Lemonade Book Reviews

SMITHYYYYYYYYY.

CW: this post will discuss sexual assault again. Another warning will appear before that part of the discussion.

This section provides the connective tissue between what was set up at the beginning of the book and the resolution of those arcs. We see the conclusion of Fitz’s formal Skill education, his brief service to Skill-addicted Verity, and the beginning of the trip to the mountains for Verity’s wedding. There’s a lot to get through (again lol), so let’s jump in.

Summary

Fitz sees how bad Burrich beat Galen up and realizes how much power he was allowing Galen to have over his life. Fitz can no longer Skill on command and he believes that he can’t Skill at all for some reason (it’s a surprise tool that will help us later). Galen and the other students continue to treat him like shit and exclude him, but it’s unclear if Galen is actually trying to reach out to Fitz with the Skill or if he’s just pretending to make Fitz feel even worse. Galen is trying to make a coterie that can help Verity repel the Red Ship Raiders, but Fitz is clearly not a part of it. He reconnects with his support system in the castle and realizes he has feelings for Molly (shocker). Galen decides that his students are ready for their final test in the Skill and tells them that they’ll be abandoned in the wilderness and will have to get back to Buckkeep together using the Skill.

Fitz knows that he isn’t going to be tested fairly, and he’s right. Galen sends him north of Forge without a horse (unlike the rest of the students), and I don’t think Galen was ever going to reach out to Fitz with the Skill. I think he hoped Fitz would die from Forged ones before getting back to Buckkeep. To stack the deck in his favor even more, Galen attempts to kill Burrich while Fitz is away. Fitz says “well maybe it wasn’t him” but for reasons I will get into later, it is pretty obvious that Galen is the one behind the attempt on Burrich’s life and Smithy’s death (even if he isn’t the one who held the knife). Fitz doesn’t make it back to Buckkeep before Smithy dies, and Burrich lies to Fitz about what happened. Fitz exposes that he and Smithy were Wit bonded, and Burrich freezes Fitz out of his life. This causes Fitz to drop into a deep depression.

Fitz is surly towards everyone until Chade shames him out of his depression (don’t get me started on that one) and gives him a job: take care of Verity while he spends all day Skilling to confuse and misdirect the Red Ship Raiders. This is relatively good for Fitz, because it gives him a routine and he gets to take care of Verity’s dog while being excluded from the stables. One day Verity goes inside of Fitz’s mind using the Skill and realizes that Galen left a Skill cloud in Fitz’s brain that prevents Fitz from knowing that he can Skill. Upon removing the block, Fitz realizes what happened to him–during the moment that Galen was invading his brain, before Fitz flung them both into the Skill current, Galen Skilled Fitz to think that he was unable to Skill and to be depressed. Fitz gets mad (rightfully), but Verity talks him down before going back to Skilling. Helping Fitz prevents Verity from eating, so Fitz offers to lend him strength. Verity takes him up on his offer after he says he’s a “King’s Man”, and this ends up draining Fitz’s energy. Verity realizes that Shrewd and Chade placed Fitz at his beck and call for the express purpose of leaching Fitz’s strength using the Skill, which puts an end to Fitz being Verity’s serving boy. His new job is riding around the countryside with poisoned bread for Forged ones to eat (15 years old BTW).

Simultaneously, Regal is arranging a marriage for Verity with a princess from the Mountain Kingdom. Verity is not happy about this for a variety of reasons, the most important being that he doesn’t want to take time away from the coast and confusing the Red Ship navigators with the Skill. Shrewd hears and does not care about his objections. After Verity storms out, Shrewd tells Fitz that he’s going to have a job on Verity’s wedding expedition: killing the sickly King-in-Waiting (Rurisk) in the mountains. If he dies, the Mountain princess Kettricken is the sole heir to the Mountain Kingdom, so her marriage to Verity would give the Six Duchies an opportunity to take a 7th duchy through diplomacy. We also learn that Regal is unSkilled during this conversation. When Fitz brings up killing the Mountain prince to Chade, Chade says he was unaware of the assignment (and it seems like he’s telling the truth).

Fitz receives a couple gifts before he leaves for the Mountain Kingdom, one from the Fool and one from Patience. The Fool meets him in his room and gives him an emetic and a warning that someone is going to try to poison him, which Fitz doesn’t really know how to react to. Fitz is also feeling awkward because he had recently gone into the Fool’s private room without permission, but nothing really comes out of that. Patience gives Fitz an earring (it’s a surprise tool that’ll help us later) and forgives him for being surly and mean after he failed Galen’s training.

Fitz journeys to the Mountain Kingdom with a massive party that does not include Verity. Instead, Verity will be present at the ceremony by watching through the eyes of his recently Skill-trained cousin (August) as his representative (Regal) marries Kettricken. This journey includes a lot of worldbuilding about the Mountain Kingdom, and the most important idea we’re introduced to is that the leaders of the Mountain Kingdom are thought of as the Sacrifice of their people. The idea is rather than the people serving their monarch (as it is in the Six Duchies), the monarch serves the people (more like the hollow promise of American democracy).

Once settled in Jhaampe, the capital of the Mountain Kingdom, Fitz makes quick friends with the Mountain King’s sister Jonqui and the Mountain prince Rurisk, who it turns out is not sickly. The entire situation in Jhaampe is turned on its head because not only is Rurisk in good health, Regal told Kettricken that Fitz is the royal poisoner’s apprentice. Fitz has no time to politely go off and re-evaluate what’s happening before Kettricken takes him on a tour of the gardens outside the royal palace. He and Kettricken have a conversation where he reassures her Verity isn’t an old toad (which is what Regal led her to believe), and then Rurisk and Jonqui join them. Fitz realizes he’s been poisoned at this point and rushes back to his room to take the Fool’s emetic, and we’re left on a cliff hanger before the next section.

General thoughts

The three main things that happen in this section are Smithy’s death, Fitz assisting Verity/learning how much of a pawn he is, and the inauspicious beginning of Fitz’s journey to the Mountain Kingdom. I’ll talk about Smithy’s death more in the gay corner, since it leads to a really intense scene with Burrich. I’ll also talk a bit about Fitz’s testing process in the Neurodivergent corner, but not much happens in this section with respect to that theme. I’ll talk about Fitz’s various misadventures here.

We actually learn about Verity’s impending nuptials from Molly. Fitz unintentionally Skills (don’t believe me? quoted below) her to hang out with him for a while, and they gossip about who the best woman for Verity would be.

“‘There’s not that much daylight left,’ I said persuasively. ‘You can always dip tapers this evening. And your customers will come back tomorrow if they find you closed today.’
She cocked her head, looked thoughtful, and abruptly set aside the wicking she held. ‘You’re right, you know. The fresh air will do me good.’ – Fitz and Molly, page 286

Fitz isn’t in control of his Skilling at this point, but intent isn’t necessary for using the Skill. He just wanted to hang out with his crush real bad, which is sweet. This scene is hilarious to me because Fitz is saying literally everything right to woo Molly and he doesn’t realize it. He just thinks the perfect woman is her–omg but not her her, just a woman like her wait Molly where are you going come back. This is such an adolescent move (had both girls and boys pull this on me in middle school and early high school, shout out bisexuality) from both him and Molly that I can’t help but find it endearing. It is very difficult for me to ignore a crush, so I was typically the one in Molly’s position where I was reading way too much into what my romantic partner was saying. Sadly, I never knew anyone as smooth as Fitz (looooooooow bar) in middle school. This is one of the only romantic scenes of theirs that I really like, so I’m shouting it out for the FitzMolly lovers (idk what their ship name is).

I also bring this up because Fitz doesn’t give himself enough credit for his Skill ability. He downplays it significantly in the narrative, but he is able to implant Skill suggestions in other people’s minds and communicate with them sometimes. It’s simply very erratic. I think this is such a good metaphor for trying to be a human again after experiencing a major trauma. We learn from Verity that Fitz has incredibly strong, thick walls up that even Verity (who is very strongly Skilled) can’t get through. CW: Discussion of sexual assault here It seems that, in addition to the years of emotional neglect, having his mind essentially raped by Galen has made Fitz completely unable to let anyone in, regardless of their intentions. Fitz specifically says at one point

“But I could no more allow him inside my mind than I could stand complacent while a man slid a sword between my ribs.” – Narrator Fitz, page 294

Letting people in is now a life or death-level danger to Fitz. I can’t really expand on that because what can I say that explains it better than the quote itself? There’s nothing. Psychological wounds and illnesses are treated as less important/critical than physical wounds and illnesses in our society, which is fucked up. I mentioned in the last section that everyone is nice to Fitz after he gets assaulted by Galen because Fitz is physically beat by Galen in addition to mental/emotional assault. If all Galen had done was psychologically scar Fitz, I don’t think we would’ve gotten Burrich beating him the fuck up and I don’t think people would acknowledge how traumatic that series of events was for Fitz, just like what happens to survivors of non-physical abuse in real life. End CW

Verity is one of the few characters Fitz allows himself to unabashedly love in this series and also one of the few who treats Fitz like slightly more than a pawn. He also has a complicated relationship with Shrewd (yet another example of shitty fatherhood that Fitz directly witnesses). I like Verity, but I want to keep a close eye on him. Fitz’s love for Verity is obvious from how he’s presented in the narrative, but does Verity deserve it, or is he just less bad than every other adult in Fitz’s life? So far, I think he’s genuinely better than most of the other adults “raising” Fitz. Once he realizes how little Fitz has been told about himself and his place in the world, he tries to get that information to Fitz. I also can’t really blame him for assuming Burrich would be a more emotionally capable parent than Burrich actually was, since Burrich was/is essentially his brother-in-law and was amazing to Chivalry.

I mentioned in an earlier post wanting to track how the royal characters’ behavior matches their names. With Verity, I think the question is less if he is being honest and more about if Fitz is being honest in his portrayal of Verity. We see Verity be relatively honest with Fitz in this section, both when Fitz is serving him while he Skills and during the conversation he has with the King about marrying Kettricken. He also makes sure to say things to Shrewd that Shrewd doesn’t want Fitz to know, and from the way Fitz talks about him, it’s clear that he’s a very straightforward man. I’m not sure if he’s being honest about not being able to Skill on the way to the Mountain Kingdom, though. I think the points he raises about being unable to focus in a shaky litter and not wanting to be seen as an invalid by the Mountain people are valid, but I also don’t think they’re as big a deal as Verity is making them out to be. I think Verity is supposed to be a representation of loving an addict.

“Some days it was like speaking to a child or a doddering oldster. On others, he asked after Leon and quizzed me about matters down in Buckkeep Town.” – Narrator Fitz, page 337

The especially complicated part of this is Fitz and his relationship to the Skill. Addiction runs in my family, although neither of my parents are addicts. I have always known that I have to be careful about how I consume alcohol, but it’s not like I was being told I needed to drink to protect my country and be a proud member of my family at age 13 (I actually didn’t even learn about my family history of addiction until I was 13). The first time I got drunk, I did understand how other people could get addicted to alcohol – it was fun and made my brain quieter. When Fitz goes into Galen’s mind and accidentally sends them both into the Skill current, he feels the addictive high of the Skill. He then watches as the only adult who is nice to him falls far into the addiction for “heroic” purposes. This DEEPLY shapes Fitz’s relationship with the Skill in the future, and it’ll be something that comes up a lot in Royal Assassin.

Gay Corner

I’ve spent enough time beating around the bush: it’s time to talk about Smithy. The first time I read the book, I was so shocked when he died because Nosy had already died and I didn’t think there would be two dog deaths in a book. How wrong I was. Smithy is so pure of heart and I absolutely love him. Whereas Fitz and Nosy seemed to share more of an empathy link, Smithy and Fitz can communicate verbally a bit more, and Smithy stops Fitz from killing himself at least twice. Unfortunately, I think he was caught in the crossfire of Galen being unable to handle Fitz being stronger than him.

“‘I must ask,’ he said, and the venom in his voice was hungry with hatred. ‘Are you his catamite, that he lets you suck strength from him? Is that why he is so possessive of you?’
‘Catamite?’ I repeated, not knowing the word.
He smiled. It made his cadaverous face even more skull-like. ‘Did you think I hadn’t discovered him? Did you think you’d be free to draw on his strength for this test? You won’t. Be assured, bastard, you won’t.’ – Galen and Fitz, page 298

“Catamite” is the term used for a young boy whose mentor figure has sex with him. I don’t think Galen had any idea Smithy existed because it doesn’t otherwise make sense for him to say this about Burrich. Galen had beef with Fitz because he had beef with Chivalry but was unable to feel or express it due to the Skill and Fitz is Chivalry’s spitting image. I don’t think it’s a stretch to imagine that he would have an issue with Burrich by extension. He’s also calling Burrich gay in a pretty homophobic way. However, I don’t think he would try to murder Burrich essentially for shiggles if his true target was Smithy. Additionally, the attacker doesn’t bother with Smithy until Smithy defends Burrich. Both Burrich and Smithy are left barely alive after this.

Smithy gives the remainder of his life to help Fitz get away from Forged Ones in Forge. When Fitz returns after his test and meets Burrich in the infirmary, Burrich tries to soften the blow of losing Smithy, but Fitz can’t bear the lie. He calls Burrich out, and this leads to Burrich saying a bunch of Wit-phobic things and freezing Fitz out of his life. This scene is pretty brutal, and I do not like Burrich in this moment. It seems like Burrich was willfully ignorant of Fitz and Smithy’s relationship (he calls Fitz out on it before Fitz leaves for the Skill test), but Fitz naming what’s going on is unacceptable. Also, Fitz just lost his Wit partner. That’s not an easy loss to overcome, and Burrich leaves him hanging out to dry. I wish Burrich was capable of loving Fitz in the way Fitz deserves in this instance, but the fact that he’s not is unfortunately good character writing.

Side gay thing that I almost forgot about: Fitz finding the Fool’s room. He says he doesn’t know why he needed to see it, but I think it’s pretty normal to want to know more about your crush (even if the crush is unacknowledged).

“I went slowly down the myriad steps, torn between dread that I might encounter the Fool coming up and burdened with the knowledge that I had discovered one denizen of the keep who was at least as alone as I was.” – Narrator Fitz, page 359

Gay.

Neurodivergent corner

Galen knows Fitz is stronger than every other student he’s teaching, so he decides to try to cripple Fitz’s strength at every opportunity. He also makes sure Fitz’s test is unfair. I brought this up in my last RotE post, but this reminds me of some teachers I’ve had who were mad I was smarter than them. Also, being held to a different standard in an exam due to natural strength/competency with a subject is something I personally experienced. That’s not really a neurodivergent thing, I just relate to Fitz too much and my autism deeply affected my testing process in graduate school. Shout out to Andrei Tokmakoff at UChicago, who literally told me he was holding me to a higher standard for no reason at all.

Final thoughts

I didn’t talk at all about what happens in the Mountain Kingdom in this post, but honestly, I think it fits better to talk about everything that happens there in the next post. Rurisk mentions that he and Chivalry negotiated with each other over borders 10-15 years ago, and we learn even more about Chivalry from Rurisk in the next section. Kettricken is one of my favorite characters in the series, and the person I actually kinda ship with Fitz, so it feels like a shame to not make a big deal out of her right now. She’s very plucky, and she represents an unusual (at least to me) archetype in fantasy novels. I did really appreciate Rurisk speaking Chyurda with Fitz to exclude August from their conversation.