Ssissiatok (Cissy) was a character that I originally created for The Drache Girl.  When I went back and wrote Brechalon, I inserted a little scene for her and then when I wrote The Dark and Forbidding Land, I gave her a nice juicy part.  I really enjoyed writing her– so much so, that I created a whole new bunch of lizzie characters in The Young Sorceress and the other books that are now a big part of The Sorceress and her Lovers.

Here is a scene from the Drache Girl, showing the everyday interaction between human (Yuah) and lizzie (Cissy).

Yuah spent the remainder of the day in the most rewarding and pleasant role that she had ever had—that of mother.  She scarcely paid any attention to the comings and goings of Iolanthe and the other members of the household.  She cuddled and hugged.  She played peek-a-boo.  She dismissed Cissy when she checked in at three.  She skipped both tea and dinner, having a snack brought up to the nursery.  Finally that evening, she dressed Augie in his pajamas, and put him to bed.  Before she retired to her own room, which was just on the other side of the wall from Augie’s crib, she crossed to the bed on the opposite side of the nursery and kissed an already sleeping Iolana on the forehead.

Yuah’s own bedroom was the type of room that she had dreamt of having as a child.  Of course, growing up as a servant in the Dechantagne household, she had seen such rooms many times.  Wallpaper with an intricate pattern of pink roses between golden bars covered all the walls, reaching from the golden pattern on the ceiling to the gold floral carpeting on the floor.  Pink lace curtains on both the windows matched the pink lace draped above the big brass bed and above the large oval mirror of the vanity.  The intricately wrought bedstead matched both the small brass chair in front of the vanity and the small stand in the corner which held the wash basin and pitcher.  Cissy followed her into the room and stood quietly by as Yuah removed her new dress.

Though Cissy, like all the reptilian aborigines was referred to as a lizardman or a lizzie, she was in fact a female of the species.  Her silly little skirt was the primary indicator of that fact, for most humans remained ignorant of how to determine gender among their cold-blooded neighbors.  It also, like the medallions worn by the male lizardmen, indicated to the local militia and the new police department that she was in the permanent employ of human colonists, and so was allowed the freedom to stay within the confines of the colony overnight, unlike the laborers at the dock or those working on the streets.  She was slightly less than six feet in height, several inches taller than Yuah.  The skin of her face was a deep forest green which continued down her back, punctuated with darker stripes just below her shoulders.  Beneath her long powerful jaw, on her dewlap, and extending down her front, it was a lighter, pale green.  Cissy, like Tisson and Sirrek, and unlike most of the twenty or so other lizardmen on the property, had been working for the household for almost two years, earning Iolanthe’s trust and her husband’s too, for what it mattered.  Cissy even seemed to have won over Terrence, and that was saying something.

When Yuah had taken off her dress and handed it to Cissy to be hung up, she then turned and held on to the brass bedstead, so the reptilian maid could unlace her Prudence Plus maternal bust form corset.  Stepping out of that and the rest of her underclothes, she put on her nightdress and sat at the vanity to comb her long brown hair, while Cissy put the corset away in the closet and put all the rest down the laundry chute in the hallway. 

“I think that will be all, Cissy,” said Yuah.

“Yes.”  The maid turned and exited the room, her long, armored tail, the tip of which was about a foot off the ground, seemed to stay long after she had made her way through the doorway.  Back in Greater Brechalon, servants were required to respond with a “yes, miss” or a “yes, ma’am”, but the locals were unable to comply with this necessity having for all practical purposes, no lips.  They were quite capable of “yes, sir” but the royal governor had decided that having no form of address at all was preferable to a masculine one for the ladies.

Climbing beneath the blankets of her large bed, Yuah felt more alone than at any time of the day.  Her husband had been gone for almost eight months.  When he had left, her pregnancy was only beginning to show.  Now a beautiful young son lay in the room next door, having never seen, nor been seen by his father.  It was a long journey to Brech—almost two months travel time each direction.  So eight months was not an unreasonable time to be gone.  On the other hand, eight months was long enough to make clear that Terrence wasn’t breaking any records in an effort to return home.

The next morning, Cissy was again present to help Yuah get dressed.  Today she decided on a teal dress which featured a very tight bodice and a plunging back.  The butterfly sleeves of white lace matched waves of lace which trailed down in layers over the smooth satin skirt.  A very large white bow accentuated the bustle, and tiny white bow-shaped beads ran in a single line down the front, from the relatively high neckline, all the way to the floor.  She chose long white gloves to accentuate the dress and a matching teal hat, shallow with a very wide brim, trimmed in blue, yellow, and white flowers.  By the time she had finished her makeup, Cissy had dressed Augie and taking her son in her arms, Yuah made her way down the sweeping staircase and into the dining room.

Professor Merced Calliere is an important supporting character in the first half of Senta and the Steel Dragon.  He appears more in book 1 and 3, but has smaller parts in books 0 and 2.  Here is the professor withe the rest of the family at breakfast in The Drache Girl.  I named him Merced after the river and so decided that his nickname would be Mercy.  Calliere is a made up name too.

Yuah thought she had made it up early this morning, but everyone was already seated at the long dining table.  Professor Merced Calliere, dressed in a white summer suit that his wife had no doubt purchased for him, sat at the head of the table and was already scooping forkfuls of eggs and sausages to his mouth.  At the opposite end of the table, his wife, the royal governor, sipped her morning tea.  The bright red dress she wore was clean in style and far simpler in cut than Yuah’s teal dress.  It featured no lace or brocade or beading what-so-ever, but the material which covered Iolanthe from the top of the neck to the wrists and down to the floor was so smooth, and so fine, that Yuah would have bet it cost a fortune, and was probably imported all the way from Forlond. 

Each side of the table had four place settings, though for breakfast, not all of them were filled.  Yuah took her place to Iolanthe’s right.  The two seats to her right were empty.  At the far end, next to her father, and perched on a stack of books in her chair was little Iolana.  The pretty little girl, dressed in bright pink, had her blond hair carefully curled into dozens of tiny ringlets, which framed her aquamarine eyes, tiny freckled nose, and bow-shaped mouth.  Directly across from Yuah sat Mrs. Colbshallow.  A handsome, though rather worn woman in her late forties, Mrs. Colbshallow had been the family cook for the Dechantagne household.  Having journeyed to the new world, she found herself in the rather queer position of being a human servant in a land where servants were lizardmen.  Since she clearly was above the level of the lizzies, she had sort of automatically assumed the place of family member.  While she was still in charge of all the meals, she only engaged in the actual work of the kitchen when it suited her.  Next to her was her son Saba, in a neatly pressed blue police uniform, with large brass buttons.  The lanky boy who had been a step-n-fetchit for the Dechantagne home had grown to a handsome six foot three nineteen year old.  His thick blond hair and flashing moss green eyes were a welcome sight for most girls in Port Dechantagne.  Though he lived in a small house down the road, he often took meals with his mother.  Next to him was another empty seat, and then next to that, to the professor’s right was seated Macy Godwin.  Another staff member elevated to family, Mrs. Godwin had served as a governess and head maid at the Dechantagne family home in Shopton.  Now nearing sixty, Mrs. Godwin had settled in to serve as the grizzled aunt neither the Dechantagne nor the Calliere family had.

One of the lizardman waiters placed a plate of eggs, sausages, black pudding, baked beans, sliced tomatoes, and toast in front of Yuah.  Balancing Augie in the crook of her left arm, she picked up her fork and used the side of it to cut the eggs into bite sized pieces.  The local lack of chickens did nothing to lessen the humans’ appetite for eggs and the local countryside obliged.  There were many birds in Birmisia, as well as dinosaurs, and quite a few animals that seemed to fall somewhere in between the two groups.  Wild eggs had proven to be the most abundant food source offered by the new land.  Early on, the colonists had scavenged them for themselves, but this had given way to trading with the local lizardman tribes for them.  Now, with the exception of manual labor, eggs were the largest source of wealth for the reptilians.

“I believe there is something wrong with your dress, dear,” said Mrs. Godwin.

“Oh?” said Yuah.

“Yes, it’s missing the back.”

“Perhaps you have it on backwards,” offered Mrs. Colbshallow.

“I happen to know that both of you saw this dress at Mrs. Bratihn’s,” said Yuah.  “You’ve just been waiting until I wore it so you could play at being blinkered old ladies.”

“It does show rather a lot of skin, for a day dress,” said Iolanthe.

“Backs are all in, in Brech,” said Yuah.

“I think it looks very nice,” said the professor.

“Oh shut up,” snapped Iolanthe.

Hey, finally a character I haven’t already written about.  Amadea Jindra is one of two women that Radley Staff becomes involved with (in the looser sense of that word) while on the ship to Birmisia.  Other than book 0, in which she makes a very brief appearance, Miss  Jindra appears only in this book of the series so far.  Amadea’s first name I made up as a female version of Amadeus– as in Mozart.  I don’t know if it actually is a name or not.  Here she arrives in Birmisia to be met (sort of) by Zurfina.

Stepping out of the S.S. Arrow’s mid-deck hatch and onto the gangplank, Radley Staff looked around at the peninsula on which Port Dechantagne was built.  He was amazed at the growth of the little colony.  When he had left, a little more than three years ago, it was nothing but a few barracks buildings in a clearing in the woods.  Now it was a real town.  From where he stood, he could see hundreds of buildings, warehouses, apartment blocks, businesses, and the rooftops of more building off between the redwoods.  A large, dark cloud hung amid the white clouds, formed by hundreds of fireplaces and stoves.  The smell of wood smoke overcame the smell of the seashore.  He stopped for a moment and enjoyed the scene.  Someone behind him cleared her throat.  He turned around to find Miss Jindra, in a shimmering white and teal day dress with waves of white ruffles down the front.  She wore a matching teal hat with a lace veil and carried a parasol, though she seemed unlikely to need one.

“I’m sorry,” he said.  “I didn’t mean to hold you up.”

“That’s quite all right, Mr. Staff.  I’m surprised you haven’t debarked yet.”

“I waited to avoid the rush.”

“I’m afraid I was expecting more,” she said, looking with a raised brow at the nearby buildings.

He followed her gaze.

“Really?  I was thinking just the opposite.”

He turned back around to face her and started.  Miss Jindra was just where she had been, but a second woman stood directly behind her—a woman who hadn’t been there only a second before.  Though her hairstyle was different, Staff remembered the charcoal circled grey eyes and the wry smile.  He had thought he remembered her scandalous dress too, but what she had on now went beyond the bounds of decency.  Black leather covered only the lower half of her breasts, leaving her two star tattoos clearly visible.  The dress reached down only to the top of her thighs.  Two thick straps attached to a tight leather collar, which seemed to be holding the whole thing up.  Forget fitting a corset beneath this ensemble.  One would have been hard pressed to fit a piece of lace in there.

“Well, Lieutenant Staff, I do declare,” said Zurfina in her unforgettable sultry voice.

“That’s Mr. Staff,” he corrected.

Miss Jindra spun around, getting a piece of her voluminous dress caught on a spur of the railing.  There was a loud ripping sound as a four-inch tear was opened in the beautiful teal cloth.

“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear,” said Zurfina, placing a hand on each of Miss Jindra’s shoulders.  Looking around the olive-skinned woman’s head, she said in a loud whisper.  “Too long a dress.  Bound to happen sooner or later.”

“What exactly do you want, Zurfina?” asked Staff.  “I’m flattered, but surprised that you came to meet me.”

“Oh you are a pretty boy, but it’s your friend I’m here for.”

“Miss Jindra?”

Miss Jindra started to speak.  “I don’t…”

“Don’t spoil the moment,” said Zurfina, placing a finger on the woman’s mouth.

“Perhaps I could bring her around to your home later,” said Staff.

Zurfina flashed him a smile that was only slightly more than a smirk.  Then suddenly she was gone.  Miss Jindra, her voluminous white and teal dress with matching teal hat and her parasol, were gone too.  There was nothing to indicate that anyone had ever stood on the gangplank behind him, except for a single teal colored thread, clinging to a spur in the railing.

For a moment, Staff thought about finding Miss Jindra and rescuing her.  On the other hand, she had never expressed a need or a desire for his protection.  He didn’t really know her all that well.  She was only a dinner companion, assigned by the ship’s purser at that.  And it was not as if he had any knowledge of how to deal with a sorceress or knew Zurfina’s address.  So he shrugged and continued down the gangplank, across the dock, and into the street beyond.

Smedley Bassington is a character that developed as I was writing Senta and the Steel Dragon.  I had a place for a wizard in book 3, and so he filled that spot.  I liked him when I wrote it and so I expanded his role in book 5 and expanded his back story which I added to book 0.  He is still definitely among the ranks of the minor characters in the series, but a particularly important one.  I already posted part of Senta’s duel with Bassington on my post about Bessemer.  Here is his arrival in Birmisia, as witnessed by Saba Colbshallow.

Saba strolled back across Bainbridge Clark Street, just in time to see the professor walking back to his vehicle from the ship’s loading area, along with a stranger.  The man was tall with a dark complexion.  His slightly graying hair was cut fairly short and parted in the middle, while his squinty eyes peered out from behind horn-rimmed spectacles.  His nose was turned up just enough that one could look directly into his nostrils.  His wide thin-lipped mouth and a heavy lantern jaw made him seem toad-like.  About five foot ten, he wore a black pinstriped suit and over it, a long black rifle frock coat that reached to his knees.

Saba could feel the stranger’s eyes upon him for just a moment, as the man evaluated him.  Then the stranger seemed to freeze in place.  His head turned quickly to the right, and Saba looked to his left to follow the man’s gaze.  They made three points of a triangle—Saba, the man in black, and the twelve-year-old sorceress’s apprentice.  Senta and the stranger stared at each other for at least ten seconds, though to Saba, it seemed like much longer.  Then the girl got up from her crate and skipped south.  She turned to look back twice, as if she was worried about being followed.

The man in black watched her, giving no more notice to Saba or anyone else in the street, and then he climbed into the passenger seat of the steam carriage.  Professor Calliere hopped into the driver’s seat and was soon off, honking to warn dockworkers both human and reptilian to get out of his way, driving north in the direction of his workshop.