absence, Regal plots to kill his father, King Shrewd, and the pregnant Kettricken. Shrewd dies despite Fitz's efforts, and Fitz is accused of his murder. Regal has him tortured, trying to wrest a confession; on the brink of death, he retreats to Nighteyes' body at the wolf's plea. His seemingly dead body is buried. Burrich and Chade later exhume the body and persuade Fitz to return to it, which he does with regret. Assassin's Quest Fitz spends several months fighting trauma and seizures but is nursed back to health by Burrich. He learns that Regal has taken the throne, and moved the capital inland; taking on a new identity, Fitz travels west, intending to kill Regal. He encounters a community of Witted practitioners known as the Old Blood, whom he learns from but refuses to stay with for long. Sneaking into Regal's palace, Fitz is captured by Regal's Skilled coterie. He narrowly escapes with the help of Prince Verity, who uses the Skill from afar through their link. Fitz learns that Molly is pregnant with their child and that both Molly and Burrich believe him dead. Wishing to return to them, he is instead compelled to find Verity due to a Skill-summons. Traveling toward the Mountain Kingdom, he is hunted and twice captured by Regal's forces, but escapes. Pursued over the border and severely injured, he is found and tended to by the Fool, and later meets Kettricken, who fled from the Six Duchies after Shrewd's death. The group follows in Verity's footsteps, seeking to aid him. Journeying out of the Mountain Kingdom on a road wrought with the Skill, they find Verity in a quarry of magical stone, surrounded by inanimate stone dragons. Verity is attempting to carve a dragon himself and awaken it by Skilling his memories, thoughts, and feelings into the stone. With the group's aid, he is successful but loses his humanity to become the stone dragon. Verity, as a dragon, flies to Buckkeep carrying the rest of the group to combat the raiders. Fitz remains behind with Nighteyes and manages to awaken the other stone dragons, who follow Verity. Fitz battles Regal with the Skill and defeats him, and slays his coterie. Having seen in a Skill vision that Molly and Burrich have fallen in love, he chooses to mask his identity and remain an outcast, living with Nighteyes at the edge of society. Verity