Individual Text Feature: Wolf-Speaker

            Wolf-Speaker by Tamora Pierce is the second novel in The Immortals series. The series centers on Veralidaine Sarrasri. The Immortals is set in the fictional world of Tortall. In the first novel, Wild Magic, we learn that Veralidaine, who goes by Daine, can speak to animals. Before the start of the novel, Daine joined a pack of wolves after her family was murdered and sought to kill the people that murdered her family. After being chased away by the people from her village, Daine’s horse helped her regain her humanity. She travelled to Corus, the capital of Tortall, and became a horse assistant. Numair is Daine’s mentor and one of the most powerful mages in the world. She can also speak to mythical creatures such as griffins and is raising a baby dragon named Skysong. In Wolf-Speaker, Daine travels to Dunlath with Numair after the wolf pack she had been a part of her summoned her for help. The wolf pack is worried that the local ruling nobles are ruining their territory, Long Lake.

            On the way to Dunlath, Daine and Numair encounter burned remains of a soldier. They decide to visit the nobles instead of going directly to the wolves to figure out what happened to the soldier. Daine confronts the nobles about the threat they pose to the wolves, but the nobles laugh at her. Numair notes that there is battlemage present who seems to be close to Lady Yolane, a noble from Dunlath. The battlemage’s name is Tristan Staghorn, one of the most powerful mages in the world. Numair knows Tristan from when they were both studying to be mages, and he takes this as a sign that the situation is worse than they had previously suspected. Numair creates a magical clone of himself to gain information from Tristan and make sure that Tristan thinks he is nothing more than a harmless scholar. Leaving his clone behind, Numair goes back to Corus in order to warn the king that something bad is going on in Dunlath. Daine stays behind to continue helping the wolves.

            Daine continues to develop her magic. She learns how to share her mind with animals and uses this ability to spy through the eyes of animals. Daine learns that this means that she will gain characteristics from the animals whose minds she inhabits once she returns to her human body. This continues to progress until Daine learns that she can actually turn into animals. Daine encounters Maura, the younger sister of Lady Yolane, after she runs away. When Daine sees Maura, Daine realizes that she is in the body of a wolf and not the body of a human. After this, a stormwing (a half human/half bird creature with metal wings) appears and is friendly with Maura. Before this, Daine had thought all stormwings were evil.

Maura reveals that Yolane plans to become queen. Yolane made a deal with the evil emperor of another country that she would help him if she could become queen. Meanwhile, a wise and friendly basilisk named Tkaa is introduced and begins to tutor the baby dragon that Daine is raising. 

Tristan creates a barrier out of magic that shields Dunlath from help. It is revealed that Tristan and some other evil mage friends are going to dump a poison at the head of a nearby river, which will kill everything that lives within ten miles. The poison is aptly called bloodrain. Tristan realizes that Daine knows what is going on and tries to hurt her. However, Numair turns Tristan into an apple tree before he can hurt Daine. This also means that somewhere else in the world an apple tree just became human. Daine, Numair, and friends then proceed to foil the entire evil plot just in time.

            For my paper, I want to explore the relationship between animals and adolescence. While Daine has a connection with all animals, she has the strongest connection with her horse. A “horse girl” has become a trope for young girls. There is a negative connotation associated with being a horse girl. Yet so many young women find themselves drawn to horses. From some preliminary research, I read a few arguments on why this connection exists. The main argument I read was that riding horses and having control over such a large animal could empower a young woman. In this way, Daine is set up as a powerful character from the very beginning of the novel.

The Immortals series begins with the more stereotypical relationship between Daine and her horse. The previous series written by Tamora Pierce, Song of the Lioness, is set in the same universe as the The Immortals series. The series focuses on a young woman, Alanna, who disguises herself as a man to pursue knighthood. Alanna’s connection with animals centers on the stereotypically female. Her main animal connection is with a cat, but she also connects with the occasional horse. Cats are an animal that is more typically identified as more feminine. I would need to do more research into why that is. Wolf-Speaker is significant because it breaks with the stereotypical female-animal connections and focuses on the connection between a young girl and wolves.

I need to research further in how Daine’s connection with animals influence the power dynamics within the book. The government still operates under a traditional monarchy. The book centers on the struggle created by power-hungry nobility. How does the introduction of animals affect Daine’s power dynamic? Why is it important that she is an adolescent connecting with wolves as opposed to an adult connecting with wolves? In Julie of the Wolves, the wolves mark her connection with her disappearing childhood and her cultural heritage. At the end of the book, Julie walks away from her life with the wolves. While Daine does leave the wolves at the end of her novel, she does not give them up nor does anyone ask her to. The adults surrounding Daine accept and encourage her connection with animals. In Wolf-Speaker, the reader learns that Daine can shapeshift into animals. Daine even turns into a wolf at one point in the book. While Julie marks the end of her adolescence by leaving the wolves, Daine gains power, respect, and maturity through her continued connection with the wolves, even by becoming one.