Bee’s horse, had fallen in behind us. I studied the snowy ground to the left side of the trampled road while Riddle watched the right. I thought about Bee. Last night, she had been riding on a horse with Shine. She’d bitten someone, and somehow that had helped free Shine. Why hadn’t she been able to free herself? Again she was snatched away from me, vanished, perhaps through a Skill-pillar. Sadness and despair deepened in me, enhanced by the lingering effects of the elfbark. We watched not just for Shine’s tracks but for anything that might indicate sleighs or a mounted troop of men had passed. Any sign of my little girl. After a time, Riddle observed aloud, “I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t ask. ”
I knew his question. “It’s true. Chade is their father. ”
“I knew that about Lant, but not the girl. Why did he keep Shine secret?”
“Well, because he is Chade. He never told me that Lant was his son until a few days ago. Though I suppose I should have known it by looking at him. ”
Riddle nodded to that. “I think more people at Buckkeep know than Chade suspects. It was fairly obvious in how he treated Lant from the beginning. So why keep Shine a secret?”
I was silent for a pause. Lant asked acidly, “Do you want me to ride ahead so you can gossip about my parentage and my half-sister in privacy?”
I stared at him. “Lant. Riddle is married to my daughter, Skillmistress Nettle. Your cousin. So I think that makes him family. ”
Riddle fought the grin on his face. “And actually I’m discussing your father, not you. Chade! I am scandalized!” The grin spread despite his best efforts.
“Chade,” I confirmed and a bark of laughter burst from me, defying my dark spirits. We both laughed aloud and shook our heads.
After a time, Lant asked, “Why did he keep Shine a secret, even from me? He managed to bring me to Buckkeep and let me know he was my father. Why not Shine?”
I spoke heavily and reluctantly. Better he asked these questions now than before witnesses. “He has kept her ignorant and hidden from all others because of dangers both to himself and to her. Her family was not pleased to be saddled with his bastard, and yet they did not mind extorting funds for her keep and education. Funds they apparently did not use for her benefit. He was allowed only sporadic access to her. Her grandparents took care of her at first and were, if not kind, at least not cruel. When they died and she was turned over to her mother and her mother’s husband—”
“I know some of that,” Lant cut in hastily.
Riddle raised an eyebrow at me.
“About as bad as you can imagine,” I told him, and saw him wince.
“What will Chade do with her now, do you suppose?” he asked me.
“I don’t know. I don’t even know if he will be mindful enough to recognize her. But I think she would be safest at Buckkeep, given over into Kettricken’s care, perhaps. She has always longed to be at court, and I rather imagine her maternal line will be a bit more cautious about crossing Lord Chade’s will in that now. ”
FitzVigilant took breath to ask a question I knew I wouldn’t want to answer. I was glad to hear a galloping horse and see one of my Rousters headed back toward us. “They must have found something!” I touched my heels to Fleeter and she broke into a grudging trot. Riddle’s horse surged past us and No! I sensed from her. I am Fleeter. I always lead.
Show them! I suggested to her, and she lifted into an effortless gallop. She did not allow her mind to touch mine again, and I did not try to push my way in. I did not want to reestablish any sort of a bond, but I was glad that my misuse of her had not broken her spirit.
Sawyer, one of my Rousters, began shouting before we had even reached him. “We’ve found her trail. I told Reaper to stay off it, but I don’t know how long he can resist. ”
“Well done,” I told him.
He wheeled his horse and led the way, despite Fleeter’s disgruntlement at following him. It felt good to be in motion. We reached a section of the road that wound through a denser area of forest. There another Rouster awaited us, standing in the cold beside his restless horse. “Can we follow it now?” he demanded. I did not answer immediately. I flung myself from Fleeter’s back and in a heartbeat Riddle was beside me. I waded into the unbroken snow beside the wallowed trail. “Two horses, one behind the other,” Riddle announced decisively.
Page 226
“So I read it, too,” I replied. I swung back up into my saddle. “Be wary!” I warned the others. “Shine said some of the mercenaries were still prowling in the area. If you see them, we need to take them alive. I need to talk to them. ”
Sawyer gave a tight nod and his partner grunted an assent. A small part of my attention noted that both of them were standing a bit straighter. They exchanged satisfied looks. These two, it seemed, might take a bit of pride in accomplishing a task. Possibly salvageable.
The trail was easy to follow. I focused on that and pushed Fleeter to move as quickly as she could go. The deep snow was trampled but it was not a well-broken path. I kept my head up and watched the encroaching forest for any sign of the mercenaries. Twice Riddle and Lant moved off to inspect other tracks we sighted. Each time they found only deer trails. I wondered if a terrified Shine had only imagined the Chalcedean trackers as she had the ghost in her room.
The forest became denser. Here evergreens towered and laced their branches overhead t
“Fitz!” Lant called and I pulled Fleeter around, thinking he had seen danger. Instead he leaned down from his mount and brushed snow from stone. “There was a town here once. Or something. Look how straight this stone still runs. ”
“He’s right,” Riddle confirmed before I could even speak. “Most of it’s buried in earth as well as snow. But look there. The trees lean in, and it’s narrowed, but that might have been a road at one time. ”
“It would make sense,” I said, and turned Fleeter back to the trail. Old structures. In the Mountain Kingdom we had often found standing stones near Elderling ruins.
“I smell old smoke,” Riddle declared, and just then Sawyer cried, “There are more tracks over there, sir. Looks like they’re headed in the same direction we are!”
I threw caution to the wind and urged Fleeter on. She surged up the steep trail in powerful bounds, and suddenly an abandoned camp was before us. Hasty shelters of branches and evergreen boughs surrounded a blackened place where a small campfire had burned. “Stop!” I called to the others. We dismounted and Perseverance stayed with the horses as we moved forward more slowly. I quested with my Wit but felt no others near. If there had been Chalcedeans stalking Shine last night, they were here no longer. I squatted down to peer into a temporary shelter built of pine boughs. Someone had huddled in there. That was all I could tell.
“Fitz,” Riddle said, his voice soft but urgent. He pointed with a gloved hand.
White coat, pale skin, pale hair. Dead. Sprawled on her back in the snow, the only color a bit of blood coming from her mouth. Riddle and I crouched over her, our heads close together. I slid a hand under her neck and lifted. It wasn’t broken.
“That’s a hard grip to get or maintain,” he said. “I’m impressed. ”
I nodded. Chade’s daughter. Cup the back of the neck and drive the pinching fingers in hard to crush the windpipe. No air, choking on her own blood. Not the quickest death in the world nor the quietest, but it had done the job.