Amal - The Arabic name meaning ‘hope’. Amal certainly doesn’t bring much hope, at least not to the main characters... He is Lethan’s nephew and there is a striking resemblance between the two but Amal has a very different character and very different ideas.

Bishr - Bishr is the good looking one in this story (well we have to have some good looking people! They can’t all be ordinary) and should therefore probably be marrying Elanta if we’re going to do this on looks but he’s not. His name is the Arabic name for ‘joyful’. He is a Sharadih and therefore has a great love of animals, especially horses. In fact his horse is actually his best friend (which works when you have the ability to talk to them).

Calan - A young soldier, not much older than Elanta. He is stationed not far from Sonador and has never met anyone quite as beautiful as Elanta before... (do I actually need to say anything else?)

Eilan - Eilan is quite a twisted character. You are never quite sure whether he’s nice or not but he is open about which side he’s on and speaks his mind.

Fakih - In the ancient language this means ‘proud’ but in real life it means ‘legal expert’ in Arabic. An acquaintance of Rashadni’s who brings news to the advisers family which is important one of the major characters in Acaston’s Locket.

Leila - The Arabic name meaning ‘Night’. Leila is Mr Boreas’s favourite pupil and Anya’s worst nightmare at times. She does not feature very strongly but pushes Anya’s temper to the limit. She is a rather strange girl but very clever academically. She is in fact based on a real life character who has actually grown up alot since this book was written. In real life she is a very lovely and interesting person although, like Leila, she used to cry at everything and anything but had grown up enough to stop doing that now!

Lerran - Baleena’s future husband and not someone that Elanta likes very much. Elanta shows no interest in Baleena’s love affairs but no doubt feels a sense of relief that Baleena is finally going to be married and will leave her alone to read.

Lethan - Lethan has to be Tithonus’s greatest friend. He is sensible when he needs to be but most of the time he acts like he has never grown up. He reminds me of the real Melia in a way because he has an obsession with blowing things up and gets great pleasure out of doing so. I think Lethan has to be my favourite human character as he was the most fun to write.

Levi - I will be surprised if you haven’t worked this out already. Levi is an anagram of evil (I did point this out in the book in case some people didn’t see it!). He is the leader of the rebellion who want to overthrow the Council and he’s well, not a nice guy really. A little bit obsessed with power but I’m sure he has a nice quality somewhere...deep down...very, very deep down...

Megari, Mr - Based on the name ‘Megaris’ which in Greek Mythology was a mountainous state of ancient Greece. Let’s face it, this guy is old. He’s extremely gifted in healing but he is getting rather absent minded..... He needs to be retired before he does some damage.

Peladir, Meleni - ‘Meleni’ is the Camean name for ‘high priest’. Peladir is one of Elanta’s greatest friends and he loves her like she is his own daughter. They share the same love of stories and Peladir never tires of telling stories to her as Elanta never tires of hearing them.

Rabbani, Jameel - ‘Rabbani’ is the Arabic name meaning ‘divine’. Anya’s favourite teacher. He teaches Ancient Civilisations and seems to Anya to be very wise and diplomatic. He is actually past retirement age but has been allowed to continue teaching at the village school because of the shortage of teachers and no one can see him ever giving up.

Sharna - Elanta’s maid and probably the greatest and one of Elanta’s few friend’s. Sharna is a witch and she likes to experiment with her powers but would be dismissed if she was seen so does so in the safety of Elanta’s room. Unfortunately Sharna’s experiments really are experiments and tend to go wrong.

Zefirus - A criminal and also a Sharadih. He has the gift of talking to animals and is killed two years before themain story begins. Once a Sharadih dies, at the same moment, another is born with the same gift. I’ll leave you to work out the connection.