I had half-expected to find him waiting there for me, anxious for my report. Of course he was not; he must be at the festivities below. But if Chade was not there, the rooms welcomed me all the same. A tub had been left out by the hearth and a large kettle of water was steaming on the hook. Food, obviously from the same dishes the nobles shared below, waited on the table, and a bottle of wine. One plate. One glass. I could have felt sorry for myself. But I did note that a second comfortable chair now rested beside his near the hearth. On that chair was a stack of towels, and a robe of blue wool. Chade had left out lint and bandaging as well, and a pot of smelly salve. In the midst of all he undoubtedly had to tend to, he had thought of me. I reminded myself of that, even as I knew he would not have hauled the buckets of water up here on his own. So. He had a servant, or was it his apprentice? That was still a mystery I had not solved.
I poured the steaming water into the tub, and added cold from a bucket to adjust it. I heaped a plate with food and set it with the open bottle of wine next to the tub. I shed my sodden clothing where I stood, put Jinna’s charm on the table, and hid my feathers inside one of Chade’s dustiest scrolls. Then I peeled off the bandaging on my neck and climbed into the tub. I eased into the water and leaned back. I ate while soaking in hot water, and drank a glass of wine, and washed myself in a desultory fashion. Slowly the cold began to seep out of my bones. The sadness that remained and weighted me seemed a tired and familiar thing. I wondered if Starling played and sang in the Great Hall. I wondered if Lord Golden led Huntswoman Laurel to the dance floor. I wondered what Prince Dutiful thought of the child bride the sea-storm had washed to his doorstep. I leaned back in the tub and I drank wine from the bottle’s mouth, and I suppose I dozed off.
‘Fitz?’
The old man’s voice was worried. It startled me awake and I sat up in the tub, sloshing water. The neck of the winebottle was still in my hand. He caught it before I overset it and placed it on the table with a thump. ‘Are you all right?’ he demanded.
‘I must have fallen asleep.’ I was disoriented. I stared at him, in his court finery, with the dying firelight glinting off the jewels at his ears and throat. He seemed a stranger to me suddenly, and I was embarrassed to be caught sleeping, naked and half-drunk in a tub of cooling water. ‘Let me get out of this,’ I muttered.
‘Do,’ he encouraged me. He built up the fire while I clambered from the tub, dried myself and pulled on the blue robe. My hands and feet were wrinkled from the long immersion. He filled a smaller kettle and set it on the hob, and then took a teapot and cups down from the shelf. I watched him mix tea herbs from a row of cork-stoppered pots.
‘How late is it?’ I asked him groggily.
‘So late Burrich would say it was early morning,’ he replied. He put a small table between the hearth chairs and arranged his teapot and cups there. He sat down in his worn chair beside the table and indicated the other chair for me. I took it and I studied Chade. He had obviously been up all night, yet he seemed not weary but enervated by it. His eyes were bright and his hands steady. He folded his hands on his lap before him and for a moment he was silent, looking down on them. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said quietly. He looked up and met my gaze. ‘I won’t pretend to completely understand your loss. He was a fine creature, your wolf. But for him, Queen Kettricken would never have escaped Buckkeep Castle all those years ago. And she has often spoken to me of how he provided meat for all of you on your journey through the Mountain Kingdom.’ He lifted his eyes to mine. ‘Have you ever thought that, if not for the wolf, neither of us would be sitting here like this?’
I didn’t want to speak of Nighteyes just then, not even to hear the kindly memories others had of him. ‘So,’ I said when a moment of awkward silence had passed. ‘Did all go well this evening? The betrothal ceremony and all?’
‘Oh, that was just the welcoming ceremony. The formal betrothal will not take place until the new moon. Night after tomorrow. All the dukes must arrive before we can hold that. Buckkeep Castle will be packed to the rafters with folk, and all of Buckkeep Town as well.’
‘I saw her. The narcheska. She’s only a child.’
A strange smile lit Chade’s face. ‘If you say she is “only” a child, then I doubt you actually saw her. She is … a queen in the bud, Fitz. I wish you could meet her and speak to her. By the greatest good fortune, the Outislanders have offered us an extraordinary match for our prince.’
‘And does Dutiful concur with that?’ I asked proddingly.
‘He –’ Chade drew himself up abruptly. ‘And what is this? Asking questions of your master? Report, you young upstart!’ His smile took any sting from his words.
And so I did. When the water boiled, Chade brewed a tea for us, and later he poured it from the pot, stinging and strong. I don’t know what was in it, but the haze of weariness and wine lifted from my mind. I told him all the events up to the time when we reached the inn at the ferry landing. As ever, his face was still as he listened. If he heard anything that shocked or dismayed him, he covered it well. He only winced once, when I spoke of slamming Dutiful flat onto his back on the beach. When I was finished, he drew in a long breath through his nose. He stood up and walked a slow turn around the room. Then he came back and sat down heavily.
‘So our prince is Witted,’ he said slowly.
Of all the things he could have said, this most surprised me. ‘Did you doubt it?’
He gave a small shake of the head. ‘I had hoped we were wrong. That these Old Blood folk know he carries that blood is a knife in our ribs. At any time, the Piebalds could choose to drive it home, simply by speaking what they know.’ His eyes turned inward. ‘The Bresingas will bear watching. I think, ah, yes, that Queen Kettricken will ask Lady Bresinga to take a certain young woman into her household, a girl of good blood but poor prospects. And I shall look into Laurel’s family connections as well. Yes, I know what you think of that, but we cannot be too careful where the Prince is concerned. A damn shame you let the Piebalds ride away, but I see there was nothing you could have done about it at the time. If it were but one man, or two, or even three, we could end the danger. But not only a dozen Old Bloods, but those Piebalds know as well.’ He considered a moment. ‘Can their silence be bought?’
It disheartened me to hear him plot, yet I knew it was his nature. As well fault a squirrel for hiding nuts. ‘Not with gold,’ I decided. ‘Actions might keep them content. Do as they asked. Show good will. Have the Queen move more strongly to protect the Witted ones from persecution.’
‘She already has!’ Chade replied defensively. ‘For your sake, she has spoken out, and more than once. Six Duchies law forbids that any Witted one be killed simply for being Witted. Other crimes must be proved.’
I took a breath. ‘And has that law been enforced?’
‘It is up to each duke to enforce the laws within his own duchy.’
‘And in Buck?’ I asked softly.
Chade was silent for a time. I watched him gnaw briefly on his lip, his eyes staring deep into nothing. Weighing. At last he asked, ‘Do you think that would content them? Stricter enforcement of the law within Buck Duchy?’
‘It would be a start.’
He took a deep breath and sighed it out. ‘I will discuss it with the Queen. It will not take much urging on my part. In truth, I have played the opposite role up until now, urging her to respect the traditions of the folk she has come to rule, for she –’