2-3-4 Challenge Book Discussions #1 discussion

Celaena's cousin, Aedion Ashryver, has been playing a double game for ten years. What did you think of his character throughout the story and why do you think the King kept him alive after the massacre of the Teresan royal family?

A very dangerous game. I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. I'm not sure why specifically the king kept him alive. I can speculate the king wanted to keep his friends close and his enemies closer. Also the Bane army would be of use to him.

Those are really good points, Christina, especially about the Bane army . I wonder if they will come into play in the next book in any rescue attempts for Aedion.

I think that King was convinced that he had Aedion under control with the black ring and he needed him alive to keep the Terrasen population from truly rising up against him.

Good point about the King thinking he had Aedion under his control but I'm wondering how he never knew this for all those years. He knew about Dorian having power and that just happened unless he consulted another Baba Yellowlegs in the past.

I think it's because Aedion was physically far away and he seemed to obey the King's orders without question (although he was actually helping people escape and only pretending to kill them like Celaena did).

As to Dorian, I think the King suspected he had powers and was waiting for them to manifest.

I also think that the king kept Aedion close in the hopes that he would lead him to Aelin. I truly believe that the king has known she was alive. I'm really interested to know why Arobynn kept her secret for so long.
Aedion made me nervous in the beginning. I wasn't sure what his motives were.

I was also surprised that Aedion could keep his double game a secret for so long. And that the king never noticed that the ring wasn't working. He was in the north a lot, but it was mentioned that he visited sometimes, I'm wondering if the king really didn't know or if he knew and tried to find out with wo Aedion was working.e
I was glad he turned out to be one of the good guys, especially when we learned how close he used to be to Aelin.

Melissa wrote: "I'm really interested to know why Arobynn kept her secret for so long. ."

Me too! There is definitely more here than meets the eye. It also puts a new spin on Arobynn's viewing Celaena as his property. Perhaps he wanted to groom her so that she would retake her throne and make him her consort and she would authority to him.

Aedion made me nervous in the beginning. I wasn't sure what his motives were.

I kind of suspected he might be part of the resistance all along.