Priviken

His Majesty Ashakarl's majordomo. Cuts an extravagant figure at court: dark purple doublet of good manufacture with bright silver buttons, matching cap with a jaunty black feather, gold chain and pendant, ornate curved silver-hilted dagger on a silver-chain belt, bright lavender pointed shoes -- the outfit, Rondal thinks, could have been tailored in any shop in Falas.

Openly and wittily corrupt: he calls petty corruption "an art... a tool of statecraft, a weapon of bureaucracy, or an instrument of reward and punishment" -- but graciously forgoes bribes from the boys because the King is genuinely eager to meet them.

Rondal notes the parallel to Minalan's informal influence on King Rard and Queen Grendine: "Minalan considered himself a voice of reason in a court of fools. Clearly Priviken saw himself in a similar light."