Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

Description

In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma. Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of ChivalryFarseer, is a royal bastard cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals the old art known as the Wit gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic and one abhorred by the nobility. So when Fitz is finally adopted into the royal household, he must give up his old ways and embrace a new life of weaponry, scribing, courtly manners and how to kill a man secretly, as he trains to become a royal assassin.