Adult High Fantasy book about a wizard learning powers - big plot point is anti-hero shape shifting into wind to escape prison bars. Read 2013.

[Emma]

I read this book in 2013 at the recommendation of my father and loved it so much I had to check it out from the library 3 times. I vaguely remember it was a fantasy about a young man learning magical powers, and an antihero who also is learning the same. I think they have potentially been put at odds with one another - one of them is like the black sheep of the story.

What I definitely remember is one of them gets put in prison, and as he’s meditating on his situation he realizes how to shape shift into wind and escape through the bars.

As you can imagine, searching for this has become such a headache due to the recent “name of the wind” series. If anyone knows of classic ~‘80s fantasy books and this sounds familiar I’d love to know!

[Kat]

I don't think this quite fits, and I don't remember if the prison/shapshifting into wind thing happens, but maybe the Riddlemaster trilogy by Patricia A. McKillip?
The Riddle-Master of Hed
Heir of Sea and Fire
Harpist in the Wind
It was also published in a single, collected edition:
Riddle-Master

[Nicole]

Could it be A Wizard of Earthsea?