Hertzal Hertling is one of the characters in Senta and the Steel Dragon.  He and his two sisters arrived in Birmisia from Freedonia in book 1, victims of the anti-Zaeri racism in their homeland.

Hertzal and his twin sister Hero are two of Senta’s best friends, despite the fact that Hertzal has not spoken since he arrived in the new land.  I don’t know why I chose mutism for Hertzal (except that all the characters in the story are broken in some way), but it just grew to be a real part of the story.

In The Young Sorceress, Hertzal gets a bit of alone time with Senta, leading me to discover just how hard it is to write a conversation between two people when one can’t speak.  That being said, Hero and Hertzal, and their older sister Honor, are some of my personal favorites.