The native rock of the ledge was covered with a bed of crushed white stone that
led away in two directions. To the south, the path angled around the bend of the island to
where Jemidon knew the keep and presentation hall for the lords stood. To the north, the
trail ended abruptly against a cliff of granite that thrust into the still waters of the bay.
On the beach at its foot stood the bondsman bazaar. Two wavy rows of tents
stretched across the sand. Some were grandiose and gaudy with panels of bright colors
supported by three or four poles, but others were no more than awnings covering rough
podiums, counters, and simple frames. The path between the tents was deserted and the
cries of the hawkers silent. Nightfall was still six hours away. In the distance, beyond the
bazaar, the hazy outline of mainland Arcadia could just barely be seen.
After looking about for a moment to get their bearings, most of the landing party
headed south, carrying goods and trinkets. The rest soon disappeared around the curve to
the north, chattering excitedly about last year's glamours and what had caught the fancy
of the high prince. Jemidon paused for a moment, deciding which way to go.
then finally started in the direction of the presentation hall, but more slowly than
those who preceded him.
The advice of the guard was not at all what he had wanted to hear. Waiting for
Farnel could take the rest of the season, if the man came down from the hills at all.
Convincing the sorcerer to accept him as tyro immediately had been what Jemidon had
hoped to accomplish.
As tyro to a sorcerer, he would study cantrips and enchantments rather than
incantations, formulas, ritual, or flame. And then, when the instruction was complete, he
would become at last a master, to fulfill what had to be his destiny, to make amends to his
dead sister, and finally to cleanse away his guilt—to end at last the quest that had started
almost as far back as he could remember.
Jemidon's thoughts tumbled as the rock crunched beneath his tread with a
hypnotic cadence. He had been precocious as a child, solver of riddles, puzzle maker, and
lightning-fast at sums. He would have a choice of crafts, his father had boasted, possibly
even give the archmage a challenge or two. He was the gleam of hope for the family, the
way out from the oppressive toil of the wheat-lands to lives of their own.
But when the time for testing had come, he had failed at thaumaturgy, the most
straightforward and least complex of the arts. And the less remembered about his trials
the better.
Then, four years later, when a traveling apothecary came through the village, he
had a chance to see if alchemy was his match. For thirty-two months he toiled, scrubbing
glassware, digging roots, and grinding powders, just for the chance to try a simple
formula from a common grimoire.
There was always an element of chance with alchemy, as everyone knew. No
activation could be expected to succeed at each and every attempt. But after a dozen
failures with a formula that usually worked nine times out often, he was booted out in a
shower of hard words about wasted materials and improper preparation.
For two years more he wandered the inland seas, finally taking up a neophyte
position at a small magic guild.
6
The precision and symbolism of magic ritua! appealed to the bent of his mind.
But after he tripped over a tripod and hit a gong one time too many, the masters shunned