Kel commands, and Pierce readies her for the trials of the next book, and for the rest of her life. Published in 2001, it deals with a lot of complicated, intersectional issues, in a mostly contemporary way. It’s one of the Pierce’s most progressive books. Squire covers the next four years of Kel’s training as a squire, and her Ordeal. The Ordeal looms over Kel as the prospect of knighthood draws ever closer, along with the challenges post knighthood.
Spoilers for Squire and all of Pierce’s previous books. Content Warning for mentions of sexual assault.
What Happens?
The First Two Years
Squire begins three months after Page ends. Kel visits the Chamber of Ordeal, and has a vision of never being picked as a squire. Almost immediately afterwards, Raoul approaches and asks her to be his squire. Kel accepts, and Raoul sets her up to ride with the Kings Own, the segment of the army he leads. A town summons the Own after an attack by bandits. In the hunt for the bandits, Kel kills one of the centaur bandits and rescues a baby griffin. Because of griffin magic, she needs to care for it until Daine explains to the parents that Kel didn’t steal him.
Caring for the griffin, tilting, or ‘flying’ lessons with Raoul, riding with the Own, and command lessons fill the rest of that year. Kel’s crush on Neal vanishes in the year they spend apart. Later, the Yamani delegation arrives, with Princess Shinkokami. Or, as Kel knows her, Shinko, a friend from her childhood in the Yamani Islands.
That fall, they discover the identity of the man who orchestrated Lalasa’s kidnapping is Joren. The magistrate deems him guilty, but because Lalasa is a commoner, the only payment is a fine. Kel’s outrage leverages Jonathan and Thayet begin changing that law. When Shinko and Roald meet, it’s very awkward, and they don’t know how to talk to one another. Kel engineers a gathering to loosen them up and get them to actually talk. Cleon kisses her afterwards, and Kel doesn’t know how to react. During Vinsen’s Ordeal of Knighthood, the Chamber forces him to feel the beatings he gave two women. Afterwards he confesses publicly to their beatings, and to the rape of another woman. When Joren takes his Ordeal, he dies.
The Last Two Years
All through these years, Kel approaches the Chamber, and receives visions when she touches the door. They’re always horrible, but eventually she grows somewhat immune. In the spring, the court leaves on Grand Progress, to introduce Shinkokami to the realm as their future princess. A knight insults one of Kel’s companions in the Own, and she challenges him. She wins, and another conservative immediately challenges her. Eventually, Kel tilts against Wyldon and loses. But she commands respect on the tilting ground, winning seventy percent of the time.
Raoul chafes against the trappings of the progress all year, and takes every opportunity to avoid the fuss. Kel and Cleon eventually come to an understanding and begin dating. Kel has a frank conversation with her mother and gets a contraceptive charm, though nothing comes of it. Daine finds the griffin’s parents and Kel returns him.
In Kel’s fourth year, Raoul and the King’s Own go north, to where war broke out between Scanra and Tortall. Kel spends the summer there, and commands a squadron in a fight with a metal machine. At the end of the summer, she and Raoul head to Corus for her Ordeal. Kel passes her Ordeal, but before it ends, the Chamber shows her who made the metal machine. She sees him with other machines and with a pile of dead children. The Chamber commands her to fix it.
After the Ordeal she meets Alanna. Alanna reveals she was the one who sent Kel all the mysterious presents. Alanna and Kel have a heart to heart, and the book ends with Alanna giving her a final gift. A sword that Kel names Griffin, and mentally prepares for the trials of the future.
Kel Commands…
Respect
Yes, yes it’s a cliched term, but it’s true. Over the four years of being a squire, Kel commands respect from a lot of people. Part of it is being so in the public eye as a member of the Own, as Neal pointed out. Part of it is also her successes in tilting during the Great Progress. But the fact remains, Kel earns respect through her actions in this book.
From Former Enemies
The first place that this really shows up is after her tilt with Lord Wyldon. She looses, and he knocks her out of the saddle. He rides over to her afterwards, gives her a hand up, advice, and asks if Joren caused any trouble recently. It’s a completely cordial conversation. Pierce reinforces that cordiality later, after the Midwinter where Vinsen and Joren fail their Ordeals. Wyldon retires afterwards, and Kel goes to confront him and argue against his retirement.
After an exchange about Joren, Vinsen, and how he almost derailed her page training, Kel still reaches out. “You’re the kind of knight I want to be.’ He regarded her with the strangest expression in his eyes. ‘I am not,’ he said. ‘But that you believe it is the greatest compliment I will ever receive.” (285). Kel’s compliment and everything Wyldon saw of her over six years of training changed them both. Kel always respected him, she didn’t like him because he never treated her fairly, but she respected him. That respect and her excellence managed now commands his respect for everything she’s done. That ‘strange expression’ is the face of someone given a compliment from someone he once reviled and now respects.
Another unnamed conservative knight also apologizes to her after a tilt. He says he misjudged her, and that he was wrong. It’s only one other person, but it’s a sign of some slow change for the better.
From New Allies
The respect Kel now commands shows up in women as well. After her second tilt with Wyldon, where she looses but isn’t unhorsed, she wakes in a tent. There are three pre-teen girls waiting there for her, and they want to be pages. She gives them all the advice she can. When she thinks the Ordeal will kill her, she thinks of them. Kel thinks her dying in the Ordeal will stop their dreams of being knights. But she doesn’t die, she passes the Ordeal, and now there’s the chance that others can come after her.
This also shows up in Alanna and Kel’s conversation after Kel earns her shield. Alanna reveals she gave Kel all the gifts she could from a distance. Then she proceeds to shower Kel in compliments.
“And you went so far beyond what I hoped, for the next girl page, and squire, and knight. All those tournaments, and those girls in the stands, right down by the field, watching you hungrily— … I had the magic, don’t you see, … But you, bless you, you are real. … They swore they’d take up archery, or riding, or Shang combat, because you had shown them it was all right. I was so proud.” (388).
It’s quite possibly my favorite scene in the whole series. Alanna and Kel speaking as equals, and Alanna’s recognition for all Kel did for Tortall. It’s beautiful, and transcendent, and shows what representation means for the disempowered. Kel’s success earned her respect, both from those who opposed her, and those who wanted to emulate her.
Command
Kel commands leadership positions through her personality. Raoul explains it to her, that first winter. He lists the four different types of warrior. Heroes, knights, soldiers, and commanders.
“Commanders have an eye not just for what they do, but for what those around them do. Commanders size up people’s strengths and weaknesses. … Other warriors will obey a true commander … You’ve shown flashes of being a commander. … My job is to see if you will do more than flash, with the right training.” (120-121).
That paragraph summarizes the entirety of Kel’s character arc, and what differentiates her from Alanna. Alanna is the standard hero, but Kel is a commander. Kel learns from Raoul how to command a large troop of men. Before they head north, she helps him select candidates for training in the Own. He puts her in charge of the resupply before they go north. He teaches her tactics, strategy, how to inspire loyalty in her followers. And Kel learns quickly and well.
Kel’s lessons in command culminate during the summer they spend guarding the border. A band of Scanran raiders attached a merchant caravan, and Raoul, Kel, and several squadrons of the Own rode out. Raoul stations Kel with Dom’s squad, and a Scanran injures Dom. Raoul puts Kel in charge of the squad. She faces some resistance from one of the other men, but when the killing machine shows up, she’s able to lead them to victory.
A less extreme example is how she manages Roald and Shinko. Kel notices a problem, pulls together the right people to deal with it, and gets them working together. Yuki, Neal, and Cleon get them there, and Buri and Raoul start them talking. It’s not leading an army into battle, but the interpersonal things that make or break a relationship.
Intersectional Feminism in Squire
Feminism
A lot of the focus in this book is the empowerment of women. To no one’s surprise, Squire has many feminist themes. It extends further than Alanna and Kel’s conversation about the impact Kel’s life has on others. Further than the three young girls who want to become pages themselves.
To no one’s surprise, it begins with Lalasa. In the dedication to Squire, Pierce acknowledges Gloria Barbizan and Dorothy Olding, “strong businesswomen long before women’s liberation.” Before Kel goes to with the Own, we see Lalasa, and Kel thinks of her, “They had both changed since their long, frightening walk down the side of Balor’s Needle six weeks ago. Kel thought that Businesswoman Lalasa was a treat.” (25). The description of Lalasa as a businesswoman and her new brisk nature shows the end of Lalasa’s timidity that so often irked Kel in Page.
Kel also develops many female friendships in this novel. She stays friends with Lalasa, but to her former maid she adds Buri, Shinko, Yuki, Thayet, and Alanna. Buri talks with her after Vinsen’s confession. Kel felt guilty about not reporting him after the attack on Lalasa. Buri tells Kel that, “Three nights a week your Lalasa closes her shop early, … She teaches city girls — commoners — holds, blows, and kicks that will help them to escape an attacker. She learned all that somewhere.” (273). That shows the ripple effect that Kel has, not just on noblewomen who can now be knights. But now common women have someone that can teach them to defend themselves. Kel taught Lalasa, and Lalasa now teaches others.
Racism
The Bazhir
While not a major thread of Sqire, it’s something that’s important to address. This book has the most information about the Bazhir and their current status since Woman Who Rides Like a Man. It’s not as thorough as that novel is about Bazhir culture, but it’s more respectful because of that distance.
One of the first mentions of this is that the King’s Own has the best Bazhir representation of all the country, at one third. A Bazhir tribe adopted Raoul as one of their own, and that made things easier. Kel mentions spending time with the Bazhir several times, and spending time with Bazhir women after tilting practice. She also never comments on their face veils, or the removal thereof, which makes it better than Alanna’s reaction to their veils. Kel is also familiar enough with the Bazhir that she can identify different tribes on sight, also a positive sign.
It’s not perfect, but it brings back this thread that might be forgotten in a story less considerate of intersectional feminism. It’s almost two decades out of date, but it’s trying.
The Yamani
In the past two books, I’ve always debated whether or not to talk about Yamani culture. But now is the correct time, since we now have actual Yamani characters. I’ve also flip-flopped on my opinion on whether the Yamani influence is a good thing or not. It had something of exotification of Japanese culture in it, but re-reading this book solidified that for the good.
One of the things that made me feel better about the Yamani culture in this series was the acknowledgments section. She mentions Iris Mori as someone she spoke to about Yamani names and weapons. Presumably she talked about other things as well, and you can tell there’s research as well. Actually talking to the people that you’re attempting to represent in you book is the bar you have to cross, and Pierce crosses it here.
That being said, it’s not perfect, and the exotification is still there. Shinko’s former future mother in law is my only large complaint. Kel treats the potential abuse she could have done to Shinko as a joke. “Just think’ she said slyly, ‘no one here will expect you to be the slave of your mother-in-law.” (138). Kel jokes about the differences between Yamani and Tortallen culture in the hypothetical here. But Shinko reinforces this and makes it uncomfortable by talking about how she was betrothed before Roald, and her mother-in-law to be was horrible. It’s uncomfortable and the introduction keeps it couched as a joke.
Classism and Politics
At Joren’s trial, Kel discovers that the only punishment for kidnapping a maid is a fine to the mistress. Understandably, she’s extremely upset. Eventually she, Raoul, Thayet, and Jonathan are in a room together. Jonathan and Thayet talk about the difficult balancing of politics and what happens if they go too far. The conservatives will succeed, the mages attack, the priests preach against them, or the commoners will burn the city down. It’s the most honest about politics the entirety of Pierce’s work has been. Eventually Thayet says they can use Lalasa’s story to stir up emotion to generate a change. The two rulers swear to start the process of changing the law, if Kel doesn’t challenge Joren. Kel agrees.
Afterwards, Raoul and Kel talk over a quilt the griffin ruined. Raoul talks about why Jonathan and Thayet wanted to change the law. It ranges from it’s a bad law, to Jonathan wanted to get Kel on his side. Raoul says, “You should keep in mind that he probably wants you to be confused about him.’ Raoul shook his head. ‘He wasn’t this complicated when we were pages.” (173). People change, and politics changes people faster than time does.
But sometimes, even politics doesn’t stop people from doing what’s right. Kel needs two knights to instruct her before the Ordeal, Lord Raoul, and Duke Turamont. Also known as the Lord Magistrate, and the one who decreed she could take the big exams, and who tried Joren. He even sits with her during the vigil, because he doesn’t want anyone to interfere, even though he’s a conservative. He commands respect because he’s conservative because he doesn’t want anyone to say that she cheated, or for anyone to interfere. Kel thinks about the duty she owes to the realm and what those words mean during her vigil.
“Or was [the realm] other things: a little girl with a muddy doll, Burchard of Stone Mountain livid with grief and rage, a king who admitted a law was wrong, Lalasa in her bustling shop with pins in her mouth. … Duty was what was owed, good parts and bad, to keep the realm growing, to keep it as fair as life could be kept. Duty was an old man, snug in his fur-lined robe, snoring lightly somewhere behind her.” (377-8).
It’s one of the best descriptions of what a government is supposed to do that I have ever read. You shelter the people, even those that disagree with you because that’s the social contract. You fix the laws when they’re wrong, and you try to create better ones for the people that need them. Make the laws as ‘fair as life could be kept’ and you will have a good government.
Conclusion
Kel commands the story in Squire, and there is nothing that can take that from her. She finishes her training, and Pierce sets her up for the conclusion to the quartet. All of these elements resonate with the books that came before and the ones that will come after. Kel’s commands as well as she does because of her actions in Page and First Test. Wyldon grows to respect her because of her duty to Lalasa, and her excellence in his war games.
The years Kel spent in the Yamani court always influenced her. We can see through her pages, several of whom are either Bazhir, or mixed race, that the Bazhir are more accepted than before. All of these elements, the ways that Kel interacts with those around her, will be significant in Lady Knight. Pierce wrote a book in the early twenties that we can still see as largely progressive, and it’s because of Kel’s basic personality being lightyears ahead of her peers.
