Zahlfast came to see me off. We stood on the little plaza in front of the wizards’ school, on the highest point of the City. Clouds whipped miles above us across a pale blue sky.

“I’m glad you were able to give your lecture series,” Zahlfast said. “I’m sure the students benefited.”

“How are the newts today?”

He laughed. “Once they’d sobered up, I think they were thoroughly frightened-now I just hope that none of the other students try something similar.”

“Is it my imagination,” I asked, “or are some of the students even more irresponsible now than they were when I was here?”

Zahlfast shook his head ruefully. “If you’re imagining it, then so am I. You know we used to warn students against summoning, and normally wouldn’t even teach them the spell? Well, now we don’t even mention it exists for fear that the warning would only incite them.”

I had a secret about the summoning spell, but as the secret was now twenty years old it would keep a while longer.

“Elerius has been saying we need to tighten down on the students,” Zahlfast commented, “give them real discipline from the beginning rather than allow them as much room to find their own way.”

“Elerius?” I asked in surprise. Elerius, three years ahead of me, was rumored to have been the best student the school ever produced. He was now Royal Wizard of one of the largest and wealthiest of the western kingdoms. I had always viewed him with a certain suspicion, but I had never been sure how much of that was merely jealousy of his abilities. “I hadn’t realized you were putting him on the faculty.”