Renn

Renn is one of the major characters in the novel Crystal Mask written by Katherine Roberts. Renn is a novice singer from The Echorium, who is the son of Rialle and believed to be Frenn; an orderly. Renn plays a large part in the second novel (Crystal Mask), he is one of the main characters in the plotline. He is noted for being able to speak half-creature and consequently The Pentangle have a particular interest in him and becomes useful throughout the book.

Character introduction

In Crystal Mask, Renn is an intelligent novice of The Echorium who is frequently bullied by Geran and Alaira; other students in his class. Renn is able to understand half-creature speak and worries about being bullied due to this; only a few have this ability and adults lose this skill once they become full singers. As a singer he is not allowed to know who his true parents are, who he evidently finds out at the end of the book.

Personality

Renn at times shows revulsion and hate for Shaiala and shows an unfriendly attitude most of the time towards her. He resents her as she was the one who dragged him into the whole story. He showed a very negative attitude to helping The Pentangle but was forced into it by the senior singers. He shows anxiety in most situations which does not put him across as a brave and bold character.

Actions in "Crystal Mask"

At the beginning of the novel Renn is requested to help The Pentangle translate Shaiala's half-creature speak as they believed it would be easier to communicate with each other then. After The Pentangle got the information they wanted, they decide to take Renn on their travels making Renn's life difficult which he wasn't expecting.

He sailed with the singers to Southport where they docked and went to search for clues about the khiz mask, Shaiala had spoken about when she was questioned at The Pentangle. Shaiala runs away and Renn is left with the singers alone. The singers and Renn travel to Watermeet to search for Shaiala but have no luck. They travel along the Purple Plains in search for Shaiala but come across the Kalerei instead, where they allied with them to save the captured children within the Sunless Valley and the Kalerei leader's son.

The singers travel to the Pass of Silence; where silence was imperative otherwise rocks would crush them. Unfortunately some of the singers died as Renn called a warning to the other singers which brought a shower of rocks down. Master Kherron was captured by Yashra and taken to the jails within her stronghold. She later offered him a position as a teacher for the children that would become part of her plan.

Renn was also captured by Yashra and was taken to the tower within her stronghold. He escaped from her grasp and went up to the top of the tower where Shaiala was with Erihan; the Prince of the Kalerei. There, he broke the khiz crystal with Shaiala's help. The crystal was mind controlling the captured children, once the crystal was destroyed the spell wore off. They helped freed Kherron from the dungeons and went upstairs to the battle. The Kalerei battled it out with the Harai in the courtyard of the tower complex. Yashra was defeated along with Frazhin and Renn went back home to The Echorium with his mother.

See also

* The Echorium

External links

* [http://www.katherineroberts.com/ Katherine Roberts homepage]
* [http://www.knibb.org/roberts/crystal.htm Direct link to Crystal Mask section on Katherine Roberts' homepage]