Assassin's Fate (The Fitz and the Fool, #3)

by Robin Hobb

Tomorrow owes you the sum of your yesterdays. No more than that. And no less.”

“I will have you!” the man shouted, and he chased the snake and stepped on the end of its tail, trapping it near the waves’ edge. He

So were the white prophets the reason the dragons died off and serpents had no guides?? Is sintara going to remember that??

No regrets, Wolf-Father chided me. There is no going back to do a thing or not do a thing. There is only today. Today you must resolve to live. Each time you are given a choice, you must do the thing that will keep you alive and unhurt.

“A Chalcedean saying. If the bee stings, it dies. It pays a price to hurt you. A wasp can bite and bite and bite again. It pays nothing for the pain it brings.” He shrugged. “So they bite. They know nothing else.”

All different. Yet always my friend.” I reached for honesty. “But when I was your age, it would have bothered me a great deal. It doesn’t now because I know who he is. And who I am, and who we are to each other. That doesn’t change, no matter what name he wears or what garb he dons.

I suspect there are things I know that would benefit you.” He released a sigh. “So much is lost when there is no trust.

Icefyre was seized by the idea that he must burrow into the ice and die there.

Seized by the idea... Did a white skill it into him??

“Don’t do what you can’t undo, until you’ve considered well what you can’t do once you’ve done it.”

dreamed an important dream about a swimming dragon who captured my father.

Perhaps I’d had it backward all along. Perhaps being a bastard had given me far more freedom than living within the rules that bound a prince.

“Dragons have debts. They simply don’t pay them.”

Oh shit!

“Killing myself would put an end to all other possibilities. And more than once in my life, when I thought death was my only escape, or that it was inevitable and I should surrender to it, I’ve been proven wrong. And each time, despite whatever fire I had to pass through, I found good in my life afterward.”

Even when I feel like most of me is dead, life breaks through sometimes. Food tastes good. Or something Per says makes me laugh. A hot cup of tea when I’m cold and wet. I’ve thought of ending my life, Fool. I admit it. But always, no matter the damage to it, the body tries to go on. And if it manages to, then the mind follows it. Eventually, no matter how I try to deny it, there are bits of my life that are still sweet. A conversation with an old friend. Things I am still glad to have.”

Fitz finding the good in life among so much awful. 🥹 imagine what young Fitz would think of how much he’s grown.

I was…I was on the way to being a good father, Fool. I think.” Yes, burning bodies of murdered messengers at night. Excellent experience for a growing child.

I love sarcastic fitz

“What we all know,” he repeated dully.

Together we read our daughter’s book.

😭

I smiled, remembering my wolf’s determination to live until he died. “What are you saying?” He spoke solemnly. “This is our last hunt, old wolf. And as we always have, we go to it together.”

Three candles meant that my daughter still lived.

Verity. Carving his dragon. That was who she reminded me of.

I knew i loved althea. I love the parallel characters from series being recognized as allies in this one.

“Not any more than I’ve forgiven Kennit for raping me. Or Kyle for taking Vivacia from my care. For some things, there is no forgiving or unforgiving. They are simply a crossroads, and a direction taken, whether I would or no. Someone else set my feet on that path. All I can control is every step I take after that.”

Dragons shaped by human touch? Do you know what those are? Abominations! That is what they are, those who hatch and grow on Others Island. Those who are as much human as serpent, and hence neither!

Oooh finally an answer to what the others are!

“You do not need! You want. And I know what you want. Do you think I don’t know how much pleasure you take from it? I’ve seen your eyes roll back with it and how you drool. No. There is only one left and we must save it against most dire need. Then there will be no more for you, Vindeliar. No more ever, for it has become scarce since the nine-fingered slave boy set the serpent free!”

What?!?!?! From other island???

Then my magic, a magic so like my father’s and sister’s that I knew it was mine, guided his. And it was abruptly not a badly tumbled stone, but a well-flung one.

Has she found her skill?!?

lumpy liquid, yellowish yet threaded with silver, drooled slowly from the tube. I felt revulsion at the sight of it, and the smell that reached me was that of vomit.

Is it serpent blood??

“Dear king, please do not do a thing you cannot undo, until you have considered well what you cannot do once you’ve done it!”

Omg all this time they were the fools words

It looked more like a family gathering than a convening of people seeking to prevent a disaster. I thought of my own family and realized such gatherings were often both.

Ahhh yes classic nepotism of monarchs

“Tintaglia is coming for me,” I said.

Hope was too painful.

“Selden,”

Where the f is seldon?? Wasn’t he missing all through rain wild chronicles too??

all the way to Others Island. And then Clerres.”

Da? Are you a dream? Da?

❤️🥹😭

she talks in her sleep. ‘The Son will die? How can the Son die? It must not be, there must be another path, another way.’ But if there is, I do not think she can find it. It’s destroying her. I do not know why she does not tell you of her nightmares.”

The son. Thats bee, not fitz, right?

I believed his dreams. I had to, except when they were too terrifying to believe. And then I always pretended I could defy them.

Chade’s dead.

Oh, Da, does life ever become simple? Only for a few moments, my dear. Only for a few moments.

‘Blind he sees the way, and the wolf comes at his heels!’ The prophecy of the Unexpected Son had been fulfilled, to our detriment. It was done, and we looked to the newer dreams to find our way. But you, you have ‘woken the sleeping wolf, and stirred the dragons in him to fury.’

That while I might hate her enough to kill her, I did not think I could ever hate anyone enough to torture them.

‘Never do that which you can’t undo, until you’ve perceived what you can’t do once you’ve done it.’ That is among our oldest teachings, you idiot!

Oh shit its from the white prophets!

From the next cell, I heard that soft voice again. “Eleven adults to lock up one little child. Are they right to fear you?”

Omg if this is seldon im gonna lose my shit!!!

“On one path, the Destroyer dies and the Unexpected Son lives. On the other, the Unexpected Son perishes.

“Unless I am very mistaken, you killed your Catalyst last night.”

Do I break the future?” “Oh, child. We all do. That is both the danger and the hope of life. That each of us changes the world, every day.” His smile was sad. “Some of us more than others.”

it was my dream fulfilled. A pale man lay there. He was barefoot and dressed all in black beneath the cloak.

I had never done anything to deserve such a lad. I looked out at the sea and thought of El, the harsh god of those waters. I had seldom prayed, but that night I offered El both my prayers that he would spare those who accompanied me, and curses for him if he took them from me.

Oh poor fitz. I wish he could read his story and see how much he has done.

This I have dreamed, but only twice.

They did the impossible before. They can do it again. He cant be dead

“You were wrong, Prilkop. The problem is not that we forget the past. It is that we recall it too well. Children recall wrongs that enemies did to their grandfathers, and blame the granddaughters of the old enemies. Children are not born with memories of who insulted their mother or slew their grandfather or stole their land. Those hates are bequeathed to them, taught them, breathed into them. If adults didn’t tell children of their hereditary hates, perhaps we would do better.

Then the boy opened his eyes and Bee looked at me. We stared at each other. Her mouth formed a word that her breath could not push. “Da?”

“The fight isn’t over until you win,” I said. Burrich’s words. Spoken to me so long ago.

Omg stoppppp

You should go with him, Nighteyes. You should go with Bee. If we end here, then I meet the end with you. As you ended with me. How is the hunting where you are? It will be better with you. I’m coming to you, my brother.

Time to leave. Time to make this choice mine, not his. I sighed out a final breath and found Nighteyes waiting for me. Are you ready, my brother? Yes. I sank into the nothing.