Beltaine Yelder is a fairly tall, ordinary-looking woman with shoulder-length, straight brown hair and brown eyes. She has
a peculiar ability to look at people as though she can see deep inside them. All who know her say she is relentless and intense.
She is the star political reporter for the Portland Tribune, working the Palace beat. Her reputation is that of an honest and highly skilled journalist with the ability to weave seeming unrelated facts into a coherent story. She is neither friendly nor unfriendly to the government, she just tells it like she sees it. She is a good friend of Admiral Lincoln and his wife Bettina, and at one time was suspected of having an affair with the admiral, but people who know her well think that is absurd.
Ms. Yelder has never married and has no children.
