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Official Site: Tamora Pierce

Alanna of Trebond is a fictional character in Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness quartet of books. She later appears in Pierce's other series: The Immortals, Protector of the Small, and Daughter of the Lioness.

In Alanna: The First Adventure, Alanna wants to become the first female knight in the realm of Tortall in over 100 years and her brother wants to be a sorcerer. But she is to be sent to a convent and her twin brother, who wants to be a sorcerer, is to become a knight. They switch places, and Alanna travels to the palace disguised as a boy. Alanna is able to undertake the training required to be a page disguised as a boy named "Alan" and befriends several other knights-in-training at the palace, including the Crown Prince Jonathan of Conté and his friends, while trying to keep her gender secret. Only her manservant Coram, George Cooper (the King of Thieves), his mother Eleni, and eventually Jonathan are aware of her true identity. One of her adult friends, Sir Myles of Olau, is instructed one night by the Great Mother Goddess to bring Alanna to his fief, where she finds a mysterious and ancient sword in a ruin of the Old Ones. When she returns home she names the sword Lightning. Later she travels with her squire friends to the Bazhir city of Persopolis, where she and Jonathan go to the Black City to fight the Ysandir, also known as the Nameless Ones. It is during their fight with the Ysandir that Jonathan learns that "Alan" is really a girl.

In the second book, In the Hand of the Goddess, Alanna becomes romantically and sexually involved with Prince Jonathan, her knight-master during her time as squire; she is also romantically pursued by George. She distinguishes herself in battle, and passes the tests for knighthood, finally winning her shield. Alanna then finds evidence for something that she has suspected for a long time: the King's nephew Roger has plotted to kill the Royal Family. When she exposes Roger, they fight a duel in as a trial by combat, during which Alanna's gender is finally revealed to everyone. Alanna defeats Roger in combat and kills him.

After defeating and killing Roger in a duel, Alanna decides to leave the capital city of Corus, and her further adventures appear in The Woman Who Rides Like a Man. Alanna returns to the Bazhir desert. She becomes a member of a tribe who dwells there and unwillingly becomes the tribe shaman (though she is later replaced by her two students). She also ends her romantic relationship with Jonathan after he proposes, though they stay friends, and instead she turns to George Cooper, the King of Thieves.

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