Karim Garone

Crim had shaggy, curling dark hair and shadowed eyes, with a canted face and richly accented voice. He wore his striped red-and-white Jaddian kaftan over his armor in battle and carried a bandoleer of knives.

Crim was the Red Company's most skilled close-combat soldier and one of the finest swordsmen Hadrian has known -- described as perhaps the only match for Hadrian in the company. He was an expert knife-thrower and fought with both drawn and thrown blades, including vibrating knives capable of penetrating Cielcin physiology. He could pilot a shuttle and concealed a monofilament coil in his hair for infiltration work. He spoke Jaddian natively, using it for discretion and in combat commands. His Norman upbringing gave him familiarity with Extrasolarian culture that Imperial-born crew members lacked. Hadrian considered him a natural at the assassin's trade since boyhood.

• Hadrian -- commanding officer, lictor principal, and close companion; entrusted him with his most sensitive covert commissions
• Corvo -- former commanding officer aboard the Mistral
• Ilex -- partner; forever inseparable; carries his pistol in mourning after his death
• Pallino -- fellow senior companion; died at Akterumu alongside him
• Siran -- sent her a case of vodka while she was in fugue
• Valka -- protected her in battle and in the field; argued for caution on the Cielcin worldship in her account
• Prince Alexander -- coached him in swordplay; defended Ilex against his remarks
• Lorian Aristedes -- served alongside
• Princess Selene -- introduced to her at the Peronine Palace ball
• Udax (Irchtani) -- sparred with him on shore leave at Thessa
• Augustin Bourbon -- target of a sanctioned assassination he arranged at Hadrian's direction
• Kharn Sagara -- encountered as captor at Vorgossos

Crim is the son of Jaddian immigrants to the Norman Freeholds, a background that makes him a man of two worlds. He joins the Meidua Red Company and serves as a lieutenant aboard the Mistral under Captain Corvo.

During a mission in Arslan, he dresses as a Jaddian merchant and fights in a tea house battle. At the Council of Captains meeting aboard the Pharaoh, he sits beside Ilex and comments on bureaucratic delay. As one of Hadrian's foederati, he participates in the plan to steal the Tanaran.

At March Station, his Norman upbringing proves valuable: he guides the group through Extrasolarian territory and acts as Hadrian's formal herald at the meeting with Brevon.

At Vorgossos, the company is detained in Kharn Sagara's palace. Crim remains composed and practical throughout.

In the Garden battle at Aptucca, Crim arrives with the Red Company, protects Valka, and helps to disarm Prince Aranata with a precisely aimed knife throw. Afterward, a voice possibly identified as his coins the epithet "Halfmortal" for Hadrian.

By the time of the Tamerlane's commission, Crim has been promoted to Lieutenant Commander and appointed as Security Officer and lictor. He was present at Aptucca, where he and Pallino placed charges throughout a Cielcin ship. Aboard the Tamerlane he coaches Prince Alexander in swordplay and manages the integration of Irchtani soldiers.

At the Imperial Triumph on Forum, he kneels with Ilex among Hadrian's companions. When a knife-missile attempt is made on Hadrian's life, Crim investigates the breach with visible shame and apologizes in the Jaddian fashion. Hadrian selects him to lead the infiltration team that extracts Officer Casdon from a Chantry frigate.

Before the Tamerlane departs Forum, Hadrian privately instructs Crim to arrange the death of Augustin Bourbon. Three years later, Crim executes the commission by arranging a bomb on Bourbon's shuttle and planting Hadrian's highmatter sword as a message.

In the assault on Eikana, Crim leads as the Red Company's premier close-combat fighter, commanding the grenadiers in Jaddian and leading the escape. He joins the diplomatic delegation to Padmurak as a senior member, concealing a monofilament coil in his hair to evade security scanners.

As ground commander during the diplomatic motorcade ambush in Vedatharad, Crim orders hoplites to outflank the rebels and personally kills multiple combatants. He survives the bridge attack, equips Hadrian with a replacement sidearm, and coordinates the commandeered vehicles during the embassy escape.

At Akterumu, Crim pilots the Ibis shuttle into the battle zone to extract survivors. When the Cielcin vayadan Aulamn tears through the cockpit canopy and seizes him, Crim drives a vibrating knife into Aulamn's eye, shoves Hadrian toward the rear compartment, raises his hand in farewell, and triggers magnetic mines he had pre-placed on Aulamn's body -- destroying the creature's arm and killing himself in the process. Ilex carries his pistol in mourning. Hadrian takes one of his knives from the bandoleer.

In Valka's subsequent account of events aboard the Cielcin worldship, Crim is recalled as the voice urging caution -- arguing the group should wait and confirm they had not been detected before moving onto the hull. One of his knives also accounts for a Lothrian guard during the earlier Padmurak airfield escape.