Rardine

Rardine's introduction at sixteen. Sitting next to Grendine in Wilderhall Gardens holding a lap desk, quill, parchment, sealing wax — "all the accoutrements of a scribe... wearing a headshawl in the Remeran style, but she favored the Duchess enough for me to tell she was related. Long black hair, a remnant of her Remeran ancestry, set off a face full of freckles and pretty green eyes. She wasn't pretty, exactly, but she wasn't unattractive, either."

Re-encounters Minalan in the river garden post-victory:

A girl, no more than fifteen, and one I'd seen before. She smiled, a far more devious smile than one normally associates with sixteen year old girls.

Drinks wine to excess; bites her lip as her "tell"; pushes a lock of hair behind her ear as the assassination signal. Orders her father's ascension plotting in clear-eyed detail: "It was really Mother's idea." Makes Minalan a "Son-in-Law" of the Family. Issues the assassination-signal to Hamlan. Reveals her cold competence:

An army and a crown make the legalities of the matter largely moot.

"Don't push your luck, peasant. Count your good fortune." Minalan's verdict: "cocky little bitch." Devious, bloodthirsty, charmless, brilliant. Was Grendine's heir-in-training for the Family. Becomes Princess Rardine at book's end.

Summons Minalan during the Coronation Ball to her private anteroom. "She looked utterly gorgeous, and even a little attractive. As meetings with nubile young women go, I'd rather kiss a goblin." "Splendidly dressed in a bright yellow gown with a voluminous skirt festooned with elaborate embroidery in thread-of-gold. She wore her shiny new princess crown and drank wine from a golden cup. An empty glass bottle on the table beside her told me she'd had more than one cup."

"Betrayal is a hobby. Plots are a way to pass the time." "Gessa's a cunt, always has been, always will be." Political advice delivered archly:

All military policy is based on politics! Perhaps the soft living of a magelord has ruined you for the field.

Now Princess Rardine of Castalshar.

Off-page but frequently referenced. Her mother Grendine is negotiating Remeran marriage prospects for her; Rardine, with increasing autonomy in the Family, arranges Isily's marriage to Dunselen as a gambit of her own.

Minalan's long private audience with her at Wilderhall's tulip garden. Now eighteen-ish and painfully aware of marginalization. Candid, sympathetic (to Minalan's surprise) about the Family's betrayal. Admits Isily is obsessed. Warns of Tavard. Asks for nothing.

Wears the habitual guard of four ladies plus four soldiers; drinks wine mid-morning. "I am dangerous, Spellmonger. Don't you know that?" "It was bloody awful, if you must know." "No one comes to see me without wanting something from me." "I'm a political liability. A liability! Me!" For the first time, visibly lonely. Minalan leaves her with the impression that he offered her friendship in sincerity.

Glimpsed in Olum Seheri by Tyndal and Gatina during their scouting:

Princess Rardine, though she had never looked so common, was looking forlornly out of her cell. Her gown was filthy and in tatters, and her hair was a mess. But there was a determined expression that gave even Tyndal pause as he watched.

She has been captured at sea near Farise, taken by pirates, sold to the Brotherhood of the Rat, and sold to Korbal as a prize.

The actual rescue scene at Olum Seheri, then her arc as survivor. Rescued by Tyndal says:

She was a sight. She'd lost weight, during her captivity, and her face was drawn and pale under her hair. Her hair was limp, dirty, and tangled. She was clad in a simple hempen shift without belt or mantle, and she was barefoot. The girl before him only barely resembled the Princess he knew, but there was no mistaking the fire in her eyes.

Dresses without modesty in Tyndal's emergency kit.

On learning the Queen abandoned her:

Tyndal watched helplessly as Rardine's thin face contorted in a storm of raw emotions. He watched as a daughter lost faith in her parents, a sister in her brother, and a loyal servant in her demanding mistress.

"Was she? How . . . interesting."

Exiled to Vorone:

I just met the little turd, and he's no cuter than any other babe.

Proposes marriage to Anguin says:

I've already given Anguin the opportunity to strike me dead. I put the naked sword in his hand.

"A woman finds her legacy in her children the way a man does in his work or his lands. I would bear him an army of heirs." Stages the consanguinity counter-attack on Grendine with a locked magical box revealing Grendine's own illegitimacy: "It looks like my sainted mother is actually someone's bastard," Rardine said, in a quiet but vicious voice. "Aren't you glad you didn't do all of this out in full court, now?"

Marries Duke Anguin at Falas at midsummer. At the dinner with her parents she verbally shreds Tavard and Grendine. "Princess Rardine handled the meeting with grace and poise I was unsure she possessed. She was wearing the colors of Alshar, blue and green, with a newly-wrought crown befitting her rank. Her gown was stunning, cut in an elegant Alshari style that showed off her waist and hips as scandalously as Remeran fashions did."

Completely transformed from the "cocky little bitch" of Book 2 into a sharp, confident, almost merciless political operator. Works in tandem with Anguin rather than from behind the throne. Pentandra testifies she welcomes his corrections in open court and supports him fiercely.

Off-page mostly; marriage continuing, now Duchess. Described as "lusty union," heirs expected. Her Matidine Rose (Blood Red Rose of Enultramar) intelligence network expands into Alshari and Gilmoran affairs.

Opening of the Vorone Summer Palace. Now acting sovereign of Alshar alongside Anguin. At the Great Hall:

Anguin and Rardine were greeting their guests. With their words, Rardine was charming and Anguin was gracious.

Wears her own banner — a "red rose on a yellow field" — as distinct heraldic identity beside Anguin's anchor-and-antlers.

Has established her own intelligence network, the Matidine Rose, named for her Alshari grandmother Matidine. Welcomes Minalan warmly and publicly: "The Spellmonger's work is ever important, my lord duke." "Perhaps you can visit us at Falas, this autumn, instead." Publicly embraces her father Rard at the palace opening in a rare tender moment. Now genuinely dignified, self-aware, powerful. A calculated partnership of affection and political utility with Anguin.

Pentandra-POV book. Rardine has directly empowered Pentandra to crush the Alshari slaveholders. Her voice carries through Pentandra's dialogue:

Rardine has been considering a levy of taxes on every slave purchased during the interregnum.

She is Duchess of Alshar in all but title. Pregnant or recently mother; her Matidine Rose (the Blood Red Rose of Enultramar) intelligence network is openly active.

Extended scenes with Pentandra. Frustrated, thoughtful, not entirely hostile to wizards. "You aren't using this as a veiled warning for how Anguin and I are ruling, are you, Pentandra?" Concedes Pentandra is right after considering. "My mother has always been suspicious of the magi." Expresses affection:

I like you, despite you telling me things I do not want to hear.

An astute young monarch.

With Anguin at Vanador's children-table visit. Pregnant and giving birth: "Two grandsons in one month." Enchanted with the Leshi in the Magelaw. Still running the Matidine Rose intelligence network behind her children-raising.

At Rondal and Tyndal's wedding: "Are they going to start soon?" Rardine asked, shifting from side to side. "These shoes are torturing my feet." Pregnant again — "Now Rardine is going to be pregnant at her wedding." Still actively running intelligence on Farise via Pentandra's Garden Society. Calls for the conquest of Farise.

Duchess and head of the Garden Society -- the kingdom's shadow intelligence apparatus and the network for which Rondal's wife Gatina is one of the best agents. She runs her duchy with what Gatina calls an "uncommonly wise" pattern of trusting her wizards: she gives Minalan wide berth on his real projects, lets Gatina build a secret ship without asking too many questions, and is content for her magi to do what they know needs to be done.

In The Golden Goblin she is convinced Minalan is the only person who can clear the post-Alshar piracy problem out of Farise (where roughly half the wizards in the world have quietly been gathering, including her brother) and is steering the political weather around that conclusion. Rondal also confides to himself that he dreads what duty she would declare for him over the Gorod Alon revelations -- she is a ruler whose displeasure he would rather not test.