Sirin

Sirin is a draksor who served as a palace guard for Dax. He is hired to assassinate Roa.

Appearance
Sirin is young and handsome, with blue eyes, straight teeth, and a thin, muscular build. Roa describes him as being “too attractive for a soldat”.

Personality
Roa notes that his good looks have gone to his head; as a result, he is brazenly flirtatious, even to the point of causing Roa discomfit. She believes that he is accustomed to cutting corners. He is disloyal, as proven by his betrayal of Dax and Roa by accepting payment to assassinate the latter.

The Caged Queen
Roa wishes to slip out of the castle to meet with Theo, but the gates are closed by Safire’s orders. She knows most of her guards are devoted to Safire, but she decides to take advantage of Sirin’s turpitude to slip out of the palace. She reasons to him that it would be unsafe for her to wander the city unaccompanied, and he acquiesces quickly. On their way out, Sirin flashes an object at the gate guard on duty. Their glances unnerve Roa. When she and Sirin arrive at Theo’s guesthouse, he initially pushes back against her request that he remain outside, arguing that someone might recognize her; she firmly tells him no, and an odd expression flickers across his face. She assures him that she will return shortly before disappearing into the guesthouse.

Preoccupied by her inner turmoil, Roa fails to notice that Sirin is not leading her back to the palace until they hit a dead end in the new sector of the city. Roa glares at him and asks what he is doing, to which Sirin replies that he is “ridding the king of his problem”. He explains that he views Roa as a danger to the king because she extorted him into marrying her and is now conspiring with his adversaries. Roa threatens to kill him; he assures her that he’s been paid too handsomely to fail. As he unsheathes his saber, Roa notices that his hands are trembling. He strikes at her, but she dodges him. He then equips his second saber and corners her. As he pounces again, Essie appears and distracts him. With his attention focused on attempting to kill the hawk, Roa draws Essie’s knife and stabs him in the throat. Roa shoves the weapons out of his grasp as Essie continues her assault on the dying man, but Roa screams at her and she stops. Sirin finally dies. Roa wipes the blood from Essie’s knife using Sirin’s shirt, then notices the item in his pocket. Upon withdrawing it, she sees that it is Dax’s official seal, leading her to wonder if Dax wants to kill her. When she returns to the palace, the guard at the gate is perplexed by Sirin’s absence. Roa lies, saying that he is attending to one of the king’s problems. Upset by the violent encounter and now paranoid about the loyalties of her remaining three guards, Roa sleeps in Lirabel’s bed that night.

The following morning, Safire and three new guards - Celeste, Tati, and Saba - enter Roa’s room. Safire begins to search the room, telling Roa that one of her guards - Sirin - was killed, most likely with a small blade, last night. Since the soldats at the gate informed Safire that Sirin left with Roa, she inquires about where Roa went. Roa claims that she needed air and went for a walk. She confirms that Sirin escorted her out, but when Safire presses her further she wryly asks if this is an interrogation. When Safire asks again if Sirin accompanied Roa back home, the queen shakes her head, supplying that he mentioned “ridding the king of his problem”. At this point, Safire announces that she will temporarily serve as captain of Roa’s personal guard, and that her three companions are her most trusted soldats. Roa stonily remarks that they’ll do a better job than Sirin did.

When Roa ponders whether she can kill Dax to free her sister, she thinks of Dax’s seal in Sirin’s pocket.

Dax confronts Roa about her deal with Rebekah Silva, and an argument ensues. When Dax remarks that he never should have married Roa, she ridicules his poor swordsmanship, noting that if he were more skilled he could dispatch her now, with no witnesses around to incriminate him. Dax seems bewildered and clueless, and Roa reveals that she found his seal in Sirin’s pocket. Roa tells him that Sirin trapped her in an alley and said that he’d been paid to kill her. Dax angrily tells her that the seal is a forgery.