Read Assassin 3 - Royal Assassin for Free Online Page B

understand any of this.
    Ah, said the Fool. As I told you. You can only
understand a thing when you become it.
    Is this what it means to be King Shrewd, then? I
demanded. It shook me to my core. I had never seen him like this,
racked by the pains of age but still relentlessly confronted by the
pains of his subjects. Is this what he must endure, day after
day?
    I fear it is, my liege, the Fool replied gently.
Come. Let me help you back into your bed. Surely, tomorrow you will
feel better.
    No. We both know I will not. I did not speak
those terrible words. They came from King Shrewd's lips, and I
heard them, and knew that this was the debilitating truth King
Shrewd bore every day. I was so terribly tired. Every part of me
ached. I had not known that flesh could be so heavy, that the mere
bending of a finger could demand a painful effort. I wanted to
rest. To sleep again. Was it I, or Shrewd? I should let the Fool
put me to bed, let my king have his rest. But the Fool kept holding
that one key morsel of information just above my snapping jaws. He
juggled away the one mote of knowledge I must possess to be
whole.
    Did she die there? I demanded.
    He looked at me sadly. He stooped abruptly,
picked up his rat scepter again. A tiny pearl of a tear trickled
down Ratsy's cheek. He focused on it and his eyes went afar again,
wandering across a tundra of pain. He spoke in a whisper. A woman
in Siltbay. A drop of water in the current of all the women of
Siltbay. What might have befallen her? Did she die? Yes. No. Badly
burned, but alive. Her arm severed at the shoulder. Cornered and
raped while they killed her children, but left alive. Sort of. The
Fool's eyes became even emptier. It was as if he read aloud from a
roster. His voice had no inflection. Roasted alive with the
children when the burning structure fell on them. Took poison as
soon as her husband awoke her. Choked to death on smoke. And died
of an infection in a sword wound only a few days later. Died of a
sword thrust. Strangled on her own blood as she was raped. Cut her
own throat after she had killed the children while Raiders were
hacking her door down. Survived, and gave birth to a Raider's child
the next summer. Was found wandering days later, badly burned, but
recalling nothing. Had her face burned and her hands hacked oft,
but lived a short-
    Stop! I commanded him. Stop it! I beg you,
stop.
    He paused and drew a breath. His eyes came back
to me, focused on me. Stop it? He sighed. He put his face into his
hands, spoke through muffling fingers. Stop it? So shrieked the
women of Siltbay. But it is done already, my liege. We cannot stop
what's already happening. Once it's come to pass, it's too late. He
lifted his face from his hands. He looked very weary.
    Please, I begged him. Cannot you tell me of the
one woman I saw? I suddenly could not recall her name, only that
she was very important to me.
    He shook his head, and the small silver bells on
his cap jingled wearily. The only way to find out would be to go
there. He looked up at me. If you command it, I shall do
so.
    Summon Verity, I told him instead. I have
instructions for him.
    Our soldiers cannot arrive in time to stop this
raid, he reminded me. Only to help to douse the fires and assist
the folk there in picking from the ruins what is left to
them.
    Then so they shall do, I said
heavily.
    First, let me help you return to your bed, my
king. Before you take a chill. And let me bring you
food.
    No, Fool, I told him sadly. Shall I eat and be
warm, while the bodies of children are cooling in the mud? Fetch me
instead my robe and buskins. And then be off to find
Verity.
    The Fool stood his ground boldly. Do you think
the discomfort you inflict on yourself will give even one child
another breath, my liege? What happened at Siltbay is done. Why
must you suffer?
    Why must I suffer? I found a smile for the Fool.
Surely that is the same question that every inhabitant of Siltbay
asked tonight of the fog. I suffer, my fool,