Tarquin

Character from acotar-frost-and-starlight by

The young High Lord of the Summer Court, idealistic and open-handed, who inherited a throne of sun-warmed stone and pearl-divers and is determined to rule it with honor rather than fear.

Tarquin is the youngest High Lord in Prythian, having taken the Summer throne after his cousin and predecessor was murdered by Amarantha Under the Mountain, and he rules with a generosity and trust that his older, more cynical peers consider naive. He believes in the old ideals of honor, hospitality, and fair dealing, and he has opened Adriata's ports and his own table to all who come in peace — a policy that has made him beloved by his people and a target for the scheming of older courts. He is quick to laugh, quicker to offer aid, and slow to suspect betrayal, but he is not a fool: he learned Under the Mountain that kindness must be backed by steel, and he carries a blade of water-hardened coral at his hip.

Appearance

Tarquin is tall and lean, with sun-bronzed skin that glows like polished amber and hair the color of pale sea-foam, cropped short and swept back from a face that looks younger than his centuries. His eyes are a startling, clear turquoise — the color of the shallows off Adriata — and he dresses in flowing linens and silks of white, blue, and gold, with a diadem of coral and pearl resting on his brow. He moves with the easy, rolling grace of a man who has spent his life on the water, and when he smiles, it is open and unguarded in a way that makes other High Lords uneasy.

Also known as: Tarquin, High Lord of Summer, Lord of Adriata, the Young High Lord, the Pearl Lord, the Sun-Blessed

What They Know

• Tarquin knows the precise location of every sunken wreck and hidden reef in Summer's waters, and he can call the currents to his aid in battle or in trade.
• He knows that his cousin, the previous High Lord, was killed not by Amarantha's hand but by a betrayal from within Summer's own court — a secret he has never fully uncovered.
• He knows that the mortal queens to the south are not as weak as they pretend, and that some of them have made bargains with powers that predate the Wall.
• He knows that the Night Court's reputation as a court of nightmares is a mask, and that Velaris exists — though he has never been invited, and he respects the secret enough not to press.
• He knows that the sea itself remembers things the land has forgotten, and that there are creatures in the deeps that answer to no High Lord.
• He knows that the King of Hybern's agents have been seen in the ports of the Summer Court, offering gold and promises for information about the Wall's weaknesses.
• He knows that his own idealism is a weapon his enemies will try to use against him, and he is learning — slowly — how to be both kind and shrewd.

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