Tehanu. Part 17

Spark brought Townsend in for supper, but the sheep-dealer would not stay the night, though he was of course offered a bed in common hospitality. It would have been one of their beds, and Tenar did not like the thought. She was glad to see him go off to his hosts in the village in the blue twilight of the spring evening.

"We'll be off to Re Albi first thing tomorrow, son," she said to Spark. "Hawk and Therru and I."

He looked a little frightened.

"Just go off like that?"

"So you went; so you came," said his mother. "Now look here, Spark: this is your father's money-box. There's seven ivory pieces in it, and those credit counters from old Bridgeman, but he'll never pay, he hasn't got anything to pay with. These four Andradean pieces Flint got from selling sheepskins to the ship's outfitter in Valmouth four years running, back when you were a boy. These three Haynorian ones are what Tholy paid us for the High Creek farm. I had your father buy that farm, and I helped him clear it and sell it. I'll take those three pieces, for I've earned them. The rest, and the farm, is yours. You're the master."

The tall, thin young man stood there with his gaze on the money-box.

"Take it all. I don't want it," he said in a low voice.

"I don't need it. But I thank you, my son. Keep the four pieces. When you marry, call them my gift to your wife."

She put the box away in the place behind the big plate on the top shelf of the dresser, where Flint had always kept it. "Therru, get your things ready now, because we'll go very early."

"When are you coming back?" Spark asked, and the tone of his voice made Tenar think of the restless, frail child he had been. But she said only, "I don't know, my dear. If you need me, I'll come.

She busied herself getting out their travel shoes and packs. "Spark," she said, "you can do something for me."

He had sat down in the hearthseat, looking uncertain and morose. "What?"

"Go down to Valmouth, soon, and see your sister. And tell her that I've gone back to the Overfell. Tell her, if she wants me, just send word."

He nodded. He watched Ged, who had already packed his few belongings with the neatness and dispatch of one who had traveled much, and was now putting up the dishes to leave the kitchen in good order. That done, he sat down opposite Spark to run a new cord through the eyelets of his pack to close it at the top.

"There's a knot they use for that," Spark said. "Sailor's knot."

Ged silently handed the pack across the hearth, and watched as Spark silently demonstrated the knot.

"Slips up, see," he said, and Ged nodded.

They left the farm in the dark and cold of the morning. Sunlight comes late to the western side of Gont Mountain, and only walking kept them warm till at last the sun got round the great ma.s.s of the south peak and shone on their backs.

Therru was twice the walker she had been the summer before, but it was still a two days' journey for them. Along in the afternoon, Tenar asked, "Shall we try to get on to Oak Springs today? There's a sort of inn. We had a cup of milk there, remember, Therru?"

Ged was looking up the mountainside with a faraway expression. "There's a place I know "Fine," said Tenar.

A little before they came to the high corner of the road from which Gont Port could first be seen, Ged turned aside from the road into the forest that covered the steep slopes above it. The westering sun sent slanting red-gold rays into the darkness between the trunks and under the branches. They climbed half a mile or so, on no path Tenar could see, and came out on a little step or shelf of the mountainside, a meadow sheltered from the wind by the cliffs behind it and the trees about it. From there one could see the heights of'the mountain to the north, and between the tops of great firs there was one clear view of the western sea. It was entirely silent there except when the wind breathed in the firs. One mountain lark sang long and sweet, away up in the sunlight, before dropping to her nest in the untrodden gra.s.s.

The three of them ate their bread and cheese. They watched darkness rise up the mountain from the sea. They made their bed of cloaks and slept, Therru next to Tenar next to Ged, In the deep night Tenar woke. An owl was calling nearby, a sweet repeated note like a bell, and far off up the mountain its mate replied like the ghost of a bell. Tenar thought, "I'll watch the stars set in the sea," but she fell asleep again at once in peace of heart.

She woke in the grey morning to see Ged sitting up beside her, his cloak pulled round his shoulders, looking out through the gap westward. His dark face was quite still, full of silence, as she had seen it once long ago on the beach of Atuan. His eyes were not downcast, as then; he looked into the illimitable west. Looking with him she saw the day coming, the glory of rose and gold reflected clear across the sky.

He turned to her, and she said to him, "I have loved you since I first saw you."

"Life-giver," he said and leaned forward, kissing her breast and mouth. She held him a moment. They got up, and waked Therru, and went on their way; but as they entered the trees Tenar looked back once at the little meadow as if charging it to keep faith with her happiness there.

The first day of the journey their goal had been journeying. This day they would come to Re Albi. So Tenar's mind was much on Aunty Moss, wondering what had befallen her and whether she was indeed dying. But as the day and the way went on her mind would not hold to the thought of Moss, or any thought. She was tired. She did not like walking this way again to death. They pa.s.sed Oak Springs, and went down into the gorge, and started up again. By the last long uphill stretch to the Overfell, her legs were hard to lift, and her mind was stupid and confused, fastening upon one word or image until it became meaningless-the dish-cupboard in Ogion's house, or the words bone dolphin, bone dolphin, which came into her head from seeing Therru's gra.s.s bag of toys, and repeated themselves endlessly. which came into her head from seeing Therru's gra.s.s bag of toys, and repeated themselves endlessly.

Ged strode along at his easy traveler's gait, and Therru trudged right beside him, the same Therru who had worn out on this long climb less than a year ago, and had to be carried . But that had been after a longer day of walking. And the child had still been recovering from her punishment.

She was getting old, too old to walk so far so fast. It was so hard going uphill. An old woman should stay home by her fireside. The bone dolphin, the bone dolphin. Bone, bound, the binding spell. The bone man and the bone animal. There they went ahead. They were waiting for her. She was slow. She was tired. She toiled on up the last stretch of the hill and came up to them where the road came out on the level of the Overfell. To the left were the roofs of Re Albi slanting down towards the cliff's edge. To the right the road went up to the manor house. "This way,' Tenar said.

"No," the child said, pointing left, to the village.

"This way," Tenar repeated, and set off on the right-hand way. Ged came with her.

They walked between the walnut orchards and the fields of gra.s.s. It was a warm late afternoon of early summer. Birds sang in the orchard trees near and far. He came walking down the road from the great house towards them, the one whose name she could not remember.

"Welcome!" he said, and stopped, smiling at them.

They stopped.

"What great personages have come to honor the house of the Lord of Re Albi," he said. Tuaho, that was not his name. The bone dolphin, the bone animal, the bone child.

"My Lord Archmage!" He bowed low, and Ged bowed to him.

"And my Lady Tenar of Atuan!" He bowed even lower to her, and she got down on her knees in the road. Her head sank down, till she put her hands in the dirt and crouched until her mouth too was on the dirt of the road.

"Now crawl," he said, and she began to crawl towards him.

"Stop," he said, and she stopped.

"Can you talk?" he asked. She said nothing, having no words that would come to her mouth, but Ged replied in his usual quiet voice, "Yes."

"Where's the monster?"

"I don't know."

"I thought the witch would bring her familiar with her. But she brought you instead. The Lord Archmage Sparrow-hawk. What a splendid subst.i.tute! All I can do to witches and monsters is cleanse the world of them. But to you, who used at one time to be a man, I can talk; you are capable of rational speech, at least. And capable of understanding punishment. You thought you were safe, I suppose, with your king on the throne, and my master, our master, destroyed. You thought you'd had your will, and destroyed the promise of eternal life, didn't you?"

"No," said Ged's voice.

She could not see them. She could see only the dirt of the road, and taste it in her mouth. She heard Ged speak. He said, "In dying is life."

"Quack, quack, quote the Songs, Master of Roke- schoolmaster! What a funny sight to see, the great archmage all got up like a goatherd, and not an ounce of magic in him-not a word of power. Can you say a spell, archmage? Just a little spell-just a tiny charm of illusion? No? Not a word? My master defeated you. Now do you know it? You did not conquer him. His power lives! I might keep you alive here awhile, to see that power-my power. To see the old man I keep from death-and I might use your life for that if I need it-and to see your meddling king make a fool of himself, with his mincing lords and stupid wizards, look- ing for a woman! A woman to rule us! But the rule is here, the mastery is here, here, in this house. All this year I've been gathering others to me, men who know the true power. From Roke, some of them, from right under the noses of the schoolmasters. And from Havnor, from under the nose of that so-called Son of Morred, who wants a woman to rule him, your king who thinks he's so safe he can go by his true name. Do you know my name, archmage? Do you remember me, four years ago, when you were the great Master of Masters and I was a lowly student at Roke?"

"You were called Aspen," said the patient voice.

"And my true name?"

"I don't know your true name."

"What? You don't know it? Can't you find it? Don't mages know all names?"

"I'm not a mage."

"Oh, say it again."

"I'm not a mage."

"I like to hear you say it. Say it again."

"I'm not a mage."

"But I am!"

"Yes."

"Say it!"

"You are a mage."

"Ah! This is better than I hoped! I fished for the eel and caught the whale! Come on, then, come meet my friends. You can walk. She can crawl."

So they went up the road to the manor house of the Lord of Re Albi and went in, Tenar on hands and knees on the road, and on the marble steps up to the door, and on the marble pavements of the halls and rooms.

Inside the house it was dark. With the darkness came a darkness into Tenar's mind, so that she understood less and less of what was said. Only some words and voices came to her clearly. What Ged said she understood, and when he spoke she thought of his name, and clung to it in her mind. But he spoke very seldom, and only to answer the one whose name was not Tuaho. That one spoke to her now and then, calling her b.i.t.c.h. "This is my new pet," he said to other men, several of them that were there in the darkness where candles made shadows. "See how well trained she is? Roll over, b.i.t.c.h!" She rolled over, and the men laughed.

"She had a whelp," he said, "that I planned to finish punishing, since it was left half-burned. But she brought me a bird she'd caught instead, a sparrowhawk. Tomorrow we'll teach it to fly."

Other voices said words, but she did not understand words any more.

Something was fastened around her neck and she was made to crawl up more stairs and into a room that smelled of urine and rotting meat and sweet flowers. Voices spoke. A cold hand like a stone struck her head feebly while something laughed, "Eh, eh, eh," like an old door creaking back and forth. Then she was kicked and made to crawl down halls. She could not crawl fast enough, and was kicked in the b.r.e.a.s.t.s and in the mouth. Then there was a door that crashed, and silence, and the dark. She heard somebody crying and thought it was the child, her child. She wanted the child not to cry. At last it stopped.

Tehanu

The child turned left and went some way before she looked back, letting the blossoming hedgerow hide her.

The one called Aspen, whose name was Erisen, and whom she saw as a forked and writhing darkness, had bound her mother and father, with a thong through her tongue and a thong through his heart, and was leading them up toward the place where he hid . The smell of the place was sickening to her, but she followed a little way to see what he did. He led them in and shut the door behind them. It was a stone door. She could not enter there.

She needed to fly, but she could not fly; she was not one of the winged ones.

She ran as fast as she could across the fields, past Aunty Moss's house, past Ogion's house and the goats' house, onto the path along the cliff and to the edge of the cliff, where she was not to go because she could see it only with one eye. She was careful. She looked carefully with that eye. She stood on the edge. The water was far below, and the sun was setting far away. She looked into the west with the other eye, and called with the other voice the name she had heard in her mother's dream.

She did not wait for an answer, but turned round again and went back-first past Ogion's house to see if her peach tree had grown. The old tree stood bearing many small, green peaches, but there was no sign of the seedling. The goats had eaten it. Or it had died because she had not watered it. She stood a little while looking at the ground there, then drew a long breath and went on back across the fields to Aunty Moss's house.

Chickens going to roost squawked and fluttered, protesting her entrance. The little hut was dark and very full of smells. "Aunty Moss?" she said, in the voice she had for these people.

"Who's there?"

The old woman was in her bed, hiding. She was frightened, and tried to make stone around her to keep everyone away, but it didn't work; she was not strong enough.

"Who is it? Who's there? Oh dearie - oh dearie child, my little burned one, my pretty, what are you doing here? Where's she, where's she, your mother, oh, is she here? Did she come? Don't come in, don't come in, dearie, there's a curse on me, he cursed the old woman, don't come near me! Don't come near!"

She wept. The child put out her hand and touched her. "You're cold," she said.

"You're like fire, child, your hand burns me. Oh, don't look at me! He made my flesh rot, and shrivel, and rot again, but he won't let me die-he said I'd bring you here. I tried to die, I tried, but he held me, he held me living against my will, he won't let me die, oh, let me die!"

"You shouldn't die," the child said, frowning.

"Child," the old woman whispered, "dearie - call me by my name.

"Hatha," the child said.

"Ah. I knew. . . . Set me free, dearie!"

"I have to wait," the child said. "Till they come.

The witch lay easier, breathing without pain. "Till who come, dearie?" she whispered.

"My people."

The witch's big, cold hand lay like a bundle of sticks in hers. She held it firmly, It was as dark now outside the hut as inside it. Hatha, who was called Moss, slept; and presently the child, sitting on the floor beside her cot, with a hen perched nearby, slept also.

Men came when the light came. He said, "Up, b.i.t.c.h! Up!" She got to her hands and knees. He laughed, saying, "All the way up! You're a clever b.i.t.c.h, you can walk on your hind legs, can't you? That's it. Pretend to be human! We have a way to go now. Come!" The strap was still around her neck, and he jerked it. She followed him.

"Here, you lead her," he said, and now it was that one, the one she loved, but she did not know his name any more, who held the strap.

They all came out of the dark place. Stone yawned to let them pa.s.s and ground together behind them.

He was always close beside her and the one who held the strap. Others came behind, three or four men.

The fields were grey with dew. The mountain was dark against a pale sky. Binds were beginning to sing in the orchards and hedgerows, louder and louder.

They came to the edge of the wonld and walked along it for a while until they came to where the ground was only rock and the edge was very narrow, There was a line in the rock, and she looked at that.

"He can push her," he said. "And then the hawk can fly, all by himself."

He unfastened the strap from around her neck.

"Go stand at the edge," he said. She followed the mark in the stone out to the edge. The sea was below her, nothing else. The air was out beyond her.

"Now, Sparrowhawk will give her a push," he said. "But first, maybe she wants to say something. She has so much to say. Women always do. Isn't there anything you'd like to say to us, Lady Tenar?"

She could not speak, but she pointed to the sky above the sea.

"Albatross," he said.

She laughed aloud.

In the gulfs of light, from the doorway of the sky, the dragon flew, fire trailing behind the coiling, mailed body. Tenar spoke then.