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Oh, what's the use of an adventure when you won't share it with me? I was so bored, and lonely, and all these Highborn women only care about such stupid things. They haven't traveled. They haven't seen things. Their world is so small. But I'm the one they call an idiot, no good to anybody. I thought you were different. I thought you trusted me!
Lyra, Bound in Blood,
"Chapter IV: In the Moon Garden", II

Lyra Lack-wit is Caldane, Lord Caineron's highborn daughter, formerly consort to Prince Odalian of Karkinaroth.[1] She is Cattila's favorite and is very impressed with Jame, considering the latter the "sister of her choice".[2] She is helpful to Jame and Tori on several occasions.

It appears that Lyra was not sent to Gothregor for the normal training a highborn woman undergoes until the time of To Ride a Rathorn, when she is sent there mostly to get her away from her sister Kallystine, who might otherwise kill her.[3] Instead, she appears to have been dismissed as too stupid to be worth anything (hence the epithet) and to have spent much time attending on her Gran (Cattila, the Caineron Matriarch) and exploring Restormir.

She is the first Highborn Lady ever to be contracted to a foreigner, the aforementioned Prince Odalian; she was probably chosen as the least valuable of Caldane's daughters for securing an alliance within the Kencyrath, since she was so untrained. The contract was, it seems, quite limited; Caldane says that Lyra is "unbroken" because he did not grant Odalian "full rights"; presumably this means she is still a virgin.[4]

Character traits[]

Lyra is a notorious sweet tooth; when she brings a picnic lunch to Torisen and his men working on the Lesser Harvest outside Gothregor, she brings "some of everything she likes to eat," which turns out to be entirely sweets.[5]

Dark of the Moon[]

Jame first meets Lyra in Dark of the Moon in the otherwise abandoned palace of Karkinaroth. Lyra appears to Jame about fourteen years old, and is richly dressed in crimson and gold. She is painfully polite at first to Jame, but abusive to Graykin, then her servant. She's spoiled, childish, and underneath it very scared indeed, begging Jame to find the missing Prince. She is, amusingly, not disturbed by Jame's nakedness, but by her masklessness.[6]

She's ecstatic when Jame brings Odalian back, and hysterical when he dies.[7] The hysteria doesn't last, and in the morning she's talking incessantly, and enjoys every minute of the barge-ride to Hurlen. Jame wonders if she's half-witted, but concludes she's just never been taught to think seriously about anything.[8] Lyra is reunited with her father when he picks up her and Marc after Graykin's betrayal; she sees Jame once more when Jame cuts her way out of the Caineron pavilion with the Ivory Knife.[9]

Seeker's Mask[]

In Seeker's Mask, Jame runs into Lyra first when she sneaks into Restormir with Brier Iron-thorn and her ten-command.[10] The girl seems pleased to see her, telling her that, with Jame's arrival, "maybe now things will start happening again!"; it's apparently been "so dull here". She expresses discomfort at Graykin's torture by Caldane and quickly agrees to take Jame to him. Once they've freed Graykin,[11] she takes Jame to meet Cattila, who promptly tells Lyra to go to bed; she does, reluctantly, calling out to Jame, "Good night, sister!" Cattila comments, "Scatterbrained, just like her mother".[12]

Lyra is next encountered accompanying Cattila to the Womens' Halls at Gothregor, riding on a hill pony and enjoying her freedom.[13] She encounters Graykin again and manages to call him by Jame's name for him, which gets a smile; she's then hauled into her Gran's litter to avoid a weirdingstrom. The litter turns out to be, on the inside, Mother Ragga's lodge.

Lyra later takes on the role of the Earth Wife's imp, as other Caineron take on various other roles in the Merikit religion's pantheon.

Toward the end, she thwarts Kallystine's attempt to harm Torisen with a razor-ring, and Caldane attempts to give Lyra to Torisen as a consort to replace Kallystine.[14]

To Ride a Rathorn[]

In To Ride a Rathorn, Lyra is sent to Gothregor, under the excuse of giving her "some polish in women's ways", but really because Kallystine was liable to kill her. Lyra proceeds to drive her instructors up the wall with constant questions.[15]

When Torisen is helping with the hay harvest, Lyra rides out with a Kendar, Marrow, bringing a picnic lunch of her favorite foods—the vast majority being sweets. She tells them that the Matriarchs had to throw a bucket of water over the sewing mistress after too many questions, and that she had been banished to her room, but that that was too boring. She then tells the story of Jame's raid of Restormir, much to Torisen's shock. When the story's done, she appears frightened, as if telling it had been a compulsion. Torisen sends her back to the Keep to warn them of the approaching storm and ash.[16]

Bound in Blood[]

In Bound in Blood, Lyra encounters Jame in Gothregor. Lyra sees Jame from a window, and runs out because she's bored, and "interesting things happen" when Jame is around[17].

References[]

  1. Seeker's Mask, "Characters Past and Present"
  2. Seeker's Mask, "Interim VII: Mount Alban"
  3. To Ride a Rathorn, "Chapter IV: Testing"
  4. Seeker's Mask, "Part VIII: Kithorn"
  5. To Ride a Rathorn, "Chapter XIX: Darkness at Noon"
  6. Dark of the Moon, "Chapter 9: The Haunted Palace"
  7. Dark of the Moon, "Chapter 13: Converging Paths"
  8. Dark of the Moon, "Chapter 14: Gathering Forces"
  9. Dark of the Moon, "Chapter 16: Blood Rites"
  10. Seeker's Mask, "Part IV: Restormir", IV
  11. Seeker's Mask, "Part IV: Restormir", V
  12. Seeker's Mask, "Part IV: Restormir", VI
  13. Seeker's Mask, "Interim VII: Mount Alban"
  14. Seeker's Mask, "Part VIII: Kithorn"
  15. To Ride a Rathorn, "Chapter IV: Testing"
  16. To Ride a Rathorn, "Chapter XIX: Darkness at Noon"
  17. Bound in Blood, "Chapter IV: In the Moon Garden"
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