‘That’s good, Thick. You’re a very good student. You go there now, and wait for me.’

As soon as the mantel door swung shut behind him, Dutiful opened his mouth to speak. I made a hand motion to silence him. I waited until I was sure that even Thick’s plodding pace would have carried him far out of hearing. Then I sank down onto a chair.

‘Laudwine,’ Dutiful said in a shocked whisper.

I nodded. I wasn’t ready to speak yet. Laudwine had called me ‘bastard’. A bastard or the Bastard? I wondered.

‘What shall we do?’

I lifted my eyes and looked at my prince. His dark eyes were large in his paled face. Chade’s walls and spies had failed us. Suddenly I felt that I alone stood between him and the Piebalds. Perhaps I always had. I was selfishly glad that Laurel was gone, out of Laudwine’s reach. At least I didn’t have to worry about her. ‘You must do nothing. Nothing!’ I emphasized the word as he opened his mouth to protest it. ‘You must not do anything out of the ordinary, anything that would let anyone know that we suspect a plot. Today must be like any other day. But you must stay within the walls of Buckkeep.’

He was silent for a breath. Then, ‘I promised Civil Bresinga that I’d go out riding with him. Just he and I. We were going to slip off on our own, to hunt with his cat this afternoon. He came to my room, very late last night, to ask me.’ He drew a breath and I watched him look at Civil’s invitation in a different light. His voice was lower as he said, ‘He seemed agitated. And he looked as if he had been weeping. When I asked him if he were feeling well, he assured me that the problem he had was one of his own making, and nothing a friend could help with. I assumed it had to do with a girl.’ I absorbed that information and then asked, ‘His cat is here?’

The Prince nodded shamefacedly. ‘He pays an old woman for the use of a shed, at the edge of the woods down near the river landing. She feeds the cat, but lets it come and go as it wishes. And Civil visits with her as often as he can.’ He took a breath and admitted, ‘I’ve been there with him before. Once. Late at night.’

I bit back everything I wanted to say. It was no time for angry rebukes. Most of my anger was for myself. I’d failed there, too. ‘Well. You’re not going today. You’re developing a boil on your arse. That’s why you can’t go with him. Tell him why when you excuse yourself from it.’

‘I don’t want… I won’t say that. That’s embarrassing. I’ll say I have a headache. Tom, I don’t think Civil is a traitor. I don’t think he’d betray me.’

‘You will say that, and exactly that, because it is embarrassing. A headache sounds like a ploy. A boil on your arse doesn’t.’ I took a breath, and hedged around what I suspected. ‘Maybe Civil isn’t a traitor to you. But it could be that someone else is using him to get you out and away from Buckkeep’s walls. Or it could be that someone has threatened him, saying, oh, saying that they’ll expose his mother as Witted if he doesn’t deliver you. So. Whether or not you trust Civil is not the question. Buy me time. Go make your excuses. And take care to walk gingerly, and avoid anything that you would avoid if you really had a boil.’

He scowled but he nodded. It gave me a small measure of relief. But then he added, ‘It’s not going to be easy to beg off. He said he needed to ask a special favor of me today.’

‘What was it?’

‘I’m not sure. Something to do with his cat, I think.’

‘All the more reason to avoid being out with him.’ I tried to think of all the possible ramifications. Another thought intruded. ‘Has Civil brought you any other animals? Has he tried to offer you a Wit-partner?’

‘Do you think I’d be stupid enough to trust him if he did?’ The Prince was both flustered and angered by my question. ‘I’m not an idiot, Tom. No. In fact, Civil has told me that I must not bond with any creature until at least a year has passed. That is the Old Blood custom. There is a set time of mourning. It is to be sure that when the human next takes a partner, it is based on a true attraction between them, not as a replacement for one who has been lost.’

‘It sounds to me as if Civil has been telling you a great deal about the Old Blood ways.’

For a moment, Prince Dutiful was silent. Then he said coldly, ‘You declined to teach me, Tom. Yet I knew, in my guts, that this was something I had to know. Not just to protect myself, but to master my own magic. I will not be ashamed of my Wit, Tom. Conceal it I must, because of the unjust hatred many bear for it. But I will not be ashamed nor walk away from it.’

There seemed very little I could do or say about that. A traitor thought whispered that the boy was right. How much better would it have been for Nighteyes and me if I had been educated in my magic before I took up with him? Eventually, I replied stiffly, ‘I am sure that my prince will do as he thinks best.’

‘Yes. I will’ he agreed. And then, as if he had won some point, he shifted his tactic and asked me suddenly, ‘So I will pretend that I know nothing. And what will you do? For I fear you are in as great a danger as I am. No, greater. My name will protect me, to some extent. They would have to prove me Witted before they could move against me. But you, I fear, you could be bludgeoned in an alley in Buckkeep Town and folk might think it just another incident. You have no name to protect you, Tom.’

I nearly smiled. The very fact that my name was unknown was what protected me, and it was that shield I must strive to maintain.

‘I have to go seek Chade. Right away. If you wish to do anything to aid me today, you might let the kitchen know that you’ve a fancy for pink sugar cakes.’

He nodded gravely. ‘Is there no other way I can help?’

The offer was sincere, and that moved me. He was my prince, and yet he offered to serve me. I could have refused him. But I think he valued it more when I said, ‘Actually, yes, you can. Besides the pink sugar cake, I need a large bunch of nice raisins, a red neck scarf, a good sheath knife and a peacock feather.’ As the Prince’s eyes grew round at this odd list, I impetuously added, ‘A bowl of nuts and some sweets would also be a good idea. If you can bring them here with no one noticing, that would be very helpful. From here, I can take them to Chade’s den.’

‘They are all for Thick? You will buy his loyalty?’ He sounded outraged.

‘Yes. They are for Thick. But not to buy him. At least, not exactly. I need to win him to us, Dutiful. We will start with gifts and attentions. I think that the attentions will be more important, eventually, than the gifts. You heard from him what his life has been like. Why should he feel any loyalty to anyone? Let me tell you something from experience, my prince. Anyone, even a king, can begin to buy a man with gifts. And at first it may seem no more than that between them. But eventually, loyalty and even deep regard can spring up. For when we are cared for by someone, or when we care for someone, that is the beginning of the bond.’ My mind wandered for an instant, not just to King Shrewd and myself, but to what Hap and I shared, and on to what had grown between Burrich and me, and then Chade and myself. ‘So. We begin with the simple gifts that might ease a simple heart.’

‘A bath wouldn’t hurt him, either. And some whole clothes.’ Dutiful spoke thoughtfully, not sarcastically.

‘You’re right,’ I said quietly. I doubt that he knew how I meant my words. Let him be the one who puzzled out how to win Thick’s heart. For in the end, the bond I sought to forge must be between these two. I suddenly shared Chade’s conviction that the prince must have a coterie. There might come a time when ‘Don’t see him, don’t see him’ would keep a rope away from his neck.

We parted to our separate tasks. I hurried through the labyrinth of corridors to emerge in my bedchamber. From thence, I went straight through the Fool’s rooms without even pausing to see if he was awake. A few moments later, I was striding up the stairs to the part of the castle where the Queen’s most favored councillor had his chambers. I wished there was a more subtle way for me to contact him, but I had resolved that if anyone stopped me, I would simply lie and say I was delivering a message from Lord Golden.