“Oh, Fitz, lad, I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just that-”
“I said, no harm done, Blade. Let it go.”
“Good enough, sir,” he replied.
I nodded, and looked at Burrich to find him regarding me strangely. When I turned to exchange a puzzled glance with Hands, I met the same startlement on his face. I could not guess the reason.
“Well, good night to you, Sergeant. Don’t chide your man with the pike. He did well to stop strangers at Buckkeep’s gate.”
“Yes, sir. Good night, sir.” Blade gave me a rusty salute and the great wooden gates swung wide before us as we entered the keep. Sooty lifted her head and some of the weariness fell from her. Behind me, Hands’s horse whinnied softly and Burrich’s snorted. Never before had the road from the keep wall to the stables seemed so long. As Hands dismounted, Burrich caught me by the sleeve and held me back. Hands greeted the drowsy stable boy who appeared to light our way.
“We’ve been some time in the Mountain Kingdom, Fitz,” Burrich cautioned me in a low voice. “Up there, no one cares what side of the sheets you were born on. But we’re home now. Here, Chivalry’s son is not a Prince, but a bastard.”
“I know that.” I was stung by his directness. “I’ve known it all my life. Lived it all my life.”
“You have,” he conceded. A strange look stole over his face, a smile half-incredulous and half-proud. “So why are you demanding reports of the sergeant, and giving out commendations as briskly as if you were Chivalry himself? I scarce believed it, how you spoke, and how those men came to heel. You didn’t even take notice of how they responded to you, you didn’t even realize you’d stepped up and taken command away from me.”