Those lucky enough to have already found P.C. Hodgell’s books have followed Jame through fire, flood, earthquake, and collapse.  They have watched as she struggled to find her place in her people, the Kencyrath, and felt every bruise as she fell down (yet another) flight of stairs. Now, in To Ride a Rathorn, we follow Jame to the heart of the Kencyrath, to the halls of Tentir, the randon’s college where the fighters that her race is famous for are forged.

Jame, of course, does not enter Tentir as a regular cadet.  Sent by the Highlord, her brother Tori, she walks into a place where the little protection her brother can offer is gone, where she must prove herself against those who have spent a lifetime preparing for the tests of Tentir, and where, by her very nature, she will drive out the secrets that threaten her house, and fight those who seek to weaken the nearly shattered Kencyrath.

Her first step, completely in character, is to light her assigned quarters on fire, not entirely on purpose. The mitigating factors of an unwanted, venomous house-guest and her brother’s need for her support, at least give Jame sufficient reason for her first act of destruction at Tentir, but once her brother has left, she is alone and must rely on her wits to keep out of trouble and alive until her time at Tentir is done. For the first time, she feels that she is somewhere where she could excel, where her unusual past will be an asset, and where her talent for destruction, and her habit of revealing the darkest secrets of her race, will find a place to belong.

The dangers that she has escaped, and her search for a place to belong, do not accord her instant access to Tentir.  Most who are there are Kendar, not Highborn, and of the Highborn, none but Jame are women, and the choice of who stays and who goes is at least partially in the hands of a Caineron, the enemy of her house.

The Knorth are not heroes in the history of Tentir, and Jame finds herself drawn into strange and powerful dreams of her house’s past, dreams that may explain why her father led the Kencyrath into a battle that nearly broke them, but these dreams, like so many in this world, are dangerous even for onlookers, and Jame and her brother have to figure out a way to survive this danger long enough to combat the forces that attack them during the day.

This book continues to allow us glimpses into Tori’s life as well as Jame’s.  His place as Highlord is anything but secure, and his dreams, even the ones where Jame is not putting in an appearance, are far from restful. The Knorth are a poor and small house, for all their claim to the Highlord’s throne and power, and Tori’s refusal to deal with all of his history and his abilities is weakening them further.  If Jame is a nemesis, a destroyer, than Tori must work as a balance, or all of Rathillien is doomed.

For all of Jame’s struggles and successes at Tentir, she has another role to play, the Earth Wife is waiting for Jame to take her place in the Summer’s Eve rites. None of the rest of the Kencyrath expect her to go, but Jame has never done the expected, and some things are meant to be destroyed. Some things need to be broken:

The last Knorth lady, her brother the last Knorth Highlord. Change is coming, one way or another. Will it strengthen or destroy us? Where does one stand in such a time, if not on honor, but what if honor means the death of another innocent?

The fifth book in the Kencyrath Chronicles, Bound in Blood, is due out in March, which leaves just enough time to read the preceding books, now easiest to find in the two omnibus editions.  They are deft, detailed, humorous, full of astounding creations and characters that live far beyond the books that house them.  P.C. Hodgell has written, once again, a book eminently worth re-reading time and again.

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