“Thick,” I began helplessly. Never had I felt so cruel, never so wrong in anything I had ever done.
“Go away!” Despite my walls, the Skill-command in his words snapped my head back on my spine. I found myself on my feet, groping toward the door of the minuscule cabin we'd share with the Wit coterie. I forced myself to halt.
“Is there anyone you want to be with you?” I asked hopelessly.
“No! You all hate me! You all trick me and poison me and make me go on the ocean to kill me. Go away!”
I was glad enough to do so, for his Skill pushed at me like a strong, cold wind. As I went out of the low cabin door, I stood upright too soon and slammed the top of my head into the doorjamb. The jolt was enough to dizzy me as I staggered the rest of the way onto the deck. Thick's cruel laugh was like a second blow.
I soon learned it was not an accident. Perhaps the first one had been, but in the days of our journey, Thick managed enough Skill-stumbles for me that any thought of coincidence soon vanished. If I was aware of him, I could sometimes counter it, but if he saw me first, I'd only know of it when I felt the boat seem to lurch under me. I'd try to catch my balance, and instead stumble to the deck or walk into a railing.
But at that time, I dismissed it as my own clumsiness.
I went to find Chade and Dutiful. We had a greater degree of privacy on that journey than we had previously had on all our travels. Peottre and the Narcheska and her guards were on the other vessel. The Boar clansmen who operated our vessel seemed little interested in how we socialized, and fewer pretenses were needed.
So it was that I went directly to the Prince's cabin and knocked. Chade admitted me. I found them both well settled, including a meal set out on a table. It was Outislander fare, but at least there was plenty of it. The wine with it was of a decent quality, and I was pleased when a nod from Dutiful invited me to join them.
“How is Thick?” he asked without preamble. It was a relief, almost, to give a detailed report on that, for I had dreaded that he would immediately demand that I explain Nettle. I detailed the small man's discomfort and unhappiness and ended up with “Regardless of his Skill-strength, I do not see how we can force him to continue. With every ship we embark on, he dislikes me more and becomes more intractable. We risk stirring an enmity in him that we can never quell, one that will make him set his Skill against all our endeavors. If it can safely be done, I propose that we leave him on Zylig while we go on to Aslevjal.”
Chade set his glass down with a thud. “You know it can't be done, so why ask it?” I knew his irritation masked his own guilt and regret when he added, “I swear, I never thought it would be so hard on him. Is there no way to make him understand the importance of what we do?”
“The Prince might be able to convey it to him. Thick is so angry with me right now, I don't think he'll truly hear anything I say.”
“He isn't the only one who is angry with you,” Dutiful observed coolly. The calmness with which he addressed me warned me that his anger had gone very deep indeed. He controlled it now as a man controls his blade. Waiting for an opening.
“Shall I leave you two alone to discuss this?” Chade rose a shade too hastily.
“Oh, no. As you know nothing of Nettle and her dragon, I'm sure this will be as enlightening to you as it is to me.”
Chade sank slowly back into his chair, his retreat severed by the Prince's sarcasm. I knew abruptly that the old man was not going to help me at all. That, if anything, Chade relished my being cornered this way.
“Who is Nettle?” Dutiful's question was blunt.
So was my answer. “My daughter. Though she does not know it.”
He leaned back in his chair as if I'd doused him with cold water. There was a long moment of silence. Chade, damn him, lifted his hand to cover his mouth, but not before I'd seen his smile. I shot him a look of pure fury. He dropped his hand and grinned openly.
“I see,” Dutiful said after a time. Then, as if it were the most important conclusion he could reach, “I have a cousin. A girl cousin! How old is she? How is it that I've never met her? Or have I? When was she last at court? Who is her lady mother?”
I could not find my tongue, but I hated Chade speaking for me. “She has never been to court, my prince. Her mother is a candlemaker. Her father . . . the man she thinks is her father is Burrich, formerly the Stablemaster at Buckkeep Castle. She is sixteen now, I believe.” He halted there, as if to give the Prince time to puzzle it out.
“Swift's father? Then . . . is Swift your son? You spoke of having a foster son, but—”
