Old Hobb Reed has a compact, sturdy silhouette, with a round belly beneath a forward-leaning cook's stoop and a gait that makes little wasted motion. His skin is browned and freckled like old bread crust, his close-cropped hair is the gray of hearth ash, and his clear hazel eyes keep checking the edges of a room as if counting exits. His beard is braided into two short cords to keep it out of the stew. He smells strongly of toasted barley, smoke, and the sharp medicinal tang of crushed yarrow; he knows it and claims the smell means the kettle is doing its job. His unexpected distinction is a tiny, carefully maintained collection of pressed wildflowers tucked inside his battered recipe book, each labeled in a precise schoolmaster's hand.

Hobb is patient with pain and bad manners, yet exacting about practical care. He can coax a frightened child into eating and then snap at a careless guard for spilling clean water. In a quiet camp he is warm, curious, and surprisingly sentimental; under immediate pressure he becomes clipped and stubborn, focusing on tasks rather than feelings. He dislikes praise for his courage and enjoys praise for his broth.

Hobb learned to cook in a roadside hospice, where his mother taught him that hungry people make poor patients and poor allies. He first carried a torch for a caravan through the salt marshes, then stayed on when a border company hired him to tend its fires and its wounded. During the Siege of Greybarrow, he kept a kettle simmering through three assaults, using the same dentless iron pot to boil water, prepare broth, and sterilize instruments. The kettle became a camp legend, though Hobb insists it is only well-made. In the final assault, a panicked order sent him away from a wounded scout named Tziv, who died before Hobb could return. Hobb has since refused to leave the injured behind, even when doing so is dangerous. He now works between hamlets, treating travelers and feeding whoever arrives at his fire. His former quartermaster, Ghrast, wants him to testify about supplies stolen during that siege; his apprentice, Drem, wants Hobb to stop treating every injured stranger as a debt he must repay. Hobb is also trying to find Tziv's younger sister, who may still be searching for the truth.