Hyacinthe

In Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series, Hyacinthe is a half-breed Tsingani boy who befriends heroine Phèdre nó Delaunay. He is the illegitimate child of Anasztaizia, who was a Tsingani princess. Hyacinthe has brown skin, black eyes, and jet-dark curly hair.

Anasztaizia and Hyacinthe live in Night's Doorstep, on Rue Coupole, where Anasztaizia takes in washing and tells fortunes using the "dromonde". Hyacinthe meets Phèdre when she runs away from Cereus House one day, and remains her true friend as she grows up. He begins as a clever street urchin, getting paid to deliver messages or trade gossip between players. As he grows older and more conspicuous in his neighborhood, he begins to style himself the Prince of Travellers.

As he accumulates a small fortune, Hyacinthe convinces his mother to buy the house they live in, and they run a boarding house for Tsingani who pass through the City of Elua. He bets correctly on the ways Lyonette de Trevalion and her son Baudoin choose to die, but considers the money blood-cursed, and gives it up in offerings to Azza (Kushiel's Legacy) and Elua.

Near the end of the Bitterest Winter, during which his mother dies, Hyacinthe assists the returned Phèdre and Joscelin Verreuil in reaching the Dauphine Ysandre de la Courcel. While in her presence, he uses the "dromonde" to predict the exact date of King Ganelon's death. He is thus taken into custody of the crown, and is present at Ysandre's secret council in L'Agnace. Hyacinthe comes up with the way to get Phèdre safely to Quintilius Rousse, who can take her to Alba; he will lead them along a Tsingani road, unused by D'Angelines.

At a horse fair in Kusheth, Hyacinthe is reunited with his grandfather Manoj, the King of the Tsingani, and the rest of his enormous extended family. He learns the truth behind his mother's downfall, and that it was not truly her fault. The Tsingani unanimously accept Hyacinthe as one of them, and he is considering staying with them rather than accompanying Phèdre to Alba. The choice he ultimately makes, however, is to abandon his birthright in order to help Phèdre fulfill her mission; he speaks the "dromonde" to let her know that Melisande Shahrizai will not intercept her in Kusheth, and as such is disowned, treated as dead by Manoj and all the rest of the Tsingani.

On Alba, Hyacinthe becomes friendly with Moiread, the youngest sister of Drustan mab Necthana, who has a prophetic gift similar to his own, and names him a "waking dreamer". Hyacinthe speaks the "dromonde" again on the eve of war, predicting that Phèdre and Quintilius Rousse will be returning to water again.

When the group is stranded on the island of the Master of the Straits, Phèdre and Hyacinthe both guess the riddle spelling the reason for the Master's imprisonment: that in order for the Master of the Straits to be freed, someone else must take his place. Hyacinthe insists on being the one to stay, citing as his reason the fact that Breidaia, another prophetic sister of Drustan's, saw his future on an island. The Master of the Straits further requires that whoever would take his place name where his power comes from; Phèdre guesses the "Lost Book of Raziel", and Hyacinthe clarifies that the Master has only pages from it, that the One God gave to Edom, the first man, to grant him mastery over sea and earth, then took away for Edom's disobedience. Hyacinthe explains to Phèdre that he has seen his road ending on that island, and makes her promise to make sure his property in the City of Elua gets to his second, Emile.

In Kushiel's Avatar, Phèdre frees him from the island.

References

* Carey, Jacqueline. "Kushiel's Dart." Tor Books, 2001. ISBN 0-312-87238-0.
* Carey, Jacqueline. "Kushiel's Avatar." Tor Books, 2003. ISBN 0-312-87240-2.