Assassin 3 - Royal Assassin by Hobb Robin Read Free Book Online

because they did.
Because I am king. But more, because I am a man, and I saw what
happened there. Consider it, Fool. What if every man in the Six
Duchies said to himself, `Well, the worst that can befall them has
already happened. Why should I give up my meal and warm bed to
concern myself with it?' Fool, by the blood that is in me, these
are my folk. Do I suffer more tonight than any one of them did?
What is the pain and trembling of one man compared with what
happened at Siltbay? Why should I shelter myself while my folk are
slaughtered like cattle?
    But two words are all I need say to Prince
Verity. The Fool vexed me with more words. `Raiders' and `Siltbay,'
and he knows as much as any man needs to. Let me rest you in your
bed, my lord, and then I shall race to him with those
words.
    No. A fresh cloud of pain blossomed in the back
of my skull. It tried to push the sense from my thoughts, but I
held firm. I forced my body to walk to the chair beside the hearth.
I managed to lower myself into it. I spent my youth defining the
borders of the Six Duchies to any who challenged them. Should my
life be too valuable to risk now, when there is so little left of
it, and all of that riddled with pain? No, Fool. Fetch my son to me
at once. He shall Skill for me, since my own strength for it is at
an end this night. Together, we shall consider what we see, and
make our decisions as to what must be done. Now go. GO!
    The Fool's feet pattered on the stone floor as
he fled.
    I was left alone with myself. Myselves: I put my
hands to my temples. I felt a painful smile crease my face as I
found myself. So, boy. There you are. My king slowly turned his
attention to me. He was weary, but he reached his Skill toward me
to touch my mind as softly as blowing spiderweb. I reached
clumsily, attempting to complete the Skill bond and it all went
awry. Our contact tattered, fraying apart like rotten cloth. And
then he was gone.
    I hunkered alone on the floor of my bedchamber
in the Mountain Kingdom, uncomfortably close to the hearth fire. I
was fifteen, and my nightclothes were soft and clean. The fire in
the hearth had burned low. My blistered fingers throbbed angrily.
The beginnings of a Skill headache pulsed in my temples.
    I moved slowly, cautiously as I rose. Like an
old man? No. Like a young man whose health was still mending. I
knew the difference now.
    My soft, clean bed beckoned, like a soft clean
tomorrow.
    I refused them both. I took the chair by the
hearth and stared into the flames, pondering.
    When Burrich came at first light to bid me
farewell, I was ready to ride with him.

    CHAPTER TWO

The
Homecoming

    BUCKKEEP HOLD OVERLOOKS the finest deep-water
harbor in the Six Duchies. To the north, the Buck River spills into
the sea, and with its waters carries most of the goods exported
from the interior Duchies of Tilth and Farrow' Steep black cliffs
provide the seat for the castle, which overlooks the river mouth,
the harbor, and the waters beyond. The town of Buckkeep clings
precariously to those cliffs, well away from the great river's
floodplain, with a good portion of it built on docks and quays. The
original stronghold was a log structure built by the original
inhabitants of the area as a defense against Outislander raids. It
was seized in ancient time, by a raider named Taker, who with the
seizing of the fort became a resident. He replaced the timber
structure with walls and towers of black stone quarried from the
cliffs themselves, and in the process sank the foundations of
Buckkeep deep into the stone. With each succeeding generation of
the Farseer line, the walls were forted and the towers built taller
and stouter. Since Taker, the founder of the Farseer line, Buckkeep
has never fallen to enemy hands.

    Snow kissed my face, wind pushed the hair back
from my forehead. I stirred from a dark dream to a darker one, to a
winterscape in forestland. I was cold, save where the rising heat
of my toiling horse warmed me. Beneath me, Sooty was