Castle on the Raven Mountain. Book 1

"Li-isten..." the Magician looked at me thoughtfully. "Aren't you a prince in exile? Or maybe you were abducted from your father's house, and now the inconsolable countess-mother is looking for you? You know, I absolutely do not need it to turn out at the most crucial moment that you are the scion of a noble family and the blood of your ancestors calls you to accept the keys to the ancestral castle."

"Nope," I replied with genuine disappointment. "I'm rootless, that's for sure. If it were as you say, I would have already claimed a part of the property long ago. Or he even sent all his relatives to the other world in order to grab everything for himself. I'm not greedy, but I love money."

"Another argument, and a weighty one at that." The magician looked at Agrippa. "He has few principles and is selfish."

"He'll sell us out on occasion." Apparently, this big guy didn't like me very much. "By the way, you still haven't answered my question."

"He ate up at a noble house," I decided not to lie this time either. Who knows him, the magician, he seems to sense lies in his gut. They taught their son all kinds of science there, so they put me in the classroom with him so that he wouldn't be bored. Well, so that he understands how smart he is and how dumb I am. I could listen, but I couldn't answer."

"It's a progressive method," the magician admitted. "I assumed something like that — your speech is very clear, and you express your thoughts more or less coherently. Agrippa?"

"I admit it," he agreed. "Oh, one more thing. He probably doesn't know how to wield a noble weapon. He certainly hadn't been taught that."

"I don't know what else to expect from him anymore." The magician looked at me hopefully. "Can you swing a sword?"

"I can't," I disappointed. "Except I'm pretty good with a knife. I can also fight on poles, but it's not that good. And, of course, he's trained to swing his fists, there's no way without it."

"Poles." The magician snapped his fingers. "That's something. We have time. Although it is small, it is there. You'll show him the basic sword fighting stances on the way."

"On the way to where?" I asked. "Not that I'm curious, but..."

"On the way to the right place." The magician came up to me and patted me on the head. "There is a time for everything."

And then he pulled my hair up so hard that tears came out of my eyes.

"And don't think you've got your life back, son," He told me very softly, very tenderly, and very fearfully. "I'm lending it to you, and that's all for now. I'm not even lending you your life, but the life of that guy over there, Baron Erast von Ruth, the third son of his run-down baronial family. You're him now. And may all the gods, as many as there are in this world, save you from disappointing or letting me down a little. I'm a very, very kind person, that's your problem. Evil people just kill. And the good ones... Forgive me for the pathos, but the kind prolong death to the limits beyond which madness begins.