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

Do note that the present chapter discusses torture in some detail.

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After commentary regarding proper installation of Skill-pillars, “Travelers” starts with Fitz announcing his decision to leave Withywoods to the household staff, who accept the news easily. Matters are arranged to facilitate that departure with relative ease, and Fitz returns to Buckkeep, learning along the way that the Fool has been found where Fitz had suggested seeking him.

After arriving back at Buckkeep, Fitz confers with the Fool about his doings, learning that the Fool had gotten lost in the warren of secret passages that permeates Buckkeep. He had gotten lost while seeking more dragon’s blood, thinking to use it to restore more of his body and memories of a Skill-river and the effect of Silver (though not by that name) on dragons. Fitz rebukes his friend, and the two confer about how they will proceed to Clerres, the Fool laying out details he had not previously revealed to Fitz about his return thence and the social structure in place there, the machinations of those in charge of it. Some of the Fool’s sufferings are rehearsed, as well, and Fitz’s resolve against the Servants hardens.

Afterward, Fitz calls on Chade, finding him alone and lucid. Chade notes the effects of his age, not all of which are feigned, and he commends Fitz. He also notes Lant’s desire to accompany Fitz and urges him to allow it; Fitz holds his tongue on the matter. Chade also notes his distrust of Rosemary and her unraveling of his information network, but he still urges Fitz to press on with his own work. To that end, he presents Fitz a pair of exceptionally detailed maps on which he had worked for years.

Fitz returns to his chambers and secrets his gifts therein before responding to a Skill-summons from Nettle and Dutiful. Having made himself presentable, Fitz presents himself, finding the Farseers aside from Chade awaiting him. Arrangements are made for how the prince Fitz is will proceed, and a cover-story is introduced–along with comments about the residents of Kelsingra. The Fool is also discussed, and Fitz calls upon him to announce his intention to proceed to Clerres alone, to the latter’s exceptional upset.

The next days pass with Fitz making final preparations for departure. Kettricken gifts him yet another map, noting quietly her knowledge of how Dutiful came to be. A farewell feast is given, and private farewells are said–some of them brusque, indeed.

The present chapter is a long one, some thirty pages in the printing I’m reading. I am reminded once again that I need to find a cohesive print-run of the Realm of the Elderlings novels to get page-counts for the chapters; I remain convinced that there is something to be found in the relative lengths. O, to have the resources to undertake such a project!

The present chapter also offers more than a few things I like to see in a continuing work. One of them is a reference back to earlier parts of the body of work–in this case, Fitz’s first receipt of prophecy from the Fool. (It is also of interest that it’s just after six years since I treated that part of the corpus; how time flies!) There is a delight in seeing efforts made to maintain continuity across a body of work, to see attention to detail and long reading rewarded in text. I look for such delights, which the present chapter provides at several points.

I also look for the kind of commentary that can be found in the present chapter as the Fool describes the generational machinations of the Servants–“They are tremendously wealthy. They have been corrupt for generations, and they use the prophecies to make themselves ever wealthier. They know what to buy to sell later at a much higher price. They manipulate the future, not to make the world a better place but only to add to their wealth” (627). It may well be an affective reading, but I do find myself in mind of various oligarchies, established and aspiring, I see at work in the world. I am probably not the only one, either, and I think an examination of such commentaries in Hobb may be an addition to my list of scholarly somedays.

My medievalist self takes some interest in the description of Clerres as akin to Mont St. Michel–although I’ve discussed that much previously. Still, that I managed not to miss all of the details in my earlier readings is a comfort, and the partial correspondence remains in place. I wonder, though, if there is another scholarly someday in tracing Arthurian parallels, here; does Fitz castrate some giant, if only obliquely? I’ll have to consider it further as I reread more; it’s been a while.

So much said, the present chapter does a lot of explicatory work. As it is near the end of the novel, I have to read that work as being done to set up the third volume of the trilogy, Assassin’s Fate; I’ll proceed to that text soon, although not as soon as I might like–as I reread, again, I feel again the hunger for the reading that I recall feeling in earlier readings, spanning nearly ten years with Fool’s Quest and longer with other parts of the Realm of the Elderlings novels, that has led me to linger in place for hours, moving nothing other than my eyes except to turn the pages, and to stay awake far longer than the next day’s working demands suggest, taking in the text at once.

It is good to have such feelings.

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