HarperVoyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2015
Copyright © Robin Hobb 2015
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015
Cover illustration © Jackie Morris; lettering by Stephen Raw.
Map copyright © Nicolette Caven 2015
Robin Hobb asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780007444212
Ebook Edition © August 2015 ISBN: 9780007444236
Version: 2018-09-24
To Rudyard. Still my Best Beloved
after all these years
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One: Winterfest Eve at Buckkeep
Chapter Two: Lord Feldspar
Chapter Three: The Taking of Bee
Chapter Four: The Fool’s Tale
Chapter Five: An Exchange of Substance
Chapter Six: The Witted
Chapter Seven: Secrets and a Crow
Chapter Eight: Farseers
Chapter Nine: The Crown
Chapter Ten: Tidings
Chapter Eleven: Withywoods
Chapter Twelve: The Shaysim
Chapter Thirteen: Chade’s Secret
Chapter Fourteen: Elfbark
Chapter Fifteen: Surprises
Chapter Sixteen: The Journey
Chapter Seventeen: Blood
Chapter Eighteen: The Changer
Chapter Nineteen: The Strategy
Chapter Twenty: Marking Time
Chapter Twenty-One: Vindeliar
Chapter Twenty-Two: Confrontations
Chapter Twenty-Three: Bonds and Ties
Chapter Twenty-Four: Parting Ways
Chapter Twenty-Five: Red Snow
Chapter Twenty-Six: A Glove
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Aftermath
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Repercussions
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Family
Chapter Thirty: Prince FitzChivalry
Chapter Thirty-One: Loose Ends
Chapter Thirty-Two: Travellers
Chapter Thirty-Three: Departure
Chapter Thirty-Four: Dragons
Chapter Thirty-Five: Kelsingra
Chapter Thirty-Six: An Elderling Welcome
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Heroes and Thieves
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Emergence
Keep Reading
About the Author
Also by Robin Hobb
About the Publisher
I am warm and safe in the den, with my two siblings. They are both heartier and stronger than I am. Born last, I am smallest of all. My eyes were slow to open, and I have been the least adventurous of the cubs. Both my brother and my sister have dared, more than once, to follow my mother to the mouth of the den dug deep in the undercut bank of the river. Each time, she has snarled and snapped at them, driving them back. She leaves us alone when she goes out to hunt. There should be a wolf to watch over us, a younger member of the pack who remains with us. But she is all that is left of the pack, and so she must go out to hunt alone and we must stay where she leaves us.
There is a day when she shakes free of us, long before we have had enough of her milk. She leaves us, going to the hunt, leaving the den as evening starts to creep across the land. We hear from her a single yelp. That is all.
My brother, the largest of us, is filled with both fear and curiosity. He whines loudly, trying to call her back to us, but there is no response. He starts to go to the entrance of the den and my sister follows him, but in a moment they come scrabbling back to hunker down in