The Choice of Magic - Michael G. Manning Page 0,50

has been teaching me letters. I can’t read all of it, but I caught the meaning.”

Lord Nerrow smiled. “You impress me, young man, but then again, I suppose it’s to be expected.” He looked at Erisa once more, but she was keeping her eyes firmly on the table.

Will was thinking furiously, while trying to keep his face calm. While the offer would have been irresistible two years before, he was sure he didn’t want to go there now. His grandfather was cruel and capricious, and he had yet to teach Will even a single spell, but he had come to trust the old man. It went without saying that he didn’t want to leave his mother behind either. Though he saw her only rarely now, living in Cerria would mean he might not see her again until his training was over.

“I don’t think I can be a wizard,” said Will, looking for a decent excuse to refuse.

“Nonsense,” said Lord Nerrow. “Most people have the potential, it’s simply a matter of training and intelligence. You seem bright enough to me.”

Hah! thought Will. If only the old man could hear that. “My uncle says I could make a good living as a wainwright in Cerria,” offered Will weakly.

Laina snickered at that remark and Selene lifted her hand to cover a smile. Lord Nerrow glanced at the two girls then turned back to Will. “I’m sure they make a decent wage, but do you have any idea how much a wizard is paid?”

“No, sir,” Will admitted.

“A journeyman wizard gets sixty gold crowns a year, William,” Lord Nerrow informed him. “And that’s the lower end of what they make. If they’re talented or have good recommendations, they can make double that. It takes six years at Wurthaven to become a journeyman wizard. They only take twenty students a year, and I’m willing to cover your expenses during that time.”

Will gaped slightly in spite of himself. Sixty crowns was a fortune. He could hardly imagine such wealth. And grandfather calls them ‘sanitation workers?’

The nobleman smiled at his reaction. “Once you’ve been a journeyman for ten years, you can demand a trial to be raised to the rank of master wizard. You’re what, fifteen years old now? With hard work and some luck, you could be a master wizard by the time you’re thirty-one. A master commands ten times the money a journeyman can earn.”

“I don’t want to move to Cerria,” Will replied, his tone plaintive.

“I won’t take no for an answer, William,” said Lord Nerrow. “Your future is too important to me.”

Selene spoke up then. “We should make sure he has the basic potential before you push him into it.”

“There’s no doubt of that,” said the nobleman dismissively. “He’s m—” he stopped himself suddenly, then amended his statement. “Go ahead, Selene, examine him. It will be good practice for you.”

Will didn’t like the sound of that, but before he could protest, Selene raised her hands and said a word softly under her breath. A thin line of power flowed from the watery elemental beside her, meeting her hands and then forming a strange pattern in the air before her. The dark-haired girl peered through it as though it was a windowpane, her eyes fixed on him.

Maybe if she sees how small my turyn is, they’ll give up, thought Will hopefully.

Selene frowned, narrowing her eyes. “That’s odd.”

“What is it?” asked Lord Nerrow.

“Give me a moment,” said the older girl. Waving her hand, she dispelled the pattern and created another, studying Will even more intensely the second time. “I can’t see it,” she admitted after a moment.

“What do you mean, you can’t see it?” demanded Lord Nerrow. “It’s there, otherwise he’d be dead.”

“The source,” clarified Selene. “His turyn seems to be roughly what I’d expect, perfectly average, but I can’t see the source at all. Everything within him is cloudy.”

“Ridiculous,” said the nobleman. “Let me do it.” He performed a similar procedure and began studying Will as well, but after only a few seconds he stopped. “That is curious. It’s almost as though someone has warded him, but I don’t sense the presence of a spell.”

“I didn’t eat much this morning,” said Will, at a loss to find a good explanation.

Laina giggled at that. “Your diet has nothing to do with it.”

Will bristled at her remark. He knew from his early months observing the candle flame that being hungry could affect his turyn level, although only slightly, but he didn’t argue. The spoiled brat has probably never