Master of the Straits

In Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series, the Master of the Straits is a mystical and enigmatic personage, ruler of the Three Sisters, a set of tiny islands off the coast of Azzalle. He has command of the winds and waves, and for many centuries kept the nations of Alba and Eire and Terre d'Ange from allying with each other by refusing ships passage across the strait that separates the countries. He is called "Elder Brother" by the superstitions of sailors. He is a tall, white-faced man with sea-green eyes and iron-grey hair. On his island, he keeps an enormous library, housing hundreds of books believed lost to humanity.

In Kushiel's Dart, the Master of the Straits allows an Alban delegation, including its Cruarch and his heir, Drustan mab Necthana, to cross the straits, on account of a prophecy stating that his freedom can only come when the nations of Alba and Terre d'Ange are united by marriage. When Phèdre nó Delaunay and her company try to pass to Alba, he comes as a face in the waves and demands a toll, which Phèdre pays with a Skaldic song.

When Drustan and his fleet attempt to cross back to Terre d'Ange, the Master of the Straits intercepts them, for an offense caused by one of the men of the Segovae clan. He calls Drustan, Quintilius Rousse, Phèdre, and Hyacinthe ashore, and tells them that the union of Alba and Terre d'Ange is one-half of what will free him from being bound to the island; if they can guess the other half, he will let them go free, and gives them one night to answer or die. As temptation, he shows in his magic cauldron an image of Ysandre de la Courcel at a war camp.

Phèdre and Hyacinthe both guess the riddle: 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. 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. These things together fulfilled the curse placed on the Master of the Straits by his father, the angel Rahab.

With the assurance of Hyacinthe taking his place, the Master of the Straits offers to let the group see in his cauldron what has been going on in Terre d'Ange since their departure, to catch them up on events, and then to get them, their men, their horses, and their arms safely ashore. He shows them the following scenes: tens of thousands of Skaldi passing through the Camaeline Range, moving along the Rhenus River and attacking D'Angeline ships; Isidore d'Aiglemort in command of five thousand soldiers under the banner of the Allies of Camlach; Percy de Somerville's forces crossing Namarre; the rearguard of Isidore's own army, the former Glory-Seekers of Baudoin de Trevalion, falling upon his men, betraying the traitor Duc, along with some few others of the Allies of Camlach who remained loyal to the Crown, managing to slow Isidore's progress; Isidore interrogating a captured Glory-Seeker and learning how Waldemar Selig double-crossed him; the defensive D'Angeline forces broken by the Skaldic armies and forced back to the city of Troyes-le-Mont, which had been prepared for a siege; the rest of Rousse's fleet joining with the Azzalese; and finally Ysandre de la Courcel at Troyes-le-Mont.

The Master of Straits offers to set their fleet wherever they wish, but stipulates that he can not help them once they leave the water. Quintilius Rousse bids him to bring them to the mouth of the Rhenus and as far up the river as his powers will allow, to meet up with his fleet and the forces of Ghislain de Somerville, and thus secure the northern border. The Master also reveals that he let Phèdre and Thelesis pass for a song because his mother sang to him, and that is the only kindness he remembers.