The Battle for Skandia characters

Appears from the start

A Ranger's apprentice from Araluen, hiding in a mountain cabin in Skandia after months as a slave. He is physically wrecked and only recently through withdrawal from the drug the Skandians fed their labour gangs, and he has to rebuild both his strength and his confidence in the skills Halt taught him. He is quick, observant and better at improvising than he gives himself credit for.

Also known as Cassandra, Princess Cassandra

Appears from the start

Will's companion in the mountains, who nursed him through withdrawal and has kept them both alive through a Skandian winter. She is really Cassandra, King Duncan's daughter and heir to Araluen, and cannot say so anywhere in Skandia, because the Oberjarl Ragnak has sworn a blood oath against her family. Resourceful, obstinate and unwilling to be treated as cargo by anybody.

First appears in chapter 2

A Ranger of Araluen, banished from his own country for a year so that he could come after his apprentice, and now deep inside Skandia with no authority and no friends. He is the best tactical mind in the story, patient, sardonic, and prepared to make an alliance with anyone if it serves the people he is protecting.

First appears in chapter 2

A young Araluen warrior travelling with Halt, still formally a Battleschool apprentice and already one of the best swordsmen either country has seen. He killed Morgarath in single combat and a Gallic warlord after him, and he is loyal, direct and steady when things go wrong.

First appears in chapter 3

An eastern people of horse warriors whose scouting parties are appearing in the Skandian mountains. They fight as disciplined mounted archers in large formations, ride small tough ponies, and move faster than any force in the west. They are scouting the country as a preliminary to taking it.

First appears in chapter 12

A Skandian jarl and wolfship captain, the man who captured Will and Evanlyn and later helped them escape Hallasholm. He is loud, blunt and greedy by trade, and steadier and more honourable than any of that suggests. He has influence among the jarls and will spend it if he thinks the cause is right.

First appears in chapter 13

Erak's second in command, cheerfully loyal and quick to follow his jarl into anything.

First appears in chapter 14

The Oberjarl of Skandia, absolute among his own people and violently impatient with advice, particularly from foreigners. He has sworn the Vallasvow, a blood oath binding him to kill the royal family of Araluen, which makes him the single greatest danger to Evanlyn in the country.

First appears in chapter 15

The Oberjarl's hilfmann, who runs Hallasholm's stores, accounts and slave labour. Unwarlike and permanently anxious, he is the one Skandian in authority who thinks in terms of numbers and supply, which makes him unexpectedly useful once an invasion is coming.

First appears in chapter 18

The general commanding the Temujai force moving on Skandia: experienced, methodical, and contemptuous of an enemy he expects to overrun. He plans in terms of ground, remounts and lines of advance rather than of individual glory.