Book excerpt: The Master of the Forge tells the tale of Numukeba, a blacksmith from the village of Naradugu, who abandons his forge to seek honor and nobility as a soldier of fortune. Numukeba arms himself with the weapons of his forge and talismans of magical power and sets out on an eleven-year journey through the land. He undergoes frequent trial by combat, outwits kings, heroes and beasts, descends into the land of the dead, is turned into a dog, and is sold into slavery. Throughout his travels he is harassed by the sorcerer Etchuba, the personification of chance, against whom Numukeba struggles to prove that man's destiny is not a series of accidents, but is written in steel as unbending as the weapons born in his forge.