Fool’s Assassin
'Fantasy as it ought to be written' George R.R. MartinRobin Hobb returns to her best loved characters in a brand new series.Tom Badgerlock has been living peaceably in the manor house at Withywoods with his beloved wife Molly these many years, the estate a reward to his family for loyal service to the crown.But behind the facade of respectable middle-age lies a turbulent and violent past. For Tom Badgerlock is actually FitzChivalry Farseer, bastard scion of the Farseer line, convicted user of Beast-magic, and assassin. A man who has risked much for his king and lost more…On a shelf in his den sits a triptych carved in memory stone of a man, a wolf and a fool. Once, these three were inseparable friends: Fitz, Nighteyes and the Fool. But one is long dead, and one long-missing.Then one Winterfest night a messenger arrives to seek out Fitz, but mysteriously disappears, leaving nothing but a blood-trail. What was the message? Who was the sender? And what has happened to the messenger?Suddenly Fitz's violent old life erupts into the peace of his new world, and nothing and no one is safe.
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HarperVoyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2014
Copyright © Robin Hobb 2014
Map and illustration copyright © Nicolette Caven 2014
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015
Cover illustration © Jackie Morris; lettering by Stephen Raw.
Robin Hobb asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780007444175
Ebook Edition © August 2014 ISBN: 9780007444182
Version: 2018-09-21
âHobb is one of the great modern fantasy writersâ
The Times
âHobb is always readable. But the elegant translucence of her prose is deceptive ⦠That is the ambition of high art. The novelists in any genre are rare who achieve it with Hobbâs combination of accessibility and moral authorityâ
Sunday Telegraph
âA little slice of heavenâ
Guardian
âHobb is superb, spinning wonderful characters and plots from pure imaginationâ
Conn Iggulden
âIn todayâs crowded fantasy market Robin Hobbâs books are like diamonds in a sea of zirconsâ
George R.R. Martin
âRobin Hobb is without question among the finest writers of fantasy working todayâ
SFX
âA master of âepicâ fantasyâ
Shortlist
Contents
Chapter Three: The Felling of Fallstar
Chapter Seven: The Presentation
Chapter Eight: The Spiderâs Lair
Chapter Eleven: The Last Chance
Chapter Sixteen: Honoured Guests
Chapter Eighteen: Invisibility
Chapter Nineteen: The Beaten Man
Chapter Twenty: The Morning After
Chapter Twenty-One: Search for the Son
Chapter Twenty-Two: Perseverance
Chapter Twenty-Three: The Tutor
Chapter Twenty-Four: Settling In
Chapter Twenty-Five: Things to Keep
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Time and Again
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Things Bought
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Mist and Light
Chapter Thirty-One: A Time of Healing
My dear Lady Fennis,
We have been friends far too long for me to be circumspect. As you so delicately hinted, yes, there has been shattering news delivered to me. My stepson, Prince Chivalry, has exposed himself as the crude fellow I have always known him to be. His bastard child, fathered on a Mountain whore, has been revealed.
As shameful as that is, it could have been handled far more discreetly if his clever-as-a-stone brother Prince Verity had taken swift and decisive action to eliminate the disgrace. Instead, he has announced him in an indiscreet message to my husband.
And so, in the face of this base behaviour, what does my lord do? Why, not only does he insist the bastard must be brought to Buckkeep Castle, he then bestows on Chivalry the title to Withywoods, and sends him out to pasture there with his awkward barren wife. Withywoods! A fine estate that any number of my friends would be pleased to occupy, and he rewards it to his son for fathering a bastard with a foreign commoner! Nor does King Shrewd find it distasteful that said bastard has been brought back here to Buckkeep Castle where any member of my court may see the little Mountain savage.
And the final insult to me and my son? He has decreed that Prince Verity will now take up the title of King-in-Waiting, and be the next presumed heir to the throne. When Chivalry had the decency to secede his claim in the face of this disgrace, I secretly rejoiced, believing that Regal would immediately be recognized as the next king. While he may be younger than both his half-brothers, no one can dispute that his bloodlines are more noble, and his bearing as lordly as his name.
Truly, I am wasted here. As wasted as my son Regal. When I gave up my own reign and titles to be Shrewdâs queen, it was in the belief that any child I bore him would be seen as possessing far better lineage than the two reckless boys his former queen gave him, and would reign after Shrewd. But does he now look at Chivalry and admit his mistake in naming him heir? No. Instead he sets him aside only to install his doltish younger brother as King in Waiting. Verity. Hulking, square-faced Verity, with all the grace of an ox.
