Tarak is thrown into a strange city with just a few coppers in his pocket and the tainted shadow of his family following him. At least the ale is better, but famine and poverty make it a little hard to enjoy that. With no one to call his friend and almost no knowledge of sorcery, Tarak will have to compete with the best sorcerers if he wishes to remain free. Tarak has done a pretty good job of avoiding what his single-minded father called his “destiny” for seventeen years, but now his identity is revealed, and it's drawing more attention than a tear through the rump of his pants. It’s looking like an uphill road, but there are some major bonuses. It turns out sorcery is not as complicated as his father made it seem, and not every sorcerer has to be as virtuous as the old dog.