Graham Dokkins is a character who has a lot of influence in the story of Senta and the Steel Dragon.  He is introduced in book 1, has a very large part in book 3, and small but important parts in books 2 and 4, and 5.  He is somebody whose presence is felt even when he’s not there, because the other characters talk about him.  One of my favorite parts in The Dark and Forbidding Land is the encounter between Graham and Senta with a couple of utahraptors.

Suddenly Graham stopped, putting his arm out to stop her as well.  Senta watched him as he slipped the strap of the rifle from his shoulder.  Only after he had pressed the butt of the stock to his shoulder did she look to see what had alarmed him.  Stalking slowly toward them, skirting the edge of the trees on the right hand side of the road were two monstrous feathered creatures.  They must have been the same two utahraptors that Aalwijn Finkler had seen.  They were magnificent creatures, cloaked in turquoise feathers that slowly turned to forest green at the end of their long tufted tails.  Those tails stuck straight out behind them, making their total length nearly twenty-five feet.  Their heads, eight feet above the ground, moved forward and back as they walked.  One of them would have been more than a match for a grown man.

Graham carefully aimed down the length of the barrel.  He squeezed the trigger, but nothing happened.  Lowering the weapon, he flipped the safety to the fire position, and then sighted again.  This time when he fired there was a satisfying crack.  The utahraptors stopped, startled for a moment, but seemed uninjured.  Graham worked the action and fired again.  This time Senta saw the bullet strike the trunk of a massive redwood about twenty feet above the ground and quite a bit behind the predators.

“It’s not sited in right,” muttered Graham, as he pulled back the bolt.

This time, as with the first shot, they were unable to determine where the missile hit.

“Um, aim at their feet and a bit to the right of them,” advised Senta.

This time the bullet hit a tree just to the right of the foremost creature.

“The next one is in your head!” called Graham as if he had intended the previous shots as warnings. 

The utahraptor did not look at all impressed.  He and his cohort were not much more than fifty feet away.  When they charged they could clear that distance in the blink of an eye.  For the moment though they were still being wary of the strange little creatures that made loud booming noises and refused to run.

“You better stand behind me,” said Graham bravely.

In The Dark and Forbidding Land, Saba Colbshallow becomes one of the major characters.  He was around a lot in The Voyage of the Minotaur.  I didn’t really realize how much until I reread it.  He’s hanging around when much of the important changes happen. In this book, he had to be a major protagonist, and his part of the book I think turned out really well.

Also, in this book I needed to introduce Eamon Shrubb.  He and Saba would become an important duo in Book 3.  They remain an important duo in Book 6 as I’m writing it now.  Here is their first meeting.

Saba Colbshallow sat on a piece of log.  It was one of many which had been provided for local lizzies to sit.  His left hand was full of small pebbles and he was tossing them with his right hand at a half rusted tin that had originally held butter biscuits.  Most of the thrown missiles missed their mark and even when one did land in the tin it didn’t improve his mood.  He had been in a bad mood for an entire week now, ever since the wedding.  Could you call that a wedding?  Five minutes in the Mayor’s office?  Yuah deserved much better than that.  She deserved much better than Master Terrence too.  Saba wanted to say that she deserved him, but he knew that he wasn’t good enough for her either.  She was an angel.  He had loved her ever since he was seven.  Then she had been a burgeoning sixteen-year-old beauty, with long dark brown hair and the most incredible eyelashes.  Of course before that, he had fancied Iolanthe, now Governor Dechantagne-Calliere.  But that was before she had changed.  Not that he blamed her; he understood.  Iolanthe was married, and now Yuah was too.  And here he was, an eighteen-year-old corporal in the militia, and didn’t even have a girl.

“Colbshallow, right?”

Saba looked up to see a big man standing a few feet from him.  Saba was six foot three and this fellow was just as tall, but with broader shoulders and a thick muscular chest.  Though the man was a few years older than Saba, he was only a private.

“That’s right.”

“I’m Shrubb, Eamon Shrubb.”

“Nice to meet you, Shrubb.”  Saba slowly stood up and stretched out a hand, which Shrubb took.

“What’s your Kafirite name, if you don’t mind my asking?” asked Shrubb.  “Um… you are a Kafirite, aren’t you?”

Saba nodded.

“I’ve never seen so many zeets before.”

“I don’t much care for that word,” said Saba, icily.  He was still thinking about Yuah and was predisposed to dislike anyone whom he thought might be aiming an insult even in her general direction.

“Quite right.  Quite right.  As I say, I’ve never met many zee… Zaeri.  I don’t have anything against them though.  I never understood that whole ‘killed Kafira’ thing anyway.  I mean, didn’t she come back from the dead?  That’s a big part of the church.  How could she have come back from the dead if nobody killed her?  All worked out for the best, as far as I can see.”

“Do you always talk this much?” asked Saba.

“No.”  Shrubb looked pensive.  “Quite uncharacteristic really.”

“Good.  My first name is Saba.  What would you say to some fish and chips?”

“I don’t generally talk to my food.”

In The Dark and Forbidding Land, Iolanthe moves from the front of the story to the back as it were.  Yuah takes her place as one of the main characters and since they live in the same household, we still see Iolanthe, only this time from her sister-in-law’s eyes.

One of the challenges for Iolanthe in this book is that Yuah marries Terrence and goes from being Iolanthe’s maid to being her social superior.  This is a scene where we see that pop out, seen this time from Cissy’s eyes.

Cissy made her way into the parlor and took a place quietly in the corner.  She was not afraid of the humans in question.  In fact, she found them fascinating.  All of the individuals described were present—Mr. and Mrs. Dechantagne, Governor Dechantagne-Calliere, Mrs. Godwin, and of course Iolana.  The lizzies had their own descriptive names for all of them; the names Kheesie had used.  Professor Calliere, whom they called “the tall one who makes no sense” was not present.  Mrs. Colbshallow, whom they simply called by the human word “lady” was in the kitchen as usual.

“I think I should have something to say about it,” Mrs. Dechantagne was saying, “because of my unique situation in this house.”

“I am well aware that you are the lady of the house now,” replied Mrs. Dechantagne-Calliere sharply.  “Are you trying to rub my nose in it?”

“No!  I don’t… that’s not the position to which I was referring.”

“My wife is alluding to the fact that she is the only Zaeri in the house,” said Mr. Dechantagne.

“Really?  I suppose I just assumed that she was going to convert.”

“Leave that alone, Iolanthe.  You know she has no desire to convert and you know that I wouldn’t have asked it of her.”

“I will leave this alone.  And she must leave that alone.  Mercy and his… solicitor are my concern, and I am more than capable of dealing with it.”

Mr. Dechantagne turned back to his wife, though of course he could not see her.  “She’s right Yuah.  You should stay out of this.  You get too worked up over it.  You’re too emotional.”

“I’m emotional?” cried Mrs. Dechantagne, jumping to her feet.  “I’m the least emotional person in this house!

She stomped her foot twice, and marched out of the room.

Just as I did with Senta in The Dark and Forbidding Land, I had to figure out what Bessemer was like, having already written him in book 3.  In The Drache Girl, he was as big as a pony and quite loquacious.  In The Voyage of the Minotaur, he was cat-sized and barely spoke.  So he fell right in the middle for this book.

This is a scene in which Bessemer seeks some vengeance on a man who has been causing grief to his favorite human.

Cissy left the parlor, passed through the foyer, and picked up the bag of rock salt by the door before going outside.  Once in the garden, she began walking up and down, spreading the salt on the cobblestone paths and the stepping stones.  She looked up at the dark clouds moving in from the north.  If Toss had been there, he would have been able to tell her if this was going to be the last storm of the cold season.  He wasn’t there, and it was unlikely that Cissy would ever see him again.

Just then Mr. Streck walked through the front gate.  Cissy was about to turn around so that she could go inside and inform Mr. Dechantagne of the Freedonain’s arrival, when she saw a bright glint shoot across the otherwise gloomy sky.  The object, which it took no great intellect to recognize as the steel dragon, swooped downward.  Streck had taken four steps into the yard, when the beast shot by his face so fast that he could not have seen what it was.  Cissy was watching it as it sped by, and could tell not only what it was, but could see that it was carrying something wrapped in white paper, clutched tightly to its chest.  The dragon was already out of sight when the Freedonian let out a blood-curdling scream.  Looking back at the man, the lizzie could see cuts across his nose and both cheeks that suddenly began to bleed profusely.

She hesitated as red blood oozed from between the fingers held to his face.  Saba Colbshallow suddenly appeared at the gate and rushed to the man’s assistance.  He took him by the shoulder and rushed him toward the house.  Cissy quickly took Streck’s other shoulder.  Before they reached the steps, Streck’s legs gave out beneath him and he crumpled into half consciousness.  Tisson rushed down the steps and took his legs while Saba and Cissy carried him by the arms.

Once inside, Streck was rushed to the dining room, where amid much shouting and hissing, he was laid out on the great table.  Mrs. Colbshallow arrived from the kitchen and immediately ordered that clean linens and tincture of iodine be brought.  Just as Clegg was arriving with the requested items, Mrs. Dechantagne-Calliere stepped into the room carrying a brown bottle of healing draught.  Streck’s face, upon examination was seen to have five razor thin slices, quite deep, across its width.

“Yadira, send someone to fetch Dr. Kelloran,” said the governor as she leaned over the wounded man and carefully poured the potion onto the cuts.

“I don’t need a doctor,” said Streck.

“Be quiet.  This is your face.  We need to make sure that it isn’t scarred.”

Clegg was sent as directed and by the time he returned with the doctor, Streck, no longer bleeding, had been moved to the parlor.

Cissy had seen Dr. Kelloran before.  She was easily recognized for her more pronounced female characteristics.  She usually also, as she now did, carried her small black bag.  Sitting down on the sofa next to Streck, she carefully examined his face.

“The healing draught seems to be knitting the skin together nicely, but I still want to put a stitch or two on this nose.”

“Ouch!” cried Streck, as the stitches were sewn.  “Damn Birmisian birds.  It flew by so fast I didn’t even see it.”

“Birmisian birds don’t fly, at least none that I’ve heard of,” said Mr. Dechantagne from the doorway.  His wife was standing with him.  “We have a few large flying reptiles, but I’ve never heard of one attacking a person.”

“Saba?” asked the governor.

“Sorry, I didn’t see it.  I heard someone cry out and came running, but whatever it was, was gone before I got there.  But your lizzie was in the yard.  Maybe she saw something.”

“Cissy?” asked Mrs. Colbshallow.  Cissy took a step back as all of the human eyes in the room focused on her.  “Cissy, what did you see?”

“It was the little god,” she replied quietly.

“Little god?”

“She means the dragon,” said Mrs. Dechantagne.  “Zurfina’s little dragon.”

“It seems, Mr. Steck,” said Governor Dechantagne-Calliere, “that you have made a powerful enemy.  Just what have you done to Zurfina to raise her ire?”

“I have not even seen the woman.”

“He didn’t do anything to Zurfina,” said Saba, frowning.  “I’ll wager he didn’t do anything to the dragon either.  But he has had at least one well-known row with Senta.”

“That child belongs in an institution,” said Streck.

As I mentioned the other day– and have talked about on more than one occasion, I had already written book 3 of Senta and the Steel Dragon before writing book 2.  Knowing what was going to happen with the characters, I extrapolated a year and a half back and fit them into the new book’s plot.  In some ways this worked well, and in others it didn’t.  There are some spots in which I think Senta acts a little more immature in book 3 than in book 2.  On the other hand, that happens to all of us now and then.

I also had to extrapolate how the town of Port Dechantagne was going to look.  In book 3 there was a thriving town square, so in book 2 it had to be under construction.  Here is the scene from The Dark and Forbidding Land when Senta first visits town square.

It was a walk of only about three hundred yards from the new home Zurfina the sorceress and her ward to the large gate in the protective wall that divided the now completely subdued peninsula from the large and still untamed forest.  When Senta reached the gate she found a great deal of activity.  A town square had been built just outside the gate some months before, and it would eventually be the center point of the colony.  A new flagpole had been delivered on the last ship and two men, while a small crowd of men and women watched, were erecting it.  That was not all that was going on though.  No less than three good-sized buildings were under construction around the square despite the frigid and damp weather.  The two new buildings on the east side of the square already had walls, doors, and windows and now men walked around upon their roofs hammering down shingles.  The building on the southwest corner was still being framed in when Senta had last seen it—little more than a wooden and iron skeleton of a building.  Now its walls were done and it too was getting a roof.  The three were joining the two buildings that had sat along the east side of the square since its construction—the dress shop and Mr. Parnorsham’s Pfennig Store.  Senta saw a face she knew and walked over to its owner.

“Hello Mr. Darwin.”

“Oh hello, Senta,” said the bespectacled older man, who was only slightly taller than the ten year old girl.  “How are you this cold morning?”

“I’m okay.  Which of these buildings is going to be yours?”

“This one right here,” he replied, pointing to the left most of the two having their roofs put on.  “I’m right next to Mr. Parnorsham’s Pfennig Store.  I think that’s the best spot in the square.  Don’t you?”

“I kind of thought you would have moved in there when Mrs. Wachtel died,” said Senta, indicating the shop just to the left of the Pfennig Store.

“Yes, well… to be honest, when Mrs. Wachtel… a…  passed away,” Mr. Darwin crossed himself.  “I had already signed the paperwork.”

“So what are they going to do with her place?”

“It’s my understanding that Mrs. Bratihn is going to take over the business.”

“I guess that will be good since her husband can’t work on account of being blind.”

“Mmm,” nodded Mr. Darwin, noncommittally while he took off his glasses to wipe them with a clean handkerchief.

“I didn’t expect Mrs. Government to let us go too long without a dress shop.”

Mr. Darwin bit his lower lip.  “Senta, you are irrepressible.  You are going to have to learn to watch what you say.”

“I think Senta will always say what she means,” said a voice from behind them.

They turned around to see Egeria Lusk in a beautiful dress that was only slightly less white than the surrounding snow and a bright colored coat that was only slightly more red than her fiery hair, which just now was pulled up into a bun and tucked behind the straw boater she wore.  Miss Lusk was a very small woman with very large green eyes, and though strikingly beautiful, she was known more for her keen mind.

“Good day to you, sir,” she said, curtseying to Mr. Darwin, who bowed at the waist in return.  “Where are you off to, Senta?”

Senta shrugged.

“I’m going to the Pfennig Store for some lace.  Why don’t you come along with me?”

“Okay.  Good day Mr. Darwin.”

“Good day beautiful ladies,” said Mr. Darwin, once again bowing at the waist.