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Prologue

BATTLING FATE

The White Prophet's premise seems simple He wished to set the world in a different path than the one it had rolled on through soto him, time always repeats itself, and in every repetition, people make most of the same foolish iving in to appetites and desires, convinced that what they do does not s

According to the White Prophet, nothing could be further froes the world into a better path An accue the world The fate of the world can pivot on one man's death Or turn a different way because of his survival And as I to the White Prophet? I was his Catalyst The Changer I was the stone he would set to bump time's wheels out of its rut A small pebble can turn a wheel out of its path, he told me, but warned me that it was seldom a pleasant experience for the pebble

The White Prophet claimed that he had seen, not just the future, but many possible futures, and most of them were drearily similar But in a very few cases, there was a difference, and that difference led to a shining realm of new possibilities

The first difference was the existence of a Farseer heir, one who survived That wasme away from the deaths that constantly tried to eliminate me so that time's wheels could jolt back into their comfortable ruts, became his life's work Death and near-death sed ed ain He used ret

And he succeeded in diverting fate from its preordained path into one that would be better for the world So he said But there were people who did not share his opinion, people who envisioned a future without a Farseer heir and without dragons One of the herself of the fool who stood in her way

Chapter 1

LIZARDS

Sometimes it seeh the years, sinking claws into one's life and twisting all that follows it Yet perhaps that is the ultimate justice: we are the sum of all we have done added to the su that, not for any of us

So it was that everything that the Fool had ever said to s he'd left unsaid combined And the sum was that I betrayed him Yet I believed that I acted in his best interests, and mine He had foretold that if ent to Aslevjal Island, he would die and Death ht make another snap of his jaws at me He prorand schee the future required it But with my latest brush with death still fresh inthan reassuring He had also blithely informed me that once ere on the island, I would have to choose between our friendship and my loyalty to Prince Dutiful

Perhaps I could have faced one of those things and stood strong before it, but I doubt it Any one of those things was enough to unth

So I went to Chade I told hied that e sailed for the Out Islands, the Fool would not go with us

Spring had corim black stone edifice still crouched suspiciously on the steep cliffs above Buckkeep Town, but on the rolling hills behind the keep, new green grass was pushing opti brown straw of last year's growth The bare-li on every tree branch The wintry mounds of dead kelp on the black beaches at the foot of the cliffs had been swept away by the tides Migratory birds had returned, and their songs rang challenges in the forested hills and along the beaches where seabirds battled for choice nesting nooks in the cliffs Spring had even invaded the died cha flowers graced every alcove and fra rooms

The warloom away None ofcan dismiss a multitude of worries My physical state had improved; I felt more youthful than I had in ain, but I suddenly possessed the body that a fit one at the inexperienced hands of the coterie had inadvertently undone old dae as well Abuse I had suffered at Galen's hands in the course of his teaching me the Skill, injuries I had taken as a warrior, and the deep scars froeons had been erased My headaches had nearly ceased, er blurred when I eary, and I did not ache in the chill of earlyand healthy aniood health on a clear spring