Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

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Following an excerpt from Bee’s dream journals, “Chade’s Secret” opens with Fitz waking suddenly from his earlier exertions. After briefly wrestling with his conscience, he reads Bee’s journal and begins to slide toward despair. Fitz presses along despite its weight, attempting to move toward some sense of normalcy and finding that the ensorcellment hanging over Withywoods remains firmly in place. The wrack occasioned by the raid is described in some detail as Fitz looks at it in the daytime, and he sees to Perseverance and Lant.

As Fitz confers with him, Lant reports having gaps in his memories and unaccountable shame in his heart. Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of troops from Buckkeep whose livery Fitz recognizes as belonging to a rough unit assigned to accompany Slidwell. After a pointed exchange, they are joined by Chade and Thick, and Chade asks after Shun and Lant. Fitz finds himself upbuoyed by Thick, whose Skill manages to pierce the fog in which Fitz has been wandering and awakens the deep anger in him at the theft of his daughter.

At Thick’s frightened outburst, Fitz remasters himself, and he and Chade give orders to see about billeting and restoration. Chade and Fitz step aside to confer, and Fitz finds himself startled at Chade’s reaction to events. Chade reveals that Shun is his daughter and begins to turn his ire towards her family, railing at them for past wrongs. Fitz manages to redirect Chade’s anger alongside his own, and Lant enters to find himself included as another of Chade’s children. Perseverance, answering a summons, also joins the talk and is questioned by Chade.

Thick then joins the throng, escorted by Lant, making comments about the oddity of his surroundings, and Fitz and Chade reach out with the Skill to verify his words and cement their own understandings. The pair of them determine to use elfbark to confound the ensorcellment under which Withywoods has fallen. Lant volunteers to be a test subject, and preparations for dosing are made under some concern. More of Lant’s parentage is revealed, as is Shun’s. Amid the revelations, the pair of bastard assassins purpose to enact revenge.

The present chapter touches, but not much more, on the kinds of things that move Hobb’s principal protagonist away from the bright image of warrior-hero more common to the Tolkienian tradition of fantasy literature in which she partly, but not wholly, participates. I have, in the past and less than gracefully, discussed such things (witness this), but the present chapter is more open in presenting them than is typical of the earlier components of the Realm of the Elderlings corpus. (I say typical largely because of events near the end of Fool’s Errand, here; I am aware of the exceptions, thank you.) Where they appear before, they are in report of actions ordered and seemingly necessary; here, they are, if not more detailed, presented more coldly and with greater ruthlessness, more personal effect. It is the kind of thing that prompts wonderings about Chade’s earlier exploits and, at least for me, some relief that they are not so fully on display as other authors might make them be.

I will leave aside the specter of elfbark for now; the coming chapter addresses it more fully, so I expect to write more on the subject then. What I will discuss is the way in which the present chapter addresses one of the more prominent themes in the Realm of the Elderlings novels: secrecy. Throughout the corpus, characters fail to confide in one another, fail to disclose to one another information that would be useful, helpful, or even outright necessary. Reasons vary, of course, with some of them being unavoidable (Fitz’s lack of knowledge about his father preventing him from saying much of Chivalry to Dutiful–here and elsewhere) or excusable (how much is not told to children because they are children and not yet equipped to handle the information well?) to the “obligatory” (compartmentalization of information to protect operational security / state interests) and the selfish–such as in the present chapter. Much of what Chade could have said to Fitz about his children when he sent them to him for protection was hidden out of vain concern regarding his image. While Chade does occupy something of a paternal position towards Fitz–the avuncular relationship is clear, certainly, and professional mentorship is its own kind of thing–and it is understandable that elders wish to retain the regard of their juniors, not having the information gave Fitz the cognitive space to do as he did. (Lant’s infatuation with Shun takes on additional meaning in the event, as well.) This does not mean Fitz was not in error in his actions–he clearly was–but perhaps they might have been avoided.

Then again, where would the narrative go without such things?

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