Portraits revealed through your current reading position.
The gentle Italian shepherd who keeps the murderous goat-mage Prepotente in line with a crook, a firm word, and a kiss on the head.
Miriam Dom appears at the mirrored 'noodle' hole alongside her charge, the screaming goat-mage Prepotente. About forty, a little plump and dark-haired with a gentle Italian accent, she carries a long hooked staff like Little Bo Peep. When Prepotente threatens Carl and Imani, she whacks him with the crook, tells him to sit and think about what he's said, and coaxes an apology out of him — then rewards him with a kiss on the head ('Good Pony').
Warm, unbothered, and quietly commanding, she manages the volatile goat with maternal patience ('He says things like that, but he doesn't mean them'), even as he vows to murder her in her sleep. Her crew, which includes a horse-sized hellspawn familiar, is one Carl decides to stay well away from.
A woman of about forty, a little plump with dark hair, carrying a long shepherd's crook with a hooked end; a gentle Italian accent and warm, maternal manner.
The shepherd-handler who keeps the dangerous goat-mage Prepotente controlled and civil.
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