Fool’s Assassin

Fool’s Assassin
Robin Hobb

'Fantasy as it ought to be written' George R.R. MartinRobin Hobb returns to her best loved characters in a brand new series.Tom Badgerlock has been living peaceably in the manor house at Withywoods with his beloved wife Molly these many years, the estate a reward to his family for loyal service to the crown.But behind the facade of respectable middle-age lies a turbulent and violent past. For Tom Badgerlock is actually FitzChivalry Farseer, bastard scion of the Farseer line, convicted user of Beast-magic, and assassin. A man who has risked much for his king and lost more…On a shelf in his den sits a triptych carved in memory stone of a man, a wolf and a fool. Once, these three were inseparable friends: Fitz, Nighteyes and the Fool. But one is long dead, and one long-missing.Then one Winterfest night a messenger arrives to seek out Fitz, but mysteriously disappears, leaving nothing but a blood-trail. What was the message? Who was the sender? And what has happened to the messenger?Suddenly Fitz's violent old life erupts into the peace of his new world, and nothing and no one is safe.

Copyright (#ulink_366892f0-3335-5861-901d-d0ca3e6142f3)

HarperVoyager

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpervoyagerbooks.co.uk (http://www.harpervoyagerbooks.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2014

Copyright © Robin Hobb 2014

Map and illustration copyright © Nicolette Caven 2014

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015

Cover illustration © Jackie Morris; lettering by Stephen Raw.

Robin Hobb asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of 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.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007444175

Ebook Edition © August 2014 ISBN: 9780007444182

Version: 2018-09-21

Praise for Robin Hobb (#ulink_6589e5c5-7efa-5323-88d2-13ff954c8e8d)

‘Hobb is one of the great modern fantasy writers’

The Times

‘Hobb is always readable. But the elegant translucence of her prose is deceptive … That is the ambition of high art. The novelists in any genre are rare who achieve it with Hobb’s combination of accessibility and moral authority’

Sunday Telegraph

‘A little slice of heaven’

Guardian

‘Hobb is superb, spinning wonderful characters and plots from pure imagination’

Conn Iggulden

‘In today’s crowded fantasy market Robin Hobb’s books are like diamonds in a sea of zircons’

George R.R. Martin

‘Robin Hobb is without question among the finest writers of fantasy working today’

SFX

‘A master of “epic” fantasy’

Shortlist

Dedication (#ulink_02b8a49e-829d-579e-b9e7-bdd4d52ecd6e)

For Soren and Felix. This one’s for the guys

Contents

Cover (#ud8937416-d865-5d6d-9f5a-39941610f460)

Title Page (#ua4002a95-5773-535d-91e3-dfd7bd306a48)

Copyright (#ua6ed9d20-8a84-543c-9759-ff9293dc28d2)

Praise for Robin Hobb (#u067bdeab-f95d-5a36-a875-3fe772c61a2c)

Dedication (#ufc2a4309-390a-5efa-a0aa-4904791f87f3)

Prologue (#u1914f1bb-58d5-50b7-b73a-cbdaeea9f9f8)

Chapter One: Withywoods (#ufb9ffa79-087e-5606-b176-e36ed583eb8c)

Chapter Two: Spilled Blood (#u56f400ef-323b-5b74-bcda-b04ec0540faf)

Chapter Three: The Felling of Fallstar (#u27fe7968-f9f1-5e01-90b3-40d167eac37e)

Chapter Four: Preservation (#u13b52e36-b02b-511b-b77f-cddb0bf9033b)

Chapter Five: Arrival (#u39e67da2-e3e8-5f14-9bd2-8fd201e8969d)

Chapter Six: The Secret Child (#ub5e109c9-fcab-5290-8057-450920923f13)