Hero and Hertzal Hertling are twins, characters in Senta and the Steel Dragon.  Hero is seen more often in the series than her brother, and definitely is heard more often since he doesn’t speak.  They make great supporting characters for Senta and collectively make up the “best friend” between her and Graham.  In chapter four of The Two Dragons Senta, Hero, and Hertzal visit the victims of a shipwreck.

The S.S. Arrow left port only hours after the captain learned of the wrecked ship.  The Ebon Forest unloaded its passengers and the shipwreck survivors that it had rescued, then refilled its coal hoppers and set out again the following morning to aid in the search.  On board was an emergency team consisting of a doctor, several clerics, and two dozen volunteers.  Mr. Radley Staff, who had planned and organized the team for just such an emergency, was in overall command of the rescue efforts.  As the massive black ship slid across the calm waters of the bay, he could be seen standing on the deck.  Next to him, dwarfing him, was the steel dragon, with gleaming scales reflecting the early summer morning sun.

Senta unhappily watched the ship going.  Bessemer had only arrived home the day before and now he was already leaving.  Though they had stayed up the entire night talking, the dragon had not had time enough to relay all of his adventures.  The girl had certainly not had time enough to tell him about hers.  It had been an unhappy few months, as it always was when she was separated from her steel-colored friend.  She would have been on the ship with him if not for the fact that Zurfina, who seldom seemed to care what she did, had expressly forbidden her from doing so.  Senta wondered about this as she idly rubbed her lower back where the dragon tattoo had appeared.  Bessemer had agreed that it looked like him, though not as he was now.  It was an image of him when he was not much bigger than a cat.

Senta heard her name called and turned to see Hero and her twin brother Hertzal running toward her.

“What are you guys doing here?”

“We’re with Honor, helping out at the governor’s warehouse,” said Hero.  “We saw you over here and Hertzal wanted to say hello.”

Hertzal, who had never spoken a word as long as Senta had known him, raised his hand in a friendly wave.

“Hey Hertzal.  You’re not working today?”

Hertzal shrugged, which Senta translated in her head to, “I was going to, but the ship I was to work on went back out to sea.”

“So what’s going on in the governor’s warehouse then?”

“That’s where they have the people from the shipwreck.  They’re getting everyone identified and finding places for them.  That’s not easy when they arrived at the same time as four thousand people from Freedonia.”

“I suspect they’re getting special treatment because they’re Kafirites, don’t you?” Senta said, voicing an opinion that would never have come out of the mouths of the twins, regardless of whether it had residence in their heads.

“They’ve been through an awful hardship,” said Hero.  “Honor brought tea and cakes for them.”

“Your sister is pretty special,” said Senta.  “You would think that Aalwijn Finkler would have brought some tea and cakes.  He owns three cafes.”

The twins turned to look behind them and watched as Aalwijn Finkler in a fine new grey suit walked into the warehouse.  He carried nothing with him.  The three young people looked at each other and then walked down the short block to enter the building after the restaurateur.  The large warehouse was filled with cots, though none were at present occupied by people.  Rather people wandered around the room in groups and pairs, those obviously from the ship making connection with those obviously from the colony.  Aalwijn was speaking to a handsome man of middle height with a slight paunch in his stomach not quite covered up by a nice black pinstriped suit, now that it was wrinkled from long exposure to seawater.  He had thinning blond hair and a happy though tired face.

“Here come some of your future diners now,” said Aalwijn.  “This is my new chef come all the way from Greater Brechalon.”

“How do you do?”  The man held out his left hand to Hertzal, and both girls could see that this was because he had no right arm below the elbow.

“Kafira’s tit!” shouted Senta, causing dozens of people around her to stare, open-mouthed.  “I know you!  You used to work at Café Carlo.”

“Yes.  I did.”

“You’re Gyula.  You were a line cook.”

“That’s right, Gyula Kearn.  Do I know you?”

“I’m Senta.”

Gyula looked no more enlightened than he had been a moment before.

“I used to sweep the sidewalk and polish the brass dragon.”

“Oh yes, Carlo always had the local children doing odd jobs.  It was his way of helping out, Kafira bless him.  We had quite a few kids in and out of the café over the course of the years.  I’m afraid I don’t remember any of them very well.  They just sort of blend together in my memory.”

“You used to make me a sandwich, when Carlo said it was okay.”  Senta’s voice sounded abnormally high in her own ears.

“That I did.  Carlo had a soft spot for children, though he didn’t let it show.  He would always have me load them up with food.  I suppose that’s why he had me working there too.  Who else would have hired a one-handed line cook?”

“Well, I hired a one-handed chef, and I expect great things from him,” said Aalwijn.  “And I dare say if you don’t remember Senta now, you will soon not be able to forget her.”

Senta was feeling something she hadn’t felt in a long time.  What was it exactly?  Chagrin?  Few people whom Senta saw didn’t already know who she was, and those that did, like Oswald Delks had heard of her.  That someone she had met would not remember her—that just didn’t happen.  It was inconceivable.  Whatever the feeling was that Senta felt, it was about to be turned on its end.

“Senta?”

The young sorceress turned around to face a young man and a teen-aged boy standing side by side and staring at her with large eyes.  In a split second, she subconsciously registered a few bits of information—the similarity that the man and boy had to each other and the similarity they had to the image she saw each day in the mirror.  Before her brain had made much of this information though, both had grabbed hold of her and pulled her into a three-way hug.

“I can’t believe it’s you Senta.”

“Who would have thought we’d find you in Birmisia?”

“Geert?  Maro?”

“Of course it’s us.”  They pulled away and Senta could clearly make out the features of the twelve year old and eight year old boys that had been her cousins, in the faces of the twenty year old man and the sixteen year old teenager.

“How long have you been here?” asked Geert.

“Eight years.”

“You’re kidding?  You look great.”

Graham Dokkins is a major character in Senta and the Steel Dragon.  He plays a smaller but nevertheless very important role in The Two Dragons than in previous books.  Here Graham pays the price for having ignored his girlfriend when she wanted him.

“Come in,” called Senta in response to the loud banging on the front door.

“St. Ulixes has been invaded!” Graham shouted as he burst in.

“Go back outside and come in again properly.”

“What?”

“Go back outside and come in again properly.  This is my home.  Show some respect.”

“Come on!”

She raised her eyebrow.

“Fine.”

He went back outside and closed the door after him.

“How long are you going to make him suffer,” wondered Hero Hertling.

“Until he learns to come when he’s called,” replied Senta as Graham once again knocked.

“Maybe he was helping Gaylene with her new baby.”

“No, he was playing around down at City Hall,” replied Senta.  Then she said, “Come in.”

Graham opened the door and stepped in.  He took a deep breath and smiled.

“Good day ladies.”

“Good day sir,” said Senta.

“Hey Graham,” said Hero.

“I, um… have some news.”

“What is it?”

“St. Ulixes has been invaded!”  His self-control gave way like a dam bursting.  “The Freedonians attacked it with a full brigade of infantry and steam powered war machines.  They used their airships to drop bombs.  It’s only a matter of time till they’ve completely taken over Mallontah.  Then they have a straight shot on the train directly toward us.  The whole city is going crazy over the news.”

“That is exciting news,” said Senta, though she didn’t seem excited at all.

“What are we going to do?” asked Hero, who looked not only excited but terrified as well.

“General Staff has ordered all the Colonial Guard out to Iguanodon Heath so they can be ready.  The volunteers are going to start training at the guard base tomorrow.”

“Did you sign up?” asked Senta.  “I won’t associate with a dastard.”

“I can’t,” Graham replied, with a frown.  “I have to supervise the lizzie crews.  We’re going out tomorrow to dig trenches and build an observation tower.”

“As long as you’re doing your part.”

“Is Hertzal going with you?” asked Hero.

“Of course he is.”

“Well, enough of worldly matters,” said Senta.  “Do you have my present?”

“I do.” Graham reached into his trouser pocket.

“It’s not your birthday,” observed Hero.  Senta just smiled at her.

“Um, I have to give her a present every day for seven days,” said Graham, pulling out a tiny box.  “This is number six.”

He handed the tiny box to Senta, who opened it and withdrew a small bejeweled key on a silver chain.

“It’s a skeleton key, so it opens all kinds of locks,” said Graham.  “But the really brilliant part is that the handle is a magnifying lens.”

“Well… I don’t know…” said Senta.

“Oh come on!  It’s the best one yet.”

“What other gifts has he given you?” wondered Hero.

“I gave her a fan, a kaleidoscope, and some gloves…”

“And a silver page marker,” finished Senta.

“Ooh, nice,” approved Hero, who appreciated book-related gifts above any others.

“All right, I think I like it.”  Senta fastened the chain behind her neck, so that the key lay across her chest right next to the silver dragon that Graham had given her several years before.

Saba Colbshallow is one of the major characters in Senta and the Steel Dragon.  In book 5, The Two Dragons, Saba serves as the police inspector of Port Dechantagne.  Saba is a character who always seems to have more growing to do.  He has gone in the series from a kid to a constable, and finally to police inspector.  This trend continues in the forthcoming The Sorceress and her Lovers.

This scene from The Two Dragons shows us Saba in his everyday role as a leader on the police force.

The police station was almost four years old now.  It had been constructed on what was at the time the edge of town, just east of the railroad yard.  Now it was in the heart of the new business district and a short walk to the brand new rows of brownstone apartments or Lizzietown, depending on which direction you went.  Made of sharp red brick, with white stonework at the corners and above the windows and doors, it was a square five-story building.  On the arch above the door was carved in large letters “POLICE” and just below it, the police motto “punishment follows swift on guilt.”

The police sergeant on duty was not Eamon Shrubb, but Richard Butler who had just come on duty and was handing out assignments to six PCs in their bright blue uniforms with shiny brass buttons.

“You’re in early this morning, Inspector.”

“Anything exciting happening?” asked Saba.

“Nothing on the night blotter.  I’m just sending the lads out.  Are there any areas you would like them to keep an eye on?”

“Just the usual—the docks, Lizzietown.”

“Right.  Did you know that Tabby Chesterton is in the holding cell?”

“No.  When did that happen?”

“She came in yesterday about dinner time, I’m told.”

“She’s not here for soliciting?” asked Saba.

“No.  I understand she poked her husband on the noggin with a frying pan.”

“He’s not dead is he?”

“I don’t think he’s badly hurt.”

“Toss me the key then.”

Butler threw a six-inch ring with a dozen large steel keys upon it to Saba, who caught it in the air.  Then he stepped into the elevator, just past the sergeant’s station and closed the cage after him.  Turning the lever, he sent the elevator car downward to the basement where the holding cells were located.  In the first cell, he found the former Miss Malloy sitting on the cot, wearing a blood-spattered brown frock dress, her brilliant red hair a disheveled mess.

“So what happened, Tabby?”

“That no good husband of mine came home pissed again.”

“So you clubbed him?”

“I just gave him a love tap.  Am I going to have to go before the Justice of the Peace?”

Saba placed the key in the lock and turned, then opened the door wide.  “What’s the point in having a friend on the police force then?”

Tabby stood up and walked out of the cell.  She stopped in front of Saba and leaned close to him, pressing her palm against his right cheek.

“I can think of several ways that I could express my appreciation,” she said.

“You’re a married woman now, and I am a married man.”

“Aye.  And your wife is just lovely too.  You made a good match.”

“Maybe.  But speaking of matches.  Are you going to have any trouble at home?  I could come along and give him a talking to.”

“No.  He’ll forgive me for clocking him.  And it’s not as if he beats me.  He just likes to come home ass over tit on payday.”

“So why did you marry him?”

She gave him a sweet smile.  “How often do you suppose I’d been asked?  It wasn’t as if I was an unplucked flower.”

“That doesn’t mean you don’t get to be happy, does it?”

“I’m happy enough,” she said, sounding as though she meant it.

“Come on.  I’ll walk you up.”  Saba led her into the elevator and pulled the lever, taking them to the ground floor.  He opened the elevator door and escorted her out.

“Be careful with the frying pan,” he told her.  “You might accidentally kill him.”

She smiled at him.  “Have a lovely day, lad.”

When Saba turned around, he saw several of the PCs watching him.  He raised an eyebrow and they conspicuously found things to do.  Tossing the keys back to Sergeant Butler, he stepped back into the elevator and pushed the lever to the other side, taking the car and himself up to the second floor, where his office was located.

Saba Colbshallow is an important character in Senta and the Steel Dragon.  He’s been particularly fun to write because he changes so much.  He starts out as  a kid in Brechalon, is a servant in The Voyage of the Minotaur, a militiaman in The Dark and Forbidding Land, and a police inspector in The Two Dragons.

Here is a scene of domestic conflict as Saba negotiates his way through his friends and his wife.

Café Etta was shaded by the tall pines, which grew majestically in most of the city’s vacant land.  The summer sun was still well above the horizon.  White clad waiters with red checked aprons ran everywhere: lighting lanterns hanging around the edge of the awning, showing guests to their tables, cleaning up after guests who had left, and bringing great trays of food out to those who had already ordered.  One waiter, a tall thin young man with black hair and the beginnings of a mustache carried a dessert tray to a table in the back of the café.  Carefully balancing it in one hand, he lowered plates of cheese, sliced apples, butter biscuits, grapes, and thickly sliced gingerbread onto the cloth-covered surface.  Replacing these on the tray with the last of the dirty dinner dishes, he nodded to the four seated patrons and headed for the kitchen.

“I don’t think I have room for another bite,” said Saba Colbshallow, leaning back from the table.  He patted the waistcoat of his charcoal grey suit to show how full he was.

“It was a lovely meal,” said his wife, reaching over and popping a pair of large grapes into her mouth.  “This new chef really can do wonders with a pork roast.”

Mrs. Loana Colbshallow was without a doubt the most beautiful woman in the café.  Her multihued hair was swept back beneath a broad-brimmed, bright red hat with white flowers that matched her bright red dress.  The plunging neckline showed a bit more skin than was current fashion, but neither her husband nor any other man in the establishment seemed to object.  Directly across from Mrs. Colbshallow in a quite fetching sky blue gown, Mrs. Dot Shrubb clearly was bothered both by the lack of cloth which covered her dinner partner’s breasts and by the amount of breast which threatened to jump out at her.  All through dinner she had stared at the prodigious amount of cleavage and scrunched her nose.  Her husband seated to her right had been oblivious to this, and fortunately for him, seemed oblivious to the cleavage as well.

“I’ll say this,” he said.  “If we had dined on this meal in Brech City, we would have had to pay a pretty pfennig for it.”

“I think we may very well pay a pretty pfennig tonight,” replied Saba.  “Dining out is one of the few things that isn’t dirt cheap in Birmisia.”

“I hear the new café, Bonny Nurraty, is only half the price, because they employ a lizzie wait staff.”

“It’s Bonne Nourriture,” said Saba.  “I also hear the food’s not half as good, though I’m sure that has nothing to do with the lizzies.”

“Unless my mother-in-law decides to open her own restaurant,” said Loana.  “I don’t see anyone taking the fine dining crown away from Aalwijn Finkler.”

“And you can be bloody positive he won’t ever have a lizzie wait staff either,” added Eamon.  “Actually it’s nice to have a place to come where there aren’t any.”

“What do you think about it, Dot?” asked Saba.

Dot just shrugged.

“Dot’s getting to be a lizzie-lover,” said Eamon, stroking his wife’s long coppery hair.

“You like her too,” said Dot, in the nasal voice that was the result of her deafness.

“Well, our lizzie is all right.  She dotes on the boys—takes them for walks and plays her little block game with them.”

“That’s just it, isn’t it,” said Loana.  “Everyone seems to like their own lizzie.  They just don’t trust the rest of them.  I have several to take care of things and one that comes in twice a week to clean and have never had any problem with any of them.”

“How are the boys, anyway?” said Saba, intentionally changing the subject.

“They’re fine.  Young Saba showed me this week that he can do addition, and little Al isn’t far behind.”

“Alasdair,” corrected Dot, punching her husband on his meaty shoulder.

“And how is Darsham?”

“Wonderful.  He follows Saba and Alasdair everywhere they go.  Best dog I’ve ever seen.”

“You know he was going to name one of the boys Darsham,” Saba told his wife.

“That’s right,” said Eamon.  “But I was overruled on account of my wife fancying your husband.”

Dot hit him again.  “You named Saba.  I named Alasdair.”

Saba, Eamon, and Loana all laughed.  Dot scrunched up her nose.  Aalwijn Finkler stepped up to the table between Saba and his wife.

“Inspector, Sergeant, ladies.  How was your dinner this evening?”

“Dinner was lovely,” replied Loana.

“Wonderful,” said Aalwijn.  “And what are we celebrating?”

“We’re celebrating being able to afford to go out for dinner,” replied Saba.

“I’ve always said the police were underpaid.  I’m having a very nice sparkling wine brought out.  It’s on the house.”

“I hope this isn’t a bribe,” said Eamon, grinning.

“Nonsense,” replied Aalwijn.  “Everyone says that Inspector Colbshallow is above such things, and I don’t expect that you could be bought for less than three bottles.”

Saba burst out laughing.  Eamon’s grin dropped to a rather uncomfortable smile.  As Aalwijn walked away, he said, “What do you suppose he meant by that?”

“He was just joking,” said Saba.  “Everyone knows you’re honest to a fault.”

“It’s just that you accept quite a few gifts,” said Loana.

The smiles on both men’s faces were wiped away.  Dot, noticing a sudden change in the mood though she had not followed all the conversation, looked from one to another of her fellow diners.

“Well, you do accept gifts,” repeated Loana. 

“There’s nothing wrong with a police constable receiving a gratuity now and then,” said Saba.

“But you never do it.”

“I don’t, well that is… I don’t have any opportunity.  I don’t walk a tour anymore.”

Loana batted her eyes at him and said. “You didn’t when you were a PC either.”

“I um… hmm.”

Eamon looked at him, but Saba just shrugged.  The rest of dessert was eaten in silence.  At least what dessert was eaten, was eaten in silence.  Loana sampled something of everything and was especially fond of the fruit.  Dot halfheartedly nibbled a biscuit.  Neither Saba nor Eamon touched anything.  When the waiter arrived with the check, Eamon snatched it out of his hand.

“Hold off,” said Saba.  “It’s my turn to pay for dinner.”

“I’m paying for Dot and me,” said Eamon.  “I don’t take anything that’s not properly mine.”

“Don’t be that way Eamon.”

Eamon scrunched up his face a bit as he figured out what half of seventeen marks eighty-two pfennigs was.  Then he stood up and whipped his wallet from the breast pocket of his pin-striped suit.  Fishing out four one mark notes and a five upon which the face of Princess Aarya had been given a blue ink mustache, he tossed them down between the empty fruit plate and the almost full cheese dish.

“Come on, mate,” said Saba.

“Good evening, Inspector Colbshallow, Mrs. Colbshallow.”  Dot was at his elbow in an instant and they turned and swept out of the café.

“What the hell?” Saba demanded of his wife.