Dray

Zavier has brown hair, moss-colored eyes with partially obscured green starbursts, and a scar through one eyebrow. He wears a simple circlet of woven silver threads when he is presented as the Turan prince.

A short beard makes Zavier resemble Ransom more closely, reinforcing how convincingly he can pass as the prince. At this point he is recovering from a dislocated shoulder, keeps his left arm in a sling, and walks with a limp after being thrown from his horse.

After the voyage to Quentis, Zavier looks gray-skinned, far too thin, exhausted, and deeply bruised beneath the eyes. His abdominal wound still causes enough pain that he winces and clutches his stomach.

Zavier explains that he usually stays silent before outsiders because other leaders treat speech as a weakness and fill the silence with information. He speaks more openly with Odessa after their marriage because he regards her as part of the Turan side.

Zavier withholds information when he chooses and admits that he sometimes ignores questions he does not want to answer. His restraint with Odessa is polite, but it leaves important parts of his actions and intentions unexplained.

Dray's public silence is part of the double's method: by saying little, he avoids making statements that could expose him as someone other than the true prince.

Zavier obtains Odessa as his bride prize under the Chain of Sevens. At the wedding ceremony, he is accepted as Odessa's Turan husband, signs the treaty with blood as it appears to those present, and leaves with the rangers rather than taking her with him immediately.

Zavier confirms that Evangeline is his four-year-old daughter, says her mother died in childbirth, and keeps the girl's existence hidden from court life. He visits her when he can, taught or allowed her to conceal their bond, and allows Odessa to get to know her only after Odessa discovers the relationship.

Ransom says Zavier was the first person to swear that he would kill Ransom if Lyssa causes Ransom to lose control. Ransom would prefer Zavier's blade to carry out that final responsibility if necessary.

Odessa finds Zavier kissing Jocelyn in the servants' quarters at his house, and Jocelyn later says Vander had asked Zavier to join their sexual relationship. Jocelyn apologizes because she believed Zavier was Odessa's husband, while Odessa withholds the deeper truth about the marriage and identity arrangement from the message Jocelyn will deliver to Odessa's father.

Dray is not Evangeline's biological father, but he is her father in every practical and emotional sense. He accepted her as his own when Ransom brought the infant and Ransom's mother back from Ozarth, raised her under the false story that she was born to an Ozarth woman who died in childbirth, and loves her completely.

Evangeline's birth displaced Dray from being next in line after Ransom because Turan succession gives the eldest royal child a claim regardless of gender. Ransom refuses to make Dray surrender her, even while recognizing that another guardian might offer greater safety.

After Ellder, Evangeline and Odessa treat Zavier as dead from the wound he took while protecting them. Evangeline's grief centers on him as her father, and Odessa thinks of the child as having lost him.

Odessa tells Evangeline that Zavier was a very special friend rather than Odessa's husband, while Ransom is Odessa's true husband. Evangeline understands Zavier as Papa and knows that he is in the shades at this point.

Ransom reports that Geezala found Zavier alive after hearing Odessa's whistle, but he does not know whether Zavier survived afterward. He and Odessa agree not to tell Evangeline until they have reliable confirmation.

Zavier's arrival reunites him with Evangeline, and he thanks Odessa for keeping her safe while he was separated from them.

Zavier is credited with personally killing seven female marroweels during the crossing. That feat triggers the Chain of Sevens and gives him the right to demand a prize.

Zavier commands one of the three hunting parties formed to fight Lyssa-infected monsters. His rangers are considered the best available fighters, and the Turans rely on them even though there are too few warriors to cover every settlement.

During the defense of Ellder, Zavier kills a bariwolf by driving his sword into its heart and runs to help close the gates while the pack is still entering the courtyard.

Zavier wears a simple circlet of woven silver threads when he is presented as the Turan prince.

When Dray wears the crown as Prince Zavier, people outside Allesaria generally read him as the Turan heir rather than as Ransom's cousin and double.

Zavier stops the Guardian's training session after Odessa collapses from exhaustion. When the Guardian resists, Zavier asserts his princely authority calmly enough that the Guardian obeys.

After Odessa discovers Zavier with Jocelyn, she realizes that Ransom spoke the oath at the marriage ceremony and that Zavier only appeared to take the central role in the blood-sealed treaty. The discovery breaks Odessa's former understanding of which man is truly bound to her by the wedding.

Dray visits Odessa every morning to play the role of her doting husband while Ransom stays with her privately. He also brings Ransom reports, confirms that the infected man Odessa killed came from Allesaria, and helps identify the fresh injection marks as evidence of an attempt to recreate Ransom's abilities.

When Ramsey arrives at Ellder with a legion, Dray signals the gates to admit him because Ellder cannot fight the king's army. He stands beside Ransom and helps form the defensive blockade between the surrounding soldiers and the royal family while the public role of Prince Zavier still rests on him.

During the crux attack on Ellder, Zavier and three of his warriors race up the wall and fire arrows at the creature in an effort to disable it. The arrows do not visibly harm the crux, and his condition is not shown again before Odessa leaves the courtyard.

Zavier rushes toward Banner when Banner attacks Odessa, and Banner's thrown knife buries deeply in Zavier's gut. Without his grizzur-hide vest, he bleeds heavily, tells Odessa to run, says he loves Evangeline, and dies in the street while Evangeline tries to hold the wound closed.

Zavier's death in the street is revised when he is found alive in Ellder's infirmary, though the wound remains likely fatal. Healer Geezala warns that no man could probably survive such an injury, while Tillia insists that Geezala save him.

Ransom leaves Zavier in Ellder after the attack and orders Cathlin to watch for signs that he wakes. He tells Cathlin to send word if Zavier regains consciousness and, if he dies, to bury him beside Ransom's mother.

Cathlin's letter confirms that Zavier survived long enough to leave Ellder and sail toward Quentis. The news corrects the assumption that he died in the attack, but his injuries still make the journey uncertain.

Zavier reaches Quentis alive with Cathlin after the Ellder attack. Despite looking gray-skinned, too thin, exhausted, and deeply bruised beneath the eyes, and suffering abdominal pain severe enough that he winces and clutches his stomach, he appears ready to continue traveling, although his immediate fitness for the journey is not established.

The public Prince Zavier is not the true Turan crown prince. Ransom is the crown prince and Ramsey's son, while the man who has appeared as Zavier is Dray, Ransom's cousin and double of eleven years.

Odessa separates the public identity she knew as Zavier from the man's actual identity as Dray. Dray was Ransom's cousin and royal double for more than a decade, never the crown prince, not Evangeline's biological father, and still the man Odessa emotionally remembers by the name he used.