Twenty-Eight: The Coterie

Fitz returns to the yurt after vanishing through a black crystal signpost, recounting the Elderling city. Kettle posits the guideposts are Skill-wrought travel aids and elfbark helped Fitz keep his wits. Comparing Fitz’s copied panel to Kettricken’s old map, they identify three endpoints—one the city—and choose the nearest glyph, perhaps “stone.” The Fool sickens with fever despite elfbark; Fitz beds beside him as night deepens and Nighteyes frets over growing separations.

Before dawn Fitz senses riders. Kettricken orders a swift departure. The party reaches a massive landslide; Fitz leads the jeppas across treacherous scree while Starling struggles with the feverish Fool. When the slope loosens, Fitz returns, lifts the Fool, and freezes as rocks move. Kettricken rigs a rope to a jeppa and hauls them to safety, but the effort leaves everyone shaken.

Nighteyes reports six riders—three have “gone down” through the guidepost. Kettle infers they are Skilled; Fitz concludes they are Regal’s coterie. Recognizing that the coterie can strike at range, Fitz decides to cripple their return by destroying their support. Despite Starling’s qualms, he takes Kettricken’s bow; Kettle insists on coming, proving sure-footed on the slide and deadly with a bow.

They stalk the unguarded camp of three horse-holders. Kettle kills two with rapid shots; Nighteyes and Fitz finish the third, whom Fitz recognizes as Tallow from Buckkeep. They dispose of the bodies and tack over the cliff, seize food, and have Nighteyes drive the horses far away, denying the coterie shelter or supplies. Avoiding the ominous guidepost, they recross the slide toward their companions.

On the dark road back, Kettle questions Fitz about his life as an assassin; he admits long practice without counting kills. Kettle confesses she once Skill-killed a woman of her own coterie in a temper, for which she was burned out and exiled, hinting at a haunted past now resurfacing as they close on Verity.