Book about a boy who becomes a wizard's apprentice, in a world where only people with magic can see magic

Question

It's been awhile since I've read this book and I really want to read it again. All I can remember of this book is as follows.

The kid doesn't want to be a mage/wizard.

Kids are tested to see if they have magic by being brought into a room with a bunch of mages/wizards. They turn off the lights and make a bunch of fake magic happen, like flying crystal balls and such, but off to the side, they rip a leaf off of a plant and use magic to heal it and the kid sees it, which was the real test, because only mages/wizards can see magic.

He's apprenticed to and old man who gives him a cocoon to study, to start learning magic as they travel.

He's able to conceal himself from detection, using the magic he learned from study of the cocoon.

And he heals someone important at the end while everyone around him argues. I don't know if the argument is about trusting a mage to heal them or something else, and after he heals them, he walks away.

And that's about all I can remember from it. It's been awhile.

Answer 1

I've found the book. It's called The Wizard Test by Hilari Bell. Thank you all for the help.

Dayven is a watcherlad who wants to become a Guardian. He definitely does not want to become a wizard, regarding them as deceitful and disloyal. When he is sent to the wizards to take the wizard test, he hopes to fail. Instead, he finds he has a gift for magic. Dayven refuses to acknowledge his power and later his cousin Soren tells him that the Lordowner, Lord Enar, wants to see him. Lord Enar asks what he thinks about wizards and Dayven says how much he hates them. Lord Enar agrees about Dayven's opinion of wizards and asks if he wants to spy on the wizards and Dayven agrees.

....

As he becomes entrenched in the war, Dayven comes to a discomforting realization that there is no just two sides to a battle, just as there is not just black or white. He befriends a boy on the other side of the war, and during the war, he works as a healer in the surgeon's tent. In the end, when he sees his friend hurt, he heals him, at the cost of losing everything he had dreamed to be. Dayven realizes the flaws of his people. The Cenzar used to only farm three fields out of four at a time. This way the land had a full year to regain its minerals and nutrients. When the Cenzar lost their land this rule was viewed as laziness and ignored. If Dayven's people continue to have their way, they will make the land infertile and then move to somewhere new as they have done countless times before. Dayven uses spells to make sure that the Cenzar win the battle. He stays behind when his people are forced to move on.