‘I have to go. I’ve missed my last two fittings for my Harvest Festival clothing. I swear, they take it out on Thick, poking him with pins “by accident” if I’m not there to defend him. So I’d best be there.’
I nodded to that as well and then somehow he was up and out the door and the room was silent without me much noticing how it had happened. Chade set a cup of brandy down before me with a firm tap on the table. I looked at it and then up at him. ‘You may need it,’ he observed mildly. Then he revealed, ‘The Fool was here, two weeks ago. I’d give a lot to know how he comes and goes from here so unseen, but he managed. I heard a tap at the door of my private sitting room, late at night. And when I opened it, there he was. Changed of course, as you said. Brown as an apple seed, all over. He looked weary and half-sick, but I think that could have been his journey through the pillar. He did not speak of the Black Man, or indeed of anything except you. He obviously expected to find you here. That frightened me.’
I set the empty brandy glass down on the table. Without asking, Chade refilled it for me. ‘When I told him we hadn’t seen you, he looked stricken. I told him how thoroughly we’d searched, and that my private premise had been that you’d gone off with him. He asked if we’d used the skill; I told him that of course we had, but that it had yielded no trace of you. He gave me the name of an inn where he’d be staying for a week, and asked me to send a runner immediately if any news of you came in. At the end of the week, he came back to me again. He looked as if he had aged a decade. He told me he’d made inquires of his own about you, with no positive results. Then he said he had to depart, but that he wished to leave something with me for you. Neither of us expected you’d return to claim it.’
I didn’t have to ask for it. He set down a sealed scroll, no bigger than a child’s closed fist, and a small bag made from Elderling fabric. I recognized it as coming from the coppery robe. I looked at them, but made no move to touch either of them while Chade was watching me. ‘Did he say anything? As a message for me, I mean.’
‘I think that is what those things are.’
I nodded.
‘Hap came to see you while you were in the infirmary. Did you know?’
‘No. I didn’t. How did he know I was there?’
‘I believe he spends a great deal of time at that minstrel tavern these days. When we were searching for you, we put the word out through the minstrels of course. We were desperate to hear any rumour of you, so he knew that we expected Tom Badgerlock to be at Buckkeep and he wasn’t. Then, when you were found, of course the minstrels heard of that, too. So he knew through them. You should see him soon and put his mind at rest.’
‘He visits the minstrel tavern often?’
‘So I’ve heard.’
I didn’t ask from whom, or why the Queen’s councillor would be kept informed of the habits of a woodworker’s apprentice. I merely said, ‘Thank you for watching over him.’
‘I told you I would. Not that I’ve done well at it. Fitz, I am sorry to tell you this. I don’t know the details, but I understand he got in a bit of trouble in town and has lost his apprenticeship. He has been staying amongst the minstrel folk.’
I shook my head at that, sick at heart. I should have done better by him. Time, definitely, to take the young man in hand. I decided I’d seek out Starling for gossip on where to find my boy. I felt guilty and remiss that I had not sought him out before this.
‘Any other news that I should know?’
‘Lady Patience whacked me quite soundly with her fan when she discovered that you had been in the infirmary for some days and no one had informed her.’
I laughed in spite of myself. ‘In public?’
‘No. She has gained some discretion in her old age. She summoned me to a private meeting in her chambers. Lacey was waiting for me. I went in, Lacey offered me a cup of tea, and Patience came in and whacked me with her fan.’ He rubbed his head above his ear and added ruefully, ‘You might have told me she knew you were alive and disguised as a guardsman. Something that she finds offensive in the extreme, by the by.’
‘I didn’t have a chance. So. Is she angry with me?’
‘Of course. But not as angry as she is with me. She called me an “old spider” and threatened to horsewhip me if I didn’t stop interfering with her son. How did she establish a connection between you and me?’
I shook my head slowly. ‘She’s always known more than she lets on.’
‘Indeed. That was the case even when your father was alive.’
‘I will go and see Patience also. Well, it seems that my life is as much a tangle as ever. How go things in the greater schemes of Buckkeep?’
‘Your plans have succeeded well enough. Those dukes who did not travel to the Out Islands on Prince Dutiful’s first sortie are glad to have a chance at making trade agreements with the kaempra who have been arriving. Some think there may be enough profit in it to persuade the Hetgurd to put an end to all raids. I do not know if they can wield that authority, but if all the dukes say, firmly, that trading agreements are contingent on an end to all raiding, it may cease. There has even, you may be surprised to hear, been talk of some marriage offers between Six Duchies nobility and the Out Island clans. So far, it has been all kaempras offering to join our “mothershouses” and we have had to caution our nobility that the Outislander notion of marriage is sometimes not so permanent as our own. But some may work out. Several of our higher nobles have younger sons they might offer to Outislander clans.’
He leaned back in his chair and poured brandy for himself. ‘It might even be a lasting peace, Fitz. Peace with the Outislanders in my lifetime. Truth to say, I never thought I’d see it.’ He sipped from his cup and added, ‘Though I’ll not count my chickens before they are hatched. We’ve still a way to go. I’d like to see Dutiful hailed as King-in-Waiting before the winter is over, but that may take a bit of doing. The lad is still impulsive and impetuous. I’ve cautioned him, over and over, that the crown sits on the King’s head, not his heart. Nor considerably lower. He needs to show his dukes a man’s measured thought, a king’s considered opinions, not a boy’s passions. Both Tilth and Farrow have said they’d rather see him wed first or with a few more years to steady him before they recognize him as King-in-Waiting.’
I pushed my brandy cup toward him and he filled it as well. ‘You say nothing of the dragons. There have been no problems, then?’
He gave a wry smile. ‘I think our Six Duchies folk are a bit disappointed that they have not seen so much as a scale of them. They would have relished having Icefyre come crashing through our gates to present his head to our queen. Or they think they would. As for me, I am well contented with that situation. Dragons at a distance are amazing and noble creatures of legend. My closer experience of them makes me suspect they’d burp nobly after consuming me.’