Baudouin

Baudouin is the second name in the title of Natali and Baudouin and its unlikely hero: a forester’s son with no title, no fortune and no noble house behind him, who earned his place at Moonroot Academy through talent alone. He is the best swordsman among the students, chronically late, quick to apologise and slow to back down. He enters the story in Part 4 by knocking the princess off her feet, and by Part 21 the Heart Tree itself has chosen him as her match.

Appearance

Baudouin is a High Elf man with shoulder-length, wavy, tousled hair so dark brown that it looks almost black, and a full dark beard. His long pointed ears show through his hair, even from behind. His eyes are an intense grey-blue, and they say a great deal more than he does: surprise, stubbornness, and, whenever he looks at Natali, a kind of disbelief that she is looking back.

His clothes are the best he has, and he wears them a little carelessly: an unbuttoned deep navy velvet tailcoat with gold elven embroidery on the lapels, a white silk shirt with a high collar open at the neck, dark navy trousers and knee-high black leather boots. A sword rides at his side, and he always draws it with his right hand. In Part 5 the sleeve of the tailcoat is torn by a practice blade, and from Part 21 his wrist carries a wooden bracelet with an emerald, the twin of Natali’s.

Personality

Baudouin’s first line in the series, “Late again… Eldrin will kill me,” says a lot about him. He is warm, a little clumsy and very human. When he collides with a stranger, his first thought is whether she is hurt; when he learns she is the princess, he is honestly stunned. He has a dry, easy humour, and when Natali points out that he left a note on a princess’s window, he admits that climbing was easier than knocking.

Under the humour lies real courage. He answers Aelarion’s insults with calm rather than anger, and wins the duel that follows. When a horn sounds over the lake, he steps in front of Natali with his sword drawn. At the forest border he ignores a captain’s order to retreat because people are hurt, and in the training courtyard he leaps into a runaway vortex of magic to shield Natali with his own body. His instinct is always to stand between danger and someone else.

His one real weakness is a belief that he is not enough. A commoner, he says, has nothing to give a princess. The story keeps testing that fear: the court applauds another man’s proposal, the King calls him “that boy”, and his rival throws his own words back at him. Each time, Baudouin’s answer is not a grand speech but a quiet refusal to step aside.

Story so far

In Part 4 Baudouin runs late through the Academy courtyard and crashes into Natali. Kneeling among her scattered scrolls, he introduces himself simply as “I’m Baudouin”, endures Aelarion’s sneer about the stables, and only later notices the royal seal on a scroll he kept. In Part 5 he faces Aelarion in the duelling circle, takes a scratch on his forearm, disarms his rival and wins. Natali heals the wound and tells him to call her just Natali.

In Part 6 he meets her eyes across the courtyard while the King watches, which is enough for the King to ask who he is. His note leads Natali to the Glowing Lake in Part 8, where he tells her, “I know who you are. I don’t care.” When the alarm sounds, he runs with her to the border in Part 9, parries an orc scout’s blow and guards her while she heals a wounded soldier.

In Part 11 he meets Natali’s eyes across the library and lowers his own. In Part 12 he stands among the students of the honour guard while Aelarion asks for the princess’s hand, his right hand tightening on the hilt of his sheathed sword. In Part 13 he saves her from the vortex and confesses his fear by the lake, and her answer changes everything. In Part 14 the two of them walk back across the moonlit courtyard, laughing quietly.

In Part 15 Master Eldrin tells him, “I see in you what the King cannot,” and for the first time Baudouin allows himself to hope. In Part 18 Aelarion blocks his way in a dark corridor and warns him, on behalf of the King, not to come to the ritual. Baudouin answers with three words: “I’ll be there.” He keeps that promise in Part 19, meeting Natali beneath the Heart Tree for their first kiss. At the ritual in Part 20 he waits at the far end of the row, and in Part 21 a glowing root crosses the whole clearing to reach him. He can hardly believe the bracelet on his wrist.

Relationships

• Natali is the princess he first knocked over and then could not stop thinking about. He loves her for who she is, not for her title, and the Heart Tree has bound them together.
• Aelarion is his noble rival, who calls him a stable boy, lost the duel to him and tried to keep him away from the ritual.
• Master Eldrin is his teacher and the first person of authority to tell him that his heart matters more than his birth.
• The Elf King sees him only as a commoner unworthy of his daughter, and refuses the Tree’s choice in Part 21.
• Lyrelle, Natali’s best friend, watches him closely and has her own opinion: a man who never looks at Natali is the one who is really looking.

Read more about the rest of the cast in the characters guide.