I decided one of us had to stop keeping secrets. "I saw him, in a Skill dream. In a city, with folk such as we passed today. He laved his hands and arms in a magic river, and walked away laden with power."

"God of fishes!" Kettle swore. Something of horror and something of awe lit in her face.

"We passed no folk today," Starling objected. I had not been aware she had seated herself by me until she spoke. I jumped, startled that someone could get that close to me and I had not sensed it.

"All those who have ever trodden this road have left something of themselves upon it. Your senses are muffled to those ghosts, but Fitz walks here naked as a newborn child. And as naive." Kettle leaned back suddenly against her bedroll, and all the lines in her face deepened. "How can such a child be the Catalyst?" she asked of no one in particular. "You don't know how to save yourself from yourself. How are you going to save the world?"

The Fool leaned over from his bedroll suddenly to take my hand. Something like strength flowed into me with that reassuring touch. His tone was light, but his words sank into me. "Competence was never guaranteed in the prophecies. Only persistence. What does your White Column say? 'They come like raindrops against the stone towers of time. But in time it is always the rain that prevails, not the tower.'" He gave my hand a squeeze.

"Your fingers are like ice," I told him as he let go.

"I am cold past belief," he agreed with me. He drew his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. "Cold and tired. But persistent."

I lifted my eyes from him to find Starling with a knowing smile on her face. Gods, how it irked me. "I have elfbark in my pack," I suggested to the Fool. "It gives warmth as well as strength."

"Elfbark," Kettle scowled, as if it were disgusting. But after a moment's reflection, she said excitedly, "Actually, that might be a good idea. Yes. Elfbark tea."

When I took the drug out of my pack, Kettle snatched it out of my hands as if I might cut myself on it. She muttered to herself as she measured tiny portions of it into mugs for us. "I've seen what kind of doses you expose yourself to," she chided me, and brewed the tea herself. She put none of it in the tea she prepared for Kettricken, Starling, and herself.

I sipped at my hot tea, tasting first the acrid bite of the elfbark and then the warmth of it in my belly. Its enervating heat spread through me. I watched the Fool, and saw him relax in its embrace, even as his eyes began to sparkle with it.

Kettricken had her map out and was frowning over it. "FitzChivalry, study this with me," the Queen suddenly commanded. I moved around the brazier to sit next to her. I was scarcely settled before she began. "I believe we are here," she told me. Her finger tapped the first juncture of the trail that was marked on the map. "Verity said he would visit all three places that were marked on the map. I believe that when this map was made, the road that you nearly followed tonight was intact. Now it is no longer there. And has not been there for some time." Her blue eyes met mine. "What do you suppose Verity did when he reached this point?"

I considered a moment. "He's a pragmatic man. This other, second destination looks no more than three or four days from here. I think he might go there first, seeking the Elderlings there. And this third one is but, oh, seven days past there. I think he would decide it would be fastest to visit those two places first. Then, if he had no success there, he might return here, to try and find a way down to… whatever's there."

She wrinkled her brow. I suddenly recalled how smooth it had been when she was first his bride. Now I seldom saw her without lines of care and worry in her face. "He has been gone long, my husband. Yet it did not take us all that long to reach here. Perhaps he has not yet returned because he is down there. Because it took him so long to find a way down there to continue his journey."

"Perhaps," I agreed uneasily. "Bear in mind that we are well supplied and travel together. By the time Verity reached this far, he would have been alone, and with few resources." I refrained from telling Kettricken that I suspected he had been injured in that last battle. There was no sense in giving her more anxiety. Against my will, I felt a part of me groping out toward Verity. I shut my eyes and resolutely sealed myself in again. Had I imagined a taint upon the Skill-current, a too-familiar feeling of insidious power? I set my walls again.

"…split the party?"

"I beg pardon, my queen," I said humbly.

I did not know if the look in her eyes was exasperation or fear. She took my hand and held it firmly. "Attend me," she commanded. "I said, tomorrow we shall seek a way down. If we see anything that looks promising, we will attempt it. But I think we should give such a search no more than three days. If we find nothing, we should move on. But an alternative is to split the party. To send…"

"I do not think we should split the party," I said hastily.

"You are most likely correct," she conceded. "But it takes so long, so very long, and I have been alone with my questions too long."

I could think of nothing to say to that, so I pretended to be busy rubbing Nighteyes' ears.

My brother. It was a whisper, no more, but I looked down at Nighteyes beside me. I rested a hand on his ruff, strengthening the bond with a touch. You were as empty as an ordinary human. I could not make you even feel me.

I know. I don't know what happened to me.

I do. You are moving ever farther from my side to the other side. I fear you will go too far and be unable to return. I feared it had already happened today.

What do you mean, my side, and the other side?

"Can you hear the wolf again?" Kettricken asked me worriedly. I was surprised, when I looked up, to see how anxiously she regarded me.

"Yes. We are together again," I told her. A thought occurred to me. "How did you know we were unable to communicate?"

She shrugged. "I suppose I assumed it. He seemed so anxious and you seemed so distant from everyone."

She has the Wit. Don't you, my queen?

I can not say for certain that something passed between them. Once, long before in Buckkeep, I thought I had sensed Kettricken using the Wit. I suppose she well could have been using it then, for my own sense of it was so diminished I could scarce sense my own bond-animal. In any case Nighteyes lifted his head to look at her and she returned his gaze steadily. With a small frown, Kettricken added, "Sometimes I wish I could speak to him as you do. Had I his speed and stealth at my disposal, I could be more certain of the safety of the road, both before us and behind. He might be able to find a path down, one not apparent to our eyes."

If you can keep your Wits about you enough to tell her what I see, I would not mind doing such a task.

"Nighteyes would be most pleased to help you in such a way, my queen," I offered.

She gave a weary smile. "Then, I suppose, if you can keep aware of both of us, you may serve as go-between."

Her eerie echoing of the wolf's thought unsettled me, but I only nodded my assent. Every aspect of conversation now demanded my complete attention, or it slipped away from me. It was like being horribly tired and having to constantly fight off sleep. I wondered if it was this hard for Verity.

There is a way to ride it, but lightly, lightly, like mastering an ill-tempered stallion who rebels against every touch of the rein or heel. But you are not ready to do so yet. So fight it, boy, and keep your head above water. I would that there were another way for you to come to me. But there is only the road, and you must follow it. No, make no reply to me. Know that there are others that listen avariciously if not as keenly as I. Be wary.