Golden Fool (Tawny Man, #2)

by Robin Hobb

A burden shared not only can lighten it; it can form a bond between those who share it. So that no one is left to bear it alone.”

To be part of a family, or any community, is to have duties and responsibilities, to be bound by the rules of that group.

To recognize you are the source of your own loneliness is not a cure for it. But it is a step toward seeing that it is not inevitable, and that such a choice is not irrevocable.

Truth can well out of a man like blood from a wound, and it can be just as disconcerting to look at.

“But change proves that you are still alive. Change often measures our tolerance for folk different from ourselves. Can we accept their languages, their customs, their garments, and their foods into our own lives? If we can, then we form bonds, bonds that make wars less likely. If we cannot, if we believe that we must do things as we have always done them, then we must either fight to remain as we are, or die.”

Long ago, King Shrewd had first made me his with a bargain and a silver pin to seal it. Both pin and king were long gone now. Did our bargain still remain? King Shrewd had chosen to invoke his claim on me as the right of my king rather than as my grandfather. Now Kettricken, my queen, claimed me first as kin and second as brother. She struck no bargains.

“I envy her, that she could comfort you.”

Silence asks the questions that are too awkward to phrase. It even asks the questions one does not know to ask.

We’ve been friends a long time, Dutiful. There is very little I wouldn’t do for him, or he for me.”

Once he is your friend, no man can ask for a truer one.”

“That has been your greatest weakness, Fitz. All your life. Too much caution. Not enough ambition. Shrewd liked that in you. He never feared you, as he did me.”

“Well, of the heir to the Pirate Islands throne, I know little more than what is common gossip. He’s a lively, lusty boy, the image of King Kennit, and his mother’s delight. The whole Raven fleet’s delight and darling, actually. That’s his middle name, you know. Prince Paragon Raven Ludluck.”

Not me sobbing when reading this

“Althea’s pregnant?” This “Amber” took a woman’s delight in such tidings. “Yes,” Jek confirmed. “And she’s absolutely furious about it, despite Brashen walking on air and choosing a new name for the child every other day. In fact, I think that’s half of why she’s so irritable. They were wed in the Rain Wild Traders Concourse…I

😭😭😭😭😭

The constant stream of advice and suggestions just leaves her spitting mad. That’s what I told Brashen. ‘Just quit talking to her about it,’ I said to him. ‘Pretend you don’t notice and treat her like you always have.’ And he said, ‘And how am I to do that, when I’m watching her belly rub the lines when she tries to run the rigging?’ But of course, she was just around the corner when he said that, and she overheard, and like to burn his ears off with the names she called him.”

I miss them to the point it physically hurts :(

Strange, how being left out of a secret always feels like a betrayal of trust.

To my dismay, the Bingtown Traders lingered on. This meant that Lord Golden continued to keep to his rooms lest he be recognized, and that at any hour I might

side. She glanced all about us to be sure the hall was deserted and then spoke in a low voice. “I suppose this will get me into trouble, but I can’t stand to see the two of you like this. I refuse to believe you don’t know ‘Lord Golden’s secret.’ And knowing it—” She paused

You always chose to be bound by who you are. Now choose to be freed by who you are.

In the welter of my own concerns, I too often forgot that other people had burdens just as heavy.

One man armed with the right word may do what an army of swordsmen cannot.

My father’s raising was given over, all those many years ago, to my grandfather’s half-brother, Chade. In his turn, my father gave me over to his right-hand man to rear. And when I became a father, I trusted that the same hand could best raise my daughter in safety. Instead, I took in another man’s son and made Hap mine. Prince Dutiful, my son and yet not mine, also came to be my student. And in time, Burrich’s own son came to me, to learn from me that which his own father would not teach him.

Perhaps having the courage to find a better path is having the courage to risk making new mistakes.