About the Rennies
Till
‘Her hair was now a bright blue right down to the roots, with a crown of braids above her forehead, and she wore a leather bodice above her tattered skirt … [Till’s hair] was the bright, honest blue of a clear sky, with threads of tinsel glinting through it. Till liked to tie it in one long braid over her left shoulder, and clip in odd feathers she had found around the campsite. [Her] pockets were always stuffed with odds and ends she found about the Faire. Right now, she had in her pockets an owl feather, several faery stones, a ragged silk flower, a length of dirty ribbon, some strands of tinsel, and the white skull of a mouse, eaten clean by ants. She felt unfinished, somehow, with empty pockets.’
Till lives with her mother in a little caravan, and the two of them travel from faire to faire, selling faery wings and other accessories. Till also works as a faery on cast at Elsewhere Faire. She is brave but impulsive, and sometimes gets herself into trouble by acting before she thinks.
Ammy
‘Amethyst would run up to complete strangers when Faire was open, hug them around the knees and tell them she had missed them. She just assumed everyone would love her and so, of course, they did. She was the three-year-old daughter of one of the other Rennies, and she had lived at the Faire ever since she was born—in fact, she had been born at the Faire, in the Stone Circle at a full moon. She ran wild in the grounds, barefoot and filthy, but no one ever worried about her because every Rennie who worked and lived there knew her and looked out for her … She wore a little wolf tail at all times, clipped onto the back of her pants, and it dragged in the dust behind her.’
Ammy (full name Amethyst) is the daughter of Mag, the apothecary at Elsewhere Faire. She runs wild at the faire and is cared for by all the other Rennies. She seems to have a special magic about her that helps the children in their adventures.
Cully
'Cully was good at moving in the dark. He went hunting, sometimes proper hunting with his dad and a gun or a bow and arrows, and sometimes just on his own with a few pebbles in his pockets. He killed tiny things: birds, squirrels. Till hated it, but he strung their bleached little skulls on a rattling loop of rope from his belt and wore it during Faire-time.’
Cully has been Till’s best friend at Elsewhere Faire forever. His dream is to be a fight choreographer one day, but until then, he works with the birds of prey learning falconry, and helps out with the horses at the joust. He is resourceful and clever, and reads voraciously, but he has trouble trusting new people and can take a long time to act because he has to think about a situation from all angles.
Mr. Trouser
‘… Mr. Trouser had been asleep on the bunk bed, and he yawned, arching his back and curling his pink tongue, before jumping down onto Till’s shoulder. She had found him years ago as a kitten, shivering and scrawny under one of the booths, and he had lived with them ever since. He got his name from his unusual markings—he was completely white all over except for his hindquarters, which were black, making him look like he was wearing a pair of pantaloons. He was Till’s best friend, not counting Cully, and he went with her everywhere.’
Mr. Trouser is a tough, independent cat who doesn’t let anyone push him around. He rules over all the other animals at the Faire, even the ones bigger than him, and is a fierce hunter.
