Inish Scull, the commander of the Rangers, is the most complex character in the novel. A Yankee Bostonian by birth, married to the extremely volatile and lustful Southerner Inez, he is Harvardeducated and, when captured by Ahumado, scratches remembered Greek literature into the walls of the canyon. He is a self-admitted adventurer, a seemingly farsighted one who anticipated the coming War Between the States. He is unpredictable, to the dismay of the uneducated Rangers and especially to the preternaturally logical Call; when his enormous warhorse, Hector, is stolen, he abandons the Rangers and goes on a personal, semi-Arthurian quest to recover the horse.

His wife, Inez, is just as unpredictable, but much more volatile—she makes even Inish look meek in comparison. Inez, the daughter of an Alabama plantation family, seems to live for her angers and her lusts.

She seems perpetually in a rage at Inish...