Maeven

 !SPOILER ALERT!

Lady Maeven (later in The King – Queen Maeven) is daughter to Lord Feolaghe and Lady Barane. Her little sister is Lady Caenne.

Maeven’s earliest years were spent at her family’s home, Feolaghe Tor, but while she was still young, the family came to Nyraval where King William appointed her father to a minor position in the royal court. Because of this she considers Nyraval and Castle Orgulous home.

Maeven can generally be found in Castle Orgulous surrounded by her friends and peers; a gaggle of ladies from the royal court, and sometimes her tag-along sister, Caenne. She has a very close relationship with her overly protective mother and father, but is even closer with Caenne.
If her parents knew what feelings Maeven harbored for Ergyfel, prior to his ascension to the throne, they would send her away to the family holdings at Feolaghe Tor. Because of this, she must always admire Ergyfel from afar.

Shortly after Billy reaches Castle Orgulous (in the second book ~ The Jester), he discovers Maeven’s crush on Ergyfel, and later uses her interest in the Magister to ensure Ergyfel gets timely information that leads him into Billy’s trap – a trap to prove Ergyfel is poisoning the king. Even though she is pivotal to Billy’s scheme, Maeven is a relatively minor character in this installment.

By the time we pick up Maeven’s story in the early pages of The Prince (Book III of the Jester King series) she has given herself completely over to her feelings and has become intimate with Ergyfel. Though he initially resists giving her his heart, he eventually gives in to her beauty and genuine affection – something he has never experienced before. Here is an excerpt from Spellbinder:

Ergyfel resisted her persuasions until he felt her warm body against his back and her mouth on the side of his neck. Her silken hair, like wind flowed onto his chest and he fell back into her embrace. Even though she had only shared his bed for a short time, she had come to have a hold over him. A hold he felt sure was more powerful than any succubus could hope for. For in her glance, her voice, her touch there was a kind of magic that was beyond Ergyfel’s prodigious knowledge of sorcery to define. It was like nothing he had ever experienced before, for he had a place in her heart.

Eventually Maeven marries Ergyfel and is crowned as the queen of Lyonesse. Her influence on Ergyfel’s stony, conniving heart makes it possible for him to feel remorse and guilt. But unfortunately for them, their love and lives end tragically before any tangible good can come from the change in his character.