I climbed the roof, and found him lying there, quite calm, staring at me.
His skin was mostly brown, except where a long rent across his ribs had bled silver. The cloth from his tunic had stuck to the wound, forming a crude bandage. He panted quietly, but didn't seem to be in much pain. In fact, it didn't look as if his face showed much of anything at all, quite contrary to the usual flashfire temper of his race. It was set like stone- beautiful, of course, as all the bastards' are- and bore wide, diamond-shaped silver eyes. The hair that hung in curls to his shoulders was yet another of the unnatural colors that are so common to Elwens, the rich, deep green of jade. He was tall, probably six feet and a half- or he would have been, standing up- and his voice when he spoke was sweet.
--"Grimhaven."
The Lord Dorren was the Flowering of the Goatleap line, and the proudest and most self-contained of its lords. Political power seems to have meant little or nothing to him for its own sake. He used it only to serve his Lady, Eleriad.
Dorren was the only son of the Lord Yael Goatleap, although he had an adopted half-curalli sister. Tension and strife prevailed in the Goatleap home, since Dorren's parents' marriage had been for duty, and his father seemed to love his adopted daughter more than his blood Heir. This may have been the source of Dorren's quiet self-possession.
His Confirmation came when he saved the Lady Eleriad's life from an assassin in the middle of the Kaor'a'Lirara War with Oak. The high blood magic accepted him, but Dorren found that one of its reasons was that his father, Yael, was slowly going mad, and taking the land with him, since the land and its lord were linked in symbiosis. Therefore Dorren, acting in concert with three other young high blood heirs in what became known as the Morning Rebellion, took the land from his father and accepted the responsibilities of rulership. He also accepted the position of Eleriad's second-in-command, both in war and out of it.
Two years later, the Coramamira War began. Dorren distinguished himself by killing the young traitor Tala Lafoxbane.
It is generally agreed that something of import took place about fifty years later, but no one seems to be quite sure what it was. It is noticeable that after this non-event, the Lady Eleriad fell in love with and married her husband West Sunfall, and the Lord Dorren took a psychic assaulter bride, Limyaael. This put to rest the uneasy rumors of a romance between them.
Dorren had one son, Terin, who acted uneasy with the legacy of his father for most of his life. He died in the Battle of Esshellen. However, the line continued with Terin's son Edelwith, and Edelwith's children, particularly the Lord Osian, to whom Lord Dorren eventually gave the Lordship.
In his latter years, with his beloved Lady dead in the War of Acceptance, the Lord Dorren continued to maintain a high standard of service to Rowan. He was a spirit-giver, and healed many who would otherwise have died. He was also instrumental in serving the new young Councilmaster Herran Turnlong. He did not die in anyone's sight, but turned over the Lordship to Osian and vanished. A common legend is that he went to kill the master torturer Quirrin Shennalor.
Lord Dorren was often called a "cold bastard," especially after the slaying in the War of Acceptance that earned him the title "The Butcher of Agiri." He tended to be reticent even with those who knew him well, self-contained to a fault, and duty-bound. Though he manifested great glory, he did it through service rather than as a political power on his own. Few songs are sung of him, and indeed, there seems little reason to sing them. His quiet glory speaks for itself.
It was sometimes suspected that Dorren knew the identity of the mysterious Oriel Goatleap, a wonderful poet and historian who was thought to be his distant cousin but never revealed his face. Like so many of the secrets he held, however, the Lord Dorren never revealed this one.
