I was wondering if maybe any of you could help based on a, very poor, description of the book from my 8+ year old memories, and some descriptions are going to be very, very generic to fantasy series, I know. This has been bugging me for a long time:
My Very Poor Memories wrote:
The book is about a man, who lives in a world where everyone can use at least some form Magic, and those who cannot are shunned and banished. But he is born without being able to. His mother (or, another female guardian) teaches him slight of hand as a child, enough so that he can trick people into thinking he can do magic.
During the course of the book, the man falls in love with a higher, noble woman, and gets an old, father figure, who is a powerful wizard. The old man knows his secret, and the woman does not until later. He hides his secret well throughout the book with help from his friends.
One specific scene takes place in a tower, where all the nobles are gathering. The tower is nothing more than a large open room, with a winding staircase against the outside wall. Of course, since all the people can use magic, and they are nobility, they do not climb the stairway. They mearly float to the top with their magic.
The Man, the woman, and the older wizard, come up with a good disguise to allow them to walk to the top without seeming suspicious. The only people that use the staircase are old "monks", who do it for ritual purposes. The old wizard disguises himself as one of these "monks" and the man and woman "escort" him up the stairway. This sucessfully hides the man's secret from all the other nobles.
In the end, the man's secret is found out. He is sentenced to be banished. There is a portion of the world that is covered in "Mist". The man is to be turned into stone, and be forever stationed as a statue faced out into the Mist. To add inslut to injury, the old man who was like a father to him, is forced to be the wizard who casts the stone spell upon the man.
The wizard, who does not wish to do it, saves the man by instead casting the spell upon the executioners holding him. The man and woman then walk into the mist.
During the course of the book, the man falls in love with a higher, noble woman, and gets an old, father figure, who is a powerful wizard. The old man knows his secret, and the woman does not until later. He hides his secret well throughout the book with help from his friends.
One specific scene takes place in a tower, where all the nobles are gathering. The tower is nothing more than a large open room, with a winding staircase against the outside wall. Of course, since all the people can use magic, and they are nobility, they do not climb the stairway. They mearly float to the top with their magic.
The Man, the woman, and the older wizard, come up with a good disguise to allow them to walk to the top without seeming suspicious. The only people that use the staircase are old "monks", who do it for ritual purposes. The old wizard disguises himself as one of these "monks" and the man and woman "escort" him up the stairway. This sucessfully hides the man's secret from all the other nobles.
In the end, the man's secret is found out. He is sentenced to be banished. There is a portion of the world that is covered in "Mist". The man is to be turned into stone, and be forever stationed as a statue faced out into the Mist. To add inslut to injury, the old man who was like a father to him, is forced to be the wizard who casts the stone spell upon the man.
The wizard, who does not wish to do it, saves the man by instead casting the spell upon the executioners holding him. The man and woman then walk into the mist.
That's where the book ends. With the old wizard saving the man from his unjust punishment, and the man and woman walking into the mist. I could have sworn there were more books in the series, but since my library only carried one at the time, I never got to the others.
If anyone has any idea about what book or series this may be or be part of, please help me. This has been a mystery for me, for a long time.