Rebakah Cooper is a member of the Provost's Dogs, a law enforcement group in the city of Corus. Nicknamed Beka, she is the protagonist in Tamora Pierce's trilogy Provost's Dog. She appears in book one, Terrier, as a puppy (trainee) to two senior Dogs, Matthias Tunstall and Clara Goodwin. She is an ancestor of Eleni Cooper and George Cooper and her story takes place approximately 200 years before the beginning of the Song of the Lioness Quartet.
Book Two in the Provost's Dog trilogy, Bloodhound, opens with Beka as a full-fledged Dog (guardswoman).
Magical Abilities
Beka possesses the ability to understand the spirits of the dead, who ride on pigeons. Through them, she learns of murders that have occurred recently and pieces together clues to them. She can also commune with dust spinners, which are like small dust storms that are stationary on some street corners. The dust spinners pick up sounds from events and conversations that occur near them and relay the information to Beka.
Pounce
Pounce is Beka's cat. His pelt is black and he has purple eyes, and is a previous reincarnation of Alanna of Trebond's cat Faithful. Both Faithful and Pounce guide their owners in the right direction, and both are forms of the constellation "The Cat". This is a roaming constellation that has the same name in both the language of humans and that of crows. The Cat is said to disappear for up to a decade at a time before returning (presumably disappearing when helping mortals).
Appearance
Beka is five feet eight inches (5'8") tall, muscular, and slender. She has light blue-gray eyes that are unsettling when she glares. She has brown-blond hair which she tight-braids from the crown of her head and braids a spiked strap into so as to surprise opponents who try to grab her hair in a fight.
Family
Immediate
- Ilony Cooper - Beka's mother, deceased
- Fern Cooper - Beka's grandma through her father. Taught Beka how to handle dust spinners and the pigeon's passengers.
- Diona Cooper - Beka's 15-year-old sister, studying to be a lady's maid
- Lorine Cooper - Beka's 13-year-old sister, training to be a seamstress
- Willes "Will" Cooper - Beka's 12-year-old brother, royal messenger
- Nilo Cooper - Beka's 10-year-old brother, training as a stableman
- Lilac - Beka's cousin
Relationship
- Rosto - Current King of Rogue
- Dale Rowan - banking clerk
Descendants
- Eleni Cooper - George's mother
- George Cooper - King of the Rogue, friend and future husband of Alanna of Trebond