That spring Ged saw little of either Vetch or Jasper, for they being sorcerers studied now with the Master Patterner in the secrecy1 of the Immanent Grove2, where no prentice might set foot. Ged stayed in the Great House, working with the Masters at all the skills practised by sorcerers, those who work magic but carry no staff: windbringing, weatherworking, finding and binding3, and the arts of spellsmiths and spellwrights, tellers4, chanters, healalls and herbalists. At night alone in his sleeping-cell, a little ball of werelight burning above the book in place of lamp or candle, he studied the Further Runes and the Runes of Ea, which are used in the Great Spells. All these crafts came easy to him, and it was rumored5 among the students that this Master or that had said that the Gontish lad was the quickest student that had ever been at Roke, and tales grew up concerning the otak, which was said to be a disguised spirit who whispered wisdom in Ged's ear, and it was even said that the Archmage's raven7 had hailed Ged at his arrival as "Archmage to be." Whether or not they believed such stories, and whether or not they liked Ged, most of his companions admired him, and were eager to follow him when the rare wild mood came over him and he joined them to lead their games on the lengthening8 evenings of spring. But for the most part he was all work and pride and temper, and held himself apart. Among them all, Vetch being absent, he had no friend, and never knew he wanted one.
He was fifteen, very young to learn any of the High Arts of wizard or mage, those who carry the staff; but he was so quick to learn all the arts of illusion that the Master Changer, himself a young man, soon began to teach him apart from the others, and to tell him about the true Spells of Shaping. He explained how, if a thing is really to be changed into another thing, it must be renamed for as long as the spell lasts, and he told how this affects the names and natures of things surrounding the transformed thing. He spoke9 of the perils10 of changing, above all when the wizard transforms his own shape and thus is liable to be caught in his own spell. Little by little, drawn11 on by the boy's sureness of understanding, the young Master began to do more than merely tell him of these mysteries. He taught him first one and then another of the Great Spells of Change, and he gave him the Book of Shaping to study. This he did without knowledge of the Archmage, and unwisely, yet he meant no harm.
Ged worked also with the Master Summoner now, but that Master was a stern man, aged15 and hardened by the deep and somber16 wizardry he taught. He dealt with no illusion, only true magic, the summoning of such energies as light, and heat, and the force that draws the magnet, and those forces men perceive as weight, form, color, sound: real powers, drawn from the immense fathomless17 energies of the universe, which no man's spells or uses could exhaust or unbalance. The weatherworker's and seamaster's calling upon wind and water were crafts already known to his pupils, but it was he who showed them why the true wizard uses such spells only at need, since to summon up such earthly forces is to change the earth of which they are a part. "Rain on Roke may be drouth in Osskil," he said, "and a calm in the East Reach may be storm and ruin in the West, unless you know what you are about."
As for the calling of real things and living people, and the raising up of spirits of the dead, and the invocations of the Unseen, those spells which are the height of the Summoner's art and the mage's power, those he scarcely spoke of to them. Once or twice Ged tried to lead him to talk a little of such mysteries, but the Master was silent, looking at him long and grimly, till Ged grew uneasy and said no more.
Sometimes indeed he was uneasy working even such lesser18 spells as the Summoner taught him. There were certain runes on certain pages of the Lore-Book that seemed familiar to him, though he did not remember in what book he had ever seen them before. There were certain phrases that must be said in spells of Summoning that he did not like to say. They made him think, for an instant, of shadows in a dark room, of a shut door and shadows reaching out to him from the corner by the door. Hastily he put such thoughts or memories aside and went on. These moments of fear and darkness, he said to himself, were the shadows merely of his ignorance. The more he learned, the less he would have to fear, until finally in his full power as Wizard he needed fear nothing in the world, nothing at all.
In the second month of that summer all the school gathered again at the Great House to celebrate the Moon's Night and the Long Dance, which that year fell together as one festival of two nights, which happens but once in fifty-two years. All the first night, the shortest night of full moon of the year, flutes19 played out in the fields, and the narrow streets of Thwil were full of drums and torches, and the sound of singing went out over the moonlit waters of Roke Bay. As the sun rose next morning the Chanters of Roke began to sing the long Deed of Erreth-Akbe,which tells how the white towers of Havnor were built, and of Erreth-Akbe's journeys from the Old Island, Ea, through all the Archipelago and the Reaches, until at last in the uttermost West Reach on the edge of the Open Sea he met the dragon Orm; and his bones in shattered armor lie among the dragon's bones on the shore of lonely Selidor, but his sword set atop the highest tower of Havnor still burns red in the sunset above the Inmost Sea. When the chant was finished the Long Dance began. Townsfolk and Masters and students and farmers all together, men and women, danced in the warm dust and dusk down all the roads of Roke to the sea-beaches, to the beat of drums and drone of pipes and flutes. Straight out into the sea they danced, under the moon one night past full, and the music was lost in the breakers' sound. As the east grew light they came back up the beaches and the roads, the drums silent and only the flutes playing soft and shrill20. So it was done on every island of the Archipelago that night: one dance, one music binding together the sea-divided lands.
When the Long Dance was over most people slept the day away, and gathered again at evening to eat and drink. There was a group of young fellows, prentices and sorcerers, who had brought their supper out from the refectory to hold private feast in a courtyard of the Great House: Vetch, Jasper, and Ged were there, and six or seven others, and some young lads released briefly21 from the Isolate22 Tower, for this festival had brought even Kurremkarmerruk out. They were all eating and laughing and playing such tricks out of pure frolic as might be the marvel23 of a king's court. One boy had lighted the court with a hundred stars of werelight, colored like jewels, that swung in a slow netted procession between them and the real stars; and a pair of boys were playing bowls with balls of green flame and bowling-pins that leaped and hopped25 away as the ball came near; and all the while Vetch sat crosslegged, eating roast chicken; up in mid-air. One of the younger boys tried to pull him down to earth, but Vetch merely drifted up a little higher, out of reach, and sat calmly smiling on the air. Now and then he tossed away a chicken bone, which turned to an owl14 and flew hooting26 among the netted star-lights. Ged shot breadcrumb arrows after the owls24 and brought them down, and when they touched the ground there they lay, bone and crumb27, all illusion gone. Ged also tried to join Vetch up in the middle of the air, but lacking the key of the spell he had to flap his arms to keep aloft, and they were all laughing at his flights and flaps and bumps. He kept up his foolishness for the laughter's sake, laughing with them, for after those two long nights of dance and moonlight and music and magery he was in a fey and wild mood, ready for whatever might come.
He came lightly down on his feet just beside Jasper at last, and Jasper, who never laughed aloud, moved away saying, "The Sparrowhawk that can't fly..."
"Is Jasper a precious stone?" Ged returned, grinning. "O jewel among sorcerers, O Gem29 of Havnor, sparkle for us!"
The lad that had set the lights dancing sent one down to dance and glitter about Jasper's head. Not quite as cool as usual, frowning, Jasper brushed the light away and snuffed it out with one gesture. "I am sick of boys and noise and foolishness," he said.
"You're getting middle-aged30, lad," Vetch remarked from above.
"If silence and gloom is what you want," put in one of the younger boys, "you could always try the Tower."
Ged said to him, "What is it you want, then, Jasper?"
"I want the company of my equals," Jasper said. "Come on, Vetch. Leave the prentices to their toys."
Ged turned to face Jasper. "What do sorcerers have that prentices lack?" he inquired. His voice was quiet, but all the other boys suddenly fell still, for in his tone as in Jasper's the spite between them now sounded plain and clear as steel coming out of a sheath.
"Power," Jasper said.
"I'll match your power act for act."
"You challenge me?"
"I challenge you."
Vetch had dropped down to the ground, and now he came between them, grim of face. "Duels31 in sorcery are forbidden to us, and well you know it. Let this cease!"
Both Ged and Jasper stood silent, for it was true they knew the law of Roke, and they also knew that Vetch was moved by love, and themselves by hate. Yet their anger was balked32, not cooled. Presently, moving a little aside as if to be heard by Vetch alone, Jasper spoke, with his cool smile: "I think you'd better remind your goatherd friend again of the law that protects him. He looks sulky. I wonder, did he really think I'd accept a challenge from him? a fellow who smells of goats, a prentice who doesn't know the First Change?"
"Jasper," said Ged, "What do you know of what I know?"
For an instant, with no word spoken that any heard, Ged vanished from their sight, and where he had stood a great falcon33 hovered34, opening its hooked beak35 to scream: for one instant, and then Ged stood again in the flickering36 torchlight, his dark gaze on Jasper.
Jasper had taken a step backward, in astonishment37; but now he shrugged38 and said one word: "Illusion."
The others muttered. Vetch said, "That was not illusion. It was true change. And enough. Jasper, listen..."
"Enough to prove that he sneaked39 a look in the Book of Shaping behind the Master's back: what then? Go on, Goatherd. I like this trap you're building for yourself. The more you try to prove yourself my equal, the more you show yourself for what you are."
At that, Vetch turned from Jasper, and said very softly to Ged, "Sparrowhawk, will you be a man and drop this now, come with me..."
Ged looked at his friend and smiled, but all he said was, "Keep Hoeg for me a little while, will you?" He put into Vetch's hands the little otak, which as usual had been riding on his shoulder. It had never let any but Ged touch it, but it came to Vetch now, and climbing up his arm cowered40 on his shoulder, its great bright eyes always on its master.
"Now," Ged said to Jasper, quietly as before, what are you going to do to prove yourself my superior, Jasper?"
I don't have to do anything, Goatherd. Yet I will. I will give you a chance, an opportunity. Envy eats you like a worm in an apple. Let's let out the worm. Once by Roke Knoll41 you boasted that Gontish wizards don't play games. Come to Roke Knoll now and show us what it is they do instead. And afterward42, maybe I will show you a little sorcery."
"Yes, I should like to see that," Ged answered. The younger boys, used to seeing his black temper break out at the least hint of slight or insult, watched him in wonder at his coolness now. Vetch watched him not in wonder, but with growing fear. He tried to intervene again, but Jasper said, "Come, keep out of this, Vetch. What will you do with the chance I give you, Goatherd? Will you show us an illusion, a fireball, a charm to cure goats with the mange?"
"What would you like me to do, Jasper?"
The older lad shrugged, "Summon up a spirit from the dead, for all I care!"
"I will."
"You will not" Jasper looked straight at him, rage suddenly flaming out over his disdain43. "You will not. You cannot. You brag44 and brag..."
"By my name, I will do it!"
They all stood utterly45 motionless for a moment.
Breaking away from Vetch who would have held him back by main force, Ged strode out of the courtyard, not looking back. The dancing werelights overhead died out, sinking down. Jasper hesitated a second, then followed after Ged. An the rest came straggling behind, in silence, curious and afraid.
The slopes of Roke Knoll went up dark into the darkness of summer night before moonrise. The presence of that hill where many wonders had been worked was heavy, like a weight in the air about them. As they came onto the hillside they thought of how the roots of it were deep, deeper than the sea, reaching down even to the old, blind, secret fires at the world's core. They stopped on the east slope. Stars hung over the black grass above them on the hill's crest46. No wind blew.
Ged went a few paces up the slope away from the others and turning said in a clear voice, "Jasper! Whose spirit shall I call?"
"Call whom you like. None will listen to you." Jasper's voice shook a little, with anger perhaps. Ged answered him softly, mockingly, "Are you afraid?"
He did not even listen for Jasper's reply, if he made one. He no longer cared about Jasper. Now that they stood on Roke Knoll, hate and rage were gone, replaced by utter certainty. He need envy no one. He knew that his power, this night, on this dark enchanted47 ground, was greater than it had ever been, filling him till be trembled with the sense of strength barely kept in check. He knew now that Jasper was far beneath him, had been sent perhaps only to bring him here tonight, no rival but a mere13 servant of Ged's destiny. Under his feet he felt the hillroots going down and down into the dark, and over his head he saw the dry, far fires of the stars. Between, all things were his to order, to command. He stood at the center of the world.
"Don't be afraid," he said, smiling. "I'll call a woman's spirit. You need not fear a woman. Elfarran I will call, the fair lady of the Deed of Enlad."
"She died a thousand years ago, her bones lie afar under the Sea of Ea, and maybe there never was such a woman."
"Do years and distances matter to the dead? Do the Songs lie?" Ged said with the same gentle mockery, and then saying, "Watch the air between my hands," he turned away from the others and stood still.
In a great slow gesture he stretched out his arms, the gesture of welcome that opens an invocation. He began to speak.
He had read the runes of this Spell of Summoning in Ogion's book, two years and more ago, and never since had seen them. In darkness he had read them then. Now in this darkness it was as if he read them again on the page open before him in the night. But now he understood what he read, speaking it aloud word after word, and he saw the markings of how the spell must be woven with the sound of the voice and the motion of body and hand.
The other boys stood watching, not speaking, not moving unless they shivered a little: for the great spell was beginning to work. Ged's voice was soft still, but changed, with a deep singing in it, and the words he spoke were not known to them. He fell silent. Suddenly the wind rose roaring in the grass. Ged dropped to his knees and called out aloud. Then he fell forward as if to embrace earth with his outstretched arms, and when he rose he held something dark in his straining hands and arms, something so heavy that he shook with effort getting to his feet. The hot wind whined48 in the black tossing grasses on the hill. If the stars shone now none saw them.
The words of the enchantment49 hissed50 and mumbled51 on Ged's lips, and then he cried out aloud and clearly, "Elfarran!"
Again he cried the name, "Elfarran!"
The shapeless mass of darkness he had lifted split apart. It sundered52, and a pale spindle of light gleamed between his opened arms, a faint oval reaching from the ground up to the height of his raised hands. In the oval of light for a moment there moved a form, a human shape: a tall woman looking back over her shoulder. Her face was beautiful, and sorrowful, and full of fear.
Only for a moment did the spirit glimmer53 there. Then the sallow oval between Ged's arms grew bright. It widened and spread, a rent in the darkness of the earth and night, a ripping open of the fabric54 of the world. Through it blazed a terrible brightness. And through that bright misshapen breach55 clambered something like a clot56 of black shadow, quick and hideous57, and it leaped straight out at Ged's face.
Staggering back under the weight of the thing, Ged gave a short, hoarse58 scream. The little otak watching from Vetch's shoulder, the animal that had no voice, screamed aloud also and leaped as if to attack.
Ged fell, struggling and writhing59, while the bright rip in the world's darkness above him widened and stretched. The boys that watched fled, and Jasper bent60 down to the ground hiding his eyes from the terrible light. Vetch alone ran forward to his friend. So only he saw the lump of shadow that clung to Ged, tearing at his flesh. It was like a black beast, the size of a young child, though it seemed to swell61 and shrink; and it had no head or face, only the four taloned62 paws with which it gripped and tore. Vetch sobbed63 with horror, yet he put out his hands to try to pull the thing away from Ged. Before he touched it, he was bound still, unable to move.
The intolerable brightness faded, and slowly the torn edges of the world closed together. Nearby a voice was speaking as softly as a tree whispers or a fountain plays.
Starlight began to shine again, and the grasses of the hillside were whitened with the light of the moon just rising. The night was healed. Restored and steady lay the balance of light and dark. The shadow-beast was gone. Ged lay sprawled64 on his back, his arms flung out as if they yet kept the wide gesture of welcome and invocation. His face was blackened with blood and there were great black stains on his shirt. The little otak cowered by his shoulder, quivering. And above him stood an old man whose cloak glimmered65 pale in the moonrise: the Archmage Nemmerle.
The end of Nemmerle's staff hovered silvery above Ged's breast. Once gently it touched him over the heart, once on the lips, while Nemmerle whispered. Ged stirred, and his lips parted gasping66 for breath. Then the old Archmage lifted the staff, and set it to earth, and leaned heavily on it with bowed head, as if he had scarcely strength to stand.
Vetch found himself free to move. Looking around, he saw that already others were there, the Masters Summoner and Changer. An act of great wizardry is not worked without arousing such men, and they had ways of coming very swiftly when need called, though none had been so swift as the Archmage. They now sent for help, and some who came went with the Archmage, while others, Vetch among them, carried Ged to the chambers67 of the Master Herbal.
All night long the Summoner stayed on Roke Knoll, keeping watch. Nothing stirred there on the hillside where the stuff of the world had been torn open. No shadow came crawling through moonlight seeking the rent through which it might clamber back into its own domain68. It had fled from Nemmerle, and from the mighty69 spell-walls that surround and protect Roke Island, but it was in the world now. In the world, somewhere, it hid. If Ged had died that night it might have tried to find the doorway70 he had opened, and follow him into death's realm, or slip back into whatever place it had come from; for this the Summoner waited on Roke Knoll. But Ged lived.
They had laid him abed in the healing-chamber, and the Master Herbal tended the wounds he had on his face and throat and shoulder. They were deep, ragged71, and evil wounds. The black blood in them would not stanch72, welling out even under the charms and the cobweb-wrapped perriot leaves laid upon them. Ged lay blind and dumb in fever like a stick in a slow fire, and there was no spell to cool what burned him.
Not far away, in the unroofed court where the fountain played, the Archmage lay also unmoving, but cold, very cold: only his eyes lived, watching the fall of moonlit water and the stir of moonlit leaves. Those with him said no spells and worked no healing. Quietly they spoke among themselves from time to time, and then turned again to watch their Lord. He lay still, hawk28 nose and high forehead and white hair bleached73 by moonlight all to the color of bone. To check the ungoverned spell and drive off the shadow from Ged, Nemmerle had spent all his power, and with it his bodily strength was gone. He lay dying. But the death of a great mage, who has many times in his life walked on the dry steep hillsides of death's kingdom, is a strange matter: for the dying man goes not blindly, but surely, knowing the way. When Nemmerle looked up through the leaves of the tree, those with him did not know if he watched the stars of summer fading in daybreak, or those other stars, which never set above the hills that see no dawn.
The raven of Osskil that had been his pet for thirty years was gone. No one had seen where it went. "It flies before him," the Master Patterner said, as they kept vigil.
The day came warm and clear. The Great House and the streets of Thwil were hushed. No voice was raised, until along towards noon iron bells spoke out aloud in the Chanter's Tower, harshly tolling74.
On the next day the Nine Masters of Roke gathered in a place somewhere under the dark trees of the Immanent Grove. Even there they set nine walls of silence about them, that no person or power might speak to them or hear them as they chose from amongst the mages of all Earthsea him who would be the new Archmage. Gensher of Way was chosen. A ship was sent forth75 at once across the Inmost Sea to Way Island to bring the Archmage back to Roke. The Master Windkey stood in the stern and raised up the magewind into the sail, and quickly the ship departed, and was gone.
Of these events Ged knew nothing. For four weeks of that hot summer he lay blind, and deaf, and mute, though at times he moaned and cried out like an animal. At last, as the patient crafts of the Master Herbal worked their healing, his wounds began to close and the fever left him. Little by little he seemed to hear again, though he never spoke. On a clear day of autumn the Master Herbal opened the shutters76 of the room where Ged lay. Since the darkness of that night on Roke Knoll he had known only darkness. Now he saw daylight, and the sun shining. He hid his scarred face in his hands and wept.
Still when winter came he could speak only with a stammering77 tongue, and the Master Herbal kept him there in the healing-chambers, trying to lead his body and mind gradually back to strength. It was early spring when at last the Master released him, sending him first to offer his fealty78 to the Archmage Gensher. For he had not been able to join all the others of the School in this duty when Gensher came to Roke.
None of his companions had been allowed to visit him in the months of his sickness, and now as he passed some of them asked one another, "Who is that?" He had been light and lithe79 and strong. Now, lamed80 by pain, he went hesitantly, and did not raise his face, the left side of which was white with scars. He avoided those who knew him and those who did not, and made his way straight to the court of the Fountain. There where once he had awaited Nemmerle, Gensher awaited him.
Like the old Archmage the new one was cloaked in white; but like most men of Way and the East Reach Gensher was black-skinned, and his look was black, under thick brows.
Ged knelt and offered him fealty and obedience81. Gensher was silent a while.
"I know what you did," he said at last, "but not what you are. I cannot accept your fealty."
Ged stood up, and set his hand on the trunk of the young tree beside the fountain to steady himself. He was still very slow to find words. "Am I to leave Roke, my lord?"
"Do you want to leave Roke?"
"No."
"What do you want?"
"To stay. To learn. To undo82... the evil..."
"Nemmerle himself could not do that. No, I would not let you go from Roke. Nothing protects you but the power of the Masters here and the defenses laid upon this island that keep the creatures of evil away. If you left now, the thing you loosed would find you at once, and enter into you, and possess you. You would be no man but a gebbeth, a puppet doing the will of that evil shadow which you raised up into the sunlight. You must stay here, until you gain strength and wisdom enough to defend yourself from it, if ever you do. Even now it waits for you. Assuredly it waits for you. Have you seen it since that night?"
"In dreams, lord." After a while Ged went on, speaking with pain and shame, "Lord Gensher, I do not know what it was, the thing that came out of the spell and cleaved83 to me..."
"Nor do I know. It has no name. You have great power inborn84 in you, and you used that power wrongly, to work a spell over which you had no control, not knowing how that spell affects the balance of light and dark, life and death, good and evil. And you were moved to do this by pride and by hate. Is it any wonder the result was ruin? You summoned a spirit from the dead, but with it came one of the Powers of unlife. Uncalled it came from a place where there are no names. Evil, it wills to work evil through you. The power you had to call it gives it power over you: you are connected. It is the shadow of your arrogance85, the shadow of your ignorance, the shadow you cast. Has a shadow a name?"
Ged stood sick and haggard. He said at last, "Better I had died."
"Who are you to judge that, you for whom Nemmerle gave his life? You are safe here. You will live here, and go on with your training. They tell me you were clever. Go on and do your work. Do it well. It is all you can do."
So Gensher ended, and was suddenly gone, as is the way of mages. The fountain leaped in the sunlight, and Ged watched it a while and listened to its voice, thinking of Nemmerle. Once in that court he had felt himself to be a word spoken by the sunlight. Now the darkness also had spoken: a word that could not be unsaid.
He left the court, going to his old room in the South Tower, which they had kept empty for him. He stayed there alone. When the gong called to supper he went, but he would hardly speak to the other lads at the Long Table, or raise his face to them, even those who greeted him most gently. So after a day or two they all left him alone. To be alone was his desire, for he feared the evil he might do or say unwittingly.
Neither Vetch nor Jasper was there, and he did not ask about them. The boys be had led and lorded over were all ahead of him now, because of the months he had lost, and that spring and summer he studied with lads younger than himself. Nor did he shine among them, for the words of any spell, even the simplest illusion-charm, came halting from his tongue, and his hands faltered86 at their craft.
In autumn he was to go once again to the Isolate Tower to study with the Master Namer. This task which he had once dreaded87 now pleased him, for silence was what he sought, and long learning where no spells were wrought88, and where that power which he knew was still in him would never be called upon to act.
The night before he left for the Tower a visitor came to his room, one wearing a brown travelling-cloak and carrying a staff of oak shod with iron. Ged stood up, at sight of the wizard's staff.
"Sparrowhawk..."
At the sound of the voice, Ged raised his eyes: it was Vetch standing12 there, solid and foursquare as ever, his black blunt face older but his smile unchanged. On his shoulder crouched89 a little beast, brindle-furred and brighteyed.
"He stayed with me while you were sick, and now I'm sorry to part with him. And sorrier to part with you, Sparrowhawk. But I'm going home. Here, hoeg! go to your true master!" Vetch patted the otak and set it down on the floor. It went and sat on Ged's pallet, and began to wash its fur with a dry brown tongue like a little leaf. Vetch laughed, but Ged could not smile. He bent down to hide his face, stroking the otak.
"I thought you wouldn't come to me, Vetch," he said.
He did not mean any reproach, but Vetch answered, "I couldn't come to you. The Master Herbal forbade me; and since winter I've been with the Master in the Grove, locked up myself. I was not free, until I earned my staff. Listen: when you too are free, come to the East Reach. I will be waiting for you. There's good cheer in the little towns there, and wizards are well received."
"Free..." Ged muttered, and shrugged a little, trying to smile.
Vetch looked at him, not quite as he had used to look, with no less love but more wizardry, perhaps. He said gently, "You won't stay bound on Roke forever."
"Well... I have thought, perhaps I may come to work with the Master in the Tower, to be one of those who seek among the books and the stars for lost names, and so... so do no more harm, if not much good... "
"Maybe," said Vetch. "I am no seer, but I see before you, not rooms and books, but far seas, and the fire of dragons, and the towers of cities, and all such things a hawk sees when he flies far and high."
"And behind me, what do you see behind me?" Ged asked, and stood up as he spoke, so that the werelight that burned overhead between them sent his shadow back against the wall and floor. Then he turned his face aside and said, stammering, "But tell me where you will go, what you will do."
"I will go home, to see my brothers and the sister you have heard me speak of. I left her a little child and soon she'll be having her Naming, it's strange to think of! And so I'll find me a job of wizardry somewhere among the little isles90. Oh, I would stay and talk with you, but I can't, my ship goes out tonight and the tide is turned already. Sparrowhawk, if ever your way lies East, come to me. And if ever you need me, send for me, call on me by my name: Estarriol."
At that Ged lifted his scarred face, meeting his friend's eyes.
"Estarriol," he said, "my name is Ged."
Then quietly they bade each other farewell, and Vetch turned and went down the stone hallway, and left Roke.
Ged stood still a while, like one who has received great news, and must enlarge his spirit to receive it. It was a great gift that Vetch had given him, the knowledge of his true name.
No one knows a man's true name but himself and his namer. He may choose at length to tell it to his brother, or his wife, or his friend, yet even those few will never use it where any third person may hear it. In front of other people they will, like other people, call him by his use-name, his nickname, such a name as Sparrowhawk, and Vetch, and Ogion which means "fir-cone". If plain men hide their true name from all but a few they love and trust utterly, so much more must wizardly men, being more dangerous, and more endangered. Who knows a man's name, holds that man's life in his keeping. Thus to Ged who had lost faith in himself, Vetch had given that gift only a friend can give, the proof of unshaken, unshakable trust.
Ged sat down on his pallet and let the globe of werelight die, giving off as it faded a faint whiff of marsh-gas. He petted the otak, which stretched comfortably and went to sleep on his knee as if it had never slept anywhere else. The Great House was silent. It came to Ged's mind that this was the eve of his own Passage, the day on which Ogion had given him his name. Four years were gone since then. He remembered the coldness of the mountain spring through which he had walked naked and unnamed. He fell to thinking of other bright pools in the River Ar, where he had used to swim; and of Ten Alders92 village under the great slanting93 forests of the mountain; of the shadows of morning across the dusty village street, the fire leaping under bellows-blast in the smith's smelting-pit on a winter afternoon, the witch's dark fragrant94 but where the air was heavy with smoke and wreathing spells. He had not thought of these things for a long time. Now they came back to him, on this night he was seventeen years old. All the years and places of his brief broken life came within mind's reach and made a whole again. He knew once more, at last, after this long, bitter, wasted time, who he was and where he was.
But where he must go in the years to come, that he could not see; and he feared to see it.
Next morning he set out across the island, the otak riding on his shoulder as it had used to. This time it took him three days, not two, to walk to the Isolate Tower, and he was bone-weary when he came in sight of the Tower above the spitting, hissing95 seas of the northern cape96. Inside, it was dark as he remembered, and cold as he remembered, and Kurremkarmerruk sat on his high seat writing down lists of names. He glanced at Ged and said without welcome, as if Ged had never been away, "Go to bed; tired is stupid. Tomorrow you may open the Book of the Undertakings97 of the Makers98, learning the names therein."
At winter's end he returned to the Great House. He was made sorcerer then, and the Archmage Gensher accepted at that time his fealty. Thenceforth he studied the high arts and enchantments99, passing beyond arts of illusion to the works of real magery, learning what he must know to earn his wizard's staff. The trouble he had had in speaking spells wore off over the months, and skill returned into his hands: yet he was never so quick to learn as he had been, having learned a long hard lesson from fear. Yet no ill portents100 or encounters followed on his working even of the Great Spells of Making and Shaping, which are most perilous101. He came to wonder at times if the shadow he had loosed might have grown weak, or fled somehow out of the world, for it came no more into his dreams. But in his heart he knew such hope was folly102.
From the Masters and from ancient lore-books Ged learned what he could about such beings as this shadow he had loosed; little was there to learn. No such creature was described or spoken of directly.
There were at best hints here and there in the old books of things that might be like the shadow-beast. It was not a ghost of human man, nor was it a creature of the Old Powers of Earth, and yet it seemed it might have some link with these. In the Matter of the Dragons, which Ged read very closely, there was a tale of an ancient Dragonlord who had come under the sway of one of the Old Powers, a speaking stone that lay in a far northern land. "At the Stone's command," said the book, "he did speak to raise up a dead spirit out of the realm of the dead, but his wizardry being bent awry103 by the Stone's will there came with the dead spirit also a thing not summoned, which did devour104 him out from within and in his shape walked, destroying men." But the book did not say what the thing was, nor did it tell the end of the tale. And the Masters did not know where such a shadow might come from: from unlife, the Archmage had said; from the wrong side of the world, said the Master Changer; and the Master Summoner said, "I do not know." The Summoner had come often to sit with Ged in his illness. He was grim and grave as ever, but Ged knew now his compassion105, and loved him well. "I do not know. I know of the thing only this: that only a great power could have summoned up such a thing, and perhaps only one power, only one voice, your voice. But what in turn that means, I do not know. You will find out. You must find out, or die, and worse than die..." He spoke softly and his eyes were somber as he looked at Ged. "You thought, as a boy, that a mage is one who can do anything. So I thought, once. So did we all. And the truth is that as a man's real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do...'
The Archmage sent Ged, after his eighteenth birthday, to work with the Master Patterner. What is learned in the Immanent Grove is not much talked about elsewhere. It is said that no spells are worked there, and yet the place itself is an enchantment. Sometimes the trees of that Grove, are seen, and sometimes they are not seen, and they are not always in the same place and part of Roke Island. It is said that the trees of the Grove themselves are wise. It is said that the Master Patterner learns his supreme106 magery there within the Grove, and if ever the trees should die so shall his wisdom die, and in those days the waters will rise and drown the islands of Earthsea which Segoy raised from the deeps in the time before myth, all the lands where men and dragons dwell.
But all this is hearsay107; wizards will not speak of it.
The months went by, and at last on a day of spring Ged returned to the Great House, and he had no idea what would be asked of him next. At the door that gives on the path across the fields to Roke Knoll an old man met him, waiting for him in the doorway. At first Ged did not know him, and then putting his mind to it recalled him as the one who had let him into the School on the day of his coming, five years ago.
The old man smiled, greeting him by name, and asked, "Do you know who I am?"
Now Ged had thought before of how it was always said, the Nine Masters of Roke, although he knew only eight: Windkey, Hand, Herbal, Chanter, Changer, Summoner, Namer, Patterner. It seemed that people spoke of the Archmage as the ninth. Yet when a new Archmage was chosen, nine Masters met to choose him.
"I think you are the Master Doorkeeper," said Ged.
"I am. Ged, you won entrance to Roke by saying your name. Now you may win your freedom of it by saying mine." So said the old man smiling, and waited. Ged stood dumb.
He knew a thousand ways and crafts and means for finding out names of things and of men, of course; such craft was a part of everything he had learned at Roke, for without it there could be little useful magic done. But to find out the name of a Mage and Master was another matter. A mage's name is better hidden than a herring in the sea, better guarded than a dragon's den6. A prying108 charm will be met with a stronger charm, subtle devices will fail, devious109 inquiries110 will be deviously111 thwarted112, and force will be turned ruinously back upon itself.
"You keep a narrow door, Master," said Ged at last. "I must sit out in the fields here, I think, and fast till I grow thin enough to slip through"
"As long as you like," said the Doorkeeper, smiling.
So Ged went off a little way and sat down under an alder91 on the banks of the Thwilburn, letting his otak run down to play in the stream and hunt the muddy banks for creekcrabs. The sun went down, late and bright, for spring was well along. Lights of lantern and werelight gleamed in the windows of the Great House, and down the hill the streets of Thwil town filled with darkness. Owls hooted113 over the roofs and bats flitted in the dusk air above the stream, and still Ged sat thinking how he might, by force, ruse114, or sorcery, learn the Doorkeeper's name. The more he pondered the less he saw, among all the arts of witchcraft115 he had learned in these five years on Roke, any one that would serve to wrest116 such a secret from such a mage.
He lay down in the field and slept under the stars, with the otak nestling in his pocket. After the sun was up he went, still fasting, to the door of the House and knocked. The Doorkeeper opened.
"Master," said Ged, "I cannot take your name from you, not being strong enough, and I cannot trick your name from you, not being wise enough. So I am content to stay here, and learn or serve, whatever you will: unless by chance you will answer a question I have."
"Ask it."
"What is your name?"
The Doorkeeper smiled, and said his name: and Ged, repeating it, entered for the last time into that House.
When he left it again he wore a heavy dark-blue cloak, the gift of the township of Low Torning, whereto be was bound, for they wanted a wizard there. He carried also a staff of his own height, carved of yew-wood, bronze-shod. The Doorkeeper bade him farewell opening the back door of the Great House for him, the door of horn and ivory, and he went down the streets of Thwil to a ship that waited for him on the bright water in the morning.
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secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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binding
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| 有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的 | |
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tellers
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| n.（银行）出纳员( teller的名词复数 )；（投票时的）计票员；讲故事等的人；讲述者 | |
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rumored
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| adj.传说的，谣传的v.传闻( rumor的过去式和过去分词 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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raven
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| n.渡鸟，乌鸦；adj.乌亮的 | |
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lengthening
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的现在分词 )； 加长 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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owl
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| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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somber
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| adj.昏暗的，阴天的，阴森的，忧郁的 | |
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fathomless
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| a.深不可测的 | |
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lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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flutes
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| 长笛( flute的名词复数 )； 细长香槟杯（形似长笛） | |
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shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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isolate
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| vt.使孤立，隔离 | |
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marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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owls
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| n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 ) | |
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hopped
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| 跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花 | |
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hooting
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| （使）作汽笛声响，作汽车喇叭声( hoot的现在分词 )； 倒好儿； 倒彩 | |
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crumb
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| n.饼屑，面包屑，小量 | |
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hawk
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| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
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gem
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| n.宝石，珠宝；受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
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middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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duels
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| n.两男子的决斗( duel的名词复数 )；竞争，斗争 | |
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balked
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| v.畏缩不前，犹豫( balk的过去式和过去分词 )；（指马）不肯跑 | |
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falcon
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| n.隼，猎鹰 | |
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hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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beak
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| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
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flickering
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| adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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sneaked
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| v.潜行( sneak的过去式和过去分词 )；偷偷溜走；（儿童向成人）打小报告；告状 | |
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cowered
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| v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的过去式 ) | |
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knoll
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| n.小山，小丘 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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brag
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| v./n.吹牛，自夸；adj.第一流的 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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enchanted
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| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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whined
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| v.哀号( whine的过去式和过去分词 )；哀诉，诉怨 | |
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enchantment
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| n.迷惑，妖术，魅力 | |
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hissed
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| 发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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mumbled
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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sundered
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| v.隔开，分开( sunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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clot
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| n.凝块；v.使凝成块 | |
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hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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writhing
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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taloned
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sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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sprawled
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| v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的过去式和过去分词)；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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glimmered
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| v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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stanch
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| v.止住（血等）；adj.坚固的；坚定的 | |
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bleached
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| 漂白的，晒白的，颜色变浅的 | |
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tolling
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| [财]来料加工 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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stammering
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的现在分词 ) | |
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fealty
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| n.忠贞，忠节 | |
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lithe
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| adj.(指人、身体)柔软的，易弯的 | |
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lamed
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| 希伯莱语第十二个字母 | |
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obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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undo
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| vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销 | |
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cleaved
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| v.劈开，剁开，割开( cleave的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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inborn
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| adj.天生的，生来的，先天的 | |
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arrogance
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| n.傲慢，自大 | |
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faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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89
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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90
isles
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| 岛( isle的名词复数 ) | |
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91
alder
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| n.赤杨树 | |
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92
alders
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| n.桤木( alder的名词复数 ) | |
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93
slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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94
fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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95
hissing
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| n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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96
cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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97
undertakings
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| 企业( undertaking的名词复数 )； 保证； 殡仪业； 任务 | |
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98
makers
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| n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式） | |
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99
enchantments
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| n.魅力( enchantment的名词复数 )；迷人之处；施魔法；着魔 | |
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100
portents
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| n.预兆( portent的名词复数 )；征兆；怪事；奇物 | |
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101
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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102
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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103
awry
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| adj.扭曲的，错的 | |
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104
devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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105
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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106
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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107
hearsay
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| n.谣传，风闻 | |
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108
prying
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| adj.爱打听的v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的现在分词 )；撬开 | |
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109
devious
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| adj.不坦率的，狡猾的；迂回的，曲折的 | |
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110
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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111
deviously
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| 弯曲地，绕道地 | |
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112
thwarted
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| 阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过 | |
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113
hooted
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| （使）作汽笛声响，作汽车喇叭声( hoot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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114
ruse
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| n.诡计，计策；诡计 | |
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115
witchcraft
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| n.魔法，巫术 | |
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116
wrest
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| n.扭，拧，猛夺；v.夺取，猛扭，歪曲 | |
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