Shrewd’s Brooch – Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy

"Red stone winking from a nest of silver"

I’ve loved Robin Hobb’s Farseer books since I first picked them up years ago.  Here’s my take on the brooch King Shrewd bestows on the main character, Fitz, as a token of loyalty.   Fitz, being only six years old at the time, doesn’t fully appreciate what he’s gotten himself into by accepting.

“Come here.”

I walked to him slowly.  When I reached him, he got down on one knee, to be eye to eye with me.  The Fool knelt solemnly beside us, looking earnestly from face to face.  Regal glared down at all of us.  At the time I never grasped the irony of the old King genuflecting to his bastard grandson.  So I was solemn as he took the tart from out of my hands and tossed it to the puppies who had trailed after me.  He drew a pin from the folds of silk at his throat and solemnly pushed it through the simple wool of my shirt.

“Now you are mine,” he said, and made that claiming of me more important than any blood we shared. “You need not eat any man’s leavings.  I will keep you, and I will keep you well. If any man or woman ever seeks to turn you against me by offering you more than I do, then come to me, and tell me of the offer, and I shall meet it.  You will never find me a stingy man, nor be able to cite ill use as a reason for treason against me.  Do you believe me, boy?”…

I nodded, in the mute way that was still my habit, but his steady brown eyes demanded more.  I glanced down at the red stone that winked in a nest of silver. … “Yes, sir,” I managed again.

Ingredients:  .4 gram Ruby Spinel,  2 feet of sterling silver wire

(Italicized quote above by Robin Hobb in her book Assassin’s Apprentice)