Royal Assassin, the Farseer Trilogy (1996) by Robin Hobb: summary

“A message is not delivered until it is understood.” (p.302)

The 675-page novel published by Bantam Books in 1996, Royal Assassin is the second book of the Farseer Trilogy. This fantasy book has the similar tone in many levels with the Game of Throne; the main character FitzChivalry Farseer is the bastard son, but in this tale he totally never met his father. Prince Chivalry is dead. He raised by Stablemaster Burrich, his late father loyalist. After came to his age, he served his uncle King-in- Waiting Verity as an errand boy and assassin. 

Like Jon Snow in Game of Throne, he also has a beast named Nighteyes. He is trained to be a royal assassin with magic skill named Wit and Skill. The Kingdom of Six Duchies is attacked by Outislanders, the Raiders-- they are descent of the traders and pirates. Duchy’s ancestor was not a warrior or fighter, so they are like only kids for Raider’s soldier. It is only Prince Verity’s magic that provides any protection for Duchies people. The death of Verity has led FitzChivalry to save his country from the Raiders, but his trickery uncle King-in-Waiting Regal has accused him in plotting the death of King Shrewd with using the Wit magic.

Although I don’t read the first book, but the author has provided the short description of characters or places before the chapter began. The fantasy book is written by US author. Robin Hobb is a great writer, she has worked on the Farseer Saga since 20 years ago, and has completed the final series this year.

Royal Assassin, the Farseer Trilogy (1996) by Robin Hobb: summary

To be the King in-Waiting, or the Queen-in-Waiting, is firmly straddle the fence between responsibility and authority. It is said the position was created to satisfy the ambitions of an heir power, while schooling him in the exercising of it. The eldest child in the royal family assumes the position upon the sixteenth birthday. Under King Shrewd, Prince Chivalry first became king in waiting. When Chivalry abdicated and Prince Verity became king-in-waiting, he inherited all the war with Outislanders, and the civil unrest this situation created between the Inland and Coastal Duchies.

This is the story of FitzChivalry. Even, Molly, his girl, did not suspect he was the Bastard, the unacknowledged son that ad toppled Prince Chivalry from his place in the line of succession. Everyone just knew he was the scribe’s errand boy, part time helper in the stables, a Keep runner. That alone was big enough secret. He was a Farseer who inherited the magic skill. The ability for the magics known as the Skilled is tied closely to blood relation to the royal Farseer line. One trained in the Skilled is able to reach out to another’s mind, no matter how distant ho distant, and know what he is thinking. Folklore tells of an even older magic, much despised now, known as the Wit. It is said, the Wit gave one the ability to speak tongues of the beasts.

King Shrewd sent Fitz as his assassin with great caravan of folk going to witness the pledging of the Mountain Princess Kettricken as Prince Verity’s bride. His mission was to quietly cause the death of her older brother, Prince Rurisk, subtly of course, so that she would be left the sole heir to the Mountain throne. But what he found when he arrived there was a web of deceit and lies engineered by his youngest uncle, Prince Regal, who hoped the topple Verity from the line of succession and claim the Princess as his own bride. Fitz was the pawn he would sacrifice for this goal; and he was the pawn who instead toppled the game pieces around him, bringing his wrath and vengeance down on myself, but saving the crown and the Princess for Prince Verity.

Long after he had defeated Regal’s plot, he lingered in a sickbed in the Mountain Kingdom. For the last time Burrich, Hands, and he sat down to break fast with Jonqui. Jonqui, the healer, had done every ways toward healing him. The poison or the beating damaged something permanently. He was not the only one who had fallen to Regal’s treachery. Burrich himself was but newly recovered from a skull blow that would have killed anyone less thick-headed than he.

Every part of him ached. He watched the tide of death rise to inundate the little town. The Outislander pirates leaped from the ship to the docks ad flowed up into the village. They trickled silently up the streets in bands of twos and threes, as deadly as poison unfurling in dock. These Raiders took no real booty.

Buckkeep hold overlooks the finest deep-water harbor in the six Duchies. The town of Buckkeep clings precariously to the cliffs, well away from the great river’s floodplain, with a good portion of it built by lander raids. With each succeeding generation of the Farseer line, the walls were fortified and the towers built taller and stouter. Since Taker, the founder of the Farseer line, Buckkeep has never fallen to enemy hands.

To Fitz, Burrich was not just a Hand. He has saved Fitz from death, he gave him his life since he was six. Chivalry was his father, but he never met him. Burrich had fathered him in years.

Princes Patience, Chivalry’s wife, reminded Fitz about his position in the royal household. He was royal blood. He must have the King’s permission to marry. Fitz had never really set out to court Molly, a childhood friend. Molly was living a lifetime of casual cruelty. In helping Fitz, Prince Patience, his father’s widow, set Molly as one of her serving women. She would civilize Molly, the ways of court. She must be accepted by the women of the court as one of Patience’s ladies – not the Bastard’s woman.

It had always been the custom and the expectancy that when a King or Queen of Buckkeep wed, the royal spouse would bring an entourage of his or her own as attendants. Such had the case with both of Shrewd’s queens. But when Queen Kettricken of the Mountains came to Buckkeep, she came as Sacrifice, as was her country’s custom. She came alone, with no women or men to attend her, not even a maid to be a confidante. She began her reign surrounded completely by strangers, not just at her won social level, but extending down to servants. As time progressed she gathered friends to her, and found servants as well who suite her.

In times of peace, the teaching of the Skill was restricted to those of royal blood, to keep the magic more exclusive and reduce the chance of it being turned against the King. Thus, when Galen became apprentice to Skill Master Solicity, his duties consisted of assisting in completing training of Chivalry and Verity. No others were receiving instruction at that time. Regl, a delicate child, was judged by his own mother to be too sickly to withstand the rigors of the Skill training. With the death of Galen and the blasting of Skill sense, Serene rose to be key member of Galen’s coterie. The other surviving members of the group were Justin, Will, Carrod, and Burl.

By the night he ran as a wolf. By the next night Fitz dreamed again so vividly. He awoke knowing that when he blocked from Verity and hence himself his dreams of Molly, he left himself wide to the wolf’s night thoughts. There was a whole realm where not Verity nor any Skilled one could follow him. It was a world bereft of court intrigues or plotting, of worries and plans. His wolf lived in the present. From day to day, he carried only that necessary of his survival. He did not remember how many shrews he had killed two nights ago, but only larger things, such as which game trails yielded the most rabbits to chase or where the spring ran swift enough that it never iced over.

Perhaps the most devastating part of their war with the Red-Ships was the sense helplessness that overpowered the Six Duchies army. The tactics of the Raiders were so incomprehensible that for the first year they stood still as if dazed. The Six Duchies skills were rusty; for too long they had been employed only against pirates who studied their seacoasts, their watch-tower position, their tides and currents, they were like children. Only Prince Verity’s Skilling provided any protection for them. How many ships he turned aside, how many navigators he muddled or pilots he confused, nobody knows.

King-in-Waiting Verity has asked Fitz to bring message for Queen Kettricken. Her look was pleasant, her eyes kind, but he did not sense she was really there at all.

Winterfest is as much a celebration of the light. For the first three days of Winterfeast, they pay homage to the darkness. The tales told and puppet shows presented are those that tell of resting of times and happy endings. The foods are salt fish and smoked flesh, harvested roots and fruit from last summer. The next three days are days that look toward the coming summer.

Molly, he thought, had healed with a touch what all the herbs and rest in a year could never have put the rights. The day suddenly stretched long in front of him, full of unbearable minutes of unendurable hours before nightfall and the kindly dark allowed them to be together again. He set her resolutely from his mind and resolved to fill the day with tasks. A dozen immediately leaped to mind. He had been neglecting Patience. He had promised his aid with Kettricken’s garden. An explanation was owed to Brother Nighteyes. A visit was owed King Shrewd. Molly kept moving to the top of the list.

King Shrewd was ill, Wallace the healer, tried to abort Fitz’s visiting. He was Regal’s man. Fitz came to report, but finding king’s chamber untidy and musty. The dirty plates left about, the linens of his bed unchanged. Regal stood, hands on hips, very much the man in charge, and stared at Fitz through narrow eyes. He knew that afternoons would now find Regal or Wallace or some spy of theirs always at King Shrewd’s side. His only thought wanted to save his king. King Shrewd was in danger. Forge ones converging still on Buckkeep, the King illness lingering. But King Shrewd’s health has declined much more swiftly than he can account for.

Six Duchies was a country besieged by a ravenous enemy who came to them, only to kill and maim. That was their sole goal. They had no fields to plant, no children to defend, no stock to live their day-to-day lives at the same time they tried to protected themselves from their destruction. The Red-Ships Raiders, their ravages were their day-to-day lives. That singleness of purpose was all they needed to destroy Six Duchies. Meanwhile, they were not warriors; had not been warriors for generations.

The tide of despair swept over him and threatened to pull him down. It swirled around him, but suddenly, in the middle of it, he found a place to stand. A place where the very uselessness of it was funny. Four little warships, not quite finished, with untrained crews. Watchtowers and fire signals to call inept defenders forth to slaughter. Burrich with his ax, and Fitz standing in the cold. Verity staring out the window, while below, Regal fed his own father drugs.

The Red-Ship was drawn up on the sand, just as the Rurisk was. There had been six Duchies men down there on the beach when the Red-Ships arrived. The Raiders were dark skin muscular men, wiry rather than massive. Most were heavily bearded and their hair hung black and wild to their shoulders. They wore body armor of plaited leather, carried heavy blades and axes. Some wore helms of metal. They were confident.

There was no strategy, no formation, no plan of battle. Somewhere, within him, were both Verity and Nighteyes, were drowned in passion of those around him. Fitz killed the first Raider. So the battle ended, and the defenders rushed forth to embrace Duchies’s crew. The autumn of the third year of the Red-Ship War was a bitter one for King-in-Waiting Verity. He came to his father asking his permission for an undertaking. He wished to leave Buckeep with a picked band of men, to attempt to follow the same path King Wisdom too so long ago. He wish to journey that winter to the Rain Wilds beyond Mountain Kingdom, to find the Elderlings and ask them to keep the pledge they made to Duchies’s ancestor. His queen stayed and represented his reign – protecting his interest. Burrich was leaving with Verity. Twenty-tree days after Verity left, the news went viral. A rider came in, the whole city near gone from the fires they set.

During the years of the Red-Ship raids, the Six Duchies suffered significantly from their atrocities. The folk of the Six Duchies at that time learned a greater hatred of the Outislanders than ever they had felt before. Outislander had been both traders and pirates. Raids were carried out by solitary ships.

Prince Regal was the only child of King Shrewd and Queen Desire to survive birth. Molly was gone. She was not coming back. Prince Verity was reported dead, but Fitz still believed his king was still alive. He tried to reach his uncle, he was too weak. Fitz was accused killing the king. Fitz found Justin and Serene killed the king with the King’s own knife. He was locked, time passed slowly in that unchanging place. He was not given food nor water unless he asked for them. Awake, he was a prisoner of his thoughts and worries. Once he tried to Skill to Verity, but the effort brought on a darkening of his vision and long period of pounding headache. Hunger became constant. As unrelenting as the cold of the cell. He heard the guards twice turn Petience away, heard them refuse to give him the food and bandages she had brought.

King-in-Waiting Regal charged FitzChivalry killed King Shrewd using the Wit. The dukes challenged Regal to prove Fitz’s Wit. If innocent. Fitz will be set in command of Buckkeep. The deaths of Justin and Serene. Stable Master Burrich was renowned during his years at Buckkeep as an extraordinary horse handlers as well as a houndsman and falconer. He began his years of service as a common soldier. Some say his grandmother was of slave stock. As a soldier, his fierceness in battle brought him to the attention of a young Prince Chivalry. His herbal remedy was responsible for halting the out-break of scallers that afflicted the lambs Bearns Duchy following the Blood Plague years. He saved the flocks from total decimation, as well as kept the disease from spreading into Buck Duchy. Burrich told him, just lied down. He trusted the stablemaster. 

Fitz had died in his cell, a day or two after the final beating. The Dukes had been wroth about his death, but Regal had had enough evidence and witness to his Wit magic. Patience had begged that his body not be burned, but be buried whole. He did not have memory of that frozen graveyard. Burrich would not leave him, he awoke him. He was not dead.  

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November 26, 2017

Sepatah Kata

Buku kedua dari trilogi Farseer, diterbitkan di USA dicetak dalam 675 halaman, disampaikan dalam tulisan bagus, namun sayang sekali tidak sepenuhnya dapat menikmati isi ceritanya. Buku ini fiksi fantasi karya Robin Hobb, membawa pembaca bertualang ke sebuah kerajaan bernama Six Duchies, kerajaan dipimpin oleh garis keturunan Farseer yang memiliki kemampuan sihir. Tokoh utamanya FitzChivalry, cucu haram raja, dimandatkan sebagai pembunuh bayaran, assassin. 

Penulis berkebangsaan Amerika, ia sangat lihai dalam mengeluarkan tokohnya satu persatu. Dikarenakan ini buku kedua, hampir pada awal setiap bab menjelaskan jati diri tokoh yang akan dibahas, sangat menolong pembaca seperti saya yang langsung membaca buku ke dua ini.  Kehadiran ilmu hitam dalam buku ini mungkin akan semakin memikat peminat genre fantasi, cukup terasa, ada sedikit kemiripan dengan Game of throne –nya G.R.R. Martin, pada tokoh utama Fitz yang memiliki binatang buas serigala yang bernama Nighteye, atau tokoh singa Aslan pada Narnia-nya C.S. Lewis. Robin Hobb, penulis fantasi hebat, ia mengerjakan kisah fantasi ini semenjak 20 tahun lalu, dan tahun ini menyelesaikan seri ke 16. 

Terjemahan dalam Bahasa Indonesia Royal Assassin (Pembunuh Bayaran), 1996: ringkasan

Di bawah kepemimpinan Raja Shrewd, anak tertua Pangeran Chivalry, adalah putra mahkota, kelak pengganti raja, namun sayang sang pangeran tewas terjatuh dari kuda. Dia tidak memiliki anak, seorang anak haram yang tidak pernah dibesarkan dan ditemuinya bernama FitzChivalry kini tumbuh menjadi seorang pemuda yang memiliki kemampuan majis. Darahnya Farseer, memiliki kemampuan lebih dari orang pada umumnya. Ia memiliki Skilled, mampu membaca pikiran orang lain dan memengaruhinya, mampu mengembara ke tempat lain dan membaca situasi dan pikiran orang-orang di sana. Kemampuan ini sangat bermanfaat dalam perang untuk menaklukan musuh.

Fitz dibesarkan Burrich, sang panglima, kepercayaan raja. Dia diasuh sejak berumur lenam tahun. Paman Fitz, Pangeran Verity kini mengambil posisi pewaris tahta. Ia akan segera menikahi putra Raja Mountain, Putri Kettricken. Raja Shrewd menugaskan Fitz sebagai pembunuh bayaran untuk melenyapkan saudara Kettricken, Rurisk, agar kerajaan Six Duchies menguasai Kerajaan Mountain.

Fitz pun berada dalam rombongan penjemput Kettricken, rencana tidaklah mulus. Regal, paman bungsu Chivalry, dikenal licik ingin membunuh Fitz, abangnya Pangeran Verity, agar Kettricken jatuh dan kerajaan miliknya. Pangeran Regal adalah putra bungsu dari Raja Shrewd, memiliki ibu berbeda dengan dua saudaraya: mendiang Chivalry dan Verity. Fitz dijadikan pion oleh kedua pamannya yang ingin duduk di tahta. Fitz secara resmi adalah anak buah pamannya Verity, walau pamannya mengingatkan Fitz hanyalah seorang anak haram, tidak memiliki peluang kursi tahta. Sisi lain, janda Chivalry, Putri Patience, mengingatkan Fitz tetaplah berdarah Farseer. Segala keputusan hidupnya ditentukan oleh raja, apalagi rencana Fitz hendak menikahi Molly, gadis biasa, teman kecilnya.

Kettricken akhirnya resmi menjadi calon Ratu Six Duchies, mendampingi Pangeran Verity. Fitz melaporkan keadaannya yang lemah akibat plot pamannya Regal yang meracuninya, dan rencana membunuh Verity. Pangeran Verity tidak memercayai laporan Fitz, ia lebih memilih menanamkan keyakinan pada adiknya Regal.

Patience memberi solusi, Molly harus dididik secara kerajaan agar bisa menjadi bagian Farseer. Keinginan Fitz sederhana, hanya ingin hidup normal di luar kerajaan, tanpa jabatan apapun. Patiece menjelaskan itu bukan hal mudah, raja tidak akan menyetujuinya. Molly harus diterima sebagai putri terdidik dan berkelas, bukan diterima sebagai kekasihnya anak haram. Molly pun dijadikan salah satu gadis pelayan Patience, kini Fitz tinggal satu atap dengan gadis pujaannya. Bila selama ini, Fitz sering masuk ke pikiran gadis udik itu lewat kekuatan ilmu hitamnya.

Perang pecah, Raider menyerang kampung-kampung dan membakar warga desa. Raider atau Otislanders dikenal tangguh dan memiliki alat perang kuat, bertolak belakang dengan kerajaan Six Duchies. Bagi Fitz kekuatan Six Duchies seperti lelucon musuh. Postur tubuh raider yang besar dan maskulin dan terlatih, dengan kapal perangnya yang  besar, sementara kapal perang Verity yang hanya empat unit itu pun belum selesai dikerjakan. Leluhur Six Duchies memang bukan petarung. Penjaga menaranya juga tidak terlatih. Kekuatan sihir lebih diandalkan. Namun satu-satunya yang bisa menaklukkan musuh Pangeran Verity. Entah berapa kapal yang sudah ia belokkan lewat keahliannya memengaruhi pikiran. Kekuatan Raider semakin bertambah, perkampungan sudah mulai porak poranda, kekuatan Verity tak mampu melawan.

Pangeran Verity tidak tinggal diam, ia ingin mencari bantuan dari sekutunya Elderlings. Ia membawa serta panglima Burrich bersamanya, Fitz tidak diijinkan ikut. Dalam perjalanan, pasukan Verity diserang sekelompok orang, walau akhirnya berhasil mengalahkan musuh, tapi mereka kekurangan perbekalan makanan membuat banyak pasukan tewas. Burrich selamat, diutus kembali ke pusat kerajaan di kota Buckkkep. Verity sendiri melanjutkan perjalanan misinya.

Tidak berseang lama, Regal mengumumkan Verity telah tewas dan membuat upacara pelepasan rohnya. Raja Shrewd sangat bersedih, dan semakin sakit. Fitz dengan kemampuannya, mendapati Verity masih hidup. Regal pun diangkat menjadi calon Raja, tapi memiliki kekuasaaan raja, kondisi kesehatan raja semakin menurun. Burrich dan Fitz dengan pasukannya menyerang balik the Raiders yang semakin menjadi-jadi, dengan kemampuan sihirnya dan strategi perang Burrich akhirnya the Raiders berhasil ditaklukkan.

Buckkep berduka, Raja Shrewd meninggal dan hasil investigasi mengatakan ia dibunuh. Fitz dikurung dan akan dihukum mati. Fitz mendapati dua orang suruhan Regal membunuh raja dan ia pun melumpuhkan keduanya, Regal malah menuduhnya menjadi pembunuh ayahnya.

Fitz disiksa berat, sebelum dieksekusi.  Beberapa hari dalam penyiksaan, ia ditemukan tewas. Putri Patience memohon Raja Regal agar tidak membakar mayatnya. Burrich hanya tersenyum, Fitz tidak pernah mati.  

******

26 November 2017