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Tamora Pierce
 Kel has been allowed to continue her training to be a knight. While she has been allowed to continue by Wyldon of Cavall, her stiff, old-fashioned training master, she's still not accepted by many of the male pages. Though she and her friends Neal, Merric, Cleon, and Owen continue to fight the hazing of the first years, the others appear to have lost interest. Kel wonders if she is the only one who really cares. Meanwhile, Joren of Stone Mountain, once Kel's self-acclaimed archenemy, appears to have drastically changed. Ever since he became a squire, he has been civil, almost friendly to Kel and her friends. She does not trust this apparent change of heart at first, but as the years pass, she begins to think that she has nothing to worry about from him. At the beginning of the book, Kel hires a maidservant. Lalasa is the niece of one of the palace servants and her uncle begs Kel to take her. He claims that Lalasa has been treated badly by some people and that she will be left alone if she has a proper mistress. With some trepidation, Kel accepts and hires Lalasa. On the very first day of training, Kel also adopts a ragtag dog who calls himself Jump. Through Daine, the Wildmage, Jump communicates that he wants to stay with Kel. Even though she does her best to leave him with Daine, he always manages to return. After Kel has fought her way through all the training, survived all the ordeals, she is finally allowed to take the 'Big Examinations,' the test given to all fourth-year pages to allow them to train to be squires. During the course of the book, Kel develops a crush on Neal, which he does not return. It also seems that Cleon has feelings for her, and shows them on one occasion.