Carin rapidly found himself with a lot of stuff to do to keep him busy. Unfortunately, he was bad at such chores as shoveling out the stables, and soon found himself making the intimate acquaintance of blisters, sunburn, and muscles he hadn't known he had. Most people were polite enough not to laugh. Most of the time. Carin could see they found his problems hilarious, and got sarcastic in response.

At least he hadn't come down with pneumonia like the first time he'd been here. That really would have taken the cake.

It wasn't all shoveling out the stables. His cousins had a tendency to haul him off with them at the slightest opportunity. And then there was Palin.

Carin hadn't been there a day when Palin asked him to teach him magic. "Not more stage magic, the real thing. I want to learn to do what you can, Uncle Raistlin could, and Master Theobald teaches. I'll work really hard, I promise!"

That brought up a question that Carin finally bearded Caramon with after another week had passed and Palin had asked another four times. "Uncle, why isn't Palin studying magic? He wants to desperately, and I think he has the ability."

"He's too young, and he doesn't really understand what it means."

"He's older than Raistlin or I were when we started learning. And as old as some of the students at Palanthas tower, who are not raw beginners when they come there."

"He's still too young. It will do him no harm to wait a couple of years and see if that's really what he wants. It's not as if he can tell the difference between stage magic and the real thing at this point."

"Actually, he can and does." Carin remembered the determined look in Palin's eyes. "He told me the stage magic wasn't real and asked me to teach him the language of magic."

Caramon groaned. "I was hoping he'd lose interest before he realized that."

"Like a hawk chick won't want to fly if taught to swim?"

"He's still too young. And no, don't argue. Look at what happened to Raistlin! And you! You're here because you learned too much too young and are now in danger of being killed by a Test intended for those half a decade or more older than you."

Carin winced. Caramon definitely had a point there. But he wasn't the only one who could play that game…

"Would you have him meet your mother's fate, then? Dying locked in his own mind because those around him were afraid of the magic?"

"You don't… you don't really think that would happen to Palin, do you?"

"If he's got the ability as strongly as I do, and he doesn't learn how to use it, it will use him. So yes, he might meet that fate. And let me tell you – if the Test kills me I'd rather die that way than the way your mother did!"

"Leaving it another couple of years won't hurt him." There was a desperate note in Caramon's voice.

"Why wait?"

"Because I don't want him pushed into taking the test at 20 and being crippled by it for the rest of his life!" Caramon glared at Carin, beet red in the face. "I'll let him take classes with Theobald next year if he still wants to, but not yet."

Carin held his gaze, then nodded. "But you get to explain that to Palin."