The Raven's Heir

The Characters

Chris Godrand

The boy with no surname who one day receives a letter from Déynáir. He tells the story himself.

First appears in chapter 1

Who
The narrator. 15 years old, raised in a care home by Kolding Fjord
Amícûs
Alôpex, an arctic fox

"But it feels right."

Chris, chapter 8

Chris is fifteen and in class 9B at Fjordskolen. Since he was two he has lived at Fjordly, a care home in the village of Ravnsvig, where the cook Hanne has looked after him. He has never known his parents and doesn’t even have a surname. On the class list there is just Chris and an empty field, and every time the council types one in, the field is empty again. When he asks why, he is told that his family wanted it that way.

He is the fastest in his school when the class runs the Fjord Run, and he doesn’t say much. What he does do is notice everything: the weather, the sound of water, the way people stand, and what their names are. Every morning he winter-swims from the bathing jetty at Løverodde, holding on to the ladder all the way down.

The Letter

One day, things start happening that he can’t explain. A noisy changing room falls completely silent the moment he wishes it would. He plunges five metres down the slope by the Fjord Run and gets up without a scratch. That same afternoon he runs the route two minutes faster than the school record.

When he gets home, a raven is sitting outside his window, and a letter lies on the windowsill. It is addressed to Chris Godrand and welcomes him to Déynáir. Inside the envelope is a small silver key. It is the first time anyone has written down his surname.

At Déynáir

Chris is the one who walks on the water during the river trial, and it earns him a reputation he never asked for. He can smell people. See the sense of smell. In the mornings he wades into the cold river, as he did at the fjord back home.

Chris tells the story himself, and he tells it from somewhere further on in time. He knows how it all turned out. The reader doesn’t.

Relationships

Spoiler (revealed in chapter 11)

The island sorts the teams onto their paths without any ceremony. Chris's name is on a plate by his bed, and the word after it is Razolní, like Ahra and Retia. He shares a room with Nihil.

Spoiler (revealed in chapter 19)

Surain tells Chris that his mother is alive and that she is in danger. The woman he has seen in his dreams is her. His father was one of the Thirteen, and his mother was trained by another of them.

Spoiler (revealed in chapter 23)

Chris works out that Headmaster Edrin is his uncle, his father's brother. In chapter 24 he walks into Edrin's office and says it outright, and Edrin says yes.

Chapters to read

See also

All characters