Free The Sorcerer's House by Gene Wolfe

failed almost from the start. He's deeply humiliated, and if he had stayed, it would have been worse--or that's what he thinks."
    "I believe I understand."
    "He'll hate you now, because you saw through him. He may hate you worse because you saw him run away."
    "If he hates as easily as that, he must hate a great many people," I said.
    "He hates everyone, himself included."

    (I abandoned this letter for something or other, George, and have only now come back to it.)
    After the conversation related above, we searched the attic for more foxes. Or at least, Emlyn and Winkle searched it for that purpose. I am afraid I only feigned to be looking for foxes, George, when in fact I was simply looking for anything that might be of use or interest to me.
    The first thing I found was a massive old four-poster heaped with dusty blankets and sheets. Winkle at once set her teeth in the mattress and gave it several good yanks. Releasing it, she told me solemnly, "For theep."
    "You're right," I said. "We'll see about that."
    The next thing was a dormer window, a very small and rather dirty window made to open with a crank. Peering out, I could see nothing but miles of trees. And then, far off, a hilltop crowned with a single pointed tower, as if a needle had been thrust into the very summit of the hill. I called Emlyn over then, and asked what the tower was.
    "That's Goldwurm's Spire," Emlyn told me.
    I asked him to explain.
    "He's a warlock, that's all. He killed his master and took his home--and other things, too. Everything that his old master had, though I've heard that he could never find his master's weapon of sorcery and is still looking for it."
    "I've never heard of a weapon of sorcery. What is it?"
    Emlyn shrugged. "It's complicated, and I certainly don't know everything there is to know about them. A sorcerer can take a part of his power and put it into an external object for safekeeping."
    "Like putting money in the bank?"
    For a moment Emlyn looked blank. "Maybe it is. Like putting gold in a chest instead of holding it in your hand. It makes it harder for anybody to attack the sorcerer, because they can't touch that power unless they know what the object is and where it is."
    "Like opening an account under another name."
    "I suppose. Anyway, the early ones were just about all weapons. Swords, mostly. That's why they're called weapons of sorcery. A lot are staffs and wands these days. I've heard of cups, too. I imagine Goldwurm thought he'd find his master's without much trouble, so he didn't keep him around to question. Just strangled him and threw him in the river. It was before my time, but I've heard that the old sorcerer's name was Ambrosius."
    "I doubt that it matters now," I said.
    Emlyn shrugged.
    "I suppose this Goldwurm was acquitted."
    Before Emlyn could reply, my cell phone chimed. I pushed a button that I hoped (not exactly fervently) was the correct one, and said hello.
    "Bax? This is Martha Murrey. How's your phone? Are you satisfied with it?"
    I said that I was very satisfied, although the truth was that I had never so much as attempted to use it.
    "Wonderful! I don't suppose you're free for dinner tonight?"
    Recalling my allowance check, I said that I was. I would have to walk to the bank before it closed and deposit it in my checking account--an account that eight pathetic little dollars are holding open at present; but once I had, I would be able to write a check for our dinner. Any area restaurant, I felt reasonably certain, would accept a local check for dinner.
    "I'm not inconveniencing you?"
    "No, not at all. There are several questions I want to ask you. About the house, you know."
    "Wonderful! Pick you up at six?"
    When we had said good-bye I asked Emlyn whether he would help me drag the mattress down to my fire.
    "You say you're not a sorcerer, Bax?"
    "No, indeed."
    "But you can talk on that thing?"
    "Sometimes. Whenever someone calls me, or I call someone." It occurred to me that I might give him the