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.