Fifteen years after the events of the Farseer trilogy, FitzChivalry Farseer lives in quiet, self-imposed exile in a remote cottage, presumed dead by most who once knew him. He shares his days with his bonded wolf, Nighteyes, and an adopted son, Hap, content to have left the intrigues of Buckkeep behind. That peace ends when visitors arrive: his old assassin's mentor Chade, the hedge-witch Jinna, and the Fool, the former White Prophet, now returned in the guise of the wealthy nobleman Lord Golden. The Fool insists that Fitz still has a role to play as his Catalyst. Then comes a summons Fitz cannot refuse. Prince Dutiful, the young heir to the Farseer throne, has vanished only days before a diplomatic betrothal to an Outislander princess that the Six Duchies cannot afford to jeopardize. Fitz, who carries both the royal Skill and the persecuted beast-magic called the Wit, is sent to recover the boy. His search draws him into the world of the Piebalds, a militant faction of Witted folk, and forces him to confront the dangers of the Wit-bond, the resurgence of old enemies, and the costs of the life he tried to abandon. Hobb tells the story in Fitz's reflective first-person voice, weaving political stakes with an intimate study of loyalty, aging, and chosen purpose.
