Royal Assassin (The Farseer Trilogy, #2)

by Robin Hobb

I wince to think of the price willingly paid for loving me.

“The fight isn’t over until you win it, Fitz. That’s all you have to remember. No matter what the other man thinks. Or the horse.”

never retaliate? No. A time would come. My time would come.

“You sound like the Fool,” I said bitterly. “Yes. Sometimes. He is another one who has a great understanding of aloneness, and what it can drive a man to do.”

I knew with great certainty that I was hearing what no other had ever heard from him. I remembered the time I had ventured into his room, and the exquisite little doll in its cradle that I had found there. Cherished as the Fool had once been cherished. I waited.

He shook his head, slowly this time. “History is what we do in our lives. We create it as we go along.” He smiled enigmatically. “The future is another kind of history.” “No man can know the future,” I agreed. His smile widened. “Cannot they?”