Miranda Richardson

 

Miranda Richardson, also known as Sika, is a fictional character from The Hollow Kingdom trilogy. She acts as the protagonist of the third novel in the series, In the Coils of the Snake. Miranda is a human raised to be the wife of the gobin King, but instead ends up married to the elf King.

Character background
Miranda is the daughter of Til and Jack Richardson. Before her birth, her parents grew up in the goblin kingdon. Til is the foster daughter of Marak Sixfinger and Kate Winslow. She falls in love with Jack Richardson, who is being raised by the goblin woman, Ruby. Marak initially refuses to let them marry, but then agrees if they will give them their first born daughter. They conceive over five children together, one of which is Miranda. Though she belongs to Marak, he has her grow up with her birth family on the Hollow Hill estate. Growing up, her mother resents her because she knows Miranda will one day marry Catspaw, Til's foster brother and sworn enemy. Her emotional abuse of Miranda leads to the girl's fear of the dark. She is further distanced from her family because her siblings tease her about learning the goblin language, which they believe is just a sign of her craziness since they do not know about goblins.

Once Miranda is old enough to go to the goblin kingdom, Marak makes everyone believe she died. Not long after her arrival, Marak dies. She is devasted by his lose, but attempts to remain strong and puts on a show to hide her emotions. She and Marak Catspaw grow close during the months before their marriage and they kiss a few times. A week before their wedding, the elf lord, Nir, comes and offers Catspaw an elvish bride in exchange for a treaty between the elves and goblins, as well as access to the elvish spell books that the goblins took. Catspaw agrees for the good of his people even though he wants to marry Miranda. On what was supposed to be their wedding night, he tells her the news and promises to give her anything to make her happy. Distraught over the loss of the future she had been raised for, Miranda demands her freedom from the kingdom. Catspaw lets her leave, but has her followed by a guard with the intention of bringing her back in so she can marry a different goblin. While outside, Miranda stumbles upon the elf and goblin truce circle, where she finds Nir. His magic tells him she is important and he takes her back to the elvish camp after subduing her guard. He performs an enchantment on her called the Seven Stars spell, which makes her obey reasonable orders from him. He also renames her Sika or fox, because in elvish, her name means, in the coils of the snake which is another word for the goblin King's Wife.

At first Miranda is hostile towards Nir and wants to get away from the elf camp. He treats her like a child because in elf culture official adulthood doesn't begin until 18. He is also disgusted the Catspaw kissed her before she became a woman. Over time she falls in love with him. Nir falls in love with her too, but neither of them tell the other. Sable, a goblin elf bride, comes to the camp to see why Nir has taken Miranda. She tries to convince her to attempt an escape, but Miranda refuses because she love Nir. Sable tells her she is just a slave to the elves and that Nir will never marry her because elf men never marry human women since they can't have children together. This upsets Miranda. When Nir finds out what Sable said to her, he confronts her and sends her back to the goblin King with a warning. Nir then tells Miranda he loves her and intends to marry her after he comes back ck from his trip which will coincide with her 18th birthday.

After Nir leaves, the goblins come to the elf camp to avenge Sable who they believe was killed by Nir. Miranda stops them from going after him by agreeing to return to the goblin kingdom with them. The Seven Stars spell prevents her from having contact with goblins so she and two guards, the elf Hunter and the goblin Tattoo, are kept in the elf prisons just outside of the goblin kingdom. Seylin comes to Miranda to figure out what is really going on with Nir. Based on the information she gives him, he comes to a conclusion, which leads him to suggest that Catspaw meet Nir in man to man combat, once the elf lord returns. When the two fight, they can't hurt each other. After the failed battle, Seylin reveals that Nir is the elf King. Previously, they believed the line of elf Kings had died out. Seylin also reveals that Miranda were married since the first day they met when he performed the Seven Stars spell on her. Miranda and Nir are reunited and they return to the elf camp.

Miranda and Nir have a son, Aganir Usan, the elf King named Evening.

Physical description
Miranda is described as beautiful and statuesque with long auburn hair and brown eyes like a deer. Nir considers her hair red, which leads him to rename her Sika or fox. After Nir puts the Seven Stars spell on her, Miranda has seven stars on both of her wrists and ankles. They shine brightly whenever she is ordered to do something she doesn't want to or tries to fight a command.