Assassin's Apprentice

In a reflective tone laced with lingering bitterness and loneliness, the six-year-old bastard son of Prince Chivalry is delivered by his grandfather to Moonseye fortress amid winter's chill, where Prince Verity recognizes his resemblance to his brother and assigns him to stablemaster Burrich, who beds him with the hounds. Burrich develops a protective yet conflicted bond with the nameless 'boy,' whom he names Fitz, while guards and kitchen folk regard him with wary curiosity. Political tensions surface during a nighttime visit from Princes Verity and Regal, leading to King Shrewd's order to bring Fitz to Buckkeep, prompting Chivalry's abdication and exile, marking the child's transformation into a catalyst for royal upheaval as they journey south to the court.

Fitz arrives exhausted at Buckkeep with Burrich, settling into quarters over the stables amid Springfest chaos following Chivalry's abdication; he repels a bully using unconscious Wit, explores the raw, windy town with street urchins like Nosebleed (Molly) and Kerry, and intervenes in Molly's abuse similarly. Burrich discovers Fitz's forbidden Wit-bond with puppy Nosy after catching him stealing sausages, explains the 'old Wit' as a dehumanizing beast magic, and brutally separates them, confining Fitz and isolating him from animals. The setting shifts from the keep's bustling interior to the cliffside town's docks and streets, blending tones of weary curiosity, joyful freedom, horrified empathy, and profound grief.

Over nearly three years, Fitz shadows Burrich in the stables, learning animal care amid shared loneliness and isolation from keep society, avoiding antagonists like Regal and Cob while forming no deep bonds. In the Great Hall, King Shrewd encounters him scavenging, claims him with a pin, promises provision, and initiates sweeping changes: a horse named Sooty, a private room in the keep, morning lessons in horsemanship and hounds from Burrich, and afternoon weapons training with Hod. The emotional tone blends reflective melancholy with dread and wary anticipation as Fitz transitions from overlooked bastard to potential royal asset, experiencing his first taste of the Skill.

Fitz settles into a rigorous routine of stable work with Burrich, weapons training with Hod, and clothing fittings where he overhears gossip revealing family scandals—Chivalry's abdication due to his bastard son, Patience's anguish, and comparisons favoring Verity over Regal—deepening his isolation in the vast Buckkeep. One night, the scarred, enigmatic Chade awakens him via a hidden door, leading to a secret tower chamber divided between luxury and alchemical disarray, where he agrees to train as the King's assassin, cleaning and bonding amid revelations. The next day, emboldened, Fitz confronts Burrich about family and duty, stirring pity for his mentor's diminished status amid a tone of pervasive loneliness yielding to wary curiosity and loyalty.

In Chapter Five of Assassin's Apprentice, Fitz advances in Chade's nocturnal assassin training at Buckkeep, mastering stealth, observation, and sabotage tasks like intercepting a lady's note to Prince Regal amid political tensions sown by Queen Desire between Inland and Coastal Duchies. Chade's test to steal from King Shrewd's chambers clashes with Fitz's loyalty, sparking refusal, profound despair, and physical decline, until Burrich's steadfast care through work and tending a weak pup aids recovery. Reconciliation ensues as Chade admits Fitz's righteousness and Shrewd confesses the test was his idea, with Fitz boldly taking Shrewd's knife to prove his mettle, restoring bonds amid a tone of eager mischief turning to anguished isolation and triumphant trust.

Amid winter's oppressive gloom in storm-lashed Buckkeep, Fitz excels in Fedwren's lessons and receives an apprenticeship offer promising freedom beyond Chivalry's shadow, but Chade warns that as a royal bastard, leaving would invite assassination amid rising duchies' tensions. In Buckkeep Town, Fitz reunites with the matured Molly Chandler, reads her mother's tablets revealing her birth name 'Nosegay' and herbal recipes, rekindling their bond amid her candle-making ambitions. The chapter ends in shock as Verity and Regal, bearing urgent news, reveal Chivalry's death, leaving Fitz with profound grief, fleeting kinship from Verity, and deepened entrapment.

Following Chivalry's suspicious death amid court mourning rituals—marked by Burrich's extreme grief and Fitz's cropped hair—Fitz confronts Chade about his father's possible murder by internal foes like Queen Desire, grasping the precarious life of a royal bastard and his assassin training. As Outislander Red-Ship raids devastate coastal villages, exposing tensions between duchies like Rippon and Shoaks, Fitz receives his first assignment: accompany Verity to Neatbay disguised as Lady Thyme's attendant to spy on Lord Kelvar for treachery, armed with poison if needed. The tone shifts from numb sorrow and wary suspicion to tense excitement laced with dread as thirteen-year-old Fitz steps toward perilous maturity at Buckkeep.

Fitz endures the tyrannical service of the elderly, foul-tempered Lady Thyme during Verity's pompous coastal procession to Neatbay, managing her litter amid dust, delays, and scenic wonders that mix irritation with youthful awe. Upon arriving at Bayguard keep, he tends Verity's hound Leon, integrates into the prince's entourage, and at dinner keenly observes Lord Kelvar's neglect of watchtowers, roads, and fortifications—diverting resources to indulge his extravagant young wife Lady Grace. Reporting his perceptive insights to a straightforward Verity, who favors blunt commands over diplomacy, Fitz reveals growing political acumen amid tones of exasperation, wonder, and weary insight.

Midnight hunger leads Fitz to the Neatbay kitchens, where he expertly saves Lady Grace's choking lapdog by extracting a lodged bone, then diplomatically persuades the insecure new duchess—via a fabricated prophetic dream—to convince Lord Kelvar to bolster Watch Island's towers, shifting her from vanity to noble purpose amid a tone of resourceful satisfaction. Abruptly summoned by Chade (disguised as Lady Thyme), Fitz joins him on an urgent night ride from Neatbay through boggy woods and coastal bluffs to Forge, responding to Red-Ship Raiders' bizarre ultimatum on hostages, as Chade fatigues yet reveals strategic acumen and historical insights into the Skill. The chapter bookends with mysterious lore on the Fool's arrival at Buckkeep, evoking intrigue and timeless enigma.

Fitz and Chade endure a perilous night landing and grueling overland ride fueled by Chade's carris seed to reach the raided village of Forge, where they discover returned hostages transformed into emotionless scavengers devoid of human bonds, horrifying Fitz with his nascent ability to sense living 'threads' and prompting a terrified flight from superstitious refugees mistaking Chade for the Pocked Man. Exhausted, they return slowly to Neatbay as Chade crashes from the drug's aftereffects, revealing vulnerability amid the bleak realization of the Red-Ship Raiders' unnatural threat. The chapter's tone shifts from exhilarating adventure to profound horror and grim foreboding, culminating in Chade's resolve to train Fitz in the Skill against encroaching evil.

The chapter begins with the ominous folklore of the Pocked Man, symbolizing disaster, as Verity returns from Forge amid reports of further Forging raids on Croft, Rockgate, and Sheepmire, fracturing coastal unity and exposing King Shrewd's indecisiveness, which Chade bitterly critiques to Fitz during a failed experiment. Fitz navigates growing tensions with Burrich over his Wit, deepens his subtle romantic awareness with Molly during beach walks amid kingdom-wide fears, and encounters a mysterious highborn lady in the kitchens who startles at his presence. The emotional tone blends national anxiety and disunity with personal budding connections and unease in Buckkeep's stables, town, and keep.

The chapter provides backstory on the Red-Ship Raiders' rise through Forging before Fitz unwittingly encounters Lady Patience—his late father's widow—twice: drunkenly in the Women's Garden, where she criticizes his habits, and soberly in the corridor, quizzing his neglected noble education. Burrich returns to the stables, sharing fond memories of Patience, while Chade reveals her bold demand to King Shrewd for Fitz's princely training in arts, page duties, and the Skill under the vehemently hostile Galen, alongside Chade's own bastard heritage. Amid Buckkeep's gardens, stables, and hidden chambers, the emotional tone evolves from affable awkwardness to tense apprehension over transformative changes and looming threats.

In Lady Patience's eccentric, plant-filled chambers, Fitz endures awkward daily sessions marked by her failed attempts to teach him music and poetry, but bonds deeply with the gifted black terrier puppy he names Smithy, using his Wit to soothe its loneliness and evade Burrich's control. Patience discovers Fitz's artistic talent through his vivid puppy sketches and shares enthusiasm for innovative papermaking, leading to an emotional breakthrough where she hugs him tearfully, confessing jealousy of his mother and longing to have raised him as her own. The tone evolves from tense frustration and mutual belittlement to vulnerable affection, punctuated by the Fool's cryptic warnings about Patience's past guilt and fragility.

FitzChivalry enjoys a brief period of happiness and balance in his relationship with Lady Patience, learning new skills and spending time with friends and his pup, before Skill lessons commence under the cruel Galen, whom Burrich warns him about due to the master's prejudice against bastards and Wit-users, including a past murder covered by El's justice. The training shifts to the barren Queen's Garden atop a tower, where Galen destroys the remnants of the garden, enforces extreme physical deprivation and isolation, and metes out abusive punishments, especially targeting Fitz for feeding his pup. The emotional tone plummets from contentment to dread, humiliation, and grim endurance, with the Fool secretly aiding Fitz and issuing grave warnings.

Amid the cold, isolated tower top in deepening winter, Fitz endures Galen's manipulative cruelty during Skill training, secretly excelling and hiding his Wit-bond with Smithy while the group dwindles to eight; a failed full Skill joining leads to brutal physical and mental assault, plunging Fitz into suicidal despair. Rescued by Burrich and the Fool, he recovers in the warm stables, grappling with shame during a dispiriting visit to Molly in Buckkeep Town, as Burrich reveals his public challenge to Galen at the Witness Stones. Compelled by Burrich and the Fool, a resilient yet broken Fitz returns to the tower, determined to reclaim his birthright despite the oppressive tone of fear, addiction, and isolation.

On the tower roof, Fitz resumes Skill lessons amid the palpable hatred of his classmates and a bruised Galen, who teaches basics that advance the others into a bonded coterie while Fitz remains isolated and unskilled. Seeking solace, he walks with Smithy to town for a windswept beach outing with Molly, where their deepening conversation about Verity's arranged marriage nearly sparks romance but slips away, heightening Fitz's emotional longing against Buckkeep's spring bustle and Red-Ship rumors. Galen announces a brutal test scattering them across the kingdom to Skill back for Springfest, then unleashes fanatical hatred accusing Fitz of parasitism, driving him to suicidal despair on the tower edge before he resolves to persist.

In a secretive Man ceremony, Fitz earns the name Catalyst by sparing lives, but abandons Galen's Skill test after a Wit-vision of Smithy dying while defending an injured Burrich from an assassin, embarking on a perilous journey home from near Forge. Along the coast road, he battles Forged ones, discards his cloak to escape, hides from stealthy Raiders resupplying at the ruined town, and unleashes rage upon learning of Smithy's death, brutally killing more Forged attackers amid profound grief and numbness. Returning to Buckkeep, a despondent Fitz finds Burrich recovering but banishing him from the stables upon discovering his Wit use; isolated and heartbroken, he witnesses Molly with Jade and drowns his sorrows in drink.

Chade's exhaustive but futile study of Forging via the tragic case of Netta reveals no cure, mirroring the Six Duchies' escalating woes from Red-Ship Raiders' demands and Forgings, as a isolated and bitter FitzChivalry resumes assassin duties, poisoning seventeen Forged ones and a abusive lordling while serving the Skill-exhausted Prince Verity in his tower. Fitz discovers Galen's sabotage of his own Skill training, lends his strength to Verity once—nearly fatally—and improves the prince's spartan quarters amid their growing bond, set against Buckkeep's tense summer atmosphere. Shrewd pressures a reluctant, weary Verity into a political marriage to Mountain Princess Kettricken for alliances and heirs, assigning Fitz to join the journey with implied assassination of her sickly brother, heightening intrigue and dutiful resignation.

As raids intensify and ducal tensions fracture the kingdom, King Shrewd secures a proxy wedding alliance with Mountain Kingdom's Princess Kettricken via Regal in Jhaampe, dispatching a lavish caravan from Buckkeep with Fitz bearing gifts and his secret mission to assassinate Prince Rurisk. Fitz grapples with isolation, uncovering the Fool's colorful hidden world, receiving anti-poison seapurge and Patience's earring as symbols of wary bonds, while Chade starkly affirms their assassin roles and the king's willingness to sacrifice any for the realm. The arduous journey shifts from Buckkeep's stir through Farrow's baking plains, Blue Lake's vibrancy, and forested mountains to Jhaampe's welcoming throng, blending monotonous travel with mounting dread and cultural awe.

FitzChivalry's caravan arrives in the vibrant, nomadic city of Jhaampe, a colorful mountain capital of tulip-shaped buildings and transient tents, where they awkwardly adapt to local customs like leaving horses outside and using litters before a welcoming ceremony by King Eyod introducing his children, Princess Kettricken and Prince Rurisk. Amid cultural awe and garden explorations, Fitz bonds with the enthusiastic young Kettricken—sharing positive tales of Verity countering Regal's deceptions—while Rurisk recalls Chivalry fondly, but tension mounts as Kettricken reveals Regal's accusations of Fitz as a poisoner targeting Rurisk. Suspecting foul play, Fitz consumes poisoned honey cakes, purges with seapurge in a tone shifting from wonder to wary survival, isolating himself with safe provisions amid brewing intrigue.

Recovering from Kettricken's impulsive poisoning attempt, Fitz receives a purge from Prince Rurisk, who explains the misunderstanding, shares visions for a strong alliance with the Six Duchies, and secures Fitz's tentative support amid the joyous wedding festivities in Jhaampe palace. Amid displays of gifts, communal feasting, and contests, Fitz emotionally reunites with the aged hound Nosy and confronts Burrich, learning he never killed the dog but failing to bridge their rift over the Wit. That night, a drunken Regal summons Fitz, bluntly demanding Rurisk's assassination before the wedding and issuing ominous orders, heightening the tension from wary trust to foreboding betrayal.

FitzChivalry grapples with his assassination dilemma amid palace intrigues in Jhaampe, receiving deadroot poison from Regal's servant to kill Prince Rurisk, but confronts Kettricken and Rurisk instead, only to discover the wine already tainted, leading to Rurisk's death and Fitz killing Cob in self-defense. Captured and beaten by Regal, who reveals knowledge of Fitz's secrets, Fitz is imprisoned in the stables as the emotional tone shifts from smoke-induced giddiness and paranoia to profound grief and betrayal. Nosy frees him via their Wit bond, and Burrich, confronting Fitz's assassin and Witted nature, aids his escape, solidifying their shared loyalty as king's men amid the darkening conspiracy.

Weakened by poison, Fitz and Burrich hide in the forest before Jonqui returns Fitz to the palace, where Kettricken invokes kin right to forgive him for Rurisk's death. Regal lures them to the steams, has Burrich bludgeoned and seemingly killed, then attempts to drown Fitz, who, in desperation, successfully Skills to Verity in Buckkeep, warning of Galen's betrayal and lending life-saving strength. Verity defeats and kills Galen, warns Regal through August, and assures Kettricken of his innocence, shifting the desperate, vengeful tone to triumphant justice amid palace intrigue in Jhaampe.

In the aftermath of the poisoning, Fitz and Burrich recover slowly in isolated convalescence in Jhaampe under Jonqui's care, enduring physical tremors and grief over Nosy's sacrificial death, while cover stories shield their secrets and August loses his Skilling ability after delivering Verity's warning to Regal. Kettricken mourns Rurisk before joining a triumphant procession to Buckkeep led by a subdued Regal, as Fitz questions his future as assassin amid strained loyalties before returning through harsh winter with Burrich and Hands. The chapter closes on a reflective, melancholic tone with renewed hope at Buckkeep as fortifications rise, tempered by Fitz's enduring scars and the epilogue's glimpse of his weary future.