I ghosted three more cottages nearby, discovering only families retiring for the night. Between a neglected shed and the next cottage, I discovered Civil’s horse. He was tethered there, saddled still and steaming. Had he been put between the house and the shed to be less obvious? I stood very still. If I were approaching Laudwine’s hiding place, then there were certainly Witted on watch, beasts as well as men. It was possible they were already aware of me. That thought broke a sweat on my back. In the next instant, I knew there was nothing I could do about it. I drifted closer, trying to muffle my tread in the unpacked snow between the buildings.

As I crouched there, I heard a horse approach in the street. There are few riding horses in Buckkeep Town. The steep, cobbled streets are unsuited to them, and they are expensive to keep in a town where they are virtually useless. This was a large and heavy beast by the sound of him. There, at the front of the cottage, the sounds of his hoofbeats stilled. Almost immediately, I heard the door open. Someone heavy came out onto the porch and greeted the rider with, ‘It’s not my fault. I don’t know why he came here and he won’t say anything to me. Says he’ll only speak to you.’ I knew the voice from Thick’s Skill-memory. This was the first man he had been taken to see.

‘I’ll take care of it, Padget.’ Laudwine’s voice. His tone cut off the man’s attempt at explanation. I heard him dismount. I crouched down behind Civil’s horse. ‘Hammer, go with him,’ Laudwine told the horse and I saw a passing shadow as a stout man led his chief’s wit-beast past the alley mouth and towards the ramshackle shed. At a glance, I recalled him: I had first seen him riding at Laudwine’s stirrup. Laudwine entered the cottage, shutting the door heavily behind him. A few moments later, Padget returned from tending the horse and followed him in.

The house was well constructed, the gaps in the walls properly chinked, and the windows tightly shuttered against night’s chill. I could not see in, but the sound of raised voices leaked through to me. I could not make out the words. I crouched in the deep shadows between the buildings, pressed my ear tightly to the wall, and listened.

‘Why were you so stupid as to come here? You were told never to come to me, never to seek any contact at all.’ Laudwine’s voice was deep with anger.

‘I came to tell you that our agreement is over!’ I thought I recognized Civil’s voice, but it was shrill with fear.

‘Do you think so?’ This was Laudwine again, and the hair stood up on the back of my neck at the threat in his tone.

Civil made a low-voiced reply. He must have been defiant, for Laudwine laughed and said, ‘Well, you think wrong. I will tell you when our agreement is over. And when our agreement is over, it will be because you have ceased to be useful to me. And you will know when you have ceased to be useful to me, because you will cease to be alive. Do you take my hint, Civil Bresinga? Be useful, boy. For your mother’s sake, if not for your own. What tidbits do you have for me?’

‘For my mother’s sake, I have nothing for you. Nor ever will again.’ Civil’s voice shook with both fear and determination.

Laudwine was a direct man, as I well recalled. He seemed to have learned to use his left hand well. I heard Civil’s body hit the wall. Then he asked, pleasantly, ‘And why is that, boy?’

There was no answer. I wondered if the powerful blow had killed the lad. ‘Pick him up,’ Laudwine ordered someone. I heard the sound of a chair dragged across the floor, probably to receive Civil. A moment later, Laudwine continued, ‘I asked you a question, boy. Why are you suddenly turning traitor on me?’

Civil’s voice was muffled. He’d probably been hit in the mouth or jaw. ‘Not a traitor. Don’t owe you anything.’

‘Don’t you?’ Laudwine laughed. ‘Your mother is still alive. Don’t you owe me for that? You are still alive. Doesn’t she owe me for that? Don’t be a fool, lad. Do you believe the Mountain Queen’s false promises? That she wants to listen to us, to make things better for us? Faugh! She wants to lure us in, like rats coming to poisoned grain. You think I’m a threat to you, that I could end your lives by betraying you. And so I could. But only if you betray me first. For now, I hold you in the palm of my hand, and I protect you. I am far more reasonable to deal with than some of the Piebalds that follow me. Be grateful that I keep them reined in. So let’s have no more foolishness. You and I, we share too much to oppose one another.’ His tone changed to one of genial inquiry. ‘What brought this on, anyway?’

Civil hissed out an accusation I could not hear.

Laudwine laughed. ‘So. She is a woman, boy, and one of our own. I know it’s hard for a lad to think of his own mother as a woman, but so she is, and a comely one as well. She should take it as a compliment, and as a reminder. She has lived too long apart from us, denying what she was, consorting with “the nobility” as if they, or she, were better than we are. It’s going to come full circle, Bresinga. Consider yourselves fortunate that we accepted you as part of us again. For when we come to power, those of Old Blood who have denied their magic and turned their backs on their kin and even betrayed us to the Farseer filth… all of them will die. They’ll die in their own King’s Circle, just as that bastard Regal killed so many of us. And for what? Why did so many of our parents and their animal partners die in those circles? For the sake of creating a Witted turncoat, one that would hunt down the Witted Bastard for him. Full time and past due that the Farseers paid for that.’

And, ear pressed against the cold wood, I knew a familiar sickness in my bones as I crouched in the gathering cold and dark of the night. Ah yes. Once again the Farseers’ past had returned to haunt us. For what Laudwine spoke was true. Regal had so hated and feared me that he had decided the only way to bring me down was to find one of the Witted who would help him. Many a man and woman died under Regal’s torture before he found one who would hunt Old Blood for him. The painful scar in the centre of my back came from that man’s arrow. Yet what I had always thought of as Regal’s wrongdoing against the Witted would still be totted up against the Farseer family account.

Civil’s voice was low but clear as he said, ‘She does not take it as a “compliment” but as insult and assault most vile. You have forced me to live in Buckkeep, to spy for you here, leaving her alone and vulnerable. You have driven from her side every trusted servant and true friend she has ever known. And now your folk have dishonoured her, all in the name of taking her back into your “Piebald” legacy. Well, she does not want it, and neither do I. If this is what you mean when you speak of the fellowship of Old Blood, then I’d rather not be one of you.’

Laudwine’s voice was almost lazy as he said, ‘Well, boy, either you are foolish or you do not listen well. Answer me this. What are you if you are not one of us?’

‘Free,’ Civil snarled.

‘Wrong. Dead. Kill him, Padget.’

It was a bluff. I was sure it was a bluff, but I was also certain the Civil would believe it. They would terrorize him back into obedience. Nor did I have any compelling reason to protect him from them, regardless of whether they only beat him or killed him. Save, perhaps, that he was a boy, coerced and cornered by circumstance. So it was that my belly was cold and my teeth gritted against what must next befall him.

Then the Skill-onslaught from Dutiful nearly dropped me to my knees. Find Civil Bresinga. He is in great danger. Please, Tom, go now. I think he’s down in Buckkeep Town. The Prince sent the urgent demand out like a flood. Somewhere, I was dimly aware that Thick’s music stopped in astonishment.

I found my wits and channelled a thought back to him. I am not far from him. He is in danger, but it is not as great as you think. How did you know?