Lady Dasha is the secondary protagonist of River Secrets. She is the Tiran ambassador to Bayern, the daughter of Lord Kilcad, and is in a relationship with Razo and good friends with Ani, Enna, Finn, and Rinna.
Biography[]
When Dasha was only six years old, her mother died. As an assemblyman, her father was too busy to take care of her on his own and sent her to live with his father in the country. Dasha's grandfather had the gift of water-speaking and sensed that Dasha, too, was born with the language of water nestled deep inside her. He was delighted to have a companion in the art and taught her all he knew about "river fingers". Even so, he made sure his granddaughter knew the importance of secrecy, especially when she moved to Ingridan with her father when she was ten.
Three years later, she was able to visit her grandfather and saw that he looked ill. She assumed that he had simply missed her, but one day she saw him sneaking away to the river and secretly followed him, expecting to catch him at some new water-speaking trick. Instead, he walked straight into the river and let himself fall down into its depths. She chased after her grandfather but couldn't find him, even running into the water to listen, to sense images of where he may be, but the water could no longer detect a difference between him and itself. She later found his body downstream, drowned.
Knowing that the water may claim her in the same way, Dasha began searching for a way to prevent river fingers from consuming her. Fortunately, her grandfather had collected books that contained any mention of water-speaking and one referenced the kingdom of Yasid, home to "fire-worshippers" that could not only spark fire, but also call rain down from the clouds. The people of Yasid lived in harmony with both fire and water, giving Dasha the idea to learn fire-speaking to balance out the voice of water. After the recent war between Bayern and Tira, the Bayern ambassador was sent to Ingridan accompanied by an escort in order to repair the relationship between the two countires. Dasha hoped that the Bayern fire-witch who had single-handedly turned the tide of battle against Tira would be among them, and so volunteered to be a liaison in order to befriend the fire-witch and learn fire-speaking.
Physical Description[]
Dasha has orange hair the color of rust, blue eyes, and is 'pleasant to look at', in Razo's opinion. She is slightly shorter than Razo, who himself is considerably short among his peers. Razo describes her ankles as a mite bony, but very pleasant nonetheless. Her smile makes her nose crinkle, "as if her whole face wants to be a part of it".
Abilities[]
- Dasha was taught water-speaking by her grandfather. She can:
- Pluck drops of water from the moisture in the air.
- Fill her hand with drinkable water from the moisture in the air.
- Sense when it's going to rain and can sometimes call rain down from the clouds.
- Push and pull a river to slosh over its banks.
- Condense water from the moisture in the air and gather it into pools.
- Form a fluid shield by clotting the water in the air around her.
- Fill a person's nose and lungs with water, drowning them where they stand.
- Sense things water has touched when she is underwater herself.
- Enna teaches Dasha fire-speaking between the events of River Secrets and Forest Born. She can:
- Sense heat from living things and pull it into a special place inside herself, forming it into fire.
- Send fire into anything she chooses, from dead wood to sword hilts.
- Suck the heat out of things, be it fire or people.
- Send tiny bits of heat into people, warming them.
Quotes[]
- "My real concern right now, not an hour after someone tried to murder us in our sleep, is what you think about the perception skills of my countrymen."
- "It was a pleasure, Enna, Finn, tree rat."
- "We're not done yet."
Trivia[]
- In the Bayern Justice League, a tactic Shannon Hale used for character development, Dasha is considered to be Flash.