Copper Isles: a slaveholding island nation to the south and west of Tortall. The Isles’ lowlands are hot, wet jungles, their highlands cold and rocky. Traditionally their ties are to Carthak rather than Tortall, and their pirates often raid along the Tortallan coast. There is a strain of insanity in their ruling line. The Isles hold an old grudge against Tortall, since one of their princesses was killed there the day that Jonathan was crowned.
Corus: the capital city of Tortall, located on the northern and southern banks of the River Olorun. Corus is the home of the new royal university as well as the royal palace.
dragon: a large, winged, lizard-like immortal capable of crossing from the Divine Realms to the mortal ones and back. Dragons are intelligent, possess their own magic, and are rarely seen by humans. The infant dragon Skysong, known as Kitten, lives in the mortal world with her foster mother, Daine Sarrasri.
Eastern Lands: the name used to refer to those lands north of the Inland Sea and east of the Emerald Ocean: Scanra, Tortall, Tyra, Tusaine, Galla, Maren, Sarain.
Frasrlund: the Tortallan port city at the mouth of the Vassa, on the other side of the border with Scanra.
Galla: the country to the north and east of Tortall, famous for its mountains and forests, with an ancient royal line. Daine was born there.
Giantkiller: a fort built by Third Company of the King’s Own in Squire, given its name in honor of Lord Raoul after Raoul killed two giants there in a Scanran raid; Lord Wyldon’s temporary command post.
Gift, the: human, academic magic, the use of which must be taught.
glaive: a pole arm, including a four- or five-foot staff capped with a long metal blade.
Goatstrack: a destroyed village near Fort Giantkiller.
grapples: large, three-pronged iron hooks that can be attached to a rope and tossed over a wall or cliff to be used as an anchor for a climber.
Great Mother Goddess: the chief goddess in the Tortallan pantheon, protector of women; her symbol is the moon.
Greenwoods River: the river that flows past Haven.
griffin: a feathered immortal with a catlike body, wings, and a beak. The males grow to a height of six and a half to seven feet at the shoulder; females are slightly bigger. No one can tell lies in a griffin’s vicinity (a range of about a hundred feet). Their young have bright orange feathers to make them more visible. If adult griffin parents sense that a human has handled their infant griffin, they will try to kill that human.
Hamrkeng: the capital of Scanra.
hand-and-a-half sword: a longsword with a longer-than-usual hilt, which may be wielded single-handed or with two hands.
Haven: refugee camp.
headman: the leader of a tribe, or the mayor of a small town.
Human Era (H.E.): the calendar in use in the Eastern and Southern Lands and in the Copper Isles is dated the Human Era to commemorate the years since the one in which the immortals were originally sealed into the Divine Realms, over four hundred and fifty years prior to the time covered by Protector of the Small.
hurrok: an immortal shaped like a horse with leathery bat wings, claws, and fangs.
Immortals War: a short, vicious war fought in 452 H.E., the thirteenth year of Jonathan and Thayet’s reign, named for the number of immortal creatures that fought, but also waged by Carthakis (rebels against the new emperor Kaddar), Copper Islanders, and Scanran raiders. These forces were defeated by the residents of the Eastern Lands, particularly Tortall, but recovery is slow.
indenture: contract of service under which a buyer pays a certain amount and in return is granted a person’s service for a set length of time, usually seven years. During that time the buyer must provide basics—food, clothing, shelter, education (in Tortall)— in return for the servant’s work.
King’s Council: the monarch’s private council, made up of those advisers he trusts the most.
King’s Own: a cavalry/police group answering to the king, whose members serve as royal bodyguards and as protective troops throughout the realm. Their Knight Commander is Lord Sir Raoul of Goldenlake and Malorie’s Peak. The ranks are filled by younger sons of noble houses, Bazhir, and the sons of wealthy merchants. The Own is made of three companies of one hundred fighters each, in addition to the servingmen, who care for supplies and remounts. First Company, a show company, traditionally provides palace bodyguards and security for the monarchs. Under Lord Raoul, Second and Third Company were added and dedicated to active service away from the palace, helping to guard the realm.
logistics: the military study that involves the purchase, maintenance, and transport of supplies, equipment, and people.
longhouse: a long, barnlike structure that provides housing for several families or for an extended family and their animals (in winter). A typical Scanran home, it can also be found in both northern Tortall and Galla.
mage: wizard.
mage mark: a silvery circle on the forehead, used to identify a convict soldier.
Maren: a large, powerful country east of Tusaine and Tyra, the grain basket of the Eastern Lands, with plenty of farms and trade.
Mastiff: the new fort that serves Lord Wyldon as command post during events in Lady Knight.
mess (hall): the building in which military meals are eaten; sometimes cooks work in the same building.
Midwinter Festival: a seven-day holiday centering around the longest night of the year and the sun’s rebirth afterward. It is the beginning of the new year. Gifts are exchanged and feasts held.
Mithros: the chief god of the Tortallan pantheon, god of war and the law; his symbol is the sun.
naginata: the Yamani term for the glaive used by Kel.
Northwatch: the command base for Tortall’s northern defensive, currently the headquarters for General Vanget haMinch, commander of the northern armies.
ogre: an immortal with aqua-colored skin, shaped like a human, from ten to twelve feet in height.
Pakkai River: a small river in Scanra.
pole arm: any weapon consisting of a long wooden staff or pole capped by a sharp blade of some kind, including spears, glaives, and pikes.
Queensgrace: a town on the Great Road North.
Queen’s Riders: a cavalry/police group charged with protecting Tortallans who live in hard-to-reach parts of the country. They enforce the law and teach local residents to defend themselves. The basic unit is a Rider Group, with eight to nine members. Rank in a Group is simply that of commander and second-in-command; the head of the Riders is the Commander. They accept both women and men in their ranks, unlike the army, the navy, and the King’s Own. Their headquarters lies between the palace and the Royal Forest. Buriram Tourakom is now the Commander; Queen Thayet was the Commander but has since passed the title to Buri.
regular army: foot soldiers, cavalrymen, catapult operators, quartermasters, scouts, and their officers; uniformed troops.
remount: a rider’s second horse, to ride when the primary horse gets tired. In the case of knights and the King’s Own, remounts are often warhorses, heavier mounts trained to fight.
River Olorun: its main sources are Lake Naxen and Lake Tirragen in the eastern part of Tortall; it flows through the capital, Corus, and into the Emerald Ocean at Port Caynn.
Riversedge: a town near Fort Giantkiller.
Scanra: the country to the north of Tortall, wild, rocky, and cold, with very little land that can be farmed. Scanrans are masters of the sea and are feared anywhere there is a coastline. They also frequently raid over land. Their government is a loose one, consisting of a figurehead king and a Great Council (formerly the Council of Ten, expanded in the disruptions following the Immortals War) made up of the heads of the clans. Maggur Rathhausak, a warlord stirring up trouble for Scanra’s southern neighbors, has taken the crown at the start of Lady Knight.
scry: to look into the present, future, or past using magic and, sometimes, a bowl of water, a mirror, fire, or some other device to look through.
Smiskir River: the Scanran tributary to
the Vassa River.
Southern Lands: another name for the Carthaki Empire, which has conquered all of the independent nations that once were part of the continent south of the Inland Sea.
spidren: an immortal whose body is that of a furred spider four to five feet in height; its head is that of a human with sharp, silvery teeth. Spidrens can use weapons. They also use their webs as weapons and ropes. Spidren web is gray-green in color and it glows after dark. Their blood is black and burns like acid. Their favorite food is human blood.
squad: ten soldiers commanded by a sergeant and two corporals.
standard-bearer: the young man or boy who carries the company flag.
Steadfast: the fort built to serve as headquarters for Third Company of the King’s Own and Lord Raoul.
stockade: a wall made of whole logs, their upper ends cut into rough points.
Stormwing: an immortal with a human head and chest and bird legs and wings, with steel feathers and claws. Stormwings have very sharp teeth, but use them only to add to the terror of their presence by tearing apart bodies. They live on human fear and have their own magic; their special province is the desecration of battlefield dead.
strategy: the plans for a battle or war from a distance, working out the movements of armies and setting goals for them.
tactics: the plans for a battle at short range, as it happens.
Tirrsmont: a fiefdom in northernmost Tortall.
Tortall: the chief kingdom in which the Alanna, Daine, and Keladry books take place, between the Inland Sea and Scanra.
Tusaine: a small country tucked between Tortall and Maren. Tortall went to war with Tusaine in the years Alanna the Lioness was a squire and Jonathan was crown prince; Tusaine lost.
Tyra: a merchant republic on the Inland Sea between Tortall and Maren. Tyra is mostly swamp, and its people rely on trade and banking for income. Numair Salmalín was born there.
Vassa River: the river that forms a large part of the northeastern border between Scanra and Tortall.
warhorse: a larger horse or greathorse, trained for combat—the mount of an armored knight.
wildmage: a mage who deals in wild magic, the kind of magic that is part of nature. Daine Sarrasri is often called the Wildmage for her ability to communicate with animals, heal them, and shapeshift.
wild magic: the magic that is part of the natural world. Unlike the human Gift, it cannot be drained or done away with; it is always present.
Yamani Islands: the island nation to the north and west of Tortall and the west of Scanra, ruled by an ancient line of emperors, whose claim to the throne comes from the goddess Yama. The country is beautiful and mountainous. Its vulnerability to pirate raids means that most Yamanis, including the women, get some training in combat arts. Keladry of Mindelan lived there for six years while her father was the Tortallan ambassador.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Anyone who reads this and knows where I live will see clear parallels to the events of September 11, 2001. This is and is not a coincidence. I had planned the fate of Haven and its inhabitants since the mid-1990s, when Mallory said she would love to see a new series about a new girl knight, and I began to work out the course of Kel’s adulthood. I forgot where in Lady Knight I had stopped writing when September 11 swept us all into the real world. Afterward, all I knew was that I needed to get back to Tortall. I had to get back to Tortall. I wanted to immerse myself in fantasy because reality was “way too much.” I wasn’t able to sit down at my computer for five days, and when I saw where I had stopped— on Kel’s second return to Haven—my hands began to shake. It took me two weeks to write the next twenty pages, the hardest twenty of my life. I did it because it had to be done; I had to write the book, awaited by so many faithful readers. And then, I confess, when I did the rewrites, I expressed my feelings about war, refugees, and disaster a bit more forcefully than I had in the first draft. So September 11 did and did not shape this book; maybe the right way to put it is that it added muscle and my own personal trauma to what would have been a strong story in any case. Make of it what you like. Think about what’s here and come to your own decisions, that’s all I ask.
As ever, my heartfelt thanks goes to my wonderful editrix, Mallory Loehr, whose idea it was to make Kel a commander (I wasn’t sure I could write anyone who works and plays well with others), and whose enthusiasm for Kel’s story from the very beginning has kept me moving forward. Books are very much co-productions, and without input from Mallory, my agent Craig Tenney, my beloved Spouse-Creature, Tim, and my English editrixes Holly Skeet and Kirsty Skidmore, the Kel you read about now would be very different and not as solid. These people help me to tell my story in a straightforward way, make sure I explain things that are confusing, notify me when something is unneeded, and give me the ideas that get me unstuck and writing again.
My thanks also to Rick Robinson, geometer (map-maker and -reader) extraordinaire, and Raquel Starace and Tracy Schlabach, whose continued horse input gave birth to Peachblossom.
To my mother, my stepbrothers, my sister, my husband, and all the family clustered around us, well, the old eagle flies free at last. I just hope he flies slow enough that we can catch up to him when it’s our turn to fly.
On the next page
read a preview
of Tamora Pierce’s next Tortall book,
TRICKSTER’S CHOICE,
which tells the story
of Alanna’s daughter, Alianne.
Available in hardcover from
Random House in September 2003.
1
PARENTS
March 27–April 21, 462 H.E.
Pirate’s Swoop, Tortall, on the coast of the Emerald Ocean
George Cooper, Baron of Pirate’s Swoop, second in command of his realm’s spies, put his documents aside and surveyed his only daughter as she paused by his study door. Alianne—known as Aly to her family and friends—posed there, arms raised in a Player’s dramatic flourish. It seemed that she had enjoyed her month’s stay with her Corus relatives.
“Dear Father, I rejoice to return from a sojourn in our gracious capital,” she proclaimed in an overly elegant voice. “I yearn to be clasped to your bosom again.”
For the most part she looked like his Aly. She wore a neat green wool gown, looser than fashion required because, like her da, she carried weapons on her person. A gold chain belt supported her knife and purse. Her hazel eyes contained more green than George’s own and they were set wide under straight brown brows. Her nose was small and delicate, more like her mother’s than his. She’d put a touch of color on her mouth to accent its width and full lower lip. But her hair . . .
George blinked. For some reason, his child wore an old-fashioned wimple and veil. The plain white linen covered her neck and hair completely.
He raised an eyebrow. “Do you plan to join the Players, then?” he asked mildly. “Take up dancing, or some such thing?”
Aly dropped her pretense and removed her veil, the embroidered cloth band that held it in place, and her wimple. Her hair, once revealed, was not its normal shade of reddish blond, but a deep, pure sapphire hue.
George looked at her. His mouth twitched.
“I know,” she said, shame-faced. “Forest green and blue go ill together.” She smoothed her gown.
George couldn’t help it. He roared with laughter. Aly struggled with herself, and lost, to grin in reply.
“What, Da?” she asked. “Apart from the colors, aren’t I in the very latest fashion?”
George wiped his eyes on his sleeve. After a few gasps he managed to say, “What have you done to yourself, girl?”
Aly touched the gleaming falls of her hair. “But Da,” she said, voice and lower lip quivering in mock hurt, “it’s all the style at the university!” She resumed her lofty manner. “I proclaim the shallowness of the world and of fashion. I scorn those who sway before each breeze of taste that dictates what is stylish in one’s dress, or face, or hair. I scoff at the hollowness of
life.”
George still chuckled, shaking his head.
“Well, Da, that’s what the students say.” She plopped herself into a chair and stretched her legs out to show off her shoes, brown leather stamped with gold vines. “These look nice.”
“They’re lovely,” he told her. “Which ‘they’ is it that proclaim the hollowness of the world?”
Aly flapped a hand in dismissal. “University students. Da, it’s the silliest thing. One of the student mages brewed up a hair treatment. It’s supposed to make your hair shiny and easy to comb, except it has a wee side effect. And of course the students all decided that blue hair makes a grand statement.” She lifted up a sapphire lock and admired it.
“So I see.” George thought of his oldest son, one of those very university students. “Don’t tell me our Thom’s gone blue.”
Now it was Aly’s turn to raise a mocking eyebrow at her father. “Do you think he even notices blue-haired people are about? Since they started bringing in the magical devices from Scanra, he’s done nothing but take notes for the mages who study how they’re made. The only reaction I got from him was ‘Ma better not see you like that.’ I had to remind him Mother’s safely in the north, waiting for the snows to melt so she can chop up more Scanrans.” Aly had left a pair of saddlebags by the door. Now she fetched them and put them on a long table beside George’s desk. “The latest documents from Grandda. He says to tell you no, you can’t go north, you’re still needed to watch the coast. Raiding season will begin soon.”
“He read my mind,” George said crossly. “That cursed war’s going into its second year, your mother’s in the middle of it, or will be once the fighting warms up, and I stay here, buried under paper.” He indicated his heaped desktop with a wave of a big hand and glared at the saddlebags. “I’ve not seen her in a year, for pity’s sake.”
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