Description

Muthia is, as Yarmian Eventyde discovers, something of a hole. Not quite as bad as Meneva, granted, but it's certainly not high on anyone's list of holiday destinations. Still, after a two-year absence from the wider world of Carpidia, the young Wizzen needs to find his feet among people again, so he adopts a new alias and a new identity as a jobbing Temparus in the very city his old friend Fennet of Wenneck once recommended.

In this guise, Yarmian takes lodgings in the house of a retired old Permanentus Master, and fills his days patrolling the poor quarter of Muthia City, sniffing for Lesser mystics and getting back into the swing of doing the right thing here in the world of Gorms.

But lunchtime in a very respectable and popular city restaurant sees Yarmian's hopes for a quiet sojourn in Muthia hanging by a thread. A chance encounter with a senior member of Muthia's Court is no accident at all, and a noisy demand for a pie and a pint by a local and well-known madman looks set to make the Wizzen's roast chicken sandwich his most fateful repast to date...