Mr. Parnorsham appears through most of the series of Senta and the Steel Dragon, and he is one of my favorite “spear-carriers.”  His name plays off of Mr. Hammersham, the barrister in Little Lord Fauntleroy.

Yuah Dechantagne peered out through the large window at the front of Mr. Parnorsham’s Pfennig Store.  Her eyes narrowed as she watched Senta talking to her brother-in-law across the street.  That witch was evil.  She had seen it with her own eyes.  Yuah’s husband Terrence had been addicted most of his adult life to White Opthalium.  The drug was not readily available in Birmisia, and for a time Yuah thought that he had managed to defeat his addiction.  Then she had followed him and had seen Senta and Zurfina supplying poor Terrence.  What kind of person would sell such a horrible substance to another?  Now Terrence was dead, but Yuah’s hatred for Zurfina and her ward was alive and well.  And what the hell was she wearing?  That dress looked as though it was made from the same thing as steam carriage tires.

“Can I help you with something, Mrs. Dechantagne?”

Yuah started, but it was only Mr. Parnorsham.

“What?”

“I was just wondering if there was anything else you needed.  I have the toiletries and notions from your list all gathered.  What else can I get for you?”

“If there’s anything else, I’ll send a lizzie for it.”  Yuah’s tone sounded harsh in her own ears, and the look on Mr. Parnorsham’s face confirmed it.

She glanced quickly out the window again and saw that Senta had left.

“Good day.”

Bessemer is the steel dragon in Senta and the Steel Dragon.  Despite the title of the series, Bessemer is a far less central character than some of the others.  Part of that is because of necessity.  As a dragon, he is just too big (figuratively) to be a central part of the story.  It’s not much of a story arc to start awesome and then become awesomer.  Part of it is that it never really was his story– it’s Senta’s.

That being said, I always enjoy writing Bessemer and enjoyed having him grow up.  In The Voyage of the Minotaur, he is a cat-sized lizard who occasionally pops out with a word.  By The Young Sorceress, he is nearly the size of a locomotive and is on his way to being one of the most powerful and intelligent creatures on the planet.  I love the relationship between Senta, Bessemer, and the sorceress Zurfina.  One can never be sure which of them will be submissive to the other and which will suddenly become dominant.  Bessemer and Senta are a bit like siblings and a bit like best friends, while their relationship with Zurfina is more child/parent, despite Zurfina being very unparent-like.

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.