Ruka
Safe through Heroes of Ravenford Book 3
Main text: Book 2. Book 3: collapsed section below.
Characters
Rukastanna — ‘Ruka’ — is the middle of the three sisters the companions meet near Cape Marlin in Serpent Cult. She looks about fifteen. Ves is the eldest and Maya the youngest.
She is just shy of five feet tall, with shoulder-length sandy-blonde hair and intense emerald-green eyes that sometimes show a hint of amber. She wears a dark, short-sleeved leather tunic that almost reaches her knees and, on land, black knee-high boots and dark leather gloves. She carries a lightning short-sword, an ancient family heirloom.
Ruka is sarcastic, her comments biting, and her favourite expression is a smirk. She is secretive and distrustful, with little love for strangers. She says nothing when the sisters first meet Glolindir, Lloyd, and Aksel, and she is upset when Ves tells them family secrets.
Like her sisters, Ruka is at home in the water. The three can breathe underwater, swim as fast as any fish, and talk to sea creatures. On the way to the Cape Marlin lighthouse she and Maya stop for a ‘conversation’ with a pod of dolphins, and while salvaging the sunken ships the girls glide through the deep so fast that Lloyd and Martan cannot keep up. Ruka also helps track the cultists and the creature at the lighthouse.
When Glolindir presses the sisters, Ves admits, against Ruka’s wishes, that they are runaways searching for their missing father. The companions agree to help them, and the sisters promise their help in return.
Book 3 is in the collapsed section below.
After Book 2 — spoilers for Book 3, Dark Monolith
Dark Monolith reveals that Ruka spent the gala battle on the keep roof with Seth, watching. Her full name is Rukastanna ta Yatharia Greymantle.
She enters Ravenford’s tourney and wins the final against Dame Alana with her lightning sword. When the company rides south, she catches up with them on the road. Ves has filled her in. On the road she meets Donatello, and after some early friction the sarcastic Ruka seems quietly taken with the sandy-haired elf. In the Darkwoods the spirit of an old man speaks to her from her sword, Inazuma.
In the fight at the monolith Ruka is poisoned by serpent venom. Aksel prays to the Soldenar, who stops the poison spreading but cannot cure it yet. Book 3 ends with Ruka awake but weakened.