Martan
Safe through Heroes of Ravenford Book 3
Main text: Book 1. Books 2–3: collapsed sections below.
Characters
Martan Folke is an archer and tracker. Readers meet him at the end of Ruins on Stone Hill, in the Dead Forest, as the guide for Voltark’s Black Adders. When the companions defeat the Adders, Martan surrenders.
He is a thin, dishevelled young man in his early twenties, with long brown hair and a close-cropped beard and moustache. He is rather handsome, if you look past the unkempt look. He wears a tracker’s browns and forest greens and carries a bow and quiver on his back. He also wears a short sword, but he has no skill with it and only draws it in the direst emergencies.
Martan is gloomy, fatalistic, and self-deprecating. His sarcasm is aimed at life’s ironies rather than at people. He is very good with a bow, and excellent at tracking and staying hidden in the wild.
He apologises to Glolindir for taking a shot at him in the battle. Then he tells the companions what he knows. The Adders are a sect of the Serpent Cult, mages who worship serpents and can control them, based out of Serpent’s Hollow. He hates snakes himself. He ended up in a jail cell in Kai-Arborus, and the Adders paid his bail in return for guiding them to Ravenford. He planned to go his own way once they got there.
He also explains that Voltark used a scrying crystal to spy on the companions, and he remembers overhearing Voltark talking to someone who wasn’t there: ‘Things are going as planned. We have them cut off on all sides.’ Aksel asks him to come back to Ravenford and tell his story to the baron. Nervous, Martan agrees, and he takes turns with Elladan driving Voltark’s wagon back to town.
Books 2 and 3 are in the collapsed sections below.
After Book 1 — spoilers for Book 2, Serpent Cult
In Serpent Cult Captain Gelpas questions Martan, and Baron Gryswold hears his story, thanks him, and sets him free. Elladan gives him some coin for his trouble. Martan fights alongside the companions from then on.
He goes with them to Cape Marlin. Salvaging the sunken ships, he cannot keep up with the three sisters underwater. When he takes a nasty fall down the cliffs, Seth stabilises him until Ves arrives. At the gala his arrows help bring Voltark down.
After Book 2 — spoilers for Book 3, Dark Monolith
In Dark Monolith Martan rides south with the company to Vermoorden and on into the Darkwoods. At the monolith he stays with the Knights of the Rose camp, where he befriends the squires Syndir and Lamorn. Book 3 ends with Martan on night watch, hoping Seth can track the black mage who fled.