Trust and loyalty are two qualities that go hand in hand in The Runaway King and are fundamental to Jaron’s character development. To Jaron, trust and loyalty are complex concepts; he initially struggles to trust his friends with the truth, not because he doubts their loyalty but because he wants to protect them. Mott and Imogen, in particular, repeatedly end up on the receiving end of Jaron’s tricks. Jaron lies to them for their own best interest: By rejecting Imogen, pretending that he will take Mott with him to the pirates, and faking his escape from Tarblade Bay, Jaron aims to keep them from harm. Despite his good intentions, Jaron is dishonest and eventually realizes that his treatment of his friends was misguided and hurtful, noting near the story’s end, “Maybe what I’d done over the past several days had been necessary for Carthya, but there was always a price for my actions” (314).

On the other hand, Jaron’s trust is also broken by Gregor’s disloyalty. Although the latter initially seems loyal to Jaron, or at the least to the Carthyan crown, he is later revealed as a traitor. Jaron, who first saw the regents’ insurgence against him as their attempt to protect Carthya, realizes that it was in fact a deliberate sabotaging strategy.