Fool's Quest (The Fitz and The Fool Trilogy #2)

“Her husband’s second cousin?”

Riddle shook his head. “A member of her new motherhouse.” At my puzzled expression, he added, “You have to think of it from Elliania’s perspective. In the Outislander culture, the mother’s lineage is what matters. It was terribly hard for Elliania to come here to be the Farseer queen. If she had stayed in her own land, she would have become the Narcheska of her motherhouse. Equivalent to a queen. She bartered that away to save her mother and her little sister Kossi, and to finally ensure peace between the Six Duchies and the Out Islands. That she and Dutiful came to love each other was simply the kindness of fate.

“You know how Elliania has grieved that she has borne only two sons. Her grief at her failure to provide a daughter to send back to the Out Islands and reign after her mother as Narcheska consumes her.”

“What of Kossi? Surely her younger sister would be next in line for that title?”

Riddle shook his head. “No. We saved Kossi’s life, but her health never recovered. She was nearly two years in the Pale Woman’s captivity. Two years of starvation, cold, and mistreatment. She is a brittle woman, frail as dried twigs. And she has shown a marked dislike for the company of men. She will bear no children.”

“I recall she had a girl cousin …”

“Disliked by both Elliania and her mother. One of the reasons for her desperate desire to present a girl to her motherhouse.”

“But Nettle’s child is no kin to Elliania at all!”

“She is if Elliania says she is. There is a saying there. ‘Every mother knows her own child.’ Thus, when Elliania draws up genealogies, you are Patience’s son.”

I was hopelessly befuddled. “What does that have to do with it?”

He smiled. “You Farseers are an inbred lot. And yet pitiable by Outislander standards. Generations without a female child. It left Elliania wondering if there were any true descendants of the original Farseer motherhouse. In her desperate quest for a female of true lineage, she had the most doddering of the minstrels singing themselves hoarse with genealogies. Do you know who Queen Adamant is?”

“No.”

“The first Farseer to stake a claim on the cliffs of Buck was Taker. He himself was an Outislander, and is seen as something of a rogue there, for he forsook his own motherhouse to establish a new one here. He took a wife from among the people he conquered. Her name was Adamant. We now call her Queen Adamant. The first of the Farseer motherhouse.”

“Very well.” I didn’t see where any of this was going.

“Patience and Chivalry were very distant cousins, according to Elliania. Both descended by wandering lineage from Adamant. She of the ‘copper-gleaming hair and violet eyes,’ according to one very old ballad. Hence you are doubly descended from that motherhouse. That makes Nettle the rightful ‘Narcheska’ of the Farseer line. The motherhouse that Elliania joined. Her kin. And hence a possible source of an heir for Elliania.

“The thought that there have been generations with no female offspring to refresh the line troubles her. And at the same time, it has comforted her. She now feels the fault is with the Farseer males, who cannot seem to seed girls in their wives’ wombs. For years, she tormented herself that it was her own failing that she had borne only two males. She has known for years about Nettle’s true parentage and sees her opportunity to right a great wrong done to Nettle by raising Nettle’s child as a Narcheska. After a dearth of females, Nettle was born, finally, a true daughter of the Farseer motherhouse. But instead of being celebrated, she was hidden in the shadows. Concealed from the royal court. Her parentage denied. And only brought to Buckkeep when she became useful to the Farseers.”

I was silent. I could not deny the truth of his words. It stung badly to hear them uttered by her husband and my friend. I had believed I was protecting her. As I was protecting Bee by keeping her away from Buckkeep? There was an uncomfortable thought. I tried to justify myself.

“Nettle is the bastard daughter of a bastard son of an abdicated prince, Riddle.”

A flash of anger. “Here, perhaps. But in the Out Islands our child might well be seen as a princess of their line.”

“You and Nettle would do that? Leave Buckkeep and the court and go to the Out Islands?”

“To save my daughter being seen as a shame and a bastard? Yes. I would.”

I found I was nodding in agreement. “And if the child is a boy?”

He heaved a sigh. “That will be a different battle, on a different day. Fitz, we were friends before I fell in love with your daughter. I’ve felt guilty that I did not come to you before this. That I did not reveal our marriage to you.”