HarperVoyager
an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2017
Copyright © Robin Hobb 2017
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2017
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.
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Source ISBN: 9780007444250
Ebook Edition © May 2017 ISBN: 9780007444267
Version: 2018-09-24
To Fitz and the Fool.
My best friends for over twenty years.
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Map
Prologue
Chapter One: Bee Stings
Chapter Two: The Silver Touch
Chapter Three: In the Mountains
Chapter Four: Chalced
Chapter Five: The Bargain
Chapter Six: Revelations
Chapter Seven: Beggar
Chapter Eight: Tintaglia
Chapter Nine: The Tarman
Chapter Ten: Bee’s Book
Chapter Eleven: Passage
Chapter Twelve: The Liveship Paragon
Chapter Thirteen: Full Sails
Chapter Fourteen: Paragon’s Bargain
Chapter Fifteen: Trader Akriel
Chapter Sixteen: The Pirate Isles
Chapter Seventeen: Serpent Spit
Chapter Eighteen: Silver Ships and Dragons
Chapter Nineteen: Another Ship, Another Journey
Chapter Twenty: Belief
Chapter Twenty-One: Under Sail
Chapter Twenty-Two: The Butterfly Cloak
Chapter Twenty-Three: Clerres
Chapter Twenty-Four: Hand and Foot
Chapter Twenty-Five: Bribes
Chapter Twenty-Six: Silver Secrets
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Feather to Blade
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Unsafe Harbour
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Accusations
Chapter Thirty: Barriers and a Black Banner
Chapter Thirty-One: The Butterfly Man
Chapter Thirty-Two: A Way In
Chapter Thirty-Three: Candles
Chapter Thirty-Four: Smoke
Chapter Thirty-Five: Confrontations
Chapter Thirty-Six: Surprises
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Touch
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Ship of Dragons
Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Vengeance
Chapter Forty: Warm Water
Chapter Forty-One: Vivacia’s Voyage
Chapter Forty-Two: Furnich
Chapter Forty-Three: Bingtown
Chapter Forty-Four: Up the River
Chapter Forty-Five: A Princess of the Farseers
Chapter Forty-Six: The Quarry
Chapter Forty-Seven: A Wolf’s Heart
Chapter Forty-Eight: Time
Chapter Forty-Nine: Lies and Truths
Chapter Fifty: The Mountains
Also by Robin Hobb
About the Publisher
There are children holding hands in a circle. In the middle, a single child stands. The child wears a blindfold but there are painted eyes on the blindfold. The eyes are black and staring, edged with red. The child in the middle turns in a circle, hands outstretched. All the other children dance in a wider circle around her. They sing a song.
‘As long as the circle holds
The futures can be foretold.
You