
Return to the world of the Farseers... Robin Hobb's best loved characters Fitz The Fool & Nighteyes the wolf face new adventures & trials in the first book of The Tawny Man trilogy. When Assassin's Quest closed Fitz was living in self-imposed exile. Wracked with pain he had chosen to discard the magical gifts that had seen him survive the wonders & torments of navigating the legendary city of the Elderlings & of raising a dragon. Now in this the first of a new trilogy we are returned to the world of the Six Duchies & the lives of those who managed to survive the events of the first Assassin trilogy. Fifteen years have passed & events are about to sweep Fitz out of his quiet backwater life & into the main political current again. Persecution of the Witted has become rampant throughout the Six Duchies despite Queen Kettricken's effort to damp it. The Witted themselves have begun to strike back. So when 15 year old Prince Dutiful disappears is it only because he is nervous about his betrothal ceremony to an Outislander princess or has he been taken hostage by the Witted? Worse is he perhaps another ' Piebald Prince' a Farseer tainted by Wit magic? As the desperate situation worsens Kettricken has no choice but to summon Fitz to Buckkeep for who better to track the young prince down than another gifted with the Wit together with his bonded companion the wolf Nighteyes?