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HarperVoyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
77–85 Fulham Palace Road,
Hammersmith, London W6 8JB
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1995
Copyright © Robin Hobb 1995
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2014. Illustration © Jackie Morris. Calligraphy by Stephen Raw. Cover photograph © Shutterstock.com (background).
Robin Hobb asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780007562251
Ebook Edition © 2014 ISBN: 9780007374038
Version: 2014-08-29
Table of Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One: The Earliest History
Chapter Two: Newboy
Chapter Three: Covenant
Chapter Four: Apprenticeship
Chapter Five: Loyalties
Chapter Six: Chivalry’s Shadow
Chapter Seven: An Assignment
Chapter Eight: Lady Thyme
Chapter Nine: Fat Suffices
Chapter Ten: The Pocked Man
Chapter Eleven: Forgings
Chapter Twelve: Patience
Chapter Thirteen: Smithy
Chapter Fourteen: Galen
Chapter Fifteen: The Witness Stones
Chapter Sixteen: Lessons
Chapter Seventeen: The Trial
Chapter Eighteen: Assassinations
Chapter Nineteen: Journey
Chapter Twenty: Jhaampe
Chapter Twenty-One: Princes
Chapter Twenty-Two: Dilemmas
Chapter Twenty-Three: The Wedding
Chapter Twenty-Four: The Aftermath
Epilogue
The Liveship Traders
The Rain Wild Chronicles
About the Author
By Robin Hobb
About the Publisher
A history of the Six Duchies is of necessity a history of its ruling family, the Farseers. A complete telling would reach back beyond the founding of the First Duchy, and if such names were remembered, would tell us of Outislanders raiding from the Sea, visiting as pirates a shore more temperate and gentler than the icy beaches of the Out Islands. But we do not know the names of these earliest forebears.
And of the first real king, little more than his name and some extravagant legends remain. Taker his name was, quite simply, and perhaps with that naming began the tradition that daughters and sons of his lineage would be given names that would shape their lives and beings. Folk beliefs claim that such names were sealed to the newborn babes by magic, and that these royal offspring were incapable of betraying the virtues whose names they bore. Passed through fire and plunged through salt water and offered to the winds of the air; thus were names sealed to these chosen children. So we are told. A pretty fancy, and perhaps once there was such a ritual, but history shows us this was not always sufficient to bind a child to the virtue that named it …
My pen falters, then falls from my knuckly grip, leaving a worm’s trail of ink across Fedwren’s paper. I have spoiled another leaf of the fine stuff, in what I suspect is a futile endeavour. I wonder if I can write this history, or if on every page there will be some sneaking show of a bitterness I thought long dead. I think myself cured of all spite, but when I touch pen to paper, the hurt of a boy bleeds out with the sea-spawned ink, until I suspect each carefully formed black letter scabs over some ancient scarlet wound.
Both Fedwren and Patience were so filled with enthusiasm whenever a written account of the history of the Six Duchies was discussed that I persuaded myself the writing of it was a worthwhile effort. I convinced myself that the exercise would turn my thoughts aside from my pain and help the time to pass. But each historical event I consider only awakens my own personal shades of loneliness and loss. I fear I will have