Equal Rites

 

By Terry Pratchett

A Discworld fantasy.

Wizards know when their time is coming. Traditionally, they bequeath their powers via their magical staffs to the eighth son of an eighth son. Which is probably what the wizard Drum Billet intended to do. So he left Ankh-Morpork and traveled to the village of Bad Ass and passed his staff on to the eighth child of an eighth child, Gordo Smith. However, Gordo's eighth child is not his son, it is his newborn daughter, Eskarina. Once given to the child, the staff refuses to be separated from her, no matter what the parents and local witch and midwife, Granny Weatherwax try. They only succeed in hurting themselves in the attempts. So the baby is allowed to keep her magical wizard staff.

As Esk grows, she begins to experience the powers that belong to wizards. One of her early efforts results in turning her annoying brother into a pig. At which point Granny Weatherwas realizes Esk needs more guidance than Granny can give her and she takes Esk on a trip to Ankh-Morpork.  While on the trip, Esk wanders off and joins a group traveling there also. Granny and Esk eventually get back together but when Esk tries to gain entrance to the Unseen University, she is sent packing, because females can't be wizards. However, Granny points out that the University has plenty of women in it, working there as servants. And so, with all the training that Granny has given Esk, she soon finds herself working there as a maid. And in the process picking up the scraps of knowledge that will help her understand what a female wizard is capable of achieving. 

Esk learning her powers and learning about the world outside of Bad Ass made for a fun and interesting tale. Granny Weatherwax makes her first appearance in the series and comes off as more human in this version as she sets up shop in Ankh-Morpork, selling potions and telling fortunes and actually acquiring some newer clothing instead of her usual raggedy outfit. Things I don't think Pratchett's later versions of her would approve of. Granny Weatherwax becomes an important recurring character in the Discworld series. Oddly, Esk, the female wizard, doesn't reappear in the novels until many years later. Instead Pratchett returns over and over to Rincewind, the inept wizard-wannabe who stars in the first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic.