Taran and Gurgi journey on into the Free Commots, where Taran continues to introduce himself only as “Taran Wanderer” and is glad that no one presses him for more information. He finds a smith named Hevydd laboring at his forge, and asks to be taught the craft in exchange for free labor. Hevydd at first says he doesn’t have time, but Taran baits him a little bit – “I’ve heard it said that a man must be a true master of his craft if he would teach it” – and of course Hevydd takes umbrage and demonstrates his art by hammering a perfect blossom out of metal. He then challenges Taran to smooth it out again, and Taran’s attempt, though inexpert, demonstrates that he knows the basics. Hevydd agrees to train Taran, and says they’ll start by making him a sword. Just like Taran wanted Coll to teach him back at the beginning of the series!

Taran finally learns to make a sword!

Taran labors for several days making a sword from beginning to end. When it’s finally done, he’s proud of his work, admiring its shape. But then Hevydd challenges him to strike a wooden block with it. Taran does, and the sword shatters. Womp womp! He has to start all over. After several more attempts, he finishes a sword that’s not nearly as pretty as the first one. But this time, it splits the wooden block in two. Hevydd says, “That’s a blade worth bearing.” He invites Taran to stay on as his apprentice, and says he’ll teach him everything he knows. But Taran’s heart is telling him to move on, that this is not his destiny. Hevydd tells him to keep the sword, and bids him farewell, reminding him that life is a forge, shaping and tempering us all. For some reason, I remembered Taran’s time with Hevydd as lasting for a significant portion of the book – maybe because, like the Morda scene, it’s been immortalized in cover art. I was surprised when I got to it this week and saw that it’s only half of one chapter!

Next, Taran visits a weaver named Dwyvach and asks her to teach him the craft of weaving. She calls him “Taran Threadbare” and says that he can start by weaving himself a new cloak. As Hevydd did with the sword, she makes him start at the very beginning, first teasing burrs and thorns out of the wool, then spinning it to thread. Gurgi protests that spinning is woman’s work – what the hell, Gurgi? Now you’re sexist too? – but Dwyvach just snorts that the work doesn’t complain about who does it. After spinning the thread and dyeing it, Taran threads the loom and begins to weave his cloak. After a long day of work, he realizes that he doesn’t like the pattern he picked. Dwyvach says he has a choice: “Either finish a cloak you’ll be ill-content to wear, or unravel it and start anew.” Taran sighs and decides to start over. Once again, he tries over and over before he gets it right, and when he finally does, he decides it’s time to move on. Dwyvach is sad, because she thinks he has the skill to be a great weaver, but she understands the restlessness of a young heart. As they say farewell, she reminds him that life’s patterns are “not so easily unraveled.”

The chapter really should end here, but instead there are asterisks followed by a two-page section that feels kind of tacked-on, in which they journey to the next commot, the fairest one Taran has seen. He feels a “strange excitement” and is certain they should stop there. They see a man digging by a stream, who tells them that they are in Commot Merin, and that’s the end of the chapter. I gotta say, Alexander (and/or his editor) made some odd choices with the chapter breaks in this book. First we had the stay with Llonio split awkwardly over two chapters, and now two commots and the beginning of a third are crammed into one chapter. Oh well. What matters is that we’re very nearly to the climax and the resolution of Taran’s quest!