Need help remembering a book.

[Durhai]

Hi, I've been trying to remember a book I read back in 1994-1995 for the past several months. So far it has eluded me and I just found this online forum today so I thought I would post my question here to see if anyone could help me.

Okay, well, I'll try to post what details I think I know are definitely in the book and then I'll list some things afterward that I'm not so sure of. The book is in a fantasy world full of magic, dragons, and faery creatures of that sort. The main character is a young man that wants to learn magic or is somehow apprenticed into learning magic and he also has a gift of being able to see magic. Along his journey he talks to some sort of magical female statue that transports him to another part of the world and at the same time turns him into a woman. He continues to study magic as a women and ends up working for a gang of thieves that are after a treasure that is high up in the air and he, or she in this case, uses his magic abilities to climb invisible stairs up to this treasure. At some point in the book she and her teacher/mentor is attacked by people with bows and arrows that are magical. She can see the magic but her teacher/mentor cannot and so the arrows slice through the magical barriers her teacher/mentor has around him and the arrow strikes and kills him. At the end of the book she is no longer a woman but an old and powerful wizard. I think he is the 2nd most powerful wizard in the world at the time able to travel into different planes of existence.

Well, those are some of the fuzzy facts I can remember. Some of the things I'm not so sure about is I think the book starts with him sitting under his favorite thinking tree on top of a hill. Some sort of enemy comes looking for him and he is forced to run and so begins his journey to become a wizard. I think the statue turns him into a woman to teach him a lesson about the hardships of being the opposite sex but I'm not so sure. I do remember that when he awakes as a women he is somewhere deep in the woods beside a pool of water and he doesn't realize he is a woman until he starts to move toward the water and feels an unnatural weight around his chest. He then looks into the water and sees that he is a woman instead of a man.

I appreciate any help anyone can give in helping me determine what book this is. My friend in the 9th grade let me borrow this book and after I returned it to him I have not seen it since. Unfortunately we did not remain friends after I graduated in 1999 otherwise I would give him a call and find out the book's title myself. I want to say that this book is a part of the D&D series but I'm not sure.

[I, Brian]

Hi Durhai, and welcome to the chronicles network.

I sincerely hope someone here can help you out - I think many of us here can relate to losing items we had lent out.

[moon_dog]

I have heard a very similar story, told in the style of a traditional folk tale. (British Isles/Irish) while I was working at an arts centre in the mid 90's.

Sorry I cant help you with the title or author of the book though.