Road of the Patriarch

Road of the Patriarch is the third installment in The Sellswords trilogy, part of the Forgotten Realms fantasy series by R. A. Salvatore. This final volume follows Jarlaxle and Artemis Entreri as they face consequences for their deeds at Zhengyi's construct. Both the Spysong network and the Citadel of Assassins lost people at the castle and are demanding a truthful account of what happened. The book reveals the dark secrets of Entreri and Jarlaxle’s childhoods, along with a look into the past of their dwarf companion Athrogate. As Entreri’s history comes to light and he grows closer to the passionate Calihye, a new side of the usually cold assassin emerges.

In the plot, Entreri unexpectedly falls in love with the half-elf Calihye, an effect of a magical flute Jarlaxle gave him that puts its owner in a heightened emotional state. Calihye betrays Entreri, still blaming him for Parissus’s death, and tries to stab him in the heart while they are intimate, but Kimmuriel’s kinetic barrier stops her. Jarlaxle takes control of Castle Perilous and is attacked by an army led by King Gareth. He immediately surrenders, explaining that he made a public power grab to unite the people of Palishchuk behind Gareth by acting as a common enemy. Despite the queen’s demand for execution, Entreri, Jarlaxle, and Athrogate are allowed to leave the city unharmed, promising never to return.

The trio heads to Memnon, where Entreri decides to confront the city of his birth. He finds it under the control of a corrupt high priest who impoverishes the people through fear, demanding payments for the promise of a pleasant afterlife for their dead children. Entreri learns the priest knew his mother intimately and may be his biological father. Disgusted by the priest’s luxury and the city’s suffering, Entreri kills him and orders the second-in-command to redistribute the palace’s wealth to the needy, under threat of the same fate. In the end, Jarlaxle admits he gave Entreri the flute hoping that embracing emotions suppressed since childhood would help him find a purpose beyond power. The story closes with the two parting ways, Entreri saying he wants nothing more to do with Jarlaxle.

A reviewer from Publishers Weekly called it a “bloody, brooding sequel” to Salvatore’s *Promise of the Witch-King*. The audio recording received a favorable review from *California Bookwatch*, which praised th