Royal Assassin

Highlights

Page 170

Oddly enough, few people spoke directly of the previous day’s events. I grasped it would take a while for the keep to come to terms with all that had happened. But there was something there, a feeling almost of relief. I had seen that before, in a man who had had his maimed foot removed, or the family that finally finds their drowned child’s body. To confront finally the worst there is, to look it squarely in the face and say, ‘I know you. You have hurt me, almost to death, but still, I live. And I will go on living.’ That was the feeling I got from the folk of the keep. All had finally acknowledged the severity of our injuries from the Red Ships. Now there was a sense that we might begin to heal, and to fight back.

Page 234

I felt my own smile fade. ‘Molly, please, just talk to me. I thought, the last time we spoke, that we understood each other. Now you don’t speak to me, you turn away … I don’t know what changed, I don’t understand what is happening between us.’ ‘Nothing.’ She suddenly looked very fragile. ‘Nothing is happening between us. Nothing can happen between us. FitzChivalry’ (and that name sounded so strange on her lips), ‘I’ve had time to think. If you had come to me, like this, a week ago, or a month ago, impetuous and smiling, I know I would have been won over.’ She permitted herself the ghost of a sad smile, as if she were remembering the way a dead child had skipped on some long ago summer day. ‘But you didn’t. You were correct and practical, and did all the right things, and, foolish as it may sound, that hurt me. I told myself that if you loved me as deeply as you had declared you did, nothing, not walls, not manners or reputation or protocol, would get in the way of your seeing me. That night, when you came, when we … but it changed nothing. You did not come back.’ ‘But it was for your sake, for your reputation …’ I began desperately.

Note: Wat

Page 244

‘As little as possible, I assure you. I am well used to guarding my own thoughts, less so to blocking out those of others. Especially the thoughts of one as strongly, if erratically Skilled as yourself. I did not seek to be privy to your … assignation.’

Page 319

I hadn’t spoken so plainly of her to Burrich in a long time. A line creased his brow, but he took the bloodied moon. ‘What would your father say to me?’ he wondered aloud as I turned wearily away from him. ‘I don’t know,’ I told him bluntly. ‘I never knew him. Only you.’ ‘FitzChivalry.’ I turned back to him. Burrich met my eyes as he spoke. ‘I don’t know what he’d say to me. But I know I can say this for him, to you. I’m proud of you. It’s not the kind of work a man does that says he can be proud or not. It’s how he does it. Be proud of yourself.’

Page 389

‘Nothing can be done about the situation in Bearns,’ Regal said sadly. Smoothly he added, ‘It is time Bearns took care of Bearns’ troubles. We cannot beggar all Six Duchies to protect a barren stretch of coastline. So the Raiders have helped themselves to a few frozen rocks. I wish them joy of them. We have folk of our own to care for, villages of our own to rebuild.’

Note: What an idiotic villain. Mediocre writing

Page 394

‘You do,’ I said after some moments. ‘And you are right. I have my secrets as well, and I have expected you to trust that they are honourable ones. But my secrets do not constrain you as yours do me. Every time I visit the King’s chambers, I see what Wallace’s Smokes and potions are doing to him. I want to kill Wallace, and restore my king to his wits. And after that, I want to … finish the task. I want to eliminate the source of the poisons.’ ‘You wish to kill me then?’ It was like being doused with cold water. ‘You are the source of the poisons Wallace gives to the King?’ I was sure I had misunderstood. He nodded slowly. ‘Some of them. Probably the ones you most object to.’ My heart was cold and still inside me. ‘But, Chade, why?’ He looked at me, his lips folded tight. After a moment, he opened his mouth and spoke softly. ‘A king’s secrets belong to a king only. They are not mine to give away, no matter if I think the receiver would keep them safe or not. But if you would only use your mind as I have trained you, you would know my secrets. For I have not hidden them from you. And from my secret, you could deduce much on your own.’

Note: I saw this coming

Page 434

‘Tea?’ Chade asked me gently. ‘Please. And if I could just sit for a bit longer, quietly. I don’t know when my head has throbbed this badly.’ Chade set the kettle over the fire. I watched with distaste as he mixed brewing herbs for it. Some elfbark, but not near as much as I would have required earlier. Peppermint and catmint leaves. A bit of precious ginger root. I recognized much of what he used to give Verity for his Skill exhaustion. Then he came back to sit close beside me again. ‘It could not be. What you suggest would require blind loyalty from the coterie to Regal.’

Note: I suspect poison

Page 522

There was something in his voice. I lowered my head, shamed. ‘I am sorry,’ I said quietly. ‘Sometimes I forget that he is more to you than just your king.’ ‘Well. We were never really that close, that way. But we are two old men, who have grown old together. Sometimes that is a greater closeness. We have come through time to your day and age. We can talk together, quietly, and share memories of a time that exists no more. I can tell you how it was, but it is not the same. It is like being two foreigners, trapped in a land we have come to, unable to return to our own, and having only each other to confirm the reality of the place where we once lived. At least, once we could.’

Page 543

took Lacey a moment to realize the state we were in. It took her less than that to be furious. ‘While we gamble our lives and reputations, you get drunk!’ She rounded on Burrich. ‘In twenty years, you have not learned that it solves nothing!’ Burrich flinched not at all. ‘Some things cannot be solved,’ he pointed out philosophically. ‘Drink makes those things much more tolerable.’ He came to his feet easily, stood rocksteady before her. Years of drinking seemed to have taught him the knack of handling it well. ‘What did you need?’

Page 614

suddenly knew myself for nine kinds of a fool. Rosemary. Sweet, sleepy child, always nodding off in a corner. So bright one could trust her with any errand. So young one forgot she was even there. Yet I should have known. I was no older when Chade had first begun to teach me my trade. I felt ill, and it must have shown on my face. I could not recall what I had or had not said in front of her. I had no way of knowing what secrets Kettricken had confided over that little, dark, curly head. What talks with Verity had she witnessed, what chats with Patience? The Queen and the Fool were missing. That only I knew for certain. Had they ever got out of Buckkeep alive? Regal was grinning, well satisfied with himself. The barred door between us was the only thing that kept my promise to Shrewd intact.

Note: This was obvious

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