FIRST TEST US HardcoverWHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT FOR - The Protector of the Small Quartet?

This is the tale of Keladry of Mindelan, a girl who wants just one thing: to copy the feat of her hero Alanna the Lioness, and win her knight's shield. She is now old enough to be a page, and the King has decreed that any nobly-born girl with her parents' consent can enter the palace school. Kel has that permission, as well as the warnings of her parents and older brothers that she will not exactly be welcomed in her new life. They are right, but she means to succeed. To stop Kel in her tracks, the training master, Lord Wyldon of Cavall, insists that she be placed on probation. FIRST TEST is the story of Kel's probationary year. (Click here to read a sample from the first volume, FIRST TEST.)

To listen to a clip from the Random House Audiobook for FIRST TEST, click on the link below:
 

PAGE UK PaperbackPAGE, the second Protector book, details Kel's remaining years as a page. Just because she survived her first year doesn't mean that everyone now loves and accepts her. She has to deal with that, among other things. What other things? you ask. Try a stray dog who doesn't listen when Kel says "No." Try a maidservant who squeaks with dismay every time Kel picks up a weapon. Try a company of bandits that isn't supposed to be there. Try new boys and changes in her own body. And never forget Kel's fear of heights. When Lord Wyldon sends her out to climb trees, walls, and cliffs, is he doing it because he wants to cure her of her fear, or drive her away from the palace? (Click here to read a sample from the second volume, PAGE.)

SQUIRE, the third Protector book, describes Kel's next four years. Her new knight-master is as different from Lord Wyldon as a man can be. He introduces Kel to a new way of life, one that's as much fun as it is hard work. SQUIRE US Paperback reissueHe not only allows her to carry and use her Yamani glaive, but he helps her to take her skill at jousting to the next level, one that introduces Tortall's young knights and squires to a formidable new force on the tournament field. She has the care of a very different new foundling, as well as matters of the heart to consider. Kel meets a wide panorama of new faces, including the Yamani princess Shinkokami and her ladies, a very troubled squire, a baby griffin, and a metal creation like nothing she has ever seen before. Old friends and foes appear: Neal of Queenscove, Cleon of Kennan, Owen of Jesslaw, and the puzzling Joren of Stone Mountain. Through it all, Kel never allows herself to forget what awaits her after her night-long vigil in Midwinter of her fourth year as a squire: the Chamber of the Ordeal.

When I handed in the first draft of SQUIRE, I was convinced I was doomed. American publishers have been strapping writers for teenagers to the 200-page-manuscript length since I began to publish books, and my first draft was nearly twice as long. Lo! comes Mallory, my Random House editrix, like a tutelary angel dressed in tango shoes, to graciously gift me with one hundred more manuscript pages (which translates into about 350 pages of typeset book). I am saved, and here's a sample. For those of you who attended my readings in fall 2000/spring 2001, this is a new segment, so you won't be bored. (Click here to read a sample from the third volume, SQUIRE.)

LADY KNIGHT US HardcoverLADY KNIGHT, the fourth Protector book, describes Kel's first appearance as a knight of the realm. War with Scanra is declared at last during the book, and Kel finds herself in charge of not a border post or even a portion of the army, but of a refugee camp, placed there by her district commander, Lord Wyldon. She's certain that he does this to keep her out of the fighting, but she also knows that these people, torn from their homes, robbed of their wealth and self-respect, are her responsibility. She must feed them, house them, and keep them safe from harm, on a piece of ground that is far too close to the Scanran border. She will have help, in the shape of her old friends Neal and Merric, the horses Peachblossom and Hoshi, the dog Jump and her personal sparrow flock, but also from as mixed a brew of people as ever came together at one point: the Wildmage called Daine; Daine's lover, the great mage Numair; Neal's own father, Duke Baird of Queenscove; Kel's former knight-master Raoul of Goldenlake and Malorie's Peak, and men of the King's Own, including Kel's friend Sergeant Domitan of Masbolle; convict soldiers, who have been given the choice to fight in the army or to die at hard labor; several hundred refugees who have gotten too many empty promises from nobles; smugglers, and a stolid, unusual boy named Tobe. (Click here to read samples from the fourth volume, LADY KNIGHT.)

While Kel struggles with her responsibilities and the urge simply to abandon the camp and find a real fight, another obligation hangs over her. Tied to the camp, she cannot pursue the task set for her by the Chamber of the Ordeal: to find and destroy the mage who is using foul magic to create the rat-like, swift-moving, deadly metallic things known to the Tortallans as "killing devices." As the summer wears on and the war intensifies, events move to put a perverted mage and his conscienceless war-leader in Kel's path, to test her resolve and find out if she is truly worthy of her shield.

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