Contents
Five: Confrontations
Overview
Fitz travels with Harper Josh, Honey, and Piper, rebuffing Honey and wrestling with grief and duty. A Skill-dream shows a Red Ships sack and Verity’s perilous aid. On the road Forged ones ambush them; Fitz hesitates, then kills two and rescues the minstrels, though Piper is injured and their livelihood damaged. That night Will attacks through the Skill, but Nighteyes’s Wit intervenes, exposing ongoing peril.
Summary
Fitz spends a tense night in a barn with Harper Josh’s troupe. After refusing Honey’s overtures, he slips into a Skill-dream, witnesses a Red Ships sack of Grimsmire through a boy’s death, and briefly meets Verity’s spirit-walk, who shoves Fitz back to his body. Shaken, Fitz doses himself with elfbark at dawn and resumes travel upriver with the minstrels.
On the road, Josh probes Fitz’s talents and even invites him to join them, but Fitz declines. That evening he fishes, shares food, and is pressed about his past; he admits losing his “grandfather” and “wife,” cutting off further questions.
Next day, Nighteyes warns of Forged ones ahead. When three attackers strike, Fitz initially freezes and lets two rush the minstrels while Nighteyes delays the swordsman in the woods. Forced by fear for Nighteyes, Fitz drops caution, cripples and kills his opponent, then drives the sword-wielder into brambles so Nighteyes can finish him. Returning, Fitz kills the last man as he assaults Honey. Piper’s arm is broken, Josh’s harp destroyed.
Fitz tends Piper’s fracture, cleans Josh’s head wound, buries the dead, and takes their coins and sword, giving the money to Josh. Honey condemns his hesitation and loss of their livelihood despite their survival. That night Fitz’s drifting Skill brushes Burrich and Patience—who is lobbying Lord Bright—before Will seizes Fitz through the Skill to drain him. Nighteyes, through the Wit, savages Will’s mind, forcing him to break off. Fitz, terrified and weakened, resolves with Nighteyes that the threat will not relent.
Who Appears
- Fitz (as Cob)Protagonist; rebuffs Honey, Skill-walks into a raid, kills two Forged ones, tends injuries, and survives Will’s Skill attack with Nighteyes’ aid.
- NighteyesWolf bond-partner; scouts Forged ones, is wounded delaying a swordsman, helps kill him, and drives off Will’s Skill attack.
- HoneyJosh’s daughter; flirts then scorns Fitz, fights during ambush, nearly assaulted, blames Fitz for hesitation and their losses.
- Harper JoshBlind harper leading the troupe; mentors Piper, invites Fitz to join, is struck in ambush, accepts Fitz’s aid and coin.
- PiperYoung piper; trains under Josh, fights with a staff, suffers a broken arm in the attack.
- WillRegal’s Skilled coterie member; locates Fitz through the Skill and attempts to drain him before Nighteyes drives him off.
- VerityMissing king; briefly meets Fitz in Skill-walk, warns him to retreat, shows continued risky interventions.
- PatienceFitz’s lady; seen in a Skill-glimpse confronting Lord Bright with Verity’s map to spur coastal defense.
- Lord BrightNoble confronted by Patience; urged to act against Red Ship threats.
- ChadGrimsmire boy whose death Fitz experiences during the Red Ships sack.
- Forged onesEmotionless raiders; three ambush the road party, two slain by Fitz, one by Nighteyes’ aid.
- Red Ship RaidersInvaders glimpsed in Skill-dream sacking Grimsmire; killers of Chad and terror of the coast.
- BurrichFitz’s former guardian; briefly glimpsed sleeping via Fitz’s drifting Skill.