After we had eaten, Verity went over his maps with me. There was no longer any mistaking the pattern that emerged.
Regardless of what obstacles, forest or river or frozen plains, the Forged ones were moving toward Buckkeep. It made no sense to me. The ones I had encountered seemed all but bereft of their senses. I found it difficult to believe that any one of them would conceive of traveling overland, despite hardships, simply to come to Buckkeep. “And these records you’ve kept indicate that all of them have. All of the Forged ones that you’ve identified seem to be moving toward Buckkeep.”
“Yet you have difficulty seeing it as a coordinated plan?” Verity asked quietly.
“I fail to see how they could have any plan at all. How have they contacted each other? And it doesn’t seem a concerted effort. They aren’t meeting up and traveling here in bands. It simply seems that each and every one sets out this way, and some of them fall in together.”
“Like moths drawn to a candle flame,” Verity observed.
“Or flies to carrion,” I added sourly.
“The ones to fascination, the others to feed,” Verity mused. “I wish I knew which it is that draws the Forged ones to me. Perhaps another thing entirely.”
“Why do you think you must know why they come? Do, you think you are their target?”
“I do not know. But if I find out, I may understand my enemy. I do not think it chance that all the Forged ones make their way to Buckkeep. I think they move against me, Fitz. Perhaps not of their own will, but it is still a move against me. I need to understand why.”