Lady Knight (Protector of the Small #4)

'Mistresses, have you ever noticed that when we disagree with a male...or find outselves in a position over males, the first comment they make is always about our reputations or our monthlies?'

Kel then goes on with 'If I disagree with you, should I place blame on the misworkings of your manhood? Or do I refrain from so serious an insult far more serious, of course, than your hint that I am a whore.'

The first three books in the Protector of the Small series share most of their themes in common, dealing as they do with Keladry's journey to knighthood, the sexism and discrimination that she faces along the way, and her growing social consciousness and awareness of the issues that face the common people of Tortall. Lady Knight, however, is a very different sort of book. It's a book about war.

This is the first time that Tamora Pierce shows us a truly ugly side of life in Tortall. We've seen war

The first three books in the Protector of the Small series share most of their themes in common, dealing as they do with Keladry's journey to knighthood, the sexism and discrimination that she faces along the way, and her growing social consciousness and awareness of the issues that face the common people of Tortall. Lady Knight, however, is a very different sort of book. It's a book about war.

This is the first time that Tamora Pierce shows us a truly ugly side of life in Tortall. We've seen war in previous Tortall novels, but never like this. Even in books like Emperor Mage and The Realms of the Gods, we weren't given the type of imagery that Tamora Pierce provides here. Those books dealt with politics, personal struggles, and magic. Lady Knight gives us insight into a grittier, darker, more realistic side of war.

Kel wins her shield right at the time when war is set to break out between Tortall and its northern neighbor, Scanra. She dutifully heads north, expecting to fight, but she is instead assigned to oversee a refugee camp for those displaced by the fighting. It's a command position, but Kel isn't initially aware of the importance of her task and she worries that she is being kept from the main fight because she is a woman.

Her old trainer, Lord Wyldon, assures her that this is not the case and explains why he thinks she, specifically, is especially suited to this work--namely, that Kel has always shown a particular regard for the common people of Tortall that makes Wyldon certain that she will do her best to protect them and their interests, something he doesn't trust most other knights (all culled from the nobility) to do. I love Wyldon's growth as a character throughout this series, and I love that we get to see him in this book as a primarily fair and good man who has grown to respect and value Kel for who she is. I also love that Wyldon doesn't take any personal credit for who Kel has become. He's in a position to act as a mentor to her, and he certainly has done so in some ways since Kel was a squire, but he also has a continued awareness of the ways in which he has failed her that allows him to see her achievements as her own rather than as a result of the mentoring she's received.

Lady Knight is also, I think, the book in the series that is most different from Alanna's story in Song of the Lioness. After becoming a knight, Alanna adventures on largely her own, making friends along the way, but Kel doesn't. Kel follows a more conventional path, doing her duty to the kingdom by participating in the military where she has to work with others in order to protect and take care of the people who she's been assigned to be responsible for, and this provides an opportunity for us to think about what that responsibility is and how it should be carried out. Lady Knight is a story that is largely about how leaders fit into society, how to be a leader, and the responsibility that leaders and governments have to the people they govern.