Joscelin Verreuil
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In Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series, Joscelin Verreuil is a member of the Cassiline Brotherhood whom Anafiel Delaunay contracts to guard Phèdre. He is tall and well-proportioned, with clear blue eyes and wheat-colored hair that is generally caught in a club at the nape of his neck. He is from Siovale, the middle son of the Chevalier Millard Verreuil, a member of a minor noble House descended from the line of Shemhazai.
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[edit] Kushiel's Dart
[edit] Beginnings
When Joscelin is first contracted to guard Phèdre at the age of twenty-one, he reacts with immediate revulsion to her, both as a Servant of Naamah and as one pricked by Kushiel's Dart. On his first assignment with her, he fails to prevent Childric d'Essoms from scratching her with a dagger, and promptly tries to resign his post for failure when they return to Delaunay's household; Delaunay laughs at him and will have none of it. Phèdre thereafter tries to escape him when she goes to visit her friend Hyacinthe in Night's Doorstep, but he follows her, and is mercilessly mocked by a troupe of adepts from Eglantine House. Though Joscelin and Phèdre do not get along at first, Joscelin befriends Alcuin nó Delaunay, teaching him how to use weaponry.
When Phèdre makes enough money from her assignation with Melisande Shahrizai to complete her marque, Joscelin accompanies her to the marquist's. Before the marque can be finished, however, they are interrupted by a sailor, bearing a message from Admiral Quintilius Rousse to Delaunay; he knows that Delaunay's house is being watched, and gives the message to Phèdre instead: "When the Black Boar rules in Alba, Elder Brother will accede." Phèdre and Joscelin rush to their home, only to find Delaunay already dead, and Alcuin dying. In his final breaths, Alcuin tells Phèdre to tell Ysandre what has happened, to trust Admiral Rousse and the remaining Trevalions, that Thelesis de Mornay knows about Alba, and that the important figure is the Dauphine, not Ganelon.
Phèdre and Joscelin rush to the Palace, but are turned away both by Ysandre's Guard and Thelesis' servants. While attempting to reach a secret passage from the theatre complex to Ysandre's rooms, Phèdre and Joscelin encounter Melisande, who takes them to her own quarters. Melisande betrays them, drugging Joscelin and sexually tormenting Phèdre before drugging her as well.
[edit] In Skaldia
Melisande sends Phèdre and Joscelin to be sold to the Skaldi as slaves, and they are taken past the borders of Camlach into Skaldi territory. Joscelin initially refuses to submit to the Skaldi, and most likely would have gotten himself killed, but that Phèdre steps in and persuades the Skaldi not to harm him. He is instead chained with their dogs until Phèdre can convince him that they will be best served by obedience, until such time as they can make an escape. She begins to teach him the Skaldic language.
Joscelin proves his mettle to the Skaldi when Evrard the Sharptongued provokes him into fighting. Joscelin initially defends himself only with branches, until Gunter puts a stop to the fight, and he asks to be allowed to prove himself with steel. Gunter allows Joscelin to fight Evrard in the holmgang; he bests Evrard, first giving him the change to forfeit, then killing Evrard when he refuses. Gunter then makes Joscelin his thane, deciding he has proved himself a man, and returns his sword, vambraces, and daggers.
Gunter presents Phèdre and Joscelin as gifts to Waldemar Selig at the Allthing. When a group of men attempt to rape Phèdre in the camp, Joscelin protects her and kills two of them, nearly getting himself killed in return, until Knud testifies that it was to spare Phèdre. Following this, Joscelin is ashamed for dishonoring one of his Cassiline vows, and in remorse and another show of his inimitable stubbornness nearly starves himself to death, until Phèdre curses at him, calling him a coward, at which point he comes to his senses. For a short time, Joscelin attempts to teach Selig the Cassiline style of fighting, but the lessons end quickly, when it becomes apparent that Selig cannot unlearn his old habits.
Joscelin initially does not want to take part in Phèdre's plan to escape from Skaldia and return to Terre d'Ange to warn Ysandre de la Courcel about the depth of the treachery in the realm, partly because of the danger involved and partly because it would mean breaking no few of his Cassiline vows, specifically the one about attacking unprovoked. Phèdre persuades him, though, and Joscelin disguises himself as a Skaldic warrior, killing several guards so that he and Phèdre may escape from the camps. He likewise slays several of Selig's White Brethren outside of the camp.
Several days out on their journey, Phèdre and Joscelin take shelter in a cave, where Phèdre patches Joscelin's wounds, and the two end up making love. The next morning, they find etched on the cave wall the sigil of Blessed Elua, and realize that he and his Companions rested in that same place during their wanderings.
Phèdre and Joscelin near one of the passes through the Camaeline Mountains only to discover the pass already blocked with Skaldi of the Marsi Tribe; this forces them to take the longer and much harder pass over the mountains, made more difficult when they lose both of their mounts to missteps.
[edit] Uncovering Treachery
Once back in Terre d'Ange, Phèdre and Joscelin encounter the men of the Marquis le Garde, one of the Allies of Camlach; she borrows names from Cereus House and tells them she is Suriah of Trefail, and that Joscelin is her cousin Jareth, refugees from a town that has been set upon by the Skaldi. When it looks as though they are going to be taken into custody, Joscelin holds their commander at knifepoint and demands horses for their escape. They proceed down a road called Eisheth's Way, until they encounter a Yeshuite wagon on the road. The Yeshuites give them shelter when they recognize Joscelin for a Cassiline, with whom their people share an affinity. They take Joscelin and Phèdre all the way to the City of Elua; in gratitude, Phèdre gifts them with the small grey pony that has come with her all the way from Skaldia.
Once inside the City, Phèdre decides that the only person she can trust is her old friend Hyacinthe, whom she and Joscelin seek out immediately. From Hyacinthe, Phèdre learns that she and Joscelin were tried and convicted in absentia for the murders of Delaunay, Alcuin, and the entire household. With the help of Thelesis de Mornay, though, they are able to convince the Dauphine of the truth of their story.
Following the funeral for King Ganelon, Joscelin is present at a secret council of the new Queen's, tucked away in a Courcel estate. When Ysandre decides to send Phèdre as her ambassador to Alba, Joscelin, loathe to leave her, swears his sword into Ysandre's service and is allowed to accompany Phèdre to Alba. For his trouble, he is declared anathema by the Prefect of the Cassiline Brotherhood. Thelesis de Mornay names this "Cassiel's Choice", to continue serving as Companion even when outcast from an order. Ysandre returns to him his Cassiline armor, daggers, and sword, so that he may fight as a Cassiline even though he is anathema.
[edit] In Alba
Joscelin proves himself a poor sailor on the voyage to Alba, prone to seasickness. He disapproves of Phèdre's handling of the Twins. During the battle for Drustan's throne, Joscelin moves to defend when Maelcon's men come to capture Necthana and her daughters, but fails to prevent Moiread from taking a spear to her middle and dying. He feels extremely guilty over this, and in arrogance mopes over the matter and blames himself for her death, until Drustan tells him not to demean her sacrifice by taking responsibility for it.
Gildas, the servant of the Master of the Straits, calls Drustan, Rousse, Phèdre, and Hyacinthe to come ashore; Joscelin insists on accompanying Phèdre, to which Phèdre replies that she will kill him herself before letting anyone else die for his vow, but Gildas lets him come along because he is Companion-Sworn to her.
[edit] The War
When Phèdre decides to make a suicidal attempt to sneak through the Skaldi lines and warn those on the battlements not to fire on Isidore's troops, Joscelin follows, and interrupts Selig in the act of skinning Phèdre alive. He challenges Selig to the holmgang, and when Joscelin wins the contest, Selig states he will let him live long enough to watch what he does to Phèdre. Joscelin goes into the position of terminus, making it look as though he is going to kill both himself and Phèdre, but then kills her guards instead and in the following confusion, hauls her towards the fortress.
Towards the end of the battle, a small Skaldic force makes its way inside the walls; among the D'Angelines fighting them is Luc Verreuil, Joscelin's elder brother, whom he rushes to join.
