Mrs. Colbshallow (Saba’s Mother) is present in all the Senta and the Steel Dragon books.  She adds a lot of flavor to the stories.  I had written The Voyage of the Minotaur, in which she appears quite a bit and had never given her a name.  In the first draft, she was just referred to as “cook”.  I made her Saba’s mother.  He appeared throughout the book, but wasn’t too important– at least in that draft.  I was several chapters into The Drache Girl before I gave her a first name, and that only for a gag about the name of Eamon’s upcoming child.  It was revealed that both Eamon’s wife Dot and Saba had mothers who first names were Yadira.

When I went back to write The Dark and Forbidding Land between those two books, Yadira Colbshallow got a much meatier part than she had previously enjoyed in the series. It was a lot of fun rounding out her personality.  Here she is, hiring lizzies to be Dechantagne servants.

Now another softskin was talking to the one that Tisson had pointed out as Clark.  Both were looking in the direction of Cissy and the others.

“What is it?” asked Cissy.

“She is a female,” said Tisson, standing up.  “The females have very wide bottoms.  And you can see she is older because the tuft of hair on her head is grey.”

“You know much, old one,” said Sirrek, sounding impressed.

“I have come to the human village many times over the last two years, to trade and to work.  In Tserich they will no longer let me hunt, because I am getting too old, but the humans will let me work and earn many copper bits.”

The older human female approached the group.  She was tiny even next to Cissy who was the smallest of the four, but she walked right up to them without fear.  Sirrek and Kheesie stood.  The human woman took each of the four by the shoulder and turned them around to look at their skin, their tails, and their feet.  She reached up and examined Tisson’s dewlap.

“I do believe Sergeant Clark is correct,” she said.  “You are a promising looking lot.  What are your names?”

Tisson put his hand, palm out over his dewlap.

“I Tisson,” he said, then pointed to each of the others in turn.  “This Sirrek, Kheesie, Cissy.”

“Wonderful!” shouted the human, clapping her hands together.  “My yes, you are a fine fellow.  Excellent.  You will all come along with me.”  She waved for them to follow and then started across the base towards the great wall.  “My name is Mrs. Colbshallow, though I don’t imagine you’ll be able to pronounce it.  You can say ‘Lady’, yes?”

“Lady.”  Each of the four lizzies tried out the word.

They reached the edge of the base when they were suddenly waylaid by a soldier with one of the big weapons slung over his shoulder.  The four lizzies instinctively shrunk back and tried to look small.

“Did you get a good selection, Mother?” the soldier asked Mrs. Colbshallow.

“Yes, yes.  No need to worry about that.  I’ve been hiring servants for nearly forty years now.  I know how to spot a good one, be he man or beast.”  She turned to the four lizardmen.  “This is my son, Saba.”