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

---

The first chapter in the novel, “Gravebirth,” opens with comments about slavery in the Six Duchies’ neighboring nation of Chalced and a reported story Fitz asserts Burrich latched onto as a way to save him from the dungeons. It moves into Fitz’s nascent return to humanity from the experiences of death and wolfhood. It is not an easy transition for him–or for Burrich, who is haltingly coaching his return.

Amid the recovery, Fitz’s seizures continue. Chade checks in on him and Burrich from time to time, carrying news and occasional supplies. Burrich also goes out at odd times, returning with what Fitz identifies as a feminine smell. Old traumas continue to resurface for Fitz, and his account grows more focused and lucid as memories of his life before death reassert themselves. And amid some of Chade’s efforts to restore Fitz, Verity makes contact through the Skill, announcing that he yet lives. Fitz flees after delivering the message.

In the wake of the revelation, Fitz’s old personality and memories reassert themselves fully. He and Burrich confer about the events leading up to Fitz’s death and Regal’s usurpation of power. The various traumas continue to tell upon Fitz, as well, and Burrich grows restive in his inability to act effectively and in his enforced withdrawal from alcohol. Chade is overjoyed to see Fitz restored, though, even if Fitz is far from pleased at having been restored to life.

The shape of the chapter reminds me of the earlier parts of Daniel Keyes’s “Flowers for Algernon,” which I read in short story form and which has remained with me for years. The increasing lucidity and focus of Fitz’s narration as he rehearses his return from a semi-feral state to something near the sharp-minded young man he had been seems to me to work along the same lines as Charlie Gordon’s experience of enhancement before it begins to falter. Even knowing what comes, I find myself recalling that Hobb has no problems killing her protagonist (though, clearly, death does not necessarily stick in the Six Duchies), and I tremble at the thought that Fitz will also suffer again.

The final line of the chapter–“I was kind to the old man. I did not tell him that they had” done something worse to him than let him die–is telling. It seems to follow an earlier comment of mine, that Hobb subverts what would normally be an event worth celebrating. Chade is certainly happy to have Fitz back, and Burrich seems to be; both reactions seem to proceed from love or what might be described as love, even if, as I think on it now, they seem more selfish than that. It is only that they evidently believed Fitz to be alive as they had understood being alive–not in sharing a body with a bonded soul, which has to be a different thing, somehow–that it is not an utterly horrifying tragedy. If it is not.

I am not a clever enough theologian to untangle all the resonances that apply here, nor yet a literary scholar. Clearly. But I can at least see the knots in the tapestry, and I can wonder what picking at them would reveal.

Help me continue to indulge bad habits?

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

---

The novel opens with a prologue titled “The Unremembered,” in which Fitz muses about the need for purpose and the purposes of his own writing–the framing device of the trilogy of Farseer novels. It serves both to document the history of the Six Duchies as a whole and to distract him from the pangs of lingering addiction, both to the Skill and to the chemicals used to combat the aftereffects of indulging in the Skill.

Fitz moves on to relate, in brief, his recollections of the events at the end of the previous novel, those of his torture and death. They beset him in dreams and waking. So does the lack of connection to his former life; having died to the world, he cannot make contact again with those he had known before. This includes the Patience and Lacey who tended his corpse and, alone, mourned him.

Fitz also notes the strain of his regard for Burrich and Chade, who exhumed him and forced him to live again. They returned him to life and humanity, but they also returned him to the burdens of obligation; not even the end of his life occasioned the end of his service to the Six Duchies.

That last is a strange idea and a compelling one. Typically, debts and vows end with the death of the one who has incurred them or sworn them. This is the case with the student loan debt that plagues me and many, many others in the United States, and it is the case with marriage vows, as traditionally framed in US English. It is also true in Hobb’s fantasy antecedents; Pippin’s vow to Denethor in Lord of the Rings (about which my friend, Luke Shelton, could say more and more eloquently) stands out as perhaps the easiest example to find.

When they do not, when they pass beyond the end of a life, they usually devolve to the obligated’s next of kin. They do not, in such cases, return to the one who incurs the obligation; indeed, dying is usually considered to be the discharge of such, at least on the individual level. For Fitz, then, to be called back from a death he incurred in service to the Farseers, only to be put back to the service of those same Farseers, seems cruel. It seems cruel even for one such as he, whose work as an assassin would seem to invite disdain and opprobrium. And though I know how matters turn out–there’s a reason it’s a reread–I still find myself wondering how much worse it can get for Fitz.

There’s also something to be made of the connection between Skill and addiction, and I ought to be able to do more of that making, given where I work. I have the sensation, though, that doing it will take more space than I can give it here–and I am trying to leave academe further behind me…

Help me celebrate New Year’s Eve?

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

---

The final chapter, “Wolf Days,” opens with a comment on a centering exercise before moving into what Fitz recalls of his experiences as a wolf, inhabiting Nighteyes’s body beside him, as well as his musings about the life of a wolf, generally. He resists being summoned back to his body by Burrich, who has exhumed him and cradles the now-barely-living thing in his arms.

In the brief epilogue, Fitz rehearses his situation at that point. Only Burrich and Chade know he lives. What else would have been his life is in ruins. Regal is crowned and ascends to power, and Fitz purposes to head inland, following Verity and Kettricken even as he chafes against the structures of fealty that compel him so.

It is clear that the book sets up for a sequel, as should be no surprise; a person isn’t brought back from the dead for nothing, after all. In the specifics, though, Hobb takes what would normally be a joyous event and twists it to be the traditional ending of a trilogy’s second part; the protagonist is in a terrible position, one that could be argued is worse than being dead. Then again, such a position leaves much room for improvement of circumstances. Whether the next volume offers such resolution, though, remains to be seen–at least in the reread. The book’s been out for a while, and it makes for good reading…

Given the time of year, too, there is a bit of obvious symbolism here. Fitz is presented as being something like a messiah, but not quite one. The whole dying and coming back bit is one clear motion towards that point. The resurrection being associated with the chapter number, 33, does, too. So, too, does Patience’s claiming Fitz’s body, as related in the epilogue, which echoes the Biblical report of how Jesus’s corpse is treated after crucifixion. Like many other tropes, though, the messianic one is altered and nuanced as it applies to Fitz; he is not the product of a virgin birth, nor is he yet a shining exemplar of conduct, though he does seem to be persecuted. How effective a savior he is or can be can also be argued.

I look forward to seeing such, and maybe to moving into them as the reread progresses.

It’s not too late to give!

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

This entry needs something of a content warning for torture and suicide. Consider it given.

---

The penultimate chapter, “Executions,” opens with something of an encyclopedia entry regarding Burrich. It moves to Fitz failing to understand Nighteyes’s call to join him.

Understanding breaks upon Fitz as he wakes to pain. He tries to release himself from his own body and into Nighteyes’s, but he cannot. Guards seize him and drag him out before Regal, who watches with mild interest, drink in hand. Will urges Regal to allow him to work on Fitz, and Regal refuses; Fitz provokes Regal, and very nearly poisons him. The toxin takes Will instead, though, and, after more brutality, Fitz is returned to his cell. Rousing himself there, he takes the dose of poison Burrich had prepared for him and lets his consciousness enter the wolf while his body dies.

The chapter is a brief one, indeed, though the death of the narrating protagonist does call for the division. And Fitz does kill himself in the chapter, even if there is some…nuance to it. But it is still suicide, and it necessarily introduces the idea of when such is acceptable. Noting that the milieu is a fictional one, the mores of which differ from those prevailing around the circumstances of composition, it still seems a cold and pragmatic thing for Fitz to end himself as he does–and a mercy for Burrich to offer the specific means. The mercy fits him, though; euthanasia would be an expected duty of a stablemaster, and it is made abundantly clear that Burrich esteems the animals in his care. That he values Fitz at least so much…

Defeat is certain for Fitz in the situation. That he dies as he does, and not as Regal wills, is perhaps the only victory he can claim in the situation. It is hard to begrudge it him.

Any chance for a present?

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

This entry needs something of a content warning for torture. Consider it given.

---

The next chapter, “Torture,” opens with an excerpt from a Six Duchies legend. It moves to Fitz contemplating his end in the Buckkeep dungeons. He reaches out to Nighteyes through the Wit, learning what the wolf can tell him of the events on the night of his capture. Fitz sends Nighteyes to Burrich and settles in to wait.

After a time, Will pays Fitz a visit, working on him with the Skill. Fitz is able to resist the psychic assault, but he is left afraid in its wake, and he considers its implications. Later, after some fitful dozing, he is roused by Regal and his torturers, who begin their grim work upon him. Fitz ends up battered and with a broken nose in the initial session, but Regal does not get what he wants from him.

In the wake of the session, Burrich visits Fitz, seemingly drunk and angry. He reviles Fitz and spits upon him. After Burrich leaves, a hurting Fitz sees what came with the sputum: a gentle poison that Fitz takes. As he considers dying, he joins Nighteyes in the body of the wolf, speeding away over the snows.

A brief note before I go on: the legend of the Piebald Prince is something that comes up more than once in the main line of the Elderlings corpus, and it is treated at length in a novella titled The Wilful Princess and the Piebald Prince. It will feature in the rereading series, to be sure. But not yet.

As to the present chapter, though: Hobb does well to address the issue of torture in her work, and to address it in the way she does. (Another of her works, a story in an edited collection, addresses it differently. It, too, will get a reread series entry. Later.) Indeed, the present chapter serves as a common reference point for a fair bit of Hobb’s later work; Fitz is never fully free of his experience herein. Those more up on trauma theory than I might have more to say about the matter than I, though.

More, there is something to be noted in the fact that Regal uses the torture both as a bloody entertainment and a means to assess members of his guard; Fitz comments that he “became aware of another thing. Regal’s enjoyment. […] He watched his guard, too, noting, no doubt, which ones turned their eyes away from this sport. He used me to take their measure.” Regal’s sadism has been hinted at before; he certainly takes relish in Fitz’s earlier injuries, and he seems to delight in his late father’s pain earlier in the novel. To have it laid out, and to have it used as a rubric seems particularly depraved, and, once again, I find myself put to it not to read the chapter against the circumstances prevailing during this writing.

May I suggest making a holiday gift?

 

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

---

The next chapter, “Dungeons,” opens with a traditional “corrective” for the Witted. It moves on to Fitz awakening in a dungeon and assessing his situation; it is not good.

Patience visits Fitz early on and, when a guard is distracted, briefs Fitz on the current situation in Buckkeep; it is not good. After Patience is escorted out, Fitz is fed, and he considers his situation further, trying to make sense of events.

The arrival of Regal and the Coastal Dukes interrupts Fitz’s musings. Regal levies charges against Fitz that he has killed by the Wit; Fitz denies them, and the Dukes demand that legal proceedings be followed. After some dickering, Regal agrees, and Fitz realizes that Regal will see him dead in his cell, that the Dukes still do not regard Regal as they ought.

After the others leave, Fitz contemplates suicide. He sleeps badly and tries in vain to hear a message Chade speaks to him. When he drowses again, he dreams of Molly, and Verity visits him through the Skill. Fitz is shaken from their conference by the arrival of Regal and a “witness” to his transformation via Wit magic. Fitz realizes that Kettricken’s young servant, Rosemary, has been Regal’s spy all along, and he despairs.

I yet again find myself trying not to read a chapter from a decades-old book against current political circumstances…but that is not new. What is new to the current chapter is the revelation that Rosemary is one of Regal’s operatives, the source of Regal’s information about the plot Fitz has headed up. In her, I am once again struck by the use of emblematic names in the Six Duchies; while Rosemary might seem a common enough feminine name to Hobb’s presumably primarily English-language readership (though I note for reason a number of translation studies done on Hobb’s works), it does serve as a usefully descriptive name for the character.

To explain, there is the bit from WebMD, here, noting that, among others, rosemary has been attributed abortifacient properties (even if not necessarily accurately; the resonance would still carry through). Rosemary is the operative whose actions led to Kettricken’s feared miscarriage, making her, in the event, an ineffective abortifacient. Too, rosemary is reported as associated with improved memory–something not unlike the conveyance of information, if within the body–and with a number of cosmetic concerns–and Regal has been demonstrated repeatedly to be particularly vain about his appearance. Further, the herb is reported to interact badly with certain seizure-causing disorders, and the lingering effects of Fitz’s being poisoned late in Assassin’s Apprentice include a tendency towards seizures (which, admittedly, seem to taper off throughout Royal Assassin, but still…), so there is another point of correspondence to be found.

It is a small thing, to be sure, and relying on a single source to provide context is far from the soundest argumentative strategy. But this is also an informal treatment, enough to suggest that more might be done–and that more attention should be paid to such details, as they can reveal much with a bit of consideration.

I appreciate anything you can send my way.

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

---

A chapter titled “Escapes and Captures” follows, opening with commentary about the historical basis for the tensions between the Coastal and Inland Duchies. It moves to gloss over the lead-up to the ceremony in which Regal is invested as King-in-Waiting. Rumors of ill portents surround the event and penetrate it as Regal crowns himself as the heir apparent to the Six Duchies’ throne.

In the wake of the formalities, Fitz realizes that the Coastal Dukes do not fear Regal as they ought to do. He makes as hasty an exit as he can from the following revelry and sets about the next phase of his plan, feeling the weight of his folly as he does so. Stealing into Shrewd’s chambers, he looks on as Kettricken, the Fool, Rosemary, and a hated attendant try to make a bit of cheer in the room without success. The attendant is dismissed, and Kettricken and Rosemary exit, leaving the Fool and Fitz to spirit Shrewd away. The old king refuses to go, however, and uses Fitz to Skill to Verity one last time.

The effort kills Shrewd, and Fitz learns that the other Skilled ones–Serene and Justin–had been leeching power from Shrewd. A clamor rises, and Fitz urges the arrived Chade to take the Fool and flee. Fitz then goes about foolish, burning revenge. While he kills Serene and Justin, he is taken in the following melee.

The present chapter refers back to comments made in previous chapters about Fitz’s self-destructive tendencies; Fitz himself asks “Did I taunt self-destruction, or did I desire it?” as he sets about his revenge for Shrewd. Given the references to Galen in the chapter and the demonstrated lingering effects of Galen’s work upon Fitz, I have to wonder if the self-destructive tendencies are themselves the ongoing work of Galen’s machinations, if they are the echoes of a Skill-suggestion or command that Fitz die. It is not the only explanation for them, of course; Fitz is an adolescent who has suffered repeated traumas and who has indulged in or been subjected to mood-altering chemicals on no few occasions, so a fair bit of recklessness is to be expected. But the idea that Galen has had a lingering effect on him fits with Fitz.

As I continue to work through the re-read–and I am surprised to realize I’ve got more than half a hundred entries in it so far, with a lot of reading left to do again–I find myself wondering about the fan communities whose edges I glimpse as I look for images to use to accompany my commentary. I wonder how much of what I see has been seen by others already and where such sayings are, if they are. I have tried to compile scholarly and related works on Hobb, of course, but I do not pretend that I have a comprehensive list, and I know better than to think that the scholarly world is the sum of insightful treatments of the Elderlings corpus. I am aware of my not-“fan” status and of the dangers fandom can present (as noted), and I wonder what I miss because of it.

I continue to thank you for your support.

 

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

---

A chapter titled “Treasons and Traitors” follows, opening with a note regarding the children of Shrewd and Desire. It moves to follow Fitz’s continued plotting to spirit Shrewd and Kettricken from Buckkeep; he confers with Burrich, not entirely comfortably. He moves then to confer with Nighteyes; man and wolf both chide him for thanking them for what they perceive as their duty.

Fitz moves next to Kettricken, and, after she manages to achieve privacy for them, he relays what he can of what she is to do. After, he finds himself wandering in thought, and he arrives in Verity’s chambers. Reminiscing about the man, he inadvertently makes Skill contact with him, and they confer through that medium until Verity grows aware of an interloper and breaks off the connection. Fitz soon confronts said interloper, Justin, who is joined by Serene; they depart, and Fitz continues his errands.

Fitz is distracted from them by a summons from Duke Brawndy of Bearns. Answering it, he finds himself the focus of something of a plot. Brawndy, speaking for his counterparts in Shoaks and Rippon Duchies, purposes to put Fitz forward as a regent for the child Kettricken bears. Fitz steps slightly aside from that purpose, and Branwdy offers him his fealty. He also asks Fitz to accept Celerity’s betrothal, and Fitz nearly accepts, but demurs in favor of resolving the present conflict first.

Later, Chade presses Fitz for information about the plot, clearly in high dudgeon. He reminds his protege of their rightful place and backs away from earlier concerns about Regal’s kingship, then sets aside that line of conversation in favor of returning to their plot to spirit Shrewd and Kettricken away. It is an unhappy conversation, one without much hope.

The name of Shrewd’s second wife, Queen Desire, is not newly announced in the chapter, but as I reread it this time, I was struck by the comment being offered by way of her name. I’ve noted (here, here, here, and here), as have others, that the Six Duchies tends towards emblematic names, particularly among its royal and noble houses. Given that, Desire reads as being something of an allegory of her name, the more so with the reminder at the head of the chapter that she was routinely intoxicated, and not always on alcohol, and in conjunction with the earlier notes of Desire’s…amorousness (here, for example). She is clearly given to indulging her name, and was presumably able to instill her name in others–such as Shrewd. Given how matters fall out from that relationship–it seems not to have been happy, and the fruit of it, Regal, is hardly the most pleasant of fellows–it is possible to read into the Six Duchies’ monarchy the comment that succumbing to desire or putting the enactment of desire above other concerns is the unmaking of the shrewd, as well as much else.

It is a lesson many could still stand to learn.

The holidays continue their inexorable approach; can you help me out?

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

---

The next chapter, “Conspiracies,” opens with a series of what read as folk sayings before moving into plans to present Kettricken as having had a miscarriage in the hope of creating a sufficient distraction to allow Chade to have a private audience with Shrewd. Kettricken but begrudgingly goes along with the plan, finding the situation distasteful.

After tumult from Kettricken summons Regal away, Fitz presents a fatal distraction to the guard left on Shrewd’s door, allowing Chade time to meet with his king. Fitz then goes about the castle, looking as nonchalant as he can manage, and taking in the gossip. It indicates to him that Chade has been at work around Buckkeep. And he encounters Molly as he goes about; she rebukes him and declares her intent to go elsewhere to protect someone she loves more than him.

After being staggered by Molly’s break with him, Fitz calls on Burrich; the Fool is with him. They confer about events, and Burrich and the Fool offer their sympathies for Fitz’s broken heart. They all incur rebuke from Lacey, who arrives to have them help dispose of the signs of the feigned miscarriage and to note to Fitz that there are axemen trying to break down Shrewd’s door. The Fool is scandalized, but Fitz allays his concerns.

The group of conspirators disperses, and Fitz calls on Nighteyes. They spend a bit of time together, happily. After, Fitz returns to Buckkeep, taking in more gossip before returning to his rooms and finding Serene waiting for him. A tense exchange follows, after which, Fitz is summoned to Kettricken. They two have an oblique conversation about next steps to take–which Fitz carries to Chade when he reports to his summons, in turn. They purpose to move swiftly to evacuate Chade and Kettricken from Buckkeep, and Chade begins to exhibit a strange merriment at plotting how he will enact the escape.

The rush towards the end of the novel continues in the present chapter, as might be expected, and it is coupled with in-milieu urgency by the need of the various characters to effect their plans before Regal can take certain people–Shrewd and Kettricken, particularly–more fully into his power, both through not having other oversight and through assuming more formal, titular authority.

As I think on it now, though, I have to wonder why those involved–notably Chade and Fitz–do not take more overt action against Regal. They obviously fear Regal is acting against Shrewd–Fitz far more so than Chade, admittedly, but even Chade is acting as if Regal is a threat. They know Regal is a traitor to his father. Why neither of them takes steps to eliminate the problem he presents is not clear; Fitz might, admittedly, be restrained by obedience to Chade and a promise effectively extorted from him by Shrewd, though those justifications scan weakly. Chade, however, is not in such a position; his reluctance to act seems strange in context, now. And things will grow yet more odd…

The holidays are coming; can you help me out?

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

---

The next chapter, “Skilling,” opens with a rumination by Chade about the dichotomy between the Forged Ones and the Skilled. It moves to Fitz and Burrich forcing their way into Shrewd’s chambers, where Kettricken and the Fool attend the elderly king. The Fool tries to dissuade them, unsuccessfully; Shrewd rouses himself and bids Fitz make himself available to Skill through to reach Verity.

In the event, Fitz uses Shrewd to Skill, rather than the intended other way around, and they reach Verity briefly before Shrewd falters and Regal interrupts them. The Fool manages to calm matters, and Burrich manages to extricate Fitz from the room before Regal can vent his anger upon him. And after, Burrich chides Fitz for his austerity and self-destructive tendencies–and notes that Regal is soon to be named King-in-Waiting. He also reports that Molly has visited, and that he has relayed Fitz’s words.

After Burrich leaves, Fitz thinks to call on Molly. He is dissuaded after Nighteyes makes him aware that Will is trailing him; Fitz returns to his rooms, from whence Chade summons him. Chade rebukes Fitz’s rashness of the evening. He also intimates that his regular hiding place may be compromised and reiterates to Fitz that Regal must think himself secure. Fitz makes to engage in the formal mourning expected of him after the (false) report of Verity’s death.

The following days are troublesome for Fitz, full of tumult with Regal’s impending elevation. The Skilled ones with whom Fitz had trained and who came to hate him hound him. Patience and Lacey find themselves largely despoiled, as well, and confused that Shrewd has not stopped the egress of goods and supplies. They also let slip that Kettricken took a fall; Fitz speeds off to tend to her, but is assured by her ladies that there has not been a miscarriage. Fitz follows up and finds the trap that had been set for Kettricken, a greased step.

The Fool meets Fitz there, having been beaten again. He reports on Regal’s most recent machinations with Shrewd. He also implores to be taken with Shrewd if and when the king is spirited away.

A lot seems to be happening in the chapter–fittingly enough, since it is near the end of the novel, and things have to be wrapped up for the novel to stand alone. It might be argued, of course, that as a member of a series, Royal Assassin need not be a complete narrative in itself; it emerges from and feeds into other works, so not all of its narrative threads need be tied off. And even were it a stand-alone project, it need not tie off every loose end; leaving some things unresolved helps to create the “inner consistency of reality” about which Tolkien writes, the correspondence to the observed world of the reader–and we never know the whole of another’s story.

Even so, for a given work to be satisfying, it does have to offer some closure. The present chapter points toward that closure, certainly, and ominously. For cause, as will soon become clear.

Told you I’d be back. Send a little help my way?