The Assassin's Blade

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    Arobynn is one of the most influential side characters in this book.  As the King of Assassin's, and Celaena's master, he has full control over her for most of the book.  Before the events of this book occur, Celaena has a lot of respect for him, and enjoys his attention and favoritism.  Arobynn even let's Celaena pick her own jobs, that line up with her own personal morals and rules, but he does make sure that word gets around when she is responsible for a death.  When he sends Celaena and Sam to Skull's Bay under the pretense of collecting payment for three dead assassin's killed by pirates, Sam tell's Celaena that he thinks Arobynn wanted them out of Rifthold for the month for a reason.  Celaena, at that point, doesn't want to believe the bad things about Arobynn, but this mission has opened her eyes a bit to who Arobynn Hamel truly is, when she learns he wants to start selling slaves.

    After Arobynn finds out what Celaena and Sam did, he beats Celaena so badly that she doesn't wake for a whole day, and is in bed for three.  He then sends her to the Red Desert, to train with the Mute Master and the other assassins, for a month, and to get the Mute Master's approval, before coming back to Rifthold.

    Celaena spends the three months away very angry with Arobynn, and through the things she learns from the Mute Master, and how he treats his assassins, she loses more and more respect for him.  The Mute Master seems displeased with Arobynn's tactics as well, as he tells Celaena to tell Arobynn that in the Red Desert, they don't abuse their acolytes.

    When Celaena returns to Rifthold, Arobynn tries bribing her with gifts and attention, in hopes that she would accept his apology for beating her and sending her away.  He gifts her an assassination, telling her the person she is to kill, are working with the King of Adarlan to build a road to make the movement of slaves easier and faster.  In fact, his client was the one who was working with the King.  He tricked Celaena into killing those who were against it.  When Arobynn is telling Celaena all this, he also tells her that all the money she gave him to pay her debt to him was used to win Lysandra's virginity.  This was all the last straw for Celaena, and she moves out, taking Sam with her.

    While Celaena and Sam makes plans for their future, Arobynn plots.  He first meets up with Celaena, and confesses his love for her, which she rejects and asks him to leave.  He partners up with Farran, and puts out a fake assassination job, which Sam picks up, as Celaena and him are in need of money to leave Rifthold.  Arobynn had laid a trap, and Sam was caught and killed.  He goes to give Celaena the news that Sam was killed by Farran and Jayne.  While Celaena is in her old room in the guild, Arobynn and his favorite assassins stood outside her door talking over their "plans for revenge".  Celaena, not wanting to lose out on revenge for Sam, sneaks out to do it herself.  Arobynn knew she would do this, and set another trap for her to be captured by the Royal Guards.  Originally, he was going to rescue her from the butcher's block, in an attempt to gain her loyalty again.  The King of Adarlan ended up sentencing her to Endovier instead of immedient death, however.  Arobynn and Farran watch her wagon leave Rifthold, and when Farran asks if he is going to rescue her, Arobynn says obviously not.  When Farran asks Arobynn why he did all this, Arobynn tells him it was because he doesn't like sharing his belongings.