Tamora Pierce

TAMORA PIERCE

Credit: Timothy Liebe.

TAMORA PIERCE Bonnie Kunzel and Susan Fichtelberg

Teen Reads: Student Companions to Young Adult Literature James B. Blasingame, Series Editor

Greenwood Press Westport, Connecticut • London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kunzel, Bonnie, 1944Tamora Pierce / Bonnie Kunzel and Susan Fichtelberg. p. cm. — (Teen reads: student companions to young adult literature, ISSN 1553-5096) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-313-33660-7 (alk. paper) 1. Pierce, Tamora—Juvenile literature. 2. Children’s stories—Authorship— Juvenile literature. 3. Young adult fiction—Authorship—Juvenile literature. 4. Fantasy fiction—Authorship—Juvenile literature. I. Fichtelberg, Susan. II. Title. PS3566.I395Z7 2007 8130 .54—dc22 2007023729 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. C 2007 by Bonnie Kunzel and Susan Fichtelberg Copyright 

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2007023729 ISBN-13: 978-0-313-33660-7 ISBN-10: 0-313-33660-1 ISSN: 1553-5096 First published in 2007 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.greenwood.com Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10

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For Savannah, the daughter of my heart SF

For Alexander, grandson and future fantasy fan BK

Contents Series Foreword ix by James B. Blasingame Acknowledgments

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Part 1 Background

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Chapter One A Brief Biography

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Chapter Two Literary Heritage

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Part 2 The Tales of Tortall

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Chapter Three

The Song of the Lioness Quartet

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Chapter Four

The Immortals Quartet

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Chapter Five

The Protector of the Small Quartet Chapter Six

The Trickster Duology

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CONTENTS

Part 3

The Circle of Magic Sagas

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Chapter Seven

The Circle of Magic Quartet, The Circle Opens Quartet, and The Will of the Empress 171 Part 4 Perspectives

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Chapter Eight Literary Techniques

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Chapter Nine An Interview with Tamora Pierce

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Appendix A Strong Female Heroes: A Bibliography

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Appendix B Fantasy Adventure: A Bibliography Bibliography of Sources Index

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Series Foreword hen young readers first find a book they love, the result is magical. A whole new universe opens up to them with possibilities as limitless as their own young imaginations. Finding a favorite author brings with it a powerful curiosity about that author as person and a thirst for more books from him or her. The Teen Reads series brings to young readers just the information they need to satisfy their curiosity and slake their thirst. Chapters about the authors’ lives reveal to the young reader that this person was once young, too, with all the trials and tribulations of young people today. Sometimes, young readers will be surprised to find that their favorite author had a very difficult journey in life, and the admiration they hold for that author will grow even more with one wonderful benefit: the realization that challenges create the people we become, and adversity does not equal failure in life. We have chosen six of the most popular and accomplished of authors who write for young adults: Joan Bauer, Sharon Creech, Chris Crutcher, Walter Dean Myers, Gary Paulsen, and Tamora Pierce. These six authors represent a priceless wealth of life experience, distilled through an author’s heart and soul and poured out onto the page in stories of adventure, challenge, love, hardship and triumph, some set in the Old West, some on another planet, and some right here and now. Each book in the Teen Reads series will delight young readers with connections between their favorite authors’ books and the events in their lives that lead them to this vocation in life and sometimes even to the specific settings, characters and events in their stories. For each important novel or series of novels, readers will find synopses of the setting, characters, plots, themes, and literary techniques, along with interesting information that sheds light on how and why the author chose to write these books as they did. Using this series will help young readers to make connections with themselves, the world, and other books

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as they dig deeper in investigating their favorite authors and the books they have written. In addition, each book in this series will help to answer the foremost question on very reader’s mind who is lucky enough to find joy in the work of a particular writer: ‘‘What else did this author write?’’ James B. Blasingame

Acknowledgments e would like to thank our editor, Debra Adams, who has been very patient with our hectic schedules. Our heartfelt gratitude goes to Lynn Hand, who generously lent a hand (so to speak) with the subject index. We would also like to thank Tamora Pierce, who graciously agreed to answer our interview questions, and her husband Timothy Liebe who provided her photo.

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PART 1

Background

CHAPTER ONE

A Brief Biography AMORA PIERCE was born on December 13, 1954, in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Wayne Franklyn and Jacqueline Pierce. She is the oldest of three sisters. When she was five years old, her sister Kimberly was born (later Tamora would model the character of Alanna in The Song of the Lioness quartet after her sister Kim). A year after Kim’s birth, Melanie arrived. They lived in Pennsylvania until Tamora was eight. As was the case for most people in town, money was scarce, so Tamora’s parents grew their own vegetables and got their water from their own well. But while their parents struggled to make ends meet, the girls remained unaware of how tight things were financially. Although they could rarely afford luxuries, there were always lots of books in their home, and Tamora loved them. Her favorites were her very own copies of A. A. Milne’s classics, Winnie the Pooh; The House at Pooh Corner; When We Were Very, Very Young; and Now We Are Six, which she read over and over until they fell apart. In her interview in The Word and the Wand she says, ‘‘I opened the package and there were four hardcover books about Winnie-the-Pooh—and they were mine! I still have chunks of them memorized. I loved them. The Dr. Seusses I had to share with my sisters. But these were mine, which was really important to me. I still chuckle inwardly at the silly stuff, like Pooh getting stuck in the honey jar’’ (Marcus 2006, 137). On her Web site she states, ‘‘Books are still the main yardstick by which I measure true wealth.’’ In 1963, when she was in the fourth grade, her family moved to California after her father’s company transferred him to the West Coast. The transition was difficult because of her accent and her family’s poverty. As a result, Tamora felt like an outsider. This feeling intensified when her parents became embroiled in drawn-out divorce proceedings (Marcus 2006, 136). Until the divorce was finalized, the family lived in the San Francisco Bay area for a period of six years. While math, science, and

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gym were not her forte, she loved English class and always made friends with her school’s librarian. In addition to being a voracious reader, Tamora began making up her own stories. When she was in the sixth grade, after hearing his daughter telling her stories, her father encouraged her to write them down. ‘‘He recognized that I was a storyteller. That it meant so much to him was all I really needed for years and years’’ (Marcus 2006, 140). Once she started, she was sure she would never stop and decided that she wanted to be a writer. Her seventh-grade English teacher, Mary Jacobson, introduced her to J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Enchanted, she started writing fantasy and read as much fantasy and science fiction as she could find. ‘‘Tolkien was earthshaking. It was about great causes and about dying nobly, which interested me a lot for some reason. It left me all weak-kneed. I re-read the books at least once or twice a year until I was twenty-one or twenty-two. I was a major fan! So Tolkien was where I started. But in a way everything I write now is a contradiction to what I found in Tolkien’’ (Marcus 2006, 161). She loved the genre but found one profound and disturbing lack in it: There were no strong, female heroes. ‘‘ The books I loved were missing teenaged girl warriors,’’ she says. ‘‘I couldn’t understand this lapse of attention on the part of the writers I loved, so until I could talk them into correcting this small problem, I wrote about those girls, the fearless, bold, athletic creatures that I was not, but wanted so badly to be’’ (www.tamora-pierce.com). In these early years, she wrote stories that reflected whatever she had read and loved most recently. She wrote to entertain herself and to give herself a world away from the growing tension between her parents. Their arguing escalated until her parents’ divorce was finalized, after which her mother moved the girls back to Pennsylvania. Transitioning from hippiesaturated California to conservative Pennsylvania in 1969 resulted in culture shock. Once again Tamora felt that no matter where she was, she was a geek who did not fit in. After the divorce and the move, money was scarcer than ever. They depended on family to take them in at first and then lived for two years in a small house with an outhouse instead of a bathroom and a coal stove in the living room for heat. Despite these hardships, Tamora began to make friends in high school. In tenth grade, she sent a story to Seventeen magazine. While the story was rejected, she was encouraged to continue writing. Unfortunately, she did not get the same reaction when she told

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her mother what had happened. Instead of being proud of her daughter’s first attempt at being published, her mother flew into a rage, insisting that Tamora could never write anything good enough to get published (Marcus 2006, 142). Writer’s block struck after this incident, and Tamora found she could no longer create her own stories. She still wrote papers for school and articles for the school newspaper, but she didn’t feel that this was really writing, since she wasn’t writing her own stories. Needless to say, not being able to write her own stories severely hampered her ambition to be a writer, and so she decided to focus on another way of earning a living. She received a full scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and majored in psychology, hoping to help other troubled girls. The summer before her junior year in college, she wrote a short story, ‘‘Demon Chariot.’’ Although the effort was agonizing, the rewards more than made up for the struggle she went through to finish it. Not only was she proud of her accomplishment, but she also discovered that her writer’s block was finally broken. She immediately wrote more stories and in a year was able to sell her first short story. This gave her the courage she needed to register for a course in writing fiction during her senior year. Her teacher, David Bradley (author of South Street and The Chaneysville Incident), suggested that she write a book about her childhood. When ideas for that project did not flow, she turned instead to the kind of fantasy adventures she had created as a teenager and six months later finished her first novel. According to Tamora, it was terrible. It was also a significant milestone in her career because she’d proved to herself that she could write a book. After this breakthrough, she was able to write the first draft of Alanna (Marcus 2006, 143). Although her difficulty with statistics kept her from earning a degree in psychology, Tamora Pierce graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1976. After graduation, she continued to write, selling an article or a story occasionally, but she had to move from job to job to pay the rent. She went to Idaho to renew ties with her father, and while she was there took a job as a housemother in a group home for teenaged girls. She had been trying unsuccessfully to get her 732-page fantasy novel, written for adults, published. While no one in the publishing world appeared to be interested in The Song of the Lioness, she shared it with her first teenage audience when she told the girls in her care an edited version of the story.

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Eventually, she decided that moving to Manhattan would be the best way to break into the world of publishing. Once she arrived, she took a job with a literary agency. Clare Smith, who became her first agent, opened the publishing doors for her when she suggested that she transform her single novel for adults into a quartet for teenagers. Realizing that, in a way, she had already done this when she shared the story with the girls in the group home, Tamora agreed. Jean Karl of Atheneum accepted the manuscript on the condition that it be rewritten for young adults, and Tamora began to rework her story. In 1983, Alanna: The First Adventure, the first book in The Song of the Lioness quartet, was published and received generally positive reviews. Over the next four years the sequels quickly followed. During this time, Tamora did several things to earn a living: read manuscripts for Silhouette Romances, reviewed martial arts films, did freelance editing, and helped start a radio production company for which she would go on to write and direct. It was during this time that she met Tim Liebe. They stayed close as she left the literary agency and moved on to other jobs. Later, they married. She refers to him affectionately to this day as her ‘‘Spouse-Creature.’’ As book followed book over the next decade, to growing critical acclaim and increasing popularity among teen readers, Tamora developed a devoted following of young fans and, by 1992, reached the point where she could live on the earnings of her writing. In 2000 she embarked on her first international book tour. She enjoys meeting her fans and comments about book tours that, ‘‘When they send you on tour, you can be assured of one thing: you have arrived. I look forward to it because I get to see places I might never go otherwise, and to meet the people who have been keeping me in print and who love my books. It’s good to be able to put faces to names, to talk about what people like and don’t like, to find out what they’d like to see in my books, and to learn what else they’re reading and want to recommend. (I am always looking for good new books to read.) My success is due to my readers, adults and kids, and I love being able to thank them in person’’ (www.tamora-pierce.com). ‘‘I owe my career as a writer and my approach to writing to people like my writing mentor, David Bradley, who taught me that writing is not an arcane and mystical process, administered by the initiate and fraught with obstacles, but an enjoyable pastime that gives other people as much

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pleasure as it does me. I enjoy telling stories, and, although some of my topics are grim, people get caught up in them’’ (Contemporary Authors Online database). Although she has no children, she has a large extended family. She cares greatly for all kinds of animals and for people in need. She lived for many years in Manhattan with her husband, but in 2006 moved to Syracuse, New York. She spends her time writing, visiting schools, and rescuing stray animals. Of her writing routine she says, ‘‘First, I go over what I wrote the day before, partly to get myself in the mood and partly to do a first rough edit. I set myself a daily page quota: about five pages when my deadline is still far off; as much as twelve to fourteen pages when it’s getting close. If I don’t make my page quota, I can’t watch TV. Usually by eight o’clock or so, when my favorite programs come one, I’m done’’ (Marcus 2006, 147). ‘‘It’s a pretty good life, if I do say so myself,’’ she says. ‘‘Struggling along as a kid and even through my twenties, it’s the kind of life I dreamed of but never believed I would get. Yet here I am, after a lot of work, a lot of worry, a lot of care for details, and a massive chunk of luck, the kind that brought me such strong friends and readers. Pretty good for a hillbilly, yes? And I never take it for granted’’ (www.tamora-piece.com).

CHAPTER TWO

Literary Heritage IERCE’S WORK INHABITS

the realm of young adult fantasy and has successfully carved a place for itself within the body of young adult literature as well as in the fantasy genre. Young adult literature, as a defined body of literature, began in the late 1960s with the publication of novels such as The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton and The Contender by Robert Lipsyte, both published in 1967, and The Pigman by Paul Zindel, published in 1968. As publishers realized there was a growing market for young adult novels, with librarians buying these books for both school and public library collections, and young adults buying them for themselves, publishers began releasing more such novels in the 1970s. Titles published in this decade that are considered young adult classics include The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier in 1974, Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan in 1978, and also in 1978, Beauty by Robin McKinley. Pierce’s first book, Alanna: The First Adventure was published in 1983, the same year as Hoops by Walter Dean Myers and The Friends by Rosa Guy. Although age-targeted literature for a young adult audience had carved a significant niche in the world of literature, it was still prior to the establishment of major awards—including the International Reading Association’s Young Adult Choice Awards (1987) and those established by YALSA (the Young Adult Library Services Association, a Division of the American Library Association), which include the Margaret A. Edwards Award (1988), for lifetime contribution to young adult literature, and the Printz Award (2000), for a work published anywhere in the world specifically for young adults that exemplifies excellence in young adult literature. In the meantime, fantasy, specifically fantasy for children and young adults (for initially the two groups were not separated), was growing as well, although perhaps not at the same rate. Early fantasy for children, which has a much longer history than young adult literature, includes

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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, 1865, although Tolkien himself would consider this a dream fantasy and so not a true work of fantasy (‘‘On Faerie Stories,’’ in The Tolkein Reader, 1966, 41); The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald, published in 1872; The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, 1900; The Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit, 1902; and Peter Pan by James M. Barrie, 1928. While the popularity of fantasy was growing, there is no doubt that nothing affected the growth of fantasy like the popularity of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. While The Hobbit was published in 1937 and The Lord of the Rings trilogy came out in 1954–55, its popularity in the United States soared when the trilogy was released in paperback in 1965. While Tolkien’s trilogy was written for adults, it was (and is) widely read by college and high school students. As a result of this popularity, publishers began looking for other epic adventures taking place in imaginary kingdoms. Fantasy for young people published between The Hobbit (1937) and Alanna (1983) includes The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham, 1940; The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, 1950–56; Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White, 1952; The Borrowers by Mary Norton, 1953; Half Magic by Edward Eager, 1954; The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy Boston, 1954; The Once and Future King by T. H. White, 1958 (written for adults but with considerable teen appeal); The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner, 1960; The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, 1964–68; The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, 1964; Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper, 1965, though she did not realize it was the first of a fantasy sequence at the time (The Wand in the Word by Leonard Marcus 2006, 42); The Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1965–72; The Weathermonger Trilogy by Peter Dickinson, 1968–70; The Silver Crown by Robert O’Brien, 1968; Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit, 1975; The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks, 1977 (also written for adults with great young adult appeal); The Dark Is Rising (and its sequels) by Susan Cooper, 1973–77; Below the Root by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, 1975; The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Pope, 1976; Justice and Her Brothers by Virginia Hamilton, 1978; Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones, 1977; The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip, 1974; The Riddle-Master of Hed Trilogy by Patricia McKillip, 1976–79; Beauty by Robin McKinley, 1978; and The Road to Camlann by Rosemary Sutcliff, 1981.

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Of all these fantasies, Tolkien is the author Pierce read growing up (www.tamora-pierce.com). She loved The Lord of the Rings but wanted an epic fantasy adventure featuring a girl as the warrior hero. While Eowyn is an important character in Tolkien’s epic (a young woman who disguises herself as a man so that she can join the Rohirrim to fight the enemy and in fact is the one who kills the Lord of the Nazgul, a turning point in a critical battle), she is nonetheless a relatively minor character. Eilonwy in Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain is a strong character, but still not the adventurer protagonist. In Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, Susan, Lucy, and Jill all have their moments of heroism, but they are still not the primary heroes. And then came Tamora Pierce, who created the kind of story she wanted to read and gave it the kind of hero she was looking for, a girl. And that is the hallmark of all of her novels. They all feature the adventures of strong, female protagonists. I was writing what I wanted to read: girls kicking butt, mainly. That’s a requirement. In my books, boys can kick butt too—and even adults if they behave themselves. But for years and years we’ve been so brainwashed into thinking that males and females have two different roles, and I think we’re all going to be a lot happier in our lives if we start looking at the things we have in common. I try to show this through my books, and a story about a girl in a man’s field is still one of the clearest contrasts you can present as a writer. (Marcus 2006, 142–144) Published around the same time period as the Alanna quartet are The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley and So, You Want to Be a Wizard and its sequels by Diane Duane. The McKinley books feature a strong female protagonist. While the Duane books do as well, her hero shares the spotlight with her male counterpart. The girlpower tradition continues today, not only in Pierce’s own novels but also in the following: His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman, The Folk Keeper by Franny Billingsley, A Great and Terrible Beauty and the sequel Rebel Angels by Libba Bray, The Pellinor Quartet by Alison Croggon, Ella Enchanted and the companion novel Fairest by Gail Carson Levine, The Abhorsen Sequence by Garth Nix, East by Edith Pattou, The Tiffany Aching Adventures by Terry Pratchett, Changeling by Delia Sherman, Bella at

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Midnight by Diane Stanley, and The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede. Pierce is not the only female author to have read Tolkien when she was young who then grew up to write fantasies featuring the adventures of strong female protagonists. Patricia McKillip and Robin McKinley both also responded to the lack of strong female characters with literature of their own. In her interview in Encountering Enchantment, McKillip says: When I started reading and writing, in the 50s and early 60s, there were very few female protagonists in any genre. The men and boys got all the adventures. They got to sail pirate ships, go on quests, become warriors, fight evil, rule a kingdom, study sorcery, fly a spaceship or explore the world; they got all the good lines. Nancy Drew was a notable exception, but even in novels for older readers and adults, there were extremely few adventurers who were not young men. In college back then, when I majored in English literature, nearly every book that was required reading for my degree had a male protagonist as a hero. As a female reader, I only got to look on; I wasn’t allowed to identify with the action in the plot. Somewhere between college and my first published novel I realized what an amazing gold mine of unwritten stories there were about women. This began to change in the late 70s and 80s; now no one thinks twice about writing or reading about a female protagonist. But once they were very few and far between. And I have a great deal of fun with my women characters: being so relatively new on the literary stage, they can still surprise the reader in ways that male protagonists don’t. (Fichtelberg 2006, 9–10) The number of works of fantasy published over the years has increased to such an extent that it is easier to comprehend the genre by dividing it into subgenres. Pierce’s work fits into both the Sword and Sorcery and the Secondary World subgenres. Sword and Sorcery fantasy features exactly what it says. It is generally set in an imaginary realm that is pre-industrial, often in medieval worlds that never were, adventures where swordplay and magic are equally important. ‘‘Secondary world’’ is a phrase used by Tolkien in his essay, ‘‘On Faerie Stories’’ (1966, 70) in

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which he defines a Secondary world as any world imagined by the author that has no direct ties back to the ‘‘Primary world’’ which would be the known world. All of Pierce’s novels take place in imaginary realms (many of them in the kingdom of Tortall and its neighbors) that are completely independent of direct ties to the Primary world. In addition to her emphasis on girls who embark on adventures, Pierce addresses issues concerning the balance of violence with healing, the just use of power, the importance of love, and the classic battle of good versus evil. While Pierce, along with McKillip and McKinley, virtually created the girl-power subgenre of Secondary world fantasy and influenced others to continue in this tradition, she along with everyone else has benefited from the enormous success of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Not only have Rowling’s books convinced publishers to publish more fantasy for children and young adults—57 percent of the speculative fiction titles published now for children and young adults are fantasy versus a previous high of 33 percent (Locus, May 2006, 32)—but also the incredible popularity of Rowling’s books has convinced publishers that children and young adults will read longer novels. When Pierce first started writing fantasies, she was told her books were too long for young readers. As a result, she had to cut them in half, producing quartets instead of duologies: The Song of the Lioness, Immortals, Circle of Magic; Protector of the Small; Circle Opens. That changed in the wake of Harry Potter, in particular with the publication of volumes four (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 734 pages), five (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 840 pages), and six (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 610 pages). The Will of the Empress, a stand-alone continuation of the adventures of the Circle protagonists, was published in one volume that consisted of 550 pages. Next Pierce returned to the protagonist of her first quartet, but this time the emphasis was on Alanna’s teenage daughter. Her books were published as she wrote them, in just two volumes: Trickster’s Choice (422 pages) and Trickster’s Queen (467 pages). She followed these with a prequel set several hundred years in Tortall’s past. The first volume of the Beka Cooper Tortall Trilogy, Terrier, is one of her longest books to date. Pierce’s work receives generally positive reviews, although it is difficult to please all of the reviewers all of the time. A review of her first

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book, Alanna: The First Adventure, states ‘‘Pierce tells her story well, although some of the dialogue is unconvincing and events in the plot happen rather suddenly. Still this adventure story reads well and quickly’’ (Fry SLJ, Feb. 1984, 84). A reviewer of In the Hand of the Goddess stated, ‘‘Alanna is a charming heroine who has her difficulties, but she wins out because she perseveres. This series is sprightly, filled with adventure, and marvelously satisfying’’ (Soffer SLJ, Dec. 1984, 94). Another reviewer had the following comments about The Woman Who Rides Like a Man: ‘‘A coming-of-age fantasy-adventure that can be read by itself thanks to smooth backgrounding and one that leaves readers wanting to read further in either direction’’ (SLJ Aug. 1986, 105). Reviews of her more recent work, Trickster’s Queen, state, ‘‘The flaccid plot and the cookiecutter sameness to the characters make this 400-pager drag, but the magic and exotic settings, plus Pierce’s trademark quips and strong female characters, give the book bounce’’ (Horn Book Guide, Spring 2005, 96); ‘‘Too rushed for satisfying depth (another volume would have helped develop the fascinating but shallow web of secondary characters), but Aly is easily among the most interesting of Pierce’s heroines. Thrilling fun, despite its flaws’’ (Kirkus, Sept. 1 2004, 872); ‘‘Boys and girls alike will enjoy this fantasy—the boys for its nonstop adventure and the girls for its strong female characters’’ (VOYA, Feb. 2005, 498). Reviewers of The Will of the Empress had the following comments: ‘‘Readers will enjoy being reacquainted with these older but still very well-developed characters. This book stands alone, but readers unfamiliar with the earlier books will be asking for them after finishing this one’’ (Keuhn SLJ, Nov. 2005, 145); ‘‘A few threads seem to dangle in ways that cloth-mage Sandry would scorn, but little will deter readers from reveling in the elemental magics, or from sympathizing with the prickly young adults’ nostalgia for the easy companionships of childhood. A standalone tour de force, this will gratify Circle devotees and ensnare new readers for the series’’ (Booklist, Nov. 15 2005, 42); ‘‘Although the foursome’s eventual escape is never in doubt, Pierce has some fresh surprises regarding each mage’s powers, and through danger and repose she keeps the story rolling merrily along’’ (Horn Book Guide, Nov./Dec. 2005). While the critics’ opinions have fluctuated, Pierce has developed a following over the years. As she says on her Web site,

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In 1992 I became one of the lucky, rare percentage of writers who can actually make a living from their writing (it wasn’t much of a living for a long time, but it beat being a secretary). We struggled through most of the 1990s as my books gained popularity slowly. By 1995 I was starting to do more than the occasional school appearance; I began to go to science fiction conventions in 1997 or 1998, and in 2000 I went on my first publisher-sponsored tour, in England! Last spring came my second publisher tour, to Australia; last fall it was the United States and Canada. When they send you on tour, you can be assured of one thing: you have arrived. Now, when she attends a conference, she is followed by a bevy of enthusiastic young readers, a fitting tribute to an author who has succeeded admirably in moving forward both young adult literature and the genre of fantasy by creating exciting stories featuring strong female protagonists who can wield magic, have adventures, and flourish in what can often be considered ‘‘a man’s world.’’

PART 2

The Tales of Tortall Setting: Tortall and Its Neighboring Kingdoms HE NOVELS in the following section all take place in Tortall and its neighboring kingdoms. Tortall is a medieval-style realm. It is preindustrial, with no machinery, no mass production, and no weapons filled with gun powder. The travel is by foot, by boat, or by horse. The government is a hereditary monarchy, which follows the feudal model. The land is divided into fiefs, which are ruled by a lord. The lord owes his allegiance to the king, and the common people who work the land owe their allegiance to their lord. Some of the lands surrounding Tortall are peaceful; some are not. Galla is a productive and non-threatening neighbor, a land in which the people live much like the Tortallans. Carthak, Scanra, and the Copper Isles, on the other hand, constantly test the strength of Tortall, sometimes with raiders and sometimes with all-out war. The social caste structure of Tortall is quite rigid, although the emerging merchant class and the actions of the girls in the forthcoming tales bring about changes. Men grow up to be knights or sorcerers and to rule their lands when the time comes. Women are groomed to be brides and take care of the domestic needs of their husbands’ estates. Magic is quite real in Tortall. If a person has the Gift, the power can be used to heal, to fight, to craft special objects, to protect, or to shapeshift. It is a tool that can be used for good or for evil, but it is not inherently one or the other. There is also Wild Magic that does not display the characteristics of the Gift. This kind of magic is unpredictable, but those who possess it have the ability to heal and to shapeshift as well. The gods and goddesses are also real beings. They dwell in the Divine Realms, but they occasionally interact with mortals. There are the Great Gods, two of which are Mithros and the Great Goddess; and there are the lesser gods, which include the gods of all living creatures from badgers to trees to insects. The gods can become involved in a person’s

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life quite intimately or they can leave mortals alone to sort out their own affairs. But in the end, the mortals have the ultimate choice and the free will with which to determine the course of their lives. The actions of the characters have an influence on the structure of Tortall’s society, the impact of its government, and the kinds of creatures who inhabit the realm.

CHAPTER THREE

The Song of the Lioness Quartet HE SONG OF THE LIONESS is Pierce’s first quartet. The novels are set in the imaginary kingdom of Tortall and its neighboring countries. Pierce originally wrote the quartet as one novel for adults, but her editor advised her to recast the story as four shorter novels for young adults. Pierce rewrote the story, writing the kind of adventure she wanted to read when she was growing up, drawing on her younger sister, Kim, for inspiration for the character of Alanna. Pierce employs a straightforward narrative style, using the omniscient narrator to relate the story of young Alanna who longs to be a knight. For the majority of the books the narration follows the training and adventures of Alanna, although occasionally it reveals the actions of her nemesis, Duke Roger. When she is away from court, what occurs in the palace and capitol city of Corus are related as well. Sometimes the action follows the two men in her life, George, the King of Thieves, and Prince Jonathan, the heir to the throne.

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Plot Development Alanna: The First Adventure In the kingdom of Tortall, the Lord of Trebond, a widower who cares more for his books and studies than his children, prepares to send his red-headed, violet-eyed twins away to complete their education. In Tortall, the daughters of noblemen are sent to the First Daughter Convent to learn to be ladies before they are presented at court to find husbands. Sons, on the other hand, are sent to the King’s palace to train as knights. Younger sons can chose instead to study sorcery with the priests. Lord Trebond’s children, however, have no wish to follow the restrictive traditions of Tortall.

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The ten-year-old twins harbor desires vastly different from their father’s. Alanna refuses to spend years learning how to walk like a lady— she longs to learn the arts of war and become a knight doing daring deeds and gaining a reputation far and wide for her heroic actions. Thom wants nothing to do with knighthood. He hungers for knowledge so he can use his magical Gift wisely and well and become one of the greatest sorcerers in the land. Their father distrusts all magic and refuses to let him learn. Although Alanna possesses the Gift as well, she shies away from using it, focusing instead on action and adventure. The day before the two are to journey forth, Alanna proposes a plan: the twins will switch places. She will go to Duke Gareth of Naxen, disguised as a boy, and Thom will go to the convent, as his first step in training to be a sorcerer. They confide their plans in the village healer, Maude, who is supposed to accompany Alanna. When Maude uses her Gift to ask the gods for wisdom by contacting them through the fire, she sees confusing visions that nonetheless convince her to help the twins. Thom forges letters from their father, and Maude cuts Alanna’s hair after she dons the garb of a boy. As Maude secretly takes Thom to the convent, Alanna travels with Coram, a sergeant-at-arms for her family. When they have gone too far to turn back easily, Alanna reveals her identity to him and convinces him to go along with her disguise. When they arrive in the city of Corus, they proceed to the Duke’s castle, where Alanna is given a uniform and a room and begins her training as the page ‘‘Alan.’’ On her very first night, she encounters Ralon, a bully who takes an instant dislike to her. Prince Jonathan defends her and includes her in his circle of friends although he is three years older than Alanna. She continues her disguise. She embarks on her studies both intellectual and physical: reading and writing, mathematics, manners, music, history, philosophy, jousting, fighting with weapons, archery, and combat horseback riding. Although she has many skills that some of her fellow pages lack, she finds the amount of work overwhelming and the physical requirements brutal. She almost quits, but decides to stay after Coram accuses her of acting like a soft noble lady. She has more work than she can do, is sore and tired all the time, has no freedom, and has to wait on knights during meals. But she is truly happy to be at court, finally learning how to be a knight. She

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is also delighted to be assigned to Sir Myles, even if he does occasionally drink too much, for he is her favorite teacher. He makes history come alive and is kind to her. As she adjusts to her new life, she becomes friends with Gary—Gareth, the Duke of Naxen’s son—the older page that Prince Jonathan had matched her with to be her mentor. Three months zoom by and Alanna barely notices her eleventh birthday. When her diligence earns her a free morning in the city, she takes Gary with her. Together they encounter George Cooper, the lean, hazeleyed young man who first caught her attention when she entered the city at Coram’s side. Coram had implied George was a thief, but Alanna quickly discovered that he was far more. He was the King of Thieves. But he was also a young man with the Gift, who sensed the importance of becoming friends with Alan and his friends. Alanna worries that his Gift will enable George to penetrate her disguise, until she remembers that Maude told her the Gift would shield her even from others with the Gift. Although she progresses through her classes, taking her punishment when she can’t finish her work and making friends with many, the enmity between her and Ralon grows. He bullies her every chance he gets. Prince Jonathan and his friends would willingly stand up for her, but she keeps her troubles to herself, wanting to defeat Ralon on her own even though he is both stronger and taller than she is. When Ralon’s bullying turns physical, however, Jonathan and his friends step in and thrash him in return. That makes Ralon devise more subtle ways to torment her. Desperate to find a way to defeat Ralon, Alanna sneaks out and finds George at the Dancing Dove. There, she convinces him to teach her street fighting. For weeks she practices fighting with George as well as boxing and wrestling with Coram, until the day she feels scared but ready to take on Ralon. She knows that she will never be a knight if she cannot defeat him. She challenges him to a fight, swearing that her friends will only watch. Ralon thinks the younger and smaller boy will be easy to defeat, but Alanna has acquired new skills and bests him in hand-to-hand combat. Ralon leaves the Court, shamed, and Alanna’s friends celebrate, but Alanna still feels that she is only a girl and may never succeed in being a knight. As time goes on, she and Jonathan grow closer. Then, the Sweating Sickness strikes. So many fall ill that classes are cancelled, and Alanna

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spends her time helping in whatever way she can, except in the use of her magical abilities. She is reluctant to reveal that part of her Gift is healing and that she has learned the ways of healing from Maude. Even after one of her friends dies, she hesitates. However, when she learns that Prince Jonathan has been struck down by the disease, she knows she must act. The healers believe that the sickness springs from sorcery, for it drains them of their powers as they attempt to heal the sick. She confides her previously hidden abilities to Sir Myles and with his help, convinces the chief healer, Duke Baird, that she has the power of healing and knows how to use it. He turns the care of the prince over to her. With the help of Coram and Sir Myles, she tries herbal remedies first. When the King and Queen visit their sick son, they want to know why Alan thinks he can help Jonathan. Alanna confesses her healing powers and reveals that she did not make them known before because of how much Lord Trebond disapproves of magic. In turn, the king admits that he has neglected teaching all the knights and future knights who have the Gift about magic. He now realizes that has been a mistake and decides to send at once for Duke Roger, the greatest sorcerer of Tortall. When natural remedies and small healing magics don’t work, Alanna knows she must beseech the Goddess for the power to heal Jonathan. Although she believes the spell is too complicated and powerful for her, she must attempt it if she hopes to save Jonathan’s life. She calls on the Great Mother for help and is suddenly filled with raw magic, a fiery tiger that is eating her alive. A voice tells her to call Jonathan back. While tears stream down her cheeks, she masters the tiger, clasps Jonathan’s hands and calls him back. Pulsing with power, she reaches past the Dark God, the Master of all death, and finds Jonathan. They join hands, and their combined power burns away the shadows and brings them back to his bedchamber, whole and healthy. As Alanna begins her second year of training as a page, her maturing body gives her additional challenges to overcome in her quest to become a knight. First, her breasts begin to grow. She sends Coram to the healers for material to bind her chest. Although it is painful, she must bind herself each morning or her secret will be revealed. Then, she wakes up one morning bleeding and has no idea why. She hides the evidence of what is happening to her and flees to George, requesting that he take her to a

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healer in town. Quizzical but helpful, George takes her to his mother, who is also a healer. She explains to Alanna that her menstrual cycle has begun and gives her a charm against pregnancy. Alanna feels betrayed by her own body, but Mistress Cooper advises her to accept herself and confide in her son. She does share her secret with George, and he promises to keep her confidence. He also begins to watch her when she visits, in a way that he hadn’t before, and to court her, but so subtly that she is completely innocent of his attentions, at least at first. Although she is punished by Duke Gareth for leaving the palace without permission, she is allowed to continue her studies. Jonathan and his friends have become squires, so they spend less time together, and Alanna begins to spend more time with Sir Myles. While they are playing chess one evening, Alanna expresses an interest in learning about the Old Ones, the peoples who lived in Tortall in former times. Myles, having an estate with Old One ruins, seeks permission from the Duke to bring Alan home for a visit. When they explore the ruins, Alanna opens a passage that no one has been able to open before. Myles warns her away, but Alanna proceeds. She finds a sword with a crystal embedded in the hilt. Suddenly, a growing encroachment of darkness threatens to overwhelm her. She tries to fight it with her physical strength and her magical powers, but nothing works. Only when she gives up and accepts her death, does victory in the struggle come to her. In that moment, the crystal flares to life and beats back the blackness. Myles insists she keep the sword and tells her it is filled with powerful magic. She names it Lightning. Meanwhile she and the other students with the Gift have been studying magic with Duke Roger, Jonathan’s cousin. All of Roger’s students seem to hang on his every word, but Alanna is wary of him. When he examines the sword, he proclaims its magical properties while at the same time trying to pry the story from her of how she obtained it. She’s not sure why, but she refuses to tell him. Her distrust of him grows as she realizes that he fears the sword. A letter from her brother, who has encountered Duke Roger during his sorcery studies, confirms that she should keep up her guard. Roger spends more class time on theory than practice, so together, she and Jonathan study advanced magic texts, trying out spells neither is supposed to know.

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In addition to her other studies, Alanna is now learning swordplay. On the first day of class she is utterly humiliated, so she borrows Coram’s heavier sword and practices every chance she gets, determined to improve. As winter progresses, Alanna brings Jonathan and their other friends to George, and the nobles and ‘‘thieves’’ become friends. Jonathan and his companions will soon go through their Ordeals and be knighted. When they are, they will each choose a squire. Although Alanna deeply desires the role of squire to Prince Jonathan, she believes that her deception could be discovered which would put her knight in danger, and her less than stellar skills as a wrestler and swordsman wouldn’t help either. Then comes the day when her trainer, Captain Sklaw, selects her to fight with Geoffrey in a demonstration before the Duke. All the hours of practice bear fruit as she defeats her opponent. Lord Martin, the ruler of the desert lands of Tortall, comes to Court to request military support to handle the tribes of Bazhir that are not loyal to the king, and Duke Gareth decides to include the soon-to-be knighted squires in the party he sends in response to this request. He wants them to gain experience. Jonathan wants Alan to journey with them as well. His request that Alan be allowed to accompany them is granted. Duke Roger warns them to stay away from the Black City, which he says is evil and too powerful even for a sorcerer of his strength. Although he phrases his statements as a warning, Alanna feels sure that he is challenging Prince Jonathan. Jonathan perceives them that way as well. As a result, shortly after they arrive in the southern city of Persopolis, Jonathan sneaks out to investigate. Alanna cannot let him go alone, so she accompanies him. In the temple of the ruined city, they find the Nameless Ones, immortals that hunger to feast on human flesh. These beings call themselves the Ysandir. They seek to consume Jonathan and Alanna, but the two join their powers and erect a defense. As they are battling, one of the Ysandir discovers Alanna’s true nature and burns away her clothing. Jonathan is startled, but gives her his tunic as a covering, and they keep on fighting. As they grow desperate, Alanna calls on the Great Mother, who directs Alanna to fight with the sword. As she does, Jonathan battles with magic, and together they defeat the Ysandir, after which they flee the city to a nearby oasis.

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Once there, Jonathan demands an explanation. When Alanna finishes her story, Jonathan promises not to reveal her secret and then asks Alanna to be his squire. In the Hand of the Goddess This second novel in the Song of the Lioness quartet begins one year after Alanna and Jonathan defeated the Ysandir in the Black City and Jonathan discovered that Alanna was really a girl. Alanna, now Jonathan’s squire, has continued with her studies and training; far away, her brother Thom is continuing his study of sorcery. Their father has died, and Coram has returned to Trebond to run the estate, under Alanna’s direction. The story resumes with the Great Mother visiting Alanna while she is sheltering in a forest during a storm on her way back to Corus. She claims Alanna as one of her ‘‘chosen’’ and points out that Alanna is afraid of three things: the Ordeal she must complete in order to become a knight; love; and Duke Roger. Her clear implication is that Alanna must learn to confront and overcome these fears to accomplish the tasks the Goddess has for her in the future. Before she disappears again, she bestows upon her two gifts. One is the black kitten with purple eyes that came to Alanna before the goddess appeared. The other gift is an ember, glowing with fire, encased in crystal, for Alanna to wear around her neck. When Alanna returns to her training, she wears the crystal beneath her tunic and carries the kitten, which she names Faithful, with her everywhere, perched on her left shoulder. She turns fifteen and is refining her fighting skills, but still hates and fears her magical abilities, using them as little as possible. She also discovers two things about Faithful: her meowing sounds normal to everyone else, but to Alanna it sounds like talking, and she hates Duke Roger. In the course of events, an embassy from the neighboring nation of Tusaine visits the king. Their mission supposedly is peaceful, but when one of the Tusaine knights, Dain, insults the abilities of the knights of Tortall, Jonathan chooses Alanna to battle with him, to show that even a squire of Tortall can defeat a knight of Tusaine. Dain draws first blood and Alanna is ready to concede to him, but he continues fighting. His breech of chivalry angers Alanna, who returns the attack and quickly defeats him.

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Meanwhile, Duke Roger is not at all pleased. He would like to have ‘‘Alan’’ out of the way and considers the squire dangerous. His plans for Jonathan’s death in the Black City have been foiled. Now he must find another way to eliminate Alan and the royal family, so that it appears to be natural, and he can then become the ruler of Tortall. Alanna visits with George in the city on a regular basis. When she sees him on the day of Jonathan’s birthday, George gives her a mail shirt for Jonathan which is spelled to protect him. He also agrees to have some of his people spy on Tusaine. When he queries Alanna about love and marriage, she asserts that she is not interested in either, but he kisses her anyway. At Jonathan’s birthday ball, the Lady Delia of Eldorne is introduced. Although she is quite lovely and flirts with all the knights, especially Jonathan, Alanna is not impressed. In fact Alanna is not having the best winter. As a preliminary to her Ordeal, she must spend the night alone in the forest (although she is allowed to bring Faithful). A blizzard swirls into life, forcing Alanna to create a shelter under the snow and spend the night shivering (she hates being cold). When she emerges in the morning, a demon boar attacks her. She kills the boar but is puzzled as to why it was there. To make matters worse, she must sit idly by while Delia woos Jonathan and succeeds in becoming his lover. Trying to ignore Jonathan’s love life, she agrees to a friendly duel with her friend Alex, who is squire to Duke Roger. Their goal is to see who the better swordsman is. They use practice swords, and the fight begins amicably, but it soon becomes clear that not only is Alex better, but he is also trying to kill her. He breaks her collarbone and would have succeeded in killing her if Sir Myles had not put a stop to the fight. Alex did not seem to be aware of what he was doing, and the two resume their friendship, but Alanna is wary of him. George reports that Tusaine is planning an invasion. As they talk, his feelings for her are apparent. Still too young and innocent to cope with such strong emotions, his love terrifies her. Knowing that no one at court would listen to news provided by the King of Thieves, Alanna passes the invasion information on to Myles who then informs the king. Immediately, the king declares war and chooses his brother-in-law, Duke Gareth, to command the troops. However, on the day they are to leave,

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Duke Gareth is thrown from his horse, breaking his leg in three places. Alanna discovers that there was a burr in the horse’s blanket, put there by an unknown stable-hand who has since disappeared. Alanna suspects Roger is behind the incident, but she has no proof and so keeps her suspicions to herself. Roger now commands the army. The plan is to repel the invasion at the Drell River Valley, but the effectiveness of the troops is severely compromised by the royal order not to cross the river. The king does not want all-out war; he just wants to defend Tortall and so maintain his role as the peacekeeping monarch. Before they set out, George meets Alanna secretly. He warns her to be wary of Roger and confesses his love for her. Alanna swears she will never marry. George proclaims that he will wait for her and kisses her again. When the troops arrive at the Drell River Valley, Roger sends Jonathan and his troops to the Falls accompanied only by Sir Myles, the knight with the least combat experience. Duke Gareth had made it plain that he intended to keep the heir to the throne with him at headquarters. Roger, on the other hand, insists that Jonathan will get the experience he needs and still be secure enough at the Falls. In this new bivouac, Alanna befriends many of the regular soldiers, except for Jem Tanner. She becomes especially close to Big Thor, who practices fighting skills with her. They settle into camp life. Jonathan is involved in a few skirmishes; Alanna volunteers to spend her free time helping Healer Baird. This is not an easy choice. She is distraught at the sight of so many wounded and dying men and throws up after her first shift. One night, when Jem and Big Thor are on watch, Alanna goes in search of Big Thor. Instead of finding him, she comes upon enemy soldiers and hurries back to camp to sound the alarm. In the battle, she kills for the first time and saves Jonathan’s life. Roger arrives in time to finish the battle and force the enemy back across the river. Although she is wounded, Alanna searches for Big Thor, whom Jem has accused of treason. She finds him dying and helps him on his way to the Dark God, but not before he has revealed to her the name of the real traitor—Jem Tanner. Jonathan locates her, tends her wound, and kisses her. While she is recuperating, Alanna assists in the healer’s tent, but only in ways that do not involve magic, for her power is drained. Her

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sixteenth birthday passes. She takes a turn at blacksmithing and sentry duty as well. While she is on duty, Roger confronts her and invites her to be on his side. He leaves when she refuses; shortly after that, Faithful falls asleep as a strange fog rolls in, and Alanna is kidnapped by the enemy. When the sleeping cat is found, Jonathan and his men realize Alanna is gone, but they can’t mount a rescue mission because of the king’s decree that they not cross the river. Jonathan chafes at this restriction and with a little encouragement from Myles decides to risk his father’s wrath. In the meantime, Alanna wakes up, only to discover that she is being held captive with two other soldiers. They are all in chains, but Alanna’s bind her magically as well as physically. She picks the locks of her companions’ chains, hoping that they can make a dash for freedom. When Duke Hilam visits his captive, it’s clear that he is using sorcery and that his captain thinks it a dishonorable way to win a war. He and his brother, the traitor Jem Tanner, are delighted to have captured Alanna, but their glee is short-lived because the soldiers escape, and Jonathan arrives to rescue Alanna. Since Jonathan takes the king of Tusaine’s brothers (Duke Hilam and Jem) captive at the same time, the king has no recourse but to negotiate a peace, after which the troops return home. As the winter wears on, Alanna visits with Mistress Cooper in the city. She’s puzzled by Jonathan’s moods and has decided that she would like to learn how to dress like a girl. As she is having a fitting, both George and Jonathan see her in a dress. The winter grows so cold that the wolves in the wild have no food and begin hunting people. The king declares that all the knights in the palace will hunt Demon Gray, the most dangerous wolf. Alanna becomes separated from the group and is stalked by a wolf. Roger kills it, but then another larger wolf attacks her. She kills it with her dagger and then clutches the ember crystal from the Goddess that is around her neck. This enables her to see an orange glow around both wolves and Roger. She knows that orange is the color of Roger’s magic, violet is her color, and blue is Jonathan’s. She speculates that Roger set the wolves on her but has no way to prove it. She turns seventeen, and she and Jonathan become lovers. This distresses Delia, who is in league with Roger. The queen becomes ill and never fully recovers. When Alex bets that Alanna can’t skate around the

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pond one time without falling, she laces up her skates, even though she hasn’t been ice skating since she fell into the freezing water in the pond at Trebond when she was five. She is just hitting her stride when the ice collapses. She uses the crystal ember to melt the ice above her, and her friends come to her aid. An investigation afterward leads to the discovery that someone salted the ice. Worried, she sends to the City of the Gods for her brother but receives no reply. George tells her his messenger was killed by poisoned arrows. Alanna decides that she must make the journey herself. George accompanies her, and they find that her brother has completed almost all the requirements needed to become a Master far earlier than expected. He agrees to come to Corus as soon as he is finished. On their way home, they are attacked. They fend off the villains, when George is wounded, and Alanna tends him. After they return home, Alanna turns eighteen. Her friends give her magnificent presents, and Jonathan tells her that he loves her. Alanna knows that their relationship has no future. When she becomes a knight, she will have to leave. After all, she could never marry the Prince of Tortall, but this knowledge doesn’t keep her from telling him that she loves him too. As the time of her Ordeal approaches, she realizes she must tell her friend Gary that she is a girl. She needs two knights with her while she bathes, and he will need to understand why he and his companion, Prince Jonathan, must wait outside the bathing chamber until she is finished. He is surprised but doesn’t stop being her friend. He does wonder why she has no breasts, and Alanna tells him that she wears a special corset to hide them. She has been dreading the Ordeal. When she enters the chamber, she must endure all its torments without making a sound. It envelopes her in the things she fears most: cold, spiders, and dead loved ones whom she cannot help. At the last, a vision that she cannot quite see appears. She tears through the cloth that blocks her sight and views an image of Jonathan, dead, with Duke Roger wresting away the crown and wearing it himself. She faces each fear with silent determination and emerges ready to be knighted. The king knights her, and her brother Thom presents her with a shield.

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That night at the feast, the queen attends, in spite of her illness. The crystal shows Alanna that it is Roger who is somehow making the queen ill. Alanna decides it’s time to find proof that Roger is the nefarious sorcerer she has long suspected him to be. She uses her magic to break into his work room and finds a wax figure of the queen in a fountain, her life force being slowly washed away. She also discovers wax figures of the royal family, Myles, and herself in a cloth bag and knows that Roger has used it to keep them all in the dark. She returns to the feast and lays the figures before the king, accusing Roger. The sorcerer proclaims his innocence and challenges her to a duel, declaring that if he wins the fight, it will prove that he is guiltless. As Alanna prepares for the duel, she confesses to Myles that she is a girl. He has suspected that this was the case for a long time but is glad she told him. As Alanna fights with Roger, he slices her corset off, revealing to all that she is a woman. Although the king is shocked, Alanna regroups and keeps fighting. Roger tries to use sorcery to win, but Alanna calls upon the Goddess and kills him. The king allows her to keep her knighthood, for she has earned it, and she and Coram leave the city to embark on their adventures. The Woman Who Rides Like a Man Four weeks after being knighted, Alanna is crossing through the Great Southern Desert with Coram and Faithful when they are attacked by hillmen, who fight with no honor because they kill for the sake of killing, not simply for defense. Alanna breaks Lightning while fighting a giant-sized hillman with a crystal sword. Refusing to be defeated, she returns his attack with her ax. When a tribe of Bazhir warriors come to their aid, the hillmen run. The tribal headman, Halef Seif, dubs her The Woman Who Rides Like a Man and questions what she is doing in the desert. The penalty is death for anyone encroaching on the territory, of the Bloody Hawks. One of the warriors recognizes her as the Burning-Brightly One who defeated the Nameless Ones, and she is invited to join the tribesmen at their evening fire. They provide her with a guest tent. Three young people, Ishak, Kara, and Kourrem—a boy and two girls—bring her food and drink. At the fire, the shaman, Ibn Nazzir accuses her of being a demon. The men of

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the tribe debate her fate and determine that it should be settled by combat. Alanna fights their champion, Hakim, and when she knocks him out, she refuses to kill him. Nazzir screams that she is an unnatural woman and will doom the tribe, but Halef disagrees, telling her that she has earned the right to join the tribe, which she does in a blood-binding ritual. Nazzir is not at all pleased when Alanna stays with them. He tries to kill Faithful with sorcery, but Alanna stops him with her own power. The shaman wears the crystal sword that Halef had told Alanna to leave in the desert because it was evil. Halef demands to see the sword, but at a warning from Faithful, Alanna intercepts the sword; otherwise it would have killed Halef. She examines the sword and senses Roger’s influence. When she drops the sword, Nazzir reclaims it. When the Voice of the Tribes visits, Alanna discovers that he is Ali Mukhtab, a friend she met when visiting Peropolis six years ago. She learns that the Voice communes with the tribes each evening at sunset and acts as their guide and judge. He has brought the written history of the Bazhir that Jonathan requested years ago. He asks Alanna to make sure that Jonathan gets it along with Mukhtab’s message that Jonathan needs to come to the desert. He wants Jonathan to be the next Voice so that there will be peace between the people of Tortall and the Bazhir. And, he needs Jonathan to come quickly so that he can train him before he dies. Alanna sends Coram with the manuscript and the message. Alanna stays with the tribe, although Nazzir is always trying to get rid of her, even if it means using magic that is too strong for him. Alanna tries to reforge Lightning, but the sword will not permit it. She must find another way to make it whole. As the days pass, she learns that her three young friends are considered outcasts because they each have the Gift and Nazzir refuses to train them. Alanna sympathizes, feeling like an outcast from Tortall. The Bazhir discover two of George’s spies in their midst and brings them to the Voice for judgment. Alanna convinces him to let them go. She learns that George is in Port Caynn. Worried about her safety, he sent his men to check on her. She sends them back with her assurances that she is fine. Nazzir next attacks Alanna with a sorcerous fire which she quenches with her magic. She sends a small tendril of it into his tent to make him

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come out and face her. Nazzir attacks her with the crystal sword. Alanna beats back the blackness of the sword’s power with her own violet magic. Nazzir dies because the sword drains his life force. Halef tells Alanna that she must take his place as the tribe’s shaman until they have a shaman of their own again; otherwise they will be in danger from the hillmen’s shamans. She agrees as long as she can train the three young people. Even though women have never been shamans before, Halef consents. Despite her nightmares about Roger, Alanna begins training her three apprentice shamans. Each has some level of control. Ishak has had more training than the girls, which makes him eager to learn more and leads to his cockiness and arrogance. While out riding with Halef, Alanna and the headman discover hillmen raiders. As they battle the enemy, Alanna uses the crystal sword, which turns her pride at fighting well into a sick joy of killing for killing’s sake. Alanna pulls a knot of evil from the sword and tosses it away, accidentally killing a retreating raider. Alanna requests that her apprentices be allowed to come to the evening fire where the men of the tribe discuss matters of import each evening. Since they are to be shamans, they must be respected by all of the tribe and participate in the decision-making process. The men accept them but the women are not pleased with the situation. Ishak and Alanna argue about how much advanced magic Ishak should be learning. She continues teaching all three but worries that Ishak will be tempted by the crystal sword. When they’re not working on their magic, the girls practice weaving. Alanna cannot help them with this since she knows nothing about weaving. Eventually, Mistress Farhar, the best weaver of the tribe, offers to help. She is the first woman to accept them. Coram returns with letters from those in Corus and word that Jonathan will be arriving shortly. The women of the tribe make peace with Alanna and her female students, but the hillmen are still their enemies. When the men are away, searching for the hillmen raiders, the hillmen attack. Alanna and her apprentices defend the tribe with magic, while Coram organizes the women and children. Alanna uses the crystal sword to extend the range of her power. Ishak relishes fighting with magic. The men return in time to help defeat the raiders. After the battle, Alanna helps tend the wounded. She overextends her power and faints. While she is incapacitated, Ishak steals the crystal

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sword. Faithful wakes Alanna and she confronts Ishak. He tries to use the sword against her. When she builds a defensive wall, it turns his power back on him and kills him. Alanna grieves for Ishak but accepts that she is not in control of everything. Word of her powers spreads, and other shamans come to learn from her and to share their own knowledge with her and with each other. Myles and Jonathan arrive, and Jonathan and Alanna resume their intimate, romantic relationship. Jonathan asks Alanna to marry him, and she says that she will think about it. He seems confident of her answer, but she is not so sure. Myles tells her that he would like to make her his heir. The Voice reveals his illness to Alanna. After touching him with her magic, she sees that there is nothing she can do but help him with the pain. The leaders of the tribes gather to observe Jonathan. Some are not pleased with the idea of the son of the Northern king being their Voice. He is challenged in combat to prove his worthiness as a warrior. Jonathan defeats his opponent and, like Alanna, refuses to kill him. He has now earned the right to join the tribe and does so with the blood-binding ceremony, but many of the leaders are still discontent. Myles adopts Alanna in a Bazhir blood-binding rite. Alanna insists her apprentices participate, even though they are girls. As the rite concludes, she realizes she finally has a father who loves her. Kara and Kourrem proceed well in their training with the other shamans in shaman school and are successfully initiated as shamans. Alanna turns over her shaman duties to them and concentrates on helping the Voice as he trains Jonathan. She knows that she loves Jonathan, but she’s not sure that she’s ready to be a queen or to have children. She’s also afraid that Jonathan wants to marry her as an act of rebellion. Jonathan is initiated and becomes the Voice of the Tribes. Ali Mukhtab dies during the ceremony. As Jonathan prepares to leave, he assumes that Alanna will come with him and they will wed, even though Alanna has not agreed to this. They argue, and harsh words are said on both sides. Jonathan accuses Alanna of not being feminine enough. She in turn refuses to marry him. Jonathan returns to court where his mother introduces him to Princess Josiane from the Copper Isles. Alanna grows restless in the desert and so goes to visit George in Port Caynn. She will not talk about what happened between her and

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Jonathan, but George now has hope for beginning a romantic relationship with her himself. He explains that he is in Port Caynn to put down a thief rebellion. As the King of Thieves, he is entitled to a percentage of the spoils, which is being held back by a faction in Caynn. If he wants to retain his position, he must put down this rebellion, which he does. Alanna overhears George and Coram discussing Jonathan’s apparent new love interest. When George confronts her, she tells him the whole story. When he kisses her, she realizes how much she loves George, and the two become lovers. Autumn is a time of happiness for the couple except for the strange feeling she has about Corus. Alanna tries to contact her brother Thom, but he does not respond. On All Hallows, while George is away, Alanna feels her magic being leeched from her and is positive that Thom is the only one who could do that. When George returns, he brings a letter from Thom who explains that he is experimenting. One evening, when the household is about to begin dinner, Faithful gives a warning and Alanna discovers that the soup has been poisoned. The maid that did it dies without revealing who sent her, but her letter of clearance came from Claw, one of George’s rogues in Corus. George returns to Corus to deal with Claw, while Alanna journeys back to the Bazhir. In Corus, George is attacked entering his home at the Dancing Dove. He beats back the attackers and then seeks shelter with his mother, who has been weak and ill since All Hallows. George earns back his place at the Dancing Dove but then discovers that Claw has lured away over half his people. He will have to find a way to win them back. With the help of Sir Myles, he confirms that Claw comes from the nobility. Myles says he will try to find out who Claw is and confides his suspicion that Thom has been trying to raise the dead in response to a challenge from Delia. George visits Thom and doesn’t like him at all. He also realizes that Alanna’s brother has gotten in over his head and offers to help. His offer is rejected, but he tells Thom not to forget it and that he can call upon George in his hour of greatest need. Alanna is restless with the Bazhir and is planning to move on when Halef asks her to go to his friend who lives in Alois. He’s dreamed she is in danger. Alanna embarks on the journey. When she arrives, a priest of the Scanra god, Yahzed, is haranguing the villagers into burning a sorceress at the stake. Alanna fights the priest and villagers, but they’ve already

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lit the fire. Alanna pleads with the Goddess for rain, which she sends. Alanna saves the sorceress and sends her with Coram into safety while she battles one more villager. The crystal sword once more fills her with sick joy, demanding the villager’s death. She tosses the sword aside, uses her shield to knock out the villager, and then retrieves the blood-thirsty weapon. The sorceress was stoned by the people the day before and is too injured to survive, but she tells Alanna how to fix Lightning. She must merge the broken blade with the crystal sword. She also predicts a dark time ahead for Tortall. The sorceress dies, and Alanna uses her magic to raise a grave marker for her. That night, Alanna dreams that Thom has raised Roger from the dead and that he is demanding his sword from her. She merges the two swords with the blood-binding ceremony that she learned from the Bazhir. Then she tells Coram that they will deliver the sorceress’s letter to Halef and go south for a tournament. She knows that if trouble is at hand, she is ready for it. Lioness Rampant Several weeks after the end of The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, Alanna and Coram arrive in the Maren city of Baret in search of Naham Jendrai. Sir Myles has indicated that he would be the best person to translate the map the sorceress sent to Halef, who insisted that it belonged to Alanna, not to him. In the inn, Alanna meets Liam, a Shang Dragon. The Shang is a disciplined sect known far and wide for its weaponless style of fighting. Its warriors, both girls and boys, are trained from early childhood to fight with a series of speedy kicks and punches. The title ‘‘Dragon’’ indicates that Liam has achieved the highest rank. Alanna has always wanted to learn how to fight in the Shang style, and she feels an instant attraction to Liam. When she leaves the inn to go for a ride, a fog curls about her. The Goddess appears and asks Alanna to contemplate the kind of person she will become. Alanna is so exhausted that on her way back she falls asleep in the saddle and falls off her horse Moonlight. Much to her embarrassment, Liam finds her and leads her home. She and Coram bring the map to Jendrai, and he tells them that it reveals the location of the Dominion Jewel. It can be found in the Chitral Pass at the Roof of the World. The Jewel is a gem from legend that

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enables non-magical rulers to gain dominion over their kingdoms. Gifted rulers, on the other hand, are given the ability to do anything with the Jewel in their possession. Alanna and Coram express relief that the Dominion Jewel was never in Roger’s hands. Even though she has always been afraid of the cold, Alanna decides she must retrieve the Jewel and bring it home to Tortall. While on their way back to the inn, Alanna and Coram are attacked by Claw’s minions. They succeed in disarming Alanna and are about to overcome her when Liam appears and defeats their attackers. Alanna passes out from her wound and dreams that Thom needs her power. Liam offers to accompany them part of the way and watches over Alanna during her five days of recovery. When she regains her strength, they have a weapons-only sword fight (since Liam’s Shang skills would give him an unfair advantage) so Liam can see the true level of Alanna’s prowess. Alanna wins. They embark on their journey and Liam begins to teach Alanna the Shang techniques. As the two become closer, Liam expresses disapproval when Alanna uses her Gift. He says at first that magic is a crutch but then admits that he is afraid of it. Even so, he kisses her, and the two become lovers. The border guards think they are crazy to enter the country of Sarain since it is being torn apart by a bloody civil war, but the adventurers have decided it’s the best way to get to the Roof of the World. The farms they pass have all been burned; the land ravaged by violence. When they come across a mound of skeletons, Alanna uses her magic to fire a funeral pyre. She sees fear etched in Liam’s face and knows their time of intimacy will not last. They are captured by Thayet, the Princess of Sarain, and her guardswoman, Buri, but they soon become friends. Alanna offers to journey with them and the young children they are protecting. Since they are short on supplies, when Faithful reports a troop of bandits, they scout out the group with an eye to raiding their supplies. There are too many for five of them to fight, so Alanna proposes that she hold them with magic, while the others get the supplies. Buri thinks that using magic is cheating, but they see no other alternatives. Alanna is able to use an image of the Jewel to extend her power, throwing a blanket of magic over the bandits, so the others can steal the supplies. The Jewel traps her and

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is draining her magic, so that Faithful has to bite her to help Alanna break free of its power. Although they have food now, Alanna is deeply affected by the devastation around her and has nightmares about war. Liam gives her extra combat training so that her body is so exhausted she is too tired to dream. When they arrive in Rachin, an archer tries to assassinate Thayet. Alanna orders the others to the safety of the convent while she and Buri pursue the archer, but he escapes. When they arrive at the convent, they find Thayet has not been admitted, and Alanna has to use her authority as a knight to gain them entrance. They learn that Thayet’s warlord father has died, and the rebel leader wants Thayet. The convent cannot shelter her from the rebels, although they will take the children. Alanna invites Thayet and Buri to come on the quest, and they escape the city disguised as mercenaries. Liam decides to accompany them and Alanna relinquishes command to him, since he knows the lay of the land much better than she does. They leave Sarain and continue on toward the mountainous Roof of the World. Thayet and Buri join Alanna in her early morning training session with Liam. A blizzard strikes as they near Chitral Pass, and they must wait it out in the inn. Alanna dons a dress and Liam is not pleased. They fight about who Alanna really is, but they resolve their differences by making love. The snowstorm contributes to Alanna’s restlessness as she feels a growing urgency to accomplish her quest and return to Tortall. To pass the time, she and her friends accept the Doi fortune-teller’s invitation to read their palms. She tells Thayet that she will never return home. Buri and Liam keep their futures to themselves. When Alanna’s turn comes, a deeper voice takes over the Doi and tells her she must battle the Chitral to gain the Jewel. This makes Alanna consider braving the blizzard. Liam forbids it, and they fight again. Alanna dreams that Queen Lianne is dead, and Roger claims that he didn’t do it since he has no more magic. Her dream convinces her that she has no time to waste. She must win the Jewel and return home. Faithful stays to keep Liam asleep. Alanna dresses in many layers and in snowshoes to battle the blizzard that is keeping her from the Jewel. Fighting the biting wind and searing cold, using her Gift to keep her warm, she forces her way to the Pass. The voice of ‘‘old Chitral’’ indicates which

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way to proceed. Fatigue causes her to stumble. By the time she reaches the cave, she’s used up her Gift. Chitral appears as a great rock-ape bearing a black iron short-sword. They fight. When Alanna loses Lightning, she employs the Shang skills Liam taught her. She disarms Chitral but does not want to kill him. He reveals that he is an elemental, a spirit of the mountain much older than her gods, and gives her the Jewel. He disappears, but Alanna knows she is too exhausted magically and physically to return to the inn. Despite the cold, she falls asleep. When she wakes up at the inn, she learns that the Doi rescued her and that Liam is angry with her, not so much for going against his orders, but for letting Faithful use magic on him. Thayet explains the state of affairs, and Alanna offers her the Jewel so that Thayet can return to her country and subdue it. Thayet refuses her offer. Alanna and Liam realize that Alanna will always use magic, it is an integral part of her, and Liam will never like or accept it, which dooms their romantic relationship. They agree to be just friends. As they make their way back, word of her deeds precedes her and Alanna and her friends are treated with great honor. They’ve decided to take a ship back to Tortall, despite Alanna’s tendency toward seasickness, when her old friend Raoul finds them in an inn. He says that Jonathan sent him to bring her home and tells her that first Queen Lianne died and then three weeks later the King died in a riding accident. This makes Jonathan the King-to-Be. Raoul also tells her that Thom did indeed bring Roger back from the dead. Meanwhile, in Tortall, the common people think Jonathan’s reign may be cursed because of Roger. Jonathan has made Gary his temporary prime minister and is ruling the kingdom, although he still grieves for his parents. He believes that, although his father made his death look like an accident, it was really suicide. George is still having difficulty with Claw. When George is out of town, Claw sends brigands to attack his mother. George brings her to Sir Myles, who shelters her and is glad to share his guard of Bazhir warriors who came to protect the adoptive father of Alanna. Thom is worn out, while Roger appears robust but continues to swear that he has no magic. George is attacked at the Dancing Dove and is saved by the arrival of Sir Myles and his Bazhir guards who fortunately stopped by for an

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unexpected visit. Sir Myles learns that Claw is actually Ralon, the nobleman bully Alanna fought in her first year of training. Claw is not only after George. When Jonathan takes his first official ride through the marketplace, Claw’s men attempt to assassinate him, then start the Great Market Riot. George takes a back route and leads Jonathan to safety. When George learns of a palace plot against Jonathan involving Claw and some of the nobility, he reveals it to Jonathan, whom he regards as a friend, even though such an act goes against the thieves’ code. While George is in the palace, he visits Thom and discovers that he’s magically ill. He suspects Roger and against Thom’s wishes sends for the master Thom trained under, Si-cham. Jonathan’s men set a trap for the plotters and catch all but Claw. Roger swears to Jonathan that he had nothing to do with the plot, but muses that with the right tools the gods can be overcome. In retaliation, Claw has many of George’s loyal followers killed for George’s violation of the code. Delia, Alex, the now-rejected Josiane, and Claw are plotting their next move when Roger bursts in on them and tells them not to plot any more but to wait for his command. Then he reveals that he has not lost his powers after all, but his magic, which used to be orange, is now blood red. Alanna arrives in Port Caynn, and George escorts her to Myles’ house in Corus. Thom visits her magically, and she sees how sick he is and that his Gift has been corrupted. Jonathan visits also, and Alanna swears her fealty to him. He confides in her, sharing his grief for his parents. Thayet and Jonathan meet and are instantly attracted to each other. Alanna seeks Roger out and confronts him, discovering that he still hates her as much as she hates him. He swears he is on his best behavior and has no Gift, but Alanna does not feel reassured. Alanna and Thayet prepare for their formal introduction to the court. At the grand affair, Thayet looks stunning and Jonathan invites her to stay in Tortall as long as she wishes. Alanna presents Jonathan with the Jewel. It glows like a small sun in his hand, causing all to kneel. Jonathan invites Alanna to a council meeting where she sees that many of her old friends now have positions in Jonathan’s government. She feels she doesn’t belong in the meeting. But then Jonathan asks her to be the King’s Champion. She refuses at first, but he is persistent. She points out that even when Tortall had women warriors, there was never a

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female champion. Jonathan is not deterred and Alanna acquiesces. After the meeting, Jonathan and Alanna have a chance to talk about their personal relationship. They decide it’s best to simply be friends and not rekindle a romantic relationship. George is still having troubles with Claw and would give up being King of Thieves except that he knows Claw will not be a good rogue ruler. When Jonathan offers him a royal pardon, George at first refuses it. When the King-to-Be says that he would like to make George his spymaster and promote him to the nobility by making him a Baron, George thinks that perhaps the time has come to become an honest man. As the coronation day approaches, Alanna contemplates her future while in the Hall of Crowns. She decides she wants to be both a warrior and a woman. The Goddess visits her and tells her that she’s guided her to adulthood and now Alanna is on her own. The King’s Champion accepts this and sees all the gods in their glory before her. Although he’s been delayed, Master Si-cham finally arrives to help Thom. After several meetings with her twin, he has Alanna take part of Thom’s power so he can go through a purifying process needed to restore him to health. As long as Alanna does not use her Gift, the taint from Thom’s power that she now carries will not affect her. The night before the coronation, she keeps vigil with Jonathan and has a vision of Roger. Once more, Alex and Delia are plotting, this time to disrupt the coronation. Their captains report that the palace is filling up with their soldiers. Alex reveals that he knows that Roger’s ambition reaches beyond the mere throne of Tortall. All gather for the coronation ceremony. Jonathan kneels and receives the crown of Tortall. Alanna touches her ember and sees Jonathan bathed in the magical light of the land, but she also sees the floor of the Hall covered with the blood red of Thom’s tainted magic. She cries a warning to Jonathan just before the floor buckles and the sorcery-induced earthquake hits. Pain crackles through her, and she knows Thom is in trouble. Leaving Jonathan to his guards, she dashes off in search of her brother. George follows her. When she realizes she has the Jewel with her, she sends George back with it, knowing Jonathan will need it. In the Hall, Buri kills an archer poised to assassinate the newly crowned king. All around her, soldiers from Eldorne and Tirragen reveal

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themselves and attack. The King’s Own encircle Jonathan, and all of his friends and supporters fight back. Alanna finds Thom dying and wants to use her Gift to save him. He stops her, explaining that that will only allow Roger to steal her magic as he’s stolen Thom’s, through a leeching spell. Thom dies. Alanna finds Si-cham with his hand cut off. He has her open herself to him so he can impart information directly. He shows her how to find Roger and then forcefully sends her Gift to Jonathan. Josiane enters, kills Si-cham, and tries to kill Alanna, but Faithful springs. Josiane kills Faithful, but before the cat dies, she sends her energy to Alanna. Alanna follows Si-cham’s directions and searches for Roger. At the same time, in the hallway Coram joins George, who is racing to get the Jewel to Jonathan. When Claw and his men intercept them, George kills his traitorous rival. They are then surrounded by enemy soldiers. Fortunately, Liam arrives before it’s too late and defeats them. The three rush to the Hall of Crowns and find that it is falling apart from the earthquake blasts; that while some are fleeing for their lives, others are still fighting. George hands Jonathan the Jewel, and he, Liam, and Coram join the circle to protect the new king. Jonathan combines all the power at his disposal—his own, Alanna’s, the Bazhir’s, the land of Tortall’s, and the Jewel’s—and uses it to hold the earth steady. Aware of all the life forms around him, he is able to follow Alanna’s progress. Exhausted and still feeling the gap left when her magic was sent to Jonathan, Alanna wends her way to the catacombs where Alex challenges her. They fight and Alex succeeds in disarming her, but she employs the Shang moves against Alex and kills him. She proceeds through the tombs despite her growing terror. Finally she comes face-to-face with her nemesis, Roger, and finds that he has created a gate that will drain his enemy’s powers while enabling him to call forth elementals. Roger is sure of his victory although he had hoped to drain Alanna’s power and add it to his own. He tells her that she failed to kill him the first time. He was not dead in the tomb; instead he was in a Sorcerer’s Sleep. He urges her to fight him because all he needs for his spell to be complete is to cut off any part of her, no matter how small. Once he does, he will have a path to her Gift and through her to Jonathan and all his power. Failing this, he will still succeed because all he needs is time. Jonathan has stopped

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the tremors, but his spell can’t keep the pressures from building up and inevitably destroying the earth. When the pressure becomes too great, Jonathan will not be able to stop it. He reminisces about his youth and says that he used to design jewelry and crystal weapons. Everything he designed he put a bit of his Gift into. All those things will come to his call. He calls Alanna’s sword, which was made from the merging of the crystal sword tainted by Roger and her own Lightning. It strains to return to Roger. Alanna fights to hold onto it. Roger seems to have predicted all of her moves, and she does not know what to do. Then she tries the unpredictable. He expects her to fight, so she stops fighting and releases the sword. It flies straight to Roger and impales him through the chest. He is engulfed in fire from the gate. Alanna passes out and is found by Buri who brings her back to the Hall. Her friends have won the battle, but there are some injuries; Liam has died. He took eight arrows that were meant for Jonathan. Jonathan returns her power and assures her that Tortall is safe. Jonathan exiles all the rebels and imprisons Delia. Although the punishment for traitors is death, he does not want to start his reign with executions. Alanna returns to the Bazhir for a rest but assures Jonathan that she will always be there when he needs her. Buri and Thayet come to visit her. Thayet wants to be sure Alanna really does not want to marry Jonathan. Alanna gives Thayet her blessing. Then, the Shang master, Wildcat, visits with a letter from Liam, her student. He sent it to her before the coronation, in case he did not survive. Alanna grieves for her friend but gains some peace from the letter. George comes to visit. Alanna confesses that she loves him and George asks her to marry him. Finally the Lioness has realized that love and companionship will not rob her of her strength; that she can continue to travel and fight. The difference is that she will have George at her side, the former King of Thieves, now the spymaster of Tortall and the only man in Alanna’s life who could make her laugh and took pains to make her feel special. Character Development In the course of the quartet, Alanna grows from a ten-year-old girl to a young woman. At the age of ten, she is committed to following her dream of becoming a knight, but she has difficulty accepting her magical

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abilities and is not at all at ease with being a girl. By the end of the last volume, Alanna has transformed herself into a strong young woman who is comfortable with herself. She has finally accepted her role as a heroic knight who can not only call upon her superior fighting skills but can also tap into her magic as necessary. But the journey was not an easy one. The ten-year-old Alanna was determined to do whatever she thought she had to do to become a knight, including lying to all the people she met at the palace and using forged documents to get her a place as a page. However, she felt it was a dishonorable thing to do. ‘‘Alanna hung her head, hating herself for having to lie to someone like Duke Gareth’’ (Alanna: The First Adventure, 52). While she worked hard at her training, so that she could become as good as or better than the boys, the constant need to lie intertwined with her feelings of inferiority for being a girl. ‘‘The truth was, she didn’t feel worthy of being someone’s squire. She was a girl, and she was a liar. And at any moment the truth could surface’’ (Alanna: The First Adventure, 172). When she is freed from the necessity of lying by Duke Roger’s revelation of her sex during their duel at the end of In the Hand of the Goddess, she is able to be true to her knightly vows, ‘‘to live in a way that honors your kingdom and your gods’’ (In the Hand of the Goddess, 177) as Gary instructed her the night of her Ordeal of Knighthood. By the time she meets Princess Thayet in Lioness Rampant, the princess offers this assessment of Alanna’s character: ‘‘Alanna, my very dear, you’re an incredibly high-minded person, have you noticed? You take duty and responsibility seriously’’ (Lioness Rampant, 136). As she wins the acceptance of Jonathan and then some of her other friends, with whom she shares the truth of her sex, her guilt at her deception dissipates somewhat, but her struggle with her own womanhood does not. In her second year of training as a page, when she’s twelve years old, the physical manifestations of being female foist themselves upon her, and much as she would like to change things, she cannot. First, she develops breasts. Her solution to this problem is to send Coram for linens to hide her chest. The puzzled Coram returned within minutes and shoved a bundle of white linen over the tops of the screen.… Alanna grabbed it and wrapped it tight around her chest. ‘‘Ye’re turnin’ into a woman, aren’t ye?’’ he asked from the other side of the screen.

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‘‘No!’ she exclaimed.’’ ‘‘Lass, it’s hardly somethin’ ye c’n change. Ye’re born with it—.’’ Alanna stepped from behind the screen. Her eyes were red and swollen. If she had been crying Coram knew better than to mention it. ‘‘Maybe I was born that way, but I don’t have to put up with it!. ’’ He looked at her with alarm. ‘‘Lass, ye’ve got to accept who ye are,’’ he protested. ‘‘Ye can be a woman and still be a warrior.’’ ‘‘I hate it!’ she yelled, losing her temper. ‘‘People will think I am soft and silly!’’ ‘‘Ye’re hardly soft,’’ he replied sharply. ‘‘And th’ only time ye’re silly is when we talk like this. ’’ Alanna took deep breaths. ‘‘I’m going to finish what I set out to do’’ she informed him quietly. He put a hand on her shoulder. ‘‘Alanna, child, ye’ll be happy only when ye learn t’ live with who ye are. ’’ (Alanna: The First Adventure, 106–7) And then, as if to add insult to injury, she gets her first period. She doesn’t know what it is and has George find a healer for her. George, mystified, takes her to his mother. Once Mistress Cooper understands the situation, she tries to convince Alanna that she can’t use her Gift to change who she is. Then, Alanna told them everything. ‘‘I can’t stop now,’’ she finished. ‘‘I didn’t ask to be born a girl. It’s not fair.’’ George waved an impatient hand. ‘‘Hush your nonsense,’’ he ordered. ‘‘Bein’ a girl hasn’t slowed you down yet. And surely you don’t plan to stay a pretty young man all your life?’’ ‘‘No, of course not. I’ll tell them the truth when I’m eighteen and I have my shield.’’ She sighed. ‘‘If they hate me— well—I’ll have proved I can be a knight, won’t I? I’ll go into the world and have adventures. They needn’t ever see me again.’’ (Alanna: The First Adventure, 139) As she wrestles with becoming a woman while at the same time still fighting to pursue her dream of being a knight, Alanna gains some measure of confidence when she succeeds in helping Jonathan overcome the Ysandir in the Black City. At first they try to use her sex against her.

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‘‘‘How long do you think she will last?’ Ylira asked Jonathan, softly. ‘Another few moments? Not even that? She is a girl. She is weak. She will give way, and where will you be?’ It was the same small voice that taunted Alanna from within whenever she faced a taller, stronger opponent’’ (Alanna: The First Adventure, 201). When she calls on the Goddess for help and is answered, she and Jonathan are able to defeat the immortals and escape. As they are recovering, he asks her advice on choosing a squire: A week ago she would have told him to pick Geoffrey or Douglass. But she had not been to the Black City then. She had not proved to the Ysandir that a girl could be one of the worst enemies they would ever face. But what if they had not gone to the Black City? Duke Gareth had mentioned that, with a deal more practice, she could become one of the finest swordsmen at Court. In archery she hit the target every time. The masters who taught her tactics and logic said she was sometimes brilliant—Myles said she was far more intelligent than many adults. She had bested Ralon of Malven, and in some strange way, she had won her sword. All at once she felt different inside her own skin. ‘‘Me,’’ she said at last. ‘‘You should pick me.’’ (Alanna: The First Adventure, 214–15) As she continues to mature in the second book, In the Hand of the Goddess, Alanna, now in her mid-to-late teens, feels more comfortable with her skills as a squire and develops confidence about her ability to become a knight, while still keeping the role of knight and the role of woman completely separate. When the Goddess tells her she fears love, she answers, ‘‘I just want to be a warrior maiden and go on adventures. I don’t want to fall in love, especially not with George or Jon’’ (In the Hand of the Goddess, 11–12). Even though during the course of this novel she seeks out Mistress Cooper and asks her to teach her how to dress and act like a girl, and by the end of it, she and Jonathan have become lovers, she still finds being a woman and being a warrior mutually exclusive roles. In The Woman Who

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Rides Like a Man, she is immersed in proving herself a worthy warrior to the Bazhir tribe, the Bloody Hawks, which adopts her. ‘‘She rides as a man, goes unveiled as a man, fights as a man. Let her prove herself worthy of her weapons and of our friendship,’’ says Halef, headman of the Bloody Hawks (The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, 18). But at the same time, she gradually becomes comfortable with her womanhood. Two of her apprentices are girls, and when the women of the tribe finally accept her, she learns not only to be at ease with them but also with herself. This is revealed in her relationship with Myles who wants to adopt her as his heir. ‘‘Alanna hugged him. She was discovering that each time she hugged Myles it got easier. It was one of the many ways in which living as a girl was far more pleasant; boys were not supposed to show affection openly’’ (The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, 128–29). Her new-found self-acceptance is wounded when Jonathan throws her lack of femininity in her face during their fight when he assumes that she will accept his proposal of marriage. ‘‘What about all those women at the palace and the way they look at you?’’ Alanna demanded. ‘‘And I know you’ve had affairs with some of them! They’ve made you into a conceited—’’ ‘‘At least they’re women, Lady Alanna!’’ he said. ‘‘And they know how to act like women!’’ Silence stretched between them, as Alanna fought to keep from either slapping him or from bursting into tears. Finally she hissed. ‘‘I refuse to marry you.’’ Jonathan was now white with rage, ‘‘And I think I’m well out of potential disaster!’’ ‘‘Obviously!’’ she retorted. ‘‘Find yourself someone more feminine, Jonathan of Conte!’’ She hurled herself out of the tent. (The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, 162–63) Finally, by the end of this third novel, she sees how far she’s come. In a conversation with Halef, she says, ‘‘I don’t feel nearly as odd about being female as I did before I came here’’ (The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, 212). But it is not until the final volume that Alanna achieves true acceptance of the two prominent aspects of her being: woman and warrior. It is

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her new love interest, Liam, who brings it out in the open when he queries her, ‘‘‘I just wondered why you feel you have to be all warrior or all woman. Can’t you be both?’ Coram came back from washing, sparing Alanna the need to answer Liam’s question. It was just as well—she had no answer’’ (Lioness Rampant, 56). Oddly enough, although Liam readily accepts her as a warrior, he is the one who has difficulty accepting her as a woman. When the blizzard traps them in the inn at the Roof of the World, and he becomes angry with her for wearing a dress, she answers him, ‘‘I’m female.… Why can’t I wear a dress without you deciding I want to give up everything I am?’’ (Lioness Rampant, 109). And when they reconcile, ‘‘I like dresses,’’ she explained. ‘‘If you come with us to Tortall, you’ll see me wearing more of them. Just because I’m a knight doesn’t mean I don’t like pretty clothes.… I’m not ashamed of being female, Liam’’ (Lioness Rampant, 111). It is near the end of Lioness Rampant, while contemplating Jonathan’s coronation, that she finally realizes what she wants for herself. It happens during a conversation with Faithful. ‘‘You want to be a warrior and a woman. You want to travel and serve Jonathan. Can’t you make up your mind about what you want?’’ complained the cat. ‘‘Who says I can’t have a little bit of each?’’ she wanted to know. When she realized what she’d said, she began to grin. ‘‘That’s right—why can’t I? And I’ve done pretty well, I think!’’ (Lioness Rampant, 246) While it doesn’t take her as long to accept her magical abilities as it does to accept her womanhood, it’s also a significant obstacle to overcome. As a child just starting out her training, she wanted to completely eschew magic. Maude, the local healer who taught her all she could, tells her before she sets out, ‘‘And if you want to pay for those lives you do take, use your healing magic. Use it all you can, or you won’t cleanse your soul of death for centuries. It’s harder to heal than it is to kill. The Mother knows why, but you’ve a gift for both’’ (Alanna: The First Adventure, 8–9). But Alanna is loathe to follow that advice. Even after one of her friends dies from the Sweating Sickness, she does not want to use her Gift. Not until Jonathan is struck down with the disease does she realize she has to use her magic if she is going to have any hope of saving him.

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She found then that she couldn’t sleep because she couldn’t forget Maude’s warning to use her Gift for healing. She knew the gods punished people for ignoring magical abilities. Yet the thought of using sorcery gave her the shakes. She and Thom each had more magic than anyone she had ever known, and she knew if she used her magic and lost control of it, she would destroy herself and anyone who was nearby. Thom liked that sort of power— she didn’t. (Alanna: The First Adventure, 83) She gradually begins to understand the uses of her Gift as she and Jonathan study together—beyond what Duke Roger teaches them in their sorcery class—but it is Roger’s evil that turns her away from magic again. For, when she battles him at the end of In the Hand of the Goddess, he uses sorcery to fight her openly, as he has used it against all of the obstacles in his path to kingship. When she first meets the young Gifted outcasts of the Bloody Hawks, her response is, ‘‘I know nothing of magic,’’ she said harshly. ‘‘And I want to know nothing of magic. The Gift only leads to pain and death’’ (The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, 15). Later, she adjusts her view, He [Roger] attacked with a sword and with magic, but he didn’t attack just me. His sorcery would’ve killed the King or Jonathan. I had to stop him, so I killed him. Ever since then, I’ve felt magic—is too easily used for evil.’ She drew a deep breath. ‘But ignoring magic is worse. It’s like this crystal sword.’ She touched the blade she now wore at her waist. ‘I ignored it and Ibn Nazzir was able to turn it against me. I have to keep it for myself, and make it, so it can never be used against me again. (The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, 70) Shouldering the responsibility of training the young shamans, and later learning from the visiting shamans who gather for what turns into a shaman school, Alanna begins to see magic in a more beneficial light. She says to Coram, Have you ever noticed that when you try to deny some part of yourself, things fall out so you need that part more than any

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other? I was afraid of magic, partly because I was sure it couldn’t be controlled. But the crystal sword taught me it can. Before I came to the Bazhir, I saw a lot of magic used only to harm; being shaman cured me of that. I guess I’m not afraid of my Gift anymore. I’m the one who wields it—my Gift doesn’t wield me. And now I can help people I swore to help with my abilities. (The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, 226) By the time she is faced with the challenges that come to her in Lioness Rampant, she is able to use her magic when she needs to, even if Liam and those around her are not pleased with it. She says to Liam, ‘‘‘I use my magic to heal, to pay back for some of the lives I take. I can’t change what I am,’ she told him, cooling off. ‘I never asked to be half witch and half warrior’’’ (Lioness Rampant 58–59). Dovetailing with her need to accept herself, her womanhood, and her magical abilities, is Alanna’s need to accept love. In the Hand of the Goddess, when the Goddess tells Alanna that one of the things she fears is love, Alanna protests that she wants to be a warrior maiden, but also says, ‘‘I don’t want to fall in love, especially not with George or Jon. They’ll just ask me to give them parts of me. I want to keep me for myself. I don’t want to give me away’’ (In the Hand of the Goddess, 11–12). This fear is noticed by another shaman in The Woman Who Rides Like a Man. ‘‘You are afraid you will lose yourself if you join with another—even if you join only in love, as with your Northern Prince’’ (The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, 133). And even though she has grown in many other ways, by the time she returns from the quest for the Dominion Jewel and is reunited with George in Lioness Rampant, her fear still clutches at her. ‘‘In their hazel depths [George’s] she saw a degree of love that frightened her as it warmed her’’ (Lioness Rampant, 195). It is not until she accepts herself as a woman and a warrior that she realizes how much she loves George and can accept his love for her. As she admits to George: ‘‘What do you want, Alanna?’’ She caught his hand and met his eyes, smiling. ‘‘I want to be yours. If you’re still interested.’’ His fingers tightened on hers. ‘‘Why?’’ Alanna looked down. ‘‘I love you.’’

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He made her look at him. ‘‘Enough to wed with me? Enough to give up roamin’ and settle down and be lady of Pirate’s Swoop?’’ She looked at him quizzically and he blushed. ‘‘Well, to roam with me along.’’ Alanna nodded. George took a breath. ‘‘Enough to bear my—our—little ones?’’ She blushed. ‘‘I’d like to have you to myself for a year or two. After that, we’ll have all the children we want.’’ Her voice cracked as she added, ‘‘I’ll be proud to.’’ Rising, George pulled Alanna into his arms, ‘‘So I finally tamed myself a Lioness,’’ he whispered when they broke their kiss. Alanna laughed. ‘‘I wouldn’t call it tamed, laddy-me-love. The lady of Pirate’s Swoop shouldn’t be tame.’’ (Lioness Rampant, 307–8) Alanna also possesses the qualities of determination and courage throughout all four volumes. Although initially exhausted and overwhelmed by the duties required of a page-in-training to the point that she almost quits and goes home, she listens to Coram and stays the course. When Ralon bullies her, she seeks out the knowledge and training on her own that will enable her to beat him. ‘‘She was determined to beat Ralon—it would mean she had finally earned her place among the boys. It would mean that she could do anything larger and stronger males could do’’ (Alanna: The First Adventure, 68). This is the strength that carries her through being kidnapped by enemy soldiers, enables her to pass the knightly Ordeal she fears above all else, helps her survive the initial conflict with the Bloody Hawks that enables her to live as a respected member of the tribe, rewards her after unbelievable hardships with the acquisition of the Dominion Jewel, and in the end, with her magic drained and inaccessible, provides her with the force of will she needs to survive her final confrontation with Roger. Even when she has the urge to give up, battling the blizzard at the Roof of the World, she persists. ‘‘She thought about just going home, but at this point, something inside her balked’’ (Lioness Rampant, 116). Alanna also has a bit of a temper, which is brought out most of the time by the men in her life, but even that comes under control by the end of Lioness Rampant, as her twin brother, now a full sorcerer, notes, ‘‘It’s changed you—the Jewel. Time was you’d’ve lost your temper with me for calling him a ‘prig’ or teasing you about the Dragon. You only save your anger now for big things, is that it?’’ (Lioness Rampant, 256).

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During the course of the novels, Alanna grows to become the person she longed to be, a woman and a warrior. As she contemplates the future in the Hall of Crowns, shortly before Jonathan’s coronation, she receives divine approval from the Goddess, ‘‘I have guided you as best I can, but the time for guidance is past. You are fully grown into all your powers, Alanna. The days to come are what you make of them. The coronation is a crossroad in Time. Bend it to your will—if you have the courage!’’ (Lioness Rampant, 248). Alanna, as the main protagonist, is the character who demonstrates the most growth, but the secondary characters are not one-dimensional. The men in her life are especially important. Jonathan matures from affable arrogance to true guardian kingship so that in the end he can save Tortall. The King closed his eyes and reached out with his mind, gripping the Jewel tightly. He called all his magics—his own Gift, the Bazhir desert sorcery, the power of the kings and the land of Tortall that was bound into the crown, the magic of the Dominion Jewel—and he threw them over the length and breadth of Tortall, feeling the Earth’s pain as if his own body were being shattered. Like an ancient tree sending out its myriad roots, he bound each crack and fault with sorcery, gripped the whole to him—and held. (Lioness Rampant, 282) George matures from the cavalier King of Thieves and becomes the responsible spymaster of Pirate’s Swoop. Thematic Development Several themes weave their way through the stories of Alanna and her adventures. The most prominent is gender equity, but concern about the effects war has on the land and people is also a vital thread. The importance of love, self-acceptance, and the battle of good versus evil are also intertwined in the tapestry of the tale. The gender inequality in Tortall is clear from the start. Not only are girls and women not allowed to become knights, but they are also relegated to roles of domestic caretaker or noble adornment. Noble girls are taught in convents how to run the domestic side of their future husband’s lands and how to present a pretty picture at court so that she can secure that husband. Alanna has to fight this tradition and the perception that girls and

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women can’t do anything other than their assigned roles. More difficult yet, she has to fight her own bias against herself. The struggle continues; even when she succeeds, she thinks, ‘‘No matter what Myles said, she had used fancy tricks to beat Ralon, that was all. She was still a girl masquerading as a boy and sometimes she doubted that she would ever believe herself to be as good as the stupidest, clumsiest male’’ (Alanna: The First Adventure, 78). ‘‘Winter passed quietly. Alanna occupied all her time with lessons, working every extra hour she had so she could be as good as, if not better than, the boys’’ (Alanna: The First Adventure, 167). Even though she struggles to achieve status, first as a squire and then as a knight, the prejudice against girls still abounds in Tortall and its neighboring lands. Alanna asks her horse, ‘‘Why do boys say someone acts like a girl as if it were an insult?’’ (In the Hand of the Goddess, 3). However, the Tortallans do recognize that the magic involved in the Ordeal of Knighthood does not discriminate between men and women, as Gary says to Jonathan the night Alanna will go through her Ordeal, ‘‘And remember this: we’re taught that the magic of the Chamber can’t be influenced by anything. When she passes the Ordeal, no one will be able to say she didn’t earn her shield, whether she’s a girl or not’’ (In the Hand of the Goddess, 177). The bias against women is even more pronounced for the tribes of the Bazhir. When Alanna first encounters the Bloody Hawks in the desert in the midst of a battle with the hillmen, the headman says, ‘‘Is your king so weak he uses women for warriors? We cannot think well of such a king. We cannot think well of a woman so immodest that she puts on the clothes of a man and rides with her face bare’’ (The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, 9). In fact, proving herself to the Bazhir is almost a bigger challenge than becoming a knight. ‘‘You are a terrifying creature,’’ the Voice told her solemnly. ‘‘You do not take your place in your father’s tent, letting men make your decisions. You ride as a man, you fight as a man, and you think as a man—’’ ‘‘I think as a human being,’’ she retorted hotly. ‘‘Men don’t think any differently from women—they just make more noise about being able to.’’ (The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, 43) She teaches these views to her apprentices, explaining when the boy Ishak thinks he is better than his fellow apprentices who are girls, ‘‘You

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can’t treat Kara and Kourrem as the men of the tribe treat the women. These women are your equals. What they do—what they learn—is just as important as what you do and learn. Frankly, in some areas they’re better at it than you are’’ (The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, 89). The Bazhir gradually adjust their opinions as they accept Kara and Kourrem as their new shamans, but Alanna encounters more gender bias in the views of the people of Sarain when she meets Thayet. ‘‘I’d like to change things. In Sarain, for instance, women have no rights—just those our husbands or fathers grant us. Estates and fortunes are held by men. Women can’t inherit.’’ ‘‘That’s barbaric!’’ protested Alanna. ‘‘At home women inherit. Not titles, but they have lands. I’m Myles’s heir by law—it isn’t common, but it happens.’’ (Lioness Rampant, 104) ‘‘No female can hold the Sarain throne.’’ Her [Thayet’s] voice was soft. ‘‘The Book of Glass forbids it. Children hear tales of other lands, less wise than ours, who came to grief because they let a woman rule.… ‘‘All my life I’ve been worthless, the one who should have been a male and an heir. My father was kind.… But he never forgot I wasn’t a boy.… I’ll tell you something else, Lady Knight. In Tortall you lied about your sex and kept it secret for years, but when the truth came out, you were allowed to keep your shield. We heard about you at my father’s court. The majority opinion was that you should be burned, although one group held out for death by torture.’’ Thayet put the tray beside the door. ‘‘I thought Tortall sounded like Paradise.… Before I met you, I thought the women of our class were useless. Those who go to Shang are commoners. Noble families chain their daughters in their rooms rather than permit them that life. The K’mir have no one of noble blood, only people who earn their honors. But you and I come from overbred families, good as ornaments and nothing more.’’ (Lioness Rampant, 135–36) Alanna’s success in achieving her knighthood, convincing the Bazhir to accept women shamans, and winning the Dominion Jewel shows the people around her what a woman can achieve and prompts Jonathan to appoint her King’s Champion, even though Tortall has never had a female champion. Although Alanna is a fighter and a knight, there is a distinct anti-war and anti-killing perspective throughout the novels. When she sets out as

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a ten year old, Maude tells her to use her gifts of healing to balance the lives she takes while fighting. And when she becomes a knight, this is exactly what she does. Even though she strives to be the best fighter she can be, fighting is for defensive purposes, not aggressive acquisitiveness. The first time she goes to war as Jonathan’s squire, she volunteers to help the healer, Duke Baird, and learns the horrors of war. ‘‘Alanna followed the Duke from bed to bed, doing what he told her to do. If she had ever had a good opinion of war, it vanished by afternoon. Men died as she watched, and they didn’t care about what they had fought for. They only cared about pain and the Dark God’s arrival’’ (In the Hand of the Goddess, 82). And when she fights off the hillmen with the Bazhir, she experiences first-hand how evil can twist fighting, ‘‘For an instant sick, black triumph roared up into her mind. She froze, knowing the sword’s magic was turning her fierce pride in being the better fighter into an ugly joy at killing’’ (The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, 78). Her sorrow about the effects of war only grows as she sees the devastation in Sarain, a country torn to tatters by rival warlords. ‘‘They passed burned-out farms and cabins—all abandoned, their owners dead or run away. Almost every building had its own ugly reminder of the war in the shape of unburied bodies or skeletons.… These sights gave Alanna nightmares.…’’ (Lioness Rampant, 90). The importance of love plays out most clearly in Alanna’s relationship with George. The Goddess has said that Alanna is afraid of love. As a girl, Alanna insists that she wants nothing to do with love and marriage. Even after she and Jonathan became lovers, it was George she always felt most comfortable with. First they were friends, but as Alanna matured into a young woman, they became lovers after she and Jonathan parted company in the desert. Although she loves Jonathan, she does not think she is the right woman to be queen. George on the other hand, wants her only to be herself. George obviously loved her, and she had responded to her friend’s love like a flower opening in the sun. Never before had she been coddled and treated like something precious. Jon had always treated her as a comrade, except when they were making love. She usually liked the way the Prince handled her, but a small, treacherous part of her longed for the gentle courtesy he

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gave noble ladies. Now George gave her that courtesy, as well as treating her like a comrade, and she liked the mixture. (The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, 180) Even after she and George part amicably, and Alanna and Liam become lovers, Alanna realizes that Liam can never accept her as she is. When she accepts herself, she sees that she wants to be a woman and a warrior, then she knows that she wants George—someone who wants the person she is. The Goddess not only told Alanna she was afraid of love, she told her she was afraid of Duke Roger, and he is the primary personification of evil in the quartet. At first he wants simply to be king. This means he has to kill everyone who stands in his path to the throne. But his ambition knows no bounds after Thom revives him from his Sorcerer’s Sleep. He wants to become greater than the gods. He enjoys killing for killing’s sake, as the crystal sword he forged demonstrates and is concerned with only his desire for power. He tries repeatedly to kill Alanna and Jonathan, and he eventually succeeds in killing the queen. Alanna pits her strength against him periodically throughout the novels. In the end, it is her confidence in listening to her own inner voice that allows her to overcome him. What can I do? she thought, despairing. Can’t I make even one decision he hasn’t anticipated? What does he think I’ll do? The cold part of herself that stood aloof from everything whispered, He expects you to fight. So—stop fighting. With a teeth-baring effort, Alanna levered the sword back and let go. The effect was like loosing a bolt from a crossbow. Released from her pull, the sword shrieked as it flew.… (Lioness Rampant, 222) So, with evil conquered, knighthood achieved, and true love flourishing to fruition, Alanna demonstrates to all the power of her gender, and her adventures serve to open the doors to other daring damsels of Tortall and beyond.

CHAPTER FOUR

The Immortals Quartet HE IMMORTALS QUARTET begins several years into the reign of King Jonathan and Queen Thayet, whom readers first encountered in The Song of the Lioness quartet. The story opens in the land of Galla, a country near the kingdom of Tortall that has a similar social structure, with peasants, nobles, and a pre-industrial society. The plot quickly carries the characters back to Tortall, where much of the action occurs. In Emperor Mage, the action takes place in Carthak, an empire where slavery is commonplace and the emperor is an absolute dictator. The Realm of the Gods takes place in Tortall and the Divine Realms, where the gods and lesser immortals dwell. With the passage of time since the end of Lioness Rampant, there have been some changes in Tortall. Jonathan and Thayet have been trying to improve the lives of all of their people, not just the nobles. This includes Jonathan’s efforts to get the nobles to provide schooling for the people under their protection and Thayet’s establishment of the Queen’s Riders, small bands of trained men and women who ride mountain ponies throughout the countryside and protect the small villages from raiders. Buri is the commander of the Riders and the Lady Knight, Alanna, rides with them occasionally. Magic is more prevalent in Tortall now that Jonathan has befriended a mage named Numair. Magical beings are also more prevalent throughout the quartet. Both traditional creatures of mythology like griffins and dragons, as well as a vast variety of other immortals, appear in these volumes. These creatures are known as lesser immortals because, unlike the gods, they can be killed, although they will not die from sickness or old age. Alanna and Thayet both have children now and make occasional appearances in the stories, but the quartet focuses on the unusual young girl named Daine, who possesses Wild Magic.

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Plot Development Wild Magic Wild Magic begins as Onua, a K’mir like Buri, who is in charge of all the steeds for the Riders, journeys to the neighboring kingdom of Galla in search of ponies for the Riders. While there, she meets young Veralidaine Sarrasri, who calls herself Daine. Brown hair curls around her head, and her blue-gray eyes flash when she’s challenged. She’s dressed as a country girl, carries a quiver of arrows and a bow that is too large for her, and has her own pony, Cloud. She has heard that Onua is looking for an assistant and would like the job. She says that her family was killed by bandits, that she is fifteen years old, and has a knack with animals. Onua has the Gift, so she tests the truthfulness of Daine’s answers with her special power. Aside from lying about her age, Daine is telling the truth. Interested, Onua takes Daine to meet her herd of ponies and is surprised when Daine relates to them as one pony to another, rather than as a human to a pony. Daine establishes dominance in the pony way, which clearly makes her a friend to the herd. Onua offers her the job of assistant, which means she will have to accompany her south to Tortall. Daine accepts gratefully. When they make camp the first night, thieves search for the ponies, but the magic wards that Onua has set keep them hidden. Daine dreams of a badger who says that he promised her father he’d look out for her. He gives her a silver claw so that they can stay in touch easily. When Daine wakes up, she finds she really has the claw and threads it on a thong so that she can wear it around her neck. Their journey progresses swiftly because of Daine’s way of communicating with the animals. She insists it’s just a knack and not the Gift. Her mother, who had a bit of the Gift herself, tested her repeatedly and was always disappointed in the results. Onua can tell that Daine is hiding something and that there is great hurt inside her, but she doesn’t push her. They arrive in Tortall sooner than Onua expected. Again Daine dreams of the badger. He tells her that she can find any creature by listening and that the ‘‘madness’’ was to teach her a lesson. At dawn Daine senses trouble, and they leave hurriedly. As they try to avoid the marsh

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and find shelter, a large, hawk-like bird bursts from the marsh and is chased by Stormwings, immortal monsters with human heads and chests but the legs and wings of a bird. Onua distracts them and the hawk escapes. Onua commands Daine to fire, and together they kill as many as they can, while the birds fly to their aid. When only the queen of the Stormwings, Zhanah Bitterclaws, is left, she threatens Daine. Daine shoots her in the eye but does not kill her. Sorrow fills Daine as she sees the dead and wounded birds. She picks up one and unknowingly heals many. Then, she passes out. When Daine revives, she is worried about the hawk and goes in search of it, even though Onua tells her not to. She listens, as the badger had instructed, and finds the hawk with the help of a fox. The hawk is wounded, and as she splints his wing, she realizes he’s not exactly a hawk, but at least he doesn’t have the ‘‘wrongness’’ about him that the Stormwings do. They continue on toward Corus, but during their three days on the road, the hawk will not eat and will barely drink. Daine grows desperate since there seems to be nothing she can do for him. Onua uses her Gift to call for help, and a company of the King’s Own arrives along with Alanna. Daine is awed to meet the famed Lady Knight. Alanna tries to use her healing magic, but she needs Daine’s help to call his spirit back. Daine listens in her way, finds his inner self, and calls him back. Suddenly the hawk disappears and a naked man sits in his place. Onua shoos Daine away without an explanation. In the middle of the night, the animals awaken Daine in fear, and she goes through the camp to investigate. Alanna catches up with her, and they are attacked by giant multi-legged monsters called spidrens that are part human and part spider. Daine fights them off firing her arrows, while Alanna’s sword whistles through the air. Together they defeat the monsters. Alanna receives information from the man who used to be a hawk, a mage named Numair, the greatest wizard in Tortall. Having received this new information, Alanna leaves to arrest the mage Synthya for treachery, but before her departure, she tells them that there have been reports of immortals all over Tortall. Hundreds of years ago they were imprisoned in the Divine Realms, but somehow, someone released them.

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Numair tells Daine that she is brimming with Wild Magic, which is different from the Gift. She is reluctant to believe it. Cloud tells her only humans have the Gift and that she is only human on the outside but ‘‘People’’ on the inside. Numair undertakes to teach Daine how to use her magic, which includes how to meditate. Alanna returns to their camp, furious because Synthya and the Stormwings have escaped. She returns to Corus to report to Jonathan. Onua and company follow at a slower pace. Four days later, they arrive at the palace. Onua invites Daine to stay on as her assistant and help with the care of the ponies during Rider training. Daine agrees and meets Buri, her assistant Sarge, and Queen Thayet. She also makes friends with two of the trainees, Miri and Evin. She agrees to bunk with Miri, but has trouble sleeping indoors with no animals around her. She moves outside where animals can surround her. A vivid dream of Stormwings jolts her from sleep. She cries a warning just before they attack. The animals protect her, as Onua, Sarge, and Alanna race to fight them off. Numair and a mage with sapphire-colored magic battle the monsters with magic. The Stormwings retreat to the skies. The adults are grateful that Daine was able to give them a warning and think it’s important enough for Daine to be close to animals that they give her a room of her own on the ground floor where the animals can reach her. Daine meets the mage who was with Numair and is amazed to find that it is King Jonathan himself. He wonders how mage Synthya could have summoned the immortals. Jonathan knows that Synthya was dealing with the neighboring Carthaki. Their emperor poses a threat to Tortall because their food supplies are low and he would like to invade Tortall, but so far has not. Numair speculates that the Carthaki discovered the spells in their famous university that released the immortals. Jonathan is impressed by Daine’s abilities with the animals and wants to know if there are any more where she came from with powers like hers. He questions her about her parentage, and she admits that her mother was a hedgewitch. She doesn’t know who her father was, for her mother encountered him during Beltane and would never tell her daughter anything about him. Jonathan convinces her that she does indeed have Wild Magic and that she needs to study with Numair.

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Numair begins Daine’s training right away. He wants to test her range of communication, but Daine mistakenly calls a pack of wolves. Hurriedly, she sends them away and excuses herself to go to bed early. She continues to help with the ponies as Rider training progresses. When Rider work is done, Daine has sessions with Numair. He works his magic through Daine so that she can see the magical light in all life-forms. She sees veins of different colors of light everywhere. She sees her own magic as a coppery fire within and finds the same coppery light in all the animals and in Onua. Now that she can see her own power, Numair teaches her to use that coppery fire to call an animal with her mind. She also studies animal anatomy to help her with the healing of animals and practices meditating. After a month, the Riders get ready to move their training to Alanna’s home, Pirate Swoop, for the summer. Their last night on the palace grounds, Daine decides to try meditation through listening. She loses herself in the herd of ponies, merging her being with theirs too closely, so that she no longer realizes she’s human. Cloud senses what is happening, gallops to her, and nips at her until she comes to herself. Daine practices with Numair on the trip, but it is too easy for her to lose herself, and she is afraid. She fakes working at her lessons and covers her fear by being rude. When they arrive at the coast, Daine is entranced by her first view of the ocean. That night, she dreams that the badger demands she confess why she is afraid. He insists she must continue with her training because a storm is coming. In the morning, she bares her soul to Onua and Numair, revealing her past. She was away from home when the bandits raided her village. They took captives, but they killed all the people and the animals on Daine’s farm. Overwhelmed with grief and rage, Daine sought out wolves to help her kill the bandits. They killed the raiders and freed the captives, but Daine lost herself completely and became a wolf in all but form. The villagers tried to kill her because they said she was crazy. Although their horses and dogs would not help them, the villagers hunted Daine through the mountains for a week. Cloud brought her back to herself by nipping her until she remembered she was human. Now, she is afraid to progress with her magical education because she might go mad again and become an animal. Numair shows her how

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to ground herself in her own being so that she will not be absorbed in the animals’ essences. Much relieved, Daine continues her training. When an otter with a broken leg seeks her out, she takes the creature to Numair and asks him to show her how to heal with her magic. Numair explains what she needs to do, and she succeeds in healing the otter. The healing leaves her exhausted, hungry, and happy. As the company continues up the coast toward Pirate’s Swoop, Daine learns more and more from Numair. She learns to speak to one group of animals at a time so that other groups do not hear them; and she learns how to make five or six animals obey her will at the same time. On the road, she finds a wounded rabbit and heals it. When they stop for the night, she longs to communicate with dolphins. Even though she is magically and physically worn out, she tries to contact the dolphins. She finds the beating of her heart is too loud and so she bids it be quiet. She sees her mother with a stranger, and then a Stormwing threatens her. Alanna jolts her with her violet magic, and Daine returns to her body. Furious, Numair explains that by making her heart quiet, she had stopped it. Daine sleeps soundly through the night, but wakes up thinking about the Stormwing. It wasn’t in the spirit realm the way her mother was. It was in the physical realm. She tries to scan for it, but her range is limited because of her exertions. She wades into the ocean to amplify her power and discovers the Stormwings amassing behind the clouds up and down the coast, waiting for something. She reports this information and Alanna sends news of the discovery to Jonathan. Then the company finds the village of Buzzard Rocks deserted. Daine hears a hum and two giant winged creatures seem to attack. The humans reach for arrows to defend themselves, but Daine tries to stop them. When they won’t listen, her animal friends, of their own accord, succeed in stopping the humans. Daine convinces the creatures, which she learns are griffins, to talk to her. The griffins are trying to protect their nest. They assure Daine that none of the humans were killed, just frightened away. No livestock was taken either for the griffins live on fish. Furthermore, they inform Daine that no lie can be stated in the presence of griffins and that they will not attack as long as the humans leave their nest alone.

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The humans put away their weapons and proceed to Pirate’s Swoop, where they are greeted joyously by Thayet’s two children, Prince Roald and Princess Kalasin, Alanna’s three children, Thom, the oldest, and the twins, and by George, Alanna’s husband. The Stormwings vanish, and Numair has no idea why or where they’ve gone. The children wake Daine up early with a wounded osprey, begging her to heal it, which she does. As the Riders train, Daine stays at Pirate’s Swoop to care for the ponies left behind and agrees to let the children help her in the stable. An urgent message arrives for Alanna. There is an ogre attack nearby, so she rides out with a company of guards to rescue those held captive by the ogres. That night, Daine dreams of an invasion. She wakes up and discovers a number of bats, each distressed by the strange humans in their woods. Daine reports this to George and shows him on the map where her friends say the enemies are. George realizes they’ve been surrounded and begins preparing for a siege. The villagers and their animals need to move to Pirate’s Swoop, and Daine contacts the animals and convinces them to move quickly and quietly. She also contacts the owls, asking them to spy for her human friends, and learns that there are over six hundred men camped in the forest. As if that weren’t enough, an ominous fog hangs over the ocean. In spite of the fact that they are in for a serious fight, Daine tells George that she can’t ask her animal friends to join in the fight and die for humans. George asks her to at least have them keep watch, and Daine agrees. At dawn, the raiders arrive, but find the village evacuated and the gates closed and guarded against them. The fog rolls in carrying Gift-dampening spells. Daine’s Wild Magic works because that kind of magic is in everything. Numair must decide whether to use his power to lift the spells so others can work their magic or to use it for war magic, which is not the strongest part of his craft. Even when the fog fades, the dampening spells are still in place, and now a fleet has landed in the harbor. A Stormwing brings a demand for the surrender of Queen Thayet and her children. George refuses and a flock of Stormwings attacks. The battle rages, and Numair decides to spend his power by lifting the dampening spells, enabling others to heal and use their own smaller Gifts.

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Daine fires arrows at the Stormwings and at the same time tries to keep the animals from joining the fight. Some of the birds break free of her control and zoom into the fray. The raiders attack as well. Eventually, the Stormwings break off and feast on the bodies of the dead. They are not particular about who dies, as long as the fighting supplies them with food. Kalisen brings a healing drink from Maude, and Daine assures the child that the battle is not her fault but the invaders. Suddenly, Daine hears singing. An angry dragon arrives and Daine tries to communicate with her. She places her hands on the dragon, hoping it will help, but feels her magic being pulled out of her. She cannot break free. The sorcerers in the fleet told the dragon that Thayet and her children stole her from the Divine Realms, and so she is attacking. As they talk, Daine heals the baby dragon within the mother. The dragon releases her and flies north. Daine passes out. Maude revives her and tells her that she has to let some of her spells go. Daine is overextending herself. Onua convinces her to release the animals and let them fight, for their homes and lives are in danger. Daine does so, but first teaches them how to set traps and snares, spoil the enemy’s food supplies, and keep them from sleeping. She hopes in this way the animals can help, but that their risk of death will be lessened. Although Daine and her friends have survived so far, they are in desperate need of aid. Since she is too tired to reach far with her magic, at night George lowers Daine to a hidden beach so that she can use the ocean to amplify her power. The salt water restores her, and she calls out to the whales for help. The dragon, with her newborn dragonet, hears her, marveling at the girl who restored her baby. The whales answer that they will have nothing to do with violence of any kind and swim away. Desperate, Daine decides to try to force them. Along the way, she encounters the Kraken. He offers to take care of things for her. She is afraid that once he comes, they will never be able to get rid of him, but she shows him the location of the ships nonetheless and then retreats as quickly as she can. She returns to her body at sunrise, but it’s numb and she can’t escape the rising tide. The dragon swoops in and rescues her. The raiders try to attack the dragon. The dragon would like Daine to send her home. Daine doesn’t know how, but promises they will try to find a way. The

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Stormwing messenger returns and demands Thayet and her children again and is refused again. The invaders unloose the catapult, but the dragon catches the boulder and throws it back to the ship, damaging it. Stormwings attack the dragon. Daine screams for her to retreat, but she won’t. The raiders launch liquid fire which kills her. The Kraken arrives and with his many tentacles breaks up the fleet. The enemy sorcerers are distracted, and the dampening spells disperse. Alanna arrives with the King’s Own and the guards from Pirate’s Swoop. Daine kills the taunting Bitterwings with an arrow. After the battle is won and Pirate’s Swoop is safe, Daine sleeps for several days and has a vision of a cave with a light within that grows dimmer and dimmer. While she sleeps, Alanna and Numair convince the Kraken to depart. When Daine wakes up, she leads her friends to the dragon’s cave where she finds the dragonet. She decides to give up her duties with the Riders so that she can care for the baby dragon. Wolf Speaker A year after the end of Wild Magic, Daine has continued to assist Onua with the mounts for the Queen’s Riders, while at the same time raising the baby dragon Skysong, whom she calls Kit. She has also continued taking magic lessons from Numair. But then she receives a message from the wolf-leader, Brokefang, who helped her kill the raiders who attacked her village, and who was changed by her magic. He and his pack have moved to Tortall because of the enmity of the Snowsdale villagers, but the area they selected is being ruined by two-leggers. Brokefang would like Daine to come and make the humans stop what they are doing. Numair and Kit accompany her on the journey to Dunlath, a part of Tortall that cannot be scanned with magical vision because of its proximity to the City of the Gods. The ninth troop of Queen’s Riders disappeared in the area as well as twenty soldiers and no one knows what happened to them. Brokefang senses Daine’s approach with the two wolfmessengers that he sent and leads the pack to meet her and guide her to their new home. After Daine introduces everyone, Brokefang explains that the humans are cutting down too many trees, digging too many holes, and bringing in immortal monsters. The game will flee and the pack will starve in the winter. The wolves need Daine to convince the humans of

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the harm they are inflicting. She promises to try but is not sure they will listen to her. The Badger comes to visit her in the cave and insists that Numair take Daine to the next level of her magical training and then shows Daine that she can enter the mind of an animal. She can see, hear, and feel everything that the animal does. She attempts to merge her mind with Cloud, but ends up hurting her trusted pony. Cloud suggests she try with the wolves. As the wolves lead Daine and company to their home, Daine senses her old enemy, the Stormwings. Brokefang confirms their presence and informs them that they work with the humans and mages of Dunlath. Numair thinks that the Emperor Ozorne, the mage ruler of Carthak could have freed the lesser immortals (including the Stormwings) in order to plague Tortall and make it easier to invade. As they make their way through the forest, they come across the charred remains of the Ninth Riders, and Numair concludes that they were blasted by a war mage. Brokefang takes them to a place where they can view the Fief of Dunlath. It is heavily guarded, which puzzles Numair, since a fief of its size should have only forty guardsmen. They continue on to the wolves’ home and meet Brokefang’s mate, Frostfur, who does not like Daine, and the pups, who accept all but the dragon. With Brokefang’s permission, she merges her mind with his and experiences the world with wolf senses, from Brokefang’s point of view. She is pleased to know she accomplished this without hurting the wolf. In the meantime, Numair discovers an occult net that has been cast over the valley that will detect any use of magic. It would block any message he could try to send, but it doesn’t detect passive magic. In an attempt to find out why Dunlath is so protected by soldiers and magic, they slip surreptitiously into the area around the town. What they find is a fort town littered with mines that are worked by ogres who seem to be slaves. Numair wonders if they are mining opals which are powerful gems for mages since they are used to store magic. Black opals are especially potent. Brokefang tells them of an earthquake, and Numair thinks the quake might have revealed the presence of the opals which would have resulted in the Lord of Dunlath’s sending for a mage. It is the mining that is ruining the valley for the wolves and wildlife.

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They need to know more, so Numair and Daine take rooms at the inn and are quickly invited to the castle for dinner. Once dressed appropriately, they arrive and meet Lord Belden, his wife Lady Yolane, and her ten-year-old sister, the Lady Maura. Also in the castle is the war mage, Tristan, who recognizes Numair. Numair and Tristan studied together at the mage university in Carthak. Tristan informs them that the emperor would like to have Numair arrested, but Numair is not unsettled by the news. At dinner, they meet two more mages of Numair’s acquaintance. Daine is seated at the far end of the table with the young Maura, who tells her that their family is distantly related to the king, so Yolane won’t let Maura play with commoners. The castle mice investigate Daine, which startles Maura, but Daine assures her that it is her gift that makes the animals feel comfortable with her, and she helps Maura befriend them as well. As they talk, Maura indicates that there’s something going on between Tristan and Yolane. Although Numair tries to warn her not to, Daine feels she must speak for the wolves as she promised, and therefore confronts Yolane with their concerns about the destruction of the land. Yolane laughs and dismisses her as mad. When Numair confirms that Daine can indeed speak with animals, Tristan insists that humans are the rulers of the valley, and they have the power to deal with the wolves. Numair and Daine return to the inn but leave in the middle of the night. Tristan tried to give Numair a sleeping potion, so Numair knows that he is up to no good. He must leave the area covered by the net so that he can get a message to Jonathan. He surmises that Tristan killed the Ninth Riders and the soldiers. As they escape, Daine senses a ‘‘wrongness,’’ and they find immortal hurroks, part hawk and part horse, are searching the skies above them. The mages have detected their departure, so Numair creates a simulacra, a likeness of himself, to lead them astray. They reconnoiter with Brokefang who does not understand why Daine has to leave. Daine sees how Brokefang and the pack have changed because of their encounter with her and feels responsible for their well-being. Much to Numair’s dismay, she decides to stay with them. Numair reluctantly proceeds, while Daine, Cloud, and Kit escape

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to the wolves’ meeting place. Daine informs the wolves that the humans refuse to stop destroying the land, but assures them that King Jonathan will help them. The wolves say they’ve never seen humans clean up their own mess before, so they’ve taken matters into their own hands. They’ve begun by stealing the axes used to cut down the trees. Daine is less than pleased with this, but falls into an exhausted sleep. She dreams of her mother and the same stranger she saw her with in the vision she had when her heart stopped. In the morning, Frostfur demands that Daine use her gift to summon animals for the pack to kill, instead of hunting. While Daine understands the necessity of hunting, she refuses to lure creatures to their death. The wolves go out to hunt and Daine practices her merging technique. That night, none of them sleeps well. When the wolves go out to hunt again in the morning, they leave Daine in charge of the pups. While chasing after the frolicking pups, Daine finds a squirrel wounded by a Stormwing. Carefully, Daine heals him. Just as she finishes, Kit screams. Daine orders the pups back to the meadow, as a giant lizard-like monster approaches, with fangs dripping poison and freezing everything in its path. Daine stands unable to move. The pups attack and the creature throws them off. Kit bites it and the monster hurls her away. Anger giving her strength to break the creature’s hold, Daine lobs a rock at her adversary, only to see it shatter uselessly against its hide. Scrabbling for another rock, the monster catches her and is about to swallow her when a shriek fills the air. The monster drops her and turns to a statue. A new immortal appears, also lizard-like and more than six feet tall. Kit chatters happily to the newcomer and tells her that Daine is her mother. Daine explains their shared history and learns that the immortal is a basilisk and the monster turned into a statue is a Coldfang. It was called by the mages of the castle to track thieves. The basilisk, named Tkaa, stopped it in order to save Kit, for dragons and basilisks are distant cousins. Daine heals the injured pups and they all return to the meadow. When the pack arrives, they almost attack Tkaa until Daine explains that he saved the pups’ lives. Considering the danger from the Coldfang and the mages, they decide to move the pack. Before they go, they show Tkaa

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the stolen tools and explain why they took them. Tkaa turns them to stone so the humans can’t use them anymore. As they proceed, Daine senses Stormwings. She hides, but the wolves continue on, since the Stormwings are not interested in them. Daine is ready with her crossbow, but Tkaa dissuades her. The Stormwings warn Tkaa of Daine. When they move on, Daine and Tkaa rejoin the wolves, and Daine notices something sparkling. Brokefang changes their direction. Daine hears a scream and races to the source. She finds the wolves have surrounded Maura, who is terrified that they will eat her. Daine surmises that Maura has run away from home. While she questions the girl, she suddenly feels a starling die. Spying the sparkling wall again, she tries to push her hand through it, but her hand goes numb. The wall runs along the edge of the mountains. Rocks and arrows both bounce off it. Tkaa reveals that the mages erected it the previous night. Daine sends a silent warning to all the animals so that no more will die like the starling. She, her friends, and the wolves make their home in a new set of caves. The pups bring wood, and Maura lights a fire with her Gift. The bats of the cave welcome Daine, and she sends them out to map the barrier. She melds minds with Wisewing, and they encounter a hurrok wearing a collar, which he says makes him the servant of the human wizard. Daine returns to her human body and listens to the bat reports. The barrier seals off the entire valley. Sensing that something is not quite right with her body, Daine feels her ears. They seem to be bat ears. Either she is changing into the creature she merges with, or she is going crazy. Falling asleep, she hopes that her ears will be normal when she wakes up. In the morning, Daine’s ears are normal. Maura tells Daine that she ran away from Yolane so that she could warn King Jonathan. As they discuss what Maura knows about Tristan, a great clang interrupts them. Daine grabs her crossbow and arrows, mounts Cloud, and races for the barrier. She spots Numair on the other side and asks Tkaa to give him a report since the immortal is able to pass through the barrier. As Tkaa leaves, Daine senses Stormwings. She finds them clustered around Maura and is about to shoot when Maura stops her. The Stormwings accuse Daine of being a Stormwing killer. Their leader is Rikash, whom Maura seems to know rather well. He tries to convince Maura to return to the castle, but she refuses to be sheltered with traitors. Rikash

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tells her not to speak of things she does not understand, especially in front of Daine. Maura acquiesces but still will not return home. Rikash gives up on Maura and turns his attention to Daine, but she calls up the starlings for help. The Stormings are no match for a flock of pecking birds, so they depart. The girls re-enter the cave, and Maura tells Daine that Yolane and Belden are planning a rebellion. Maura overheard them plotting. They will strike when the moon is full in only a few days, instead of waiting for midwinter as they had planned. Yolane longs to be queen. And they have been shipping out the items they’ve mined all summer. Daine writes Numair a note which Tkaa delivers. Since Numair cannot break the barrier, Daine merges with a marmot and listens to Numair talking to Tkaa. Numair recognizes what she’s doing and tells her the barrier is the work of mages combining their powers along with that stored in gemstones. They need help to break it. The Riders and the King’s Own are on their way. He will not use a word of power because it would cause an earthquake elsewhere in the world. He asks Daine to scout out how many men are posted in the forts. Daine returns to her body and finds her face marmot-like. Maura and Kit are puzzled by the change, but Daine is just happy they can see it and that she is not going crazy. Then she wonders if she truly has the ability to shape-shift. When the wolves finally return to the cave, where Daine and Maura had dinner and spent the night, they are loaded down with human food. Daine thinks they might send another Coldfang, but the wolves are confident they can deal with it. The wolves also bring Flicker, the squirrel Daine had healed, and Daine thinks he might be just the creature to merge with to discover how many troops guard Dunlath. The next day, Daine mounts Cloud, and Flicker accompanies them to the southern fort. Daine slips her mind into Flicker’s. She has some trouble adjusting to the squirrel’s flying leaps, but they find the command post and count the troops from the duty roster. They are about to leave when Daine spots a message from the emperor which says he wants Numair and the dragon captured and Daine killed. Rikash spies Flicker reading and knows this is strange behavior for a squirrel. He summons help, but Flicker escapes. Daine returns to her body. Now she has squirrel paws. Hurriedly, she warns all the squirrels

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that they may be hunted. She and Cloud flee, taking cover many times to avoid the Stormwings hunting her. She stops for rest and a meager meal of waybread and jerky. Her hands have returned to normal, but her feet are still paws. Badger comes and fixes her feet, explaining how to properly return to her human form so that she won’t be part human and part animal. He says Daine is the only one who can speak with humans, animals, and immortals and that is why she was brought to this place: to make the valley a home for all living creatures, not just the wolves. They did not need to worry about cover the next day because the rain had kept the sky clear of Stormwings and hurroks. They stop at the caves on their way to the northern fort. Kit and Maura want to come, so Tkaa brings them. This time, they wait for dark, and then Flicker, with Daine inside her mind, spies on the commander’s office and the duty roster. Returning to their friends takes a long time, because Flicker is terrified of the dark. Daine returns to her body but is part squirrel. She has to concentrate on her humanness, the way the badger showed her, to return to herself. Tkaa introduces Iakoju, a female ogre, who was running away to find other ogres. She wants to help in defeating Yolane. She says that Tristan lured the ogres with the promise of farms of their own, but he lied. Once they’d left the Divine Realms, he forced them to mine. Maura says that she would like to make sure the ogres get their farms, but she is not sure she will be allowed to inherit since her sister is a traitor. As the company makes its way back to the caves, the huntsman’s dog comes to Daine for help. Tkaa departs to give Numair the report. Daine finds the huntsman in what was once a wolf pit. For the sake of his dogs, Daine lets Iakoju pull the huntsman, Tait, out of the pit. He says he has no intention of going back, because he does not like what’s happening at the castle. Daine scouts the area while in the mind of an eagle and sees that hurroks are hunting for them. She tries to rush the change back to her body, but ends up more eagle than human and must concentrate to succeed. The company hides from the hurroks in separate places, and Daine and Tait have a chance to talk. He tells her that Gissa, one of the mages, cut off her own hand because of something she got on it, and that Tristan

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didn’t care at all about Gissa’s hand, only that she didn’t let what they were brewing boil over. He also tells her about Weiryn, the god of the hunt, who is kin to all the animals and can be seen at Beltane. The searching Stormwings and hurroks begin to fight with each other, and an exhausted Daine takes a nap. Tkaa finds them and reports that there are soldiers at the southern gate with Alanna and the King’s Own, but Alanna and Numair together cannot break the barrier. It will be four days before more mages can arrive. Daine doesn’t think they have four days. Leaving her friends, she and Cloud make their way back to the castle. Daine finds a kitten, Scrap, and slides her mind into his so that they can search the castle to discover what’s afoot. They find the mages fitting Gissa with a metallic hand. Yolane and her entourage arrive with the news that Alanna and the King’s Own have come, but Tristan dismisses this disdainfully, saying that in three days it won’t matter any more. The mages have brewed a bloodrain. They will put the poison in the stream near the southern pass, and it will kill all life within a ten-mile radius. They also have two companies of mercenaries coming, and Tristan has a way to capture Numair for the emperor. Yolane, who hates cats, spots Scrap and chases him from the room. Daine returns to her body completely herself but finds that Cloud is too tired for the climb back to camp. Daine calls a stallion from Dunlath, and Rebel comes to her aid. They gallop to the barrier while Daine mentally summons her friends to meet her there. She tells them what she has learned and writes a note for Numair. The wizard calls a meeting with Alanna and Raoul, the commander of the King’s Own, which Daine attends in the body of Quickmunch the marmot. They need Daine’s friends to create diversions at the two forts to draw the mages away, so that Daine can find the model of Dunlath valley and destroy it. That is the only way the barrier can be broken. Once the barrier is down, they can deal with Tristan and Yolane. Daine goes back to her friends and they divide up the responsibilities. The wolves and ogres will go north. Maura and Tait will set fire to the southern fort, and Tait will send a note to his brother the innkeeper to warn the servants and the commoners so that innocents do not get hurt. The squirrels agree to set the horses free so that the fire will not harm them.

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Daine ties herself and Kit to Cloud so that the pony can take them back to the castle, while Daine merges again with the eagle. She contacts each group of animals and gives them a task. When Stormwings chase the eagle, he decides to help and joins Tkaa while Daine returns to her body. The diversions begin, and the mages depart to investigate. Daine enters the castle and again asks the cats for help. They don’t know where the model is, but they lead Daine to the mages’ rooms. The doors are locked, but Kit sings the locks open. The model is not there. Tristan’s rooms are locked as well, but Kit opens the door. Yolane discovers them there and calls for help, but the servants have all left. Daine asks the mice if they’ve seen the model, but they don’t know where it is either. Then she thinks of the tower. Scrap tells her a Coldfang guards the tower. Daine sends the cats back as she heads for the tower. Kit insists on accompanying her. They are partway up the stairs when the Coldfang appears. He knocks them down. They enter a room of weapons. Scrap pounces, and the Coldfang throws him against the wall. It freezes Daine with a glance. Kit and the other cats attack. As the Coldfang shakes them off, Daine is released. She embeds an ax in its brain, killing it. She finds Scrap dead and calls on the gods for help. Queenclaw resurrects the kitten. Daine retrieves her scattered arrows and her crossbow, and she and Kit mount the stairs again. Kit unlocks the door, and they find the model. Using the hilt of her belt knife, Daine breaks one of the opals. Hitting harder, she shatters the other. The room explodes, and when she wakes up, Numair is with her. She’s been unconscious for two hours, but she succeeded in breaking the barrier. As soon as she did, Numair transformed into a bird and flew to the tower. He found the bloodrain and made it disappear. Tristan arrives riding a hurrok which Daine kills with her arrows and Tristan and Numair engage in battle. While they do, Daine climbs the parapet and negotiates a cease-fire with Rikash. He has the Stormwings return to Carthak. As they are flying away, two disobey him and whirl around to attack. Daine fires her arrows and kills them. When she turns her attention back to Numair she hears the embattled mage ask Tristan to surrender. He refuses and turns to unleash an attack on Daine. Numair stops him with a word of power and turns him

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into a tree. Now somewhere in the world there is a human who was once a tree. The reunited friends find that Belden has committed suicide and Yolane has fled to Carthak. Iakoju and Brokefang report their victory. The pack pursues Yolane. Daine shape-shifts into a wolf to join them. They capture Yolane. Daine returns to human form and convinces Yolane to come back with them. On their way, they are met by Numair, Alanna, and Raoul, who arrests Yolane. Once order has been restored, Daine and her friends prepare to depart. Maura will inherit Dunlath, and she will give the ogres their farms. A guardian will be sent, but Tkaa and the animals have made it clear that they will deal only with Maura. The human friends part at the castle gates. Then the wolves emerge from the woods to bid farewell. Daine glimpses the wolf gods, Old White and Black Night, and warns them that the wolves might not be as obedient as they would like. The pack departs, and Numair and Daine head for home. Emperor Mage When Daine is fifteen, King Jonathan sends her with a delegation from Tortall, to Carthak to see if she can help Emperor Ozorne with his birds. She travels with Numair, Alanna, and Duke Gareth the Elder, among others. Their Herculean task is to negotiate a peace treaty. The Tortallans have long suspected Ozorne of plotting against them, but they had no proof until the fall of Dunlath in Wolf Speaker. When the emperor’s machinations were revealed, the other eastern countries formed alliances with Tortall, and their combined strength is too much, even for the empire. Now, the Tortallans hope to make the peace permanent, although they are skeptical. Daine, however, will not be part of the negotiating team. She is there at the emperor’s request and is warned that she is to be on her best behavior. In fact, they all must be exceedingly careful, especially her mentor, Numair, for although the emperor has granted him a pardon, one wrong move could mean his execution. Just as the party is preparing to disembark, the badger god visits Daine, upset that she is in this part of the world. He tries to convince her to return to Tortall for the Great Gods are not at all pleased with Ozorne. When she refuses, he gives her the gift of his breath, but he does not

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explain why or how to use her new power. All the animals in the area of their landing greet Daine except the rats, who can’t wait for her to leave the ship. Prince Kaddar, the royal heir, welcomes the party to his country. He is fascinated by Daine’s dragon, Kit, and offers to be Daine’s guide while she visits, although Daine can tell that he is not interested in doing so. Slaves are rowing the boat that is taking them to the shore. Daine feels very uncomfortable with slave labor, but tries not to reveal her critical feelings. While still in the boat, she sees a boy accidentally drop some kind of animal into the river. His caretaker will not let him retrieve it. Daine, worried that the crocodiles will eat it, asks them not to, while she dives in and saves it. Lindhall, a mage from the famed Carthaki University who was once one of Numair’s teachers, tells her that the animal is a pygmy marmoset from the Copper Isles. Daine calls him Zek and has a new friend for life. In the palace, they are each escorted to their rooms. Daine finds hers very luxurious but is not thrilled by the tiger skin rug. When she touches it, white fire spills from her hand, and its eyes blink. In the evening, they are ceremoniously welcomed by Emperor Ozorne, and at the reception following, Daine tells him that she is anxious to see his sick birds. He leaves a simulacrum of himself on the throne and makes them both invisible, so that they can escape the party without being noticed. He takes her to his aviary where the mage Lindhall meets them. Ozorne lets them in, but cannot bear to see his beloved birds ill, so he doesn’t stay. Daine nestles in the roots of a large tree and calls the sick birds to her. The ones who can fly greet her. Using her Wild Magic, she looks into each bird and heals it, concerned that they might have been poisoned. Lindhall warns her not to tell Ozorne because he would have his mute slaves slain for causing harm to his birds. He also warns her not to trust Ozorne. At breakfast Duke Gareth relays the emperor’s pleasure with Daine, and Numair informs them that they are scheduled for a tour of the royal menagerie. Daine must seal off her communication with the animals in order to go, for she cannot bear to hear their unhappiness at being in cages. Despite her trepidation, Daine finds the animals have plenty of space and learns that Ozorne sends them back to their native lands if

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they do not thrive in the menagerie. It does not compare to King Jonathan and his mages creating habitats for his animals, but it is not as bad as she feared it would be. She is enchanted by the giraffes and intrigued by the hyenas. Next to the mortal animals lies a menagerie of immortals. Varice, Numair’s former lover, tells them that they are kept in captivity for harming humans. Daine is puzzled to find two Stormwings. She’d thought the creatures were allies of the emperor. Kaddar explains that keeping Queen Barzha and her mate Hebakh caged was part of the pact Ozorne made with the current Stormwing king, Jokhum. Later, when an old woman comes to clean Daine’s room, she assumes it is a slave. The woman warns Daine that things are not going well for the empire. There has been a famine in the south for five years and the gods are not pleased with Ozorne, who thinks that he does not need them. She suggests that Daine visit the chapels for herself, and then pulls out the tiger skin rug. When Daine touches it, she feels a tingle and the rug seems to come to life. Afterward, the slave disappears, and the tiger skin is just a rug again. Their noon opening banquet is followed by an address by the emperor and the response of the ambassadors. Ozorne proclaims that four years ago evil mages released the immortals, but it was not at his command. He hopes they can put that misunderstanding aside and create a lasting peace. This is followed by many speeches which bore Daine. Duke Gareth lets her leave. Lindhall follows her out and shows her the Hall of Bones, where many different kinds of dinosaur skeletons have been assembled. When she touches one of the skulls, there is a flare of white light, and it moves. Zek thinks this is fun, but Daine says the dead should stay dead and thrusts her hands into her pockets. At the next banquet, Varice seats Numair at one end with her and Daine at the other end. Prince Kaddar joins her and provides a stool for Kit. When antelope steaks are served, she refuses them. Having been hunted on more than one occasion when she was in animal form, she can’t eat game. The evening’s entertainment arrives in the form of cheetahs with the Banjiku trainers, in whom Daine can see Wild Magic. The cheetahs greet her and the Banjiku leader, Tanu, says she must be a god or a child of a god. Ashamed, Daine confesses that she does not know who her father is, but then thinks of the stranger she has seen

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when she sees her mother in visions. She wonders if her father truly could be a god. Rikash, the Stormwing Daine and Numair had encountered at Dunlath, attends the banquet with his king and afterward seeks out the two to ask after Maura, of whom he was still quite fond. Daine says that she is doing well and would love a visit from Rikash. He says he might do just that when the Stormwing business in Carthak is concluded. He warns them that things in the empire will get worse before they get better. In turn, Daine tells Rikash of the two Stormwings imprisoned in the emperor’s immortal menagerie. Furious, Rikash flies away. As Kaddar shows Daine around the gardens, she sees that Rikash has returned and is speaking animatedly with a woman who looks like the slave who had been in her room earlier. The woman dices with Rikash and then tells him he wins for now. She disappears. Rikash tells Daine that King Jokhum lied to his Stormwing subjects when he told them he had killed Barzha, the rightful queen, and her mate in battle. When the emperor comes out onto the terrace, Rikash gives him one of his feathers and tells him that should his life or throne ever be in grave peril, he is to thrust the feather into his arm and he will be able to escape. Daine awakens early the next morning and checks on the birds, which are doing fine. When she hears Ozorne and Numair coming, she hides. They quarrel over her. Numair tries to strike the emperor when he implies that he and Daine have a sexual relationship. When Numair departs, Ozorne creates a ragged image of Numair and crushes it while it screams. Daine flees. Finally, Numair is free to talk to Daine. Alanna insists on accompanying them as a chaperone. In his warded room, Daine tells Numair about the badger’s warning. She shows them the result of his gift by animating a stuffed vulture. Although it can move now, it seems to have no mind. Numair cautions Daine not to let Ozorne know about her new power. As arranged previously, Kaddar comes to give Daine a tour. She insists on seeing the chapels. Although Kaddar is reluctant to show them to her, eventually he acquiesces. They are all neglected. Only Mithros’ temple has any staff at all. Behind that is the temple of Carthak’s goddess, the Graveyard Hag. Her statue is complemented by statues of

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hyenas and rats. Daine wants to tell Kaddar that her statue looks like the slave from her room, but she begins coughing violently. As Daine recovers, Kaddar explains that Ozorne taxes offerings to the gods, thereby filling his coffers so that he could fight his wars. On their way back to the palace, they come across a group of young noblemen practicing their archery skills. Daine challenges them to a contest, and even though they are sure she will not be able to bend their style of bow, she beats them handily. Dinner that evening is aboard a barge, where the mages demonstrate their power. Kaddar wishes his uncle would use that power to end the drought causing the famine. The mages raise the barge high in the air and all can see the emperor’s huge fleet. As the barge settles, the statue of the first emperor announces that the gods have forsaken the empire. That night Daine dreams that the Hag tells her that if Ozorne does not heed the warnings, she might need Daine’s help. She is the perfect vessel for the gods since she has a strong will, determination, imagination, and plenty of anger. In the morning, Alanna is the only one at breakfast when Daine arrives. She dismissed the slaves because they made her feel uncomfortable; Numair is studying the spells that released the immortals from the Divine Realms; the others are sleeping late since talks don’t resume until noon. Alanna is worried by all those warships appearing at a peace negotiation. She speculates that they may have to be ready to flee. Prince Kaddar takes Daine to the university and explains that there are no slaves on the grounds because so many northerners teach there and don’t like it. Daine says that slavery reminds her of being caged and gives her the feeling of not being able to breathe. Lindhall greets them and takes them to his office. Daine sees several large glass tanks with habitats and small animals and offers to ask the animals how they are faring. Most are not even aware of their confinement and are quite fond of Lindhall. Kit senses someone invisible in the room and whistles the unknown person into visibility. It’s Numair, who has left a simulacrum in the palace since he has been expressly forbidden to leave it. Numair and Kaddar need to talk without the emperor knowing, and Lindhall’s office is the safest place. Daine explores Lindhall’s aviary while they have their meeting. It is filled with northern birds. She finds a partially assembled skeleton of a

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lizard-like creature and thinks it is safe to touch. When she does, it becomes animated. As the others join her, Kaddar realizes that it is no ordinary assembly spell that Daine has used, and with Numair’s encouragement, Daine explains what she can do. Kaddar says that with power like that, Ozorne would create an army of the dead. Lindhall says the power can only come from the Graveyard Hag. The goddess mentally instructs Daine not to confirm this. At dinner that night, the crowning achievement is a cake designed and held together by Varice’s magic in the shape of the palace. Before it can be served, however, hundreds of rats start pouring out of it. The mages can’t stop them, so Daine commands the rats to stop. In their minds, she sees the Graveyard Hag sending them from the river bank to the cake. The rats fight her and when her concentration wavers, six break free and attack. She slams her power into them and regains control. A nobleman cries out that Ozorne must heed this warning, and the emperor retaliates by engulfing him in emerald fire. Daine forces the rats to return to the river and instructs them to tell the Hag to focus on Ozorne and not those who have no choice but to obey him. While Numair comforts Varice, Daine has Kaddar take her to the menagerie. Kaddar retrieves the ring of keys for the cages. Zek finds the keys fascinating. Reluctantly, Kaddar lets Daine into the animals’ cages. She sees their desire for freedom, and although she cannot set them free, for they would die out in the city or be hunted, she builds for each a waking dream of their homes so that they can feel free. Only the hyenas refuse her gift. Kaddar tells her that Ozorne fears the hyenas because there was a prophecy when he took the throne that hyenas would lead him to his doom. The two humans hear people in the immortal menagerie. Kit unlocks the gate for them, and they find the Banjiku and slaves making offerings to the immortals. Tano still insists that Daine is the child of a god. Bazrha wants to know why Daine would help them by telling Rikash of their imprisonment, but their conversation is interrupted by the screams of the distraught griffin in a nearby cage. Tano hurries them away through the tunnels that the slaves use. Kaddar walks Daine back to her room, expressing his concerns for his people. Daine feels sorry she has no waking dream to give him.

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Daine dreams that the Hag wants her to choose a graveyard while she leans toward the dinosaurs in the Hall of the Bones, and Kit would have her choose another way altogether. The Hag wants her to raise the dead and offers to dice her for it, but Daine refuses. Daine wakes up in the Hall of Bones. She’s angry with the Hag for putting her there, loses her footing, and trips. Her hand lands on a baby dinosaur and a nest of eggs. Her power flashes and she faints. She has a vision of walking in a northern forest and overhearing an argument between Badger and the hunting god, Weiryn, who could be her father. Her mother spots her. Badger will take her and Kit back, but it might be too late. Daine realizes that she is indeed looking at her mother and father. Badger brings her back to life and reprimands her for draining all of her power. The spark of life she has now draws upon her own Wild Magic. She must find another source to draw on, or she will truly die. She points out that she didn’t know this because he never explained anything about the power. He admits that that was a mistake and tells her the power comes from the Hag. He takes the baby dinosaurs with him and tells Daine to go back to bed. In the morning, Daine goes to check Ozorne’s birds again and finds some sick. Ozorne wishes she would join him, but she waits until after she tends the birds. She heals them and puts the clues together, deducing that they are getting ill from the lead in the glass supports. She is delighted to have found the cause and shares the news with Ozorne who invites her to breakfast. Reluctantly, she sits with him and drinks down the pomegranate juice. He tells her the gods are angry with him because he let a criminal leave Carthak. The empire’s problem is Numair. Daine tries to move but can’t. He tells her she can’t fight the dreamrose and then reveals his plans: he will claim that Daine has fled since she was conspiring to free the slaves. This will give him grounds to end the talks and send the Tortallans home. He will be free to make war on them because their allies will not help them since it was their fault the negotiations failed. But he knows that Numair cares for Daine and would never leave her behind. He will return and then the emperor will have him in his power. Daine dreams that Zek escapes the emperor, that her Tortallan friends are ushered back to their ship, and that Ozorne freezes Kit and

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puts her in the immortal menagerie. On board the ship the Tortallans debate what to do. Alanna and Numair are loathe to leave Daine behind and are sure Ozorne is lying. Lindhall reminds Numair that since he carries all the rebellion information from Kaddar, he should put his concerns aside for the good of both realms. Alanna offers to take the information to Jonathan, since Numair is determined to return to Carthak to search for Daine. Daine wakes in a room without doors or windows. She feels caged and screams her fury. All the animals in the area turn on their masters until Daine stops them for their own safety. She hears a noise and shapeshifts into a bear. A cheetah pads into her room bearing Zek who holds up his keys. The cheetah leads her through the tunnels to Tano who gives her fruit and water. He tells her that Ozorne has accused her of conspiring to free the slaves and the guards have forced her friends to depart, just as she dreamed. She needs to talk to Kaddar and Tano gets him for her. She knows her dreams were true and that Numair is somewhere in the city looking for her. When Kaddar arrives, he sorrowfully informs her that the guards caught Numair at the university and Ozorne had him executed yesterday. Stunned and grieving, Daine decides the gods have taken too long, and she will take care of Ozorne. She instructs Kaddar to make sure his friends and the slaves are out of the palace by nightfall and asks Tano to get the emperor’s birds to safety. She tells the birds to go with Tano and his people and then calls on all the small animals to make life as difficult as possible for Ozorne’s troops, just as she had the animals do at Pirate’s Swoop when it was under attack. She emerges from the tunnels, enters the Hall of Bones, and begins bringing the skeletons to life. The Hag tells her she doesn’t have enough power to animate them all. She wanted Daine to raise the dead, but Daine is determined to use the dinosaurs to tear the palace apart instead. The Hag suggests she draw power from the rats, but says Daine will have to give them something in return. Daine contacts the cats and dogs, and then makes a deal with the rats: They let her use their Wild Magic and in return they can have all the food in the ruins of the palace unmolested by the cats and dogs in the area for a year and a day. The

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rats agree, and Daine uses their Wild Magic to help her animate all of the dinosaurs. She divides her troops into three groups and the wrecking of the palace begins. She asks that they hurt as few humans as possible. Riding on the back of a Mammoth, she asks Zek to lead them to Ozorne. Along the way, they find Varice hiding among the wine casks. She swears she did not betray Numair, and Daine lets her go. When they reach the emperor’s quarters, he is not there. The hyenas, freed by the Hag, arrive and offer to help them search. Rikash flies in and tells Daine that the mortal animals in the menagerie have been freed by the dinosaurs, but the immortals are still caged. He agrees to take Zek safely to Kit. Daine shape-shifts into hyena form, and together, they track Ozorne. They find Ozorne with the immortals and have almost succeeded in breaking down his magical barrier when a voice familiar to the hyena Daine, cries, ‘‘No!’’ Prince Kaddar emerges and tells Ozorne that he has two choices: he can abdicate and be imprisoned or he can be left for the hyenas. Ozorne refuses and thrusts Rikash’s feather into his arm, thinking it will allow him to escape. Instead, he is transformed into a Stormwing. The magical cages of the immortals disappear and Bazrha tells him that he can no longer rule mortals or wield mortal power. He will remain a Stormwing forever. Barzha departs to take care of King Jokhum. Ozorne flies clumsily away, unable as yet, to use Stormwing magic. Rikash tells Daine things are not as bad as she thinks, she just needs to look around and then wings away after Ozorne. Daine finds Kaddar and Lindhall behind her and then spots Numair at the gate. She shifts back to her human body but is afraid that she’s seeing a ghost. Kit confirms that he is real and alive. Numair explains that Ozorne executed a simulacrum that he had prepared ahead of time because he did not trust Ozorne’s pardon. Daine tells Numair that she thought they had killed him, which had filled her with rage and led to the attack on the emperor. The Hag and Badger appear. Kaddar begs the Hag for mercy and promises to right the empire. The gods agree to give Kaddar a chance. The Hag takes back her gift and informs them that Daine will sleep for three days. When Daine has rested and is preparing for the journey home, Kaddar, now emperor, offers her any reward up to half his kingdom.

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Daine asks for freedom for Ozorne’s mute slaves and the Banjiku, and for permission for them to return with the company to Tortall if that is their wish. Kaddar grants her request, and the delegation sets sail for home with a new peace treaty and new friends. The Realms of the Gods At dawn of the Winter Solstice, after the delegation from Tortall has returned from Carthak, all in the realm with magical powers feel the barrier in the Divine Realms disappear. This means that all of the previously captive immortals are free to roam in Tortall and the adjoining kingdoms. Ozorne, now a Stormwing himself and their leader, plots with his allies from Scanra and the Copper Isles. The allies want Tortall for its rich resources, Ozorne yearns for revenge against Daine and Numair and is certain they will be dead by Midsummer’s Day. When that day arrives, Tortall has been at war since spring with battles on all fronts. Enemy ships arrive by sea from the Copper Isles, Scanran raiders and Carthaki rebels attack their borders and immortals plague every area in between. Because Tortall’s allies are under attack, they cannot send help. Daine and Numair have been traveling wherever needed to help. Daine is concerned about Kit, the young dragon in her care, for she has used a great deal of energy to repel a wyvern attack. When immortals called Skinners attack a village, King Jonathan sends Daine and Numair out on Midsummer’s Day to deal with them since they can only be defeated by magic. Tkaa the basilisk and Kit will stay in Port Legann. Numair casts an invisibility spell for himself as he goes in search of the creatures while Daine assumes the form of a golden eagle. When they find the Skinners, however, their attempts to destroy them only serve to make them multiply. Suddenly, an inky shadow begins pulling Daine away. Numair locks his arms around her, refusing to let her go, and he gets pulled away as well. Badger, Daine’s guardian and god of the badgers, assures them that he will take care of the Skinners. Daine and Numair must rest. When Daine wakes up, she finds she is in the Divine Realms, brought there because the Skinners were too much for them to handle. The lesser gods were able to reach her in the mortal realm because the barriers between the realms become thin on Midsummer’s Day and the

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Winter Solstice. Her mother tends her, and she finally meets her father, the hunting god, Weiryn. Numair and Daine are both in pain and weak because the passage to the Divine Realms is taxing for humans. Her parents tell her that there is war in the Divine Realms as well. Uusoae, the Queen of Chaos, is seeking to break down the barriers between her and the rest of the gods. If she succeeds, Chaos will rule, the gods and the mortal world will be destroyed. Daine rests, as her mother insists, but she also dreams of Queen Thayet expressing frustration that the enemy knows every move they plan to make. When Daine wakes, she finds Broad Foot, the god of duckmoles, in her room. He summons her to join her family for breakfast and tells her she has been there for four days. Over breakfast, she asks her mother how she got to the Divine Realms. As Sarra explains that Weiryn petitioned the Great Gods to let her join him, Queenclaw, the god of house cats, pounces on a scrap of black that seems to have followed Daine and looks like a living inkblot. Sarra scoops it up and demands its name. After it squeaks, ‘‘darking,’’ she drops it in her apron pocket and seals the opening with white fire; however, Daine sees the darking escape through a hole in her mother’s pocket. Puzzled by her mother’s apparent powers, she turns to Broad Foot who explains that her mother is now a goddess, the Green Lady. Needing some time alone to think, Daine goes for a walk and becomes transfixed by a pool containing a strange substance. It captivates her and makes her ill at the same time. A lizard nips her on the ankle to break the pool’s hold on her. He tells her it is a Chaos vent so the gods can keep an eye on what is happening in the other realm. Daine finds it strange that she can’t hear the lizard’s thoughts or those of any of the other animals, and he tells her that’s because in the Divine Realms, they are all gods. As she sits on a rock, resting, she has a vision of Thayet fighting off Stormwings and feels an urgent desire to return to the mortal world to help in the battle. On her way back to the house, she meets her father returning from the hunt. Since all are gods there, when he kills one, it is immediately reborn into another body. He senses something following them and looses an arrow into the darking. Daine reprimands him. They shouldn’t kill it just because they don’t know what it is.

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Although she doesn’t want to leave her mother so soon after being reunited, Daine persists in telling her that they must return to the mortal world. Numair suggests that Daine should stay to keep her safe and she refuses. Daine falls into an exhausted sleep, wondering why Numair has become so protective. Broad Foot suggests it is because he loves her. While sleeping, Daine dreams that the wolf, Rattail, leads her to a spot where she can overhear Mithros and the Hag, two of the Great Gods, arguing about Uusoae. The Hag is afraid she has new tricks which the other gods are not prepared for. After her nap, Daine goes down for dinner and meets the god Gainel who is the dreamlord. He does not speak for he only communicates with mortals through dreams. Numair asks Weiryn to send them back, but he says that only the Great Gods can do that at this time, and they are too busy fighting Uusoae. Gainel cannot for he can only work through dreams when dealing with mortals. Daine notices a darking and feeds it some cheese under the table. Weiryn says that Numair can go back at the next full equinox. That night, Daine dreams she sees all the Great Gods but Gainel ringed around Uusoae, battling her for supremacy. She wonders why they do not just kill her. Rattail tells her that Father Universe and Mother Flame have forbidden it. The scene shifts, and she sees Gainel holding a balance and sending her a glance full of meaning. In the morning, she goes for a swim before breakfast to clear her head. While in the water, a black blob appears. In it, she sees Ozorne, who seems to look directly at her. Suddenly, a tauros, part bull, part man, with only rape on his mind, appears. Daine moves to run away but then worries it will go after her mother and turns to fight. Using her towel for a sling, she bombards him with well-aimed rocks until one hits him in the throat, killing him. On the way back to her parents’ house, Daine senses Stormwings and meets up with Rikash. Daine tells him she’s disappointed in the Stormwings. After she freed their king and queen, they’ve joined with Ozorne in attacking Tortall. Rikash tells her that Ozorne murdered King Jokhum and now leads a rebel faction. The loyal Stormwings are still in the Divine Realms. When she returns to her parents’ home, Numair asks them about going back to the mortal world. Weiryn says again that they will have to wait until the equinox when the barrier thins. Only then can he, as a lesser god, send them back. As they talk, a darking comes and

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shapes itself into a dragon. Weiryn agrees that a dragon could take them back, and the dragons might be willing to help because Daine has cared for Kit. Her mother is completely against letting Daine make the treacherous journey to the Dragonlands. Although it takes some persuading, Daine convinces her parents that she must go, promising her mother that she will come back for a visit when Tortall is safe again. Rikash agrees to try to get the remaining Stormwings to help them cross the Sea of Sand. Broad Foot and Badger will accompany them, but her parents cannot. They have agreed to be bound to their home for a century as a condition for Sarra becoming a goddess. Weiryn gives Daine a bow and arrows and Numair a wizard staff. He also provides them with a map and warns them about the dangers along the way. Sarra packs their food and supplies and provides them with a healing ointment. As they set out on their journey, Numair finds a darking in Daine’s pack. It indicates that it would like to come, and Daine lets it ride in her pocket. They make camp at the edge of Temptation Lake and, because of Weiryn’s warnings, know that they can’t drink the water. Numair spells their camp for warmth and protection. Again Daine dreams of the battle between the Great Gods and Uusoae. This time, the Great Gods do not see the ring of puddles behind them where Chaos seems to have broken through. Gainel holds the scales over a great chasm and is having trouble keeping them in balance. In the dream, she overhears Ozorne arguing with the Stormwings, who feed on the fear and ravages of human war, but are not happy with their role as creators of that war. A bizarre song wakes Daine to see Numair striding to the lake. He does not respond when she calls, so she pursues him. Numair is being towed under water, so Daine shape-shifts to a sea lion to catch up to him. She spies a naked, blue female dragging Numair who is tied with a golden rope. Daine tries to bite the rope, but it burns like acid. Broad Foot arrives and passes his bill over Daine’s eyes so she can see the creature for what it really is: a monster. Daine uses her sea lion bulk to knock into the monster, but it is the power of Broad Foot’s voice that makes it dissolve. Daine shifts back to her human form and drags Numair to the shore. Broad Foot finds that a Chaos vent has leaked liquid into the lake, tainting it. Any gods who have drunk from the lake may become allies of

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Chaos. Daine dresses, since her clothes don’t stay with her when she shape-shifts, and Numair swears that he did not drink from the lake. He thinks the taint may mean the Great Gods are losing and says that legend foretells that Chaos will win one day. Badger says that gods and mortals will perish on that day. It turns out that the creature that held Numair was a Chaos dweller. Broad Foot leaves to report this problem to the Great Gods. The darking that has been riding with Daine brings another darking, and it indicates that it would like to join them. When Broad Foot returns, he relays that the Great Gods have put a ban on the lake, but they are too busy with Chaos to do anything else. The company proceeds until they reach the first rope and slat bridge over a great chasm. The rope looks frayed to Daine, but Badger assures her that the bridge will hold as long as the Divine Realms do. Daine feels queasy but decides to cross without changing shape so that Numair will not be burdened with her pack as well as his own. In the middle of the bridge, the two darkings that Daine carries have a fight. When Daine separates them she sees Ozorne’s face in one. Suddenly hurroks swoop in on them. Numair holds onto the rope with one hand while loosing magic with his staff. Daine must let go to fire her arrows. Although a hurrok scrapes her head with its claws, Daine reaches for an arrow which is handed to her by a darking. Her aim is true and the hurrok falls to its death. Broad Foot and Badger join the fight, and together they defeat the enemy. Curious about the darkings, Daine questions the three she now has with her and ascertains that two are deserters from Ozorne’s army and one is a spy for Ozorne. They reach the far side of the bridge safely and find a stream where Daine can clean her wounds. Numair applies Sarra’s healing balm which begins to work immediately. Daine explains what’s happened with the darkings. Since communication is so difficult, Broad Foot casts a spell. They all watch an image of Ozorne as he creates the darkings from his own blood. The image also shows Daine feeding the first darking. Her act of kindness won the entity over to her side. She names them Gold-Streak, Leaf, and Jelly. Badger concludes that Ozorne created the darkings in the Divine Realms since they have demonstrated a will of their own. Nothing in the Divine Realms can ever be a slave.

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That night, Daine dreams again of the Great Gods’ battle with Chaos and perceives that Rattail is simply an image for Gainel. She says she will not help the gods. Rattail shows her an image of the barriers collapsing. When Uusoae is free, she devours all the gods, including Weiryn and Sarra. Daine wakes to the sound of Ozorne’s voice calling to darkings that do not answer him. Numair has deduced that Ozorne made the darkings serve as his voice, eyes, and ears so that they could spy on his enemies in Tortall. This is why the forces arrayed against King Jonathan and Queen Thayet always know what they will do before they do it, and why Ozorne could send a tauros and the hurroks against them. Distraught over the fate of her friends in the mortal realms, Daine begs Badger to help them, even though the gods are not supposed to meddle in the affairs of mortals. Gold-Streak volunteers to go with him, making use of his new power of speech. He wants to go so that he can convey to his fellow darkings that they have the power of choice and can choose to fight Ozorne. Badger agrees to transport Gold-Streak to the other darkings. Numair and Daine continue without their two friends to Mauler’s Swamp. They are eaten alive by the gods of insects until Numair raises a magical shield. Mauler appears, but he lets them pass. Again Daine dreams of Rattail, who says that Gainel suspects Uusoae of colluding with a mortal, which is forbidden. Mortals are already half Chaos, and Uusoae is not allowed more than that. Numair enters the vision and Rattail becomes Gainel. Gainel shows them a chess game where the Great Gods are on one side with them and their friends from Tortall, and Uusoae and Ozorne and his allies on the other. Uusoae wins the game and consumes all. Gainel resets the board and shows Tortall winning. Gainel tells them they must find and kill the mortal ally who let Uusoae into the world. This will draw her out and at the same time show Father Universe and Mother Flame that Uusoae has done the one thing they have forbidden. Then they will stop the war. Gainel alone of the Great Gods believes that a mortal would connive to let Chaos into the world. As they travel on, two sounds let Badger know that Malady and Starvation have been loosed in the world. Slaughter has been there since the spring. Numair and Daine convince Broad Foot to help stop the Three

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Sorrows, but he says he can only stop one, and they must choose. They choose Malady and Broad Foot leaves them with instructions to stay on the path. That night Daine dreams that none of Ozorne’s darkings in northern Tortall will report to him. As Numair and Daine journey on, they come to a cliff edge where a Chaos vent has been leaking, and there is a strange-looking pile of rocks. They seem harmless to Numair, but when Daine casts a net with her magic, she feels a chasm rip through her magic and can’t break away. Leaf bites her, and this shakes her loose of Chaos’ hold. As they try to pass by the rocks, without getting caught by the Chaos vent, Numair is grabbed by a rocky arm and the cliff ledge gives way under Daine, sending her tumbling down into the narrow canyon below. She loses her bow and arrows on the way down and lands in a fast-flowing river. She dumps her pack and swims free, but as soon as she steps on land, she’s scooped up into a net of spidrens’ weaving. She shifts to different shapes, but the web always closes around her. Three spidrens advance, planning on turning their captive over to Ozorne for a reward. Before they reach her, Numair attacks. He kills two while Leaf and Jelly kill the third. Excited to be reunited and relieved to find each other alive, Daine and Numair embrace and then kiss passionately. While Daine sleeps, she dreams that Badger and Gold-Streak are explaining to Queen Thayet that the darkings have decided to join forces with her and will spy for her as they once did for Ozorne. In the morning, Numair explains that he used his Gift to shield himself from the rock creatures, and when they realized that he was the source of their pain, they fled. Then he used all of his power to find her. As they discuss their relationship, he asks her to marry him, but Daine is not sure that she is ready for marriage. They confess their love for each other and agree to work things out when the war is over. At the edge of the Sea of Sand, Rikash and company meet them. The Stormwings have agreed to fly them in nets over the desert as repayment for freeing their king and queen from Ozorne’s menagerie. This way, neither Numair nor Daine will have to shape-shift and can conserve their strength for the dragons. Once they’ve crossed the Sea of Sand, they land before a curtain of white fire. The dragons try to send them away as

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cowardly humans, but Daine proves her bravery by passing through the flames with Numair hurrying after her. The young dragons, Scamp and Gizzle, who, like Kit, have wings but are not mature enough to fly yet, guide them. Speaking mind to mind, they tell the humans that they are leading them to their grandsire. Jewelclaw, a full-grown dragon, intercepts them, wanting to take Daine and Numair captive, but Scamp and Gizzle will not let him. Because Diamondflame, their grandsire, has been accused of ignoring the will of the Dragonmeet, he calls a meet. The dragons argue over their fate while Daine explains that they don’t want to stay in the Dragonlands and that they want a dragon to take them back to the mortal realm. Jewelclaw and Moonwind move to attack the humans, but Diamondflame says he has the right to host the caretakers of his grandchild, Skysong. Rainbow banishes Jewelclaw and allows Daine and Numair to stay because of their care of Skysong. Diamondflame and Wingstar offer to take them back to Tortall. Along the way, Rikash and the flock of Stormwings fly with them, wanting to settle the score with Ozorne. They return to Corus, but find no fighting there. Duke Gareth the Elder and Buri inform them that Queen Thayet has joined with the Yamani fleet to try to break the siege of Port Legann. Daine and Numair decide they must try to catch up with her to warn her about the fleet from the Copper Isles. Meanwhile Broad Foot, who is ill because of his work containing Malady, explains his involvement with the mortal world to the dragons and convinces them to lend their assistance. With the dragons’ help, they reach Thayet and prepare to retake Port Legann. Daine will ride Diamondflame and serve as a courier between Thayet and Jonathan. Thayet gives Daine the Dominion Jewel to give to her husband. Numair departs to deal with the shaman-mage, Inar. Aboard Diamondflame’s back, with his spells keeping them invisible, Daine spends two days mapping the positions of the enemies and distributing the information. Now, she stands in the watch tower with Jonathan who is using spelled mirrors to view what is happening in various spots of the battle. He must be able to see what is going on to effectively use the Dominion Jewel. Thayet and Wingstar fly into position. Daine asks all of the animals to help. As the battle is joined, Diamondflame and Wingstar flame enemy ships. Some Stormwings, centaurs, and ogres fight for

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Tortall. Daine shape-shifts as she needs to, to fight. Archers fire. Jonathan battles, using the power of the Dominion Jewel; darkings join the fray. In the course of the battle, Daine sees Rikash killed. As the troops for Tortall turn the tide of battle to their favor, Daine shape-shifts to a sparrow hawk so that she can chase Ozorne, who is trying to escape. First, with Leaf and Jelly to help her, Daine defeats Ozorne’s allies. Ozorne kills the darkings. Creating her own winged creature to fight Ozorne, the two battle. At last, a drained Daine, back in her human form can no longer shape-shift. Ozorne thinks he has won, but Daine attacks him with the silver badger claw that she wears around her neck and kills him. Uusoae appears, angry that Daine has interfered with her plans. She moves to grab Daine, but Mithros steps in and brings them both into the Divine Realms to present his case to Father Universe and Mother Flame. They punish Uusoae and vanish, leaving Daine in the presence of the Great Gods and lesser gods. Her wounds are healed, but she feels sad and tired. The Great Mother says she must choose between living out her life in the mortal world or staying with her parents in the Divine Realms as a goddess like her mother. She feels torn, on the one hand are all the people she loves in Tortall, especially Numair, and on the other is the promise to return that she made to her mother. While she ponders her decision, the gods decide to leave the barrier containing the immortals down. Those who were in the mortal world at the spring equinox will be allowed to stay. All others must return. Daine defends the Stormwings, as creatures who were simply following their nature, and the gods allow them to stay as well. Kit, Diamondflame, and Wingstar arrive to take Daine home, but she says she should stay because she promised her mother. Sarra releases her from her promise, because she knows that Daine would not be happy in the Divine Realms. Broad Foot, who told her the Three Sorrows had been returned to their kennel, bids farewell. The darkings will dwell with the dragons. Badger promises he will still visit her. The dragons take Daine and Kit back to Tortall in time for Daine to see Jonathan signing treaties with their defeated enemies. She’s greeted by her friends, but no one knows where Numair is or even if he is still

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alive. Mounting her pony Cloud, she searches for Numair. When she finds him, they have a loving reunion, but when he asks her to marry him she does not give him a definite answer. Character Development In the beginning of the quartet, Daine is a thirteen-year-old girl who is traumatized but determined. She does not trust herself or the adults in her life, and she is in complete denial about her magical abilities. During the course of her adventures, she becomes a young woman who has not only resolved her trust issues and accepted her magic, but she also becomes someone who cares passionately for the welfare of animals, humans, and immortals and who uses her considerable power to help save Tortall. When Daine meets Onua in Galla, she is looking for a job, has recently lost her family to murdering bandits, is hiding a secret, and insists that her gift with animals is just a knack. When Onua tells her she has the Gift, she says, ‘‘‘Oh please! I’ve a knack with animals, but no Gift. Ma—’ She stopped, then made herself go on. ‘She tried to teach me, but I never learned. I can’t even start a fire, and Gifted babies manage that. She was so disappointed’’’ (Wild Magic, 15). Even after Daine has helped Alanna save Numair, she feels insecure. When they part, she thinks, ‘‘‘If she’s a legend, and a hero, then anyone could be a hero.’ Tucking the claw back into her shirt, she ran back to camp. ‘If anyone might be a hero—could I?’ she asked herself, and smiled. ‘No, not me’’’ (Wild Magic, 61–62). Although she eventually accepts Numair’s tutelage in magic, she still does not trust herself or her friends. ‘‘Tears rolled down her cheeks as she hid her face in her covers. I’m afraid, she wanted to tell her human friends. I’m afraid if I go any deeper in my magic, I’ll forget who I am’’ (Wild Magic, 163). It is only when Badger insists she move on in her lessons and tell Numair her difficulty, that she finally lets go and trusts both Numair and Onua with her story of virtually becoming a wolf, of joining with a pack to track down and kill the bandits, and being hunted by the people of her village. Sharing this incident builds a bond of trust, and Numair shows her how to stay attuned to her essential self. Once this

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occurs, Daine’s faith in herself also increases and she makes great strides in learning to control her magic. This trust and her innate determination also combine as she learns how to heal for the first time. ‘‘She got sleepy. Her back cramped almost unbearably. Nuh-uh, she thought fiercely. No quitting—not ever’’ (Wild Magic, 185). She makes mistakes in her journey of self-discovery and magical development, such as stopping her heart when its beating made too much noise for her meditation. But as she embraces her strengths and learns to overcome her weaknesses, she is able to help save Pirate’s Swoop. By the beginning of Wolf Speaker, Daine is comfortable in her role as Numair’s student and caretaker of Kit, the dragon orphaned in the battle of Pirate’s Swoop. She willingly journeys with Numair to answer the wolves’ call for help, and demonstrates her courage early on when she confronts the nobles with the wolves’ concerns over the humans’ ruining Dunlath valley. She cringed at the thought of giving such a message to these polished, self-assured humans. She also knew Brokefang wouldn’t understand if she held back. Mockery and shame meant nothing to wolves. I wish they meant nothing to me either, she thought, making up her mind as the bard ended his last song and left the room. Forcing herself to get up, she walked out into the open space in front of the dais. (Wolf Speaker, 63) She also demonstrates it by choosing to stay with the wolves instead of going with Numair for help, a decision that required faith in herself as well as the courage of her convictions. Doubt assails her again when she thinks she’s going crazy while learning to slip in and out of animals’ minds. But when others confirm that she is actually shape-shifting and not insane, she tackles learning how to retain her human form. It is here that Daine learns to be a bridge to facilitate understanding between humans, animals, and immortals. As she practices slipping her mind into the different animals, she experiences the world through their senses. This makes her much more attuned to other points of view. Her relationship with Kit leads

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to a positive relationship with Tkaa, the basilisk. Her talk with the badger lays the ground work for a more positive view of ogres, whom she first spots enslaved as mineworkers in Dunlath valley. When Daine joined them, Maura said quietly, ‘‘These poor ogres are ugly.’’ ‘‘I don’t know,’’ replied Daine. ‘‘At least they’re of a piece, all one thing. They probably think we’re funny looking, all pink and hairless.’’ ‘‘You don’t hate them? But I hear so many stories. Outside of the valley they fight with humans all the time. It’s said the King’s Champion lives in the saddle these days because she’s always battling them.’’ Daine shrugged. ‘‘It’s not so bad. Lady Alanna doesn’t always fight them. Ogres just don’t understand they can’t take things that belong to others.’’ Since her talk with the badger, she had done a great deal of thinking. ‘‘I wonder—if humans didn’t attack and tried to be nice, maybe ogres wouldn’t be so nasty.’’ She pointed to the mines. ‘‘And I know one thing for certain. This is just plain wrong. Look at their ribs—you could count them. When d’you suppose they had their last meal? And whatever it was it can’t have been much.’’ (Wolf Speaker, 183) And it is indeed Daine’s ability to bring all different kinds of creatures together that enables them all to work with one another to foil the plots of Tristan and Yolane. By the time Emperor Mage begins, Daine has progressed so far that the Hag sees her as a perfect vessel for a god, saying, ‘‘No, for a vessel we need a mortal with imagination, a strong will, and determination. And anger—plenty of it’’ (Emperor Mage, 159). But even as the vessel of the Hag, Daine exercises her own judgment and chooses to raise the dinosaurs to destroy the palace. By the end of The Realms of the Gods, after Daine succeeded in destroying Ozorne, her mother sums up what she sees of her daughter’s life, ‘‘‘We can’t restore the years together that were taken from us,’ Sarra interrupted. ‘It was misery but we can’t change it. Seeing you here taught me you’re an adult now. You’re needed, and you’re valued, and you’re loved. Those are wondrous gifts, sweetling. I can’t let you throw them away’’’ (The Realms of the Gods, 266–67).

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Another trait that becomes fuller and stronger in Daine as she matures is her care and compassion for all creatures. Her connection to animals is evident from the beginning when Onua witnesses her relate to the ponies as a pony instead of as a human. ‘‘In years of managing horses, she’d never seen the like…, this child was different: Daine treated the stallion as if she were a pony herself’’ (Wild Magic, 5). One of Daine’s deepest desires is to learn how to use her magic to heal animals; once she can use her magic to heal as well as speak to them, she feels bound to them. She desperately wants to avoid putting them at risk, as she explains when Onua suggests letting the animals help in the defense of Pirate’s Swoop. ‘‘You don’t understand! Once I meet them or talk to them, I know them. They’re my friends; they’re part of me. When they get hurt and die, it hurts me’’ (Wild Magic, 267). When Scrap the kitten dies defending her against the Coldfang at the end of Wolf Speaker, Daine demands the gods restore him and Queenclaw, goddess of housecats, does. When the marmoset falls into the river at the beginning of Emperor Mage, Daine asks the crocodiles not to eat him and dives in to save him herself. Daine’s compassion is not limited to animals. It extends to humans and immortals as well. When, at the end of Emperor Mage, Kaddar offers her a reward, she asks only for things for others. Kaddar asks her, ‘‘All these things for others? Nothing for yourself?’’ ‘‘No, Kaddar. The Graveyard Hag did most of this, not me. Use whatever you might have given me to help them that suffered in your famine’’ (Emperor Mage, 291). But it is her compassion for enemy immortals that most clearly demonstrates Daine’s developing maturity, specifically her views of Stormwings. Initially, she views them only as enemies and evil, naturally enough since they tried to kill her periodically throughout Wild Magic. But in Wolf Speaker, Cloud reminds her not to be close-minded. Cloud gently clamped her teeth on the elbow supporting the bow stock. ‘‘Don’t,’’ the mare warned. ‘‘He hasn’t done anything to you.’’ ‘‘Yet,’’ Daine replied silently. ‘‘They’re evil, Cloud. You know they’re evil.’’ ‘‘There’s no such thing as a being who’s pure evil,’’ retorted the mare. ‘‘Just as no creature is all good. They live according to their natures, just like you.’’ ‘‘And their natures are evil,’’ insisted the girl.

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‘‘No. Their natures are opposed to yours, that’s all. A wolf’s nature is opposed to mine, but that does not make wolves evil. Until these creatures do you harm, leave them be. It is as the stork-man told you—learn tolerance!’’ (Wolf Speaker, 114–15) Reluctantly, she refrains from killing the Stormwings and instead meets Rikash, who is Maura’s friend. It comes as quite a shock to her that anyone can be a Stormwing’s friend; Maura was surprised that anyone could be a wolf’s friend. When Daine subsequently learns of Tristan’s plans to destroy the valley with bloodrain, she writes to Numair, ‘‘I was wrong to call Stormwings monsters. The creature that could brew and use this bloodrain is the real monster’’ (Wolf Speaker, 218). By the end of Wolf Speaker, Daine’s views have begun to change. ‘‘Once she had wanted to kill every Stormwing she found, but was that still true? It seemed as if, ever since she had come here, someone was telling her that because she didn’t like a creature’s looks, it didn’t mean that creature was bad. She still didn’t like Stormwing looks, but Rikash seemed almost— decent’’ (Wolf Speaker, 257–58). In Emperor Mage, this shift in her perspective causes her to let Rikash know about the Stormwings imprisoned in Ozorne’s menagerie. Eventually her actions lead to their freedom, creating a new bond between them. In The Realm of the Gods, Rikash and his flock actually help Daine and Numair. ‘‘There’s a thing to boggle the mind, she thought, rubbing her shoulders to warm them. Stormwings with honor!’’ (The Realm of the Gods, 181). Finally, Rikash dies in the last battle of the Immortals War: ‘‘ ‘Rikash—no!’ someone cried in a voice that cracked as it rose. ‘No! No! NOOOOO!’ It was her voice. If she screamed loud enough, long enough, he would live. She hadn’t realized that he meant something to her. She hadn’t known he was her friend’’ (The Realms of the Gods, 242). In the end, Daine defends the Stormwings to the Great Gods. ‘‘Stormwings aren’t humans. They aren’t gods. They are what they were made to be. If you punish them for that, you may as well punish yourselves for what you are’’ (The Realms of the Gods, 264). Daine becomes a powerful Wildmage, who cares for creatures of all kinds, mortal and immortal, who is loved by Numair, and who uses her magic in defense of those she loves and in service to Tortall.

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Thematic Development The themes in The Immortals quartet tie in closely to Daine’s concerns: freedom and equality, as well as the care of creatures and the environment. Gender roles and an anti-war element surface occasionally. While there is no slavery in Tortall, there is a sharp division in wealth, status, and treatment between peasants and nobles. Unlike Alanna, Daine is a peasant girl and she is acutely aware of the gulf between her and the nobles around her. Initially, she is impressed when meeting them and discovers that their hands are calloused, which shows her they are used to working with their hands. But she is still mindful of the gulf between them. When Numair in Wild Magic wants to give her a book, she reacts this way: ‘‘Her fingers shook, she wanted it so much, but peasant girls didn’t own books’’ (Wild Magic, 141). Alanna expresses disgust at some nobles’ perspectives on peasants when she must go to defend a castle that’s come under ogre attack. ‘‘What gets me angry is I told Mandash to arm his people, if he was too cheap to hire soldiers. But no, we can’t teach peasants to use weapons—what if they decide they don’t like their overlords?’’ (Wild Magic, 229). Class divisions come up again in Wolf Speaker when Daine and Numair are dining in the castle, and she notes that the food arrives cold. Maura explains, ‘‘My sister doesn’t want servants eating here, as they did when our father was alive. She says the king doesn’t eat with his servants, so we won’t either. That made the servants angry, so they take their time bringing meals’’ (Wolf Speaker, 59). Later in the meal, Maura says of her sister Yolane, ‘‘She cares about how old our family is and how close to the throne we are, not about taking care of Dunlath and looking after our people’’ (Wolf Speaker, 61). Clearly there is a difference of opinion in Tortall about the treatment of commoners; both Alanna and Daine support the commoners. In Emperor Mage, this theme of social justice broadens from class issues to the issue of freedom because there is slavery in Carthak. All of the Tortallans are warned by Duke Gareth the Elder not to mention their disapproval to any Carthaki. ‘‘Do not speak of freedom to slaves.… However we may dislike the practice, it would be unwise to show that dislike publicly’’ (Emperor Mage, 6). However, freedom becomes a

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major issue despite his warning. When an elderly woman Daine believes is a slave is cleaning her room, Daine cannot just sit by and let her do it. ‘‘Her upbringing got the better of her, and she stood placing Zek on her seat. Ma had not raised her to sit idle, not when housework was to be done. She also had not been raised to let an elder work without aid’’ (Emperor Mage, 65). When Daine tries to discuss this slave with Prince Kaddar, ‘‘Kaddar’s eyebrows snapped together. ‘Why would I care about any slave, young or old?’ Daine felt as if she’d been punched. She fiddled with the cuffs on her shirt and collected herself. At last she said quietly, ‘Because I thought you were a decent human being’’’ (Emperor Mage, 130). And later, when they visit the university, which is a slavefree zone because it makes northerners feel uncomfortable, Kaddar asks Daine what she thinks of slavery, ‘‘‘It makes me think of cages,’ replied Daine. ‘And cages make me feel like I can’t breathe’’’ (Emperor Mage, 165). Even the gods express a wish for freedom for their people. When Badger restores her to life, he tells her, ‘‘And tell the Baniku that Lushagui never meant for them to be slaves’’ (Emperor Mage, 215). When Kaddar offers Daine a reward, she wants freedom for the slaves. ‘‘I want some humans—slaves—to be freed, with enough in their purses to start a new life. A good life, with work they enjoy, the chance to buy apprenticeships for their children, and proper clothes and food and such. If they want to return to Tortall with us, they can’’ (Emperor Mage, 291). The thread of freedom is picked up again in The Realm of the Gods. There, Daine is told that all beings are free. This is how the badger knows Ozorne created the darkings in the Divine Realm; they exhibit free will. Daine’s respectful treatment of the darkings wins them to her side. She will not let her father kill the first one that trails her, and she feeds it cheese under the table. It is this darking, later named Gold-streak, that volunteers to go to the mortal realm. ‘‘‘I go. Talk to darkings. Teach them—’ It returned to its huddle with Leaf and Jelly. They vibrated together until Gold-streak’s head rose out of the mass. ‘Freedom,’ it said clearly. ‘Choosing… ’’’ (The Realms of the Gods, 134). The darkings choosing to side with Tortall against their creator Ozorne is a key factor in winning the war. Gold-streak expresses the importance of their freedom when Daine tells of Leaf and Jelly’s deaths. ‘‘Her eyes stung. Tears trickled down her cheeks. … ‘Leaf and Jelly are dead,’ she told her first

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darking, the spy that Ozorne had set on her. ‘They were so brave.’ ‘I know,’ Gold-streak replied. ‘They had freedom.… They had choosing.… They choose you. All darkings know. We never forget’’’ (The Realm of the Gods, 259). The darkings embody not only the issue of freedom, but also the issue of class equality. Daine, a person who can link between animals, humans, and immortals, sees creatures as different kinds of beings, not lower orders of beings. To her they are not greater or lesser, but different, serving different tasks or purposes. She shows this in her treatment of the darkings and her interactions with all creatures. In Wolf Speaker, she is appalled by Tristan’s view. ‘‘Brute creation is in this world to serve man—not the other way around. This valley is ruled by humans.’’ Daine couldn’t believe what she had heard. ‘‘Is that what you really think animals are here for?’’ ‘‘No. That’s what I know they are for. Men do not shape their concerns for the benefit of wild beasts, my dear.’’ (Wolf Speaker, 66) This is also where environmental concerns are expressed. ‘‘You can’t go on this way. Soon you will have no forests to get wood from or to hunt game in. You poison water you drink and bathe and fish in. Even if you keep the farms, they won’t be enough to feed you if the rest of the valley’s laid waste. You’ll starve. Your people will starve—unless you buy from outside the valley, and that’s fair expensive. You’ll ruin Dunlath’’ (Wolf Speaker, 66–67). Not to be left out of the thematic tapestry is gender equality. Although Daine is not a girl working in a man’s world the way Alanna is, she does run up against gender bias in Carthak. When Prince Kaddar is giving her a tour, some young nobles, unused to women without veils, taunt her about Tortall. ‘‘‘Maybe Tortallan men are easily beaten,’ said one. ‘No Carthaki men are bested by a woman’’’ (Emperor Mage, 143). She challenges them to an archery contest and beats them handily. She is also living in a Tortall that has felt the influence of Alanna and Thayet. Thayet has formed the Queen’s Riders, which employ men and women, a step forward for the women of Tortall. Alanna is still the King’s Champion, fighting whenever the king needs her. Her children

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and Thayet’s, at least, see the roles of men and women differently than preceding generations, as Princess Kalisan says to Alanna’s son Thom, when Alanna is called away from Pirate’s Swoop to fight an ogre, ‘‘‘It’s like Mama in the raiding season,’ she told him. ‘We’re lucky to have mothers who fight. Our fathers stay home and protect their people’’’ (Wild Magic, 227). While fighting to defend home, loved ones, and country are acceptable, fighting for fighting’s sake is not, and it is the Stormwing Rikash who presents the anti-war perspective when he explains the origins of Stormwings. ‘‘Ages ago, a traveler in the mortal realms went from place to place and found only the leavings of war—the starving, the abandoned, the dead. It was the work of armies, fighting over ground they soon lost again. That traveler sickened of the waste—of death. She wished for a creature that was so repulsive, living on war’s aftermath, that even humans would think twice before battle. That creature would defile what mortal killers left, so that humans couldn’t lie about how glorious a soldier’s death is. She dreamed the first Stormwing.’’ Daine shivered. ‘‘But it doesn’t seem to make a difference, most of the time.’’ ‘‘That’s humans for you,’’ said the immortal cheerfully. ‘‘Nothing slows them down for long. But—if one person asks himself—or herself’’—he nodded politely to her—‘‘if the matter to be fought over is worth his corpse being ripped to pieces and smeared with our dung, and decides it isn’t, that’s all we need to justify ourselves.’’ (The Realm of the Gods, 182–83) Daine’s adventures keep the issue of gender roles in play in the kingdom of Tortall as well as emphasize the importance of the way all creatures are treated, setting the stage for the next quartet of adventures.

CHAPTER FIVE

The Protector of the Small Quartet HE PROTECTOR OF THE SMALL QUARTET relates the events in Tortall after the Immortals war by following the life of young Keladry, who is the daughter of diplomats. She is the first girl since Alanna to attempt to earn her knighthood, although the option has been open to young women for ten years. Pierce uses third-person narration to focus on Keladry’s perspective.

T

Plot Development First Test Ten years after the proclamation allowing girls to attempt page training, King Jonathan receives word that ten-year-old Keladry (Kel) of Mindelan would like to begin training to become a knight. Alanna is delighted, but the training master, Lord Wyldon, believes it is a mistake. He convinces Jonathan to allow him to put the girl on probation for one year. If she proves she can do the work of a page, she will be allowed to continue her training. He also convinces Jonathan that Alanna should have nothing to do with Kel. There are already those who whisper that Alanna used her Gift to achieve her knighthood, and it would taint Kel for Alanna to be involved with her training. When Jonathan agrees with Lord Wyldon’s request, Alanna has never been angrier with him in her life. Kel, who lived for many years in the Yamani Isles where her father served as the Crown’s ambassador, receives the news stoically, as her Yamani teaching demands, but she is not pleased that she is put on probation simply because she is a girl. Kel, who has brown hair and hazel eyes, is tall with a stocky build. She goes for a walk by a stream to think over her situation. Although she wants to be a knight, she thinks she will refuse the training, rather than accept being put on probation. Before she

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can act on this decision, she saves a sack of kittens from drowning by local lads, only to watch as a spidren attacks and begins to eat them. Kel blows her horn for help and tries to fend off the spidren. Her brother and troops arrive to kill the monster, and Kel realizes that she doesn’t know how to fight. Seeing how much she has to learn, she accepts the probation. Her brother warns her how difficult it will be, but Kel is determined to go. Her parents bring her to the page’s area of the palace where a stern Lord Wyldon greets her. He has housekeeper Salma show her to her room. When they arrive, the room has been ransacked and on the walls someone has scrawled, ‘‘No Girls!’’ As the new pages gather in the hall, Wyldon asks for volunteers among the older pages to sponsor the first-years. A sneering Joren offers to sponsor Kel, but Neal of Queenscove steps in. Kel wants to know why when clearly no one else wanted to sponsor a girl. Neal explains that he is the chief healer’s son and has lived around the palace all his life. He is used to seeing Lady Alanna and Queen Thayet fight and doesn’t have a problem with it the way Joren and the others do. He is older than the other pages because he trained first as a healer before deciding to become a knight. After her first dinner, Salma gives Kel a key to her room that is spelled so that only she can use it. Her room will not be ransacked again. Neal shows her around, and they meet Tkaa, the basilisk, who will be their instructor in immortals. In the morning she befriends and feeds a flock of sparrows, naming the leader Crown. Her first lesson is with the Shang warriors. They begin by teaching the students how to fall. Kel automatically uses her Yamani training and realizes too late that the other pages think she is showing off. In their next class, their Carthaki weapons instructor teaches them staff work, which Kel is also familiar with. During partnering for the drill, Joren is placed with her. Initially he follows the practice rhythm, but when the instructors are not watching, he rains blows on her, telling her to go home. Kel insists she belongs at the school and disarms him with a Yamani technique. Wyldon is furious at her for using it, but the Shang suggests they teach such techniques. The drill resumes with Neal as her partner. Where Wyldon ignored her before, now he corrects everything she does.

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At archery class, she feels rushed and as a result fumbles her shot. At her first riding class, the older pages block her so that by the time she reaches the stables, there are not many horses left to choose from. She selects a nasty-tempered gelding named Peachblossom. Stefan the groom tells her that the horse was misused and will be put down if he can’t accommodate a rider. Kel promises herself she will not let that happen, no matter how hard she has to struggle to control the horse. The afternoon is filled with academic classes: reading and writing taught by Mithran priests; history and law taught by Sir Myles; plants and animals with Mage Lindhall, accompanied by Bonedancer; immortals with Tkaa, while those with the Gift study magic; and the day concludes with etiquette with master Oakbridge, who assigns a book that was written by Kel’s father. King Jonathan attends the dinner, welcoming them all and expressing how much the realm needs them. Kel is not thrilled with her king because of the probationary period only she must serve. He is her ruler and she will follow his commands, but she does not think he has treated her fairly. When she returns to her room after dinner, she finds an anonymous gift of a new knife waiting for her, proof that someone wants her to succeed. Kel settles into the routine of training and studying and five weeks pass by quickly. Mathematics is her favorite subject. Prince Roald often sits with her and Neal, but Kel thinks it is because he wants to learn about Yamani culture, since his future bride is a Yamani princess. When Peachblossom hurts Kel’s foot, Neal insists on healing her and then takes her to meet Daine, who is living in the palace with Numair. Daine talks to Peachblossom and works out an arrangement whereby the horse will behave. In return, Kel will not use spurs on Peachblossom. On the way back to her room, Kel overhears another first year, Merric, being bullied by Joren and his cronies. She tries to defend him but is afraid if they fight, Wyldon will use it as an excuse to dismiss her. She winds up running from a bully for the first time in her life. Afterward, she wrestles with her conscience and feels like a coward. The first-year pages begin jousting training, and Kel finds the lance so heavy she can barely lift it, let alone hit the target on the quintain. She is clipped by the sandbag as she goes by. As if failing weren’t bad

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enough, she realizes that Lord Raoul and his men from the King’s Own are in the audience. She doesn’t do well on her homework assignments from the previous night and is reprimanded by her teachers. Sir Myles shows concern, but Kel knows this is a problem she has to work out for herself. She decides not to let Joren and his followers get to her again. She also goes to the Shang Wildcat for arm-strengthening exercises so that she can lift the lance. While she is cleaning the lance the next day, she discovers that there are cleverly concealed lead plugs in the shaft. The lance, which Joren handed to her, has been weighted. She decides to keep the lance and to stand up for herself and the pages. She finds Joren and confronts him and his gang in the library about their bullying ways. She fights them using her Yamani training but is outnumbered and gets beaten. After her fight, Merric is angry with her for thinking he did not know how to stand up for himself. Kel knows that his pride has been wounded. Lord Wyldon calls her in to explain, and she gives the time-honored answer that she fell. Wyldon thinks she will want to go home now that she sees how difficult it can be, but she chooses to stay. He metes out her punishment and sends her to a healer, who is Neal’s father, Duke Baird. When Neal demands an explanation for her fighting, she tells him that she knew what had to be done and so she did it. Joren and his friends were not just hazing the first-years, they were bullying. Kel’s turn comes to wait on Lord Wyldon at dinner. She’s nervous and takes special care with her attire. As she leaves her room, she checks to make sure there are no surprises above the door, but she misses the oil spilled in the hall. She has to change her clothes and is late for her duty. On her way she encounters Joren and company who tell her she should have fled while she had the chance. Midwinter festival time arrives when friends exchange gifts. She receives another anonymous gift. This time it is bruise balm, spelled for healing. As winter wraps the world in cold, Kel continues classes and training. When she encounters Joren bullying, she fights, and accepts her punishment from Wyldon. Boys she has helped and their sponsors join Kel and Neal as they study together in the evenings. Now their group includes Merric, Seaver, and Faleron. In staff practice, Zahir (a Bazhir)

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tells her it is time for her to go back behind the veil. When he attacks, Neal and her new friends defend her. Cleon, another older page, joins their study group. When Kel slips out, Neal follows her, accusing her of looking for trouble. She tells Neal bullying is not right, but she did not ask for help because she did not think she would get it. Neal surprises her by fighting Joren and Vinson with her. Numair puts a stop to it because they’ve interrupted his work. As they leave the next night, Merric, Seaver, and Faleron patrol with them. There is no trouble for two nights, and then they save Esmond from the bullies and invite him to join their study group. When Cleon joins the group of defenders, Joren and his friends give up because there are too many opposing them. Spring thaw makes the ground too muddy for practice, so Wyldon has them run along the wall. Kel’s terror of heights is revealed, and she’s afraid Wyldon has the excuse he needs to send her home, but he lets her stay. By April, Kel is better at tilting, hitting the small shield every time, but still not able to hit the small ring at the center of the target. When her lance shatters, Joren hands her a replacement which is again weighted with lead. Determined to prove herself, Kel lines up Peachblossom for the charge and hits the target perfectly, five times in a row. Wyldon congratulates her reluctantly and her friends cheer. It is time for the examinations, where all pages are tested in public on their knowledge and skills. The tests were instituted fourteen years ago by King Roald, after Alanna became a knight, so that no one could question a page’s fitness. Kel passes all of the tests easily. Wyldon leads the pages to their summer camp, and some of Kel’s sparrows follow her. Joren tries to attack her, but Kel dumps him into a holly bush, and her sparrows peck away until he’s had enough. Wyldon divides the pages up into groups and assigns them tasks. Kel’s group must climb a tree to survey the area and make a map. Although she is able to force herself up the tree, as soon as she looks down, she freezes. Neal and Cleon have to carry her down. Wyldon makes her climb the tree every day to overcome her fear of heights. When spidrens attack a nearby village, Lord Raoul and his company of King’s Own bring the pages in to help. They are searching for the nest of spidrens without success until Kel tells the sparrows she wishes they

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could help them find the monsters. When the sparrows return with fresh spidren thread, Kel brings what they’ve found to Lord Raoul. He has her lead them as they follow the sparrows to the cave where the immortals hide. Raoul stations the pages in the rear, guarding against an attack from behind the main force. When Kel spies four spidrens approaching, she sounds the alarm and then coordinates the fight. Using her spear as a glaive, she fights them until the archers come to finish them off. Two days later they return to the palace. King Jonathan attends the final dinner, and Lord Wyldon tells Kel to come to his office. She and her friends think he will tell her she has failed her probationary year and should not come back. He advises her that for her own good she should stay home, but then he gives her permission to return. Page The autumn after the end of First Test, Kel returns to continue her training, this year as a full-fledged page instead of a probationer. She rescues a dog from being killed by the cook for stealing sausages and brings it back to her room, even though they are not supposed to have pets. When she gets there, she finds Gower, the servant in charge of her room, waiting for her with his niece Lalasa. She is alone in the world and Gower hopes that Kel will take her on as a maid. Kel sees Lalasa’s bruises and knows that she has been misused. Even though she is not sure her parents can help her pay Lalasa’s salary, she agrees to employ her. At dinner, she sits with all of her old friends except Prince Roald, who makes a point of sitting with different people each night so that none feel slighted. King Jonathan welcomes the pages, new and returning. Kel is still not sure how she feels about him. After dinner, Wyldon warns her that she is responsible for the behavior of her maid. Kel takes the dog to Daine, in hopes the Wildmage will keep him. Daine says his name is Jump. She will care for him, but if he wants to leave, she won’t force him to stay. Daine compliments Kel on her kindness to animals. On her way back to her room, Kel encounters Joren and his friends bullying again. She challenges him, and they fight three against one until Owen, a first-year page, enters the fray. Servants break up the fight; Wyldon punishes Kel with an assignment of pitching hay from the lofts until

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she is no longer afraid of heights. He also insists that the fighting must stop. Kel grows comfortable with the routine of her second year. They now have weighted harnesses to wear to help them get prepared for carrying the weight of armor. Joren still insults her and fights break out. Wyldon punishes the perpetrators. Kel and Neal’s study group becomes so large, they decide to meet in the library. Each morning Kel wakes up early to do her morning exercises. Jump and her sparrows greet her. Since Jump will not stay with Daine, Kel gives up trying and hopes no one will consider him a pet. Kel’s parents send her the money to pay Lalasa’s wages, which Kel gives her in a lump sum, and then she gives Lalasa access to her own accounts, so that she can get the supplies she needs for Kel’s new clothes. Kel is growing out of things at an alarming rate and is developing breasts as well. Lalasa tells her most nobles would not have so much faith in their servants. Kel wishes that Lalasa were not so skittish. Tkaa begins teaching the class about Yamani magic, and he asks Kel for her spirit bag to show the students. When Kel goes to her room to fetch it, she finds a male servant foisting unwanted attentions on Lalasa. She sends him away with a warning. Later, she brings Neal to help her teach Lalasa how to discourage such men. The Yamani princess to whom Prince Roald was betrothed has died in an earthquake, so a new princess must be found and a new treaty negotiated. As a result, Kel’s parents are still in Corus for the Midwinter festival. They will be at the banquet where Kel will be serving for the first time, and she wants to make them proud. She helps her friends look their best and learns from Neal that Alanna will not be at the banquet. Since the king is still forbidding her to have any contact with Kel, Alanna is boycotting the palace. Kel spots her parents at the banquet and sees that they approve of her. All goes smoothly at her table until Quinden tells the guests that Kel is The Girl trainee. Arch-conservatives, they request someone else serve them. A first-year is sent to serve in her place. As she watches from the sidelines, she becomes aware of how handsome Neal looks. She also notices that all of her friends are being picked on by Joren’s friends.

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On the second night, Kel is assigned to a table of ladies, two of whom are her sisters. They think their chances of making a good match might be ruined by being seen with their unladylike sister. One of the ladies requests a change of server, and Kel is again relegated to the back. She discusses the situation with her friends later while all the pages are dining and she decides it might be better to change tactics, to outnumber Joren rather than fighting him, especially since his actions are making life difficult for all of the pages. Kel gets him to back down, but she knows she hasn’t heard the last of him. On the third night, Kel waits on the Shang warriors, who do not object to her presence. Neal waits on the table with the ladies and falls head-over-heels for Uline, the one lady who was kind to Kel. Kel’s heart sinks, but she says nothing to Neal about her feelings. The fourth day is the day of exchanging gifts, and she receives a weapons’ care kit produced by the Raven Armory from her anonymous benefactor. Training continues into spring. Soon Joren and his friends will be squires, and she won’t have to worry about them as much. Of course, that means she also won’t see as much of Prince Roald and Cleon, since they will be squires as well. She dreams of squiring for Alanna, even though she is sure it would not be allowed. Just before her final exams, Kel gets her period for the first time and is almost late for the examination. If she had been late, she would have had to repeat the whole year. She passes the tests easily. The knights choose their squires, and the pages journey to their summer camp. Jump follows secretly. The sparrows come as well, but since they helped find the spidrens, no one objects. They make camp in the hill country at the edge of the Bazhir desert. The army commander has assured Wyldon that the area is safe and that all of the raiders have been cleared out. Wyldon divides them into groups, placing the senior page in the lead. Neal and Kel are in Faleron’s group. They go out hunting, confident that the area is indeed secure, but then they come upon hillmen raiders. Jump and the sparrows attack, but since Faleron is frozen in shock and unable to issue commands Kel takes over. She directs those with the Gift to temporarily blind the hillmen so that they have a chance to escape. Then she has the archers fire their arrows. Mages and archers retreat to the cliff as spearmen attack. Kel tells Faleron to blow his horn to warn their companions.

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They have reached a stalemate when Kel spies a trail that leads up to a cave. Their small group should be able to defend this position until help arrives. Despite her fear of heights, she forces herself up the cliff. When she is high enough, her friends drag her into the cave. Unsure if Faleron’s horn has been heard, she sends the sparrow Crown to find Wyldon. She shoots another attacker, after which Wyldon and the other pages arrive. Outnumbered, the raiders flee. Kel climbs down on her own and then throws up when she reaches the bottom. Wyldon says that now she’s seen real combat, perhaps she will admit she has made a mistake and go home. Owen defends her, and Faleron concurs that Kel took charge and saved them because he froze. They spend the remainder of the summer camp in the army barracks as backups. Neal learns new healing techniques so that he can be more helpful in battle situations. Kel thinks of the poverty of the raiders who attacked them and learns that there has been a drought in the area for two years. She knows that raiding is wrong but sees that there are no easy answers. After two months, they return to Corus. Since her parents and sisters are away much of the summer, they have only two weeks together before Kel returns to training. Her parents tell her that they are proud of her. On her first night back, after dinner, Duke Gareth the Younger sends her with papers for King Jonathan, who is at the top of Balor’s Needle, the tallest building on the palace grounds. She is able to make the climb via the inner stairs, although she arrives in a cold sweat. King Jonathan recognizes her and thanks her for the delivery. At the top of the stairs, she freezes and cannot go down. Jonathan finds her and tells her there is nothing to be ashamed of. Thayet refuses to ever come to Balor’s Needle. He spells her so that she makes it down safely without being aware of it. Kel is afraid that Jonathan will let Wyldon use this to dismiss her. When Jonathan comes for the annual dinner, he requests that she speak to him afterward. Although she is afraid that it is about sending her home, she discovers he wants to hear what happened at the Battle of the Cliff. New classes and new techniques are instituted to help pages learn to be more prepared for the kind of situations they encountered over the summer.

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Kel’s sister would like Lalasa to sew for her and offers to pay. Lalasa is willing to give most of her wages to Kel, as is the custom, but Kel won’t hear of it. At last they agree that Lalasa will give her half, and Kel will set that money aside for Lalasa to open a dress shop of her own. Kel meets Lord Raoul who tells her that the district official who said there were no raiders in their area had been taking bribes. He also tells her that knights used to work on their own, but the world is changing. They have to work not only together, but also with other groups, like the Queen’s Riders. That is why they have the new classes and are learning the new techniques. Kel likes Raoul and feels comfortable with him. Some of the squires return for the Midwinter festival, including Cleon. When Joren comes back, he says he has changed, but Kel is skeptical. At the banquets, Kel again waits on the Shang warriors. Uline seeks her out and tells her that she is betrothed. Kel realizes that she is not being punished as much and so has more free time. She decides to try to overcome her fear of heights on her own. She forces herself to climb watch towers and balconies and sketch the landscape from above. In March, as winter begins to recede, a sparrow comes to fetch her at the library. When she arrives at her room, she finds Vinson manhandling Lalasa. Kel kicks him until her lets her go. He claims that she wanted him and that many maids lay down for the extra money. Kel slaps him for the insult and expects he will challenge her to a duel. Instead he threatens her with his powerful family. Kel says she will report him, but Lalasa begs her not to. It will ruin her reputation no matter what and make life much more difficult for her. Kel agrees not to report it, but confronts Vinson to make sure he will leave Lalasa alone. She will report him to the Court of the Goddess if he bothers any female again. Although she has saved Lalasa, it bothers Kel that servants don’t matter in the eyes of the law. When Kel returns, she finds Lalasa crying. She confesses that her brother abused her as a child, but her parents accused her of lying. Kel is the first person who ever stood up for her. In turn, Kel tells Lalasa about her brother dangling her off a balcony when she was four, giving her a fear of heights and a hatred of bullies.

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Kel passes her examinations with ease and the pages spend the summer up north with the Lady Maura, Iakoja, and Brokefang and his pack. They teach the pages the techniques developed during the fight of Dunlath. They return to Corus and vacation speeds by. Kel reports to the palace for her last year of page training. Time passes in a blur. Knights and squires gather for the congress to discuss the rights of commoners. When two commoners appear to be lost in the pages’ wing, Kel leads them back to the congress. The next morning, the day of her big exams, Lalasa is not there. Kel knows she was going to her friend Tian’s to sew and thinks she may have spent the night. But Lalasa has not returned after breakfast either. Neither Gower nor Tian has seen her. Jump is missing as well. Then Kel gets a note that tells her Lalasa is in the palace, but warns her to tell no one or Lalasa will get hurt. If Kel looks for her, she will be late for her exams and have to repeat at least a year, perhaps all four years. If she does not look for her, she will be letting down the person who relies on her the most, as well as shirking her responsibilities as Lalasa’s employer. Kel shows the note to Neal, who wants to search with her, but Kel makes him go to the exams without her. She asks the sparrows to help, and they return to her with hair from Lalasa and Jump. Kel knows that the birds have found them. She follows them to Balor’s Needle and realizes whoever planned this knows her very well. Determined, she climbs to the top and finds Lalasa and Jump bound and gagged. She unties them, but when they go back to the inside door, it has been locked. They must use the outside stairs. Lalasa is frightened, so Kel does not show how scared she is. They inch their way down the wrought-iron stairs until a rusted stair gives way. Kel gets cut and almost falls, but they keep going until they collapse at the bottom. The palace watch catches the commoners right away, but the noble behind the kidnapping eludes them. Kel’s mother makes sure Kel sees a healer and is taken to her room. Kel does not make any excuses to Wyldon and is fully prepared to repeat all four years if necessary. But, the judge of the examinations, Duke Turomont, announces at dinner that since it was not Kel’s fault that she missed the examinations, she will be tested in two days. She passes and she and her friends all become squires.

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Squire Although Kel has passed her examinations, six weeks have passed and no knights have expressed an interest in having her for a squire. Kel visits the chapel where the Chamber of the Ordeal is and touches the door of the Chamber. It gives her a vision of herself as a squire to a desk knight. She trained to be a warrior and her greatest fear is that she will be stuck toting papers. To work off her excess energy, she saddles up Peachblossom and practices her tilting skills, unaware that she is being observed by Lord Raoul, Knight Commander of the King’s Own. He is impressed with her skills and asks her if she will serve as his squire. The Yamani princess will be coming to court and Raoul says he will need Kel’s help. He has also observed the development of her skills over the years and knows what she can do. Kel agrees to become his squire. As her knight-master, it is Raoul’s responsibility to outfit her with all she will need. He begins by giving her a second horse, which she names Hoshi. When she returns to her room, Neal tells her that Alanna has asked him to be her squire. He feels badly because he knows that Kel has longed to serve as Alanna’s squire. But when Kel says that she has accepted Lord Raoul’s offer, Neal feels better. He is sure his father and Alanna worked out the plan so that Alanna could teach him to be a healer and a knight. As she investigates her new living quarters, adjacent to Raoul’s, she overhears him arguing with Flyn, his second-in-command. Flyn thinks taking her on is a bad idea, and people will assume there is a sexual relationship between the two of them. Raoul will not change his mind. When he sees Kel in her new room, he introduces her to Qasim, a Bazhir, and has him check the gear she already has and outfit her with what she will need. On her last night in her room, she explains to her sparrows that she will be living elsewhere in the palace and spending much time on the road. Several sparrows choose to stay with her, including Crown and her mate Freckle. Jump, her dog, goes with her as well. That night, Kel is awakened from a sound sleep. The Third Company of the King’s Own is called away in the middle of the night. A village in the Royal Forest has been attacked by robbers, and the King’s Own are sent to help the

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villagers and catch the bandits. As she readies her horses, she overhears men in the company express doubt and disbelief that their commander has chosen ‘‘The Girl’’ to be his squire, especially since he has never taken a squire before. But Neal’s cousin, Domitan, who is even betterlooking than Neal, befriends her. She learns that it was the village of Haresfield that was attacked and that the criminals will most likely hang for their offenses. She also meets Raoul’s standard-bearer, Lerant of Eldorne, who is jealous of her. Qasim explains that Lerant is very protective of Raoul. He took an arrow for his lord last year. Raoul is the only military commander who would give him a chance after his aunt’s treason. When they reach the devastated village, Raoul asks for her assessment. Kel estimates how many centaurs attacked and speculates that the gates were opened from the inside by the way the damage was done. Raoul includes Kel in the meeting with the centaur chief, Graystreak. Graystreak looks her over as if she were a piece of merchandise and then offers three horses for Kel so that he can breed with her. Raoul reminds Graystreak that humans are not for sale and asks why centaurs were involved in the raid. Graystreak explains that they were cast out of the herd and reluctantly agrees to provide centaurs to help track the criminals down as their peace treaty dictates. The supply wagons come, and Kel helps distribute the items. She is helping a family restore their home when Lerant sends her to wait on Lord Raoul. He tells her that the wine service items she needs are in the bags tied with the blue rawhide. Sir Osbern stops her from making a grave mistake—not only are those Captain Flyn’s bags, but also Lord Raoul does not drink. She is to serve only water or cider. She does not reveal that it was Lerant that misdirected her. As she serves, she sees that Buri, Commander of the Riders, has come with her Rider group to help the King’s Own. Raoul lays out their strategy for catching the bandits. The King’s Own will lead the raiders into the trap, and the Riders will seal them in it. They search the forest for two weeks. The raiders attack every village in their path, often splitting up and then burying their treasure. Finally, they catch one of the renegades from Haresfield; he tells them the next target will be the town of Owlshallow.

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Raoul splits the company up and sends Kel to Owlshallow with Captain Flyn. Raoul knows that she is disappointed, but he wants her to show Flyn that she will do whatever task is assigned to her. As she suspected, Flyn sets her to guard an abandoned trail outside of town. Two days later, the bandits attack Owlshallow. Kel can only listen to the battle. She ties a rope across the trail to trip anyone who tries to escape that way. Her sparrows cry a warning, and Kel leaps to the attack as a centaur stumbles over her rope. She stops herself just in time as she sees the centaur has a child strapped to his chest. She frees the child as Jump worries the centaur. She fights the criminal, and even though he wounds her, she succeeds in killing him. Letting Jump guard the toddler, she hopes no one else will come this way, for she can do no more. She hears shrieking coming from the centaur’s pack and discovers a baby griffin that promptly bites her. She secures him back in the leather pack. Traffic in griffins is very lucrative because their feathers help arrows fly true, but it is also very dangerous. Griffin parents can always tell any person who has handled their child. When they come upon such a person, death is instantaneous. Later, Kel wakes up in a hospital with others wounded in the battle. In a cage next to her is the baby griffin. He throws bits of fish at her until she feeds him. When Raoul comes to visit her, he calls her a young idiot for forgetting that centaurs have forelegs that she should have watched out for during the fight. He tells her that the King’s Own will protect her from the griffin’s parents and that he has sent for Daine. Kel finds that the griffin can make the cage disintegrate. It takes her several days to get the hang of feeding it without getting too wounded herself. Five days later, they leave with thirty bandits as prisoners. They take them for trial at Irontown. She draws on her Yamani training to remain stoic during the hangings, but she is disturbed by the festivity of the crowds. Buri says that their deaths solve nothing, but that the law says it is better to kill them than to let them go free to kill again. Daine arrives and shows Kel how to care for the griffin. He is too young for her to communicate with successfully. She can’t take him because he’s already attached to Kel, but she will search for his parents. Daine warns Kel not to get too attached. The griffin is a wild immortal and needs to return to its own kind.

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After spending weeks chasing bandits, the Third Company returns to the palace. Now Raoul begins her formal squire’s training. She is fitted for armor and he practices jousting with her every day. Kel settles into a routine of caring for the griffin and her horses, and studying tilting and logistics with Raoul. When she dines with the other pages and squires, she sees Neal again and realizes she doesn’t have a crush on him anymore. Cleon also joins them for dinner. A Yamani lady creates a stir by arriving and asking for Kel. She is Yukimi, an old friend of Kel’s, and she requests that Kel go after dinner to see the Princess Shinkokami, who is betrothed to Prince Roald. The girls are friends from childhood and have a pleasant reunion. They invite Kel to join their early morning glaive practice. When she does, she finds her mother and Queen Thayet there as well. Members of the Third Company are called away again to quell a rebellion, and then they are kept busy putting out forest fires. They return to Corus when the kidnapper of Kel’s maid Lalasa is put on trial. Jonathan and Thayet attend the trial. The commoners who perpetrated the actual kidnapping receive a reduced sentence in exchange for testifying against the noble, Joren, who hired them. Over his lawyer’s objections, Joren admits to the crime. He claims he did it to save Tortall from having female knights forced upon it. The magistrate punishes him with the maximum under the law, a fine of 100 gold nobles. Kel is appalled that the punishment is so light because Lalasa is a commoner. She requests a private audience with the king and queen. She tells Jonathan that the law is unfair and should be changed. He explains that he has been trying to change many laws, but it is always a balancing act. He discusses the situation with Thayet and Raoul and agrees to initiate changes to the law. It means, however, that Kel cannot challenge Joren to a duel, for it must either be the rule of law or the rule of privilege. Kel swears her oath to Jonathan to follow the rule of law. She returns to her room to find the griffin and the sparrows at war. Daine heals the wounded sparrow and helps make peace between the creatures. Kel serves with the other squires at the Midwinter First Night party. Seeing that the prince and princess are not really comfortable talking to one another, she arranges for them to be drawn into a discussion

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of bandits with Raoul and Buri. By the end of the evening, Roald and Shinko are speaking with each other animatedly. Cleon walks her back to her room and suddenly gives her a kiss for Midwinter luck, then dashes off. Kel is surprised and not quite sure what to think. They don’t serve together again, so she doesn’t have a chance to find out what the kiss meant to him. The squires who have finished their fourth year go through their Ordeal of Knighthood. Kel waits three days and then touches the Chamber door again. She has a vision of herself being bound and her friends being judged by Joren, deciding who lives and who dies. Throughout the winter and into early spring, the Third Company travels through the realm on various assignments. In May, they return to Corus. The nobles have already left on the Great Progress. They are touring the realm so that Jonathan can judge the state of the kingdom and everyone can have a chance to meet and greet the new Yamani princess. Raoul has no desire to go on the Progress, feeling that Jonathan is just using the King’s Own for show and they could do more good fighting bandits. But he can’t disobey a direct order from the king. After they rest for two weeks in Corus, they join the Progress. Kel is reunited with some of her year-mates. When Cleon smiles at her, she feels warm and shivery at the same time. An excited Owen tells her he is a squire now, but no knight has selected him because of the Progress. He’s afraid of being chosen by a desk knight because he wants to fight. Tournaments are held daily, both for entertainment and for practice, keeping skills sharp. Raoul defeats all five challengers. As they move from place to place, Kel establishes a routine of glaive practice with the Yamanis and weapons practice with her fellow squires and with Raoul, who is challenged at every stop and always wins. Kel is not interested in jousting. One night while serving at a banquet, Kel is shocked when she sees Alanna sitting at the table with Raoul. Alanna tells her that it was the only way she could meet her without people accusing her of putting a success spell on her. She also comments that Kel could teach her how to use the glaive once she becomes a knight. Needless to say, Kel is delighted. That evening, Kel overhears Joren and two knights bullying Lerant and slandering Raoul. Kel steps in and challenges Sir Ansil to a joust. When Cleon asks her about the joust, he takes the opportunity to kiss

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her again. Raoul walks into her tent when the two of them are together. After Cleon leaves, Raoul explains the difficulties of male/female relationships in the military and on the road. Kel promises to talk to her mother about sex. When Kel tells her mother about her relationship with Cleon, her mother tells her that she has more freedom than most noblewomen, who must remain virgins to make a good match. She shocks Kel by saying that the middle-class women know that a woman’s body belongs to her and the Goddess. She tells Kel that she can bed Cleon if she likes, but she should make sure she gets a charm against pregnancy first. The morning of the joust, Kel’s griffin is quite agitated. Raoul helps get the immortal settled while Kel gets ready and then jousts with Ansil. If no one is unhorsed after three passes, the judges will determine the winner. On the first pass, they both hit, and Kel’s lance breaks. On the second pass, Kel lofts him out of the saddle. Kel insists that Ansil apologize to Lerant. A sore loser, he warns Kel that she will never make it to the Chamber of the Ordeal. Another conservative, Sir Voeldon, offers to joust with her. Kel refuses. Later, he slaps her with his gloves. Kel accepts his challenge. Owen begs to help her prepare. When the joust is about to begin, the griffin arrives. She jousts with Voeldon, but he violates the code of honor and tries to kill her. Kel continues the match anyway and uses her shield to pop him out of the saddle. Thayet and her mother take her away for healing. The healer tells her that her ribs are bruised and cracked. Daine takes care of the griffin while Kel is being treated. In the morning two adult griffins arrive. Daine tells Kel that they are its parents. They are grateful for Kel’s care of their infant and give her a bag of their feathers in gratitude. Kel has mixed feelings. She is both relieved and sorry to see her charge go. As the Progress continues, Kel decides to accept the tilting matches and wins most of them. When there is a tournament outside of Corus, Wyldon signs up to tilt with her. He unseats her on the third pass. The Progress returns to the palace three days before Midwinter so that Jonathan and Thayet can be there for Prince Roald’s Ordeal. Once again, Kel tests herself against the Chamber door. She has a vision of herself crippled from jousting and unable to help people who

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are under attack. Cleon is the first of Kel’s friends to go through the Ordeal. They spend the day together. Kel has an anxious night worrying; Cleon emerges weary from the Ordeal but all right. He is knighted by Jonathan at sunset, and Kel feels proud. The next morning Raoul wakes her early. Vinson, the friend of Joren’s who had forced his attentions on Lalasa, has asked for an audience with the magistrate, Duke Turomot. He confesses to beating two women and raping a third. Turomot has him arrested. Vinson asks that they tell the Chamber he has confessed. Thayet answers that the Chamber will release him when it sees fit. Kel feels guilty that she never reported Vinson’s crime against Lalasa. If she had, maybe Vinson would not have attacked those other women. Joren accosts her and threatens to get her when he becomes a knight. To work off her anger, she stomps through the snow and practices shooting with a Yamani bow. Buri finds her and convinces Kel to confide in her. Buri says that Kel is an idealist. The wealthy will always be heard and the commoners always ignored. She also tells her that Lalasa is teaching classes in self-defense to commoners, and now noblewomen want to learn as well. She tells Kel to report it next time and even if nothing is done, at least there will be a record of it. Prince Roald passes his Ordeal and is knighted. Midwinter gifts are exchanged and Kel receives a saddle for Hoshi from her mysterious benefactor. Raoul is summoned to a family gathering where he is sure they will thrust marriageable women at him all night. Kel suggests he take Buri. She accepts the invitation. Kel falls asleep waiting for Raoul to return. Suddenly, a stranger bursts into her room. Jump and the sparrows attack him, and the scantily clad Raoul and Buri arrive as well. The stranger is Joren’s father, who blames Kel because Joren died during his Ordeal. He says the gods’ gift failed because of the progressives. Raoul forces him to leave and assures Kel that Joren’s death was not her fault. Garvey and Zahir pass through the Chamber unscathed. Wyldon resigns as training master after telling Kel that the best thing he did was train her and he almost didn’t do that. In retrospect, the probation was wrong, and he was harder on her than he was on the boys. Kel says that Wyldon is the kind of knight she wants to be. Wyldon takes Owen to be his squire.

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The Progress resumes, and they make their way to the Bazhir city of Persopolis. Her sparrows, Crown and Freckle, die of old age. Kel decides she has had enough jousts and refuses all challenges. After an earthquake, the Third Company rides to Bay Cove to help the victims. They return to Corus and then rejoin the Progress. Kel worries about whether or not Cleon will still like her. Although they make camp far from the Progress, Cleon finds her and they have a passionate reunion. Kel purchases a charm against pregnancy. Kel decides to joust again and puts her name into the lists. She challenges Cleon to not let her die a virgin. Cleon brings up marriage, but Kel insists she is not ready. Kel jousts again with Wyldon, and although she keeps her seat, the judges declare Wyldon the victor. Three girls who watched the match come to her for advice on becoming pages. The Progress contines to Mindelan, and Kel sees her extended family for the first time in many years. Cleon, who is her brother’s squire, plays with her nieces and nephews. He casts her a meaningful glance, and she knows he is thinking about having children with her, but she thinks that they have different paths to take. When news of raiders reaches them, Jonathan orders the First Company to deal with the Scanra wolf-ships, then sends most of the Progress east, while he stays with a smaller group quietly visiting fiefs on the Scanra border. Numair uses his Gift to get supplies to the villagers, and Daine sends animals to scout, and scouts herself in the form of a golden eagle. The general finds them in the danger zone and demands that Jonathan remove himself from the possibility of harm. Raoul explains that he doesn’t use the Dominion Jewel because the price is too steep. After using it against Duke Roger, there was famine in Tortall. They rejoin the Progress in the safer regions of the realm. Kel jousts as much as she can to keep her mind off Cleon, who will be fighting in his first battles. At last, the Progress finishes in the fall in Corus. She touches the Chamber door and has a vision of Cleon dying in battle. Raoul puts Kel in charge of supplies, and she deduces that they are going north for an extended period of time. Raoul assures her that they will be back by Midwinter for her Ordeal. Sir Myles tells them that Maggur has united nine clans against them by keeping hostages. The Third Company rides north and builds a stockade camp on the northern border

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in preparation for war. Kel rides on patrols and serves as a look-out. She turns eighteen and takes part in multiple small battles throughout the summer; no one questions her ability to fight any longer. When an army with giants approaches, Raoul divides his troops. They use the sparrows to sound warnings of the enemies’ approach. Kel uses her griffin arrows to hit every time, and her griffin feathers to see through the enemy mage’s illusions. Kel shoots the wizard, but her squad leader Dom is also hit. Raoul gives her command of the squad before he leaves to confront a giant. A metal monster attacks and, together with her men and Jump, they succeed in tying the monster down. Then Kel smashes it with her war hammer, releasing a white vapor that cries, ‘‘Mama,’’ as it escapes. The monster collapses, and Kel twists her ankle in a fall. The general and his troops defeat the rest of the Scanran force, and Raoul conquers the giant. Dom is wounded, but will recover. The troops clash periodically throughout the summer and fall, but as winter draws near, the fighting lessens. Kel and Raoul return to Corus for Kel’s Ordeal of Knighthood. Cleon is still away, but Neal and Merric also return for their Ordeals. Turomot volunteers to be the second knight to stand vigil with Kel, to make sure no one interferes the way they did with her page examinations. Neal is the first to go and exits the Chamber unharmed. When her turn comes, Kel takes the ritual bath and spends the vigil night meditating on the meaning of chivalry. She enters the Chamber and finds herself in a grassy plain. Knowing she must find water, she heads for the only tree and climbs it. The wind tries to knock her off. She clings to it. She thinks the Chamber means to kill her. Her only regret is that her death means others will think girls are not fit to be knights. She lets go of the tree and finds herself back with the pages when the bandits attacked. This time she cannot decide what to do and watches all her friends die. Mentally, she yells at the Chamber, chastising it for being nothing but a nightmare device. Then the Chamber accepts her and gives her a vision of a little man with the monster devices and a pile of dead children. The Chamber tells her that it is her mission to stop him. She leaves the Chamber in one piece, and in the evening, Jonathan dubs her a knight of Tortall. Buri, Thayet, and Shinko present her with a

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shield that has her family crest with a distaff border, showing she is a lady knight, as the lady knights of Old Tortall used to have. Alanna visits her and gives her a sword of Yamani steel, admitting that the other gifts came from her. Kel names the sword Griffin and tells it that they have work to do. Lady Knight The novel begins the March following Kel’s knighting. She dreams of the Nothing Man and knows that the Chamber has sent the dream. She must ride to Scanra as soon as winter is over. Raoul tells her that Maggur is now the King of Scanra, and he is planning to launch an army, not just raiding parties, against Tortall. He also has at least fifty killing devices. Jonathan orders the army and the knights of the realm to the border as soon as the weather clears. Kel feels torn because she knows her duty is to obey the king, but at the same time feels she must fulfill the mission the Chamber has given her. She can’t tell Raoul about her dilemma because no knight is allowed to speak of what happens in the Chamber of the Ordeal. Although she knows that it has never been done before and it is taking a great risk, Kel visits the Chamber again, seeking guidance and clarification. The Chamber shows her a vision of the Nothing Man again. She learns that his name is Blayce and his henchman is Stenmum. Blayce is making more killing devices for Maggur. When she presses for more specifics, the Chamber reveals that it is an immortal outside of time and space. It cannot tell her where and when, only that she will encounter Blayce, and she must defeat him in order to restore the balance that he is disrupting. When the weather mages deem conditions acceptable, the knights who are not on other assignments gather in Corus, where Jonathan and Thayet tell them that they are now in military service. Tortall needs all her warriors to fight off the invasion. Kel is assigned to stay with Lord Raoul and the King’s Own for the journey north. She rides with her friends, Prince Roald and Neal, both knights and both lovelorn, leaving their ladies, Shinko and Yuki, behind. Kel feels for them, but she doesn’t have the same longing for Cleon. She wonders when her feelings for him changed. She hasn’t seen him in over a year, and it is impossible to send

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letters in the winter. Kel knows she wants to find love, but not yet because she has work to do. After ten days, they stop at an inn large enough for the first-year knights to have rooms of their own. Kel slips out to the stable to bring fruit to her horses and finds the innkeeper beating a servant boy. She stops him, and the boy hides under Peachblossom. Miraculously, the horse does not even try to bite him. Kel deduces that he has horse magic. With much grumbling, the innkeeper sells Kel the boy’s indentured servitude. She discovers his name is Tobe Boon and sends for Neal to heal him. Neal is so outraged at the innkeeper’s treatment of Tobe that he puts a spell on him so that whenever he hits someone he will feel the blow himself. Tobe is to care for her horses and her things, and in return, she will feed, clothe, and educate him. Cleon arrives, and Kel realizes that while she still feels friendship for him, the passion has disappeared. Cleon is on his way home. Flooding wiped out his storehouses. He has to marry the heiress his family betrothed him to so he can rebuild the estate and feed his people. Although he had dreams of marrying Kel, he knows it is impossible now, and they part amicably. When the troops split, Kel and Neal continue north. Kel is assigned to Fort Giantkiller, which is where she was stationed the previous summer; however, have buildings now replaced the temporary camp. Lord Wyldon is in command, and her friend Owen is with him as his squire. Wyldon gives each knight his assignment individually, and Kel worries that he will not let her fight. When he sends for her at last, he orders her to command the refugee camp. Kel objects, because she thinks that Wyldon is only trying to keep her safe. Wyldon introduces her to the refugees at the fort and explains that Kel is the only one who cares enough about the common people to do this job right. Kel accepts the command, but wonders when she will be free to find Blayce. Two days later, with wagons of supplies, and Neal and Merric under Kel’s command, Wyldon escorts them to the camp which is still being built. The captain turns over the keys to her and warns her that half of her forty soldiers are convicts who will do anything to get out of working. Kel, knowing forty soldiers will not be enough, decides that the refugees

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should be trained to fight as well. Dom and his squad from the King’s Own arrive on temporary assignment. After the evening meal, Kel steps forward to make a speech. A convict recognizes her. He was one of the bandits she fought as a page and tells the company what a fighter she is. She gives a speech about being prepared and names the camp Haven. After Wyldon, Owen, and the captain depart, she settles into a routine of morning glaive exercises and breakfast in the mess hall with the men. She puts herself on the work duty rosters so that they will see she doesn’t ask them to do anything she herself will not do. She rotates who she sits with at meals, and gradually they open up to her. Neal examines all of the workers, healing when necessary. Sooner than expected, they spot a train of refugees approaching. Neal uses his power to confirm that they are real refugees and not an enemy illusion. He asks about her head band of griffin feathers, which allows her to see through any illusion, and she confesses she left it in her room. Wincing at her mistake, she reminds herself to always have it with her in the future. Numair arrives with the refugees to help make the camp more secure with magic. Mistress Fanche, leader of the refugees, resents Kel, who confronts her and requires that she keep their disagreements private. Numair brings her messages and three clerks to help with the writing and administrative tasks. When he unwittingly enthralls her with his Gift, he warns her to be on her guard against a mage who tries to hold her in his power, using a small shiny object that moves quickly. While she gives him a tour, the enemy attacks. She positions her troops and the fighting begins. Killing devices appear, and Kel disables them with her crossbow, freeing the trapped spirit inside. They win the battle, but Kel knows it is just the beginning. She orders nets with metal worked in them to be made and placed around the camp to try to trap any killing devices that might come against them in the future. Mistress Fanche begins to give Kel a grudging respect. Kel orders weapons training for all of the refugees. They won this fight, but Dom and his squad have been called back to the King’s Own. Numair tells her the killing devices are made by a mage expelled from the City of the Gods for necromancy. He uses the spirits of children

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to animate the devices. The refugee camps will look like storehouses for Blayce, a fresh supply of children to fuel his machines. The refugees need to be moved away from the border, but they must await the decision of the council. While Kel begins weapons training for the refugees, Numair calls boulders to reinforce the walls and to make it harder for the devices to reach the camp. He informs Kel that he has left a hidden escape route for the animals. He has done it at all the forts at Daine’s request. Tobe asks Kel to train his young orphan friends to use spears the way she uses her glaive. She is reluctant to have children involved in the fighting, but since they’re eager to do whatever they can to stop the enemy, Kel agrees. Daine flies into camp as a golden eagle. After some time with Numair, she spends a day communing with the animals of Haven, including Kel’s sparrow friends. Kel does not interrupt her, knowing Daine will explain when she’s ready. More refugees arrive. Among them is a malcontent named Idrias who is loud and complaining. He belittles Kel as commander. She tells him he is subject to the rules of the camp and if he has any complaints, they should be addressed to Lord Wyldon. Daine explains that with the animals’ permission, she has filled them with her magic. They will be able to understand simple words, commands, and signals, the way the sparrows do. The animals will patrol and fight. They want to help, because Haven is their home, too. Daine knows that Kel will care for them. When the ravens and jays cry a warning, Kel positions her fighters. Idrias argues with her, and she has him placed in the stocks. Kel leads the reserve squad in an attack because Merric is already out fighting with two squads. Numair opens the earth, swallowing the enemy. More refugees arrive with Merric protecting them. Haven is safe for the moment. As ordered, Kel goes to Fort Mastiff to report to Wyldon. When Owen greets her, he tells her that Fort Giantkiller fell to the enemy. As Wyldon describes the battle, Kel is frustrated that she is being kept from the fighting. Kel delivers her report and the letters of complaint to Wyldon. She hopes they will make him replace her so that she can fight, but he tells her that there will always be complaints. She decides she will just have to make the best of being in charge of Haven.

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Over dinner, Wyldon explains that Maggur sends his army against the forts and raiders against the villages. He takes the adult captives as slaves and delivers the children to Blayce, but no one knows where Blayce is. Neal demands to know why the gods don’t stop him, and Daine says that the gods can choose to work through humans. Kel knows that she is supposed to stop Blayce but is trapped at Haven. She feels useless. On her return to Haven, she brings additional soldiers and more supplies. Even more refugees arrive. Her days are filled with work, training, and settling disputes. Neal suggests that a council of refugee representatives should settle them instead. While she is out plowing, the sparrows sound the alarm. Merric is already fighting outside the walls, so Kel has her fellow field-workers fight as well. The farmers finish off the enemy and gain a sense that they can help in future battles. The days pass in rounds of fighting and refugee arrivals. The refugees take Kel off the work duty rosters because they think it is beneath her dignity. She spends more time in weapons training and works out a system of signals with the animals. When sixteen raiders attack, the civilians defeat them. Life at Haven is humming along smoothly when Kel has to deliver another report to Mastiff. She feels reluctant to leave, but her charges convince her they can take care of themselves. Kel and Neal deliver their reports, then Kel is awakened in the middle of the night with an order to report immediately to Wyldon’s office. Tobe, who had stayed in Haven, tells them that Haven was attacked by killing devices. Wyldon leads two companies to Haven with Kel and Neal. They find Haven in ruins. Wyldon sends one company to follow the enemy trail down the road toward Giantkiller. Sixty-four are dead as well as many of the animals Daine had changed. The sparrows find Merric wounded in the forest with six of his convict soldiers. While Neal works on healing him, Merric explains that thirty raiders caught his patrol away from Haven and kept them away. Kel searches and searches but must admit that the rest of her people have been taken captive by the enemy. If they don’t rescue them, the adults will be made slaves and all the children will be killed to fuel the killing devices. She is furious at the lack of protection the camp received and feels like a failure. Wyldon tells Kel and Neal that his company fell into an ambush on Giantkiller Road. They must presume that the refugees are captives, but

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they cannot pursue them. He orders Kel to see to the dead and return to Mastiff for reassignment. Neal stays with Wyldon to heal the wounded of Company Eight. Kel buries the dead, but is restless. Even though it is treason, she cannot go to Mastiff while her people are prisoners. The following day, her sergeants report to Wyldon at Mastiff that Kel is not with them. She slipped away during the trek. Raoul is furious with Wyldon for expecting the knight, who missed her page examinations to find her missing maid, to abandon 500 people in her care. Raoul asks for volunteers from Dom’s squad to go after Kel. They all volunteer. He tells them that when they find her, they should take their orders from her. Seaver, Neal, Esmond, and Merric also risk charges of treason to find Kel. When the knights try to sneak out, Sergeant Connac and his squad of six convicts from Haven do not stop them. Instead they join them. Owen and Tobe slip away as well. Since Owen knows the secret escape route, they are able to bring Peachblossom with them. Kel follows Giantkiller Road and is sure that she is crazy to attempt this rescue alone. When she finds one of her clerks dead on the road, her resolve returns. She knows that her people will use all the fighting skills she taught them. The animals from Haven help her by scouting and hunting. She spends the night in the destroyed Fort Giantkiller and wakes to the smell of bacon cooking. The sparrows signal friends, so she investigates and finds Dom and his squad preparing breakfast. She tries to make them go back, but Dom insists that Raoul sent them, so they are not traitors. He tells her that they have maps which she can’t have unless she lets them stay. Tobe and Owen arrive next. They will not leave her either. Owen reveals that Wyldon had received a message that Maggur was sending 1,000 men across the river in five days, and that is why he didn’t follow the refugees. The company of her knightly friends catches up with them next, and Kel finally gives up on trying to convince anyone to go back. Kel’s company follows the refugee trail to the Scanra River, but it is too deep to ford, and there is no way to cross. Neal leads them to a smugglers’ hideout where they know him from his days squiring for the Lady Alanna. He tries to negotiate with them for safe passage across the river. The leader refuses until Kel calls the grandmotherly mage to come

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forward. Kel can see her because of her griffin-feather headband. Kel gives the grandmother a feather as a gesture of goodwill, and the grandmother instructs them to shelter the company until moonrise when they will ferry them across. Over dinner, Merric tries to convince Kel to turn back. Tobe tells them of her nightmares, and Kel admits to the conversation she had with the Chamber when she revisited it. After giving them a potion to make them forget the location of the hideout, the smugglers ferry them across the river. The next day, the sparrows warn them that a company of twenty-five approaches. Kel decides to fight them, knowing they must kill them all. She positions her men, and they engage the enemy. When they are victorious, Kel sees that all of the enemy have died in the fight. They move the bodies to the forest and proceed. When another company approaches, they deal with them the same way. When they near the location of the refugees, Kel sends out scouts. They report that 200 soldiers and civilian slave traders guard the refugees, who are making life as difficult as possible for their captors. Jump brings lock-picks to the convict who knows how to use them. The guards think nothing of the dog, but the refugees recognize him and take heart. Dogs and cats bring other tools to other prisoners, and a cat brings the cooks a packet of sleeping powder. Jump frees the horses. The enemy scouts never return to their camp. Arrows fly, killing many of the guards. The refugees with weapons kill their guards. Kel arrives with her men, and they kill the surviving enemy. But she is too late to rescue the children. Stenmum is already leading them to Blayce. Kel puts Merric in charge of the refugees and insists they go back to Tortall. She, Neal, Dom’s squad, Owen, and Tobe go after the children. Most of the animals go with Merric, although some stay with Kel. Fanche and some of the refugees refuse to leave Kel. They follow the enemy but are still outnumbered. In the night, they pick off more of Stenmum’s men. At Neal’s suggestion, she sends the sparrows to pester the soldiers leading the children on horses. When they are distracted, Tobe calls the horses to them. In this way, they free some children, but Stenmum doesn’t fall for that ploy again. Instead, he assigns his soldiers to carry the remaining children with them on horseback. The scouts report an army arrayed against them, but Kel uses her headband and sees

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that it is an illusion. Kel sends a group to slow Stenmum down, but the animals return, terrified. Three killing devices attack. Kel and her forces defeat the machines with ropes and arrows. They are near a village which seemed to have been abandoned in haste, but now the missing villagers appear, armed. A child announces that Kel is the foretold Protector of the Small, with all of her proper attendants and that Blayce will fall. The villagers tell them that the children are already trapped in the castle, but they will be safe for a few days as Blayce cossets them first. Kel asks the seer child, Irnai, for verification, and she answers with the voice of the Chamber that Blayce is welcoming the children. Irnai tells her that her chances of beating Blayce are one in two. The villagers help create a map of the castle as they wait for evening. Kel plans her attack. She will not let any of the children go to the castle with her. If she fails, they would be fodder for Blayce. She divides the adults and assigns their tasks. Kel and her group enter the castle through a hidden tunnel and emerge in an abandoned storeroom. Jump scouts ahead while the lock-pick convict opens any locked doors in their way. First, they free the imprisoned servants, who lead them to the guard room where everyone can be armed. The animals scout and report that the children are on the second floor and Blayce on the third. Jump leads the squad up the stairs to free the children. They appear bathed and dressed in silks. They clamber around Kel silently while the adults carry the infants, asleep thanks to Neal’s drops. Kel signals her soldiers to take the children with the servants through the tunnel to safety. Two of her spear students stay with her. Once they dispatch the sentries and block in the sleeping soldiers, they open the portcullis and let in Dom and his squad. The battle rages, but Kel’s fighters gain the upper hand. Kel turns command over to Neal and searches for Blayce. Kel locates Stenmum guarding Blayce’s door. They fight, and although he wounds her, she defeats him with the help of Jump and a cat. When she finds Blayce, his room and appearance match her second vision. Blayce begs for his life and offers his service to Jonathan, all the while fiddling with something small and shiny. Just in time, Kel remembers Numair’s warning about not falling under the thrall of a mage. She attacks, but it’s an illusion. She uses her cut-up griffin

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band to find him, and kills him with her glaive. She sees the face of the Chamber, and Kel says that they are done with each other now. The Chamber replies that Kel will always be the Protector of the Small. Kel passes out from blood loss and awakens bandaged but weak. Neal is too drained to heal her. She orders the castle burned so no one will find Blayce’s notes and repeat his atrocities. They burn the Tortall dead in a funeral pyre and leave the Scanrans for the Stormwings, who have been following them all along. When they return to Tortall, they find Lord Wyldon, Raoul, and Duke Baird waiting for them, along with Merric and Seaver. Raoul welcomes Dom and his men back and escorts them away. Duke Baird takes the children and the civilians, examining them for injuries. To Kel’s surprise, Wyldon welcomes them back and admits that he was wrong to order her not to go after the refugees. Privately, he tells her she is a true knight. He also says that all the killing devices have stopped, and he orders her to build a new refugee camp. Two months later, in New Hope, Kel and her friends prepare for two weddings—Raoul is to marry Buri and Neal will marry Yuki. Character Development Keladry of Mindelan comes from a family of nobles that, on her father’s side, was raised from the merchant class. Six of the first ten years of her life were spent with her parents at their diplomatic posting in the Yamani Islands, and there she, with the rest of her family, developed the Yamani habit of hiding her emotions. At the beginning of the quartet, she is somewhat rash, although also a stoic and determined tenyear-old with a fear of heights and a hatred of bullies. She grows to overcome her fear of high places but never stops hating bullies. She becomes not only a well-trained knight, but also a leader of men. Kel cares about the people around her and takes responsibility for her own actions. The only time Kel waivers in her determination to become a knight is in the beginning when she first learns that the king will require a year’s probation for her. She believes that the probation is wrong, since the boys aren’t on probation. She is on the brink of refusing the training when a losing battle with a spidren teaches her how much she has yet

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to learn about fighting. Once she accepts the conditions, nothing can dissuade her from her self-appointed task. On the very first day, she is the victim of taunts and pranks designed to discourage her. ‘‘Emotion is weakness,’’ Kel told herself, quoting her Yamani teachers. ‘‘I must be as serene as a lake on a calm day.’’ It was hard to control her feelings when so much was at stake and she was so far from home. But control her feelings she would. If anyone thought to run her off, they would find she was tougher than they expected. She was here to stay. (First Test, 43) This determination carries her through her many adventures, through her final defeat of Blayce and her willingness to return to Tortall as a traitor. ‘‘Once they were in sight of Tortall, she considered deserting her people but she knew that she couldn’t. She owed it to the children to get them to a place of safety for one. For another, flight would mean that she took no responsibility for what she had done. That was unacceptable. She had done what was necessary. She would take the consequences’’ (Lady Knight, 396). Her thoughts here also show her willingness to accept responsibility for her own actions and beliefs, a strength which she grew into. In the beginning of First Test, Kel ignores the bullying of fellow first-year pages, but cannot overlook it so she takes action, engaging in fisticuffs to stop it even if she takes a beating. She believes the bullying is wrong and takes responsibility for trying to stop it, bearing the consequences of beatings when she is outnumbered as well as the punishments of Lord Wyldon. ‘‘She usually didn’t like explaining herself, but she respected Neal. ‘Warriors get hurt. You don’t have to like it, just live with it. And last night I got tired of thinking and worrying myself sick. I knew something had to be done, and I did it.’ She sighed happily. ‘I love when that happens’’’ (First Test, 134). Her shouldering of responsibility continues to increase as her adventures grow in scope. She takes command of the pages when they encounter the bandits and leads them to fight their way to safety until help arrives; she rescues her maid Lalasa, risking the possibility that she will have to repeat her four years of page training; she cares for a baby griffin even though it fights her, giving her many minor wounds; she tilts with challengers to her right to be a knight; and finally, she defies orders to rescue her refugees.

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While defeating Blayce is stopping the ultimate bully, it wasn’t the first bully she stopped. Ever since being bullied by one of her brothers, Kel had no tolerance for bullies. ‘‘But this custom leads to worse things. Cleon sends me for papers, but someone else traps a first-year in a corner and keeps making him do stupid tasks. He’ll maybe hit the first-year to smarten him when the first-year slows down—and that is dead wrong. If we take this as pages, what about when we are knights? Do we say, Oh, now I’m going to be nice to the weak and the small? Or do we do as we learned when we were pages?’’ She stopped, breathing hard. It was the longest speech she’d ever made. ‘‘I don’t mean to lecture. You can laugh and say I’m a silly girl—but when I see anyone big pick on someone small, well, there’s going to be a fight.’’ (First Test, 150) Putting obstacles in the path of bullies got her into trouble with the training master Wyldon, and often for punishment, he forced her to carry out tasks in high places. But Kel recognized the need to overcome her fear herself. ‘‘Being allowed to visit the city before the holiday had made her see that she wasn’t getting as many punishments as she had in her first two years. She was rarely tardy, she’d learned how to clean her gear to Wyldon’s satisfaction, and she never got into fights anymore. Without punishment work to force her onto heights, there was nothing to help Kel overcome her fear. If she wanted to defeat it, she would have to face it herself on a regular basis’’ (Page, 169–70). Without being forced, Kel makes climbing the walls and surveying the countryside part of her regular routine, although the severest test comes when she must rescue Lalasa from the top of Balor’s Needle. Entwined with her determination and willingness to take responsibility is Kel’s deep concern for others, including animals, commoners, friends, and family. In her first year of training, Kel befriends the sparrows who live in the courtyard. That friendship bears fruit, providing key birds who serve as scouts during Kel’s foray into Scanra. Next, with some help from Daine, she grows attached to her horse, Peachblossom, who was mistreated by a former master. She keeps her word and does not hurt him, and he responds by always fighting for her. Then the dog Jump

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grows so attached to her, he would rather stay with her than Daine. At the beginning of Page, Daine observes: ‘‘You came almost every day this summer to ride Peachblossom and groom him,’’ the Wildmage said quietly. ‘‘You bring him treats, and go easy on the rein, when last year at this time he could look forward to another brutal master or death. And Crown and her flock say that you always stopped by, though you knew Salma was looking after them. It is I who thank you, Keladry, for them. You treat animals as well as you treat human beings.’’ (Page, 24) It is this care that convinces Daine to pour her magic into the animals at Haven so that they can help fight for their home along with the humans. Kel cares not only for animals, but also for people. She will not stand for bullying. She will not see commoners mistreated. It is her willingness to embrace all classes that convinces Wyldon to give her command of the refugee camp. She’d heard her peers’ opinions of commoners, had been accused of caring too much about them. Not so long ago, she had learned that the maximum punishment given to a noble who’d arranged a kidnapping of another noble’s servant was a fine, to compensate for the loss of the servant’s work. That law was being changed, but there were others like it. A noble owed a duty to those who served him, but such duty was not glorious. Fairness and consideration were unnecessary; the affairs and pride of commoners were unimportant. The noble who worried too much about them was somehow weak. Kel knew her world. Her respect for common blood was a rarity. Her father’s grandparents were merchants. Every branch of their family save his was still merchants to the bone. Perhaps it was also because her parents, as diplomats, were so used to seeing other points of view, foreign or Tortallan, that they had passed their attitudes on to their children. (Lady Knight, 71–72) And it is why the Chamber dubs her, The Protector of the Small, a name she is not fond of.

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Kel also has a finely honed sense of justice. She’s appalled when Joren’s punishment for kidnapping Lalasa is a fine. ‘‘That her servant was harassed without real punishment was a reproach. Nobles were supposed to protect their servants. Lalasa had done well by her. She had to hold up her end of the arrangement. She had trouble nodding off that night. She couldn’t get rid of her anger with Vinson and with a world in which servants didn’t matter. It wasn’t right’’ (Page, 183). She does not approve of capital punishment, ‘‘Kel shuddered: she hated hangings. No matter what the crime was, she saw no malice in those hooded and bound silhouettes dangling against the sky’’ (Squire, 57). She believes nobles have a responsibility to care for the commoners on their estates and is affronted when they do not, whether the offenders be Tortallan or Scanran. When, in Lady Knight, the company stops at a noble’s estate on the way to the fighting front in the north, The lord of Tirrsmont pleaded scant room inside the buildings of his inner bailey. He also pleaded scant food, though he feasted Duke Baird and two of the senior knights, along with his own family, on suckling pig, saffron rice, and other delicacies. Camped in the outer bailey, the army was jammed in among the thin, ragged survivors of last year’s fighting who were housed there. Kel looked into the commoners’ haunted eyes and felt rage burn her heart. Most of the newcomers’ rations of porridge and bacon went to the refugees. (Lady Knight, 58) And when she finally confronts Blayce and learns his story, she is equally as disgusted with Maggur as with the mage: ‘‘Kel’s gut twisted. Instead of caring for his people, Rathhausak had given them to a monster who murdered their future. Did it bother him that those who should be his first concern were now preyed upon by his successor? Or were the killing devices so important that he didn’t care?’’ (Lady Knight, 364). Kel believes that fighting should be only in defense of those who need protection. ‘‘If we pick a fight, then we’re just as bad as them. Combat should be used just to help people who can’t defend themselves, period’’ (Page, 80). She also believes in the code of chivalry, ‘‘To wear the shield of a knight is an important thing. You may not ignore a cry for help. It means rich and poor, young and old, male and female may look

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to you for rescue, and you cannot deny them’’ (Squire, 367); she also believes in the duty of a knight, ‘‘The holiday over, Third Company looked for work. They went out into the Royal Forest, visiting every village. They hunted game and helped to repair snow and ice damage. Seeing people’s relief when they appeared in isolated villages lit a fire inside Kel. She remembered that she wanted to be a knight not to play at killing someone for an audience’s entertainment, but to help people’’ (Squire, 313). As Buri says, ‘‘You’re an idealist, Kel. I’ve noticed that about you’’ (Squire, 263). And as Wyldon says, ‘‘You’re a true knight, Keladry of Mindelan…. I am honored to know you’’ (Lady Knight, 401). Thematic Development The themes of the quartet tie in closely with Kel’s character and concerns. Gender roles play a large part in her life as she struggles to make her way in a man’s world with even more difficulty than Alanna, because she is not disguised as a boy and has no magical Gift. Kel’s concern for social justice also brings the issue of class equity to the forefront of the novels. While some in Tortall, like Neal, have accepted the concept that women can be warriors, others are still dismayed by the notion, and Kel must fight for her position, every step of the way. From the beginning, Lord Wyldon does not want to train her. ‘‘‘Sire, please think this through,’ Wyldon said. ‘We need the realm’s sons. Girls are fragile, more emotional, easier to frighten. They are not as strong in their arms and shoulders as men. They tire easily. This girl would get any warriors who serve with her killed on some dark night’’’ (First Test, 4). But Kel is secure in who she is as a person and as a girl. ‘‘She was a girl; she had nothing to be ashamed of, and they had better learn that first thing. The best way to remind them was to dress at least part of the time as a girl’’ (First Test, 29). Neal’s open-minded perspective is clearly a minority opinion. ‘‘I’ve spent time with the queen and quite a few of the Queen’s Riders and the King’s Champion. I’ve watched Lady Alanna fight for the crown. I saw her majesty and some of her ladies fight in the Immortals War. I know women can be warriors. If that’s the life you want, then you aught to have the same chance to get it as anyone else who’s here’’ (First Test, 36). Even when she saves her fellow pages in the battle with the bandits, Wyldon does not want her fighting. ‘‘‘Well, Page Keldary,’ the dun’s rider,

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Lord Wyldon, said dryly, ‘now you realize combat isn’t woman’s work. I hope you’ve thought better of this experiment of yours, now that you’ve seen blood’’’ (Page, 115). Her nemesis, Joren, expresses the view of the conservatives of the realm when he defends himself at her trial. ‘‘What honor has a nation when a female lives among men and pretends to their profession of arms? What honor is there in forcing a good, brave knight like Wyldon of Cavall, a hero of the realm, to accept this creature into training and to allow her to continue?’’ (Squire, 150). As does Joren’s uncle, when Joren dies during his Ordeal, ‘‘‘We understand our realm has strayed so far from tradition that the gods’ gifts fail,’ Joren’s uncle snapped. ‘The Chamber is breaking down. What more proof do we need that we have lost divine favor? What have you people left untouched? You school the whelps of farmers, let women make war, intermarry with foreigners—’’’(Squire, 272). But Lord Raoul expresses his support, ‘‘He grinned, then looked at Kel. ‘Don’t let them poison you,’ he told her. ‘Your coming was a fine thing, for the realm, for all those girls who come to watch you tilt, even for an old bachelor like me’’’ (Squire, 273). Kel becomes secure both in her fighting skills and in her womanhood. ‘‘Seeing herself in the mirror, Kel thought she’d made herself into the girl she would have been had she not tried for her shield. The feeling was odd, more good than bad. Maybe I’m the same whatever I wear, she thought. It’s just easier to fight in breeches’’ (Squire, 252). She knows that not only is she good at what she does, she has had a positive influence on the role of women in her society. By teaching Lalasa self-defense, she set in motion a stream of events that would later lead Lalasa to teach other women her techniques. Buri tells her after Vinson’s confession following his Ordeal, ‘‘Three nights a week your Lalasa closes her shop early … She teaches city girls—commoners—holds, blows, and kicks that will help them to escape an attacker. She learned all that somewhere.… There’s now a demand for arms teachers for young noblewomen’’ (Squire, 264). By tilting in the jousts during the Great Progress, she shows that a woman can win a man’s game and inspires other girls to follow her example. When she believes the Chamber of the Ordeal will kill her, she thinks: ‘‘Her chief regret was that they would think her death

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here meant that girls were not supposed to be knights. That Lady Alanna was a fluke or a miracle. Fianola, her sister, and Yvenne would have to find other dreams. It was no longer a matter of Kel’s surviving the Ordeal: the Chamber meant to kill her. What she could refuse it was the banquet of fear she would feed it if she clung to the very last’’ (Squire, 371–72). Wyldon’s acceptance of her as a true knight at the end of Lady Knight is her final confirmation. Throughout the quartet Kel is also concerned with the position and the treatment of commoners. While other nobles think they are not worth notice or concern, Kel takes on their battles as her own. She sees the effect of poverty, Kel agreed with Owen, bandits should be caught and taken before the law. Still, she also saw the poverty in their camps. Only the best fighters owned shirts without holes; their children were naked, hollow-eyed, and big-bellied with hunger. Despite the rivers and lakes in the area, the pages were told, this was the second year of a drought. Farmers who couldn’t pay their rent were thrown off their farms. Many thought banditry was the only way to feed their families, but their victims were as poor as they. There were no easy answers, and Kel was glad to ride north and put it out of her mind for the time being. (Page, 119–20) She protests unfair laws: ‘‘But by law it’s right that I be paid for the inconvenience of my maid being frightened to death? Not even that she gets the money, but I do? That’s not right. It’s like saying common folk are slaves. Their rights are measured in coin, not justice’’ (Squire, 158–59). This is a cause in which Jonathan shares her frustration; as the middle class of Tortall grows, he tries to bring fairness to all classes. He calls a conference to address such issues. ‘‘The subject had been one that would be raised at nobles’ congress in the spring, whether new laws should be made to give commoners the right to better treatment by nobles’’ (Page, 203). Jonathan does all he can, as he explains to Kel after she demands he change the law. ‘‘Change the law,’’ the king repeated. ‘‘Squire, what do you think her majesty and I have done ever since we took the thrones?

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We have been trying to change laws—not this particular one, but many like it.’’ He smiled bitterly. ‘‘The problem is that monarchs who wish to live until their grandchildren are born do not hand down any law they like. We must treat with our nobles who are equipped to go to war against us; we must compromise with them. We must treat and compromise with merchants, who give loans.… We compromise and treat with farmers, who feed us, and street people who can burn a city down. There are priests and priestesses, who can tell people the gods have turned their faces from the Crown, so they need not obey us. And the mages—I’ll leave it to your imagination what mages will do when angered. Any law Thayet and I propose offends someone. We must balance opposing forces.’’ (Squire, 159) It is that very attitude of the conservative nobles that puts the refugees in Kel’s command in danger. As Fanche says, ‘‘Gods forbid our mighty nobles would pay to feed and guard us inside those stone walls that our families built. They can always replace commoners. So they give us walls of twigs, protector knights so green I can smell the sap, and a handful of guards recovering from wounds or half dead from the mines’’ (Lady Knight, 113). Kel risks her career and her life for the commoners. Her actions demonstrate the importance of all people, no matter their station in life.

CHAPTER SIX

The Trickster Duology HIS PAIR OF NOVELS picks up Tortall history near the end of its war with Scanra and concentrates on the events in the Copper Isles that swirl around Alanna’s daughter Aly. The Copper Isles have a divisive racial history. The white luarins are the descendants of oppressive invaders, and the brown-skinned native peoples, the raka, have been forced from their homes and positions of power for three hundred years. The Isles have a tropical climate and culture. And raka magic functions differently from magic in Tortall because raka mages have been forced to keep their powers hidden from their luarin overlords. The third-person narration follows the events from Aly’s point of view.

T

Plot Devlopment Trickster’s Choice Alianne of Pirate’s Swoop, known to all as Aly, is the sixteen-year-old daughter of Alanna the Lioness, the Lady Knight of Tortall and the King’s Champion, and George Cooper, former King of Thieves and now spymaster for King Jonathan. Tortall is deep into the second year of its war with Scanra, and Aly hasn’t seen her mother in a year because of the fighting. Aly enjoys dancing, flirting with boys but never getting serious, and generally having fun. Her parents think she needs to settle down and find a purpose for her life. She longs to become a spy like her father, who has been teaching her the tricks of the trade since she was a child, but George absolutely refuses to let her become embroiled in such a dangerous career. Aly is five feet, six inches tall; with a trim figure, mischievous eyes, and normally has ruddy gold hair; however, when she arrives home, her hair is now blue. She tells her father that it is the fashion in Corus, where she has been visiting her brothers. Her older brother Thom is studying at the university and her twin brother Alan is training to be a knight. Only

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Aly is at loose ends. While she helps her father decode the messages waiting for him, she asks again about being a spy, and again he turns her down. When an urgent message arrives from an agent working in Scanra, George rushes to Port Legann to meet him. The next day, Alanna arrives home unexpectedly for a much needed three-week rest. She is barely home five minutes before she and Aly are arguing. Her mother always wants her to be serious, and Aly is convinced that her mother just doesn’t realize that Aly and Alanna are two different people. At dinner, Aly tries to be conciliatory and tells her mother that she is serious about spy work and wants to follow in her father’s footsteps. Like George, Alanna refuses to admit this as a possible career for her daughter. Instead, she says they will make a project of finding Aly something worthwhile to do with her life in the next three weeks while she is home. The last thing that Aly wants to be is Alanna’s next project. She decides to take her sailboat down the coast to Port Legann and return in time to wish her mother well upon her departure. Leaving her parents a note, she embarks, but she does not return. Pirates capture her, fit her with a slave collar that will magically constrict if she wanders too far, shave her head, and send her to the slave pens in Rajmuat, the capital city of the Copper Isles. Native, dark-skinned people called raka once ruled the Copper Isles, but when the royal house was weakened by internal struggles for power, the raka queen was overthrown by the white luarins and the ruling house of Rittevon placed their king on the throne. The common raka were made slaves and the nobles reduced in rank and impoverished. During the course of the last three hundred years, the races intermarried. Now peoples of all skin tones live in the Isles. The luarin gods are Mithros and the Great Mother. They helped the Rittevons invade and defeat the raka by casting out their brother, the trickster god Kyprioth, the god of the raka. But Kyprioth gave his people a prophecy that a twice-royal raka would one day take the throne back, at which time Kyprioth would return to power. In the slave pens, surrounded by slaves of varying races, Aly plans her escape. Since the pens are guarded, it will be easier to escape once she is sold. She just has to make sure that someone looking for a

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bed-warmer does not find her attractive. She plunges herself into a brawl for food and lets herself get beaten up so that she will appear undesirable and be labeled as a troublemaker. Although Aly does not recognize him yet, the god Kyprioth speaks to her in a dream, telling her to think of these visions as letters from home. Then she sees her mother trying to use her Gift to scry for Aly in a mirror, but she sees only clouds. Aly feels badly that her mother thinks Aly doesn’t care enough about her to see her off. Her father promises to send Aly north to visit Alanna, as soon as Aly returns, but he does not tell Alanna that he has received a message that Aly is not in Port Legann. Aly succeeded in making herself so undesirable that no one wanted to buy her. The slavers give her to Ulasim, the head footman of the Balitang House, and their cook, Chenaol, both raka servants who came to buy a pastry chef. They keep her, providing food, clothes, and a healer, and make her a slave-of-all work. Chenaol also takes her under her wing to teach her the ropes and makes it clear to everyone that Aly is under her protection. Aly secretly gathers the tools she will need to escape but is interrupted when the Balitangs receive word that the paranoid King Oron is exiling them to their small country home on the Isle of Lombyn. They must give him a large sum as a gift to prove their loyalty, for Duke Mequen is distantly in line for the throne, and then move to their remote estates of Tanair. They cannot afford to keep most of their slaves and servants, and so they place them with families they know will be good to them. At the household meeting where the duke delivers the bad news, Aly sees the whole family for the first time: the Lady Saraiyu who is sixteen and her sister, the Lady Dovasary, who is twelve, both part raka from the duke’s first marriage; four-year-old Petranne and her little brother, three-year-old Elsren, both full luarin, by his second wife, the Duchess Winnamine. Aly is sure that she can escape before the family leaves, so she is not worried by the news of the impending departure. The slaves that the family cannot place are viewed by a matcher who has the Gift of seeing a person’s true talent. Since Aly is one of the unplaced slaves, she thinks he will see that she has the Sight, a magical gift inherited from her father. She can tell if another person has magic or godhood, if someone is ill or

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pregnant, if someone is lying, or if something has been poisoned. When the matcher uses his gift on Aly, she sees a god in him. The god shines through him, and Aly recognizes the god who gave her the dream of her parents. He identifies himself as Kyprioth and tells her the duke and duchess think that they are talking to his brother, Mithros. He is telling them that they have a great destiny and that Aly is his messenger. They cannot hear Kyprioth talking to Aly. He makes a deal with Aly: She will keep all of the Balitang children safe until the autumn equinox, and in return, he will not only send her home but also convince George, whom he has known for some time, to let her be a spy. Aly is sorry to worry her parents but eager to prove herself and accepts the terms of the wager. Aly is placed in charge of Petranne and Elsren. As their ship leaves the harbor, Aly sees Stormwings over the city. Sarai and Dove overhear Aly telling the younger children stories of Tortall and ask to hear about the Lioness. As their journey progresses, Aly notices that many raka watch them pass. Sarai and Dove watch with Aly and claim the raka as their people. Sarai explains that, although she is a luarin noble, none of the young men who flirt with her will marry her because of the color of her skin. Dove states that the raka nobles are wary because of their Rittevon blood. Aly concludes that the raka are honoring Sarai and Dove. Over dinner, Aly learns that the duke’s first wife died in a riding accident. He was inconsolable but eventually married Winnamine, who was his first wife’s best friend. Aly tries to find out why the raka would honor Sarai and Dove, suspecting that it is an important secret. When they arrive at the Isle of Lombyn, Aly sees a flock of winged horses in the air. Ulasim tells her they are called kudarung and are royal messengers. They freely served the raka queens of old, but now are forced to serve the Rittevons. As they journey inland to their new home, the raka flock to see Sarai and Dove, but when they disappear, Aly senses that something is not right. She brings the uncanny silence of the forest to the raka guard Fesgao’s attention. He scouts, and they find bandits laying an ambush. Forewarned, the duke’s men defeat the bandits. Fesgao captures six of them. The duchess says they should be killed for their crimes, for they will only try again, but Sarai says that would be murder. The bandits claim they would never hurt Sarai or Dove, beginning to call them ‘‘the ladies,’’ but

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Fesgao stops them from finishing the honorific. Aly ponders the girls’ importance. Sarai suggests giving the captives a choice of death, slavery, or loyal service. If they swear a blood oath, breaking it means death by the gods’ decree. They choose the blood oath and service. They proceed to their new home. In the village there are people of all skin tones from luarin to raka, white to copper. Aly assesses the castle security and reminds Kyprioth that he promised to send her help in guarding the children. When they settle into their new home, the duke and duchess offer to free Aly, since she is the messenger of the god. But Aly believes she will be able to learn more as a slave, since most people ignore slaves. Aly asks to be assigned two positions—goat herder so she can freely map the terrain outside the castle and messenger so she can see the duke and duchess often. She also requests that the magic be removed from her collar so that she can roam wherever she needs to and not be choked to death for going too far. The duke agrees to all of her requests. That night, Aly dreams of crows. They are Kyprioth’s crows and cousins to the raka. They will teach her their language so that they can warn her when danger approaches. Kyprioth also has a wager with the crows, which is why they are willing to help. Aly takes out her goats and tells Kyprioth she needs a mage. Kyprioth says she has the talents that are needed for the job and was marked for it since birth. She still wants a mage but goes about the task of mapping the area. One of the crows from her dream, Nawat, flies to her and keeps her company. When she returns to the castle, she meets with the duke to deliver messages. While delivering them, she takes the opportunity to investigate Sergeant Veron’s quarters. She discovers that he is a spy for the king. Then she finds Lokeij the holster, Chenaol, Fesgao, and Ulasim together and realizes that all of the head servants are pure raka. She asks them who Sarai and Dove’s mother really was, and they will not answer, which tells Aly that she was very important. She speculates that Sarai and Dove are royalty on both sides and that the four raka are guarding a hidden treasure. Aly dreams of her mother receiving word from King Jonathan that Aly is missing. Jonathan assures Alanna that everyone is looking for her daughter, but then tells her that she cannot look for Aly herself because

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they don’t want their enemies to know that someone so important is missing. If their enemies located Aly first, they could use her against the Tortallans. Jonathan and Numair have both scryed for her but cannot see her. Neither can Alanna. She is furious with George for not telling her that Aly was missing and clearly worried about her daughter, but she knows that Jonathan is right. She cannot search for her. In the days that follow, Aly maps the area, learns crow, and gets to know the villagers. A bored Sarai and Dove come to visit her as she tends the goats. When rain forces them inside, the duke arranges for all to eat and sleep in the great hall instead of reserving the space only for the nobles. The sisters visit Aly regularly. She tells them stories of Tortall, and they tell her stories of the Isles. Two weeks after their arrival, the crows warn of a stranger approaching. Aly uses her Sight and sees feathers under his skin. Nawat has transformed himself into a man. He announces that he is there to serve Aly and the queen-to-be. He brings her a sack full of griffin feathers, which make arrows shoot straight, and Stormwing feathers, which will enable an arrow to kill a mage. He wants to help her and be her friend. Aly is touched and glad when a villager takes him in. Nawat becomes a fletcher and befriends all in the village. As Aly is out with the goats, crows sound the alarm again. Prince Bronau, who warned the Balitangs in Rajmuat of the king’s displeasure, approaches. Winnamine promotes Aly to maidservant so that she can pour wine and in this way be present to witness important conversations. Aly assures the duchess that she does not need to be close enough to hear since she reads lips. Aly serves the duke and prince. The prince informs Duke Mequen that his old friend the chancellor was executed for having wrong thoughts. The prince came because he was afraid that he would be next. Nawat warns Aly that the prince is a hawk who is not to be trusted. Aly pours wine for dinner. The prince brings gifts for the family and relates gossip that makes the family feel uncomfortable. After dinner, in the kitchen with Chenaol, Aly refers to the sisters as heirs and Chenaol holds a knife to her throat. Kyprioth stops her from killing Aly. Chenaol accuses Aly of being a royal spy, but Kyprioth announces that she is their spy. When Chenaol accepts this, she confirms that the girls are the last of the raka royal line.

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While Aly is out with her goats the next morning, Ulasim tells her that the raka want to make Sarai their queen and that is why so many raka watched them journey to Tanair. Lokeij and Chenaol join them. Fesgao cannot come because he is on watch. Chenaol told them all that Aly is Kyprioth’s spy for them. Aly tells them that Veron is the king’s spy and wants to make sure they have enough warriors to intercept any assassins the king might send. Nawat arrives and assures them that the crows will help. Ulasim agrees to work out a patrol pattern and says that a villager will watch Aly’s goats so that she will be free to do as she must. He will also make sure she is supplied with weapons. She asks for and receives daggers which she can easily hide about her body. Ulasim also wants her to have a guard, and Aly asks that it be a woman. Considering those around her, Aly concludes that Ulasim is the general, Lokeij the communications and supply officer, Fesgao the warleader, and Chenaol the armorer. Aly brings the goats in early and tells the duchess that another will serve the wine because she has a task to do. She changes into dark clothes and searches the prince’s room. She learns that two of the prince’s body servants are spies for his brother Prince Rubinyan. Aly picks locks and breaks locking spells to find the prince’s letters. She sees many letters to creditors promising payment and a letter in simple code plotting a conspiracy. Changing back to her normal garb, she reports her findings to Mequen, Winnamine, and Sarai. Aly spots Dove eavesdropping but does not reveal her presence. Sarai concludes that although the prince flirts with her, he must be planning to marry an heiress to pay off his debt. In the morning, Aly leaves her goats with Visda and Erik, the villagers who help her. Nawat reports the raka are patrolling. Junai, Ulasim’s daughter, becomes her guard. When Aly asks her about a mage, Junai warns her away from the topic. Aly concludes that there is a mage in Pohon, the all-raka village where everyone hates the luarin. Aly is determined to talk to her and bring her to the castle, sure they will need magical aid to keep the children safe. As the days pass, Aly tends her goats with Junai as her shadow. Dove visits her occasionally. The raka patrol. She alternates the wine pouring duty with periodic searches of the prince’s room, to keep abreast of his

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activities. She memorizes the names of the nobles that the prince writes to and reports all she finds to the duke and duchess. At late-night suppers with the four raka, they discuss the situation. Winnamine requests that Aly accompany the family as they visit the local villages. In the village of Inti, the prince is patronizing and insulting to the raka. In Pohon, the villagers are sullen and hostile. Aly slips away, disguises herself as raka, and searches for the mage. She sees signs of magic everywhere, but finds no mage. Five raka block her. She fights them but doesn’t want to kill anyone. Junai and Nawat intercede. Junai tells them Aly was chosen by Kyprioth and is on their side. They have trouble believing it; Juna demands they memorize Aly’s face and leave her alone. Aly removes her disguise and returns to the family. As she talks to Dove about Sarai’s feelings for the prince, she realizes that the prince plans to remove the other heirs to the throne to make sure that Sarai is the crown-princess. Then, when he marries her, he can pay off his debt and have the power he craves. When she returns home, Aly is questioned by Ulasim about her motives for exploring Pohon. She tells him they need a mage, and he admits that the mage is his mother. She hates luarins and has disowned him, but his daughter, Junai is working on her. That night, Aly has a dream-vision of her mother and her companions at the family estate at Trebond. Daine and Numair are there with their shape-shifting baby. When George arrives, Alanna is clearly angry with him. Daine’s divine parents arrive, and Sarra gets the baby to stay in one shape, a human girl. The naming ceremony proceeds. Afterward, George and Alanna talk. Alanna is furious that George did not tell her about Aly. George relays that Aly’s twin, Alan, says that Aly is not hurt or frightened, but he can’t discern anything else. A week after the visit to Pohon, the crows report that a seemingly peaceful supply caravan approaches. Aly uses her Sight, suspects that there are assassins with the group of regular caravan riders, and alerts Ulasim and Fesgao. They put into motion their plan to get family and prince to safety. Aly makes sure that everyone is in position and then joins the family in the school room. The loyal raka fight off the attackers. Veron denies knowing about the attack but confesses to being a spy for the king. When they believe they are safe, they confront the lone assassin

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left alive. A hidden female assassin attacks the duke; Sarai kills her with a sword thrust and faints. Aly wants to question the remaining assassin, but when they administer truth drops, a suicide spell is triggered. After dinner the next night, Sarai and Bronau slip away for a surreptitious meeting in the garden, and Aly is an unseen observer. After a passionate greeting, Bronau asks Sarai to marry him. Sarai wants him to speak to her father, but he won’t until he is in the king’s good graces again. Dove arrives after Bronau departs, and Sarai calls Aly out. She says she never would have met with Bronau if she hadn’t known that Aly would be there. After the sisters leave, Nawat wants Aly to explain kissing, and then he tries out what he has learned with her. Mequen had the caravan searched and found that the assassins had orders from the Crown. He determines the regular caravan riders were innocent and lets them go. Once they resume their journey, Aly has them searched by masked raka to make sure no spies are passing on information. As Aly sleeps that night, Kyprioth takes her spirit to Rajmuat so that she can witness the king’s death. King Oron is surrounded by his family. Kyprioth takes over his body and prophesizes the coming of a great monarch. Oron dies and Hazarin becomes the new king. Kyprioth returns Aly to her body, and she reports the news. As the family gathers to discuss the situation, Sarai tells her parents of Bronau’s proposal. Winnamine reminds her of his debt and ambition. Mequen tells her that Bronau has no need to marry for love since he can have all the female companionship he wants. He has been bedding one of the maids since he arrived. Sarai does not take the news well. Hazarin sends for his dear friend Prince Bronau. The prince and Sarai rendezvous in the garden for a passionate good-bye. The next day, Aly takes her goats out and watches the prince depart. Nawat, Ulasim, and Junai are waiting for her with horses. They ride to Pohon to meet Ulasim’s mother, the mage Ochobu. She is uncooperative until Kyprioth convinces her that he really did send Aly. She agrees to return to Tanair with them, but she doesn’t like it. When they return, Winnamine rearranges the staff so that Ochobu will be their healer. Aly becomes Dove’s maid, which will free her from the goats and allow her to go everywhere with Dove. Prince Bronau sends gifts to the family, but Sarai says she will not marry him.

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Aly settles into a routine of riding in the morning, helping care for Petranne and Elsern during the day, and going over reports at night. Whenever she rides out with Sarai and Dove, she sees that Sarai always greets all the raka who approach her. On a visit to Inti, thirty villagers are waiting to see Sarai. Aly asks the god to help discourage such overt attention, but Kyprioth is proud they are coming to see his ladies. Dove worries that such behavior could be viewed as treason. Aly dreams of Fort Mastiff and witnesses her mother and Lady Knight Keladry engaged in an earnest practice duel. Alanna wins, then Tkaa arrives with news from George. He has had word of Aly and is going to the Copper Isles to find her. The groups of raka continue to journey to Inti to see Sarai and Dove. One evening when they are spending the night in Inti, Kyprioth comes for Aly again. He takes her spirit back to Rajmuat. This time she witnesses Harazin’s death by apoplexy. Fearful of being blamed, the servants flee. Aly warns the healer to flee as well. The three-year-old Dunevon is crowned king. Afterward, Prince Bronau enters the king’s chamber through a secret passage and tries to take him away. Dunevon screams, the guards rush in, and Bronau escapes. At that moment, Mithros and the Great Goddess appear, demanding an explanation from Kyprioth. Aly, remembering what Daine has taught her about not lying to the gods, intercedes, saying that he is just showing her the politics of the Isles since her father is an old friend of his. The two gods believe her and leave Kyprioth with a warning. Aly says he owes her now. Kyprioth offers to take her home immediately, but Aly declines. Kyprioth returns Aly to her body. She realizes that Bronau is more of a danger to the family than ever. Aly awakens in the Tanair infirmary with Nawat by her side. Ochobu tells her the god had her for five days. Aly relays her news, and all prepare for the increased danger. As winter draws near, everyone pitches in to make the castle and village ready. Aly’s relationship with Nawat grows more romantic. A kudarung lands in the courtyard with a message from Prince Rubinyan. He tells them of the events in the palace and that he and his wife are now regents. He asks that if his brother Bronau visits them again, they convince him to return to Rajmuat of his own accord. If he comes voluntarily, Rubinyan may be able to smooth things over with

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the king’s council. He promises to reverse the charges against the Balitangs and have them back in Rajmuat by Midwinter. Aly, glowing with the god’s power, advises the family that Bronau’s next visit could be dangerous. Three days after the messenger leaves, the crows report Bronau is coming with armed riders. Since they are old friends, Mequen lets him in to hear his side of the story. Lokeij warns Aly that something is not right. Aly brings the duke refreshments and passes the warning on to him. Mequen and Winnamine urge Bronau to turn himself in. Mequen offers to accompany him, but Bronau wants time to consider the offer. Aly urges the duke to ask Bronau for his blood oath, but Mequen refuses, saying any noble would take that as an insult. The next day, Bronau says he will rest for a week and then return with Mequen. When they prepare for bed that evening, the family is all in one room, since the prince has the master bedroom. Aly makes sure the duke has his sword within reach. Aly, who is with them, can’t sleep. She hears an attack in the hall and tries to hold the door as she wakes the family. Bronau wrenches the door open and enters with three soldiers. Mequen grabs his sword. Bronau demands that Mequen claim the Crown and then abdicate in favor of Sarai and her new husband, which would, of course, be Bronau. He tells them he has forty more soldiers at the gate and three mages. A fight ensues. Bronau wounds Mequen. Sarai snatches her father’s sword and tries to fight Bronau, but he rips the blade from her hand. Aly attacks him but he cracks her ribs and breaks her hand. Dove looses Nawat’s griffin-fletched arrows and kills him. Aly, searching for Ochobu, finds Ulasim in the great hall fighting the invaders. Nawat arrives with his clan who have changed themselves to humans, and together Ulasim’s and Nawat’s forces subdue the invaders. Nawat takes his Stormwing arrows and goes to help Ochobu defeat the mages. Junai splints Aly’s arm. Ochobu can do nothing to save the duke. Furious, Aly curses the royal family and swears she will put a half-raka queen on the throne. The family buries the dead, and Winnamine spends a week in seclusion. When she emerges she has Aly’s slave collar removed. Eight days later the crows send a warning that one hundred armed men are nearing the castle. Rubinyan has come for his brother. Winnamine tells him the

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events privately. He weeps for Mequen and invites the family to return with him. Winnamine says they need time to mourn and will return in the spring. After the regent leaves, while Aly is in the village with the sisters, a lone merchant arrives and offers to buy Aly from Winnamine. She tells him that Aly is free, but recognizes the family resemblance and sends for Aly. Aly is overjoyed to see her father. He tells her that the war with Scanra is coming to an end, and her mother will be home for the winter. Aly explains her wager with Kyprioth, and George demands that Kyprioth release her. Kyprioth absolves Aly since he believes the family will be safe for the winter. Aly feels torn between home and her new life. She chooses to stay even though Kyprioth predicts that things will get much worse. Trickster’s Queen Aly winters with the family in Tanair and prepares her spy network. She trains a special group of raka to be her spies and refers to them as her pack. The family mourns their loss and gets ready to relocate to Rajmuat. In April, they move back to the capital city. As they sail into the harbor, they see the places where the Examples, the bodies of those executed for treason, are supposed to be on display. Aly’s spies have removed them. It is her declaration of disruption. Her charge has changed from guarding the family to using all the information she can gather to place the longedfor raka queen on the throne. As part of that, she is looking forward to bringing down the notorious spymaster Topabow. Kyprioth appears to Aly on deck and touches her forehead, making it so no one will be able to force the truth from her with magic or torture. He says she must succeed; if she fails, the luarins will exterminate the raka, and he won’t be able to help them because Mithros and the Great Goddess will cast him out to the edge of the Divine Realms. As the family disembarks, Aly notices the raka are watching Sarai. Aly knows the regents will be told about the raka watching Sarai and will not be pleased by the news. Dove notices also and—to misdirect her, since neither she nor Sarai know the rebels plan to put Sarai on the throne—Aly suggests the raka are watching Elsren who is next in line for the throne, although he has not been officially named as the heir.

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When they reach the house, Aly’s Sight shows her it has been spelled for protection. It is also fully staffed, which puzzles Winnamine because they cannot afford it. Much to the family’s surprise, Aunt Nuritin appears. Ulasim confirms that she lives here now and will be staying on with them. Junai, who is now Dove’s bodyguard, shows Aly her office and the general meeting room. Aly meets with her pack, whom she dispatched to the city ahead of the family, and those that they have recruited and trained. They show her the tunnels in the house through which they can come and go unobserved. Aly attends the family meeting. Aunt Nuritin informs them that many things have changed since they left. One of them is that the wearing of mourning black is no longer allowed. She has ordered new clothes for the family, but they must be fitted. Princess Imajane hopes to humiliate them, but Nuritin will not allow it. Ulasim explains that the servants were sent by Sarai and Dove’s grandfather, a tradition among the raka nobles when a girl turns sixteen. Aunt Nuritin says all that has been done is not charity but a way of building a power base to support Elsren. After the household retires for the evening, Aly meets with the raka leaders. Ulasim introduces the mute mage Ysul. He is the one who spelled the house, and he will help Ochobu protect Sarai and Dove. Dove arrives unexpectedly at the meeting. She knows that she and Sarai are of royal blood and suspected there was a plot afoot. She wants to help, but she will not let them harm Elsren. They explain their plans to Dove. She suggests they use a symbol to indicate sympathy with the raka cause. They settle on open shackles to symbolize freedom. Aly, who is still Dove’s maid, discusses everything with Dove in her bedroom. Dove says that she and Sarai always knew that some of the raka might think that Sarai is the promised queen, but by Midwinter, Dove realized there was an actual conspiracy. Dove also knows that Aly does not serve Mithros. Kyprioth appears and Dove kneels and asks if he should also be talking to Sarai, but Kyprioth says it is Dove who needs to be convinced. As the raka succeed, his power will grow, and this will help him cope with Mithros and the Great Goddess. Dove says that if the regents find out, they could all be killed. Aly replies that the rebellion will happen no matter what, because it has been in the making for many years. The only way to limit the damage is to control it.

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The family is summoned to the palace. Aly feels confident they will be safe because she already has agents inside. She accompanies them to the Throne Hall, observing the layout and placement of guards. She spots the new captain of the King’s Guard, Taybur Sibigat. She feels sorry for the bored child-king, knowing the rebellion could lead to his death. The rebels cannot let Dunevon or Elsren live, but Aly would like to find a way to save both children. Two men force Aly to leave the Throne Hall and roughly escort her to Topabow. As her father taught her, she retreats into her internal liar’s palace so that she can maintain her cover, even if truth drops are used. Aly plays the part of a frightened maid who is a racist and petty thief. Topabow offers her silver to spy on the Balitangs and instructs her to report to Master Grosbeak every three days. When she returns to the family servants—who are watching their ladies who are in the Pavilion of Delightful Pleasures—Sarai’s maid Boulaj introduces Vereyu, head of the raka palace servants and a member of the conspiracy. Vereyu rejects Aly because she is luarin until Kyprioth confirms that she is working for him. As Aly watches the family from behind the servants’ screen, Taybur Sibigat comes up behind her. He tells her that he knows she is not just a maid and warns her against harming his charge, the king. When Dunevon gets into a fight with his playmates, Taybur gently carries him away for a nap. The basilisk Tkaa arrives as a special envoy from Tortall. Aly knows that he is one of her father’s best operatives and wonders if he has any word for her. Meanwhile, many young men are flirting with Sarai, including a Carthaki named Zaimid, a healer from the Imperial University. Aly tells Vereyu to have servants whisper near Topabow’s spies that the regents are losing faith in him. Then Aly’s attention is drawn to Princess Imajane. She announces that she would like Elsren and Sarai to move into the palace; Elsren to be a playmate for the king, since he is next in line for the throne, and Sarai to be a maid-in-waiting. Winnamine, calling it a mother’s weakness, refuses to let her children leave her. The nobles in the pavilion shift position. Fifteen powerful families support her. Imajane concedes, but decrees that Elsren will come to the palace every day escorted by the King’s Guards.

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At the nightly rebel meeting, Aly tells them she is Topabow’s spy. Ochobu says she could betray them all, but Ysul casts a spell, determining that there are no listening spells on Aly. Predicting that there will soon be a new spymaster, Aly says that either they trust her or they don’t; if she was going to betray them, she could have done it long ago. Now that they know who Topabow’s spy is, they don’t have to worry, and she can feed him misinformation. She furthers her plan to bring Topabow down by sending Nawat to Topabow’s office with scraps of notes that will undermine his confidence. Nawat resents being used as an errand boy, but he does as she asks. Aly meets with her pack. They don disguises and make their way to the docks where the slave ships are moored. They take extensive measurements and then return. Aly leaves a coded message for Ochobu that they need twelve pots of blazebalm. At breakfast, Nawat reports that he has left her note. She thinks that he is vexed with her. A messenger brings news for Ulasim that rebellion has begun on one of the islands, and the mages of the Chain, raka mages who communicate across the Isles, have intercepted the messages for the regents. Ulasim makes plans to move the raka rebels off the island. Aly accompanies Dove on her morning walk. She is giving coins to poor children when two squads of soldiers brutally break up the gathering because they say assembly is forbidden. Reluctantly, Dove retreats home. Ulasim tells Aly that he sent Nawat and his crows to help the rebels. Aly is afraid for Nawat, but Ulasim tells her he wanted to go and chastises her for getting distracted. Aly sets her pack to watching Grosbeak in order to learn who Topabow’s spies are and instructs them to put baskets of rats by the spies’ beds at night. While the family entertains afternoon visitors, Aly interrogates the spies she’s caught in the family rooms. She interrogates them and converts them to double-agents. Tkaa is among the afternoon’s visitors. He brings her news from home: the war is over and her parents are at court; her brother Alan is Lord Raoul’s squire; Princess Shinko is pregnant with her first child, and Daine is pregnant with her second; and her family sends their love. Daine also sends a cluster of darkings who were bored living with the dragons and want to have fun.

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As she talks to their leader, Trick, she learns that Trick will stay with her while the others will spy for her. All that they know, Trick will know immediately and tell her. They’ve already been trained in espionage by her father. Aly decides not to tell the raka about the darkings. She places one in the meeting room where the older luarin nobles gather and then joins the leadership meeting. They are inspecting a box left for the ‘‘twice royal.’’ It contains money for the rebellion from Tortall. She suspects her father sent it, but tells the leaders that it is Tortall’s way of making mischief but retaining deniability, and they decide to use the funds. The next day Aly accompanies Dove on her morning excursion but excuses herself as Dove talks to the merchants. She reports to Grosbeak and places a darking in his office. Returning, she wears Trick as a beaded necklace—the form Trick prefers. She lets the others assume it is a trinket she picked up in the market. The family and their friends gather for their afternoon ride in the park, and Aly slips darkings onto the saddle blankets of select nobles. On their way home, many of the raka stare at Sarai. Just past the army check-point, a mob swarms around them and a fight erupts. Aly tries to lead Sarai and Dove out of danger, but Sarai wants to try to stop the bloodshed. Soldiers brutally disperse the crowd. Zaimid heals a child with a broken arm. While the other nobles head for home, he stays to help the injured. The guests disperse, and Sarai is furious that they all stood by while commoners were hurt or killed. Aunt Nuritin says that the way to change things is to get enough power to force the Crown to modify their methods, not to fly into a rage. When night descends, Aly and her pack don their disguises, pick up the blazebalm, and return to the slave docks. They distribute the blazebalm, and when Aly gives the signal, Ysul ignites it. They flee separately after the fire starts. Trick wakes Aly early in the morning to tell her that Duke Nomru has been arrested for trying to convince the regents to employ less violent responses. When Ulasim finds her, he reprimands her for being involved in the raid. She is too valuable to them to risk her life in action. They need her to gather crucial information. She concedes, although it is hard to do nothing but read reports and pass on information. Aly has just one more thing she must do alone—place darkings in the palace—although she doesn’t tell Ulasim. Aly suggests a plot to free

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Nomru and all the prisoners on the night of the eclipse. The regents would think that the luarin did it and not blame the raka. Ulasim likes the idea but will free only the political prisoners. Aly instructs her pack to set fire to the two fortresses and prison barracks on the night of the eclipse, so that that there will be a diversion to help Ulasim. Aly receives a coded report that Nomru’s family escaped before they could be arrested and concludes that they must have been helped by noble luarins. After the afternoon rest, guests gather. The older nobles retreat to a separate room. Dove joins them with a priestess of the Black God. The young nobles rant against Nomru’s arrest, but Sarai convinces them not to do anything rash. In her office, Trick shows Aly the meeting of the luarin conspiracy. Aly would like to bring the two groups of conspirators together. At the evening meeting with the raka leaders, Aly proposes forming an alliance with the luarin conspirators and encounters resistance. Dove demands to know if they plan to kill all of the luarins and those of mixed race. Ysul agrees that it is better to be allies. Not all luarins are bad. Dove asserts that once one race starts killing another, it would be almost impossible to stop. Ochobu reports that the raka on other islands are rebelling and a governor has been slain. Nawat and his flock are helping them. The day of the eclipse dawns, and Trick reports everyone is scared. The family leaves for the festivities at the palace in the afternoon. While the nobles sup, Aly distributes darkings throughout the palace, including the king’s chamber. She returns to have supper with the other servants. As the nobles watch the eclipse, Aly wanders into the garden where Taybur finds her. He has the darking Aly placed in the king’s bed chamber. He gives it back to Aly saying the king deserves to be able to cry himself to sleep in private. Aly likes Taybur and hopes they can find a way to get him out safely when the time comes. She would also like to keep Dunevon and Elsren safe. Taybur says he knows Aly is undercover, but if she ever needs a friend, she should call on him. The family returns home after the moon is shadowed. Aly’s pack sets fire to the fortresses. The alarm sounds for the prison, and Aly knows that the escape plan has worked. She also knows that many innocent people have likely died and feels a deep regret. Fesgao

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reports that Nomru and 110 political prisoners were freed and are being sent to other islands. In the aftermath of the escape, Ulasim reports that the regents have made an Example of Topabow. Aly’s agents look at her with awe, knowing she brought him down. Winnamine is called to visit Princess Imajane and returns to tell them that the regents propose a betrothal between Sarai and Dunevon. Sarai claims she needs time to consider. Kyprioth tells Aly that he is hiding the shields of Mithros and the Great Goddess to keep them distracted, and that he will never let Sarai marry a Rittevon. The family departs to Matfrid Fonfala’s for a three-day birthday celebration. Three of the ladies’ maids are sick, and Aly agrees to wait on them all. While she watches the dance from behind the servants’ screen, she misses Nawat. Then she catches a glimpse of a god she does not recognize as an old lady. She follows the god and as she listens, she deduces that it is the Graveyard Hag, remembering the stories Daine told her. The Graveyard Hag says she has a worshipper here, and she owes Kyprioth. She will give the love-struck youth his heart’s desire, put a kink in Kyprioth’s plans, and give Aly lots of work to do. Aly sees that the youth must be Zaimid, but the Graveyard Hag freezes her, so she can do nothing to intervene. When the spell wears off, she searches for Sarai and discovers instead a letter to Winnamine and Dove. Sarai and Zaimid are in love and have run away to Carthak. Dove asks Aly to help her convince the raka leaders to accept her as the twice-royal queen instead of Sarai. She needs Aly as a friend, and Aly promises to always be her friend. Aly thinks that Dove will make a perfect queen. When they return home, Winnamine announces Sarai’s elopement. Trick reports more rebellions on different islands. The regents are deploying troops, but there are not many left uncommitted. Aly realizes that this has been Ulasim’s plan all along, to use the island rebellions to weaken the home base so that Rajmuat could be taken. When she meets with the raka leaders, they berate her for letting Sarai get away and plan to get her back. Aly tells them about the Graveyard Hag. Dove says that she is twice royal also, but Aly misses the rest of her plea because Kyprioth whisks her spirit to his home in the Divine Realms. He is furious with her and almost kills her. Trick gets the crow gods to help, They point Kyprioth to the Graveyard Hag. Eventually, Aly

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convinces him that Dove will make a better queen than Sarai, if she can prove it to the raka leaders. Kyprioth agrees and says Dove has already convinced them. He returns Aly to her body. She wakes in the infirmary and learns she has been away three days. Chenaol tells her that things have been quiet since the businesses in the city have shut down of their own accord in protest of the actions of the regents. When Aly wakes next, Aunt Nuritin demands to know her secrets. Aly confesses she knows of the luarin conspiracy and suggests they take action, bringing in fighters, mages, and funds to show possible allies that they are willing to fight. After Aunt Nutirin leaves, Trick reports that Imajane wants to execute more raka to force them to be obedient, but Rubinyan says they do not have the troops to do it. They have a third of the merchants who closed their businesses arrested and taken to the slave pens. The family is invited to the palace. Although Imajane was irate at Sarai’s elopement, now she offers the betrothal to Dove. When they return home, Aly realizes she will have to give up being Dove’s maid to give her full attention to the rebellion. Aly suggests to her pack that they disable the slave ships so that the rebels do not get sold. Ochobu reports more rebellions. It is apparent to Aly that the deaths are just numbers to Ochobu and warns Dove that every death matters. Aly’s pack frees the slaves; some flee, some return to their homes, and some build street barricades. Aly has letters planted in the palace that indicate Rubinyan is having an affair. The celebration of the king’s birthday begins with a morning procession to the harbor where his birthday present, the ship Rittevon, awaits. With glee the four-year-old boards his vessel, and his young playmates, including Elsren, join him along with Taybur and the King’s Guard. The weather mages have said the day will be fine. The king is scheduled to sail to the palace by sunset when the nobles will assemble for the party. Out of season, a sudden, violent storm strikes and Aly hurries home with Dove. She verifies that neither Ochobu nor Ysul had anything to do with it, but Ochobu tells her there is luarin magic in it. Aly sends her spies to whisper about the uncanny nature of the storm. The family goes to the royal dock to await the Rittevon. Winnamine is desperately worried about Elsren. Aly queries Kyprioth but receives no reply. When the

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Rittevon is two hours late, Rubinyan sends out searchers. Finally, a small, battered ship docks. Taybur disembarks, bearing the corpse of the king. Only three boys survived; Elsren was not one of them. Grief-stricken, the family returns home. Aly calls Kyprioth and demands to know if this was his doing. Kyprioth admits that he suggested to the regents that they would be better off without the boys, but it was their own mages that called up the storm. Aly realizes that human life means nothing to him. The boys were in his way. The darkings report that the regents are crowned privately and plan a public coronation after the eclipse of the sun. Nawat heard of Elsren’s death and hurried home because he knew she would need him. He has a look of love in his eyes; Aly greets him enthusiastically and he covers her with kisses. He asks the darking to give them privacy and then tells Aly he is fully a man now. He loves her and has seen too much death to want to wait to make love to her. Aly tries to forestall him because she does not have an anti-pregnancy charm, but he gives her one. The next morning, Winnamine summons Aly and demands to know what their great destiny is supposed to be since her husband and her son are both dead. Aly says the god does not care if his servants are happy, only if his goal is accomplished. Taybur sends Aly a note telling her that the ship came apart at the first big wave, and that the storm was not needed. They killed his king, and now Taybur is on her side. Aly knows they will need him inside the palace. Mithros, the Great Goddess, and Kyprioth engage in battle, and their lights can be seen in the sky. Riots break out across the city. The people think the king and his friends were murdered. The new rulers institute martial law. One week after the deaths, martial law is lifted and a memorial service held. At the evening meeting, Dove arrives with Aunt Nuritin, who proclaims that the luarin conspiracy would like to join them and supply fighters and financing. Aly vouches for them, and Nuritin’s allies, the priestess of the Black God and Duke Nomru, arrive. Trick reports to Aly that the royal mages and their guards have been poisoned. Also, Imajane accuses Rubinyan of having an affair. The raka make it clear to Nomru that they will re-establish a raka rule with their queen on the throne. The monarchs institute a curfew. Tortall and Carthak withdraw their trade

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and their ambassadors since their mages have discerned that the storm was created by mages. They will not deal with kingslayers. The ladies of Balitang are invited to breakfast with the queen. Suspecting a trap, the raka prepare to fight and escape if Dove is endangered. Dove chaffs at being so protected and not allowed to do anything. Aly reminds her that her part will be uniting the kingdom. While the nobles eat, Aly meets with Taybur. He warns her that Dove’s popularity has been noticed. Fesgao shows her a hidden tunnel that terminates outside the palace compound. They are wary as they leave, suspecting an attack. When they enter Rittevon Square, Aly sees a crossbowman and shouts a warning. The bolt strikes a man-at-arms. Winnamine calls for soldiers to come and help them, but they do not move. The commoners rush in to protect Dove. Guards move in closer and fighting begins. Assassins push past the outer circle of guards and then the inner. Aly enters the fray. The mob turns on the King’s Watch. The darkings and crows fight and clear a space for a full-sized kudurang stallion to land. He kneels to Dove. Aly helps her mount, and Dove directs the winged horse to fly her home. Dove’s protectors and family reach safety, but riots spread. Ulasim announces they will attack at dawn. Aly introduces her darkings and gives each leader one so they can remain in contact. She gives Dove the darking, Secret. Aly joins Chenaol’s group, as does Nawat and his flock. Aly gives him a darking as well. They enter the palace while others fight in the square. Dove aids the battle from the air on her kudurang. Vereyu provides poisoned food for Aly and the other luarin maids in her group to pass out to the soldiers on the wall. Ulasim and Nomru lead fighters toward the Victory Gate. Rubinyan rides out to fight. Aly stops playing an active role so that she can concentrate on passing on information. The fighting continues. Ochobu dies casting her last spell. Ysul sends a firespell to the Gates. Ulasim and Rubinyan fight each other to the death. Fesgao leads his troops to the fallen gates, and the remaining royal soldiers surrender. Fesgao proceeds to the palace doors. Taybur welcomes him. The palace is taken, the loyal soldiers are locked up, and the queen is being held. Dove lands and all kneel to her. By the end of summer, the nobles are sworn to her and their lands redistributed. Aly establishes a spy

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network. Dove asks her to stay, but Aly thinks she cannot. She reveals her identity to Dove and the leadership. Contrary to what she expects, they all accept her. She has proved her loyalty and is the one chosen by Kyprioth; that’s enough for them. Dove and Winnamine still want her to stay, and Aly promises to serve Dove all her days. Dove is crowned queen the day after Midwinter. A pregnant Aly and her love, Nawat, dine with the Tortall delegation that includes her parents, her brother, and Daine, Numair, and the children. Alanna is sorry her daughter will be so far away but is happy she has found her passion. Kyprioth promises to keep her busy for many years to come. Character Development Sixteen-year-old Alianne, called Aly, of Pirate’s Swoop, is the only daughter of Baron George Cooper and his wife Alanna the Lioness. As the duology begins, she is the only one of the family to take having fun seriously. She enjoys dancing and flirting with boys. The only thing she longs to do besides enjoy herself is spy work. Her father has taught her the tricks of the trade since she was a child, but he absolutely refuses to put her in such danger, so she flits from task to task, with nothing really capturing her interest. Although her mother is not home often, when she is, they fight. Alanna’s ways aggravate Aly, and she wishes her mother would realize they are two different people. Aly is not physical, the way her mother is. She’s mentally astute and loves a challenge, like her father. By the end of the two novels, Aly commands a vast network of spies that helps overthrow a corrupt monarchy. She takes responsibilities for her mistakes, cares deeply for the people around her, and develops a serious romantic relationship. When Aly returns home from Corus sporting a head full of blue hair, her father wants her to find her place in the world. She replies, ‘‘You’ve got Thom for your mage, Alan for your knight… and me for fun. I’m surrounded by bustling folk. You need me to do the relaxing for you’’ (Trickster’s Choice, 8–9). And he thinks, ‘‘How could someone who liked to win as much as Aly did lack ambition? His own ambition had driven him to become the king of the capital’s thieves at the age of seventeen. Her mother’s will had made her the first female knight in over one hundred years, as well as the King’s Champion, who wielded the Crown’s authority when

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neither king nor queen was present. And yet Aly drifted, seeing this boy and that, helping her father, and arguing with her mother, who wanted her daughter to make something of her life’’ (Tickster’s Choice, 9–10). Aly carries her lightheartedness with her into the Copper Isles, even though she is enslaved. When contemplating her wager with the god Kyprioth to keep the Balitang children safe for the summer, she thinks, ‘‘If anyone were to find that the daughter of the Tortallan king’s Champion and his assistant spymaster was summering in the Copper Isles, she wouldn’t live long enough to collect on that wager. The thought made her grin as she turned her face into the fresh sea breeze. At long last she had a real challenge, and she meant to enjoy every minute of it’’ (Trickster’s Choice, 55). It is her mental acuity that guides her through the upcoming complex situations. After discovering that Sergeant Veron is a spy, she thinks, ‘‘It was a kind of thinking that always gave her mother headaches, a way of looking at several different possibilities for each situation. To Aly and her father, it was a fine game, but Aly had learned early on that Mother hated it. That was a shame, because it was far more interesting than anything her mother might play at on horseback’’ (Trickster’s Choice, 118). Dove, who is very smart herself, recognizes Aly’s intelligence, saying, ‘‘I have trouble keeping up with you. Everyone else sees a straight line, you see a maze, and when I’m done talking to you, the maze starts to make more sense’’ (Trickster’s Queen, 148). Although Aly is brimming with self-confidence, she is surprised to learn through a dream that her mother has faith in her. ‘‘I know Aly has the tools to survive. She can defend herself, she’s cleverer than I ever was, and she has all those things George taught her. I have to believe she’s alive, and she’s doing her best to stay that way’’ (Trickster’s Choice, 128). In addition to thinking differently from her mother, Aly also adopts her father’s view of honor. When Duke Mequen disapproves of Aly searching Prince Bronau’s rooms, ‘‘Aly thought the duke’s scruples were sweet, if unrealistic. Da had always told her that noble honor hindered those who had it as much as it helped them’’ (Trickster’s Choice, 194). She has a sarcastic streak that is evident after a fight with some raka in Pohon, ‘‘Passing the two on the ground—the woman who lay, both hands pressed to her kidney, the man clutching his ankle—she stopped and

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smiled. ‘It was ever so lovely to meet you,’ she said politely’’’ (Trickster’s Choice, 221). It is as she strives to protect Sarai and Dove that she begins to grow more serious. After watching Sarai with Prince Bronau, she thinks, ‘‘It occurred to her, briefly, that she had been much like Sarai back at home, flirting with boys and men just because she was bored and liked kisses. The thought was not a comfortable one’’ (Trickster’s Choice, 283). Aly observes the injustice of the luarin repression and the slavery of the raka during her time in the Copper Isles when the captain of their ship from Rajmuat speaks to his crew, ‘‘Come on you raka dogs, put your backs into it!’’ yelled the luarin captain to his sailors. ‘‘Less you want a touch of the whip to smarten you!’’ It was how many luarin in Rajmuat, who were not part of the Balitang’s circle, addressed their raka slaves and servants. Aly thought it was a foolish way to talk to someone who might be inspired to throw one over the rail into a sharkinfested sea, but she would be the first to admit she did not have a conqueror’s heart. (Trickster’s Choice, 53) But it is the murder of Duke Mequen that makes her determined to overthrow the racist regime. ‘‘Aly rested her head back against the wall, wincing as she bumped the knot on her skull. A curse on the Jimajens and their power games, she thought bitterly. A curse on the rulers of this country, Rubinyan and Imajane, who let Bronau escape them. I will bring them down. And I will put a half-raka queen on the throne if it’s the last thing I ever do’’ (Trickster’s Choice, 389). When Aly tells her father of her choice to stay and help the raka for their sake, not as a spy, he sees how she has grown. ‘‘And so she [Alanna] and I get what we’d wished for, only to find we don’t care for the form it’s taken. We asked you to assume your place in the world, to live and work as a woman. You have done so, but it’s a bitter reward for us. Your mother will understand all too well. I should have known that no daughter of hers would choose an easy road’’ (Trickster’s Choice, 402). As she travels down the dangerous road to revolution and becomes responsible for more and more people, Aly makes mistakes and takes responsibility for them. When Ulasim chastises her for taking part in burning the slave docks, she recognizes the value of his claim thinking,

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‘‘Idiot! she scolded herself. That’s the kind of slipup that can ruin everything’’ (Trickster’s Queen, 164). When Kyprioth admits his role in the death of King Dunevon and his friends, she thinks, ‘‘Twice she had erred very badly. The first time was when she had been too cocky to think Sarai might surprise her. The second time was at present. She had forgotten that Kyprioth was not a wildly eccentric, magically powerful human. She looked into his face and saw that those lives meant nothing to him’’ (Trickster’s Queen, 339–40). Her perspective on relating to possible suitors also changes as she matures. While watching Sarai flirt with a variety of young men she observes, She kept them dancing around her, pouting at one, teasing another, ignoring a third, and urging her female friends to do the same. She seemed cruel to Aly, as if she didn’t care if she hurt the feelings of the young men. Was I that bad? Aly wondered, remembering the days when she lived like Sarai. Picking them up and dropping them, whether they deserved it or not, just because I could? I can’t do it anymore, she realized, startled. Even if the god were to dump me into such a gathering at home. It’s small to promise a man something, even without words, if you never intend to give it to him, whether it’s kisses or your heart. (Trickster’s Queen, 122–23) And when Taybur says he has no romantic intentions, she thinks, ‘‘If she’d thought for a moment he had such intentions, she would have made it plain she was uninterested. Once she would have worried more that he gave no sign that he thought her attractive, but these days she didn’t care. She had changed from who she’d been in Tortall, but she refused to ask herself how’’ (Trickster’s Queen, 216). This change coincides with the development of her romantic relationship with Nawat. As she realizes how important he is to her, she sees how her former behavior could be hurtful. Sarai’s maid, Boulaj told her, ‘‘You seemed a little lost after he left… not lost as a spy, but lost as a woman. As if he’d taken a piece of you away that you needed’’ (Trickster’s Queen, 348).

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In addition, she comes to understand the importance of duty. After Sarai elopes, she thinks, ‘‘Only a year before, she might have helped Sarai to marry her love rather than be trapped in a political life. At the very least, she would have loved Sarai’s boldness. Aly’s mother had done as Sarai had, chosen the life she wanted over the life that was expected of her. My, how I’ve changed, Aly thought ruefully. These days I care about duty to those who look to one to lead. These days I care less about fun and more about work’’ (Trickster’s Queen, 265). All along, she has been working to limit the number of deaths that come from the revolution, forming the alliance between the raka and the luarins and trying to find a way to save King Dunevon and Elsren. As the violence escalates, she more fully realizes the horror of war. She says to Dove, ‘‘‘I have been trying to steer them away from a massacre,’ Aly said … ‘And they have been listening. Even Ochobu, who hates the luarin more than the rest, sees that there’s no profit in killing all the full-bloods, let alone anyone who’s a part-blood’’’ (Trickster’s Queen, 47–48). After the prison break, which was her idea, she feels responsible for those who died. She owed a debt to those ghosts. … She’ll have to remember the lives she has taken. There were people who had killed so often there was little humanity left in them. Aly had met plenty like that, helping her da with spy work. She knew a few of them among the household guards here, and in Topabow she’d found someone who couldn’t even remember what it was like to feel regret, or pity for the families of the dead. Her parents fought to hang on to their humanity, and Aly had never valued the struggle more. (Trickster’s Queen, 225–26) When Ochobu tells her of the deaths of four luarin mages, she thinks, ‘‘This crude business of counting up lives taken struck her as a bad idea. It took the horror from death’’ (Trickster’s Queen, 308). When the final battle comes, she instructs her people, ‘‘Try not to kill any more than you can help… particularly among the servants. It’s time to start trying to live together’’ (Trickster’s Queen, 412). In addition to becoming a responsible spymaster with a loving relationship with Nawat, Aly also learns that her mother is sometimes right.

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As she explains to Trick after kissing Nawat quite passionately, ‘‘My mother always told me you had to seize the bright moments, because you never know when they will come again. … The older I get, the smarter she seems’’ (Trickster’s Queen, 378). Thematic Development While Pierce’s standard theme of gender roles is present throughout the duology, as Aly is a woman in a man’s world, the struggle for racial equality takes the forefront, complemented by the importance of love. Although Tortall is a realm adjusting to warrior women with Alanna and Keladry leading the way, as well as Queen Thayet and her Queen’s Riders, in the Copper Isles, the luarin still have a more restricted view of women. ‘‘Waving her fan, she [Sarai] asked, ‘Is the Lioness as good with a sword as they say? The duchess made me stop my sword lessons.’ Her voice turned frosty as she spoke of her stepmother. ‘She said they were unladylike’’’ (Trickster’s Choice, 58). Sarai longs for her homeland to be more like Tortall. ‘‘‘I don’t see how any Tortallan girl would want to be a maid, not with all the choices you have, compared to us,’ Sarai remarked. ‘If I lived there, I’d join the Queen’s Riders, and learn to ride and use a sword and bow like they do. Or maybe even become a knight like the Lady Knight Keladry. The raka ladies of old knew how to fight’’’ (Trickster’s Choice, 63–64). Don’t you see what she’s done for women, for all women? The Lioness, your queen, Lady Knight Keladry, they’re living proof that we have a warrior spirit too, that it hasn’t been bred out of the luarin blood. The Lioness is a true hero. She protected her country when no one else could, man or woman. Mithros, she found the Dominion Jewel, she’s killed giants and monsters to defend those who can’t fight them! That proves that we can do things men do. Not in the same way perhaps, but we can still do them! (Trickster’s Choice, 135) But the raka have a different view of women, as Fesgao tells Duke Nomru when they become allies. ‘‘Perhaps we have not made ourselves entirely clear. … We are not in this to put another luarin man on the throne. We are here to reclaim our homeland and set a proper queen of our own blood to rule’’ (Trickster’s Queen, 371).

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Even more important to the raka than gender equity is racial equity. They have been enslaved and repressed by their conquerors for 300 years. Even the noble raka experience prejudice, as Sarai explains to Aly, And yet, when it comes to marriage, it’s amazing how many luarin families discover marriages that were arranged when their sons were in the cradle. Marriages their young men had never heard of until then. Particularly the higher-ranking lurain nobles. I can’t help but notice how many young men give way when they learn their mothers don’t care for the color of the future bride’s skin, however beautiful she may be. (Trickster’s Choice, 62–63) And Aly knows that even though Tortall has no slaves, prejudice exists as she remembers a conversation held between her grandfather and a Bazhir. ‘‘Oh, I’m considered wonderful when it comes to letting and losing blood for the Crown. But marriage? Even jumped-up merchants who weren’t barons a generation ago won’t let their daughters marry a Bazhir, whatever their wealth or standing’’ (Trickster’s Choice, 63). But not all luarin treat raka badly. In the Balitang household things are different as Chenaol explains, ‘‘‘Why do you think people are so loyal to this family?’ she asked quietly. ‘Because all are people in this house—raka and luarin, slave and free. The first time Petranne slapped a slave and called her a lazy cow, the duchess spanked her, and took away her dolls for a month. Petranne said she’d heard it at a friend’s house, and the duke ended the friendship. There are good luarin here …’’’ (Trickster’s Choice, 165). But it is not only the luarin who are prejudiced against the raka. The reverse is true as well. Aly has great difficulty being accepted by the raka leaders because she is luarin. Ochobu refuses to work with her until Kyprioth steps in. Even when they trust Aly, the leaders do not want to work with luarin. When they are planning the prison break, Ulasim tells Aly, ‘‘And I will endanger none of our people for a single luarin’’ (Trickster’s Queen, 166). They do not want an alliance with the luarin conspiracy. It is Dove, the future twice-royal queen who is both raka and luarin, who convinces them, saying, ‘‘‘Because I can tell you, just from reading Saren history,’ Dove said quietly, ‘once the killing between peoples who share a country begins, it is very hard to stop. The lowland whites and

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the K’mir tribesman have been killing one another for centuries. The only way to avoid that fate is to decide we must live together, and then do our best to ensure that we do’’’ (Trickster’s Queen, 189–90). While Aly cares for her friends, both raka and luarin, it is in her relationship with Nawat that the importance of love shines through. And it is Nawat who expresses it when he returns to Aly after learning of the deaths of Dunevon and Elsren. ‘‘There will never be a good time until Dove is queen.’’ Nawat walked over and put his arms around her again. ‘‘We might be dead by then.’’ He kissed her temple, then his lips drifted until they found hers again. This kiss was long, slow and sweet, the kiss of lovers who had all of time. At the end of it Nawat held Aly’s face in his hands … ‘‘I love you. I have seen so many people die since I left you. I do not want to wait for priests to say words or for you to want chicks. If I go to the Peaceful Realms tomorrow, or the day after, I want to go with the taste of you on my lips.’’ (Trickster’s Queen, 344) And so, Pierce concludes the duology with strides made for the equity of women as well as growing acceptance between raka and luarin. Although violence is needed to overthrow the repressors, it is tempered with an antipathy for death and, in the end, the essential existence of love is extolled.

PART 3

The Circle of Magic Sagas Setting: The Lands Surrounding the Pebbled Sea HE CIRCLE OF MAGIC BOOKS also take place in a medieval-style, pre-industrial setting. Each land has its own form of government: Emelan is ruled by Duke Verdis; Namorn by Empress Berenene; Tharios is a city-state run by representative officials. Throughout all the lands are Living Circle Temples where those gifted with magical abilities dedicate their lives to the mission of the temples: healing the sick, providing for the poor, and teaching those who are also gifted. In addition, there is also a network of mage universities where those with academic magic can study. There are two kinds of magical powers, both much prized in all the lands around the Pebbled Sea. There is academic power which is innate. With the right spells and charms, it can enable the mage to work magic. The other is ambient power that dwells within a person but is expressed in the working of a craft or element of nature. Throughout the different lands, there is also a consistent social structure of nobles, merchants, traders, and peasants. Mages can come from any of these classes, otherwise the dividing lines between them are rigid. While gods are occasionally mentioned, they do not interact with mortals.

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CHAPTER SEVEN

The Circle of Magic Quartet, The Circle Opens Quartet, and The Will of the Empress MAGIC CIRCLE books focus on the adventures of four young mages as they learn their craft and go out into the lands surrounding the Pebbled Sea. Pierce uses omniscient narration to relate events from the protagonists’ as well as the antagonists’ point of view. LL OF THE

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The Circle of Magic Quartet: Plot Development Sandry’s Book The Circle of Magic Quartet follows the adventures of four young mages, around the age of ten, through their first event-filled year at the Winding Circle Temple, a center of learning dedicated to the practice of particular magical skills in service to Earth, Air, Water, and Fire. The Temple is located in Summersea, one of the lands bordering the Pebbled Sea. These lands are pre-industrial, medieval-style realms, ruled by the ranking nobles. In Summersea, the ruler is Verdis, the Duke of Emelan. Although the four young people come from different areas and cultures, as well as different classes, they do have one thing in common. They were all found by Niklaren (called Niko) Goldeye and brought by him to the Winding Circle Temple. When the novel opens, the Lady Sandrilene fa Toren, Sandry, is trapped in a locked store room. Her nurse used magic to hide her there to keep her safe when the pox struck, killing Sandry’s parents and sweeping through the capital city of Hatar. The oil in her lamp is running out, and Sandry is afraid of the dark. Instinctively, she reaches for her embroidery silks and commands them to light. It is a move of desperation, for

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Sandry knows nothing of magic. Yet, miraculously, her silks glow until Niko, who has the gift of finding things that are hidden, locates her. First, he brings her to her uncle, Verdis, Duke of Emelan, who would give her a home, but he fears it would be lonely for her. Therefore, Niko settles her in the nearby Winding Circle Temple school, where she meets the classmates who are going to become such an important part of her life. Daja, who is brown-skinned, is from a Trader family. Traders transport and sell goods, but they never make things with their own hands. When the ship that belongs to Daja’s family is wrecked in a storm, Daja is the lone survivor. Floating on a makeshift raft, she spies the survival box, constructed of wood and metal, packed with food and water that all ships carry. It is too far for her to reach, and the waves are carrying it away. When need drives her to call the box to her, it comes. The food and water in it enable her to survive until Niko finds her. But even though she survives, she is cast out of Trader society. They believe that lone survivors are bad luck, and they do not want anyone else to catch her ill-fortune. With nowhere else to turn, Niko brings her to Winding Temple as well. In Hajra, a port city of Sotat, a street rat named Roach gets caught stealing and his hand is branded with an X. While in prison, he befriends a small patch of moss, which grows when he is near. The bronze-skinned boy’s mother died when he was four, and he has lived on the street ever since. When he is caught again, his other hand is branded. The third time means he will not escape punishment again, and he is sentenced to the docks. But Master Niko offers him the choice of being apprenticed to the Winding Circle, so he chooses apprenticeship and the name, Briar Moss. Trisana Chandler, the daughter of merchants, has been abandoned by her parents, left in the care of the Stone Circle Temple in Ninever. The mage who tested her for magic swore she had none. They think she could be possessed by a spirit, an elemental, or perhaps is ghost-burdened and as a result want nothing to do with her. Tris hears voices on the wind, and whenever she is angry, there are violent changes in the weather. Her Dedicate Superior sends for Master Niko and insists that he take her to the Winding Circle Temple. The overweight and bespectacled Tris is sure things will be no better there. Sandry, Daja, Briar, and Tris, who all have their own difficulties fitting in with the other students at Winding Circle, are sent to live in Discipline

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Cottage with Dedicate Lark, a mage who works with all kinds of fibers and weaving, and Dedicate Rosethorn, a green mage who works with all varieties of plants. Lark is calm and kind and quiet. Rosethorn is prickly and sharp-tongued and does not like children. The four young people at first have their disagreements with one another, but eventually, friendships begin to flourish. Sandry has always loved embroidery and longed to learn how to weave, but she was told that such work was beneath her. Now she is delighted to learn that Lark will not only teach her how to weave, but also how to spin. Daja has always felt attracted to metal, but as a Trader, she was forbidden to work with her hands. When she comes across Master Frostpine’s forge, she is drawn to him and the work he does. He invites her to return and offers to teach her. Tris has always caused a stir in the weather when she’s upset, so Niko assumes the responsibility of teaching her how to control it, beginning with instruction in meditation. Briar feels a kinship with all things growing, even Rosethorn’s plants. When he comes across the temple greenhouse and hears a sick tree calling, he steals the valuable shakkan tree. Rosethorn strikes a deal with her rival, Dedicate Crane, so that Briar can keep the miniature, shaped tree that holds power. Their days at Discipline have a set routine: breakfast, chores (rotating so no one has the worst jobs all the time), meditation lessons with Niko, lunch, afternoon rest, and then specialized lessons with their mentors. The day arrives for Rosethorn and Lark to sell Temple wares at the market in Summersea, and the four students accompany them. When most of the goods are sold, the young people are allowed to explore the market. Initially, they wander on their own. When Sandry hears a group of town boys torturing a puppy, she tries to rescue him. The boys give her a hard time, and Daja comes to her aid when a fight breaks out. Briar also joins the fray. Tris hates fighting, but wants to help her friends. She is trying to dump some water on them to stop the brawl, when she gets spun around. The water turns into a great spinning spout that threatens her friends. She dives in front of it and tries to hold it off, but it is too strong for her. Lark comes and reduces the spout to a flood of water. The angry townspeople petition Duke Verdis, accusing Tris of using magic against them unlawfully. Niko defends her, telling them that Tris did not know she was a mage. This is when the children learn they are a

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special kind of mage whose magic is tied to working their craft and that they have been sent to Discipline particularly so that they can study with Lark and Rosethorn. The amazed children listen while the duke settles the dispute. Each will study with their masters to learn their craft and their magic. Sandry will learn spinning, weaving, and sewing magic with Lark; Daja will learn smith and metal magic with Frostpine; Brig will learn plant magic and the art of making medicines from Rosethorn; and Tris will learn weather magic from Niko. They return to their routine. Niko is called away because the foretellings indicate a great disaster is coming. There have been tremors all summer, and the mages fear an earthquake. When they discover where the quake will be, they send word, but Niko is afraid a mage there may try something foolish. The earthquake is supposed to be far away, so the four friends, who have gone for a walk, are trapped in a cave when the quake suddenly strikes. Sandry uses her spinning skill to spin their magics together, creating a lumpy circle of wool that symbolizes their joining, with one lump for each friend. Daja creates a survival box out of her magic, to keep them all safe. Tris helps Daja reach all the way down to molten lava and bring up metal to strengthen their protection. She also helps Briar reach up to the roots of plants, so he can call them down to help provide additional security. When another quake strikes, the four stay safe until the adults arrive and rescue them. As the four friends recover in the infirmary, Niko tells them that the mages tried to trap the power of the quake. But the power broke free, killed the mages, and was even stronger than before, which is why it reached all the way to Summersea. Upon their return from the infirmary, they help their masters clean up. Tris, Daja, and Briar combine their gifts again to pour light into a crystal and give it to Sandry, so she need never fear the dark again. Tris’s Book Ten days after the earthquake, Tris is still having nightmares about the experience. She heads out to the wall to catch the cool breezes, and her three friends join her, even though they are all supposed to be in bed. Tris has always been able to hear conversations on the wind, and now her

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friends can too, because they merged their magic to survive the earthquake. They all hear a suspicious conversation expressing worry about the Watch. They speculate that it might be smugglers. Suddenly, fire lights the sky and a watch tower explodes. The guards and later their teachers question the four friends, but no one knows what caused the explosion. In the morning, Niko takes Tris with him to the site of the blast. He needs to draw on her power to cast a vision spell of the past. No one should have been able to blow up the tower since its protection spells were laid in its foundation. Niko can see magic, but Tris can’t, so he puts a seeing spell on her glasses. Anything with magic glimmers silver in her sight. Niko casts his spell, and they see two men carrying something. The men kill a female guard, and then the tower explodes. Niko and Tris still don’t know what caused it, but they think they have now seen the people Tris and her friends heard on the wind the night before. Tris finds an orphaned starling in the ruins and decides to care for it, even though Niko warns her that it will need to be fed hourly. Tris returns to Discipline cottage and learns from Rosethorn what to do for her bird, while Niko proceeds to Pirate’s Point to investigate further. Meanwhile, Frostpine is teaching Daja how to find worked metal underground. The protective net around the entire harbor area and Winding Circle was damaged in the earthquake. The mages need to locate the broken pieces and mend the net, which sends out a powerful illusion so that pirates and raiders cannot find the harbor. With the net in pieces, they are vulnerable to attack. As Daja works with Frostpine, Sandry works with Lark to weave spelled bandages. Supplies have run low because of the earthquake, so Lark shows Sandry a magical shortcut that will allow her to weave more quickly. She cautions her not to do it often because it also drains her of her power. Rosethorn sends Briar to the kitchens in the Hub, the central building of Winding Circle, for food. Still not used to abundance, the former street rat hides to eat his treat. He smells cinnamon and poppy and remembers that Rosethorn said poppy can be used in an invisibility spell and cinnamon to baffle trackers. He concludes that a student has been experimenting with his master’s supplies. While Daja is finding the pieces of the net, she keeps seeing a ship out of the corner of her eye. She reports it to Frostpine, who draws on

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her magic to help him sense the ship and spies the pirate scout ship. He instructs the guards to close the gates of Winding Circle. In the afternoon, as Tris feeds her baby bird every thirty minutes, she tells Briar about being able to see magic. Briar can see it, too, and they conclude that this is another ability they share because of merging powers. Briar describes the invisible figure he spotted at the Hub because of Tris’s power. As Lark and Sandry rest from weaving, Sandry’s uncle, Duke Verdis, stops for a visit. He has come to keep Dedicate Superior Moonstream apprised of the situation. There are more pirates abroad than usual. The earthquake has made all of the coastal towns vulnerable. The pirate known as Queen Pauha is especially threatening because she has convinced several chiefs to join with her and her brother, who is the mage Enahar. While Emelan’s fleet guards the coast, Winding Circle employs its own methods of protection. The four apprentice mages and their teachers are having supper when a young man arrives with a letter for Niko. Tris recognizes him as her cousin Aymery who was sent away for mage training. He has been studying with Niko’s friend and has come to Winding Circle to do some research. Aymery tells Tris her father is ill and that she should go home but Tris refuses to leave. A novice comes for Niko and reports that every seeing crystal and mirror in the Hub has shattered, leaving them blind to what might be coming in the night. When Tris awakens in the middle of the night, she goes back out to the wall. She sees a storm out at sea, but when she tries to reach it with her spirit self, she slams into some kind of barrier. She sends a message to the captain that something is behind the clouds, and he sends for the warrior mages. Frostpine wakes Daja early. They need to strengthen the chain in the harbor, but it is risky because they think the clouds are masking a pirate fleet. From her life as a Trader on the sea, Daja remembers how brutal pirate attacks can be, but she agrees to help. While working on the chain, they spot two boxes bobbing in the water. Frostpine orders Daja to blow like a bellows and steer the boxes away from them. The boxes crash into one another and explode. Frostpine hurries to finish the chain. The clouds disappear and reveal the pirate fleet. They launch their catapults

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and a tower and one of Verdis’ ships explodes, scattering dead bodies. Feeling Daja’s danger, Sandry, Tris, and Briar connect through their circle of wool and reach out to her, seeing what’s happening through her eyes. The duke’s guard brings the exhausted Frostpine and Daja back to Discipline, where Rosethorn and Briar have already begun making burn ointment. They put Frostpine to bed, and Daja tells her friends about the horror of a thunder weapon that rips up people and ships. Rosethorn and Lark send Briar and Tris out with messages. They find Moonstream and Niko on the wall and meet Dedicate Skyfire, who is in charge of Winding Circle security. When the pirates launch two black balls, Tris, afraid they are thunder weapons, creates a wind funnel and swirls the balls away. Skyfire’s shield is not enough protection and when more balls are launched, they blow holes in the ground. The adults rush the young people off the wall, but Skyfire wants Tris to think about aiding in the Temple’s defense. Next they go to the kitchens at the Hub for the food that Rosethorn needs for the depleted Frostpine. While they are waiting, they see Aymery. Briar thinks it strange that Aymery has been in the kitchens and did not meet Dedicate Gorse, who is in charge. Briar knows from personal experience that the Dedicate sees everything. When there are more explosions, they hurry to the cottage. Aymery is looking for a place to stay since villagers are pouring into Winding Circle for protection, so Sandry offers her room. Dedicate Moonstream summons all of the senior mages. Frostpine explains that the pirates are concentrating on the south gate because the net there is ruined. Moonstream asks for mages to help defend the harbor cove. Briar accompanies Lark and Rosethorn as they go to the cove to help. Rosethorn starts growing a wall of brambles to deter the pirates, with Briar’s assistance. Despite their best efforts to grow the wall quickly, the pirates land their long boats and launch their battlefire into the bramble. Rosethorn is hurt by the attack, and Briar calls on his friends to share their power with him. He fuels his efforts with all his hate for the pirates and succeeds in growing the wall to more than four feet high, with the attacking forces buried beneath. The adults break up the circle, and Niko reprimands the young people for risking their lives by draining their power.

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He confiscates the woolen circle that Sandry keeps. Rosethorn has survived but must be carried home. While the others take long baths, Briar hurries home to inspect Aymery’s things. He finds cinnamon and poppy, a sleeping mixture, and an unbroken mirror. He waits in Tris’s room and tells her that Aymery tampered with the seeing room and is working for the pirates. Tris refuses to believe it. Tris wakes in the middle of the night and hears something downstairs. Briar joins her as she investigates. He is sure it is Aymery, up to no good. As they follow the sounds to the outdoors, Tris uses wind to clear the fog. They trip over a sleeping novice, and Briar says that Aymery put a sleeping potion in the food. They’re lucky that none of them had the energy to eat the food sent from the kitchens. Tris slams the fog away, which knocks Aymery against Winding Circle’s outer wall. He is there to open the gates for the pirates. He says that he tried to get Tris to leave, that he owes Enahar a lot of money, and that this betrayal is his way to repay him. Briar calls mind-to-mind for Sandry and Daja. Aymery tells Tris that Enahar wants the rare spell books housed in Winding Circle and wants to make slaves of the mages. He will kill Aymery if he doesn’t cooperate. Aymery knocks Tris down and moves to open the gate. It explodes and the lead pirate, who kills Aymery, orders the others to start killing. A pirate menaces Tris, but Sandry lassoes him. Tris rises, and the four friends create a magical shield while the fighting commences all around them. Niko, Lark, and Frostpine join the fray and disarm the pirates. Tris stands over Aymery’s body, sad and furious, lightning flickering all around her. She takes the earring Enahar used to control Aymery. Only Sandry has the courage to brave Tris’s lightning and calm her friend. When the explosions begin again, the adults leave to defend Winding Circle and order the children to stay in the cottage. They can’t sit idly by and instead go to the northern wall. There Tris practices hitting targets in the air with her lightning. A thunder weapon breaks through, and Tris blows it up with lightning. When they return to the cottage, Moonstream and Frostpine send the children upstairs, but Tris uses her breezes to listen to the adults and learns that they want to evacuate the children. The bramble wall has been burned down and the pirates’ weapons are destroying the spell net.

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Tris decides to fight back. The other three want to help, but she slips away without them. Nonetheless, they follow her to the south wall. She protects herself with a circle of lightning, and then creates a thirtyfoot cyclone. She sends it out to sea and slams it into the pirates’ barrier. Her three friends, who have joined her, are not hurt too much by her lightning because they are so connected. Sandry weaves a stronger barrier, and Tris pulls in her fire. They become one, as they were in the earthquake. Their spirits leave their bodies behind, and they attack the pirates’ barrier, careful to avoid the mage traps. They shatter the barrier and then concentrate on different areas. Briar focuses on regrowing the bramble wall. Daja calls to metal and dumps it into the sea. The Winding Circle Defenders attack the pirates now that they are vulnerable. Tris strikes the flagship with lightning and it explodes. In spite of this, she knows Enahar is still alive and asks Sandry to help her find him. While Tris locates the evil mage, each of her friends gets trapped. Tris whisks a wind tunnel through Enahar’s barrier and is about to loose lightning at his ship when he mindspeaks her to look around. She sees her friends held captive. Back on the wall, Niko returns their woolen circle of power to Tris, which makes them all stronger. They reach for help from their teachers who are willing to share their power. The three that are trapped break free and slash Enahar’s ties to the other slave mages. Tris raises a lightning bolt, and they all feed it power. She strikes the ship. Enahar is dying, but he is taking Tris with him. Sandry returns to her body and pries Aymery’s earring out of Tris’s hand. Daja creates a lightning bolt and melts the earring. Tris pulls free and drifts in the sea. Dead bodies float around her and remorse fills her. Lark brings her spirit back to her body. The duke’s navy arrives at last and the pirates flee. Once she recovers, Tris works in the infirmary as penance for the lives she has taken or destroyed. Daja’s Book In the fall following the pirate attack, Duke Verdis leads a party of guards and staff, along with Sandry, Briar, and Rosethorn, to Golden Ridge Valley to inspect the area suffering from grass fires. While they view the fires, Daja works in a local smithy making nails as Frostpine had directed,

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with Tris blowing wind through her bellows. A scarred, one-legged woman Trader arrives asking to speak with the smith. Since Daja is an outcast, she cannot speak with the woman and has Tris tell her that the smith is with the duke. Tris becomes annoyed with Trader Polyam, who wants to know Daja’s story but won’t talk to Daja herself. Tris relays her story until Daja suddenly calls for her. Tris runs into the forge and finds Daja trapped in growing iron. Tris mind-calls to her friends to send Frostpine and then takes Daja’s hand to try and free her. Through Tris, Briar makes the iron stop growing, but now Tris is trapped as well. Frostpine reaches the shop and explains that Daja’s magic got away from her, but that it is unusual for iron to be so susceptible to magic. He uses his power to free the girls. The iron that is left is leafy and lovely, and Trader Polyam wants to buy it, but she still won’t talk directly to Daja. Frostpine says it is not for sale. He needs to examine it to help Daja learn what happened and how to control her magic. Daja tells her that if she truly wants to buy it, she will have to talk to her, even though Daja is an outcast. Polyam ignores Daja. Daja retreats to the castle to bathe while Rosethorn shows Briar the fields of dried saffron. Niko joins the pair as Rosethorn says that the people in the area depend on their saffron crop and copper mining for income. The mines have no more copper and now the saffron crops have dried up in the drought. Rosethorn is worried that people might starve in the winter. As she bathes, Daja concentrates on her iron vine. She sees all of their magics mixed in it. Later in the castle courtyard, Lark tells Sandry that the four friends’ magic is so entwined, they must find a way to separate it again. Sandry needs to weave a map of their magic. She gives each of her friends a bobbin of thread to carry with them for a day. She will weave the map from the threads once they have absorbed their magic. Mage Firetamer dines with them. When a messenger reports another fire, he invites Niko to watch a demonstration of his skills. He offers to let Niko put it out, but Niko defers to Firetamer who casts a spell on a powder and uses it to quench the flames. He boasts to Rosethorn that there hasn’t been a forest fire in the area for thirty years because of his work. Rosethorn informs him sharply that forests need fire to thrive and that he is setting the stage for a fire that will not be easy to put out.

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The next day, Frostpine brings in a portable forge so that Daja can stay in the castle and still practice making nails. Polyam arrives decked out in yellow. She has undergone the ceremony that will allow her to talk to Daja. When negotiations are finished, she will have to be cleansed so that no one in the caravan will catch Daja’s bad luck. She makes a low offer for the vine that Daja finds insulting; her friends come to her defense and Polyam retreats. Rosethorn brings supplies for burn ointment to the courtyard and sets Tris and Briar to work. Lark brings weaving for Sandry. Daja begins to make her practice nails but feels the flame call to her. She weaves the blue heart of the flame with the orange stems and makes a fire square. When she returns it to the furnace, the fire goes out but the fire square remains. Daja explains that the fire wants her to make things with it, and Niko adds that the fire square feeds on magic not air, which is why it put the fire out. As Daja makes her way to the privy, there is a flash of heat. Steam erupts from the floor, covering both Daja and Briar, who is coming down the hall, with mud. Daja follows the pipeworks with her spirit, but molten heat from the earth grabs her. She breaks free and emerges in a pool surrounded by granite and pine trees. As she inspects the area, she finds a river of ice. Briar’s spirit follows her. Briar tells her she didn’t break the plumbing. He has found the crack, and they need to go back. They call on Tris to fix the crack and return to their bodies. When they get back to the courtyard, they find that Polyam has returned and set up for proper negotiations, which include a traditional Trader meal. Daja relishes eating the food she grew up on and invites her friends to eat with her. Polyam presents her with a gift, a copper bowl, which Daja places near the iron vine. When they finish eating, they see that the vine has surrounded the bowl and is absorbing the copper. Polyam doubles the amount of money she is offering for the living metal and promises to return the next day with a new gift. Sandry takes the bobbins from her friends and begins weaving a map with their threads. A day’s worth of weaving should show how their magics have combined. Once she and Lark see the map, then they can figure out how to fix it, but each must give up his or her magic temporarily for it to work. Then Sandry can weave a new pattern, with their magics separated once again.

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The next day, they decide to visit the glacier that Daja’s spirit found. Polyam has brought the new gift and offers to be their guide. Daja finds copper blooms on her iron vine and brings one with her on their expedition. When she plants it in the ground, Briar says that it is alive. As Daja and Polyam walk together, Polyam tells her that she was once the caravan’s horse handler, until she was injured in a rock slide. After examining the glacier, the friends and their teachers conclude that if they could safely melt the glacier, they could fill the lake and end the drought. As they are cleaning up from their meal, they see that Daja’s copper flower has grown and produced many other flowers, which means its roots have found copper. Niko hides the location until he can inform the countess. The people will have food again if they can mine the copper. When they return, Sandry goes back to her weaving. Their colors are scrambled because they are so entwined. Lark insists they must be separated, but the four like sharing each others’ powers and like being able to communicate mind-to-mind. Sandry suggests weaving a border into the pattern that will allow their magics to mix without overflowing or being overwhelmed. Sandry weaves such a cloth, mixing their powers within a border, and then the friends reclaim their powers. In preparation for handing her vine over to Polyam the next day, Daja examines it. She finds many copper and iron buds but sees that it needs more metal to grow any more and senses that something is not right. She wonders if she could create living metal on purpose. Briar tells her the vine needs roots, the way the copper bud in the field needed them. Daja pots the vine with a mixture of clay and iron so that it can grow roots. Polyam comes to pay for the vine, and Daja is sad to see their time come to an end. She was never really interested in the money, she just wanted to spend time with a Trader again. Firetamer insists that it is safe to travel, so Daja decides to go part of the way through the forest with the caravan. While the three friends and their teachers are lunching with the countess, who believes all the fires have been extinguished, Tris spots smoke. A tree catches fire. Niko and Tris offer to share their power to help Firetamer, but he refuses their assistance. He douses the fire, but a new one starts. He tries to put this one out as well, but the effort kills him. Rosethorn says that is too late to smother the blaze, since it has been simmering in the undergrowth for days. The villagers and Daja are in danger.

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As Daja rides with the caravan, she feels the heat. She cries out for the caravan to stop, but they all ignore her because she is an outcast. Polyam convinces them to halt. Daja investigates and sees the fire. Sandry suggests she try making a square again. With the help of her friends, she is able to hold part of the fire back, but now the caravan is trapped, for the fire is coming at them from the other side of the road as well. Rosethorn slows its progress by pouring her power into the trees. Daja gives control of the fire square to Sandry and Frostpine and faces another fire. She knows she might die trying to save those who treated her badly, but she must try. With power from Niko, Tris, and Briar, Daja breaks the fire free, embraces it, and shuttles it into the ground. Tris leads the fire to the glacier, and Niko says Daja can send it all there. She does, and it melts enough of the glacier to fill the lake. When she returns to her body, Daja sees that the heat her magic controlled burned her clothes off and turned her outcast Trader staff to ashes, leaving a puddle of brass that was the cap. On all fours in the dirt, her hand rests in the liquid brass. It coats her hand. She thinks it will hurt eventually, but she pushes those thoughts away and looks around for the caravan. The Traders are safe. Because Daja saved the caravan, the Trader leader gives her their family staff and tells her they will pay to clear her name and welcome her into the caravan. At last Daja can have what she has longed for, a home among Traders, but she feels torn because Traders do not work with their hands. Daja will have to give up working as a smith, and she will have to leave her new family. As she contemplates her choices, she creates a gift for Polyam, using the living brass that now coats her hand and getting help from her friends and teachers. When the time comes for the caravan to leave, Daja tells them she will accept the gift of her name being taken off the list of outcasts, but she will not be joining the caravan. She will stay and learn to use her magic with her friends. Then she presents Polyam with a living metal leg, crafted so that it will respond to Polyam like her own limb. Briar’s Book On the way to Urda’s House, the hospital for the poor in Summersea, Sandry tells Briar that he must pick a birthday. Then she visits her uncle, Duke Verdis. Briar is riding in the wagon with all the medical supplies he

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and his teacher Rosethorn have made for the poor. He has come with her regularly through the winter and made friends with the street rat Flick. When all the supplies are unloaded, Rosethorn lets Briar go to search for his friend. He can’t find Flick, but Alleypup leads him down into the sewers to her. She is sick with something that has spread blue pox all over her. Briar knows right away that she needs Rosethorn’s help. He calls to her through the plant roots reaching down to the sewers and explains what he’s found mind-to-mind. Alleypup guides Rosethorn back to Flick. Rosethorn examines Flick and knows this is a disease she’s never come across. Fearing a plague, she has Briar tell the girls they need Niko. Rosethorn and Niko confer through Tris and Sandry. The girls are horrified to learn of a disease that Niko has never seen either, but are still surprised when Rosethorn announces that she and Briar will not be coming home. The three will be going into quarantine, because it is the only chance to stop the disease from spreading. The duke sends soldiers to escort them safely to Urda’s House, where they will stay in quarantine. When they are clean and settled with food, Rosethorn chafes at the thought of being stuck nursing when she needs to be in Winding Circle helping them find a cure. Now Dedicate Crane, her rival, will work on it without her. While Lark and the girls worry about their friends, Rosethorn teaches Briar how to fill the sample boxes with their bodily fluids to help those at Winding Circle understand the sickness. Frostpine comes to fetch Daja; they need to make warded sample boxes quickly, because the Water Temple only has five available. The next day Crane tells them the masks and gloves are to be spelled with extra protection, since he and his staff are working with an unknown disease. Sandry and Lark agree to make up the special oil and work it into the protective garments. Crane passes on the news that the disease is spreading despite the quarantine. More and more people are sent to Urda’s as they come down with the disease. At last Henna, a Water Temple Healer, arrives to help, but she cannot cure the disease because she doesn’t know what it is. She can ease the suffering of the victims, but only if she shares out her power, a bit for each patient. After a hard night caring for patients, their door is unlocked and they are informed that the entire hospital is now a quarantine

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house, so the healers and apprentices can go anywhere in the house they need to. Tris rises early in the morning and goes for a walk along the wall. Niko asks her if she can avert the coming storm. He is afraid the disease is in the sewers, and when they rise, it will leak into the wells and water supplies of the city. Tris investigates but finds even if she averts this storm, there are more coming. Then the guards report that the pox has spread to those inside the city walls. When Rosethorn is called away, Briar stays with Flick, trying to convince himself that she will get better. Her pox fades, and he eagerly shows this to the returning Rosethorn. She, however, is worried about Flick’s fever and wonders why it resists the willowbark tea, once a sure method of temperature reduction. In spite of their concern, they must leave Flick to the care of others. All the fresh medicine that Rosethorn brought to Urda’s was stolen and sold, so the plant mages must refresh the remaining medicine if it’s to have any effect. They each work separately with their power to revive the year-old herbs. When Briar comes out of his trance, he finds Rosethorn crying. Worried about his teacher, he calls to Tris to have his shakkan and several potted plants sent to Urda’s. The next day Tris delivers the plants and immediately they help revive Rosethorn. Niko arrives to tell them that the quarantine is over. The disease has spread throughout Summersea, so there is no point in their remaining confined, but they still cannot return home because there is no sickness in Winding Circle. Frustrated that he can’t go home, Briar goes back to tend Flick and is alarmed that her fever is higher. In the night Flick has seizures. Briar tries to help by sharing his power with her, but it doesn’t work, since he is not a healer. As Briar tries to cheer her with talk, her breathing gets slower and slower until it stops. In the morning, Dedicate Crane’s detection oil arrives. Both Briar and Rosethorn’s thumbprints turn red which means neither is sick. The thumbprints of those who have the disease are turned white by the detection oil. Now they can go home. Briar wants to wait until Flick wakes up, but Rosethorn forces him to face the fact that Flick has died. He takes his shakkan and follows Rosethorn out. The girls and Lark welcome them home. The next day, Crane asks Rosethorn’s help with finding a cure. After a verbal scuffle, she agrees, as long as she can bring Briar to assist. Crane

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is not thrilled, but acquiesces. That night, Briar has a nightmare about Flick. He wakes, blaming himself for her death. Although it is the middle of the night, Sandry comes to him. He tells her that he wants to pick the day Flick died as his birthday as a way to remember her, but Sandry convinces him that his friend would not want him to feel badly for knowing her. Daja and Tris join them, and gradually Briar goes back to sleep. In the morning, Rosethorn and Briar go to Crane’s greenhouse where Rosethorn studies Crane’s notes and Briar learns the procedure for all the phases of the experiments. As Crane and Rosethorn try different magical combinations, Briar follows Crane’s instructions and keeps the different vials labeled and organized. As he works with the vials containing the disease, Briar thinks he sees the silver of magic. As a result, he is sure magic is part of the pox, even though Crane says they tested for it and didn’t find it. He needs Tris, who sees magic the best, but is not sure how to get her there. When Crane fires his note-taker for spilling a bottle of ink, Briar suggests sending for Tris. Briar calls her with mindspeak. Tris goes through the cleaning procedure, enters the work area, takes meticulous notes, and has the backbone to stand up to Crane when necessary. When they take a break, Briar shows Tris the trays with the vials of blue pox. She sees the magic and asks to see just the blue pox. She sees magic there as well. Tris tells Crane to summon Niko because there is magic in the blue pox. They do so and close the workshop for its nightly cleaning. In the morning, Niko insists that Tris come with him. He needs her so that he can cast a past-vision spell and try to trace the source of the plague, now that they know it is magical. Crane argues that she is his best note-taker, but Niko prevails. Tris is horrified that she will have to go into the sewers, but agrees to accompany Niko. After Tris and Niko leave, Frostpine tells Daja the duke needs them to make protective amulets for his men, but Lark tells Sandry she needs to rest. They have enough spelled masks and gloves for two days. On the way to the workshop, Briar, Rosethorn, and Crane learn that Temple folk now have the pox and will be nursed in Winding Circle. When they reach the workshop, Rosethorn is accidentally brushed with a drop from a vial of blue pox. She insists that she is all right, but Crane dismisses the worker. Tris and Niko follow the magical trail of the blue pox to the room of an impoverished mage. They find her dead, and Niko casts a vision spell

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to see where she kept her journal of notes. Drawing on Tris’s power, he sees the mage experimenting but not taking care to neutralize the magical substances before discarding them, which is the source of the blue pox. They find the journal and return to Discipline. Crane and Rosethorn study the journal and learn that the mage was trying to concoct a weight loss potion. Knowing what she used will help them find a cure. Tris returns to taking notes for Crane, and a feeling of progress uplifts the workers. Rosethorn finds the first key, but there are thirty-six needed altogether. When Rosethorn asks for willowbark tea, Briar knows something is not right. Rosethorn never gets headaches. In the afternoon, her red thumbprint has turned to white, and they all know she has the pox. She receives special permission from Moonstream for Lark to nurse her at home. As Crane continues making progress toward a cure, Rosethorn gets sicker and weaker. Once they find all the keys, they have to experiment to discover how to combine them to create the cure. The first cure does not work, but as soon as one does, Rosethorn receives a dose. Rosethorn begins to get better. Crane refines the cure. But then Rosethorn begins to cough. All the healers are at the end of their strength, and Rosethorn is getting worse. She might have pneumonia. Lark leaves to fetch Moonstream who is also a healer and warns the children not to put their magic into Rosethorn. The friends take turns tending Rosethorn. While Briar is with her, she has a seizure. Briar calls for his friends, then ignoring Lark’s warning, uses his magic to follow his dying teacher. The girls latch onto him with their power so he can find his way back. At last, he finds her in a garden that needs tending. She tells him her time has come, and he should go back without her, but he refuses. He insists that if she won’t return, he is going to stay with her. He tries to get the girls to let go, but feels their fresh surge of magic instead. At last, Rosethorn agrees to come with him, and the girls reel them in. Lark and Niko are furious with the four friends, but Rosethorn is alive, and Moonstream says there is no more pneumonia in her lungs. However, she has suffered some brain damage from the seizure and will have to relearn how to talk. Two months later, life has returned to normal at Discipline Cottage. Rosethorn speaks with a slight slur, but is otherwise back to normal. Briar has decided that his birthday will be the anniversary of the date he

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became Rosethorn’s student—because his life began when she welcomed him into her world. The Circle Opens Quartet: Plot Development Magic Steps After living together for four years at Discipline Cottage with Lark and Rosethorn, Tris, Briar, and Daja have each gone traveling with their teachers, Niko, Rosethorn, and Frostpine. Lark and Sandry have remained behind. Now fourteen, Sandry is staying with her uncle, Duke Verdis, helping care for him and run the affairs of Emelan while he recovers from a heart attack. When they go out for a ride one morning, they see young Pasco Alacon perform a dance for luck along the wharves for a fleet of fishing boats. Although his family is made up entirely of harriers, those who enforce the law, he just loves to dance. At the conclusion of the dance, Sandry tells him he has magic. He refuses to believe it, but agrees to meet her when the boats come in to see if his dance really did improve their catch. As they are talking, the duke receives word from the Provost that there has been a murder, and he goes to inspect the area. Sandry, worried about her uncle, concludes her arrangements for meeting Pasco and hurries after him. The guards try to block Sandry from entering the scene of the crime, as a sight not fit for a noble young lady, but Sandry insists, and her uncle lets her come. There is the body of a murdered man with a severed head. She notes that none of his protection spells were triggered. She would like to meet with the Provost’s mages, but she is more concerned with getting her uncle home to rest. Once Uncle Verdis is settled, Sandry meets Pasco at the wharves. The fishing boats are loaded with fish. It is their best catch ever. Pasco admits it must be magic but says his family will never accept him as anything but a harrier-mage. Sandry lets him leave but spins a fine thread of her magic and latches it onto his so that she can find him when she needs to. Realizing she needs help, she visits Lark at Discipline. Lark tells her that since she has now received her mage medallion, as have her three friends, it is her responsibility to teach Pasco until they find a mage who shares his specialty. She has never heard of dancing magic, but she

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knows some dancers. If they cannot find anyone else, Sandry can teach him to control his power while a dancer can teach him dancing. Sandry is reluctant to take on a student, but Lark tells her she has no choice. The next day, while Pasco is practicing baton work with his cousins, his mother is called away and his cousin Vani starts bullying him. Afraid of being beaten up again, Pasco hums a tune and takes some dance steps that finish in a leap. Vani and two other cousins end up suspended in the air, and Pasco does not know how to bring them down. He knows he needs help and runs to fetch Sandry. Meanwhile, Sandry is telling her uncle about Pasco and how she needs to be his teacher. She learns there is no new information about the murder. Pasco arrives and begs Sandry for help. Sandry accompanies him home. She meets his mother and grandmother and explains that he has dance magic and that she will be his teacher until a dance-mage can be found. Pasco agrees to study magic with her if she will just get his cousins down. Sandry takes Pasco to a private room, wards it, and begins to teach him meditation so that he can learn to control his power. Once he is calm, she asks him how he thinks he can undo what he has done, and he suggests doing the steps backward. She takes him to his cousins and wards him so that his magic will not affect anyone but those intended. He does the dance backward and his cousins come tumbling down. As life proceeds normally in Summersea, Alzena informs her dragonsalt-addicted mage that it is time to kill another Rokat. The first murder was not her last, and she will not rest until all the Rokats are dead. Captain Qasam, who is in charge of the murder investigation, reports to the duke that he believes the rivals of the Rokat family, the Dihanurs are behind the murder of Rokat, since he was responsible for killing an entire family of theirs. The duke assigns guards to protect the rest of the Rokats in Summersea, even though he does not like the way they do business. Meanwhile, Alzena Dihanur and her husband Nurhar, with their mage, are waiting at the home of their next target. They are clothed in the essence of nothingness. Unmagic is their mage’s specialty. It renders them invisible to people and to spells. It makes it possible for them to slip past the extra guards and the protection spells, throw confusion balls, and cut off Rokat’s head.

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The Provost reports this second murder to Duke Verdis. Sandry accompanies them to the infirmary where the one injured guard is being treated. They think he is resistant to healing because he has been healed often, but Sandry sees a shadow on his broken leg. She uses her thread magic to enclose the shadow. The mage-harrier, Wulfric, gives her a silk sack, and she slides the shadow into it. Now the healer’s magic works. Sandry also sees the shadow on the other guard and removes it from him as well. Wulfric studies the shadows. The next morning Pasco comes to the castle for his magic lesson. They try meditation, but Sandry can tell that he feels intimidated and arranges to meet him in town the next day. Lark brings the famous dancer, Yazmin, to meet Sandry. Yazmin has never heard of a dancemage, but she offers to teach Pasco dancing herself. When Verdis joins them, Sandry notices a spark of attraction between the two. While they are partaking of refreshment, Wulfric arrives and reports that they are dealing with a mage who is addicted to dragonsalt and deals in unmagic. Since unmagic is an absence of magic, it is impossible to track. Duke Verdis orders even more guards for the remaining Rokats. At the next Rokat house, Alzena and Nuhur spot the poorly disguised guards and distract them with a street brawl and a fire. Alzena climbs unseen into the family room, kills the entire family, and takes the father’s head. A lucky shot sends an arrow through her leg, but she is still able to escape. Sandry is in town buying beads when she sees smoke. At the Rokat house she discovers small pools of shadow. She covers them with cloth spelled for protection and avoidance. She finds blood in some of them and makes the cloth arch over those patches so that the blood is not polluted. Now she knows that the killer is hurt. Wulfric arrives and says that because Sandry has protected the blood, they can use it to track the killer. They gather the clothes, but cannot clean the house of all the shadow at this time. An exhausted Sandry returns to the citadel to find that her uncle has brought all the Rokats there to live under his protection. A healer treats Alzena and then is killed by the patient. Nuhar forces the mage to take them to safety. Although still exhausted the next day, Sandry meets Pasco for his lesson. After practicing meditation, she takes him to meet Yazmin, who works him hard with several exercises. When

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she is ready to see him dance, Sandry wards the room so the magic will not spill out. Verdis stops by to invite Sandry and Yazmin to lunch. They settle into a routine of meditation lessons, dance lessons, and lunch with the duke. After three days, Wulfric interrupts lunch to speak to Sandry, who was looking for an excuse to leave Verdis and Yazmin alone together. Wulfric reports that he is unable to track the killer with the blood because it is too full of the unmagic. Together, they go to clean the victim’s house of the shadow. Sandry follows Wulfric through one room, but while she waits for him to unseal the next, he falls forward. The guards pull Sandry back and battle the man and woman who were hiding there. Sandry sets a net of power between the guards and the attackers. She tries to hold onto them but the mage calls the Dihanurs to him, and they are swallowed by unmagic. It pulls Sandry toward it as well, but the guards grab her. Free of its grasp, Sandry sees that Wulfric’s throat has been slit. She orders the guards out so she can clean up the unmagic. Wulfric’s assistants clean the other rooms. Wearily, she reports the events to the Provost’s guard and then makes her way to Winding Circle to seek help from the mages’ council. When Sandry returns home, she tells her uncle the plan they have conceived at Winding Circle. Sandry is going to spin the unmagic into a net. Pasco will dance to call the Dihanurs to the net. They will be unable to resist because they are so tainted with unmagic. Lark explains that it must be Sandry who sets the trap because she is the only one who can work directly with magic. All other mages work with substances. Sandry, on the other hand, works with magic as if it were a substance. Invisible in her cloak of unmagic, Alzena inspects the citadel, planning how to kill the next Rokat. When she falls, the guards are alerted and fight although they cannot see her. She is wounded but escapes. Pasco is excited by Sandry’s plan and agrees to his part in it. Yazmin designs a dance for him and has him practice for three days until it is perfect. At the same time, the Winding Circle mages prepare a special tent for Sandry and a spelled spindle. In the protected tent, after she is cleansed, Sandrey spins the nothing, making a cord out of each batch of nothing. The unmagic tries to lure her into giving up. The shadows fill

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her with visions of disasters, but Sandry persists. When all the shadows are spun into cords, she weaves them into a net. No healer will come near Alzena after the murder of the last one, and she and her husband remain listless for three days. She takes dragonsalt to revive and then makes new plans. Sandry sleeps as the Winding Circle mages transport her to Durshan Rokat’s house. Durshan has volunteered to be the bait in the trap. He will leave the protection of the duke so that the killers will follow him home, thinking him easy prey. Sandry lays her net and gives Pasco the pouch of dragonsalt to place in the center. The net disappears into the specially tiled floor. Pasco dances perfectly and places the pouch. He is not happy to be dismissed and sneaks back to the house. Alzena and Nuhur fall for Durshan’s trick and follow him to his home. When Alzena and her husband enter the kitchen, they see a piece of cake floating in midair and know that someone is there. Alzena captures Pasco. Sandry’s net catches them and sucks away the unmagic revealing the killers, their mage, and Pasco. Sandry shows herself. Alzena holds a knife to Pasco’s throat saying she will let him live if Sandry lets them go. Sandry does not believe them and stalls, pretending she’s complying. She spins her connection to Pasco into a rope. Then she twirls the spindle so that it will draw all unmagic into itself and at the same time pulls Pasco free. Alzena and Nuhur are so riddled with unmagic that their bodies explode. They defeated their enemies, but Sandry feels guilty for killing them. She takes time to recover. Lark assures her that she did the right thing, that it is all right to feel badly too, and that she won’t end up like Alzena. She approves of Sandry staying on with her uncle, since Sandry is an adult now, with her own life to live. Street Magic Rosethorn and Briar are staying in the city of Chammur on the eastern border of Sotat, on their way to visit the Yanjing Empire. There have been so many requests for the services of green mages that they are pausing in their travels for six weeks. Briar is making herbal medicines, and Rosethorn is helping the farmers with land that has been overused. When Briar is at last finished with his work, he visits the Golden House market frequented by nobles, where he would like to sell the

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miniature trees he specializes in growing. The profits from these sales have helped to fund their journey. Although the guards inspect his hands for the X’s that mark a thief, they only see his vine tattoos and let him in. While he is examining some semiprecious stones, he sees a flash of silver that tells him there is magic. He locates the source and finds a scruffy looking girl sorting through and polishing stones. He asks her if she is calling to the magic in the stones or putting it in herself. The skinny waif with bronze skin and almond-shaped eyes runs from him. The shopkeeper tells Briar that her name is Evvy. He gives her a few coppers to polish his stones, which are the ones that always sell first. Briar suspects that Evvy does not know she has magic. As Briar wends his way through the stalls, members of the Viper gang surround him. They think he is a threat, but Briar convinces them that he is not a member of any gang, although privately he remembers what gang life was like when he lived on the street. One Viper follows him home, and Briar tips off rival members of the Camelgut gang that there is a Viper in their territory. They beat the Viper to discourage him from trespassing again. Evvy, who considers herself a useless daughter and runaway slave, is intrigued by Briar and follows him from the rooftops. She does not understand why he would think she had magic and wants to make sure he will leave her alone. The Vipers report both Evvy and Briar to their royal supporter, the Lady Zenadia, who is bored with her noble life and has taken an interest in exercising control through the Vipers. She wants to meet Evvy. If she is indeed a stone mage, there are many ways she could help the Vipers. She orders the gang to beat the three Camelguts who attacked them and then invites the rest to join the Vipers. At home, Briar tells Rosethorn about Evvy, and Rosethorn tells him it is his job to teach her the basics and find her a stone mage who will take on her training. Briar protests but eventually acquiesces. The next day, although Evvy tries to avoid him, Briar finds her at Golden House and attaches a thin vine of his magic to her, so he can always locate her. He follows her to Old Town but is reluctant to enter the tunnels. When a woman chases him from her roof, Briar turns back toward. Now, Evvy follows him and sees how all the plants along the way greet him.

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Returning home, Briar spots her on the rooftop and leaves out a tray of food for her. He works on his protection balls, a combination of seeds that he can call to life for defense in emergencies, and he tends his miniature trees. When she thinks it is safe, Evvy leaps to Briar’s rooftop. She wants the food for herself and for the multitude of cats she cares for in the caves. Briar confronts her and tells her she has magic and must learn to control it before her power escapes her in ways she does not want it to. Since he is not forcing her to stay, Evvy gathers the rest of the food and flees. Briar says he will put out more food the next day. Evvy almost succeeds in reaching Old Town before the Vipers, who have been following her all day, surround her. One tries to grab her, but Evvy scrambles away and throws gravel, commanding it to help. The stones flame with light and heat and strike the Vipers, who run away. Briar feels Evvy’s fright and the flare of her magic. He finds her and holds her with a vine until she explains what happened. He makes her swear that she will come for training the next day and then releases her. When Briar is on his way home, the Camelguts tell him his friend in the gang is hurt. He goes to him at once, but it is too late. More injured gang members arrive, and Briar helps them all he can. He encourages them to get a healer, but they won’t. They report that the Vipers have been attacking them. Lady Zenadia commands the Vipers to keep attacking the Camelguts but not Evvy, to just follow her for the time being. When she meets with a rebellious Viper privately, she has him killed. She will not tolerate being questioned. Briar has learned that the only stone mage left in the city is Master Stoneslicer, who lives and works in the palace. When Evvy comes the next day, he gives her a meal and new clothes, informing her they are going to the palace, but Evvy refuses. Briar is summoned to care for more injured Camelguts, and Evvy goes with him. Briar tends to the wounded and asks Evvy to make a crystal glow for light. He’s surprised at how easy it is for her, and Evvy tells him she was practicing. Evvy also heats a stone for him, which she finds much harder to make steady. Briar tells her that is because Evvy can’t control her power yet, but that Stoneslicer will teach her. Again, Evvy refuses to go to the palace. She is afraid of being put in prison or sold as a slave. The remaining Camelguts feel

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overwhelmed by the Vipers and so vote to join them. Disgusted, Briar leaves them to their own devices and takes Evvy with him. Briar visits Stoneslicer on his own and finds him fat and condescending. He refuses to teach Evvy, but when Briar presses him, he offers to pay for Evvy to go to Winding Circle. Furious, Briar leaves without taking the money. On his way home, Briar spots a Viper on the roof and confronts her. He surrounds her with blooming roses and triggers an allergic reaction. She confesses that they want Evvy for her stone magic. Briar says that Evvy will never join the Vipers. When he has the roses let the Viper go, she escapes. Briar tells Rosethorn that Stoneslicer rejected Evvy, and Rosethorn goes to see him herself. While she’s gone, Briar begins teaching Evvy to meditate. When Evvy goes into stone too deeply, Briar brings her out, and they try again. Briar touches Evvy’s eyes with special drops so that when she reaches the center of her power, she can see it. Meanwhile, Lady Zenadia has the Viper who is allergic to roses killed and then summons the leader and plots with him to crush his foes. Briar sets up his stall in the Golden House. Rosethorn has arranged for Stoneslicer to meet with Evvy there. Lady Zenadia comes by and engages Briar in conversation about his trees. When Evvy arrives, Lady Zenadia inspects her, and Briar thinks that something is not right. Lady Zenadia offers to have Evvy come and work for her, and Briar turns her down. After she buys a tree and departs, Evvy tells him that she is the money behind the Vipers. Stoneslicer comes and tests Evvy. When she shatters his diamond, Briar realizes that Evvy is stronger than Stoneslicer. He agrees to teach her, but Evvy turns him down. Briar decides that while he may not be able to teach Evvy stone magic, he can teach her to read and write. When they return home, they find that Rosethorn has already prepared a room for Evvy and found books on stone magic to help Briar with her lessons. Evvy goes back to her cave for her stones and cats and then moves in with Briar and Rosethorn. The next day, Briar delivers the miniature larch to Lady Zenadia and repots it for her. Stoneslicer is there with her, and they try to convince Briar to bring Evvy. Lady Zenadia will give her a place to live, and Stoneslicer will teach her there. Briar refuses and as he leaves, senses there is a strange reason for the trees in her gardens to be flourishing.

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On his way home, the Watch intercepts him and brings him to the matabir, who enforces the law, and his mage. They question Briar about Lady Zenadia, because they have lost two spies in her household and suspect her of foul deeds. If they can prove her crimes, even her connection to royalty will not save her. They want Evvy to spy for them. Briar turns them down as well. In the morning, Rosethorn is preparing to bring the land-healing supplies to the farmers. She tells Briar that they will move on in six days when she returns. After she leaves, Briar begins teaching Evvy to read, combining these sessions with lessons on the properties of different kinds of stones. When Briar learns that Mai, one of the former Camelguts, is hurt, he wards the house and tells Evvy to stay put. He finds Mai has been badly beaten. Once she can speak, she tells him that it was the Vipers who beat her in order to lure him away from Evvy. Mai tells Briar to go save Evvy, but he cannot leave her. Instead, he tends her wounds and brings her to the temple where she can receive healing. As he works, he remembers that he forgot to ward the roof. The Vipers capture Evvy. Waking up a captive, she calls to the stones for help. When they explode, the Vipers put her back to sleep with sleepy juice and take her to Lady Zenadia. In the meantime, Briar has discovered that Evvy is missing and packs his protection balls to hold off all who would interfere with his rescuing her. He tells the Watch to fetch the matabir because Zenadia has kidnapped Evvy. Then he uses his vines to break through Lady Zenadia’s walls. Evvy wakes and pretends she wanted to be with Lady Zenadia but Briar wouldn’t let her. This gives Lady Zenadia a false sense of security. In the garden, Briar discovers the skeleton of a child. Then he uncovers fresher corpses beneath the almond trees. Briar feels Evvy’s fury, hears the thunder of stone falling, and knows that Evvy has freed herself. The grass warns him that Lady Zenadia’s killer mute is approaching. He throws the thorn seeds and makes them grow fast enough to kill the mute. When the wall explodes, revealing the rest of the bodies of Lady Zenadia’s victims. The Watch arrives, but Lady Zenadia kills herself to escape being taken into custody. When Rosethorn returns, she finds Briar and Evvy waiting for her outside the city. Briar tells her what happened and that he is having

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nightmares. She answers that the best he can do is learn to balance the good with the bad. As they leave together for Yanjing, Briar is eager to introduce Evvy to Sandry, Tris, and Daja; he is sure he has met another girl as difficult as they are. Cold Fire Daja and Frostpine are staying with friends of Frostpine’s in Kugisko, a city of canals in Namorn. Winter holds the city in its frozen grasp and everyone skates wherever they need to go. Daja does not know how to skate and Nia, one of the twin daughters of the Bancanor, is trying to teach her. Everyone thinks Daja is just a student of Frostpine’s who repairs jewelry. Daja prefers it that way. She finds it easier if people do not know she already has her mage medallion. The lesson does not go exceedingly well. When they return home and settle in the kitchen, Daja watches Nia’s twin, Jory, use magic in her cooking. Daja tells her, if she finds a way to make the unlumping spell a powder, her fortune would be made. Jory insists she does not have any magic. Both she and Nia have been tested with no results. Daja explains that ambient magic is a different kind that the testers often miss. A call of ‘‘fire’’ from the alley interrupts them. Daja watches the fire brigade form and work to put the fire out. She is impressed that they work so well, since many of the buildings in the city are made of wood. She sees a man emerge from the burning stable with two boys and respects his courage. She learns that his name is Bennat (Ben) Ladradun, and she expresses her admiration when they meet. Later the family tells her that after losing his wife and children in a devastating fire, he studied with the mage Goldforge and brought back his fire-fighting techniques. He has no magic but has been training the townsfolk and trying to get funding from the council. Daja noticed that he had burned his hand rescuing the children and wonders if she can make him living metal gloves and, perhaps, a fireproof suit. When she visits Frostpine in his room, he shows her counterfeit coins and tells her that Heluda Salt, the local magistrate’s mage, has asked him to help uncover the criminal responsible. Daja tells him Jory has cook-magic. He says that since they are twins, Nia must also have some kind of magic. He insists that Daja begin teaching both of them and help find them the right mage teachers.

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To figure out Nia’s talent, Daja fashions a living metal mirror, spelled with scrying magic. She joins the family and explains to their parents that the twins have ambient magic. Nia looks in the mirror and sees all things wooden. Frostpine announces that she is a carpentry mage, which is good because she already loves to whittle. Jory looks in the mirror and receives confirmation that she is indeed a cook-mage. Daja says she will teach the girls to meditate as a way to help control their power and asks their parents to make up lists of likely local teachers. After a day of rest, Daja visits the prospective teachers. Some are more willing than others. She sees a fire and heads to the Shopgirl district. Ben is rescuing girls caught inside and supervising the brigade as they fight the fire. When a girl appears in the third-floor window, those watching below say she is blind and they fear that she will never find her way out on her own. Ben is preparing to go in, but Daja strips off her outer clothes and tells Ben she will go. He covers her with a waterdrenched blanket. Daja enters the burning building and uses her power to rescue the girl and her birds. Later, the unnamed man who set the fire returns to make sure all the embers are dead. He didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt, but wanted to test the firefighters. He admires the way Daja can walk though flames and wants to test her as well. The next day, the girls wake Daja early for skating lessons. At Ben’s request, Daja visits him to discuss the fire. Both think the fire was set, and Ben says he will report it to the magistrates. His mother interrupts them. She insults Daja and treats Ben badly. While the two talk, Daja examines Ben’s shelf of grisly fire mementos. Although she is puzzled by this, she offers to make Ben fireproof gloves. After visiting more prospective teachers for the girls, she returns to teach them to meditate. They are hard to settle down, and Daja realizes that each has her own style. The next day, Daja takes them to meet the mages who could teach them. Nia picks the first mage, Comac, who runs a large shop and would delegate her teaching to his assistant Armen. Both Comac and Daja think that Nia should meet the other mages before deciding, but Nia has made up her mind. Armen asks that Daja keep teaching Nia meditation. Daja leaves Nia with Comac and continues on with Jory. After visiting all the cook-mages on the list, Jory suggests visiting one who is not on the list, Olennika Potcracker, who used to cook for the empress. Now

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she runs the kitchens for the hospital for the poor that she established in Blackfly Bog. Daja is skeptical, but Olennika takes Jory on a trial basis. She also asks that Daja keep teaching her meditation. In the evening when Daja tries to teach her, Jory is restless and bored, and they get nowhere. In the morning, she tries to teach the girls staff-work as a way to meditate and still move. Jory likes it, but Nia hates it. Once the girls have gone for their respective lessons, Daja goes to work in a local forge so she can fashion the things she will need to construct the gloves. She visits Ben at his office to make a mold of his hands and arms. All the workers have their coats on, so she subtly brings in more heat. When they are finished, she examines the burnt-out warehouse with Ben, thinking it odd that a man who lost everything in a fire, should still be so involved with it. On the following day, when only Jory comes for meditation lessons, Daja instructs her to practice blocks, while she uses her mirror to find Nia. Nia refuses to practice staff-work with Jory. She likes quiet meditation. Daja agrees to teach Jory staff-work in the mornings and Nia quiet meditation in the evenings. Daja spends some time working on the gloves, takes a break to practice skating, and then makes jewelry. She has been able to amass a small fortune selling the jewelry she makes from the living metal on her hand. She thinks the gloves are almost finished, but then they collapse. She concludes that she needs to support them with a hinged metal skeleton which will take much longer to construct. It also means that a suit is probably impossible. Ben leaves the worship service he has been attending with his mother, thinking about how much he despises her. He wonders if it is time to put her out of her misery. He has not told the magistrates about the Shopgirl fire being set because he wants them to figure it out for themselves. At home, he fetches his fire-starting device that he learned how to make while studying with Goldforge. The device will allow him to be far from the fire when it starts. He recalls that he felt at peace when studying with Goldforge. Now it is shattered by living with his mother; his only peace is fighting fires. Daja works on the gloves until she needs to give her power time to recoup. Ben sets a fire in a confectioner’s shop and prepares to be

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summoned, but his men never call him. They believed they could handle it on their own, but they bungled the job. A beggar woman and a firefighter died from smoke inhalation; another firefighter was severely injured. Although Ben is not pleased that they did not fetch him, he feels joy at his power over life and death and goes to the council for more funds. They refuse him, citing his brigade’s failures. Ben decides to teach them a lesson. Daja and Frostpine attend a mages’ party. Heluda and others are discussing the most recent fire and speculating that it was set. Daja tells her that the Shopgirl fire was set as well and is surprised that Ben did not report it. Heluda assures her that both will be investigated. As Daja and Frostpine take the sleigh home, they spot a fire and go to help. The house of a councilman’s mistress is on fire. Ben is supervising the brigade. He sends Daja and Frostpine in to get the servants and children out. Daja uses her power to hold back the fire so that as many women and children escape as possible. She finds a maid unconscious with two infants. She cannot hold off the fire and help the infants. Frostpine lends his aid, but Daja needs to get out of the house before it collapses. Daja holds back the fire as long as she can and escapes, but passes out and is brought back to the Bancanor house. In the morning, to her sorrow, she learns that the maid and one of the babies died. Although Heluda confirms that this fire and the one at the confectioner’s were both set, they need Frostpine to catch the counterfeiters before investigating further. Daja’s magic is too depleted to work on the gloves or jewelry, so she goes skating. She returns to the site of the fire to face the deaths and feels deep sadness. Home once again, Frostpine reports that they caught the counterfeiters. Ben visits Daja, and she asks who could hate him so much that they would want to hurt him. She thinks the fires were set to discredit him. She asks if he has met anyone evil. When she tells him that someone this evil should make his skin crawl, Ben replies that people are not that simple. He tries on the gloves and loves them. Daja tells him it will take much longer to make a suit. She is confused when he asks her not to give up on him. A few days later, Daja delivers the gloves. Ben tests them in the hearth and is amazed. When he goes to try them in the kitchen hearth,

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which burns hotter, Daja notices that he has added three more mementoes to his shelf of fire remnants. Ben returns, enthralled with the gloves. Together, they make plans for the suit. When Ben comes to visit Daja for suit measurements, he tells her that he will be gone for at least two weeks on business. Annoyed with the council for denying him more funds, Ben plans for a disaster to occur while he is away. On his way out of town, he plants a fire-starter laced with boom dust in a bathhouse furnace, using the gloves Daja made to set the starter deep in the furnace. He regrets that he will not be there for the explosion and fire but is sure it will teach the council the lesson they deserve. When they hear of the fire, Daja and Frostpine go to help. By the time they arrive, it is too late to do anything but care for the survivors. They recognize the effect of the boom-stones from their experience with the pirates’ attack. The next morning Heluda visits Daja and tells her that she has found traces of Daja’s magic in the bathhouse fire. Some wanted to bring Daja in for questioning, sure this meant that she was guilty, but Heluda stopped them. She gives Daja iron salvaged form the fire. Daja touches it and feels it is a piece from the furnace that exploded. She knows that if she keeps touching it, it will change her life. She can face what has happened, or she can hide. She chooses to face it. She clasps the iron and experiences what it experienced. She feels her gloves on it but has trouble admitting that Ben must have set the bomb and the fires. Heluda tells her that children of monsters become monsters. The only time Ben gets respect and admiration is at a fire. He loves fire. Daja relents and sees that Ben used her gloves for taking lives when she meant them to save lives. Heluda assures her that she should not blame herself. Heluda wants Daja to testify against Ben when they have collected the evidence they need to arrest him. Daja reveals to Heluda that Ben has a shelf of fire mementoes. Ben returns from his trip early. There is a message from Heluda waiting for him at the gate, politely asking to confer with him about the fires. When he gets home, he sees that his mementoes have been moved, and there is another note from Heluda. He deduces that she suspects him and puts a long-standing plan into motion. An agitated Nia brings Daja to Ben’s house, telling her she senses fire in the cellar. Daja investigates

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and senses many fires, cries the alarm, and uses her power to hold back the largest fire. Nia insists on searching for Ben’s mother with Daja. They find her murdered in the bedroom. Daja’s control wavers and some fire escapes, landing on oil jars and exploding. Daja forces the fire underground to the frozen river which melts. They escape the house, and Daja releases the fire, which is then extinguished by the river water. Daja is determined to track Ben through the gloves. She and Nia are being tended to when Nia feels that Jory is in trouble. In her mirror, Daja sees smoke in Olennika’s hospital. Jory is helping the sick escape while Olennika holds back the fire. Ben is helping with the rescue effort, wearing the gloves. Daja skates to the hospital. She knows she will not arrive in time to save lives, but she doesn’t want Ben to escape. As she reaches Blackfly Bog, Jory tells her Ben is in the nursery. When the nursery roof falls in, many assume he is dead, but not Daja. She mindspeaks to Olennika through their mutual connection with fire, and Olennika asks her to rescue those who are mad. Daja saves as many as she can, including one who is more coherent than the others. When she is about to re-enter the burning building, he warns her not to, but she does anyway. At the center of the inferno, she spins out a thread of living metal to find its like and follows it to a trapdoor. She comes upon Ben in a shed putting on skates. Daja uses heat to fuse his blades and her power to fuse the gloves she crafted with such care. He begs for mercy, but she leaves him shackled. Four weeks later he is sentenced to execution by fire. Daja goes to face the consequences of her actions by witnessing his death. She can’t bear to watch him burn slowly, so she releases a burst of power. Frostpine, Olennika, and Jory send power as well. Their flash of heat kills him quickly. Frostpine and Daja stay until the passes open in the spring. The hospital is being rebuilt, and Daja promises she will return. Heluda offers to make them magistrates, but Daja says smithing is in their blood. Shatterglass Tris and Niko journey to Tharios, the capital of the city-state of Tharios for a grand gathering of mages. While Niko is discussing all things visionary with his colleagues, Tris decides to explore glassmaking, which is an interest of hers. She asks directions of a prathmuni, not realizing that in

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this society those who handle the dead are considered untouchables. No one talks to them. Tris clothes herself in breezes to keep cool and continues to the Street of Glass. She is admiring the fine glasswork when suddenly her breezes are whipped away along with much of the area’s maintenance magic. She investigates and finds the magic is all streaming into the yard of a shop called Touchstone Glass. She witnesses the glassmaker struggling to blow glass, but the glowing bulb of glass is being distinctly uncooperative. Instead of bowing to the glassmaker’s will, it becomes a living glass dragon. Tris asks the man why he didn’t ward the shop first, but he declares he has no magic. Tris protects the dragon from its maker, who tries to destroy it. When he won’t stop, Tris zings him with a tiny bolt of lightning. Since he refuses to take on the care of his creation, Tris claims the dragon and informs him that she will be reporting him to the Mage’s Guild. Kethlun Warder, journeyman glassmaker, huddles in the corner of the shop waiting for his body to stop reacting to Tris’s lightning. A year ago he was at the top of his craft, about to become a master and get married, when he went for a walk and was struck by lightning. At first, he was half-paralyzed and unable to speak. Gradually he recovered, but now he is clumsy with glass. Sometimes he thinks he’s going mad because he thinks the glass wants him to shape it in certain ways. To avoid demotion back to apprentice, he embarked on a journey to distant relatives and now is helping his cousin Antonou. When he has control of his body again, he realizes he can move and speak, but the stammer is back. He devoutly wishes to never see the lightning girl again. Dema, an investigator-mage working for the law-enforcing arurim, dreams of four murdered women asking him why he has yet to avenge their deaths. He has been investigating the mysterious deaths of four yaskedasi with no success and little help. Since yaskedasi are artists and dancers who flout their bodies, they are considered no better than streetwalkers and very few resources are allocated to solve crimes against them. Dema is called to the Labrykas fountain where another murdered yaskedasi lies. He has little time to investigate before the priests come to cleanse the area. The people of Tharios believe in the necessity of

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cleansing in order not to be polluted by death. They are convinced that it is what saved them hundreds of years ago when the empire crumbled. As a result, they will brook no interference with their customs, even to solve a string of murders. As Dema does what he can, Tris examines glassmakers’ stalls. The mages are all at the same conference as Niko because glass magic is often related to visionary magic. Tris realizes that most of the glass mages are academic mages, who learn the spells and charms that they use. Keth, however, is an ambient mage, as she and her foster siblings are. When he returns home, Niko discovers Tris and the glass dragon in her room. She tells him what happened, and Niko examines the dragon with his power of seeing. He says the dragon is made of a surge of glass magic, but that there are also bits of other kinds of magic in her, and her blood is lightning, but not Tris’s lightning. Tris names the dragon Chime for the sound she makes when someone is petting her. Niko announces that he and his fellow mages have decided to write a compendium of visionary magic. Tris wants to know if this includes scrying the wind, but Niko says there is no one at the conference who can do that. When Keth, who lives in the artist district with the yaskedasi, arrives home, he learns that Iralima, who rented a room in his building, was murdered. He offers to help in the care of her daughter who is now an orphan. When he cannot sleep, he goes to the roof. There, he admits to himself that he does indeed have magic and will have to find a teacher. Wanting to make sure Keth gets his magic under control, Tris looks for him at the shop. His cousin explains what happened to Keth a year ago and tells Tris that he is now looking for a mage to teach him. Tris wonders if he will be able to find someone to teach him to control both the glass magic and lightning aspects of his power. While she is in the glass district, she buys glass coloring agents as food for Chime who has been eating everything, whether it is good for her or not. Keth presents himself at the Mage Hall, stating that he needs a teacher. The students test him and then refer him to a mage. She has him blow a globe. He succeeds, but the ball is full of lightning. She says that this is beyond her skills, and she refers him to someone else. And so his day goes. No one can teach him. When he expresses his frustration, he draws a crowd of mages. Niko is among them. Niko evaluates him and

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announces that he is an ambient glass mage, drawing power from glass, not from within, and that he was transformed by lightning, which gives his power its strength and its unpredictability. Niko tells him there is a lightning mage in town, and since Keth knows his craft, what he really needs is to study with that mage. Niko invites Keth home for supper, but does not tell him that the lightning mage is the girl he hoped to never see again. At home, Tris is researching glass magic when Chime screeches. She sees Keth and flies at him, spitting glass needles. Tris traps her in a lightning cage, and Niko introduces her as the lightning mage he spoke of. Tris is about to protest taking Keth on but relents and begins to remove the glass needles from his face. Meanwhile, Keth’s lightning ball is brought to Dema. When he looks in it, he sees the image of another murder victim. Dema rushes to the Forum and finds all as it was pictured in the globe. He tries to use his investigation spells, but the priests stop him so they can cleanse the area. As Tris removes the needles from Keth’s face, he tells her about his life. He has trouble believing someone so young is a mage, even after he sees her medallion. He wonders where her mage kit is, and Tris explains it is in her braids. She knows exactly which braids carry earth force, tidal force, lightning, wind, and heat. She doesn’t carry rain because it makes her hair frizzy. Finally, the two agree that they seem to be stuck with each other. Niko departs to join his fellow mages, and Tris asks Keth to show her that he knows how to meditate. Dema interrupts them, wanting to arrest Keth for murder, since his globe showed the victim. Dema demands that Keth accompany him to the scene of the crime, and Tris will not let them go without her. They view the body, but it does not make Keth confess as Dema had hoped that it would. They go back to the arurimat so Dema can question Keth. Dema tries to cast a truth spell, but of its own accord, Keth’s lightning nullifies it. Dema is about to move on to torture, which is standard procedure, but Tris demands that they wait for Niko, one of the foremost truthsayers of all time. While they wait, Dema questions Keth and in the end believes he is innocent. Dema suggests that Keth make another globe, since his power gives them visions of crimes. If they can get it to clear sooner, perhaps they can stop the crime from happening. Niko arrives and proves that Keth is innocent, and Keth is free to go.

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The next morning, Tris rises early. She believes Keth needs to see that lightning is no longer his enemy. Using winds to carry her, she goes to the top of a tower and calls to a storm. Then Tris meets Keth at his stall. He wants to make another globe right away even though Tris advises him that he must learn control first. Tris wards the shop and gives him his first lesson. He tries to fashion a globe combining his craft and magic but fails. He succeeds at last when Dema arrives, startling him so he is not focused on the glass. Keth wants to clear the globe of lightning, but all of his power is drained. Keth goes to dinner with Dema while Tris explores Khapik, the artists’ district. Tris sends her breezes to see if they can pick up any conversations that will lead her to the killer that they refer to as the Ghost. They return with nothing useful, and Tris wishes that she could scry the wind. One hour before dawn, Dema sees the globe clear. It depicts another victim. He rushes to the spot and tries to magically discern the perpetrator of the crime, but once again the priests interrupt him. In fact this time, they insist that he be isolated for a day, since he has become so polluted by death. Dema sends his assistant to tell Keth and Tris why he will be absent. When Keth gets to the shop, the sergeant informs him of the murder and of Dema’s delay. Keth tries to make another globe but not enough of his magic has been restored. Tris tells him to take the afternoon off. Tris wanders Khapik again and then, as the storm approaches, goes to Keth’s home where she talks with Keth’s friend Yali. Tris wants to talk to Keth about lightning, but he refuses. Keth goes out for dinner, and when he returns, he thinks that Tris has given up, until he finds her sitting in his room. Tris convinces Keth to go to the roof. She is sure the lightning will not hurt him and promises to protect him if it doesn’t recognize him. The storm rumbles above them. Lightning strikes Tris, and she plays with it. Lightning strikes Keth and recognizes him, filling him with power. The next day, they meet at the workshop. Keth masters the controlling exercises Tris has given him. He is about to try another globe, when Dema enters and tells them that there has been another victim. They both go with Dema and together see that it is Yali. Dema assures them that he will petition to have Khapik closed until the murderer is caught. Dema goes to Jumshadi and asks for her help, but she refuses, telling

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Dema that he is risking his soul by so much uncleansed involvement with death. Niko offers to go with him to petition the Keepers. Tris and Keth return to Keth’s home and tell the others about Yali. Tris comforts the little girl Glaki, who has suffered a double loss. First, her mother was murdered, and now the woman taking care of her has been murdered as well. Tris sends her breezes out, but they have nothing to report. In the morning, Niko tells Tris that the Keepers will not close Khapik, and Tris tells Niko she will be staying in Khapik to look after Glaki. Niko gives her a book by a mage who could scry the wind and commits himself to search the fragments of the future in hopes of catching the killer. Tris meets Keth at the shop. Keth tries twice to make a globe and fails. For the next attempt, Tris supplies heat from her braids instead of having Keth distracted by the glassblowing steps. This time he succeeds. Glaki, who is watching, calls the globe, and it goes to her. Tris sees that she has the power of an academic mage and is determined to take her to Winding Circle. Dema joins them and reports yet another murder. Tris asks if they have questioned the prathmuni. Dema admits that several of them have been tortured, which is the custom when dealing with untouchables, but they confessed nothing. Keth makes globes, but none have lightning. Tris tries to scry the wind but only sees colors. A few hours before dawn, Tris goes for a walk and asks the prathmuni about the murders. They say that none of them would be foolish enough to commit such crimes for that would lead to a massacre. The next day when Keth is about to try again to make a globe, Tris suggests he try using only a trickle of power. He makes a lightning globe with less lightning, but they still cannot see through it. Tris takes Glaki home. While Keth and Dema wait for the globe to clear, Keth collapses from exhaustion and Dema brings him home. The globe clears and reveals another body. Dema and his team arrive at the site and think that they have come before the murder occurs. Then, they find the victim and learn that she has been dead less than an hour. Using his magic, Dema follows the footsteps of the killer to the temple where the cleansing erases all traces of him. When Keth creates another globe and tries to draw the lightning out of it, he fails. Tris takes Glaki for a walk along the wall and catches a

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vision on the wind of a ship with a crimson sail. Glaki shows her where the harbor is. When she returns home, Dema tells Keth and Tris that another victim was found and once again the killer had escaped. Keth makes another lightning globe. This time, he pulls the lightning out and directs it to Tris, who sends it up to the thunderclouds where it can do no unusual harm. The globe is still filled with a white mist, but it doesn’t take as long to clear. Dema and Keth see a yaskedasi by a stream, and she is still alive. Dema sends out his forces, searching. Keth finds the yaskedasi and sends up an alert to summon the others. Suddenly he sees a scarf slip around her neck. Someone is choking her. Keth wades across the stream and cuts her free, but the Ghost escapes. Tris goes for her nightly walk and sees an image of the Ghost strangling someone. She follows the air currents, stumbles, and a hand grabs her. Back at the command post, Keth’s newest globe clears, and he sees Tris. Niko arrives telling them that Tris is about to encounter the Ghost. Chime spits glass splinters at Tris’s attacker. Tris kicks him between the legs. He falls back and she sees that he is a prathmuni. She wants to know why he keeps killing, and he tells her that his mother was a yaskedasi and his father a noble, and they abandoned him to the prathmuni. All the yaskedasi deserve to die. He slams her against the cobble stones. Chime attacks; he runs and Chime follows. Tris traps him with her power. She is about to loose a lightning bolt, but Dema and Niko stop her. Tris says he deserves to die, but Niko tells her if she kills him, she will be a murderer. Dema convinces her to let justice take his life. Tris knows what his arrest will mean for the rest of the prathmuni and warns them of the coming vengeance. Then, she passes out from using elemental power for so many days without enough rest. She wakes back in Jumshadi’s house five days later. Niko lectures her first and then fills her in on what has happened. Twenty-nine prathmuni were killed, but most escaped. They are now negotiating to return from hiding, but only if their living and working conditions improve. Keth will be accompanying Niko and Tris for now, but he also wants to study investigative magic. Keth offers to teach Tris glassmaking, and she takes him up on it. Dema has been promoted but is staying in his office and will still investigate the crimes in Khapik. He doesn’t want anyone to feel that their lives do not matter.

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The Will of the Empress Sandry, who is still living with her great-uncle, Duke Verdis, celebrates her sixteenth birthday without Daja, Tris, and Briar. She never expected them to be gone for more than two years and misses them terribly. Daja and Frostpine are the first to return to Emelan. Daja wants to return to Discipline and live with Lark and Rosethorn again, but Frostpine tells her now that she is sixteen, she must either take vows to the temple or move on. Daja feels as if she has been cast out once again. She buys a house in Summersea but doesn’t open up to speak mind-to-mind with Sandry. Sandry pays her a visit, expressing her hurt that Daja doesn’t want to open their old connection and doesn’t want to live with her and Duke Verdis. Daja tells her she wants a home that no one can kick her out of, and Sandry reveals that she is really angry that they all left her. Next, Tris returns to Summersea. She has to leave Glaki at Discipline with Lark. As she and Chime, the glass dragon, make their way to Daja’s house, she sees Daja and Sandry waiting to welcome her. She is happy to have a home, but she does not tell them that she can scry the wind. She has had too many experiences of mages rejecting her to trust even her closest friends. Last of all comes Briar. He spends a night in Discipline, but even at home, nightmares haunt him. He will leave Evvy with Lark and Rosethorn and then move in with Daja. Rosethorn suggests that their terrible experiences in Yanjing mean that they each need to see a soul-healer. She also suggests that the girls might be able to help him. Briar admits that he has not reopened his connection to them. His head is a charnel house, and he doesn’t want the girls to experience what is in his memory. Tris sees Briar coming on the wind and cooks all of his favorite foods for dinner. Sandry comes for supper. They are together again, but it is not the same. No one will open their connections. Tris mourns the loss of the life they shared at Discipline, and Daja says that it is the way of adults to hide their wounds. Duke Verdis asks the three, who are now eighteen, if they would consider accompanying Sandry to Namorn. Her cousin, the Empress, has been putting financial pressure on Emelan to get Sandry to visit, and now that Sandry knows about it, she will not be dissuaded. Verdis is afraid that there will be political and physical dangers for Sandry, and he would

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feel better if her foster-siblings were with her. Not only are they her family, they are mages, and the strength of their power might surprise the empress. They all agree to go. They are traveling with Traders, accepted because of Daja. As the caravan is in the middle of fording a river, Tris suddenly urges them all to hurry. When the caravan is not fast enough, Tris uses lightning to scare them into moving faster. Just as they are all out of the water, the dam bursts. Tree and stone-studded water rushes past them. If Tris had not gotten them out, they would have been killed. Sandry is furious with Tris, but the caravan leader says that they all owe her their lives. They are safe, for the time being, but the four friends feel like strangers. Just outside the imperial city of Dancruan, Chime chooses to chase a magpie. Sandry sends the caravan on. When Chime returns, she’s being hunted by a party of riders. The lead huntsman mistakes them for peasants, but the empress recognizes Sandry as her mother’s daughter. Sandry introduces her friends but does not mention that they are mages. Empress Berenene invites them to attend her in two days. Back in her private office in the palace, Berenene reviews her files on each one and plots how she can lure them into staying in Namorn. She is determined to have Sandry take up her position in the empire, and no one ever thwarts her will. The four settle into Sandry’s family home in the city. Her cousin Ambrose, who has been tending to her estate all these years, arrives in the middle of the night. Briar, already in the kitchen, greets him. Sandry is glad to see her cousin. Despite his desire to turn all matters over to her, she is firm in her resolve to return to Emelan. Sandry makes sure they all have proper attire for court. When they make their entrance, they are presented as mages. Berenene gives Sandry the silk sent to her as a present from the Yanjing emperor and asks her what she should do with such a gift. Sandry recognizes that the empress is testing her. She finds the magic hidden in the cloth that would poison anyone who wore it. She suggests giving it to the Yanjing ambassador. Berenene approves and introduces Sandry to a bevy of handsome young noblemen, her choices of possible husbands for Sandry. Bored, Tris looks for the library. Briar flirts with the young women and then inspects the gardens. Berenene shows him her personal gardens

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and then takes him to her greenhouses. Briar is impressed that she cares so meticulously for her plants. A good looking young man, Shan, introduces himself to Sandry as the Master of the Hunt. He cautions her that the will of the empress is not easily ignored and advises Sandry to marry and produce an heir. Daja feels herself drawn to an attractive ladyin-waiting named Rizu. Tris predicts a storm is coming, and the court mage, Ishabal Ladyhammer, contradicts her, but when they go to the wall, a storm is indeed on its way. The empress and her courtiers join them at the wall. It does not look like the fishing fleet will make it to shore before the storm hits, but Tris calls to the wind help them in. As she prepares to leave for the evening, Sandry tells Berenene that she will not be able to stay in Dancruan since she must inspect her holdings. The empress selects four of her attendants to accompany them: Jak, Fin, Rizu, and Caidlene. On their way home, a madman intercepts them and accuses Sandry of being a gaming piece. Daja recognizes him from the hospital fire where she rescued several of the mad. He was the one who did not want her to return to the burning building. She learns his name is Zhegorz and ushers him back to the house. At home, Tris and Briar express annoyance with Sandry for not consulting with them about changing their plans. They want to be treated as equals, not as subordinates just because she is a countess in Namorn. Then, Tris hears Zhegorz talking about having visions and hearing voices. She sees the magic in him. Daja can tell what she is thinking even though they are not speaking mind-to-mind, and she tells Zhegorz that he will stay with them. Briar insists that Zhegorz sleep in his room because he has noticed the scars on his wrists. When Briar has a nightmare, Zhegorz wakes him and suggests that Briar take his own sleeping drops. It is raining when they set out. Tris pushes the rain to either side of the party so they all stay dry. As they enter her lands, Sandry observes things in need of repair and asks Ambrose about them. Ambrose explains that the terms of her mother’s will dictated that she and then Sandry receive a fixed amount each year, no matter the costs of running the estate or the taxes. The taxes have gone up steadily and so he was not able to make all the repairs. Sandry is disturbed by this news and says she will forgo her income for three years so that Ambrose can make the repairs.

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The villagers greet their long-absent countess and the four meet Ambrose’s wife and children. As they are settling into their rooms in the castle, it is agreed that Zhegorz will still room with Briar. Tris assures Zhegorz that he is not mad; instead he is scrying images on the wind. In the middle of the night, a stranger sneaks into Sandry’s room, blocking off the crystal of light that Sandry always keeps near her at night, because she is still afraid of the dark. The woman introduces herself as Gudruny and begs for Sandry’s help. She was kidnapped and forced into marriage. Her husband beats her, and she has borne him two children. Kidnapping and forcing a woman into marriage is an old custom. The only way for a woman to escape is for her liege to free her. The empress herself was kidnapped twice and escaped. She thinks that any woman should be able to escape as well, if the marriage is not to her liking. Appalled at the custom, Sandry promises to rectify the situation. Gudruny’s husband storms into the castle early the next morning, demanding his wife back. Sandry declares that Gudruny is free. She will serve as Sandry’s maid and her two children will be Sandry’s pages, although her husband is still bound to support them. Daja compliments Sandry on this mind-to-mind, and Sandry is overjoyed that their connection is re-established. The party explores Sandry’s estate and meets those who live on her lands. A week after they have arrived, Sandry is examining the account books. Tris, who comes from a family of merchants, points out that every year the taxes increased, but the taxes decreased as soon as the empress knew that Sandry was coming. Ambrose’s wife tells them that only the landowner can appeal for tax relief. Sandry sees that Berenene is trying to make her stay, but she is still determined not to. When they visit a village that needs heavy repairs, Sandry instructs Ambrose to sell the emeralds her mother left her to pay for it. Meanwhile, Tris senses a weakness in the river banks and uses her power to shore them up. On their way back to the castle, they are ambushed by a group of men who want to kidnap Sandry and force her to marry their leader, Dymyter. Sandry sends her magic to slip loose every stitch in their clothes, saddles, and tack. Now she is surrounded by twenty naked men. Tris offers to call hail. Sandry swears she will never marry in Namorn, and the men run away.

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Berenene receives reports on Sandry’s doings and discusses them with Ishabal. She decides it is time for a royal visit. She journeys to Sandry’s castle and brings her entourage with her, housing all in her home only twenty miles from Sandry. The next day they all visit Dragonstone as they had agreed. Berenene and Briar explore the forest, and Berenene offers to make Briar the greatest gardener in the world. Daja spots courtiers who seem to be jealous of Briar. She tries to warn him mind-to-mind, but he doesn’t answer her. When Daja finds him, he is surrounded by young noblemen. By offering to wager on Briar, Daja sets it up so that it will be a fight just between Briar and Olfeon. The two fight, and although bruised and battered, Briar is victorious. After their week in the country, Berenene returns to her capital city and invites the four friends to join her. As they are preparing to go back, Zhegorz tells Tris about Briar’s nightmares, and Briar finally tells Tris about his experiences in Yanjing. He and Rosethorn were in Yanjing when the emperor decided to attack Gyongxe where the Mother Temple of the Living Circle is located. They raced to Gyongxe but got caught in a bloody war zone. Tris insists that when they get home, Briar see a mind-healer. Briar opens up and speaks to her mind-to-mind, telling her he missed her. Worried about Zhegorz back in the city with all the conversations and images, Tris asks Daja to make him something that can filter out noise for his ears and images for his eyes. Daja crafts a bead for his ear and special glasses, both with living metal. They are the perfect filter and allow him to concentrate on one conversation or image at a time. They return to town. Zhegorz and Gudruny’s children stay at the house, but the four friends move into the palace. Isashabal visits Tris in her room and offers her a position as the empress’s mage, in which she can practice weather magic as she wishes. Tris suspects that she really wants battle magic. People always want Tris to kill for them, and she won’t do it. Instead of turning her down outright, Tris asks for time to consider the offer. The four attend the royal party together but become involved in individual interests. Daja and Rizu go for a walk, and Rizu kisses Daja, who feels an answering flare of passion. At the same time, Fin is flirting with Sandry. Because she and Daja are connected, she feels the kiss. Nonplussed, she sends Fin for an ice. Shan leads her outside and kisses her.

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She feels attracted to him, but is not sure if she is really responding to him or to Daja and Rizu. Confused, Sandry goes back inside and dances with Jak. Sandry realizes that Daja is in love with Rizu and thinks she will want to stay in Namorn. She makes their connection as thin as possible so as not to impinge on her privacy. Fin feels snubbed and begins to plot. Disgusted with the frivolity of the party, Briar slips away and finds Tris. They mindspeak, but she wants to stay atop the tower. Briar suspects she can see images on the wind. He goes to the greenhouses and falls asleep. Berenene wakes him at dawn and offers to give him gardens galore and a dukedom. She leaves him to think about it. When he returns to the palace, he visits Daja to ask for some copper wire to help him shape one of the shakkan. He finds that she has spent the night with Rizu. He is pleased his friend has found love. The next day, Sandry invites her foster-siblings for a quiet dinner. Daja brings Rizu, and the two are the first to leave. Briar claims that he never brings his girls when it is just the four of them so Daja shouldn’t. Tris senses Sandry’s ire rising and mindspeaks her to stay calm. They will always be one no matter where they are. After two weeks of court life, they all prepare for a grand ball. Fin knocks on Sandry’s door to escort her to the party. Instead, he lies to her about taking an alternate route and uses a cloth doused with sleeping drops on her. When she awakens in the dark, trapped in a box and surrounded by cloth that is spelled to hamper a stitch witch, she panics. Screaming, she bangs her hands and feet against the box, trying to get out. Fin tells her he will make her sign a marriage contract and that she is underground where no wind can come and there are no plants, so her friends cannot help her. He also says that Shan will not dare stray because the empress suspects that he has gone behind her back. Then he returns to the dance so no one will suspect him of foul play. Sandry succumbs to the terror she feels but then remembers that her magic is made up of bits of her friends’ magic, so she is not completely powerless. She tries Daja first but is completely blocked. She concludes that Daja is with Rizu, and so she tries Tris. When lightning shocks her, she turns to Briar. At first, Briar is irate that Sandry would force their connection, but then he realizes she’s in deep trouble. He follows his connection to find her and calls mind-to-mind for Tris. Tris disarms the guards by heating up

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their swords. She keeps them from attacking by circling their necks with lightning. Briar uses his power to open the box and frees a wounded Sandry. Tris creates a platform of air and whisks them to the Imperial Wing. The three meet with Berenene and her two chief mages. They relate the details of Sandry’s kidnapping and accuse Fin. Berenene assures them that Fin will be punished, but Sandry announces that she is going home at once. Briar and Tris confirm that they will be going with her. Berenene orders Fin arrested, and she tells Ishabal to do something subtle to keep Tris from interfering. She has no plans to let Sandry go. In the morning, Rizu gives Daja the news about Fin’s arrest. Daja goes to Sandry who explains what happened and that she is leaving with Briar and Tris. Daja goes back to Rizu. The two confess their love, but Daja chooses to go with Sandry, and Rizu chooses to stay with the empress. The four return to Sandry’s house. When Tris discovers that Zhegorz is not leaving with them because Daja told him to stay away, a furious Tris confronts Daja. Clearly, Daja is distraught over losing Rizu. Tris comforts her and the two talk about Daja’s new-found sexuality and Tris’s rejection by any young man she has ever been interested in. While they are having dinner, Jak sneaks in. He has come to say goodbye and tells Sandry that he is not like Fin and would never have tried to kidnap her. After dinner, Tris heads up the stairs for bed. Suddenly, she slips on slimy, cold air. She tries to fall the way her teachers taught her, so that she won’t hurt herself, but a force yanks her and she falls head-over-heels down the stairs. The best healer in the city is summoned, and they take Tris to her room so she can work on her. Ambrose calls a mage to search for curses and tells the friends that Ishabal is reputed to be an expert in subtle curses. They decide they will not leave until Tris is well. The healer tells them Tris has a plethora of broken bones, but no organs have been punctured. This is either a miracle, or a curse crafted to keep the victim alive. She healed the skull fracture and the ribs and will bring more healers in the morning. Tris must stay in bed for at least a week. When the friends visit Tris, she tells them to go without her. She will catch up to them. She doesn’t want them to get trapped in Namorn. Obviously, the empress will not let them go easily. Reluctantly, they agree. Sandry leaves Ambrose in charge of her estate. She frees him from sending her any income so he can do repairs as needed, and she suggests

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double-listing the unmarried women, even though it means he will have to pay the tax twice. If he does this, he will be able to free any woman who is kidnapped and forced into marriage. Shan comes to see Sandry. She is angry with him for lying to her about his relationship to the empress, for now she knows that he has been sleeping with her. Shan wants to marry Sandry, but she sends him away. Tris convinces Zhegorz to go with Sandry by telling him that she will need someone to scry the wind for her. Berenene is annoyed with Sandry. Parents are now reluctant to send their unmarried daughters to her court. While the empress plots to stop Sandry, Shan plots to kidnap her and make her his wife. The mage Quen joins him in the hopes that with Shan out of the way, the empress will invite him back to her bed. A weak Tris tries to confront Ishabal, but Ambrose’s wife tells her that neither Ishabal nor the empress is at the palace. Tris concludes that they plan to raise the magical border barrier to keep her friends from leaving. She tries to warn them by speaking mind-to-mind, but she is too weak. She uses the wind to help her get out of the house and saddle her horse, but she cannot mount it. Against his better judgment, Ambrose helps her and then decides to accompany her. On the road, Zhegorz tries to alert Sandry and her friends to danger, but no one listens to him. When they arrive at the inn suggested to them by Shan’s cohorts, they think they will have a relaxing night and proceed in the morning. Briar has a war nightmare. When he forces himself to wake up, he realizes that someone has been trying to keep him asleep. He tests his link to Sandry and finds she’s missing again. After using a wake-up potion to clear his head, he goes to Sandry’s empty room. There is a powerful sleep spell on a parchment under her mattress. He rouses Daja with his wake-up potion. Quen traps them on their way to the stables with a layered shielding charm, supremely confident that it will hold them. Nothing they try works until Briar reminds himself and Daja to use their own magic. Utilizing his plants and her living metal, they destroy the shield and then entrap Quen. Together, they drain him of magic so his spells will lose their effectiveness. Those asleep in the inn wake up, and they presume that Sandry will as well.

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Sandry awakens to find she is on horseback and in a man’s arms. She is also weighted down with things tied to her clothes. Pretending to still be asleep, she listens to Shan brag about the charms on her clothes to keep her tame. Briar and Daja mindspeak to her; she tells them the charms are tied on with ribbon and she will return as soon as she can. Once Shan puts her on the ground, Sandry uses her magic to undo the charms and then has the captors’ own clothes bind them. She blankets them with her power and spins a cocoon around each. She displays them hanging from trees so that they will be the laughing stock of the empire. She lets Briar and Daja know she is on her way and takes Shan’s horse. Berenene and Ishabal receive the reports of Sandry’s actions. Berenene thinks Sandry is making her look foolish and is more determined than ever to stop her. Ishabal begs her to let her go alone to raise the barrier. If it fails, the blame will be only Ishabal’s and their enemies will not think that Berenene has become weak. Reluctantly, Berenene agrees. Reunited, the three friends apologize to Zhegorz. He was right all along. Tris, who is traveling faster than Sandry’s larger party but is still not close enough to catch up to them, shares her fear that the empress will try to raise the barriers against them. Ten days later, they approach the border which is on the far side of a large lake that will take them two more days to circle. On the day they are set to cross, Zhegorz is missing. Sandry refuses to leave without him. She wants someone to scry for him, but their scrier is Tris. Daja and Briar guess that Tris can scry the wind. Upon his return, Zhegorz confirms that this is true. He says she didn’t tell them because she was afraid they would think she was conceited. Zhegorz went to check the border. He says there is a mage there, waiting to raise the barrier against only the three of them. All others may pass. Sandry gives Gudruny special cloaks and instructs her to take her children and Zhegorz across the border. They will meet her on the other side. They do as she asks. Soldiers try to stop them when the three near the border, but Briar and Daja overcome them and call up to Ishabal that the battle is between them. She raises the barrier. The three combine their power and try everything they can think of to break it. Nothing works until Sandry pulls out the wool circle with a lump for each of them that she spun when they were children during the earthquake. They hold their spots in the circle

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and an image of Tris joins them. She mindspeaks that she is still a day away, but she is strong enough to merge her power with theirs. Each draws power from their elements and together they force their way through the barrier. The barrier shatters. The circle of wool also disappears, but on the hand of each friend, the lump of power melds into the palm. A drained Ishabal promises that Tris will not be stopped when she gets to the border. In response to her asking what Sandry will do with all her power, Sandry replies that she will go home. Tris catches up with them the next day. While they are resting at the inn, the three remind Sandry of her responsibilities to Ambrose and her people. Although it takes some time for her to decide, eventually, she makes Ambrose a count and gives him all of her lands in Namorn. Zhegorz says that he would like to go with Ambrose, and a somewhat overwhelmed Ambrose accepts his service. The first thing the new count plans to do is introduce a measure in the Assembly of Nobles banning forced marriages. That night the four enter an image of the rooftop of Discipline that Briar created and talk as they did when they were growing up together. Briar confesses that he didn’t want them in his mind because he thought he should be dead for all the things he did in the war that he was not proud of. Tris admits she closed herself off because she couldn’t bear it if they were jealous of her scrying. She wants to go to Lightsbridge, the mage university, so that she can fit in. Daja shares her experience with Ben, how she used all of their magic to make the gloves that he used to kill people. She can’t forgive herself and was afraid that they couldn’t forgive her either. Sandry reminds them that she killed three people, and even though they were murderers, she still has a hard time living with her actions. They all pledge their love and acceptance of one another and conclude that there is nothing better than the family that you choose for yourself. Character Development The Magic Circle novels detail the adventures of four young mages, each bereft of a family, each initially unaware of the power they possess. They are ten years old when they are brought together. They share joys and

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sorrows with one another as well as a portion of their magical abilities. They go their separate ways as adolescents, and finally, as they reach adulthood, they reunite. Although their lives follow the same pattern, each character approaches her or his life with unique qualities. Sandry Sandry, with cornflower blue eyes, a button nose, and light brown hair, was orphaned at the age of ten when her parents died in a plague. She is unsure of herself, although certain of her noble blood, afraid of the dark, unaware of her magical abilities, and big-hearted. During the course of her adventures, she gains confidence, learns when to yield her noble pride, is still afraid of the dark but can work through it, is generous to a fault, and stands by her friends. Her insecurity shows when she is locked in a storage cabinet by her nurse, who later dies. No one knows where she is, and Sandry is not sure she will survive. She thinks, ‘‘‘I’m just a girl—a noble girl, worse yet. Like that maid said, ‘Good f’r naught but to be waited on and to marry.’ Goodfor-naught, that’s me—’’’(Sandry’s Book, 2). Her security in her noble blood manifests itself early, as does her big-heartedness. When Daja first comes to Winding Circle and the other noble girls do not want her to sit with them, Sandry defends her. Reaching out, Sandry lifted the pitcher of milk from the table. Cradling it in both hands, she walked over to the mutterer. ‘‘I’m Sandrilene Fa Toren, daughter of Count Mattin fer Toren and his countess, Amiliane fa Landreg. I am the great-niece of his grace, Duke Verdis of this realm of Emelan, and cousin of her Imperial Highness, Empress Berenene of the Namorn Empire. You are Esmelle ei Pragin, daughter of Baron Witten en Pragin and his lady Colledia of House Wheelwright—a merchant house. If I tell you my friend is a lady, then you’’—carefully she poured milk into Esmelle’s plate—‘‘you had best start lapping kitty.’’ She set the pitcher down and returned to her chair. (Sandry’s Book, 39–40) These two traits are still with her at the age of eighteen. When Sandry faces Gudruny’s angry husband, her friends look at her and observe, ‘‘All

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three of them had seen that stubborn jut of Sandry’s chin and the blaze of her eyes before. In this mood, Sandry was capable of facing armies armed only with her noble blood’’ (The Will of the Empress, 222). At the conclusion of this showdown, which Sandry wins and then takes on Gudruny as her maid, Daja mindspeaks to her, ‘‘But you still have a heart bigger than all Emelan’’ (The Will of the Empress, 232). This big-heartedness is demonstrated most clearly at the end of The Will of the Empress when Sandry gives all of her Namorn holdings to Ambrose, making him a count. While her pride sometimes helps her face down opponents, sometimes it leads her to make misjudgments as well. After Tris saves the caravan from the bursting dam, Sandry is furious with her and says, ‘‘Never have I given you the right to order me around. Neither have Briar or Daja. And we have certainly not given you the right to throw lightning at us.’’ Despite her resolve to be firm, her voice quivered. Tris’s eyes flicked to Sandry dangerously … ‘‘Pardon me for not kissing your hand and saying pretty please, since that’s what you’re used to these days,’’ she replied, acid dripping in her voice. ‘‘Had I known I would offend, Clehame’’—she turned Sandry’s Namornese title into an insult—‘‘I would have let everyone die so I wouldn’t inconvenience you.’’ (The Will of the Empress, 55–56) Although her noble upbringing can lead her to arrogance, her power does not. At the end of Sandry’s Book, she is the one who spins their magic together to make them stronger than they would be separately, and yet she does not lord it over them. In Magic Steps when she is helping the harrier-mages, her guards say, ‘‘Lady, we knew you were a mage, but … Mostly you’re like a cat with it. You never let it show any more than you can help, I think because you know it makes folk nervous’’ (Magic Steps, 182). Sandry’s power is quite extensive, as Lark explains to her uncle Verdis, ‘‘I work spells by passing them through my thread. I must bind my power to real thread and whatever I use to handle it, or none of my spells work. That’s true of every weaver-mage I know—except Sandry. She handles magic itself like I work with thread. She can spin magic’’ (Magic Steps, 191).

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Repeatedly in her life, she faces fear. In Magic Steps, she must overcome it to spin the unmagic. It’s not as if I’ve never been terrified out of my wits before, she thought as they began the climb up the road between Summersea and Winding Circle. Even before the year of disasters— earthquake, pirate attack, forest fires, and plague—that cemented her bond with her three friends, she had known trouble. Her parents had died in another plague almost exactly five years ago. As travelers her family had survived gales at sea, ice storms, pirates, and robbers. Sandry knew fear and disaster well. But this is the first time I’ve ever grabbed danger with both hands and hugged it close, she thought … (Magic Steps, 212) In The Will of the Empress, she must overcome her fear of the dark, when she is without her crystal, locked in a box, and limited by cloth that hampers the workings of a stitch witch. Without Fin to hate, her fear of the dark swamped her again. Sandry screamed until she had no voice. When that was gone, she slid down and slammed her feet against the side of her prison over and over, until her back was bruised and her knees and ankles on fire. Only when she could no longer kick did she curl up into a tiny ball, shuddering. The dark overwhelmed her for a while. … Wait. Wait. I have bits of Briar’s magic in me, from when we were kids. And Tris’s, Daja’s. … It was hard to ignore her terror and her very real pain … Slowly she sank herself into the core of her power. (The Will of the Empress, 377–78) When she reaches beyond her fear, she is able to touch Briar through their shared connection. Her journey down the road to adulthood progressed significantly in Magic Steps. She not only took on the responsibility for her student Pasco, but she faced her responsibility for the deaths of the three murderers. ‘‘You did a very hard thing, for reasons that everyone agreed were right,’’ Lark said firmly. ‘‘You acted as an adult, and you

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did it without hate. I’m not sure I could have done it without hating them, after seeing that poor maimed boy [their mage].’’ ‘‘There’s blood on my hands,’’ whispered Sandry, looking at them. ‘‘Good. As long as you feel that way, you won’t become like them, will you?’’ asked Lark. (Magic Steps, 258–59) It is because of that shouldering of responsibility that Lark tells her, ‘‘‘My dear, you’ve moved into the greater world, whether you wished to or not,’ she said. ‘As a teacher, as a noble. You’ve outgrown Discipline. You’re getting ready to take your place on the adult stage’’’ (Magic Steps, 259). It is also Sandry who is most keenly aware of the importance of their connection. She spun the circle of thread that originally bound them together. She carries the thread with her. After the caravan incident, Reaching into the small pouch that always hung around her neck, she brought out the thread with its four equally spaced lumps. Sandry turned it around in her fingers, handling each lump, feeling each familiar bit of magic. Maybe we were this cord once, but for now it’s only a symbol, she thought wearily. A symbol of four children. Now we’re four adults who have become strangers. I have to get used to that. I have to get used to it, and think of ways to make us stop being strangers once and for all. (The Will of the Empress, 57–58) And when the thread is the last hope of overcoming the barrier to their freedom, she thinks, ‘‘Over the years she had placed a great deal of strength in this symbol of the union between them. Now it was also a symbol of what happened on this trip. At last they were one again. She still had them, and they still had her’’ (The Will of the Empress, 523). She is comfortable with herself, secure in her heritage of nobility, her power, and her friends. Briar The bronze-skinned Briar sports black hair and gray-green eyes. His mother died when he was four, and he never knew his father. He lived on the streets, stealing for the Thief Lord, hoping for no more than some food to eat and a place to sleep out of the elements. He loved plants, even the moss that grew in the prison where he was an inmate three times before

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he was ten years old. Transplanted by Niko from the slums to Discipline Cottage, he flourished, transformed from a skittish thief always looking for a way to escape, to a deeply caring young man, who chaffed at the limitations of magic, liked to flirt with the girls, hated the waste of life, and in the end, was the stalwart brother his foster sisters needed. Even in prison, Briar’s love of plants peeked through his personality. ‘‘He’d given it [moss] part of his water ration when no one was looking. He didn’t mind being good to growing things, but he did object when others made fun of him for doing it’’ (Sandry’s Book,11). His attunement to plants draws him to the ailing shakkan, makes roses greet him in foreign cities, gives him a way with healing medicines, and is the lure the empress uses to tempt him to stay in Namorn. When he leaves the imperial party upon their return to the palace, he goes to the greenhouses. The shakkans [miniature shaped trees that hold power] clamored for his attention. Pine and miniature forest, fruit-bearing and flowering, they all wanted him to handle them, feel their leaves and trunks and tell them what fine trees they were. Briar did his best to oblige. He never felt he wasted his time with shakkans, whether they stored magic or not. They were their own reason for being, lovely without causing harm to anyone else. Their scent of moss and dirt blotted the ghosts of Gyongxe in his mind. The whisper of their leaves covered the sounds of screams that he kept thinking he’d just heard. When his eyelids finally grew heavy, he lay on the ground under a table with his mage kit for a pillow. He slept deep, and he did not dream. A much amused Berenene woke him around dawn…. ‘‘Do you understand that we could arrange things so that you would have authority here second only to mine? You would be the imperial gardener. … You would be a treasure of the empire, famed for your skill. I would pay you richly for it. I would make you a noble. … ’’ (The Will of the Empress, 356–57) But his connection to his foster sisters is stronger than the lure of the empress, a connection that grew as a child at Winding Circle. On his way to his new life, he was skittish. ‘‘I’ll stick as far as the border, thought the boy. Get a few more meals like this under my

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belt—so I’d better try this washing. After that, we’ll see’’ (Sandry’s Book, 31). It took some time at Winding Circle for him to give up his old habits. ‘‘Briar stopped to inspect it [the Hub], as he’d done on his arrival some days ago, wondering if it would be worth the trouble to burgle it. As always, he decided not to. What he told himself was that too many people worked in the Hub day and night. It was true, and helped him to keep denying that he was done with the nicking life’’ (Sandry’s Book, 89). It’s not until he is helping care for his street friend Flick in quarantine that he realizes how much he’s changed. ‘‘Who am I? he wondered for a moment, shocked. Who am I really? It’s like I shucked being Roach the street rat like worn-out clothes—but Roach is who I was for years. I can’t just strip away years, can I?’’ (Briar’s Book, 69). He contemplates that change when Sandry asks him to pick a birthday, as he thinks, ‘‘Maybe for a birthday I should pick the day when Roach of Deadman’s District kicked the bucket and left this kid Briar in his place, he thought tiredly. Except I don’t even know when that was. It all happened in bits and pieces, like’’ (Briar’s Book, 70). Even when he has had years to contemplate the change in him, he sometimes has trouble believing it. ‘‘Even now, after four years of regular meals, affection, and education, he sometimes felt as if his head were split in two. Magic and the Living Circle temples didn’t exactly mesh with a life in which meals were stolen and mistakes were paid for with maiming and death’’ (Street Magic, 26). As Briar struggles to reconcile the different parts of his life, he also struggles to accept the limitations of his magic. He blames himself for Flick’s death, ‘‘Panting, Briar sat out the shakes, clenching his hands as he remembered how he couldn’t hold Flick, not in a dream, not in Urda’s House. How could he have let her die, with all this magic to serve him? He didn’t try hard enough—if he had, Flick would be alive. He’d as good as killed her himself by not doing more’’ (Briar’s Book, 135–36). In Street Magic, when another friend dies, he thinks, ‘‘For the thousandth time Briar wished he’d been a healer rather than a green mage. Medicines only did so much. Sometimes it took a magically gifted healer to turn the tide. Briar was there too often when such times came around, and the only mage in sight was him. It was Lakik the Trickster’s favorite joke on him’’ (Street Magic, 67). As important as his foster sisters are to him, he risks his life to save Rosethorn when he follows her into death and refuses to leave without

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her. ‘‘It had occurred to him that he ought to have a day that was his, to mark how far he’d come, and who he had been. It should be a day with meaning for both Roach and Briar, for the street rat and the mage… his life began when Rosethorn had invited him into her world’’ (Briar’s Book, 257—58). Years later, he still cares for her. ‘‘Briar had seen her [Rosethorn] worse off, but he still liked to ensure that when she was empty of power and hope, her green strength was restored quickly. After her death and revival three years ago, just the thought that she might be weary, or failing, jabbed him into action’’ (Street Magic, 112). As flippant as he likes to seem, he cares deeply for his student Evvy. When Stoneslicer offers to pay her off by providing her with enough funds to study at Winding Circle instead of with him, ‘‘Briar was breathless with rage. That this festering slub would judge a girl he’d not so much as glimpsed in the street … Briar’s magic surged against four years’ worth of barriers and controls, begging for him to loosen his grip, presenting him with images of this man as plant food or a trellis with big-thorned roses twining around his flesh. The vines in his hands rippled and twisted, looking for an exit. The trees and flowers in the garden just outside begged to come in and swamp whoever had hurt their friend’’ (Street Magic, 129). He is disgusted by the waste that he sees at the empress’ court, ‘‘All these nice clothes, all these jokes and drinks and food, what good does it do? he wondered tiredly. Tomorrow folk will be poor and starving and dying with a soldier’s pike in them, and these people will have another celebration, more nice clothes, more jokes, more gems. The suffering is forgotten, or ignored—why sorrow? The war victims aren’t our people. And the wheel turns and suddenly they are our people’’ (The Will of the Empress, 354). And when his sisters need him, he is there, despite the trauma of his war experiences. ‘‘What’s the matter with you?’’ Briar asked, so caught up with Sandry that he barely felt it when Caidy slapped his face. … Sandry made herself take a breath. ‘‘If I’m grouchy, it’s because I need rescuing,’’ she said reasonably. Losing her temper, she cried, ‘‘And I hate needing rescue!’’ ‘‘I guess so,’’ Briar replied, walking outside into the gardens. Rain soaked him instantly. He ignored it. (The Will of the Empress, 381)

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He calls Tris for help and together, they rescue Sandry. His skills and devotion are again put to the test when Shan kidnaps Sandry and he and Daja must overcome Quen, and when all four must find a way to break through the barrier. But it is their final moment together that shows how important his foster sisters are to him. He invites them into the home he created on the rooftop of Discipline Cottage, the home that he first envisioned so that he could survive imprisonment during the war, ‘‘Briar, can we come back here?’’ Daja asked. ‘‘Will this be here?’’ ‘‘I made it for us,’’ he replied, surprised she hadn’t realized it. Here, in this place, they could feel what he felt. ‘‘All right, I made it first for me first, but it was us. It is us.’’ (The Will of the Empress, 539) Daja Daja, who has dark skin, dark hair, and dark eyes, loses her entire Trader family at sea. As the sole survivor, she is cast out of the Traders so that her bad luck will not infect anyone else. She feels the loss of her Trader life deeply and longs to be accepted once again, even after she makes Discipline cottage her home and finds her gift as a smith-mage. She is not wildly emotional, but she feels things deeply. She matures from an outcast to a young woman who accepts herself, takes responsibility for the results of her actions, finds and accepts a sexuality in herself that she did not expect, and gives up love for her foster family. As she first comes to know life in Discipline Cottage and becomes close to her foster family, she is unsure how to reconcile her new life with her old beliefs. ‘‘I’m so confused, Daja thought, drying off. I don’t know what’s proper anymore. I don’t even have anyone to tell me what’s proper. Maybe I must work it out for myself’’ (Sandry’s Book, 106). Wanting to work with metal both intrigues her and confuses her. ‘‘Trembling, she stared up into his [Frostpine’s] face. ‘If I hadn’t—’ The words caught in her throat. She tried again. ‘If our ship hadn’t sunk, if I wasn’t trangshi now—… I would have gone all my life thinking I was wrong. Thinking I was dirty to want to do lugsha things. Being a bad Trader. Being a bad Kisubo’’’ (Sandry’s Book, 138). Even after she accepts her role as Frostpine’s apprentice and a member of the Discipline family, she still longs for acceptance as a Trader.

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When she first encounters Polyam, the Trader who wants to buy her living iron vine, ‘‘Daja tightened her grip on the iron, wishing she could go with them, could return to the kind of life where she had always known the rules’’ (Daja’s Book, 32). But she soon realizes that trying to fit in again won’t help her. ‘‘Daja stared at Polyam, thinking she had been stupid to believe it would matter, to speak face-to-face with a Trader again. It was stupid to think her banishment from the world she had lived in most of her life would pinch less if she could pretend she was a Trader just for an hour or two’’ (Daja’s Book, 72). Daja demonstrates her bravery when she must choose whether or not to try to save the Traders who rejected her. Daja’s heart thumped at the sight of those walls of flame. She leaned against the last cart—the one that held her iron vine— shuddering. I can’t, she thought. I can’t! This will kill me, and for who? Them? She looked at the Caravan, her eyes watering. I’m trangshi. They keep telling me so. They’d be happier if I was dead. If they survive this, the first thing they’ll do is put the whole caravan through qunsuanen. … Inside, where her power was, Frostpine, Niko and her friends were silent. They weren’t the ones who would be in the path for all that magic that was needed here. It was her body at risk, not theirs. If she backed off now, they would never hold it against her. Any one of them in her place, might die of this working, and they all knew it. It was Daja’s choice. … She’d never had a chance to save Third Ship Kisubo. Maybe she couldn’t save Tenth Caravan Idaram— but she could at least try. (Daja’s Book, 211–12) When she succeeds in this, her dearest dream comes true. She is an outcast no longer and has the opportunity to join the Traders again, something she has longed for, but she realizes that her foster family and her craft are too important to her. ‘‘I could give up our circle, perhaps, or I could give up smithing. I think I could, anyway—though I’m not entirely sure. But give up both? I thank you but no. I’ve changed too much to go back’’ (Daja’s Book, 225). As she matures, Daja changes in other ways. First, as she learns to work the living metal of the brass on her hand, she has to accept that she

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makes mistakes. The first pair of fireproof gloves she tries to fashion for Ben out of living metal collapses. ‘‘It was her own fault. She had given in to pride. Because she was successful with this stuff, she had thought that she could just wave a hand and get what she wanted with little planning and effort’’ (Cold Fire, 178). But according to Frostpine, mistakes are only natural. ‘‘‘Oh, she’s only miscalculated, but that’s to be expected,’ Frostpine replied. ‘She’s the only mage in the world who has this living metal. It means she has to invent magic for it as she goes’’’ (Cold Fire, 284–85). But it is the mistake she made in misjudging Ben that she finds hardest to bear, for her gift of gloves enabled him to kill people. When the magistrate mage Heluda brings her the iron that implicates Ben, Daja does not want to face the truth, but she does. Sometimes she felt a thing bearing down on her like a storm just over the horizon. She sensed that now. If she turned the full weight of her power on this piece, curved and twisted half around by an incredible burst of heat, her life would change. She could put it off. She could. She could be safe a day more, a month more. Sooner or later, the accounting demanded in this metal bar would come due and she would have to pay it, but she did not have to do that today…. She laid her metal palm on the twisted bar, and clenched both hands around it. (Cold Fire, 301) Once she faces it, she acts when the next fire erupts. She searches for Ben to stop him. ‘‘That he’d betrayed her was bad, but she’d been betrayed before. She could survive it. She could not allow him to use her work to ruin more lives’’ (Cold Fire, 344). Even though he betrayed her and used her gift for evil, she could not bear to watch him die slowly. His image quivered as her eyes filled with tears. She suddenly remembered the Ben she had known at first, a rare non-mage who understood fire as she did, someone as eager and alive as any member of her foster-family…. The first darts of flame slid through the boards of the platform. Daja’s eyes spilled over and continued to spill. This was the law he’d broken, the death he’d given so many. Surely it was right to give him that same death?

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She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t. She didn’t care about the law. Daja jammed her power deep into the ground, past bedrock, into the white-hot flow of molten rock and metal below. She summoned a single, overpowering, burst of heat and threw it all into the fire. Let the Namornese punish her, she thought. She couldn’t watch him slowly burn to death. (Cold Fire, 349) Four years later, she still has trouble forgiving herself as she finally tells her three friends, ‘‘‘I made something that helped Ben Ladradun kill a lot of people,’ Daja told them somberly. ‘So many. I thought catching him and seeing him get an arsonist’s sentence would fix it in my heart, make it right, but it never did. I still liked him. So I helped kill him fast, so he wouldn’t be in pain. I didn’t want you to know something of mine—something of ours, because it was living metal, and we were all part of that—caused so many deaths. I can’t forgive myself some days. I didn’t think you could’’’ (The Will of the Empress, 538). Daja cares about the people in her life, taking on the instruction of the twins Nia and Jory, even when it will take twice as much time to teach them to meditate in two different ways. But her care is not limited to those she knows well. In Cold Fire, she risks her life to save people in burning buildings three times. She even heats up a room for freezing clerks. ‘‘Warmth streamed through her to settle into any metal in the clerks’ office that could hold it: the heavy iron grate, the andirons and pokers of the hearth, the empty metal coal bucket, and the brass lamp reflectors. She gave the metal just enough heat to warm the air without changing the metal’s color. The workers might not realize they were more comfortable, but she knew’’ (Cold Fire, 150). She’s haunted by the memory of the baby she could not save and the maid who died in the fire. ‘‘She couldn’t bear it. Couldn’t bear the thought of that baby suffocating on her back, couldn’t bear the thought of that brave maid, who had saved all those children only to die herself. Daja turned facedown into her pillow, and cried herself to sleep’’ (Cold Fire, 233). She finds a new way of caring when she and Rizu fall in love. ‘‘All the boys I went with in Summersea after we came back from Kugisko said I was cold, Daja replied wearily. I didn’t like kissing them. It was nothing special, like all the books say love is. Then, when I liked kissing Rizu…

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it was such a blessing. I’m not cold. I was just kissing the wrong people’’ (The Will of the Empress, 429). She shows the depth of her feeling for Sandry and Briar and Tris when she gives up her newfound relationship with Rizu to return to Summersea with them. ‘‘Daja got to her feet. ‘Do you know, I even believe I’d be safe in her household,’ she told Rizu. ‘But Sandry isn’t. She won’t ever be, as long as the empress wants her bound to Namorn. And Sandry is my sister. We are closer than you can begin to imagine—Sandry, Briar, Tris, me. We are the same person in a way you have never heard of’’’ (The Will of the Empress, 421). Tris Overweight Tris comes from a merchant family. Copper-colored curls bedeck her head and her eyes flash a stormy grey. Her family has had her tested for magic, and since none of the testers detect any, they think the strange weather that occurs around her and the voices she hears on the wind are signs that she is crazy or possessed. When her parents deliver her to the temple school, they are disowning her. Tris has been hurt so deeply by those who should nurture her that she shields herself behind a prickly barrier for self-defense, but underneath the gruff exterior lives kindness. She has a violent temper that can unleash equally violent storms, so she must learn control for the safety of those around her as well as for herself. She’s intelligent and bookish, with a strong sense of justice. She does not hesitate to take action and longs to be accepted. As a ten-year-old girl, Tris is miserable at Stone Circle when the other girls whisper nasty things about her in the dorm at night. ‘‘When her parents had given her to the Dedicate Superior of Stone Circle, she had thought she’d run out of hurt feelings. It seemed that she hadn’t after all. Tris clenched her hands in her sheets. Leave me alone, she thought, speechless with fury and shame. I never did anything to most of you …’’ (Sandry’s Book, 16–17). When Sandry first tries to be her friend by giving her an embroidered picture for her wall, Tris thinks, ‘‘She thinks I’m stupid enough to believe her, thought Tris. She thinks people never pretended to be my friend before’’ (Sandry’s Book, 76). But eventually, her actions show Sandry that she does care. ‘‘Tris could growl and snap all she liked. During their brawl, when the waterspout had tried to attack

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Daja, Tris had clearly been terrified—and had dealt with her creation in spite of her fear, to keep it from hurting the Trader. To Sandry, that act counted more than anything that a worn-out Tris might say’’ (Sandry’s Book, 190). Even once she feels accepted by her friends at Discipline, Tris tends to get easily annoyed. When Winding Circle was getting crowded with people taking refuge from the pirates, Briar observes, ‘‘Tris took each brush, each bump, each wait as a personal insult, her face getting redder and redder. Briar noticed that the wind had picked up, blowing every which way. He said nothing—the breeze helped ease the day’s growing heat—but he kept an eye on his housemate. If she got too outof-temper, he supposed he would have to make her relax, somehow’’ (Tris’s Book, 120). And when she gets angry her temper is explosive. ‘‘‘Pirates killed my favorite cousin. Now they’re going to drive me from the only place I ever felt welcome,’ Tris said very softly. ‘I’m done with being pushed around by the likes of them!’’’ (Tris’s Book, 217). She explodes the pirate flagship, hoping to kill the mage who killed her cousin, but when she sees the results of her actions, she is swamped with regret. ‘‘The dead drifted in dozens to the sea’s floor, weighted down by chains. Some of them were in pieces; some were burned. Some had been alive when they entered the water, and their faces were masks of panic. The galley slaves, she [Tris] realized. They had no way to free themselves. How many of them had she killed? And how many were guilty of nothing but being unable to escape—or fight back—when pirates came to call’’ (Tris’s Book, 243). She volunteers to work with the injured in the infirmary, ‘‘she had to do something to lay the ghosts of the floating dead who came in her dreams’’ (Tris’s Book, 246). When Niko asks what she would like to study next, ‘‘Her answer was not at all idle. ‘I need to learn control, Niko—for real. With everything. I think the rest has to wait.’ Swirling water fiercely in the bucket, she stared at soap bubbles to keep him from seeing her mouth tremble. She was beginning to fear she would dream about the drowned slaves for the rest of her life. ‘I don’t want this to happen again. Not ever’’’ (Tris’s Book, 247). Seeing her victims was a lesson Tris never forgot. ‘‘They didn’t understand that she meditated every day to control her emotions. Without a grip on her temper, Tris didn’t just hurt someone’s feelings or start a

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fight. When she lost control, she destroyed property; she sank ships’’ (Shatterglass, 93). She even tells her student that he will have to learn to control his temper. ‘‘But the lightning found a path through you it likes, so it will keep following it. You’ll have to learn to control your temper,’’ Tris said firmly. He grinned unexpectedly down at her. ‘‘And you’re going to teach me?’’ Though he knew she kept a tight hold on her deepest feelings, he’d also gotten enough of the tart edge of her tongue to find the idea funny. Tris drew herself up. ‘‘I can lose my temper because my power is under control,’’ she said in her primmest voice. In a return to her normal, dry speech she added, ‘‘And quite a fight it is.’’ (Shatterglass, 271) Learning to control her temper helps Tris feel comfortable with her weather magic. She always loved lightning, ‘‘Tris brushed the fingers the lightning had touched against her cheek…. The lightning had been so beautiful. It didn’t hurt her feelings. It didn’t tell lies. It was above everything ugly. People didn’t matter to it. She wished that people didn’t matter to her’’ (Tris’s Book, 178). But she had to learn to work with nature, not force it to do things that were contrary to its essence. Shortly before the earthquake that drew the four friends to spin their magic together, Tris tried to stop the tide from coming in. By the time she visits Namorn, she’s learned not to try anything so drastic. When Ishabal is attempting to offer her work as a weather mage, she mentions creating weather and Tris corrects her, ‘‘‘Not create it,’ Tris interrupted. ‘I don’t create weather. I draw it from someplace else’’’ (The Will of the Empress, 339). Her student, Keth, sees her mastery of magic. ‘‘For all her fiery temperament, she wasn’t the dramatic sort who liked to exaggerate. She was irritating, but she was also forthright. And when she spoke of magic, somehow the things she said carried more weight than the pronouncements of his mage uncles. She was fourteen and difficult, but when it came to magic, she seemed as much a master of her craft as Niko or Jumshida, and even more than Dema’’ (Shatterglass, 202). Niko respects her abilities enough that he gives her a book on scrying the wind. ‘‘That Niko would trust her with such a prize told her more about how he saw her than anything else that had passed between them in recent months. It said that he believed she was a full-fledged mage, an adult and craftswoman’’ (Shatterglass, 240).

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Her sense of justice is deeply offended by the way the higher classes in Tharios treat the lower classes, both the artists who live in Khapik and the untouchable prathmuni. ‘‘All that Tharian love of order applies only outside the Khapik fence, she thought grimly as she left the district. All that white marble, good manners, and agreement of equals is only meant for the higher classes, not for anyone else. They ought to be ashamed’’ (Shatterglass, 167). ‘‘Tris felt cold, seeing their dwelling place. She knew the mages of Heskalifos had to be aware of the connection between sewage and disease, yet they allowed people to live where the night soil of Tharios was dumped’’ (Shatterglass, 311). When the murderer is caught, she is the one who warns the other prathmuni and averts a massacre. In fact, she is the one who catches the murderer. She is quite sure that he should die for his crimes, but Niko and Dema convince her that she should not be the agent of his death. Underneath her stormy exterior is her love and warmth and desire for acceptance. Keth recognizes this when he sees Tris taking care of Glaki. ‘‘She’s the strangest girl, he thought as she settled Glaki in the corner. Kind when she was teaching, testy when people argued with her, briskly caring with the child’’ (Shatterglass, 279). The duke sees it when he goes to ask the three to accompany Sandry to Namorn. ‘‘Tris is sharptempered it’s true, but she is a good friend to those in need’’ (The Will of the Empress, 30). Daja recognizes it when Tris works with Zhegorz. ‘‘Tris never accompanied them. She was too busy working with Zhegorz, teaching him ways to shut out the things he saw and heard, being more patient with Daja’s jittery friend than Daja believed Tris could ever be. Something she learned on her travels gentled her a bit, Daja thought one night over supper, watching Tris rest a hand on Zhegorz’s shoulder as he stared into the hearth fire. If she doesn’t think anyone’s watching her, she can be kind. Tris. Who would have thought it?’’ (The Will of the Empress, 236). Tris feels the longing to fit in as soon as she approaches Daja’s house in Summersea. ‘‘They look like the world is theirs, she thought bleakly, rocking back on the worn heels of her boots. And isn’t it? Daja could afford this house, from all her work in living metal. Sandry’s rich. When Briar comes back—if he comes back—he’ll be rich too, from working with miniature trees. I’m the poor one. I’ll never belong here like they do’’ (The Will of the Empress,18). Her ability to scry the wind, along with her

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being such a young, powerful, and intelligent mage, has made other mages reject her. To fit in, she wants to go to Lightsbridge University to be licensed as an ordinary mage. When Daja sees her crying for the life they once shared at Discipline, Daja says, ‘‘‘Things change,’ Daja said softly. ‘We change with them. We sail before the wind. We become adults, we keep our minds and our secrets hidden, and our wounds. It’s safer’’’ (The Will of the Empress, 28). Although she feels separated from her friends, she comes as soon as Briar calls her to rescue Sandry. Even though she needs the wind to hold her, the barely healed Tris mounts a horse to get close enough to warn her friends of the empress’s plans to raise the barrier against them, and she sends her spirit self to join with them in breaking it. After everything is over, she confesses to her friends and receives their reassurance. Briar says, ‘‘As for you, Coppercurls, you’ve always been fooling around with weird magics.’’ ‘‘That’s just you, Tris,’’ said Daja. Sandry lifted her head. ‘‘I wouldn’t be you for a thousand gold majas, Tris. I see the way people twitch around you, but that doesn’t change how I feel about you.’’ Tris looked at her. ‘‘So we’re a circle again.’’ (The Will of the Empress, 538–39) Thematic Development While the thread of gender equity runs through the Circle novels, much more prominent are the value of human life, society’s response to poverty, and the importance of the family one creates for oneself. In Winding Circle, men and women share equally in power and in responsibility. The leader of the temple community is a woman, Dedicate Superior Moonstream. Dedicates Rosethorn and Crane are indeed rivals, but they are also equals. So the four friends are raised in an environment where men and women are equal. The only exception to this is in noble society where Sandry often encounters barriers because she is a noblewoman. In Magic Steps, Captain Qais continually tries to keep Sandry from becoming involved in the investigation because she is female. Even though there are female investigators, he does not deem a woman of noble birth strong enough for such work. ‘‘I have told you, violent scenes

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like this are no place for a gently-reared young woman’’ (Magic Steps, 185). Sandry not only disregards him, but proves that she is strong enough for such work by creating the trap that catches the killers. Briar has learned his lessons well on treating girls as equals, as Evvy notes when she thinks about the way he has responded to her, ‘‘Never once had he treated her as a child, a female, or even a thukdak’’ (Street Magic, 90). This is important to Evvy, for outside of Emelan and the temple communities around the Pebbled Sea, the treatment of women and girls is not quite so equitable. When relating her history of being sold into slavery by her parents, she says to Briar, ‘‘I was only a girl and the youngest. I ate food my brothers and parents needed. I took up space in the cart, and I couldn’t do anything to bring in money. … Girls are pretty worthless, even here. They only got two silver davs for me. I saw a boy my age get sold for twice that’’ (Street Magic, 109). Evvy responds by confirming her worth, when she says, ‘‘‘Even a girl is worth something if she’s a pahan!’ He’d grinned too, until the second part of her argument sunk in. ‘Girl mages are worth every bit as much as boy mages,’ he informed her’’ (Street Magic, 110). He also observes the difference between the way women are viewed in Winding Circle and in the lands he’s visited when he sees that the mutabir who wants Evvy to spy for him employs a female mage, ‘‘He wondered if he would ever get used to the way that women east of the Pebbled Sea were expected to keep homes and families. Few were encouraged to work in the larger world as the women he knew did’’ (Street Magic, 216–17). The most pronounced oppression of women occurs in Namorn. Daja first encounters it when she informs Nia and Jory’s parents that the girls are mages, and their father responds, ‘‘Don’t look so glum, Nia. This could make you girls more sought-after marriage choices’’ (Cold Fire, 47). But it becomes much more clear in The Will of the Empress, when Sandry is viewed simply as a thing to marry and bear children and where it is acceptable to kidnap a woman and force her to wed. After the first kidnapping attempt, Daja observes to Tris, ‘‘‘She hates being treated like a thing,’ Daja reminded them. ‘She always hated it when people looked at her and saw a noble girl, not a human being. And she’s been running Duke’s Citadel since a few months after we were all gone. It must be hard, going from mistress of a castle and advisor to a nation’s ruler to someone who’s supposed to go where she’s bid and do as she’s told’’’ (The

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Will of the Empress, 265). When Gudruny explains the kidnapping custom to Sandry, she concludes by saying, ‘‘Once it is signed, the wife has no rights’’ (The Will of the Empress, 215). But Sandry’s experiences are much different. ‘‘Around the Pebbled Sea, women control their own lives, within limits. No one can force us to marry against our will!’’ (The Will of the Empress, 263). After the second kidnapping attempt, Briar lashes out at the empress, saying, ‘‘You think a strong woman can always beat this? I call it rape in any country’’ (The Will of the Empress, 404). Sandry informs Berenene that she will not tolerate being treated this way, saying, ‘‘Instead I am to remain here, where I am nothing more than money bags and acreage? Where I am a thing, to occupy a niche in some household shrine, except when my lord husband wants to polish me up a little?’’ (The Will of the Empress, 404). Sandry will not put up with such treatment, and when she succeeds in escaping the grasp of the empress and makes Ambrose a count, his first act as a noble will be to introduce a law to ban the kidnapping of women to force them into matrimony. He says, ‘‘I believe I will confer with my fellow members of the Noble Assembly. It is time and past, that the forced marriage of unprotected women is banned in Namorn’’ (The Will of the Empress, 535). The value of human life is emphasized repeatedly as the actions of the friends and others put lives in danger and cost lives as well. Tris feels justified in attacking the pirates because they are attacking Summersea and Winding Circle, which is what she tells Sandry, and Sandry responds, ‘‘Pirates were vermin and had to be crushed; she knew that as well as she knew her own name. It was just hard to remember when they screamed’’ (Tris’s Book, 234). When Tris sees the number of deaths, especially the innocent deaths she has caused, she is not only filled with remorse, but also motivated to learn control and to never take the path that will lead to her becoming a warrior mage. When Ishabal presents the empress’s offer of employment, Tris thinks, ‘‘Even if they don’t say they want war magic, they usually do, she thought. If they know you can do it, they always end up wanting it…. And I won’t do battle magic. Ever’’ (The Will of the Empress, 339–41). Even before his experiences in the Yanjing war, Briar is haunted by the murder victims he finds. ‘‘‘I’ve been dreaming. I’m back in the garden again, only this time it’s day. All those dead people are out in the sun,

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just rotting. I keep trying to bury them, so they can be decently under ground, but I can’t empty a big enough hole. And whenever I turn, they’re staring at me. I didn’t even kill them. I never dream about the mute, and he’s the one I did for.’ He swallowed hard, rubbing his eyes to stop their burning. ‘They were the saddest thing I ever saw in my whole life.’’ (Street Magic, 290). And later, the war traumatizes him so much, he does not want to let his foster-sisters back into his mind. ‘‘I don’t want them in my mind, seeing what I saw. Hearing what I heard, smelling … I don’t want them knowing the things I did … And I don’t know if I can hide that away from them once they get in. It’s everywhere, Rosethorn. All that mess. My head’s a charnal house’’ (The Will of the Empress, 24). Daja risks her life to keep people alive, both when she fights the forest fire and when she enters burning buildings to save people. She greatly respects Ben when she believes he is putting himself at risk to save lives. ‘‘Daja’s throat went tight with emotion. There was no glimmer of magic to this fellow who had nearly been buried in the stable. With only a wet blanket for protection he had plunged into flames to save those boys. He’d come close to dying: one breath more, and that burning roof would have dropped on his head. This was a true hero, a non-mage who saved lives because he had to, not because he could protect himself with magic’’ (Cold Fire, 12). And after the fire at Jossaryk House, when there are many she cannot save, she feels the profound effect of lives lost. ‘‘She had changed in the smoke, and the fear, and the dark. The change wasn’t to her magic. It would recover with meditation and rest, more quickly than her spirit would. If she was to make sense of that night and those deaths, if she was ever going to understand the kind of person who would sentence fifty people to death by burning, she ought to see the final result for herself’’ (Cold Fire, 249). And yet, when she returns to face the site of the devastation, she is not sure if the perpetrator deserves to die. In Sandry’s last letter, she had written Daja that she’d been forced to kill three murderers before they escaped a trap set for them and killed again. Reading, Daja had thought she could never do such a thing. Now, as she looked at Jossaryk House, she wasn’t so sure. Could she kill the one who had done this? Who was she to say what punishment was right? Anyone who

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used fire this way must be mad beyond question, mad and pitiful. Even if his madness came to evil, he shouldn’t be killed for something he couldn’t help, only locked up forever. Another part of her disagreed. What if he escaped his keepers and set more fires? More people would die. (Cold Fire, 251) Sandry also risks her life to save lives. Just before she spins the unmagic, she thinks, ‘‘There are fifteen children in the inner keep at the Duke’s Citadel. Whatever their parents and uncles and second cousins have done, they don’t deserve to die for it, and you won’t let them. You’ll do this right and that’s all there is to it’’ (Magic Steps, 217–18). Although the three people she was forced to kill to save Pasco and the Rokats were murderers, their deaths weighed heavily upon her, even four years later, ‘‘‘I tore three people to pieces to save the life of my student,’ she [Sandry] said flatly. She heard Tris draw a deep breath. ‘Did you think I would be safe at home? They were murderers, they were being eaten alive by unmagic, with little humanity left in them. There was no other way, and yet.’ She put her face on her knees’’ (The Will of the Empress, 538). The value of human life is expressed not only in the four friends’ aversion to killing, but also in their observation of the way the various societies they encounter respond to the poor. At first, Tris is inclined to blame the poor for their own condition, until Lark corrects her. ‘‘It’s their own fault! What were they doing mucking about the Mire anyway? Everyone knows the poor breed disease!’’ ‘‘If they could afford decent places to live, and expensive health spells, they would not be poor, then would they?’’ asked Lark. ‘‘I know you are upset … You four have not spent a night apart since you came to us, and the spinning of your magics has made you closer than siblings. But you must not let distress make you cruel. Rosethorn is there because it is the way of the Circle to help all, not just those who can pay. Briar went there because that is the soil in which he grew.…’’ ‘‘…No one asks to live in squalor, Tris. It is just that squalor is all that is left to them by those with money.’’ (Briar’s Book, 39–40) Embracing that view, she is later appalled by the way the Tharians treat their lower classes, not only the conditions in which they live, but

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the lower value of their lives. The Tharians do not take the murders seriously because the victims are poor. ‘‘Arurim have a word for crimes against peoples like us, remember?’’ Poppy demanded. Defeated, Kethlun repeated it, ‘‘Okozou.’’ ‘‘Okozou,’’ Poppy repeated. ‘‘No one worth a bik—a Tharios’s copper coin—got hurt.’’ (Shatterglass, 54) Not only does Tris take it seriously, learning to scry the wind to catch the criminal, she almost thrusts aside her loathing of using magic to kill the murderer; it is that same loathing that stops her from using her magic to harm. Briar, who lived on the street as a child, is furious at Stoneslicer’s dismissal of Evvy, sight unseen, because she is a street rat like he was; he is disgusted by the way the Namornese live indolent lives that ignore the poor. Daja takes arms against the sea of trouble by helping to rebuild the burned-down hospital. Matazi and Kol (Nia and Jory’s parents) had been in the forefront of the fund-raising, with donations from their own fortune so large they had shamed fellow rich Kugiskans into granting large sums. Less wealthy families of the merchant and laboring classes had donated cloth, pottery, cooking gear, herbs and oil for medicines, even food. Daja had sold plenty of jewelry and given the money to the new hospital. She, Frostpine, and Teraud had labored all winter on bolts, door latches, hooks, and endless supplies of nails, as had many other smiths. Carpenters set aside wood; weavers made blankets and sheets; herbalists and healers compiled medicines by the vatload.’’ (Cold Fire, 351) It causes Sandry great distress when she learns of her mother’s lack of care for the common people on her lands. ‘‘She ignored the whole thing and left Gudruny with a man who forced her. I didn’t think my mother was like that.’’ ‘‘Like what?’’ asked Daja. ‘‘Like a noble?’’ ‘‘Uncaring,’’ whispered Sandry. ‘‘Oh, I know she was flighty. So was Papa. They were like children, in a way. They used their money to travel and have fun all the time, never

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asking where it came from or what they owed to the people who provided it. They were wrong in that, very wrong.’’ (The Will of the Empress, 227) To rectify the situation, she frees Gudruny and takes her on as her maid. To help the villagers, she orders Ambrose to sell her emeralds. Ultimately she gives her lands to him so that he can care for the people she is responsible for. The four friends not only care for people in the abstract, they care deeply for each other, even when they are fighting. They grow to be a family during their four years at Discipline, and even though their years apart make them strangers, their commitment to each other remains unbreakable. From the time that Sandry spins their four magics into one, the children feel connected to each other. They share their magic and can speak mind-to-mind unless they are separated by great distances. Sandry reached into the leather pouch she always wore around her neck and drew out a thread circle. It was thick, undyed wool marked by four lumps, each spaced equally apart, with no way to tell where the thread began or ended. It was the finest thing she had ever spun, lumps and all, except that originally it had been just thread, its two ends separate. It had become a circle when, trapped underground in an earthquake, she had spun the four young people’s magics together to make all of them stronger. As far as Sandrilene fa Toren was concerned, that thread was the four of them. As long as this is together, we’re together, she told herself. Even if we aren’t in the same house, we’re still one. (Briar’s Book, 51) When they part ways to travel with their teachers, they miss each other. ‘‘‘I miss them all,’ Sandry admitted. ‘It’s like part of me left with them’’’ (Magic Steps,92). ‘‘All these things reminded her [Daja] that she was not at home in Emelan… every time strong emotions faded, she longed for her foster-family’’ (Cold Fire, 17). As their circle begins to be re-forged during their time in Namorn, they support each other. They accept Daja’s relationship with Rizu, they

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give up the wealth and position offered to them by the empress for Sandry, and they join their magic to break the barrier and enter the freedom of choosing their own lives and their own family. As Briar tells the empress after Fin kidnaps Sandry, ‘‘It is only courtesy to you that I don’t address Fin myself. It’s my sister he tried to kidnap, and our magic is plenty thicker than blood’’ (The Will of the Empress, 403). As Sandry says when they are reunited in Briar’s image of home, ‘‘She [the empress] may be related to me by blood, but I much prefer the family I chose’’ (The Will of the Empress, 539).

PART 4

Perspectives

CHAPTER EIGHT

Literary Techniques Creating Imaginary Worlds WO THINGS ARE CRUCIAL for any fantasy writer who creates imaginary worlds: the imagined realm must be believable and the use of magic must be consistent. If both of these things are done well, the reader will engage in the willing suspension of disbelief and enter the imaginary realm to experience the lives and adventures detailed in the stories. If they are not done well, the reader will be disinclined to finish reading the novel. Pierce accomplishes the first by filling her novels with detailed descriptions, bringing to life both the setting and the cultures of her imaginary realms so that her readers can both see and experience the world of her characters. Her physical descriptions enable the reader to see a world that does not exist.

T

The Long Strait was another world compared to Rajmuat’s crowded streets and busy docks. Limestone cliffs rose high on either side, threaded with greenery and falling streams, capped with emerald jungles that steamed as the day warmed up. Brightly colored birds soared to and fro, indifferent to the ships that ploughed the blue waters. (Trickster’s Choice, 55–56) Kugisko’s nobles built their Pearl Coast homes in stone; so did the imperial governor. In the city, all but a very few built their large houses out of wood: it was a point of pride, a willful separation from the nobility. Bancanor House and Ladradun House were both samples of Namornese woodwork. The houses sported enclosed porches that ran around the sides to the rear, ornately carved roofpieces, window and door frames. Both were three stories tall, their workshops, chick coops, and stables

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enclosed and connected to the rear of the main structure so that no one had to go outside during the bitter winter storms. (Cold Fire, 77) As she walked, she looked on the sights and people of Tharios with interest. Buildings here were of two kinds, stucco roofed with tile—like those in her home on the Pebbled Sea—or public buildings built of white marble, fonted with graceful colors and flat-roofed, with corners and column heads cut into graceful lines. The Street of Glass and Achay Square fountains were marble or a pretty pink granite. Statues carved form marble and painted to look lifelike stood on either side of the paved stones of the road. It was all very lavish and expensive. (Shatterglass, 6) In addition to providing descriptions full of sensory details about the physical makeup of her worlds, Pierce provides the same level of detail in describing traditions from different cultures to make those cultures real. The tent she and Coram were given to share was large and airy, well stocked with comfortable pillows and rugs. Alanna flopped down, thinking of what she had seen of the village itself. A rough count of the tents indicated the Bloody Hawk encompassed at least twenty families. Some of the bachelors would live apart from their parents in a single large tent. The shaman, the man wearing the burnoose tied with green cord, had vanished into the largest tent in the village; from what her teacher Sir Myles had taught her, his dwelling would double as the tribe’s temple. (The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, 12) On they played, throwing the fan a little higher each time it completed a circuit of the group. It looked like a giant scarlet butterfly as it turned and spun in the air. The Yamani ladies were as graceful as dancers, Shinkokami in a pink kimono for the afternoon, Yuki in pale blue, Lady Haname in cream with bamboo printed in green. Kel didn’t try to be graceful. She stood well braced, her eyes on that whirling crimson silk. At last she found the rhythm and was catching it one-handed herself.

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When they had it ten feet in the air, Shinko gave the Yamani command, ‘‘the blossom opens.’’ Now they could throw it to anyone in the circle. The fan went from one to another, the players speeding up until it was a crimson blur. Shinko called the word for ‘‘sinking sun.’’ They slowed. Now they dipped as they caught the fan, whipped it around both hands, then dipped again before wafting it to the next player. They had a chance to breathe, and the slower pace was a different kind of exercise. (Squire, 199–200) With these details providing the firm foundation of a well-realized setting, Pierce also creates systems of magic that function within their own rules. In this way she provides believability for the reader. ‘‘You know Roger of Conte tried to magic an earthquake to destroy most of Tortall and quite a chunk of our neighbors, right?’’ Kel nodded. Raoul stirred up their campfire before he said, ‘‘It didn’t happen because Jon called on the Jewel to hold the land together. The problem was, the strength it drew to stop the quake had to come from somewhere. We had a famine through the realm the next year. All the year’s seed, with that magical potential for life, was dead. He and Thayet beggared Tortall for three years to buy food, to keep the kingdom from starving. All magic has a price. Pay now or later, with your own substance or someone else’s, but you will pay.’’ (Squire, 309) ‘‘Remember what I told you of the words of power.’’ He rubbed his face. ‘‘For each one used properly, there is a reaction elsewhere of similar magnitude. The word that may break this spell will cause an earthquake somewhere else. I will not kill untold numbers of people to get through, not when other mages will soon come to aid me.’’ (Wolf Speaker, 153) ‘‘This—odd power that I have, that you have, it’s not like that of university mages. They draw a design on the ground, mumble a few words, and get results. Not us. Our magic works as well as the things it passes through…. The magic is as strong as your fire or metal. It’s only as pure as the ore you melt down.

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Before you become a mage, you must be a smith. You must work metal and magic together.’’ (Sandry’s Book, 197–98) The mages I’ve known either shape a physical thing to carry their power or they just wield magic as a part of their own bodies. I can place a spell of invisibility on a cloak as I weave; Niko sees magic with his real eyes. Rosethorn’s power grows with her plants. Frostpine builds in spells as he works metal. And most of the time that’s how you all do magic—most of the time, but not always. We know Daja put magic in iron so thoroughly that she changed its nature. Tris sprouts lightning—she doesn’t need to wait for a storm. Sandry was able to spin a thing that did not exist in the physical world, your magics. (Daja’s Book, 111) These examples show how Pierce creates the rules for magic. There is never a word of power spoken without any consequences (when Numair turns his enemy into a tree, a tree is turned into a person). Daja, a smith-mage, never suddenly makes plants grow the way Briar does, even though their magics are combined. Pierce sets out the parameters of her magical worlds and her characters stay within that framework, giving the reader the ability to believe in the possibility of their magical powers. Multifaceted Characters A crucial technique for any novelist is the creation of well-rounded characters, characters who have good points and bad points, characters who could be people a reader knows or people a reader would like to know. As the previous character development sections demonstrate, Pierce accomplishes this admirably. Her characters are people the reader readily believes are personal friends. They are multifaceted and unique:

• • •

Alanna grows to be a hero, but on the way she battles bullies, her fear of the cold, and her own insecurities, and even as an adult, struggles to control her temper Daine emerges as a great shape-shifter who saves Tortall, but she feels loneliness and makes mistakes, one of which almost costs her life Keladry is stoic, and her determination to overcome all obstacles makes her a knight who saves the members of her beleaguered

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refugee camp, even though it means disobeying orders; she’s also afraid of heights, can misjudge opponents, and is not always thrilled with her assignments Sandry saves lives and has a big heart, but she can be arrogant and prideful Daja is a solid friend and displays bravery above and beyond the call of duty, but she struggles with feeling lost and alone Briar will pass through the gates of death to save those he loves, but can get caught up in his own sorrows Tris can be a kind and stalwart friend who will risk anything to save lives, but she is testy and has a fiery temper

By the time readers finish each of Pierce’s sagas, they’ve made a bevy of new friends. Literary Language Lightly scattered throughout Pierce’s omniscient narratives are the language techniques used to create lyrical prose: alliteration, similes, and metaphors.

• • •

• •

‘‘Strictly to make Rizu feel better, certainly not because she wanted more of that sunlight spilling into her heart’’ (The Will of the Empress, 346). ‘‘Ochobu’s three tiny kudarung darted from the kitchen to circle the gray, looking like blackbirds against a thundercloud’’ (Trickster’s Choice, 357). ‘‘Then she realized that despite the glassblower’s twirling the pipe and the steady stream of air he forced into it, the orange blob wriggled, bulged, and then sank like a burlap sack with a cat inside’’ (Shatterglass, 13). ‘‘Columns of flame clawed the night sky as fire raced over the docks’’ (Trickster’s Queen, 159). ‘‘They were sixty feet above the riverbed when a wall of tree-andstone-studded water snarled down the canyon to swamp the river flats’’ (The Will of the Empress, 51).

CHAPTER NINE

An Interview with Tamora Pierce

N Q:

ote: This interview was conducted via e-mail, October 2006 through March 2007.

How do you like living in Syracuse, New York?

A: I like it very much. I have an entire house with a yard through which all kinds of birds, squirrels, skunks, and raccoons pass (not to mention stray cats, some of which have found their way inside). I’ve learned to drive, so I’m able to get out and enjoy the woods, lakes, and the Erie Canal ark, where I can see more wildlife. It’s a lot quieter and a lot cleaner. There’s a good-sized arts community here, and a good variety of restaurants, so I’m not missing New York’s menus in any major way. We had made friends in the Full Cast Audio company in our trips up here to record the audio books, so we aren’t adrift among strangers. And my husband is absolutely delighted with the grocery stores here, which dwarf the New York ones! (He does things like shopping, while I do yard work.) Q:

What inspired you to write fantasy?

A: When I was in sixth grade, my dad caught me telling stories to myself as I did the dishes. Instead of saying people would think I was nuts if I talked to myself, he suggested that I write a book instead. He even gave me an idea to start with, a book about travels in a time machine (we both loved adventure novels, history, and television shows like the original Star Trek, so he knew what would grab me). The next year, as I was still scribbling my own stories, my English teacher introduced me to The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkein. Writers write what they love to read. I got hooked on fantasy, and then on science fiction, and both made their way into

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my stories. I tried to write the kind of thing I was reading, with one difference: the books I loved were missing teenaged girl warriors. I couldn’t understand this lapse of attention on the part of the writers I loved, so until I could talk them into correcting this small problem, I wrote about those girls—the fearless, bold, athletic creatures that I was not, but wanted so badly to be. Q:

Why are strong female protagonists important to you?

A: It was hard to find active girl heroes in books when I was growing up. Even if they were active as girls, they were asked to ‘‘settle down’’ as they got older. When I began to read fantasy in the 1960s, there were only a handful of women warrior heroes, and no girl warriors at all. I wanted—I needed—to read about girls who kicked butt. I began to write the kind of books I wanted to read. I wanted to feel that we had possibilities ahead of us, that the future was as unlimited for us as it was for boys. I wanted that sense of unfettered adventure that I felt as I read books with boy heroes, only I wanted to feel that way as a girl, through a girl hero. Instead of feeling borrowed power in my muscles and borrowed energy in my imagination, as I did by reading through a boy’s persona, I wanted those things to be mine, by reading through a girl’s persona. As I got older, while there were more books with women warriors, there were still not that many with girls, and I discovered that I still liked reading about girl heroes, so I kept on writing. When I was a kid, the heroes of eight out of every ten books published for kids were boys. These days the numbers are more seven out of ten. Until the heroes of kids books are five boys to five girls of every ten books published, I suppose I will continue to specialize in girls. Girls like adventure. They like the idea of kicking off the constraints of family, school, and society, and finding out what they’re made of, just as much as boys do. They want to read about girls who pit themselves against the same kinds of danger as boys do and see how they compare. Since I like that, too, I’m very happy to write it for people to read. I have nothing against boys—I have plenty of male fans, I have a male hero, Briar, and Numair will have his own book in a couple of

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years. But I know that girls want to read about girl heroes getting to have the same adventures as boys do. Since that’s what I like to write, and since writers like Chris Lynch, Gary Paulsen, Will Hobbs, Jonathan Stroud, Christopher Paolini, J. K. Rowling, and Eoin Colfer, to name a very few, are writing all kinds of adventures for boys, I know the boys aren’t being neglected. I lose patience with those who say it doesn’t matter if books have boy heroes because girls can easily imagine themselves in the role of the male hero, as they have done for years. Yes, they have done it. I have done it, and still do it, but in the back of my mind, and I think in the back of every female reader’s mind, there is the knowledge that this is borrowed energy and power, if not stolen. You haven’t put on your rightful clothes; you have appropriated those belonging to someone not you. When the book is done, or when your fantasy of Robin Hood or Davy Crockett is over, you will have to give those things up. They don’t belong to you; you aren’t male. If you read girl heroes, you don’t have to give up the clothes when the book and the fantasy are done. They are your rightful inheritance. They were made for you; they are yours to keep. Nobody asks boys to assume girls’ fantasies. If they did, imagine the uproar. Yet girls are expected to settle. Why? Do we not work? Do we not earn our place on this earth? We have value; we are entitled to things of our own. For centuries we have worked like mules and have been ordered to settle. In this day and age, when we supposedly live in a civilized culture where our work is recognized and our contribution is understood, to still be asked to take the boys’ hand-me-downs is insulting and humiliating. Um, sorry. End of rant. Q:

Your newest book takes place in Tortall’s history. How is it different writing about Tortall now, than it was when you first started the Alanna quartet?

A: I understand a great deal more about Tortall’s past, having filled more of it in with the Daine, Kel, and Aly books. It isn’t just some place I visited for 732 pages (the length of the original Alanna manuscript) and then left behind. It’s a place I have hiked over the length and

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breadth of since November 1976. I know more about the unseen creatures who have witnessed the wars that have passed over it. I know that the Tortall of Alanna’s time was once two kingdoms. I understand more about the conquest of the Bazhir, who are barely encircled as I write now, and the subjugation of the hill tribes, who are tame by Alanna’s day. My understanding of history and what makes it work is a lot deeper, which to my way of thinking is a lot more fun. And I know more disreputable things about past monarchs and noble houses! It’s a lot like restoring a really old, dirty painting. The more I work on it, the more details come clear. Q:

Of all of your characters, who is your favorite character? Why?

A: It really depends on my mood. Obviously I like my heroes, or I wouldn’t spend entire books with them. Kel is so easygoing and relaxing to be around, but then Alanna will say whatever she feels like, which is something I wish I could do! Briar’s such a flirt and a smart mouth, and he can pick locks, which is soooo cool, but Tris has lightning. Daja can hold fire and shape metal, and yet Sandry is the only person I’ve ever run into who can turn a wooden fence and a little gate into a castle wall. And Daine can heal sick animals, which I would give my eyeteeth to be able to do. Numair can turn a man into a tree, but he will fall off his horse because he gets lost in a book and forgets to hold the rein. Neal can see through the subterfuges of those far older and more experienced, but he’ll explode with exasperation when Kel stonewalls him. Niko can see a girl afloat in the middle of the sea from hundreds of miles away, but he’ll slide out the door if he thinks housework is in the offing. Rosethorn will spear a dozen pirates on thorny vines if she’s threatened, but Lark can comfort her, and four difficult kids can find the cracks in her heart. It’s even worse if I look at the secondary characters. How do I choose between the wolf Short Snout, who will eat anything once, or Zhegorz in The Will of the Empress, who reduces everything to crazy logic, or Briar’s student Evvy, who can out-stubborn him, or Kel’s boy Tobe, who has adopted her and intends that she stay adopted? Asking me who my favorite characters are will drive me into a fog.

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What about Zek, the pygmy marmoset, or Kitten the Dragon, or Freckle and Nari the sparrows? Then there’s the baby griffin; Secret the Darking, a very tough old hedgewitch in Melting Stones (which I just finished). Nope. Can’t do it. Q:

Of all of your books, which is your favorite?

A: In terms of how well it’s written, I’d say it’s the most recent book, because that’s the one where I feel I did the most things right: it’s where I know my control over my ability to write and my knowledge of how to write well is absolutely up to the minute. It’s the same reason that you look at something you wrote a couple of months ago and cringe, because you see all the things you can fix now—it works just the same for me. As for favorite in terms of character and how much fun I had, I would have to say Squire. Kel and Raoul made such a good team! They were so comfortable working together; Kel was very good for me as a writer because she was so calm to work with. Raoul was always my favorite of Jon’s crew, because it was so hard to get him going, and he was so funny the rest of the time. Their relationship with each other and with the men of the Own was really rewarding. The jousting lessons were great—Kel’s growing mastery of jousting was wonderful to write. I’m also very proud of the changes in Lord Wyldon and their relationship in this book. I think Wyldon is one of the most complex characters I ever created, and his development in this book makes me very happy. But mostly it was the team of Kel and Raoul: I enjoyed working on with them so much that I put off ending the book for a week, because I knew I wouldn’t be able to come back to that again. I’m also very fond of Shatterglass. I know it’s pathetic to laugh at your own jokes, but taking an arrogant twenty-one-year-old, slated for success in his guild until he was struck by lightning, forcing him to re-master speech and his craft, and then telling him that the only person who can teach him to handle his newly expanded magic is an irascible fourteen-year-old girl amused the heck out of me. Better still, she had just struck him with lightning. I wish I felt bad about

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doing that to Keth, but I don’t. And the book has Chime, the living glass dragon, who I love. Q:

What were your favorite books growing up?

A: I read so many books when I was a kid! Let’s see which stand out … Well, I remember the first books that were mine. We had almost everything Dr. Seuss wrote, and we had an encyclopedia of fairy tales that we read to pieces, but I was expected to share those with my sisters. My uncle gave me four A. A. Milne books when I was five: Winnie the Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner, Now We Are Six, and When We Were Very Young. I loved those books because they were mine. (You noticed I’m still obsessed with that whole ownership thing.) Most of my favorites throughout grade school were the kind of adventure books that were thought in those days to appeal more to boys: Howard Pyle’s A Boy’s Tales of Robin Hood and His Merry Men and A Boy’s King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, and The Prince and the Pauper, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. I also loved Greek and Egyptian myths, and The Iliad and The Odyssey. I read a lot of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ books, though more of his Mars and Pellucidar books than the ones he wrote about Tarzan. And I think I read nearly everything Louisa May Alcott wrote for girls, my favorites being Little Women (I think every American woman writer secretly wants to be Jo March), Little Men, Eight Cousins, and Under the Lilacs. I still re-read Johnny Tremaine by Esther Forbes, Mara: Daughter of the Nile by Eloise McGraw; Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink; Black and Blue Magic by Zilpha Keatly Snyder; Half Magic by Edward Eager; the occasional Louisa May Alcott book; Tom Sawyer (and now Twain’s books for older readers), and Treasure Island. I also read a great many books that are retellings or include figures from Greek, Roman, and Norse myths and legends—I never lost my love of those stories. Q:

How have you seen fantasy for young people change from the time Alanna: The First Adventure came out and now?

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A: There are so many more strong girl heroes in kids’ fantasy now: Bruce Coville’s Cara (the Unicorn books) and Jennifer (Jennifer Murdley’s Toad), Holly Black’s Val (Valiant) and Kaye (Tithe), Catherine Fisher’s Mirany (the Oracle books), Philip Pullman’s Lyra (the Dark Materials), Jane Yolen’s Sister Light, Sister Dark; Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching (The Wee Free Men and its sequels); Robin McKinley’s bevy of strong-willed female heroes, and those of Libba Bray and Shannon Hale; Carole Wilkinson’s Dragonkeeper; Garth Nix’s Sabriel and Lirael, not to mention the tough girls of The Seventh Tower and The Keys to the Kingdom—and I haven’t even brushed the surface of the powerful female heroes available these days. It isn’t just the greater availability of female heroes, though obviously that makes me tremendously happy. It’s the sheer variety of fantasy that’s available. We have the dark side represented by Holly Black and Darren Shan; the animal fantasies of Katherine Lasky and Brian Jacques; the sheer manic variety of someone like Diana Wynne Jones, who goes from a school story like Witch Week to the Edwardian power politics of the Chrestomanci books to a divine struggle in the Eight Days of Luke to a Dungeons and Dragons satire like A Tough Guide to Fantasyland and novels that stem from it: Dark Lord of Derkholm and The Year of the Griffin. We have traditional stories like Debra Doyle and James McDonald’s Knight’s Wyrd, Gerald Morris’s Knight books, David Duncan’s King’s Dagger books, and Arthurian fantasies like those of T. A. Barron and Laura Ann Gilman. And then there’s the hard-to-classify stuff, like Kenneth Oppel’s Airborne and Skybreaker (my favorite pirate story since Treasure Island, with dirigibles!); Geraldine McCaughrean’s Not the End of the World (a re-telling of the story of Noah’s ark); D. M. Cornish’s Foundling (fantasy crossed with Charles Dickens), Sarah Durst’s Into the Wild (the Wild is reaching out to recapture the fairy tale characters who escaped it), Pullman’s Dark Materials (how I wish I’d thought of the daemons!). This isn’t even including the school stories that came before (Jane Yolen’s Wizard’s Hall, Doyle and McDonald’s Circle of Magic series) and since Harry Potter, or the many books revolving

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around the characters of Greek myth and legend (like Geraldine McCaughrean’s re-tellings of Perseus, Hercules, and Odysseus; Caroline Cooney’s amazing Goddess of Yesterday; or Esther Friesner’s wonderful Nobody’s Princess). I love my field! Q:

What kind of research do you do for your novels?

A: I always do a lot of research for my books. I go on field trips to zoos, aviaries, museums, and bookstores. I go to parks (I write a great deal about animals, which is why I spend so much time in zoos, aviaries, parks). I travel to new places. Many of the places I describe in books are places I have either been or have read about: the area around my parents’ home in Idaho, for example, forms part of the landscape in my eighth book, The Realms of the Gods; wildfires I watched when I lived there entered Daja’s Book. When I went to London for the first time, I wandered the streets in Marylebone: Corus has been shaped in recent years by my thoughts during my walks there. Also, reading books and watching TV and movies are often research. Several series of nature programs by British naturalist Sir David Attenborough were the inspiration for my Immortals quartet. I often take characters from actors and characters I see on television and the movies. At the Sterling Forest Renaissance Faire, shortly after I finished Wild Magic, I fell into conversation with a crossbow maker. It turned into an hour’s course on crossbows, and resulted in my writing about crossbows in Wolfspeaker. Watching glassblowers work at a department store when I was in college and at fairs in later years resulted in Keth’s work as a glassblower in Shatterglass (an artist friend who has blown glass was able to answer those questions my books on the subject didn’t as I wrote). As a student social worker in college, my primary case load was gang youth, and part of my studies was about gang culture: that went into Street Magic. My own experience in babysitting led to Alanna’s experience in dealing with babies who require diapers and burping. While writing Street Magic and dealing with a young stone mage, I became interested in stones. I began by asking my husband to pull over as we drove so I could collect samples from outcroppings as we

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passed. I then began to buy rocks from dealers at science fiction conventions. This led to visiting rock shops and going online to purchase the kinds of rock sets that schools buy for science collections to illustrate igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. I only wish it had stopped there. One of the rocks I purchased was a Mexican fire opal in its native matrix. I got more fire opals, then discovered Honduran opals, British Columbia opals, Oregon opals, Idaho opals, Nevada opals, the many kinds of Australian opals, Czech opals, Peruvian opals, and Ethiopian opals. I have since worked stones into other books: fire opals into Terrier and igneous stones— of which I have many kinds as well—into Melting Stones. Research is like eating peanuts. It’s easy to start, not so easy to stop. Before Daine and 1992, I knew very little about birds. Now, beyond the Daine books and the only use I thought I’d have for birds at the time, I’ve incorporated sparrows into the Kel books, as well as a disguised dove (the baby griffin); a baby starling (Tris’s Book), and pigeons. These are all birds I came to know personally—for research. I read a great deal. For the Beka Cooper books I read up on all sorts of elements to Beka’s world: medieval law enforcement, the makeup of the sap, medieval foods and beverages (even beyond all the research on foods I’ve already done), magical charms, and basic investigative procedure (such as it was). The biggest single item for these books was the slang. A lot of the words I use are actual medieval terms, and I did a lot of searching to find them! Some I adapted, and I had to sneak in a few from later times, but most are genuine, and the product of a lot of digging. I was able to write my entire true crime library with The Circle Opens quartet. I have a standing library of twenty-five books on weapons, fortresses, ships, and combat for the classic and medieval world, and I refer to them with almost every book. I try to get things right! Q:

Do experiences from your youth make their way into your novels?

A: Experiences from my entire life go into my books—they go into all of our books. I mentioned using the areas where my parents live and the wildfires I saw there for Realms and Daja’s Book. While swimming in

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a lake when I was sixteen, I ran into a young girl with purple eyes: she popped right out of the water in front of me! (This was before colored contact lenses, by the way.) I never forgot her face, and I waited for the chance to write someone with purple eyes. I based Alanna on my younger sister Kim, whose first word was ‘‘No.’’ I knew she meant it, because she bit me immediately afterward. The pages of my books, particularly the Alanna books, are populated with people I knew as a kid: my eighth-grade math teacher, girls and boys I knew in high school and college, my father and stepmother. Emelan is named for my senior year humanities teacher. The coastline of Pirate’s Swoop is the Pacific coast where I lived for a year. A few personal experiences went into my most recent book, Terrier. When I was young I was excruciatingly shy (I’m still shy, but I’ve learned how to deal with people publicly over the years): I drew on that for Beka’s own shyness. I touched on my experience with my own mother in the segment with the Ashmiller family, and had a terrible time trying to keep a balance between my own memories and the distance I needed to keep it part of the story, not a confession about my past. Also, like Beka I was a poor kid. I’ve dealt with the prejudices our society has against the poor and against people who want to work their way out of being poor. I’ve seen the way the poor are treated by this society. I’ve read a lot of true crime over the years, and repeatedly I’ve noticed the number of murder cases in which the death count is allowed to rise because the murders occurred in the population of the poor, and no one cared enough to investigate. I’ve touched on this in other books, Street Magic and Shatterglass, but largely from the points of view of those who have moved outside the slums. Beka is part and parcel of the slums. The poor matter to her, and so she demands involvement from people. The idea of your family being dismayed by you, and feeling you are less than respectable, is certainly personal. So is the idea that you end up choosing the family that makes you happy—again, that’s something I’ve dealt with in other books. I was in New York on September 11, 2001, working on Lady Knight. I’d actually stopped work on September 10 right before Kel gets the news that her refugee camp has been raided and destroyed

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(a segment I had planned for three or four years for this book). By the time I had a chance to write again, I had forgotten where I stopped work. It was a horrible shock, opening the file, to realize where I was, and to see what I would have to write, and what Kel had to face. We did it, but it was the hardest twenty pages of my career, as Kel searched the rubble for the dead and my city struggled to make sense of what was going on. I could only feed that into Lady Knight, and into the rewrites of Cold Fire, about the destruction done by a serial arsonist. Q:

How do you like working on the audio editions of your books? Do you draw on your experiences in radio?

A: I have to! I know when I make a mistake that I should stop, take a breath, figure out where I can back up to, and begin again in the same tone as I read the line in the first run-through. I learned how to act written text in the radio company, though since mostly what I do for the Full Cast Productions is narrate, I’ve had to learn the peculiar craft of narration. Where I’ve been able to employ most of my radio background is in writing Melting Stones for production first as an audio book. As I did for the radio company, I wrote parts for particular members of the company, crafting them and the characters for their particular voices. I could do this after five years of hearing many members of the company do my own books. Knowing what they were capable of led me to write scenes and exchanges I might never have come up with on my own. I also had a good idea of how long they could speak before they had to breathe, so a lot of my rewrites were spent in breaking up sentences that were too long! Q:

What kind of advice would you give someone who wants to become a published author?

A: Be persistent. More than anything, this is what will make a difference. It is what will change you from a bad writer into a good one, and from an unpublished writer into a published one. It helps to being willing to try new things and to experiment with different voices and forms from your favorites, but persistence is the most important quality an artist needs. Even if you don’t finish everything you start, you keep writing. Sooner or later you’ll build up the creative

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muscle to complete more pieces of work. The more words you put on paper, the better you’ll get at using them, so they’ll speak more clearly for you. Be persistent in spite of what others may say. You have to believe that the thing that makes you want to write knows better than they do—and better than you do—what it’s doing. And while you’re sending things out to publishers, be persistent about writing new things. The more work you send out, the better your chances are of being published. Q:

What would you say your style of writing is? Do you map out the whole story and then start to write, or do you let the story flow freely?

A: I wrote the original first draft of the four Lioness books as one book, with no outline. I began with a scene—the twins’ father telling them how the next eight years of their lives will go—then added each successive scene as I thought them up. I had a lot of time on my hands then, and the only person I was writing for was me, so I took my time. Once my first book was finished and bought by a publisher, I entered that realm that book writers are often admitted to: to get a contract (and money) for a new book, I had to hand in three chapters and an outline for the rest. Later, all I was asked to give was an outline for one book, or for several. Even the outlines are getting shorter and shorter. However, when I actually sit down to write a book, I don’t necessarily follow my outline. Books are organic things. They change on the writer without notice. The smart writer lets this happen, and doesn’t try to make the book do what s/he put down in the outline, because it will not work that way. Most fiction editors don’t ask writers to stick to an outline. They understand—often, far better than the writer—that books are organic and change as they grow. I do know my beginnings and my ending when I sit down to write. I have my lead characters in mind, the main struggle of the book, and the climactic action. Then, somewhere between chapter 4/5 and the climax, is a vast wasteland I refer to as ‘‘the middle.’’ Once I get there, I realize I have no clue as to how I’m going to get to my wonderful, exciting, action-filled climax, with the disaster, the plague,

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the battle, and all the other low-key things my climaxes are known for. At that point, I scream for my husband Tim. Tim has talked me through every one of my plot bogs except those for Alanna: The First Adventure. He’ll ask me where I am, and where I need to go, and we’ll start bouncing ideas around. He’ll tell you I reject all of his ideas. This isn’t true. I may not go for half. But usually his suggestions will spark an idea in my head and I’ll see where I can go for the next while, until I get stuck again. And on we go. Q:

What kind of writing routine do you have?

A: Unless I am on a deadline and am scrambling to meet it, I generally spend the morning talking to people and working on my correspondence. I then start to work in the afternoon, after careful preparation. First I have to check the global earthquake map and see if there have been any earthquakes that day. Then I check my volcanoes: Mount St. Helen’s in Washington State and Popocatepetl in Mexico both have live webcams. After that, I check the Daily Kitten, Cute Overload, and Ugly Overload. (I know. Please don’t say anything.) Next I check When Fangirls Attack, which is a blog that records articles and blog entries of interest to comic book fans, and The Devil’s Panties, my favorite Web comic. Then I check my media: the BBC online, and MSNBC online. Then I’m ready to work. I re-read what I wrote the day before, making changes and corrections. I then write, taking breaks to read, research, check iTunes or YouTube, play with the cats, feed the parakeets or the backyard animals, or go for walks, until I have reached my page count for that day. (At least seven pages a day, more if I’m close to deadline.) I have to make my page count for the day before I can watch television. (I could say I get a lot of ideas for books and characters from television, and I do, but the truth is I love TV. We were without a television for long periods during my childhood and adolescence, and I didn’t have a television during most of my twenties, so I indulge myself now. I can also read during commercials.) Q:

What do you like best about being a writer?

A: Writing, when it’s going well. I love it when the story’s flowing out of my fingers, when the pages pile up, and I’m learning new, cool

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things about the characters with every paragraph. It’s even better now that I have fans, because I can’t wait until they see something special, like the return of Faithful/Pounce, or the return of the darkings, or the reappearance of Briar. There are other good things, don’t get me wrong. I love meeting fans and talking with them. For one thing, we get each others’ jokes! It’s also so amazingly enriching to read mail in which someone tells me my books have helped changed her/his life. I believe that writer, because books changed my life. Only someone who has been through that, who has had a book show the way, can understand how much it means when someone writes to say, ‘‘Your book got me through [this bad experience],’’ or ‘‘Your book taught me I can be anything I want.’’ Money can’t buy that kind of reward for a writer. Q:

Have you seen an increase in the number of strong female protagonists in fantasy?

A: As I said above, there are more strong female protagonists than when I was growing up—but the numbers still aren’t close to being even. I believe we’ve gone from seven to eight books out of ten with boy heroes to six to seven with boy heroes, but that’s still not five out of ten with girl heroes. Moreover, there’s a movement afoot now to press for more attention to boys’ reading, with an emphasis on what is perceived as boys’ subjects and, of course, boy heroes. I don’t object to writing for boys, except invariably the casualty of such movements has always been books with girl heroes. Q:

What do you think the importance of fantasy is?

A: Fantasy is about the sense of wonder. It stretches the mind to include ‘‘what if.’’ Those who work with gifted children have long known that fantasy and science fiction are magnets for the gifted, because it gives their imaginations room to expand. They can take the worlds presented in speculative fiction and build on them, creating new structures of their own which may, in the long run, lead to new creations in science, architecture, and chemistry that bear no apparent resemblance to the seed idea they sprang from. It’s our moral literature. Only in fantasy are people allowed to speak openly of courage, honor, duty, and obligation, without being

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laughed at in our cynical modern society. Characters in fantasy define themselves by what is honorable, a concept that idealistic teenagers (and adults who still cherish that part of themselves) recognize and value. In fantasy honor and dishonor are examined in all their facets. In fantasy, like historical fiction, the many aspects of duty are living social functions that are viewed openly, not murmured about by ministers and officials who handle swearing-ins. These ideals, and idealism itself, are taken seriously in fantasy, and by fantasy readers. They are needed by fantasy readers, on some level. They respond to a depth of moral code that is mocked and rejected by our contemporary culture. Fantasy is our imaginative meat and drink. It taps directly into the creative stream, what the aborigines call the Dreamtime. Through it we can explore our myths and legends, re-introducing ourselves to them or updating them for modern times. We can feed our passions through fantasy, our idealism, our secret needs. We can explore our fears and desires at a remove that gives us a chance to recognize them and examine them without fear of public knowledge or censure. Fantasy is perceived as harmless, when it’s our life’s blood.

APPENDIX A

Strong Female Heroes: A Bibliography Alexander, Lloyd. The Wizard in the Tree. New York: Dutton, 1975. Bell, Hilari. The Goblin Wood. New York: Eos, 2003. Berry, Liz. China Garden. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1996. Billingsley, Franny. The Folk Keeper. New York: Atheneum, 1999. Black, Holly. Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2002; Sequel: Ironside: A Modern Tale of Faerie. Bondoux, Anne-Laure. The Princetta. New York: Bloomsbury, 2006. Bray, Libba. A Great and Terrible Beauty. New York: Delacorte, 2003; Sequel: Rebel Angels. New York: Delacorte, 2005. Carey, Janet Lee. Dragon’s Keep. San Diego: Harcourt, 2007. Coombs, Kate. The Runaway Princess. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2006. Cooney, Caroline B. Goddess of Yesterday. New York: Delacorte, 2002. Croggon, Alison. The Pellinor Quartet. #1 The Naming Candlewisk, 2005; #2 The Riddle. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick, 2006. Fletcher, Susan. The Dragon Chronicles. #1 Dragon’s Milk. New York: Atheneum, 1989; #2 Flight of the Dragon Kyn. New York: Atheneum, 1993; #3 Sign of the Dove. New York: Atheneum, 1996. Gaiman, Neil. Coraline. New York: HarperCollins, 2002. Gardner, Sally. I, Coriander. New York: Dial, 2005. Hale, Shannon. The Princess Academy. New York: Bloomsbury, 2005. Kindl, Patrice. Owl in Love. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993; Goose Chase. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Knox, Elizabeth. Dreamhunter. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2006. Sequel: Dreamquake. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2007. Levine, Gail Carson. Ella Enchanted. New York: HarperCollins, 1997; Companion Novel: Fairest. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. McGraw, Eloise. The Moorchild. New York: Margaret K. McElderry, 1996. McKillip, Patricia A. The Forgotten Beasts of Eld. New York: Atheneum, 1974.

268

APPENDIX A

McKinley, Robin. The Hero and the Crown. New York: Greenwillow, 1984; Companion novel: The Blue Sword. New York: Greenwillow, 1984. McNaughton, Janet. An Earthly Knight. New York: HarperCollins, 2004. Napoli, Donna Jo. Sirena. New York: Scholastic, 1998. Nix, Garth. The Abhorsen Trilogy. #1 Sabriel. New York: HarperCollins, 1996; #2 Lirael: Daughter of the Clayr. New York: HarperCollins, 2001; #3 Abhorsen. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. Pattou, Edith. East. San Diego: Harcourt, 2003. Pope, Elizabeth C. The Perilous Gard. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974. Pratchett, Terry. Tiffany Aching Adventures. #1 The Wee Free Men. New York: HarperCollins, 2003; #2 A Hat Full of Sky. New York: HarperCollins, 2004; #3 Wintersmith. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. Pullman, Philip. His Dark Materials Series. #1 The Golden Compass. Alfred A. Knopf, 1995; #2 The Subtle Knife. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997; #3 The Amber Spyglass. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000; #4 Lyra’s Oxford. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. Sherman, Delia. Changeling. New York: Viking, 2006. Snyder, Midori. Hannah’s Garden. New York: Viking, 2002. Stanley, Diane. Bella at Midnight. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. Tomlinson, Theresa. Moon Riders. New York: Eos, 2006. Vande Velde, Vivian. Dragon’s Bait. San Diego: Harcourt, 1992. Wooding, Chris. Poison. London: Orchard, 2005. Wrede, Patricia C. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles. #1 Dealing with Dragons. San Diego: Harcourt, 1990; #2 Searching for Dragons. San Diego: Harcourt, 1991; #3 Calling on Dragons. San Diego: Harcourt, 1993; #4 Talking to Dragons. San Diego: Harcourt, 1993.

APPENDIX B

Fantasy Adventure: A Bibliography Alexander, Lloyd. The Chronicles of Prydain. #1 The Book of Three. Holt, 1964; #2 The Black Cauldron. Holt, 1965; #3 Castle of Llyr. Holt, 1966; #4 Taran Wanderer. Holt, 1967; #5 The High King. Holt, 1968. Alexander, Lloyd. The Iron Ring. Dutton, 1997. Alexander, Lloyd. The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian. Dutton, 1970. Anderson, M. T. The Game of Sunken Places. Scholastic, 2004. Bass, L. G. Sign of the Qin. Hyperion, 2004. Bell, Hilari. The Farsala Trilogy. #1 Fall of a Kingdom. Simon Pulse, 2003; #2 Rise of a Hero. Simon and Schuster, 2005; #3 Forging the Sword. Simon and Schuster, 2007. Bruchac, Joseph. Wabi: A Hero’s Tale. Dial, 2006. Chima, Cinda Williams. The Warrior Heir. Hyperion, 2006; Sequel: The Wizard Heir. Hyperion, 2007. Colfer, Eoin. Artemis Fowl Series. #1 Artemis Fowl. Hyperion, 2001; #2 Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident. Hyperion, 2002; #3 Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code. Hyperion, 2003; #4 Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception. Hyperion, 2005; #5 Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony. Hyperion, 2006. Collins, Suzanne. The Underland Chronicles. #1 Gregor the Overlander. Scholastic, 2003; #2 Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane. Scholastic, 2004; #3 Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods. Scholastic, 2005; #4 Gregor and the Marks of Secret. Scholastic, 2006; #5 Gregor and the Code of Claw. Scholastic, 2007. Cooper, Susan. The Dark Is Rising Sequence. #1 Over Sea, Under Stone. Harcourt, 1965; #2 The Dark Is Rising. Atheneum, 1973; #3 Greenwitch. Atheneum, 1974; #4 The Grey King. Atheneum, 1975; #5 Silver on the Tree. Atheneum, 1977. Cornish, D. M. Monster Blood Tattoo: The Foundling. Putnam, 2006. Crossley-Holland, Kevin. The Arthur Trilogy. #1 The Seeing Stone. Arthur A. Levine, 2001; #2 At the Crossing Places. Arthur A. Levine, 2002; #3 King of the Middle March. Arthur A. Levine, 2004.

270

APPENDIX B

Dickinson, Peter. The Ropemaker. Delacorte, 2001. Farmer, Nancy. The Sea of Trolls. Atheneum, 2004; Sequel: Land of the Silver Apples. Atheneum, 2007. Ferris, Jean. Once Upon a Marigold. Harcourt, 2002. Fisher, Catherine. The Oracle Prophecies. #1 The Oracle Betrayed. Greenwillow, 2004; #2 The Sphere of Secrets. Greenwillow, 2005; #3 Day of the Scarab. Greenwillow, 2006. Flanagan, John. The Ranger’s Apprentice. #1 The Ruins Of Gorlan. Philomel, 2005; #2 The Burning Bridge. Philomel, 2006. Harrison, Mette Ivie. The Princess and the Hound. Eos, 2007. Haydon, Elizabeth. The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme. #1 The Floating Island. Starscape 2006; #2 The Thief King’s Daughter. Starscape, 2007. Jordan, Sherryl. The Hunting of the Last Dragon. HarperCollins, 2002. Kaaberbol, Lene. The Shamer Chronicles. #1 The Shamer’s Daughter. Henry Holt, 2004; #2 The Shamer’s Signet. Henry Holt, 2005; #3 Serpent Gift. Henry Holt, 2006; #4 Shamer’s War. Henry Holt, 2006. Le Guin, Ursula K. The Earthsea Cycle. #1 A Wizard of Earthsea. Parnassus Press, 1968; #2 The Tombs of Atuan. Atheneum, 1971; #3 The Farthest Shore. Atheneum, 1972; #4 Tehanu. Atheneum, 1990; #5 Tales from Earthsea. Harcourt, 2001; #6 The Other Wind. Harcourt, 2001. Levine, Gail Carson. The Two Princesses of Bamarre. Eos, 2004. McKillip, Patricia A. Riddle-Master: The Complete Trilogy. Ace, 1999. Morris, Gerald. The Squire’s Tales. #1 The Squire’s Tale. Houghton Mifflin, 1998; #2 The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady. Houghton Mifflin, 1999; #3 The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf. Houghton Mifflin, 2000; #4 Parsifal’s Page. Houghton Mifflin, 2001; #5 The Ballad of Sir Dinadan. Houghton Mifflin, 2003; #6 The Princess, the Crone, and the Dung Cart Knight. Houghton Mifflin, 2004; #7 The Lioness and Her Knight. Houghton Mifflin, 2005; #8 The Quest of the Fair Unknown. Houghton Mifflin, 2006. Nix, Garth. The Keys to the Kingdom. #1 Mister Monday. Schlastic, 2003; #2 Grim Tuesday. Schlastic, 2005; #3 Drowned Wednesday. Schlastic, 2005; #4 Sir Thursday. Schlastic, 2006; #5 Lady Friday. Schlastic, 2007. Oppel, Kenneth. Airborn. Eos, 2004; Sequel: Skybreaker. Eos, 2006. Riordan, Rick. Percy Jackson & the Olympians. #1 The Lightning Thief. Hyperion, 2005; #2 The Sea of Monsters. Hyperion, 2006; #3 The Titan’ Curse. Hyperion, 2007. Skelton, Matthew. Endymion Spring. Delacorte, 2006.

APPENDIX B

271

Stone, Jeff. The Five Ancestors. #1 Tiger. Random House, 2005; #2 Monkey. Random House, 2005; #3 Snake. Random House, 2006; #4 Crane. Random House, 2007; #5 Dragon. Forthcoming. Stroud, Jonathan. Bartimaeus Trilogy. #1 The Amulet of Samarkand. Hyperion, 2003; #2 The Golem’s Eye. Hyperion, 2004; #3 Ptolemy’s Gate. Hyperion, 2006. Tolkien, J. R. R. The Tolkien Reader. Ballentine, 1966. Turner, Megan Whalen. Attolia Series. #1 The Thief. Greenwillow, 1996; #2 The Queen of Attolia. Greenwillow, 2003; #3 The King of Attolia. Greenwillow, 2006. Vande Velde, Vivian. Never Trust a Dead Man. Harcourt, 1999. Wein, Elizabeth. The Aksumite Cycle. #1 The Winter Prince. Atheneum, 1993; #2 A Coalition of Lions. Viking, 2003. #3 The Sunbird. Viking, 2004. Westerfeld, Scott. The Midnighters Trilogy. #1 The Secret Hour. Eos, 2004; #2 Touching Darkness. Eos, 2005; #3 Blue Noon. Eos, 2006. Wooding, Chris. The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray. Orchard, 2004.

Bibliography of Sources Works of Tamora Pierce, by Series The Tales of Tortall The Song of the Lioness quartet: Alanna: The First Adventure. New York: Atheneum, 1983. In the Hand of the Goddess. New York: Atheneum, 1984. The Woman Who Rides Like a Man. New York: Atheneum, 1986. Lioness Rampant. New York: Atheneum, 1988. The Immortals quartet: Wild Magic. New York: Atheneum, 1992. Wolf Speaker. New York: Atheneum, 1994. Emperor Mage. New York: Atheneum, 1995. The Realm of the Gods. New York: Atheneum, 1996. The Protector of the Small quartet: First Test. New York: Random House, 1999. Page. New York: Random House, 2000. Squire. New York: Random House, 2001. Lady Knight. New York: Random House, 2002. The Trickster duology: Trickster’s Choice. New York: Random House, 2003. Trickster’s Queen. New York: Random House, 2004. The Provost’s Dog trilogy: Terrier. New York: Random House, 2006.

274

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SOURCES

The Circle of Magic Sagas The Circle of Magic quartet: Sandry’s Book. New York: Scholastic, 1997. Tris’s Book. New York: Scholastic, 1998. Daja’s Book. New York: Scholastic, 1998. Briar’s Book. New York: Scholastic, 1999. The Circle Opens quartet: Magic Steps. New York: Scholastic Press, 2000. Street Magic. New York: Scholastic, 2001. Cold Fire. New York: Scholastic, 2002. Shatterglass. New York: Scholastic, 2003. The Will of the Empress. New York: Scholastic, 2005.

Short Story Collection Young Warriors: Stories of Strength (edited by Tamora Pierce and Josepha Sherman). New York: Random House, 2005.

Forthcoming Titles by Tamora Pierce Melting Stones (2008) Bloodhound (2008) Elkhound (2009)

Books, Web Sites, and Databases about Tamora Pierce and Fantasy Contemporary Authors Online. Infotrac Galegroup Database. Dailey, Donna. Tamora Pierce. New York: Chelsea House, 2006. Fichtelberg, Susan. Encountering Enchantment: A Guide to Speculative Fiction for Teens. Hartford, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Fry, Donald K. ‘‘Alanna.’’ School Library Journal, February 1984: 84. Horn Book, Nov./Dec. 2005). ‘‘The Will of the Empress.’’ Horn Book Guide. ‘‘Trickster’s Queen.’’ Spring 2005: 96. Keuhn, June H. ‘‘The Will of the Empress.’’ School Library Journal, November 2005: 144–146. Kirkus Review. ‘‘Trickster’s Queen.’’ 72, no. 17 (September 2004): 872.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SOURCES

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Marcus, Leonard S. The Wand in the Word: Conversations with the Writers of Fantasy. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick, 2006. Mattson, Jennifer. ‘‘The Will of the Empress.’’ Booklist, Vol. 102, November 15, 2005: 42. McConnell, Ruth. ‘‘The Woman Who Rides Like a Man.’’ School Library Journal, August 1986: 105. Pierce, Tamora, http://www.tamora-pierce.com [accessed October 17, 2006]. Soffer, Isabel. ‘‘In the Hand of the Goddess.’’ School Library Journal, December 1984: 94. Voice of Youth Advocates. ‘‘Trickster’s Queen.’’ Voice of Youth Advocates, Vol. 27, February 2005: 7.

Index Alanna: The First Adventure, 19–25 alliteration, 249 apprentices, 32–3, 46, 52, 171–188 Briar’s Book, 183–188 bullies, Alanna’s dealing with, 21, 50, 248 Kel’s dealing with, 105, 110, 116, 129, 130–132 Pasco’s dealing with, 189 character development, Alanna, 42–51 Aly, 160–165 Briar, 222–226 Daine, 92–96 Daja, 226–230 Kel, 129–134 Sandry, 218–222 Tris, 230–234 The Circle of Magic Quartet, 171–188 The Circle of Magic Sagas, 169–241 The Circle Opens Quartet, 188–208 class divisions, 97 Cold Fire, 197–202 courage, 50–51, 93, 178, 197, 264 creating imaginary worlds, 245–248 Daja’s Book, 179–183 determination, and imagination, 78 Alanna’s, 24, 29, 43, 50 Aly’s, 145, 162

Daine’s, 78, 92–4 Daja’s, 202 in overcoming obstacles, 29, 145, 129, 212, 248 in pursuit of goals, 24, 29, 43, 50, 92–4, 102–3, 130–31, 162, 207 Kel’s, 102–3, 129, 130–1, 248 Sandry’s, 212 Tris’s 207, 248 dragon, Kit, 64, 75, 79, 83, 90 Kit’s mother, 64–6, 70, 86, 93 of glass, 203–4, 209, 256 dragons, of the Divine Realms, 90–91 duty, Alanna’s, 43 Aly’s, 164 concept of, 264 Daja’s, 249 in conflict with emotions, 121 Kel’s, 121, 132, 134 to followers, 164 to people in need, 132–134 to the realm, 43 Emperor Mage, 74–92 environment, 97, 234 equality, 97, 99, 165 family you create for yourself, 234 First Test, 101–106 freedom, 79, 83, 96–99, 117, 151, 222, 241

278

INDEX

gender equity, 51–54, 166, 234–236 gender roles, 44–48, 51–54, 97, 100, 129, 134–136, 165, 234–236 griffins, 62, 79, 114–15, 117, 130, 255, 259 homosexuality, 211, 213–215, 229–230 The Immortals Quartet, 57–100 In the Hand of the Goddess, 25–30 justice, 132, 136, 208, 230, 233 knights, Alanna as, 30–42, 52–54 Alanna training for, 19–30, 42–47 duty of, 133–134 female, 30–42, 121–130 Kel as, 121–129, 134 Kel training for, 101–121, 130–132 life of, 19–42, 121–129 training of, 19–30, 101–121 Lady Knight, 121–129 life, the value of, 234, 236, 238 Lioness Rampant, 35–42 literary heritage, 9–15 literary language, 249 literary techniques, 245–249 literature, young adult, 9–15 love, between two women, 211, 213–215, 229–230 importance of, 51, 54–55, 165, 167 in Alanna’s life, 13, 25–27, 37, 42, 45, 49–51, 54–5, in Aly’s life, 158, 160, 164–65, 167 in Daine’s life, 89 in Daja’s life, 214–215, 226, 229

mages, in the Magic Circle Sagas, 169–241 in the Tales of Tortall, 59–60, 66–7, 75, 90, 123, 128, 133, 143–147, 151, 160 Magic Steps, 188–192 metaphors, 249 multifaceted characters, 248–49 Page (novel), 106–111 page (position at court), Alanna’s training as, 20–25 Kel’s training as, 102–111, 130–31, 134 Pierce, Tamora, biography of, 3–7 Pierce, Tamora, interview with, 251–265 plot development, Alanna: The First Adventure, 19–25 Briar’s Book, 183–188 Cold Fire, 197–202 Daja’s Book, 179–183 Emperor Mage, 74–83 First Test, 101–106 In the Hand of the Goddess, 25–30 Lady Knight, 121–129 Lioness Rampant, 35–42 Magic Steps, 188–192 Page, 106–111 The Realm of the Gods, 83–92 Sandry’s Book, 171–174 Shatterglass, 202–208 Squire, 112–121 Street Magic, 192–197 Trickster’s Choice, 139–150 Trickster’s Queen, 150–160 Tris’s Book, 174–179 Wild Magic, 58–65 The Will of the Empress, 209–218 Wolf Speaker, 65–74 The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, 30–35

INDEX

poverty, 3, 109, 136, 234 The Protector of the Small Quartet, 101–137 The Realms of the Gods, 83–92 responsibility, 43, 48, 129–31, 133, 162, 188, 221–22, 226 romantic relationships, 33–34, 38, 40, 49, 89, 158, 163, 214–215 Sandry’s Book, 171–174 self-acceptance, 43–49, 51, 92–94 Shatterglass, 202–208 similes, 249 slavery, 57, 97–8, 139–167, 235 slaves, 66, 75, 78–81, 83, 97–8, 125, 139–167, 231 social justice, 97, 134 The Song of the Lioness Quartet, 19–55 spies, 31, 145, 147, 150, 152–53, 157, 160 spymaster, 40, 42, 51, 139, 150, 153, 161, 164 Squire, 112–121 squires, Alanna, 24–30, 43, 45, 52, 54 Kel, 112–121 Street Magic, 192–197

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The Tales of Tortall, 17–169 thematic development, The Circle of Magic Sagas, 234–241 The Immortals, 97–100 The Protector of the Small, 134–137 The Song of the Lioness, 51–55 The Trickster Duology, 165–167 Tolkien, J. R. R., 4, 10, 11, 12 Trickster’s Choice, 139–150 The Trickster Duology, 139–167 Trickster’s Queen, 150–160 Tris’s Book, 174–179 war, Alanna’s involvement with, 26–29, 36–7 Aly’s involvement with, 150–169 anti-war perspective, 97–8, 100–101 Briar’s involvement with, 218, 225–226 Daine’s involvement with, 63, 83–92 effects of, 51, 54, 216 Kel’s involvement with, 121–129, 216 Wild Magic, 58–65 The Will of the Empress, 209–218 Wolf Speaker, 65–74 The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, 30–42

About the Authors BONNIE KUNZEL retired as the Youth Services Consultant for the New Jersey State Library in December 2006. That same year she was selected Librarian of the Year by the New Jersey Library Association, only the second youth services librarian to receive this singular honor. On the national level, she is a Past-President of YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association, a Division of the American Library Association). She is a regular reviewer for the journal VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates), again specializing in the areas of science fiction and fantasy, and she is a Science Fiction and Fantasy editor for NoveList, an on-line reader’s advisory service. Her most recent work, co-authored with Constance Hardesty, is The Teen-Centered Book Club: Readers into Leaders (Libraries Unlimited Professional Guides for Young Adult Librarians Series, 2006.) She is currently working with Diana Tixier Herald on the second edition of Fluent in Fantasy for Libraries Unlimited. SUSAN FICHTELBERG is the author of Encountering Enchantment: A Guide to Speculative Fiction for Teens, published by Libraries Unlimited. She also contributed to the Continuum Encyclopedia of Young Adult Literature. In her nineteen years as a children’s librarian for the Woodbridge Public Library, Susan has served as the president of the Children’s Services Section of the New Jersey Library Association and chaired the Garden State Children’s Book Award Committee. She has presented fantasy book talks and programs for the New Jersey Library Association, the New Jersey Association of School Libraries, the New Jersey Education Association, The Witching Hour: A Harry Potter Symposium, and the World Science Fiction Convention.