Chapter 2
Once more Cory stood on his stoop to contemplate the setting sun. He smiled as he sensed the approach of someone on foot. He did not place any deflecting energies in the stranger’s path for who could it be except the eager young man from Melcorth? This was the tenth day since their communication, so the deadline loomed as adamant as the mountains. It would pain him to do so, yet if the lad arrived late, Cory vowed to turn him away. After all, a late arrival would indicate a lack, either in ambition and ingenuity or in latent power sufficient to follow the thin thread of connection they’d established.
Cory’s cottage sat near the top of the first grade from the rolling plains to the foothills, a grassy knoll with the beginning of the forest at its back. The site commanded a fine
