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

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Commentary from Fitz regarding the Outislander concept of finblead precedes “The Silver Touch,” which opens with Fitz experiencing the onset of elfbark’s effects as administered by Lant in Kelsingra. As the drug takes effect, upset continues to surround Fitz, with Rapskal repeating his accusations against the Fool as Amber, that she stole Silver, and manhandling her as Spark tries to extricate her. Fitz rehearses recent events, realizing that the series of Skill-workings he has performed on the people of Kelsingra will have drained him in ways he cannot yet address. Malta and Reyn work to take the situation in hand, and Amber frees herself with the threat of contact with the Silver, which Thymara backs.

Released from Rapskal’s grip but not his accusation, Amber reports that she bore Silver on her hand long before, even early in her relationship with Malta. The re-launching of the Paragon is noted, and Amber asserts that, at that point, she had marked Malta with Silvered fingers. Reyn affirms the assertion, and Amber attests to how she had come to bear the Silver that had marked Malta. Further discussion is quashed, and Fitz and his party are escorted to their rooms. There, Fitz finds that the elfbark he has taken has not fully impeded his Skill, and he inadvertently effects more healing, rejecting further assistance against the risk of yet more uncontrolled expression of power. The revelation prompts heated private conversation with the Fool, one that wearies Fitz to sleep.

Fitz partly wakes to find himself being attended and discussed; Lant evidently recalls his first experience of FitzChivalry Farseer clearly, and Perseverance had evidently paid attention to Withywoods gossip. Fitz recalls Molly amid his dozing, and Lant and Perseverance discuss the challenge looming before them of bringing Fitz home.

Slumbering more deeply, Fitz communes with a dragon in dream. The dragon, seemingly Sintara, notes displeasure with Fitz’s healings and presses him for information about his errand. Fitz admits to seeking vengeance on Clerres, and the dragon recalls an unspecified ill there. Fitz wakes in the night and begins to tend himself, assisted uneasily by Lant. The pair confer, and Lant apprises Fitz of how matters stand in Kelsingra as regards them. Lant moves off to retrieve supplies, and Amber joins Fitz, aided by Perseverance. More reports follow, and Fitz notes the peril in his continued Skill-workings in the city. He notes, too, his desire to depart, to which the rest agree, although Amber advises against a hasty exit, explaining some difficulties that would attend on such a thing. An invitation to dine with Reyn and Malta arrives, and Amber notes that bargaining will soon begin.

The prefatory comments to the chapter once again attract my attention. Here, is it because they once again look at the language of the Outislanders, something that has attracted Fitz’s attention before (for example, here). I have commented in earlier pieces about some of the ways in which Hobb uses something like early English to reflect the language of the Outislanders, something in which she mimics Tolkienian practice (yes, I know, but I also know) regarding Rohan and Gondor; the two peoples are akin, at some level, and their language shows similarities therefore. In the present case, however, the term being referenced seems much less…considered…than earlier examples; “finblead” seems a medievalist skinning rather than an earnest invocation of the medieval. It’s definitely the kind of thing that piques my interest, given my associations, so I think it will be something to which I return in some earnest.

The present chapter does a good job of demonstrating how the Fool manages to mislead without lying. As Amber, the Fool meets Rapskal’s accusation of having stolen Silver with the assertion that she had been marked by it before Rapskal was born–which is true enough; the Fool was marked by having touched Verity amid his work on his dragon. Not said is that the Fool as Amber did not go to the Silver well; she did, in fact, do so; what she says is that the magic that marks her “is the same that was accidentally gifted to [her] by King Verity” (28). But that, of course, he has from Kelsingra before. It’s honestly adept word-work, very much in keeping with the idea of the Fool as a jester (about which I’ve written before). I wonder if it’s something to which I might also return in time, yet another of my many scholarly somedays; I think I am building quite a collection of them at this point.

The present chapter also does well what the preceding chapter does: explicate the situation. As previously, the final book in a series can rightly expect (to the extent that anthropomorphizing a text is appropriate, which may well not be no extent, as I’ve gestured towards before) that its readers are broadly familiar with the series and so need not recapitulate every detail. Also as previously, any subsequent book in a series must expect that there has been some time between its release and that of its most recent predecessor, meaning that it should expect to have to do something to catch readers up on what’s going on. Too, my own readerly experience has not always been able to take in a series from its beginning; I’ve been paid to write lesson plans for many works (something I’m happy to do for you, too!), and no few of them have been later volumes in series with which I was not familiar when I took on the projects. Having explicatory passages has been helpful for me to understand what is going on well enough to write something to help other people teach it. I can easily imagine that someone else would be in a similar situation, or that a reader new to Hobb would see a copy of the present volume on a bookstore shelf and pick it up, coming in at the end and needing to know what has gone before.

If the Iliad can pick up where it does, surely later works can also do so.

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