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20 Truth About Liam Ironarm
1.He's a half-dead beggar when the Shangs come to his village, and all he registers is a scar-faced man pointing at him before he's picked up and whisked into a life he never imagined could be his.
2.The first thing his teachers order him to do is to choose a last name for himself. Liam, watching his bony arms tremble, smiles bitterly and names himself "Ironarm." He half-expects the stern-faced man in front of him to scoff and get rid of him, but surprisingly the man just nods in acceptance. It's his first encounter with someone who believes in him.
3.He's the worst student the Shangs have ever seen—his body so weak that he can barely find the energy to get himself through the training. However, he's also the hardest worker the Shangs have seen for a long time, and because of that they refuse to let him learn at a slower pace. It pays off. Muscles replace the skin stretched over his bones and his cheeks grow rosy from exercise. Soon, he's breaking hearts and the Shang Masters shake their heads and wonder when the broken little street brat they took turned into this confident man?
4.Liam doesn't have many real friends—though there are hundreds who would give their right arm to claim his as one of theirs—and so he treasures all the ones he has. When Alanna bites her lip in that adorable way she has and admits that she was afraid they wouldn't be able to stay friends, Liam almost laughs because there's no way in hell that he'd give her up because their romance didn't work out. Besides, who said he was giving up on her just because she was with Cooper now?
5.Once, on his travels, he came across a cat with purple eyes. He throws a shoe at it. When he meets Faithful for the first time, the cat stares at him flatly and warns him that if he tries hurling anything at him again, he'll summon all the powers of the stars and make sure Liam never stands up again.
6.He can sing quite well, and when he doesn't want to make money by fighting, he learns the newest ballads and earns his income that way. It's through the ballads that he's first introduced to the Lioness and all her glory.
7.He's never actually met Duke Rodger, but judging by the shadows under Alanna's eyes, the Duke of Conté is even more than the dangerous criminal the ballads paint him to be. It kills him that he can't help her bear this burden, and that Rodger is a trial only she can face.
8.He's never considered going back to look for his family. As far as he was concerned, he left them behind the moment he took the title as the Shang Dragon.
9.Liam's never been scared of another man before, but Raoul of Goldenlake charging across a stadium with a lance is almost enough to make him thank the gods that he isn't the big man's opponent.
10.The masters told him his future the day he left them. He wasted a couple years trying to experience everything he could, spent another couple years staying as far away from Corus as possible. For some reason, when he finally finds himself drunk and stranded in Tortall again, the fear that plagued his heart vanished, replaced by a peace that would accompany him to the grave.
11.A large part of him wishes that Alanna took him to the Roof of the World with her. The other bit whispers that, had the Lioness had a Dragon with her, the creature that guarded the Dominion Jewel might have been too scared to face them and just chose to freeze them to death instead.
12.Order is important to him, but freedom is his life. In other words, he doesn't know what he wants from the people around him.
13.His first love was the Shang Unicorn. She was silver and lightning and so beautiful—but she was also as flighty and mystical as her namesake. By the time he claimed his title, she was gone to some faraway island, adventuring with peoples the civilized world has never seen. He still wonders if he'll ever see her again.
14.Being the Shang Dragon may mean free lodging and food at nice inns, but it also means that random drunks will come up and try to pick a fight, just to say that they've fought with the Shang Dragon. Liam puts up with it for a year before finally breaking a man's jaw with his fourth finger. People leave him alone after that.
15.He knows it's childish, but he takes pleasure in the fact that there are more ballads about him and Alanna than there are about her and her husband. Then again, no one really knows who her husband is—and if he wants his ears to stay on his head, he knows he better keep it that way.
16.He never thought he'd be a family kind of he met Alanna. Soon afterwards, he starts dreaming about a little boy with Alanna's copper curls and his green eyes, or a little girl with his smile and Alanna's temper.
17.Yes, he knows it will never come true. No, he doesn't care. Some dreams are precious because of their impossibility.
18.Once in awhile, he throws a gold noble to a beggar boy, and stays around to make sure the kid actually gets to use it. After awhile he realizes that it's probably smarter—and less dangerous for the kid—to just get him a job at the palace, so that's what he does. The King owns him a few favors anyway, and the stable could always use more helpers.
19.He has a soft spot for his hair. He secretly takes pride in the fact that it's softer than Alanna's. He'll kill anyone who finds out.
20.He might have been happy, had he lived. He might have met a horsewoman with a no-nonsense attitude and a dog who growled at him every time he came near his mistress. He might have fallen in love with this woman and they might have had many happy decades together. He might have loved Ouna, had he ever met her. Sadly, there are no might-haves in the Peaceful Realms.