Knight and Rogue Series

A series of fantasy novels for young adults by author Hilari Bell. The books focus on the Odd Couple of Sir Michael, a Knight Errant, and his squire, Fisk (a former conman). The two start out very much on the opposite ends of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism (guess who is at which end). They travel together through a made-up country that sounds remarkably like Western Europe at the tail-end of the medieval ages, where feudalism is losing hold and industry and the middle class are starting to take over. All this however just minus the Catholic Church (or really any religion of any kind) but with lots of magic around that can kill you!

The two leads mostly play Nancy Drew to several mysteries they happen to stumble upon in their travels. Michael is all for figuring them out and helping people, while Fisk just wants them to get through things alive and preferably not imprisoned.

Books already released:
 * The Last Knight
 * Rogue's Home
 * Player's Ruse

A fourth book is currently in the works.

"Fisk: [His seeming charity] didn't impress me, as I've known several villains who were kind to animals and even more who loved their mothers."
 * A True Story in My Universe: The play Makejoye writes in Player's Ruse is more or less about Michael and Rudy competing for Rosamund.
 * Adult Fear: There is a scientist gathering mentally impaired children and running magic experiments on them
 * All Crimes Are Equal: No matter what you did, if you can't meet the conditions set by whoever redeems you, you can be marked.
 * Any Torment You Can Walk Away From: Most blatant in Player's Ruse, where Michael declares his plan to catch the wreckers a success in spite of having come within inches of dying during the whole fiasco. Fisk is not amused.
 * Amateur Sleuth: Though unlike most examples they seem to be able to be capable of not encountering crime everywhere they go.
 * Amusing Injuries: Pretty much everything that happens to Michael while he's destroying magica plants to try and contact a savant who only comes when there's trouble.
 * Asshole Victim: Thrope, in Rogue's Home
 * Aura Vision:
 * Bad Guy Bar: In Rogue's Home. Fisk is on good terms with the people there.
 * Bad Liar: Michael, whenever he actually does lie. He does manage to fool people once or twice, but only rarely.
 * Bad Moon Rising: The unnamed planet they are on has two moons: the Creature Moon (it's gold) and the Green Moon (yep, it's green). They are both heavily tied to the dangerously chaotic magic (Creature animal, Green plants) that inhabits the place.
 * Badass Bookworm: Fisk
 * Bar Brawl: One of the men on trial with Fisk in the first book was arrested for getting involved in one.
 * Bathroom Stall Graffiti: Reading it is how Michael learned to brew an illegal drug.
 * Battle in the Rain: the climax of Player's Ruse.
 * Because I'm Good At It: Fisk initially took to being a con artist to support his sisters, but mostly uses it later because coming up with stories on the spot is one of his better skills.
 * Beleaguered Assistant: Fisk, in The Last Knight. He becomes more of an exasperated friend once Michael grows on him.
 * Bench Breaker: Michael, when chained to a bed by Lady Ceciel.
 * Big Sister Bully: Judith. Even though all she does as an adult is one up Fisk in arguments, he's still sore about their childhood.
 * Born Unlucky: Michael
 * Brainless Beauty: Rosamund
 * Brains and Brawn: Fisk and Michael. Fisk can fight and Michael does have a brain, but Fisk is the smarter of the two and doesn't fight nearly as often.
 * Break the Cutie: Michael, in the beginning of Rogue's Home. He gets better.
 * Bring Help Back: The initial plan when Michael is captured by Lady Ceciel.
 * Call Back: In Player's Ruse Burke mentions Aquilas, the drug that Michael and Fisk use in The Last Knight.
 * Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Michael hates lying, but the one time Fisk convinces him to just tell a half-truth he ends up beaten by four men.
 * Capital Letters Are Magic: The Gifts.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Aquilas
 * Children Are Special: In a twisted version of the trope, only children are known to use full fledged magic because only the mentally impaired can be born with any magic in the first place, and they rarely, if ever, live to adulthood.
 * Chronic Hero Syndrome: Oh, Michael. When will you stop trying to save people who would gladly kill you?
 * Clear Their Name: Fisk is called home in Rogue's Home to prove his brother-in-law is innocent.
 * Contrived Coincidence: After asking around town about Hackle for a few days, the stable boy who just happens to be near by that Fisk just happens to point to when saying they may as well have asked him turns out to have the only person with information on Hackle.
 * Contractual Immortality: If he didn't have this Michael would have died at least once per book.
 * Convicted by Public Opinion: Michael, in Rogues's Home.
 * Cool Old Lady: Nettie's Ma
 * Cranky Landlord: Mrs. Inger
 * Cursed with Awesome:
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Fisk
 * Deadpan Snarker: Fisk most often in response to Michael.
 * Death by Origin Story: Fisk's parents.
 * Didn't Think This Through: It isn't until after that Michael realizes no one will trust him.
 * Die or Fly:
 * Disproportionate Retribution: The captain of the Albatross has Michael flogged for accidentally spilling paint.
 * The legal system is actually a little broken. If you get into a bar fight and somebody redeems you, but you refuse to do what they say in order to repay your debt, you can be tattooed as a permanently unredeemed criminal and be forever outside the law.
 * Dude in Distress: Despite being the knight, Michael is the most likely character to need being rescued.
 * Ditzy Genius: Michael is the one with a formal education. He uses it so rarely that it's almost an Informed Attribute
 * Does Not Like Magic: Michael is alright with Gifts and magica plants or animals, but genuine human magic freaks him out.
 * Doing It for the Art: Nate Jobber, who was so dedicated that he even considered his forgeries to be works of art, and hid his signature in them.
 * Don't Call Me "Sir"!: Michael.
 * Drowning My Sorrows: How Fisk supposedly reacted to being dumped by his first love.
 * Dude, Where's My Reward?: Both Rogue's Home and Player's Ruse end with the two getting nothing for their help. Technically, they do get a reward for stopping the wreckers, but Michael gives it away before Fisk finds out.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending
 * Easy Amnesia: Inconveniently happens to the witness Jimmy in Rogue's Home.
 * Embarrassing First Name: Fisk.
 * Embarrassing Nickname: Nonny.
 * Enforced Method Acting: Fisk manages to make Michael appear genuinely freaked out by the sacrifice the two are faking as part of an escape by indicating, without having warned him first, that he's going to be castrated.
 * Everything Magica Is Trying To Kill You: Very true if you (no matter how unintentionally) screw with a magica plant or animal.
 * Evil Cripple: Hackle
 * Evil Mentor: Jack for Fisk. The guy is a real amoral Jerkass and that's putting it mildly.
 * Faking the Dead:
 * Fantasy Counterpart Culture
 * Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Michael's dad is no more on board with the knight errant idea than Fisk is in the first book, and goes to much further lengths than his son's squire to try and discourage the career.
 * Fear Is the Appropriate Response: In Player's Ruse, when a band of men with swords start towards Michael, he mentions that Fisk has been trying to teach him that there are times to run, and that this seems like one of them.
 * Fearless Fool: Michael, in the first book. The next two include mention of Fisk teaching him self preservation whenever he has the sense to run.
 * Fiery Coverup:
 * Flat Earth Atheists: A rare justified version where it seems everyone is an atheist, but at the same time they all know gods exist, it's just that those gods look out for the plants and animals while humans are on their own.
 * Not so justified in The Last Knight when Fisk hardly believed in magica, something that manifests itself as never-ending trouble for our heroes in all the books. One wonders how Fisk had survived in this world where Everything Magica Is Trying To Kill You without believing in it.
 * The Fool: Michael.
 * Force Feeding: Happens to poor Michael when Lady Ceciel gets a hold of him for her experiments. She uses a funnel to force him to swallow her potions.
 * Foreign Money Is Proof of Guilt: This is what leads the heroes to suspect  in Rogue's Home.
 * Genre Savvy: Fisk is this, for the most part.
 * Gold-Silver-Copper Standard
 * Good Scars, Evil Scars: The scar on Michael's face is used to identify him (as a suspect) multiple times in Rogue's Home. The flog scars on his back are used to convince anyone who sees him that he's a horrible criminal.
 * Hanging Judge: 'Loves the rope' Thrope.
 * Hero with Bad Publicity: Michael and, by association, Fisk.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: Michael and Fisk.
 * Hidden Heart of Gold: Catching a glimpse of it in Fisk is what causes Michael to help have him spared in the first place.
 * Honor Before Reason: Michael, though less so in the third book.
 * Hopeless Suitor: Michael to Rosamund.
 * Hypercompetent Sidekick: Fisk
 * I Am a Monster: Michael, after
 * I Shall Taunt You: The main bad guy of Player's Ruse does this to a tied up and devastated Fisk after it looks like
 * I Fought the Law and the Law Won:
 * Implacable Man: Nothing will stop Michael from pursuing the villain.
 * In Touch with His Feminine Side: After conning, Fisk's most marketable skill is needle work.
 * Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Michael.
 * Indy Ploy: When freeing Michael from Fisk has a plan to get into her stronghold, but finding Michael and getting out are made up as they go.
 * Ironic Echo: When Fisk suggests they drug Ceciel, but can't think of a way how, Michael jumps at the chance to threaten to force feed her using the exact same speech she gave him.
 * It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: To say that would be a gross understatement.
 * Jack of All Trades: Michael, due to making a living by stopping to help work wherever a spare hand is needed.
 * Just Ignore It: Fisk's solution for the wreckers.
 * Just Think of the Potential: Ceciel has grand plans to make the world a better place with human magic, while Michael is able to think of the obvious problems that could come with criminals getting such power as well.
 * Kissing Cousins: Michael's crush on Rosamund.
 * Kick the Dog: Michael suggests this as a reason someone may have burned down Thrope's house.
 * Knife-Throwing Act: Falon's act in the player's troupe.
 * Knight Errant: Michael broadcasts this as his occupation, although the profession has been out of style for two hundred years.
 * Last-Name Basis: Fisk. Michael doesn't even learn his first name until the second book, and even then it's only because of Fisk's sister.
 * Lethal Chef: Supposedly the only thing Fisk can do right is evenly toast his bread.
 * Leave No Witnesses: The wreckers kill anyone who sees them at work.
 * Legally Dead:
 * Life's Work Ruined: Fisk and Michael trash Ceciel's lab, burning all the notes she's taken over the years on magic and destroying all her experimental potions to be extra thorough.
 * Lord Error-Prone
 * Love Triangle: Though Michael worries one will arise between him, Fisk, and Rosamund, it instead occurs with the actor Rudy his rival in love.
 * Mad Scientist:  turns out to be one in The Last Knight.
 * Magic Enhancement: Most objects the possess magic merely have enhanced properties as a result.
 * The Magic Touch:
 * Make Sure He's Dead: Subverted. Though the wreckers are ordered to confirm they killed Michael, they can't be bothered to check, and just pretend they did so.
 * Master Actor: Fisk. He is a con man, after all.
 * Mystery Magnet: To Fisk's constant consternation they always seem to innocently run into some kind of deadly mystery that Michael insists they should help solve. Usually results in one or both of them being framed and/or getting thrown into jail.
 * Naked People Trapped Outside: In Player's Ruse Michael sneaks out of camp in the middle of the night in only a shirt trying to figure out where someone is going, and ends up chased around and having to slowly make his way home. He doesn't get back until everyone is up.
 * Never Heard That One Before: The reception Fisk's jokes start to get by the third book.
 * No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Trying to save a 'kidnapped' woman gets Michael arrested, taking the fall for another man gets him flogged, letting Fisk escape Ceceil's guards gets him experimented on, refusing to arrest an innocent woman gets him, stopping a man from beating a young boy gets him arrested-again, helping to put out a fire gets him chased by a mob, helping arrest a murderer gets him kicked out of town, and trying to save a man who's falling gets him accused of murder. As Fisk says, heroism is vastly overrated.
 * No-Nonsense Nemesis: When is lured out by Nettie's Ma he decides it would be a better use of his time to go catch the people he realizes have broken into his home than chase an old woman, much less listen to her gloating.
 * Noble Fugitive: Michael.
 * The Nondescript: Aside from Michael's scar, the two are perfectly average looking. One man who's tracking them gives up on asking if anyone's seen them and starts asking about their horses instead.
 * Not a Morning Person: Fisk
 * Not the Fall That Kills You
 * Noodle Incident: The duo apparently broke into a mayor's house at some point between the second and third book, though Michael thinks it doesn't count since they were just returning something someone else stole.
 * Pet the Dog: Hilariously lampshaded by Fisk.


 * The Oathbreaker: Jack Bannister
 * Obfuscating Disability: Subverted with Long Tom. He keeps braces on hand to make it look like his legs are bad and get pity, but he really does have bad hands.
 * OOC Is Serious Business: When Michael takes a little too much glee in how they handle Ceciel after capturing her, Fisk is extremely concerned.
 * Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Invoked by Fisk. He starts off with an intentionally fake noble's accent and slowly transitions into what he describes as 'pure guttering.'
 * Perpetual Poverty
 * Planet of Steves: Starting with Rogue's Home there are a dozen Potters. A newly introduced Potter usually includes the line "No relation to so-and-so Potter."
 * Poisonous Friend: Fisk, though if Michael weren't so hellbent on doing no wrong he'd be a much milder example.
 * Power Incontinence: Fisk points out that pracitce would be the easiest solution here, but Michael refuses.
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: If the sheriff hasn't already been bought by the local baron, they're likely one of these.
 * Rich in Dollars, Poor In Sense: Growing up in a wealthy family has left Michael with such a crippling inability to handle money wisely that even after at least two years of Perpetual Poverty he's still an easy target for anyone trying to get more than their service is worth.
 * The Runaway: After he got fed up with arguing with his father over what to do with his life, Michael just slipped away one night with a small sum of money, took one of the horses that was least likely to be missed, and went off to play knight errant.
 * Running Gag: What's the difference between X and a bandit?
 * Stealth Insult: After claiming if they're clever enough one will never have to work hard, Fisk asks an unpleasant servant if she's a hard worker. She doesn't catch on until after insisting that she is.
 * Sticky Fingers: As a former pickpocket and conman, Fisk has this problem. No matter where Michael stashes his purse on his person Fisk always ends up with it. In the end, Michael just gives up and lets Fisk handle the money since he's a better with it anyway.
 * Sugar and Ice Personality: Fisk in the first book, while he's still warming up to Michael.
 * Switching POV: The perspective switches between Michael and Fisk's points of view each chapter.
 * Sword Fight: After talking about being a knight and carrying a sword around for three books, Michael finally gets one in the climax of Player's Ruse.
 * Tattooed Crook: Played straight  People in the books are tattooed with chains on their wrists if they are permanently unable to repay their debts (usually because they killed someone but for some reason was spared from hanging).
 * That Liar Lies: Michael is not amused when he learns Fisk was lying to him about being unable to fight.
 * There Are Two Kinds of People in the World: Used by Fisk when he's trying to explain that Michael's father is a climber, though he amends himself and says that there are probably over thirty different types of noblemen alone.
 * Thou Shalt Not Kill: Michael gets a chance to pull this on
 * Time Skip: Roughly a year and a half passes between Rogue's Home and Player's Ruse.
 * Too Dumb to Live: It's hard to believe Michael actually survived his first year of travel without Fisk, since he seems to think that constantly seeking out killers and knowingly walking into traps are very good ideas.
 * Tough Love: A nicer way of looking at Baron Seven Oak's choice to have his youngest son, as he supposedly did this to try and 'do the right thing for Michael' and drastically limit his options so that he'd have to become the estate steward.
 * Trauma Conga Line: The first two books are this for Michael.
 * Trick Twist: At least one per book.
 * Trojan Prisoner: Fisk pulls this to free a captured Michael.
 * Unnamed Parent: Nettie's Ma. When Michael asks her for her name she takes offense.
 * Unstoppable Mailman: The man who delivers a letter to Fisk at the beginning of Rogue's Home has been carrying it for months, and had to figure out a trick to track him and Michael down.
 * Victoria's Secret Compartment: Where Rosamund keeps the key to her jewelry box.
 * Villain with Good Publicity:
 * Waking Up Elsewhere: Michael and Fisk in the first book, when they get knocked out in the streets and come to on a boat.
 * Walking the Earth
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: Michael used to be one of these but he finally decided there was nothing he could do to gain his father's respect so he just decided to do what he wanted. His father is still a bit of a sore spot for him though especially since
 * What Have I Become?: Michael.
 * What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?:
 * Who Would Be Stupid Enough...?: Michael. Michael would be.
 * Will Not Tell a Lie: Michael. Which makes it all the more convincing the few times he does, such as
 * Willfully Weak:
 * Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Miss Ceciel. At least, not intentionally.