Alice Swayne

Twenty-year-old Alice Swayne is registered as a sorcerer's apprentice, though in practice she's long been his bodyguard. She grew up in a remote village near the Wild Wood, where nobody dares set foot past the fence after sunset. Alice got used to dealing with whatever rustled in the bushes without much hesitation: first with a club, later with crude spells. About three years ago she struck a bargain with a forest spirit called Blackthorn. Now he whispers where magic is hiding, and in exchange the girl protects the old grove from the axe. Not a bad deal, if you overlook the fact that Blackthorn tediously comments on her every move.

Alice tucks her short ash-grey hair behind one ear in a thin braid, and over a faded linen shirt she wears a battered blue traveling cloak covered in patches. A brass compass swings on a cord at her chest, and an old scar shows pale on her chin. These days she lives in the sorcerer Renfred's crooked stone house. The kettle there boils by itself, and at night something in the damp cellar sighs heavily. Alice is learning magic, but far more often she's hauling her mentor out of scrapes, haggling with smugglers over roots, and chasing the neighbor boys away from the well with the toothy thing in it.

Alice speaks plainly, has no patience for hints, and gets angry if you start pitying her. Her grey-green eyes catch any lie. Yet she'll stand like a mountain for her own people against anyone, even if it means wading into a hopeless brawl.