Will Carrick, the son and heir to Laird Carrick, remains depressed and lost after getting blinded in a riding accident a year earlier. His grandmother, Old Anna, is a clairvoyant. When she tells him he must go on a quest to find a vocation, the idea of refusing never even occurs to him, though the prospect fills him with dread. She tells him he may take one companion with him as a guide. Will chooses young Sparrow, an orphaned stableboy new to the castle and essentially a stranger to him. To help Will on the journey, Old Anna has given him a talisman, a pebble she says will give him 'a kind of sight'.