I read it in 1989, so published in the 80s or earlier, in a UK primary school library (aged 11). Similar to A Wizard of Earthsea, but a bit shorter and easier to read maybe. Plot detail I remember: -boy working in a castle or manor house, has some restriction on his senses due to a stone or charm (it makes him deaf or dumb maybe?). He can do magic natively, and lights a fire using magic, maybe by running his fingers along it. He wears a charm of some sort, which an older magician spots and removes, ‘freeing’ him, after spotting him doing magic -he becomes an apprentice to the magician, and can do powerful magic that other magicians can’t. Some kind of war or battle to win. -he meets a girl along the way -it ends with him defeating the enemy — and I think taking his boots off and putting back on fur slippers, and being with the girl.