here is my delima i read it years ago (around 10)
what i can remeber is scarse and that bug the crap out of me so i want to find teh book and fill in teh missing peices,
i know it was the story of a boy/young man and his friend
they came from an island of boys lead by a man with a name of some like Dammer or Damahl, he would choose his replacement from the boys
well they escaped the island with money and a jewel a Beryl? and made it to the main land where they ran into a crazy lady , they eventually get to a town and have a brief life as puppeteers
they also get captured by some kinda war/bandit group
and that is about it
any help to figure this out would be great