Assassin's Apprentice (48 page)

I had not been to the steams before, but Burrich had. A separate tulip bud enclosed a bubbling hot spring, tamed to use as a bath. A Chyurda stood outside it; I recognized him as the torchbearer from the night before. If he thought anything odd about my reappearance, he did not show it. He stepped aside as if expecting us, and Burrich dragged me up the steps to enter.

Clouds of steam fogged the air, carrying a mineral scent with them. We passed a stone bench or two; Burrich walked carefully on the smooth tile floor as we approached the source of the steam. The water rose in a central spring, with bricked sides built up around it to contain it. From there it was channeled in troughs to other, smaller baths, varying the heat by the length of the trough and the depth of the pond. The steam and the noise of the falling water filled the air. I
did not find it pleasant; I labored just to breathe already. My eyes adjusted to the dimness, and I saw Regal soaking in one of the larger baths. He looked up at our approach.

“Ah,” he said, as if well pleased. “August told me Burrich would bring you. Well. I suppose you know the Princess has forgiven your murder of her brother? And in this place, at least, by doing so she preserves you from justice. I think it a waste of time, but local customs must be honored. She says she considers you part of her kin group now, and so I must treat you as kin. She fails to understand you were not born of a lawful union, and hence have no kin rights at all. Ah, well. Will you dismiss Burrich and join me in the springs? It might ease you. You look very uncomfortable, held up like a shirt on the washline.” He spoke so genially, so affably, as if unaware of my hatred.

“What do you wish to tell me, Regal?” I kept my voice flat.

“Will not you send Burrich away?” he asked again.

“I am not a fool.”

“One could argue that, but very well. I suppose I must send him away, then.”

The steam and the noise of the waters had cloaked the Chyurda well. He was taller than Burrich, and his cudgel was already in motion as Burrich turned. If he hadn’t been supporting my weight, he could have avoided it. Burrich turned his head, but the cudgel hit his skull with a terrible, sharp sound, like an ax biting wood. Burrich fell, and I with him. I landed half in one of the smaller ponds. It was not scalding, but nearly so. I managed to roll out of it, but could not regain
my feet. My legs would not obey me. Burrich beside me lay very still. I reached a hand toward him, but could not touch him.

Regal stood up and motioned to the Chyurda. “Dead?”

The Chyurda stirred Burrich with a foot, gave a curt nod.

“Good.” Regal was briefly pleased. “Drag him back behind that deep tank in the corner. Then you may go.” To me, he said, “It’s unlikely anyone will be coming in here until after the ceremony. They’re too busy jostling for positions. And back in that corner . . . well, I doubt if he’ll be found before you are.”

I could make no response. The Chyurda stooped and seized Burrich by the ankles. As he dragged him away the dark brush of his hair feathered a trail of blood on the tiles. A dizzying mixture of hatred and despair roiled with the poison through my blood. A cold purpose rose and set in me. I could not hope to live now, but it did not seem important. Warning Verity did. And avenging Burrich. I had no plans, no weapons, no possibilities. So play for time, Chade’s counsel advised me. The more time you create for yourself, the better the chance that something will present itself. Delay him. Perhaps someone will come to see why the Prince is not dressing for the wedding. Perhaps someone else will want to use the steams before the ceremony. Engage him somehow.

“The Princess—” I began.

“Is not a problem,” Regal finished for me. “The Princess did not forgive Burrich. Only you. What I have done to him is well within my rights. He is a traitor. He must pay. And the
man disposing of him was most fond of his prince, Rurisk. He has no objections to any of this.”

The Chyurda left the steams without a glance back. My hands scrabbled weakly on the smooth tile floor but found no purchase. Regal busily dried himself all the while. When the man was gone, he came to stand over me. “Aren’t you going to call for help?” he asked brightly.

I took a breath, pushed down my fear. I mustered as much contempt for Regal as I could find. “To whom? Who would hear me over the water?”

“So you save your strength. Wise. Pointless, but wise.”

“Do you think Kettricken will not know what happened?”

“She will know you went to the steams, unwisely in your condition. You slipped beneath the hot, hot water. Such a shame.”

“Regal, this is madness. How many bodies do you think you can leave in your wake? How will you explain Burrich’s death?”

“To your first question, quite a few, as long as they are not people of consequence.” He stooped over me, and gripped my shirt. He dragged me while I thrashed weakly, a fish out of water. “And to your second, well, the same. How much fuss do you think anyone will raise over a dead stableman? You are so obsessed with your plebeian self-importance that you extend it to your servants.” He dumped me carelessly half atop Burrich. His still-warm body sprawled facedown on the floor. Blood was congealing on the tiles around his face, and still dripping from his nose. A slow bubble of blood formed on his lips, broke with his faint exhalation. He lived still. I shifted to conceal it
from Regal. If I could survive, Burrich might have a chance also.

Regal noticed nothing. He tugged my boots off and set them aside. “You see, bastard,” he said as he paused to catch his breath. “Ruthlessness creates its own rules. So my mother taught me. People are intimidated by a man who acts with no apparent regard for consequences. Behave as if you cannot be touched and no one will dare to touch you. Look at the whole situation. Your death will anger some people, yes. But enough to make them take actions that would affect the security of the whole Six Duchies? I think not. Besides, your death will be eclipsed by other things. I’d be a fool not to take this opportunity to remove you.” Regal was so damnably calm and superior. I fought him, but he was surprisingly strong for the indulgent life he led. I felt like a kitten as he shook me out of my shirt. He folded my clothes neatly and set them aside. “Minimal alibis will work. If I made too much effort to appear guiltless, people might think I cared. They might start then to pay attention themselves. So, I simply know nothing. My man saw you enter with Burrich after I had left. And I go now to complain to August that you never came to talk with me so that I might forgive you, as I had promised Princess Kettricken. I will reprimand August most severely for not bringing you himself.” He looked around. “Let’s see. A nice deep hot one. Right here.” I clutched at his throat as he levered me up to the edge, but he shook me off easily.

“Good-bye, bastard,” he said calmly. “Pardon my haste, but
you have quite delayed me. And I must rush to dress myself. Or I shall be late for the wedding.”

And he tumbled me in.

The pool was deeper than I was tall, designed to be neck-high on a tall Chyurda. It was painfully hot to my unprepared body. It drove the air from my lungs and I sank. I pushed feebly off the bottom and managed to get my face above water. “Burrich!” I wasted my breath on a shout to someone who could not aid me. The water closed on me again. My arms and legs would not work together. I blundered into a wall and pushed myself under before I could once again surface and gasp in some air. The hot water was loosening my already flaccid muscles. I think I would still have been drowning even if the water had been only knee-deep.

I lost count of how many times I floundered to the surface, to gasp a breath. The smooth-worked stone of the walls eluded my palsied grip, and my ribs stabbed me with pain each time I tried for a deep breath. My strength was flowing out of me, lassitude flowing in. So warm, so deep. Drowned like a puppy, I thought to myself as I felt the darkness closing.
Boy?
someone queried, but all was black.

So much water, so hot and so deep. I could not find a bottom anymore, let alone a side. I struggled feebly against the water, but there was no resistance. No up, no down. No use fighting to stay alive inside my body. Nothing left to protect, so drop the walls, and see if there is one last service you can render your king. The walls of my world fell away from me, and I sped forth like an arrow finally released. Galen had been right. There was no distance in Skilling, no distance at all. Buckkeep
was right here, and
Shrewd,
I shrieked in desperation. But my king was intent upon other things. He was closed and walled to me, no matter how I stormed around him. No help there.

Strength was going from me. Somewhere, I was drowning. My body was failing, my thread to it was tenuous. One last chance.
Verity, Verity,
I cried. I found him, flailed at him, but could find no purchase, no grip. He was elsewhere, open to someone else, closed to me.
Verity!
I wailed, drowning in despair. And suddenly it was as if strong hands gripped mine as I scrabbled up a slippery cliff. Gripped and held tight and drew me in when I would have slipped away.

Chivalry! No, it can’t be, it’s the boy! Fitz?

You imagine things, my prince. There is no one there. Attend to what we do now.
Galen, calm and insidious as poison as he pushed me aside. I could not withstand him, he was too strong.

Fitz?
Verity, unsure now as I grew weaker.

From I knew not where, I found strength. Something gave way before me, and I was strong. I clung to Verity like a hawk on his wrist. I was there with him. I saw with Verity’s eyes: the freshly decked throne room, the Book of Events on the great table before him, laid open to receive the recording of Verity’s marriage. Around him, in their best finery and most costly jewels, the few honored ones who had been invited to witness Verity witnessing his bride’s pledge through August’s eyes. And Galen, who was supposed to be offering his strength as a king’s man, was poised beside and slightly behind Verity, waiting to drain him dry. And Shrewd, in crown and robe upon his
throne, was all unknowing, his Skill burned and dulled away years ago by misuse, and him too proud to admit it.

Like an echo, I saw through August’s eyes as Kettricken stood pale as a wax candle on a dais before all her people. She was telling them, simply and kindly, that last night Rurisk had finally succumbed to the arrow wound he had taken on the Ice Fields. She hoped to please his memory by pledging herself as he had helped arrange, to the King-in-Waiting of the Six Duchies. She turned to face Regal.

In Buckkeep, Galen’s claw of a hand settled on Verity’s shoulder.

I broke into his link with Verity, pushed him aside.
Beware Galen, Verity. Beware a traitor, come to drain you dry. Touch him not.

Galen’s hand tightened on Verity’s shoulder. Suddenly all was a sucking vortex, draining, trying to pull everything out of Verity. And there was not much left to take. His Skill was so strong because he let it take so much from him so fast. Self-preservation would have made another man hold back some of his strength. But Verity had been spending his recklessly, every day, to keep the Red-Ships from his shores. So little left now for this ceremony, and Galen was absorbing it. And growing stronger as he did so. I clung to Verity, fighting desperately to reduce the loss.
Verity!
I cried to him.
My prince.
I sensed a brief rallying in him, but all was growing dim before his eyes. I heard a stirring of alarm as he sagged and caught at the table. Faithless Galen kept his grip on him, bent over him as he went to one knee, murmuring solicitously, “My prince? Are
you quite all right?”

I flung my strength to Verity, reserves I had not suspected in myself. I opened up and let go of them, just as Verity did when he Skilled. I had not known I had so much to give. “Take it all. I would die anyway. And you were always good to me when I was young.” I heard the words as clearly as if I had spoken them, and felt the breaking of a mortal bond as strength flowed into Verity through me. He waxed suddenly strong, beast strong, and angry.

Verity’s hand rose to grip Galen’s. He opened his eyes. “I shall be fine,” he said to Galen, aloud. He looked around the room as he rose to his feet again. “I but worried about you. You seemed to tremble. Are you sure you are strong enough for this? You must not attempt a challenge that is beyond you. Think what might happen.” And as a gardener pulls a weed from the earth, Verity smiled, and pulled from the traitor all that was in him. Galen fell, clutching his chest, an empty man-shaped thing. The onlookers rushed to attend him, but Verity, replete now, lifted his eyes to the window and focused his mind afar.

August. Attend me well. Warn Regal his half brother is dead.
Verity boomed like the sea, and I felt August quail at the strength of the Skilling.
Galen was too ambitious. He attempted that which was beyond his Skill. A pity the Queen’s bastard could not be content with the position she gave him. A pity my younger brother could not dissuade his half brother from his misplaced ambitions. Galen overstepped his position. My younger brother should take heed of what comes of such recklessness. And,
August. Be sure you tell Regal privately. Not many knew Galen was the Queen’s bastard and his half brother. I am sure he would not want scandal to soil his mother’s name, or his. Such family secrets should be well guarded.

And then, with a force that put August on his knees, Verity pushed through him to stand before Kettricken in her mind. I sensed his effort to be gentle.
I await you, my queen-in-waiting. And by my name, I swear to you I had naught to do with your brother’s death. I knew nothing of it, and I grieve with you. I would not want you to come to me thinking his blood on my hands.
Like a jewel opening was the light in Verity’s heart as he exposed it to her that she might know she had not been given to a murderer. Selflessly, he made himself vulnerable to her, giving trust to build trust. She swayed, but stood. August fainted. That contact was gone.