Ro South and her little brother Pit are stolen from their farm, and their elder sister Shy sets off to bring them back home, with the help of their surrogate-father, Lamb.
Appearance[]
Ro is a thin and pale girl, of about ten years of age.
History[]
Ro grew up on a farm near the town of Squaredeal in Near Country with her mother and siblings Shy and Pit. One day, a scarred nine-fingered Northman named Lamb turns up at the farm, and is taken on as a farm-hand. When her mother dies, Lamb promises to look after the children.
Red Country[]
Shy takes her farm’s crop to market in Squaredeal, accompanied by her surrogate-father Lamb. While they’re away, bandits led by Grega Cantliss attack the farm, burn it down, and hang the old farm-hand Gully. Ro and her little brother Pit are kidnapped.
As they and the bandits move west, Cantliss gathers more and more children until there are 21. None of the children are older than 10. As one of the oldest, Ro tries keeping the younger children fed, clean, and quiet. A boy named Care attempts to run away, but is hunted and killed by one of the bandits. Thereafter, the children are too scared to attempt any other escape. Another night, one of the men wakes her and starts talking about how she reminds him of someone, until Pit hits him. Cantliss quickly drags the man away and kills him.
They travel by land and boat until they reach a region of hills with geothermal activity called Ashranc. Ashranc is the home of the Dragon People, a settlement carved into the mountainside. Waerdinur pays Cantliss for the children in ancient gold. Waerdinur tells Ro that he is her father now, hanging a necklace with a piece of dull, grey metal in the shape of a teardrop he calls a "dragon scale" around her neck.
One night, Ro tries to leave, but Waerdinur tracks her down. She warns him that Shy will come for her, but Waerdinur tells her that many children come to the Ashranc, but no families have ever come to claim them. He promises her that they can give her a purpose in life, and show her wondrous things. Ro and Pit settle into life with the Dragon People, receiving the lessons of the Maker, and working to make spears. Ro agrees to have her head shaved, like all the other Dragon People.
Eventually, Cantliss leads Shy, Lamb and Cosca and his mercenaries to Ashranc. The children are liberated, though Lamb almost kills Ro while in his Bloody-Nine state. Pit is fine, but Ro seems altered by her captivity, empathising with the Dragon People, similar to Stockholm Syndrome.
As they journey back to Squaredeal, Ro is sullen and withdrawn, and continues shaving her head like the Dragon People. At one point, some of the children including Ro decide to run away back, but Lamb catches her. Back in Squaredeal, Ro slowly seems to be recovering from her captivity, and eventually stops shaving her head.