Daine Sarrasri
Tamora Pierce's THE IMMORTALS quartet
Tamora Pierce has a knack for creating some marvellously engaging characters, especially in her three quartets based in Tortall—including Alanna of Trebond, Jonathan of Conté, Keladry of Mindelan (another female knight), Raoul of Goldenlake, George Cooper, Numair the black robe mage, Rikash the Stormwing, and an assortment of animals and immortals. Among these remarkable figures are some of the strongest female personalities in young people's fiction—in fantasy itself, one might argue. When it comes to picking a favourite, it is easy to go for one of the lady knights—Alanna or Keladry—or the enigmatic, dashing Numair Salmalín. However, Daine the wild mage stands in a class of her own.
We meet Veralidaine Sarrasri, to give Daine her full name, after she has left her village in Snowsdale, Galla, where bandits have killed her family. Having run wild with a wolf pack, she finally comes south in search of a job and a new life, and meets Onua Chamtong, horsemistress of the Queen's Riders. As her assistant, thirteen-year-old Daine travels back to Tortall. Onua is delighted at Daine's way with animals, but it is only when she meets the mage Numair Salmalín does she come to know that she possesses what he calls wild magic.
Daine's life changes under Numair's charge. He teaches her to control and master her wild magic, and encourages her to explore the limits of her own powers. And as she starts to leave the traumatic events of her past behind, she emerges as a powerful mage in her own right, becoming a trusted ally of the monarchs of Tortall and makes many loyal and loving friends.
As Daine grows, she discovers her shape-shifting abilities, and her knack of communicating with animals becomes sharper. In time she collects a retinue of faithful followers, starting from her temperamental pony Cloud to a basilisk called Tkaa, and also plays mother to a baby dragon nicknamed Kitten!
Daine's stories are not exactly about knights in armour riding into battle, but of heroism of a totally different kind. She is a rare mix of courage, skill and compassion—a blend that sees her unthinkingly put her life on the line for the sake of the people (including two-legger, four-legger and no-legger!) she loves; at the same time struggle with the guilt of giving her animal friends "human" ideas and involving them in the matters of humans. With her wild magic, Daine gives us a rare insight into the philosophy of various creatures that we might otherwise be tempted to dismiss as disgusting.
She weeps when she is forced to kill a tauros—a male predator that exists only to rape and kill human females—that is chasing her, for "she didn't want to kill a beast who could no more help his nature than she could". And while most people see Stormwings as vile creatures that defile the dead, she recalls that it is a "creature [that] would defile what mortal killers left, so that humans couldn't lie about how glorious a soldier's death is".
Daine's courage is of a different kind from the one that is required when riding into battle, but it is no less. When she finally discovers her parentage and comes to know that her father is a minor god, she gets to choose between being a goddess or living as a normal human being. The choice is not easy for anyone, let alone a teenager.
With her smoky brown curls and blue-grey eyes, Daine grows up into a rather striking sixteen-year-old with various males vying for her attention. However, there was always just the one man in her life—her friend, teacher and travelling companion Numair Salmalín, who taught her to control her magic and always delighted her with new things to learn. Their rather endearing relationship moves on to love despite a fourteen-year age gap, and it is perhaps to the author's credit it seems a perfectly natural progression despite the fact that Numair is thirty and Daine sixteen when they become lovers. And indeed, it is amusing to find Numair, with his reputation of "canoodling" with the ladies of the Tortallan court, so hesitant when it comes to his magelet! Years later they marry and have children.
Daine Sarrasri, later Salmalín, with her compassion, courage and loyalty is an inspiring role model not just for young girls and boys, but for any one of us who has ever doubted ourselves or what we stand for.