An hour later, the three of them were seated around the kitchen table, helping themselves to the egg and bacon pie that Lirenna had baked the day before.

     Being wizards, they were very important members of the community and could have hired a proper cook to prepare their meals for them, not to mention a complete household staff had they felt the need to order people around, but Lirenna loved cooking and insisted on preparing all their meals herself. She loved experimenting with new recipes and trying all kinds of variations on old ones, presenting the results to her husband and son for their evaluation and judgement. She insisted that it brought them closer together as a family, whereas having a paid staff running around in the house would have had precisely the opposite effect. They enjoyed being able to wander around the house in whatever state of sobriety or casual, unkempt clothing they happened to be in without having to worry about their reputations. If Derrin saw them dressed for comfort, or a little happy from too much wine, it didn't matter, although Thomas was careful never to let him see him too drunk. That would be bad for his upbringing. If a maid or servant saw them like that, though, it would be news all across the valley in no time. Besides which, all the household chores that the servants would have performed had they chosen to employ them were carried out much more efficiently and unobtrusively by magic spells.

     Even as they were eating, for instance, a broom was moving all by itself on the other side of the room, sweeping up a small pile of dust and crumbs, and as soon as they'd finished their meals the same spell would wash the dirty plates, dry them and put them back in the cupboard before going off to make the beds. At night, the house was illuminated by simple light spells that Thomas had cast years before on the globes of polished white marble that hung in every room, and a warmth spell kept it snug and comfortable inside the house even thought there might be a blizzard raging outside.

     None of these spells required the consumption of rare or expensive material components. Carved bits of wood, bits of string and the occasional handful of moss were all that was required, both available in unlimited quantities in even the most remote and isolated community, and all three spells were among the very simplest that a wizard could learn. The kind of spells he'd be expected to have mastered before completing his apprenticeship, although it was only with experience that they could be made to last long enough to do useful work. Simple, easy to cast spells, and yet it was simple spells like these that made all the difference to a household's lifestyle and that could make the life of a community wizard close to idyllic.

     Derrin wolfed down his slice of pie as if he hadn't been fed for a month, then slipped on his coat and shoes and picked up a small pile of books. "I'm off to school now," he called as he headed towards the door. "Bye."

     "Bye," called back his parents. "And remember, we’re not supposed to know about the party,” added Thomas. “Someone will probably offer to take you to wherever it’s being held. Make sure you act surprised.”

     The boy snickered his agreement, kissed them both and dashed off, pulling the door closed behind him with an absent minded slam. They heard the sound of his feet as he skipped off down the path.

     Thomas shook his head in wonder. "How many boys his age actually enjoy going to school?" he said.

     "He's inherited your curiosity," replied Lirenna with a smile. "Connie says he drives her crazy with all his questions. He soaks up everything like a dry sponge and never forgets. She says he passed the point where she can teach him some time ago. He's been learning on his own from books for quite a while now. He may actually be more qualified to teach the class than she is.”

     “We need more books for him,” agreed Thomas. “Textbooks on specialist subjects. I'll talk to Cortiss, give him a list of the kind of thing we need. See if he can get them in.” He frowned with worry. "I always thought his mind would grow slowly, like his body. If only mum and dad could have lived to see him."

     Lirenna fixed her eyes on him. "You left one of your old lore books out again last night," she accused. "I found him reading it while you were out hunting for witch grass."

     "A look of alarm and guilt flashed over Thomas’s face. "Not the Pardatano!" he cried. "He didn't..."

     "No, thank the Gods. Just one of your old Wyrmlore books, but it could just as easily have been the Pardatano. It chills my soul to think what could happen if he gets his hands on that, even for a moment."

     "It won't happen," promised Thomas earnestly. "I'm very careful with it. I only get it out now and then for a moment to check a reference. I never leave it out when I'm out of the room, and I keep it locked up in..."

     "You should take it out and burn it!" Lirenna cried. "I hate the thought of that, that thing in the same house as my son!"

     "You're overreacting," said Thomas trying to calm her down. "Even if he should get hold of it, it's written in old Garonian, and I've been very careful not to let him learn that language."

     "Then why were you so alarmed when you thought he'd got it?" replied Lirenna. "The pictures themselves are bad enough."

     She had to admit that the precautions he took were very thorough, though. If he had to leave the room, even for just a moment, he locked the book back up in its ironbound trunk and took the key with him, even if the time it took to do so was greater than the time he'd be away from it. Thomas was very conscientious, very concerned for his family's welfare. She couldn't fault him for that.

     "I'm sorry," she said therefore. "I know how important that book may be, what you may be able to learn from it one day. Secrets from the dawn of the world, that's how you described it, wasn't it?" He nodded. "I could no more expect you to give it up than give up spellcasting, but you will be careful, won't you?"

     "I swear on my soul, and on my love for you," promised Thomas. "And as for that other book, I was just thinking about that dream again. The baby legless dragons. I wanted to see if there was anything about them in the Wyrmata. I found a reference I wanted to check in another book and I left the Wyrmata there on the table. I meant to go back and get it, but..." He hung his head guiltily. "It won't happen again."

     Lirenna reached out and squeezed his hand. "He wants to be a wizard," she said. "Not really so surprising, considering that both his parents are wizards."

     Thomas nodded, grateful for the change of subject. "He's got a good chance. In a few years we can take him to Lexandria to have him tested."

     "Why wait? If he's got potential, if he's exhausted everything they can teach him here, why not start his training right away?"

     Thomas stared in surprise. "He's only got the body of a ten year old! He's too young. When he's bigger, when he's physically able to take care of himself…"

     "It's his mind we have to think about. He has to learn while he still has the mind of a child, a mind that can learn easily. By the time his body grows, he may have lost the desire to learn.”

     Thomas smiled. “I can't imagine that happening any time soon. He takes after me in that respect. We've got a few years yet, I think.”

     Lirenna nodded her agreement. “But he deserves the very best education we can give him. He wasn't just looking at the pictures in your book. He was reading it, and understanding it. Giving him the same education as a bunch of farmers and miners, bright and intelligent though they undoubtedly are, is just going to stunt his growth. He deserves better."

     "They won't accept such a small child as an apprentice.”

     “He’s taller than a nome…”

     “But not as strong. Nomes are tough, wiry. The University doesn't accept nomish apprentices until they’re physically equal to adult nomes. Derry's weak and fragile. They'll take one look at him and tell us to bring him back in five or ten years."

     "No they won't. They have classes for the children of wizards who stay and work in the University. One class for children too young to be apprentices, giving them a thorough groundwork in the knowledge they'll need in their later careers, and another class for children who fail the testing chair, giving them a more conventional education. Whichever path he finds himself in, I don't see why he can't stay a few years and finish his education there."

     "Gods, the testing chair!" breathed Thomas softly. "You want to put our son in the testing chair?"

     "He'll have to do it sooner or later," replied Lirenna. "The sooner he takes the test, the sooner it'll be behind him and in the past. The sooner the better I say."

     "Do you remember your testing?" asked Thomas doubtfully.

     "Of course I do," replied Lirenna. "How could I ever forget it?" She rubbed the spot between her breasts absent mindedly, as if it was sore or aching. "All the more reason for him to get it over and done with, so he can forget it and move on."

     Thomas nodded as the merits of the idea stole gradually over him. "The distance would be no barrier," he mused. "We can just teleport back and forth, visit him regularly."

     The teleportation spell was the most recent spell he'd perfected, and the most difficult to learn, having taken him a full six months of study since Argus, a fellow Havenite and Lexandrian graduate twenty years his senior, had first let him try it. It allowed him and up to six other people to travel instantly to any place in the world, providing only that he'd been there before and was able to form a clear mental picture of his destination. Learning it had been a particularly big feather in his cap since, according to Argus, only about one in four wizards ever reached that level of ability, and even those who did rarely did so before they were well into their fifties. There was no doubt from whom Derrin had gotten most of his brains.

     Lirenna nodded in agreement. At first she'd tried to talk him out of learning the teleportation spell, as it was inherently dangerous and always ran the risk of depositing the wizard a hundred yards above his destination, or a few feet beneath it. Not to mention the risk that a stray bit of randomised magic might interfere with the spell between departure point and destination, leaving the wizard's body scrambled in horrible ways. Gradually, though, the demi shae had relented, recognising that all kinds of magic were potentially dangerous and that even the safest spell could backfire on its caster if it misfired. She'd still scowled from time to time when she saw him studying it, but when he finally perfected it and teleported across the valley for the first time she'd shrieked with delight and demanded that he take her with him the next time. Since then the three of them had teleported across the valley dozens of times without a single mishap, but the irony was that the valley was too small to really need it. He hadn't had any reason to leave Haven since first arriving there, and consequently he hadn't used the spell for over three months.