“Of course. I thought you’d figured that out long ago. Boy, for someone as perceptive as you are, you’ve got some very odd blind spots.”
I looked at Chade as if for the first time. His scars, perhaps, had hidden it from me. The resemblance was there. The brow, the way his ears were set, the line of his lower lip. “You’re Shrewd’s son,” I guessed wildly, going only by his appearance. Even before he spoke, I realized how foolish my words were.
“Son?” Chade laughed grimly. “How he would scowl to hear you say that! But the truth makes him grimace even more. He is my younger half brother, boy, though he was conceived in a wedded bed and I on a military campaign near Sandsedge.” Softly he added, “My mother was a soldier when I was conceived. But she returned home to bear me, and later wedded a potter. When my mother died, her husband put me on a donkey, gave me a necklace she had worn, and told me to take it to the King at Buckkeep. I was ten. It was a long, hard road from Woolcot to Buckkeep, in those days.”
I couldn’t think of anything to say.
“Enough of this.” Chade straightened himself up sternly. “Galen will be instructing you in the Skill. Shrewd browbeat him into it. He finally acceded, but with reservations. No one is to interfere with any of his students during the training. I wish it were otherwise, but there’s nothing I can do about it. You’ll just have to be careful. You know of Galen, don’t you?”
“A little,” I said. “Only what other people say about him.”
“What do you know by yourself?” Chade quizzed me.
I took a breath and considered. “He eats alone. I’ve never seen him at table, either with the men-at-arms, or in the dining hall. I’ve never seen him just standing about and talking, not in the exercise yard or the washing court or in any of the gardens. He’s always going somewhere when I see him, and he’s always in a hurry. He’s bad with animals. The dogs don’t like him, and he over controls the horses so much that he ruins their mouths and their temperaments. I guess he’s about Burrich’s age. He dresses well, almost as fancy as Regal. I’ve heard him called a queen’s man.”
“Why?” Chade asked quickly.
“Um, it was a long time ago. Gage. He’s a man-at-arms. He came to Burrich one night, a bit drunk, a bit cut up. He’d had a fight with Galen, and Galen hit him in the face with a little whip or something. Gage asked Burrich to fix him up, because it was late, and he wasn’t supposed to have been drinking that night. His watch was coming up, or something. Gage told Burrich that he’d overheard Galen say that Regal was twice as royal as Chivalry or Verity, and it was a stupid custom that kept him from the throne. Galen had said that Regal’s mother was better born than Shrewd’s first queen. Which everyone knows is true. But what angered Gage enough to start the fight was that Galen said Queen Desire was more royal than Shrewd himself, for she’d Farseer blood from both her parents, and Shrewd’s was just from his father. So Gage swung at him, but Galen sidestepped and struck him in the face with something.”
I paused.
“And?” Chade encouraged me.
“And so he favors Regal, over Verity or even the King. And Regal, well, accepts him. He’s friendlier with him than he usually is with servants or soldiers. He seems to take counsel of him, the few times I’ve seen them together. It’s almost funny to watch them together; you’d think Galen was aping Regal, from the way he dresses and walks as the Prince does. Sometimes they almost look alike.”
“They do?” Chade leaned closer, waiting. “What else have you noticed?”
I searched my memory for more firsthand knowledge of Galen. “That’s all, I guess.”
“Has he ever spoken to you?”
“No.”
“I see.” Chade nodded as if to himself. “And what do you know of him by reputation? What do you suspect?” He was trying to lead me to some conclusion, but I could not guess what.