followed by Kettle, who is mysteriously knowledgeable about the Skill. The group encounter a road leading to a ruined city, both constructed of a black stone imbued with Skill. The road is perilous for those sensitive to the Skill but without sufficient training. Fitz survives thanks to the guidance of Kettle and his bond with Nighteyes, and also develops a bond with the Fool. They discover a garden full of dragon sculptures that Fitz senses as alive with his Wit, which they realize may be the legendary Elderlings. Beyond the garden is a quarry of Skill stone where they find Verity, frail and obsessed with carving a dragon of his own. Kettle reveals she is the last remaining member of a former royal coterie, though her Skill ability was taken from her. She reveals that the stone dragons were carved by Skilled Farseers and their coteries by Skilling their own memories and emotions into the stone, giving up their lives to animate the dragons. Fitz uses his Skill and Wit to help Verity and Kettle restore each other's Skill strength. They nearly complete the dragon, but Verity does not have enough power left. After learning that Molly and Burrich have fallen in love while caring for her daughter, Fitz offers his own life on the condition that they be left alone. Instead, Verity and Fitz's minds switch bodies, allowing Verity to share a last night with Kettricken and providing the final surge of emotion and memory needed. Verity becomes the dragon and flies with Kettricken and Starling to defend Buckkeep. The Fool inadvertently wakes another incomplete dragon while Fitz faces Regal's men. He learns how to wake the other dragons with a combination of blood and Wit. The risen dragons defeat the soldiers and Will, and are then led by Verity-as-Dragon to defeat the Red Ship Raiders. With his coterie broken, Regal has no defense against Fitz's Skill. Instead of killing him, Fitz imprints him with fanatical loyalty to Kettricken and the Six Duchies. Regal restores Buckkeep and ensures the legitimacy of Kettricken and Verity's heir she is left pregnant with, Prince Dutiful. After the Raiders are defeated, the dragons return to the mountains to sleep as stone again. The Fool disappears, the prophecy of the Catalyst apparently fulfilled. Fitz retires into anonymity and travels for several years. Chade and Starling are some of the few who know he still