Kelda Flintkiss

Kelda's fear and fierceness make the false promise of the oath briefly seductive.

Appearance

Kelda is twelve winters old, already nearly as tall as a southern man, with hands scarred from bellows work.

In The Highlander

Kelda Flintkiss is a fierce Highlander girl with a temper Yrsa Flintkiss calls promising. She was Harl's opponent in the rigged shardback rite, and afterwards demanded to know whether being saved meant she owed Ironvale a debt. She joined Harl and others in swearing a mock containment oath to a kitchen knife, naming the burden she meant to contain as fear of being useless, and was the first child to paint charcoal ink under her eyes, until Yrsa dunked her in a washing trough. Dagna told her to learn knots, weather signs and splints instead, and she did.

On the snow eel run she hooked the eel that had Harl by the leg and killed it, then threw the rescue line when the channel queen struck. She and Harl made peace over what she called shared idiocy. Her name was later found on a leather strip in the Ink Hollow, prepared but not sworn, which alarmed Eira and Torin alike. As the north split she was found teaching younger children the old pact while tying rescue knots.

After the books

Survives to find a less destructive place within the community. A snow eel and a rescue hook become a better lesson than an adult condemnation.