Gavriel · The full story
The lion who came home
The gentlest of Maeve's killers carried the names of everyone he'd ever led to their deaths on his skin — and never knew the one name that would have meant the most.
THE LION
The names inked all over his body are all people he couldn't save.
He is the Lion of Doranelle, a great tawny cat and one of the strongest of the Cadre — and, underneath, the gentlest of them. Rowan is the one who inks the Cadre's tattoos, and what he inks onto Gavriel are the names of the soldiers who died under Gavriel's command: a band of black around his throat, a line running from his chest down his ribs to his hip. A warrior other characters find fearsome, keeping a private ledger of his own dead in his skin, where he cannot help but see it.
THE OATH'S CRUELTY
He obeys Maeve with a carefully empty face.
Blood-sworn like the rest, he does what she commands whether or not he wants to. At Doranelle she orders him and Lorcan to whip Rowan, and he does it with no remorse allowed to show, tawny eyes gone deliberately blank — the oath does not permit the feeling to reach his face. She sends him with Fenrys to Skull's Bay to warn Rolfe of her armada and to hunt Lorcan down. He is proof of the oath's real horror: it takes the kindest man in the room and makes him the hand that does the cruel thing.
THE SON
Rowan works it out from a face across a room.
Meeting Aedion, Rowan sees the resemblance and realises Gavriel is his father. Aedion's mother, an Ashryver, had hidden the pregnancy for exactly one reason: so Maeve could never claim the child through Gavriel's blood oath. The first reunion at Skull's Bay goes badly — Aedion, remembering what his mother suffered, is overcome with anger at the father who was never there and storms off. And Gavriel stands speechless, learning that for twenty-four years he has had a son, and that the son has every reason to hate him.
THE WESTERN GATE
He gets one gate, and then he gives his life to close it.
Free of Maeve at last, he wants to swear to Aelin — and she refuses to take his oath until Aedion has sworn his first, so his son will always know she put him ahead of his father. At Orynth, Gavriel asks Aedion whether he'd like to hold a gate together; it is the paternal acceptance offered sideways, and it comes minutes before the end. When the western gate is breached he steps beyond it alone, brings a wall of magic down to seal it, and doesn't get clear. Afterward Aelin swears the oath with him anyway, and his name goes into the Knot over Aedion's heart.
The lion who came home
A soldier who spent four centuries grieving strangers, handed one chance to be something other than a weapon.
Mistward
The Cadre answers Rowan's call at the besieged fortress, and of them all only Gavriel breaks off to help Celaena fight the Valg princes, throwing up shields of his own.
The names
Rowan inks the dead of Gavriel's command into his skin — a band round the throat, a line down the ribs. He wears his grief where he'll always see it.
The whipping
Maeve orders him to whip Rowan at Doranelle; the oath compels it, and no remorse is allowed onto his carefully empty face.
Skull's Bay
Sent with Fenrys to warn Rolfe of Maeve's armada and to hunt and kill Lorcan for deserting her.
A son, named
Rowan recognises Aedion as Gavriel's child and warns him Maeve must never learn — she would claim the boy through the blood oath.
The bad reunion
Their first meeting at Skull's Bay goes badly; Aedion, furious at the absent father, walks away.
The oath severed
After Aelin is captured, Gavriel begs Maeve to take his life instead of hers. She refuses, and severs his oath as punishment.
The search
He rides north with Rowan, Lorcan, Fenrys and Elide to find the captured Aelin, and is the steady, gentle one who comforts Elide through it.
Anielle
He and Lorcan cut their way down a siege tower onto the field and hold the main gate against Morath.
The oath he never gets to swear
Aelin will accept his oath only after Aedion swears his first — so the son knows he came before the father.
A gate, together
At Orynth he asks Aedion if he'd like to hold a gate with him. It is an offer to be his father, and the son says yes.
Close the gate, Aedion
When the western gate breaks he steps beyond it alone, brings a wall of magic down to seal it, and dies so his son and the city live.
What he carried
A warrior whose most personal possession was a list of the dead.
- The name-tattoosEvery soldier who died under his command, inked by Rowan in a band round his throat and down his ribs. He wore his grief where he could not look away from it.
- The lionHis shift — four centuries of feline instinct and Fae strength. It's what lets him hold a raging Rowan back on the battlements, and what he becomes at the western gate.
- His name, added laterAfter Orynth, Rowan, Fenrys and Lorcan tattoo Gavriel's name in the Old Language — the same rite he'd carried for his own dead — and Aedion adds it to the Knot over his heart.
Close the gate, Aedion.
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