Tallis is a gnome barely over three feet tall, with a quick, forward-tilting way of moving that makes him seem to arrive before his shadow. His broad cheeks are freckled like damp cinnamon bread, and his dark eyes flick from hands to exits to faces with professional speed. His russet hair is cut unevenly at the nape and combed into a tidy side part that never survives a full evening in court. His coat is tailored for a taller person and repeatedly taken in, leaving tiny puckers along the seams; one brass cuff button is polished obsessively while the rest are dull. A soft leather songbook rides under his arm, its lower right corner worn through to the stitching from years of being tapped against tables to keep time. He has the peculiar habit of carrying a folded paper fan painted with a tiny blue heron, a delicate accessory no one expects a criminal court's quick-tongued entertainer to keep pristine. He leaves the impression of a clever little man who has measured the room, found three exits, and decided to make you laugh before you notice.

Tallis is quick-witted and sociable when a room needs soothing, but private and almost painfully observant when the danger passes. He enjoys being admired yet distrusts praise, and he can make a tyrant laugh while quietly despising the bargain that bought the laugh. Around Sagar he is more direct and less polished, though he still deflects tenderness with teasing. When afraid, he talks faster; when someone else is threatened, his humor disappears and his nerve becomes startlingly plain.

Tallis River-run grew up among ferry crews and market singers in the muddy lanes below Bysaes Tyl. His mother, Tepa, taught him to read people by the way they watched a river crossing; his father, Dren, repaired instruments and insisted every tune had a useful purpose. Tallis learned both trades, but his clever patter made him valuable to a smuggling crew that needed a harmless face to distract customs officers. After a botched crossing, the crew was caught and Tallis was taken into the Under King's court as a performer and informant. He survived by turning overheard threats into comic verses and making dangerous men feel clever enough to spare him. The turning point came when the Under King ordered Tallis to publicly mock a captured courier, knowing the performance would break the prisoner's nerve. Tallis instead performed a ridiculous song about the king's own appalling taste in hats. The room laughed; the courier lived; and Tallis discovered that a joke could redirect violence, though it could not erase the debt he had incurred. He befriended Sagar the Red, a blunt sellsword assigned to watch him, after Tallis used a court performance to prevent Sagar being blamed for a superior's failed ambush. They now quietly plan an escape that would free them both, but Tallis is also trying to learn whether his old ferry crew still survives. His current problem is that the Under King's listeners have noticed he keeps composing songs with missing verses, each omission a coded route or warning.