Publisher's Synopsis
He's known around the town of Carey as "Simple Eddie."
But Edwin Robbins isn't simple. Badly abused throughout his childhood, taught by his father that he was worthless and stupid, Ed is terrified of being imprisoned in a workhouse, a fate the town Council Master has threatened him with. Ed is excited to learn that the "wonder workers" of whom he's heard are coming to Carey. He hopes to see a display of their magic. But when he encounters them in a most unlikely place and learns that their power is a gift they can share with him, he finds that unexpected gift frightening and unwelcome.
Marta and Kyla have undertaken to bring magic back to the land of Arucadi. That mission is more often met with resistance and rage than eager acceptance, and never more so than in Carey. Here they find only four people who can receive the gift of magic. Ed is the first. The second is an ambitious young man, unscrupulous and full of anger, who can wreak destruction if his gift is not restrained; the third is the head of a prestigious school for young girls, a woman who disdains the very idea of magic and denies the gift when it comes to her, viewing it as evil; and the last is a nine-year-old girl who does not understand and cannot control the great power that comes to her.
Have Marta and Kyla brought the town a dangerous gift, one that can unleash devastation? Marta feels that their mission has failed. Kyla believes it is succeeding. Who is right?
