Seven: Farrow

A prelude recounts how Lady Patience built influence at Buckkeep by rallying neglected guards into Ivy Runners, sending aid and intelligence along the coast despite Regal’s neglect. Their work steadied villages, restored morale, and forged a quiet power base.

Fitz and Nighteyes travel by night across Farrow, avoiding roads and towns while Fitz plans to strike Regal and Will in Tradeford. He tends their minor wounds and, after a fragile Skill attempt to reach Burrich and Molly, Verity intervenes, warning Fitz to stop Skilling toward loved ones lest Will find and use them against him. Fitz resolves to conserve strength and continue.

The pair hunt, dry meat, and grow ever more synchronized. Fitz reflects on equality within his Old Blood bond and the nature of command over animals. Their simple rhythm restores Fitz’s confidence until, at the Vin River, a distant pack’s call seizes Nighteyes. The wolf insists on going alone to meet them. Fitz, torn by fear and jealousy, honors the request and moves upriver by himself.

As Nighteyes cautiously shadows and tests the pack, Fitz’s sleep is hijacked by vivid dream-witnessing of Red Ship attacks in Bearns, rekindling the immediacy of the war and Regal’s dereliction. Alone, Fitz struggles through swamp and insects, cooks meager fare, and accepts that the task ahead—killing Regal—must be his burden, not the wolf’s.

By day, a hawk named Sleet lands on Fitz’s arm with a tattered scroll: Old Blood greets Old Blood and warns that Regal is hunting a wolf–man pair, coercing informants and spreading Fitz’s scent among allies to aid him if they can. Shaken but grim, Fitz approaches a small riverside post at dusk, deciding to gather information on Tradeford and to depend only on himself as he advances on his goal.