Song of the Lioness
Alanna of Trebond and her twin brother, Thom, are young children with bright orange hair and purple eyes, soon to be sent to the convent and the palace to learn the basics of life, magic and fighting. However, there’s something dreadfully wrong with the plan – Thom doesn’t want to go learn to be a knight at the palace, as he would much rather develop his magical Gift, and Alanna has no intention whatsoever of going to the convent to learn how to be a lady. From there stems the plot of the Song of the Lioness quartet: Alanna and Thom will exchange places to live their dream.
Changing her name to Alan of Trebond, Alanna heads to the palace to live as a page and to learn sword fighting, hand fighting, jousting, wielding the staff, and all that comes with being a knight. Throughout her years there, she will befriend none other than Prince Jonathan, heir to the throne, and George, King of the Thieves, as well as make dangerous enemies such as the famed and powerful Duke Roger of Conté. She will battle legendary enemies, weave her way through the world under the pretense of being a boy, travel to the faraway Bazhir tribes, fight a war, learn to control her magical Gift and discover what it is to love someone.
The path from rebellious child to Lioness, the first lady knight Tortall has ever seen, is long and dangerous, as Alanna, Jonathan and Thom show us in the first Tortall series Tamora Pierce has published.