Rosto the Piper

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Rosto the Piper is from Scanra, and comes to Tortall with Aniki Forfrysning and Koramin Ingensra. Once called the "Scanran pretty boy", Rosto is a devilishly handsome, but pale rusher from the northern country of Scanra who came to Corus, Tortall's capital city during Beka's first year as a puppy.

He first appeared along with his two girlfriends Kora and Aniki who came with him to Corus. When the bartender was bothering Beka he came to her rescue and told him to cut it out. That was their first encounter.

Later on, Rosto and his gixies move into her boarding house and since she is a Dog-to-be, she was far from happy to see Rosto the Piper to move in.

As the novel progresses, Rosto is found to start moving up in the Court of the Rogue; all the while he becomes friends with Beka and begins to flirt with her. After both the Shadowsnake and the Miner Cases were wrapped up, he challenged the current Rogue king, Kayfer, to the death and gained the title of the new king. When Beka found out, he kissed her in celebration.

Currently, he is the only possibility for Beka Cooper's romantic interests. Readers know that since she is the ancestor of George Cooper, she does in fact get with someone in her life span. This person did not lend a last name and so the surname-less Rosto is still a contestant. But since he is a thief and she is a dog, it is unlikely for them to ever get married and thus she would not even inherit his title of Piper, which he is called because he is very good at playing the flute.

A few flaws with this is that although she does like him, Beka refuses to admit it and since her mother had bad experiences with rushers, and because they are on opposite sides of the law, she refuses to go with Rosto. Regardless the romantic interest is there and is expected to carry out in the next two instalments. Readers however, should be wary of too much of an attachment because the author, Tamora pierce has been known to break up popular couples in favour of another. Most famous examples would be of Alanna the Lioness who was with Prince Jonathan for half the series before switching to Beka's descendent, (and possibly Rosto's) George Cooper.

Other Facts: Kora fell in love with Beka's friend Ersken and so that relationship ended. Aniki is still unknown. Rosto admits to liking Beka and says he would rather she be the one in his bed. One of the other objections Beka has with him is that he's always surrounded by pretty gixies.

Physical Description

All are quotes directly from Beka's journal:

He was lean and deadly-looking, with blade-scarred hands and sharp bones. He was also white-skinned and dark-eyed, with hair so fair it was nearly white. [...] I figured him to be in his early twenties. (62) I remembered a Y-shaped scar in his eyebrow and the scars on his hands... (63)

I drank and read out the man's looks as I was taught in training. "Early twenties, five feet, ten inches, slim, muscled. Sideways forked scar, left eyebrow. Hair very fair, eyes black, skin pale. He's never worked hard labour, not with that skin. Long nose, full lower lip, thin upper. High cheekbones, thin cheeks. Very striking. Blade scars on the hands. Carries a purse and his belt knife in sight. Knife at the back collar one inside both forearms, knives over each kidney, boot knives. I'm not sure if there's a buckle knife. If there is, it's a design I don't know. Earring, left ear, silver skull." (64)

He sauntered up to me, more graceful than Pounce, hands in his pockets, the folds of his tunic loose, the dark blue cloth clean. Even his leggings were barely touched by street dirt. I marked the print of six knives against his tunic. The flat blades hidden on the insides of his wrists made me itch to handle them. (135)

".... Teach that upstart Scanran pretty boy a lesson." (351)

When he came down to breakfast, he sported a long scar down one cheek. (351)