Home (20 page)

A GUIDE TO

PEOPLE AND PLACES

P
EOPLE

B
ENET
—A rather scary-looking guy, but one who loves to knit, bake, and clean. His nose has been broken so many times, it's been flattened. If he were an animal, he'd be a big bear. His hair is brown and sticks out on his head like spikes. You wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley, but you would want to eat his biscuits.

 

C
ONNWAER
—Has shaggy black hair that hangs down over his bright blue eyes. He's been a gutter-boy for most of his life, so he's watchful and a little wary; at the same time, he's completely pragmatic and truthful. He's thin, but he's sturdy and strong, too. He has a quirky smile (hence his quirked tail as a cat). Conn does not know his own age; it could be anywhere from twelve to fourteen. A great friend to have, but be careful that you don't have anything valuable in your pockets in reach of his sticky fingers.

 

E
MBRE
—The Underlord of the Twilight. A young man about nineteen years old. He is very thin and has a sharp face with dark eyes and black hair, and he might have smudges on his hands and face from working with blackpowder. Everything about him is sharp, including his intellect.

 

N
EVERY
F
LINGLAS
—Is tall with gray hair, a long gray beard, shaggy gray eyebrows, and sharp black eyes. He's impatient and grumpy and often hasty, but beneath that his heart is kind (he would never admit it). Mysterious and possibly dangerous, Nevery is a difficult wizard to read, but a good one to know.

 

N
IMBLE
—A magister and rather weak wizard. He looks like a bat and is a pen-pushing, officious man. He dislikes Conn very much.

 

P
IP
—As Conn says, Pip is an “it,” not a “he.” Pip is a small dragon, no bigger than a kitten, but it has a very big attitude. Pip does not trust Conn at first—why should it? Conn stole it from its cave in the mountains, after all. Still, one thief should be friends with another. . . .

 

R
OWAN
F
ORESTAL
—The Duchess of Wellmet. A tall, slender girl of around sixteen, with red hair and gray eyes. She is very intelligent with a good, if dry, sense of humor.

P
LACES

D
AWN
P
ALACE
—The home of Rowan. The palace itself is a huge, rectangular building—not very architecturally interesting, but with lots of decorations crusted on it to make it fancy.

 

H
EARTSEASE
—The old Heartsease, the mansion house with the big hole in the middle, was destroyed in a certain pyrotechnic experiment, so Nevery is building a new Heartsease. When finished, it will have plenty of room for Nevery and Benet and Conn to live there. Conn might even get his own workroom!

 

M
AGISTERS
H
ALL
—Seat of power for the wizards who control and guard the magic of Wellmet. It is a big, imposing gray stone building on an island with a wall built all the way around it at the waterline.

W
ELLMET
R
UNIC
A
LPHABET

In Wellmet, some people write using runes to stand for the letters of the alphabet. In fact, you may find some messages written in runes in
The Magic Thief: Home
.