Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Chase

It was still winter darkness outside when Ged went out.He started down the mountain from Reyabai Town, and arrived at Gont Port before noon.On him were the leggings of the bow, and the waistcoat of leather and linen, which Ogion had given him in place of the finery of Osskor, and he was well fitted, but Ged still kept the fur boots The large cloak in the bag is needed for this winter trip.So he put on his cloak, and taking only a staff as high as himself, came to the gate of the city.The guards slouched against the carved dragon pillars, and it didn't take a second glance to see that Ged was a wizard, and they moved their spears away without asking, let him pass, and watched him down the street.

He inquired about boat schedules at the pier and the Ocean Guild Hall, etc., looking for ships heading north or west to Enlad, Andro, and Aurenia.Otsuka replied to him: The return of the sun is approaching, and there are currently no ships leaving the port of Gont.In the guild hall, everyone told him that due to the unstable weather, even fishing boats did not plan to sail out of Xiongwu Shuangya. They entertained him for dinner in the hall pantry.Wizards rarely need to ask for a meal.He sat for a while with the longshoremen, shipwrights, shipwrights, weathermans, and others, and listened with pleasure to their chatter and babbling, the slow, leisurely Gont chatter and grunt mannerisms.There was a strong desire in his heart to stay on the island of Gont, to give up all witchcraft and adventure, forget all power and fear, and live as peacefully as every man in this familiar and friendly land at home.This is his wish, but not his will.He found that there was no ship to leave the port, so he didn't stay in the Ocean Club for long, and he didn't stay in the city for a long time.He began to walk along the shore of the bay until he came to a few small villages north of Gont, and asked some fishermen nearby, and at last he found a fisherman who had a boat with which to go to sea.

The fisherman is a stern old man. His captain is twelve feet long. The outer plank of the ship is made of scales. It is very crooked and cracked. On himself and his son, each practiced the navigation safety technique for a whole year.For the Gont fishermen fear nothing, not even wizards, but the sea. The safety of navigation, which the North Islands region values, has not generally saved the Gondites from storms or stormy waves, but if it is cast by a local who is familiar with the adjacent seas, shipbuilding methods, and navigation skills, it can usually be done. To achieve the effect of daily security.Ged cast the spell faithfully and faithfully, spending a day and a night in it, step by step with steady patience, missing nothing; but all the while under the pressure of fear, his thoughts kept slipping down dark paths, imagining what the shadow would next be upon him. Appear in front of you, how quickly you appear, and where you appear.When the spell was done, he was so tired that he slept that night in a hammock in the fisherman's hut, and woke up at dawn smelling like dried herring.Ged immediately went to the little bay at the bottom of the North Cliff, where his new ship was moored.

He used the platform by the bay to push the boat into the calm water, and the sea immediately rushed into the boat.Ged stepped into the skiff as lightly as a kitten, and hastily straightened the crooked planks and rotting posts.He used tools and sorcery at the same time as he had done with Peveri in Lower Thorning.The villagers gathered quietly, not far away, to watch Ged's fast hands and listen to his soft chanting.He also carried out this work steadily and patiently step by step until it was all completed and the boat was completely watertight.Then, he erected the walking stick that Ogion made for him as a mast, injected mana into it, and tied a piece of gen wood across it as a sail yard.

From this yard he wove a square spellsail, as white as the snow on the summit of Gont.Seeing this, the women exclaimed in admiration.Then Ged stood by the mast, and the wind of spells rose gently, and the boat glided out, across the bay, toward the mighty Twin Cliffs.The villagers who watched silently saw this paddle boat, which could take in water, turn into a watertight sailboat and go out to sea as lightly and neatly as a sandogull spreading its wings. They couldn't help cheering, laughing and dancing against the winter wind by the sea.Ged looked back for a moment, and saw the villagers cheering him farewell under the jagged and dark rocks of Wubei Cliff; above the cliff was the cloudless Mount Gongte, and the mountains were covered with snow.

Ged sailed across the bay, passed the mighty rocks of the Twin Cliffs, entered the Sea of ​​Gont, and began to sail to the northwest, passed north of Aurenia, and returned by the way he had come.There is no planning committee or strategy in this voyage, it is purely a retracement of the journey.Since the shadow had followed his hawking route across the wind and sun from Osskor, it was anyone's guess whether it might wander along this route or come straight.But unless it had receded completely into the realm of dreams, Ged should not be missed, and this time he openly crossed the open sea to fight it.

If shadows must be fought, Ged hoped it would be at sea.He wasn't quite sure why he was looking forward to it, but he dreaded another encounter with the thing on dry land.Although there may be storms and sea monsters on the sea, there is no evil force, evil belongs to the land.And there was no sea, nor river or spring, in that dark land where Ged had been before.Dry land represents dead silence.The sea was dangerous to Ged even in bad weather.But he seemed to feel that the danger, change and instability were instead a kind of defense and opportunity.If he could meet the black shadow at the end of his foolishness this time, he might at least be able to hold on to it as it did to him before, and use the weight of his own body, the weight of his own death, to hold onto it. dragged into the darkness of the deep sea, then, since it is grasped, it will probably never rise again in the future.In this way, at least the evil he unleashed while he was alive can be ended with his death.

He was sailing on rough seas, with clouds hanging overhead like a great mourning veil.At present, he does not raise the magic wind, but sails by the natural wind.The wind was blowing fiercely from the north, and as long as he kept up that spell-sail with whispered spells often, the sail itself would try to hold the wind.Had it not been for the use of the spell, he would have never been able to steer the strange boat this way on the rough sea.He moved on, keeping a keen eye on all sides.As he set out, the fisherman's wife gave him two loaves and a jug of water.After driving for several hours, he first saw the only small island between Gont and Aurenia, Cambor Rock.Ged ate the bread and drank the water, and was grateful to the silent fisherwoman at home who had given the food.After sailing past the seemingly remote island, he continued westward, and there was a drizzle on the sea. If it was on land, it might have turned into light snow.There is silence all around, only the gentle creaking of the boat and the sound of the waves lapping the bow.No ships passed by, no birds flew by.Everything is still, only the ever-turbulent sea and the floating clouds are moving.The westbound route he was traveling now was the same route he had flown when he transformed into an eagle, only then he was heading east.He still vaguely remembered those clouds floating around him now.Then he looked down at the gray sea, now he looks up at the gray sky.

He looked around, but there was nothing in front of him.He stood up, stiff and tired of staring around the emptiness. "Come out," he murmured then, "Come out, shadow, what are you waiting for?" There was no answer, and nothing darker moved among the gray sea fog and waves.But he became more and more sure that the thing was not far from him, and was blindly looking for cold clues.Then suddenly Ged cried out, "Here I am, I, Ged, Sparrowhawk, and I call my shadow!" The boat is moving forward, the waves are whispering, and the sea breeze is blowing the white sails.Some time passed, and Ged still waited, with one hand on the yew mast, and his eyes watching the icy drizzle from the north, slowly drawing jagged lines across the sea.Then, in the rain far out on the sea, he saw dark shadows coming towards him.

It had done away with the body of Osskol oarsman Squiw, so it was not in the form of a corpse to follow Ged across the sea; nor as Ged saw at Roke Knoll or in dreams Turn into a monster.But now it has shape even in broad daylight.In pursuing Ged and fighting with him in the wilderness, it had taken his power and sucked it into itself.Ged, calling it in broad daylight now, may have thus given it or imbued it with some form and substance. It is indeed a bit like a person now, but because it is a shadow, it cannot cast a shadow.Thus it crossed the sea, and came out of Jachang of Enlad toward the Isle of Gont, and a dark and evil thing advanced on the waves, watching the wind as it went, and the icy rain pierced it.

The daylight made it half-blind, and because Ged called to it, Ged saw it before it saw Ged.In the vast sea of ​​people and shadows, he can recognize it, and it can recognize him. Standing in terrible solitude on the winter sea, Ged saw what he had dreaded.The wind seemed to chase it away, but the waves beneath it confused Ged's eyes, and made it seem to him instead that it was coming nearer to him.Ged wondered if it moved at all, and now it saw him too.Though Ged felt nothing but horror and dread in his heart at its touch, a cold, dark agony that ate away at him, still he waited.Then, suddenly, Ged uttered a spell, and strengthened the spellwind, and turned the wind into the sails, and his ship flew straight across the fading waves, toward the sinking shadow that hung in the wind . The black shadow swayed silently, turned and fled. To the north the shadow fled against the wind, and Ged's ship followed; the shadow's speed against the mage's skill, and the rainy wind against both of them.Young Ged shouted to his ship, to his sails, to the wind, to the billows ahead, as a hunter shouts to his prey when he sees the fox flee from him.The wind he cast into the sails was strong enough to blow away sails made of normal canvas, but now the gust of wind carried his boat across the sea like a puff of foam, getting closer and closer to the fleeing shadow. At this time, the black shadow turned around and circled half a circle, suddenly looking loose and dark, not like a human figure, but like smoke blowing in the wind.It turned back and raced along the strong wind, as if heading for Gont. Ged turned the boat with hand and spell, and leaped from the water like a dolphin and circled rapidly.He followed faster than before, but the black shadow seemed more and more blurred.The cold rain with the rain cloud stung Ged's back and left cheek, and he could see no more than a hundred yards ahead.The storm intensified, and the shadow was soon gone, but Ged knew its track as if he were following prey on the snow, and not a fleeing ghost on the water.Although he was now with the wind, he still chanted the spell wind into the sail, so the spray shot out from the blunt prow, and the ship beat the waves. The pursuer and the escaped stalemate on this strange galloping route for a long time, and the sky quickly darkened.Ged knew that in their rapid pursuit for hours they must have reached the south of Gont, turned their backs on Gont, and were heading for Spivey or Tohowin, or even crossed these islands into the open Borderlands.He couldn't know for sure, but it didn't matter, he kept hunting, kept following, fear running ahead of him. Suddenly, he saw a black shadow flashing not far from him.At this time, the natural wind has gradually subsided, and the storm has gradually slowed down, turning into a biting cold fog that is gradually thickening.Through the mists Ged caught a glimpse of shadows fleeing to his right, and he spoke to the wind and the sail, then turned the tiller and looked to the right.It's just that this is another blind pursuit, because the fog is rapidly thickening, and when it encounters the magic wind, it will be even more noisy, covering all around the ship, forming an invisible white steel that conceals light and vision. But as soon as Ged said the first word of the Clearing Charm, he saw the shadow still to his right, and very near, moving slowly.I saw thick mist flying through the blurred part of its head without lids, but its shape was still human, only deformed, and changing like a shadow.Ged turned the boat again, thinking he had chased the enemy to the end, but at that moment it was gone!It was his own boat that had come to a dead end, hitting the rocks of the sandbar and running aground -- the fog had prevented him from seeing those rocks.He was nearly thrown overboard, but he grabbed hold of the cane-mast before another wave hit. It was a monstrous wave, which threw the boat out of the water, and crashed down on the rocks like a man lifting a snail shell and smashing it to the ground. The cane cut by Ogion was strong and powerful. It didn't break in this fall, but it just floated on the surface of the sea like a dry oak log. Ged held on to the cane tightly, and the waves returned from the sandbar to form the second wave. When it surges, it is also washed back to the sea, and is saved from being seriously injured and killed by another wave hitting the rocks.The salt irritated his eyes and blinded him and made him choke on the water, but he still managed to keep his head up and resist the tremendous pull of the water.He caught a few glimpses of sand next to the rocks as he tried to swim between the waves.With all his strength, and with the help of the witch's staff, he swam desperately towards the beach, but he couldn't move forward.In the turbulent waves, the waves came and went, and he was thrown around like a waste.The cold of the sea also quickly took away his body heat, weakening him to the point where he could no longer move his arms.Now the rocks and the sand were out of sight, and he knew not where his face was, but all around and above him was the stirring of the sea, blinding him, suffocating him, drowning him.Under the thick fog, a big wave came, turned him over and over again, threw him into the air like a driftwood, and fell on the sand. There he lay, still clutching his yew cane in both hands.Smaller waves kept coming up and covering his body, trying to pull him down.The fog cleared and came again, and then the rain and snow fell and lapped at him. It was a long time before Ged moved.They got up on hands and knees and slowly climbed up the sand and away from the water.It was already dark at this time, he whispered to the cane, and a tiny scenery immediately climbed above the cane.Using the light as a guide, he struggled forward and climbed up the sand dunes bit by bit.Ged was terribly wounded, weary, and cold, and climbing the wet and windy ground was the hardest thing he had ever done in his life.Once or twice it seemed to him that the sea and the rumbling of the wind and rain had died down, that the wet sand under his hands had turned to dry dust, and that strange stars were staring intently at his back.But he didn't look up, just continued to climb.After a while, he heard himself panting, and felt the biting cold wind with rain on his face. The crawling finally brought some warmth back to Ged.When he climbed to the sand dunes where the wind and rain were relatively gentle, he barely stood up. It was extremely dark all around, so he chanted a spell on the cane to enhance the light, and continued to walk forward leaning on the cane.We walked about half a mile inland, and at the high point of the dunes Ged heard the sound of the sea grow louder, but coming from ahead instead of behind.It turned out that from here, the sand dunes are downhill again, leading to another coast.It seemed that what he landed on was not an island, but a coral reef, just a speck of sand in the ocean. Ged was too exhausted to feel hopeless, but he could not help sobbing, and he stood there leaning on his stick, bewildered for a long time.Then, he turned sideways to the right, at least letting the cold wind blow on his back, and then dragged his body down the sand dune, intending to find a place to land on the ice-covered, snow-covered, seaweed-covered sand dune to temporarily avoid the wind and cold.Just as he raised his cane to illuminate the road, he accidentally caught a glimpse of a glimmer of light on the outer edge of the false halo, a wooden wall soaked by rain. It was a hut or shed, tiny and loose, as if it had been built by a child.Ged knocked lightly on the little low door with his stick, but there was no answer.Ged pushed the door open, and he had to bend almost ninety degrees to get in, and he couldn't stand up straight in the hut. The charcoal was burning red in the fire pit inside the house, and in the faint light of the charcoal fire, he saw an old man with long white hair frightened leaning against the farthest wall, and another person who couldn't tell whether he was a man or a woman, Peek under a pile of blankets or hides on the floor. "I won't hurt you," whispered Ged. They did not speak, and Ged looked from one to the other.Their eyes were darkened with fear.Those under the blanket hid themselves and wept as Ged lowered his staff.Ged tore off his cloak, which was damp and heavy with rain and icy water, and took off his other clothes, and huddled naked by the firepit. "Give me something to wrap around me," he said.His voice was hoarse, and due to the chattering of his teeth, he was shivering for a long time, and he could hardly speak. Even if the two people in the room could hear him, they couldn't understand why and couldn't answer.He reached out and pulled out a blanket from the bed. It might be sheepskin, or it might have a long history, and it was full of holes and dirt.The man under the bedstack howled in terror, but Ged paid no attention.He dried himself off, and then said in a low voice, "Have you any firewood? Make the fire hotter. I've come to ask for help, old man, and I don't mean to hurt you." The old man didn't move, but just stared at him in fear. "Do you understand me? Don't you speak Hittish?" Ged paused, and then asked: "Karg?" At the sound of Karg, the old man nodded, like a sad old puppet on a string.But that was the only Kargic language Ged knew, so they could not continue their conversation.Ged found a wood-pile by one wall, and kindled a fire himself, and beckoned for water, and was now parched with thirst, as the sea-water he had swallowed had hurt him so much.The old man shrank, pointed to a large shell containing water, and pushed another shell containing dried smoked fish to the fire.So Ged sat cross-legged by the fire, ate and drank a little, and when his strength and senses recovered a little, he began to wonder where he was.He could not have sailed to the Karg Isles even with the magic wind, so the island must now be in the Territory, east of Gont, but still west of Carigol.Strange that anyone should live in such a small, deserted place, which is no more than a tiny sandbar; these two were probably outcasts.But Ged was too tired to find out for a moment. He kept turning his cloak towards the fire, drying the silvery-white fleece first, and when the fleece on the outside was warm, although it was not completely dry, he wrapped his body in the cloak and stretched out beside the fire . "Sleep, poor old couple." He said to his silent master, and put his head directly on the sand and fell asleep.He slept on that unnamed island for three days.When I woke up the first morning, every muscle in my body was sore and I had a fever.He lay like driftwood for a day and a night by the fire pit in the cabin.When he woke up the next day, although he was still stiff and sore, he had recovered a little, so he put on the clothes that had no water to wash and left salt crystals, walked out of the hut, and looked at the black shadow that put him in the morning breeze. where the lure comes. It was a rocky sandbar, about a mile wide at its widest point, and more than a mile long, surrounded by shallows and rocks.There were no trees or bushes on the sandbar, and no vegetation of any kind except seaweed.The hut is built in a depression in the dunes.The old couple in the house lived alone in this completely isolated place on the open sea.The hut was built of driftwood planks and branches—in fact, they were piled up at all.The drinking water is taken from a slightly brackish well next to the hut, and the food is fresh or dried fish, shellfish, and fucus.Ged had thought that the broken animal hides, bone needles, fishhooks, fishing lines, fire drills, etc. in the house were all from goats, but in fact they were from spotted plum leopards.Yuanli is indeed an area where seals come to raise their pups in summer, but no one will come to such a place.The old men were afraid of Ged, not because they thought him a ghost, or because he was a wizard, but because he was a man.Both of them have long forgotten that there are other people in the world. The old man's panic and fear have not abated.Every time he thought Ged was going to touch him he would slip away and stare at Ged frowning from behind a curtain of dirty white hair.As for the old woman, at first she would whine under the blankets when Ged moved, but later when Ged was feverish and lethargic in the dark hut, she would be seen crouching and watching him, bewildered, bewildered, and Concerned expression.Soon the old woman took the initiative to fetch water for him to drink. When he got up to pick up the shells, she was so frightened that she knocked over the shells and spilled all the water in them. So she cried and wiped her eyes with her long gray hair. Now the old woman watched Ged go down the dunes to the sea, and gather up the planks of the ship that had washed up on the sea, and reshape a boat with the old man's hatchet and his own binding witchcraft.It was neither ship-repairing nor ship-building, for there was not enough wood available, and witchcraft made up for it.But instead of watching his wonderful works, the old woman often looked at him, always with the same concern in his eyes.After a while, she left, only to bring back another gift: a large handful of mussels that she had picked up on the rocks.Ged took the mussels, and ate them wet and raw, and thanked her when they were done. Seemingly encouraged, she returned to the hut, returning with something in her hands and wrapped in a blanket.Looking anxiously at Ged's lids, she opened the package, and held it up for Ged to see. It was a child's suit of brocade silk, set with noble pearls, yellow with salt and age.The pearls embroidered on the little tunic were patterns Ged knew: the twin arrows of the Karg Empire's pair of white tunics, with a crown added to it. The old woman was wearing a poorly sewn sealskin dress, wrinkled and dirty on the outside. She pointed first to the small silk dress, then to herself, and smiled slightly. It was sweet and innocent, like baby smile.There was a secret pocket sewn into the skirt of the little dress, from which she took a small object and handed it to Ged.It was a small piece of dark metal, probably a broken jewelry bracelet, and it looked like it was only half a circle left.Ged looked intently, and the old woman asked him to accept it with gestures, and kept making gestures until Ged did accept it, then smiled and nodded again.She had given him such a gift, but she wrapped the suit carefully back in the dirty blanket and staggered back inside to put the lovely thing away. Ged was filled with pity, and he put the broken ring into his coat pocket with almost the same care as the old woman did.He speculated that these two old men might be the children of a certain prince and royal family of the Karg Empire. The tyrant or the usurper was afraid of killing the royal blood, so he exiled them to an unnamed island far away from Carrigu, where they lived and died.One of them was a boy, about eight or ten years old at the time; the other was a sturdy baby girl in the silk dress embroidered with pearls.Later, the brother and sister survived and lived alone on this sandstone island in the sea for forty or fifty years, becoming a lonely and desolate old prince and old princess. However, whether his guess is true or not will not be revealed until several years later.At that time, the quest for the Ring of Eriabah would lead him to the territory of the Karg Empire and into the Tomb of Atuan. Ged spent three nights on the island, and the sunrise on the fourth day was calm and bleak.It was the day of the day, the shortest day of the year.His little boat of wood and witchcraft, shards and spells was ready to sail.He had tried to tell the old men that he would take them anywhere, Gont or Spevi or Torikou, even if they asked, though the Karg Sea was not at all safe for the people of the Archipelago , he is also willing to take them to a lonely seaside on Carrigo Island and let them go ashore.But the two old men refused to leave the barren island.From Ged's gestures and peaceful words alone, the old woman didn't seem to understand what Ged meant, but the old man did, but he refused.His memories of other lands and of men were all blood and trolls and wailing childhood nightmares.Seeing the old man shaking his head, shaking his head, Ge can understand the reason. So Ged was there that morning filling the sealskin water-skin with water.Since he had no way of expressing his gratitude for the food and warmth provided by the two elders, and he wanted to return the old woman, and he had no gifts at hand, he had to do his best to cast a spell on the unreliable salt spring.As a result, the water gushing from the sand became as sweet as the springs on the high mountains of Gont, and never dried up.For this reason, this sandbar and rock island is now inhabited and has a name, and sailors call it "spring water town".However, the hut was no longer visible, and many winter storms and snowfalls also made the two old people who lived here all their lives and died of old age disappear. When Ged sailed away from the sandy beach at the southern tip of the island, the two old men hid in their huts, as if they were afraid to see him go.That morning the sea breeze blew steadily from the north, and Ged let the natural wind fill his witch-sail, and sailed swiftly across the sea. Speaking of which, Ged's sea quest was a strange thing indeed.Because he himself is clear: not only is he a hunter who knows nothing about the target, he also doesn't know where the prey will be in the vast sea.He can only hunt by guesswork, intuition, luck, and even imitate the way it hunted him.They cannot see each other's existence.As the shadows were bewildered by "light and substance," so Ged was bewildered by formless shadows.The only thing he was sure of was this: he was really the hunted now, not the hunted.Because after the black shadow led him to the sandbar, he first lay half dead on the beach, and then stumbled and walked alone in the dunes in the darkness. The black shadow could have caught him, but the black shadow did not take advantage of this great opportunity, Instead, he fled immediately after tricking him to the sandbar, and he has not dared to face him until now.It can be seen from this that Ogion is right. As long as Ged resists the shadow, the shadow cannot rely on his strength.Therefore, he must always resist and keep chasing, even though the black shadow's track crosses these oceans, even though he has no guidance, only good luck, encountering this natural wind blowing southward; and only vague guesses or thoughts in his heart: South or East is the correct direction to hunt. Just before night fell, he saw dimly the coastline of a large landmass far to his left, which must have been the Isle of Carrigo.He was already in the lanes of the savage whites, so he looked around for any Karg longships or galleys.As he drove through the glowing twilight, he couldn't help thinking of that morning in Ten Yang Village as a child, of warriors with feathered spears, flames, and thick fog.While thinking about the situation of that day, Ged felt uneasy for a while, and suddenly realized: how this black shadow took advantage of his stupidity and fooled him in turn, as if it was caused by his own past, which caused a thick fog on the sea. Surround him, blind him to danger and fool him to death. He continued to drive in the southeast direction, and the night covered the east of the world, so the piece of land that he had just seen in the distance had sunk and disappeared.At this time, all the waves on the sea have turned black, but the tops of the waves are still clearly visible because they reflect the red glow of the western sky.Ged sang the Psalms "Winter's Ode" and "The Young King's Friendship" aloud, for these songs were sung at the festival of the sun.His voice was clear, but as soon as it merged into the vast silence of the ocean, it was nothing.Night and winter stars soon fell. This long night of the year he had been awake to watch the stars rise from his left, move slowly across the long sky, and sink into the dark sea to the east.On this dark sea where you can't see your fingers, the winds have been driving him southward.In his vigilance, he could only squint his eyes once in a while.In fact, what he was driving was not a ship at all, more than half of it was made of spells and witchcraft, and the rest were just planks and floats. As long as he loosened the shaping and binding skills, these wooden planks would soon disintegrate and float away, becoming sea creatures. sporadic wreckage.Similarly, if he fell asleep, the sails woven with witchcraft and air would not be able to withstand the sea wind for a long time, and would turn into gas and float away.Ged's spells were appropriate and effective, but in a situation like this one where the spells were less efficient, the power to keep working had to be constantly renewed.So Ged did not sleep all night. He would not turn into a falcon or a dolphin, for ease and speed, because Ogion advised him not to change his shape, and he knew the value of Ogion's advice.So now he was heading south, under a starry night sky westbound.The long night was long, and it was not until the first day of the new year that the whole sea was illuminated. Soon after the sun rose, he saw land ahead, but he made no haste to sail towards it.The natural winds had died down with daybreak, so he raised a light spellwind into the sails to head for that land.In fact, at the sight of land, terror came back into his mind, and a heavy sense of dread drove Ged to turn and run.Yet he followed that fear as a hunter follows a trail, as a hunter follows the broad, blunt claw marks of a bear that could at any moment spring upon him from the jungle.For Ged was near now, and he knew it. As Ged drew nearer, it seemed to Ged that the land jutting out of the sea looked strange.Viewed from a distance, it is a whole piece of gable, and close to the gable is subdivided into several long steep ridges, or divided into several small islands, and the sea water flows in the narrow fjords and straits between the small islands .In the isolated tower of the Master of the Name at Roke, Ged had studied many maps in detail, but most of them were those of the Archipelago and Nemene.Now he sailed to the east, so he didn't know what the island in front of him might be.He didn't think much of it, though, because what lay before him was actually fear, lurking between the steep ridges and forests of the island, hiding from him or waiting for him.So Ged drove straight toward it. Cliffs covered with dark forests now loomed above his ships.The spell winds pushed him across two headlands, and as he entered a fjord, spray from waves hitting rocky headlands splashed his sails, and in front of him was a channel no wider than two galleys, stretching Enter the island.Confined sea water does not toss on the steep coast.Because the cliff walls cut straight into the sea, half of the beach cannot be seen here, and the nearby sea water is also very dark because of the reflection of the high cliffs.There is no wind and it is very quiet. The shadow that had tricked Ged into the wilds of Osskol, into the sandstones, would this be the third time?Was it Ged who drove the shadow here?Or had the shadow driven Ged here, and set him in a trap?He didn't know the answer, only that the terror was tormenting him, and he was sure that he must go on and fulfill the purpose of this voyage: to chase after that evil thing, to follow the source of the longing and fear in his heart.He drove carefully, looking carefully at the cliffs in front, back, up and down, and on both sides.He had left the sunshine of the first day of the new year behind him on the open sea, and here it was dark, and when he glanced back, the opening of the headland seemed to be at the entrance of the bright light far away.The closer he got to the base of the cliff's mountains, the higher the cliffs became, and the waterways narrowed.He peeked at the dark rock fissures in front of him, as well as the large steep walls straight up from left to right. There were caves and boulders protruding from the walls, and the roots of the old trees entangled were half exposed.There was no movement around.At this time, he had reached the end of the inner island, which was a huge wrinkled plain rock. The narrow part of the huge rock faced the wide part of a creek, where the only remaining waves lapped feebly.Rolled boulders, rotting tree trunks, tangled roots, etc. gathered, leaving only a narrow waterway for boats.Trap, a dark trap at the bottom of the silent mountain, and he's in the trap.There was no movement in front of or above him, everything was dead, and he could go no further. Using spells and makeshift oars, Ged turned the boat carefully, avoiding rocks on the bottom, or becoming entangled in overhanging roots and branches, until she was fully outward again.Just as he was about to raise the wind so that he could follow the original path out of the fjord, the magic spell suddenly froze on his tongue, and his heart and whole body felt cold.Looking back, the black shadow was on the boat, standing behind him!If one moment had slipped away then, he would have disappeared forever.Fortunately, he was prepared, reached out and caught the shaking thing that was within reach of his arm.In dealing with that inanimate body, all witchcraft is useless, only one's own flesh and blood and life can be relied on.Ged made no incantations, but struck with his bare hands.Due to the sudden turning and waving of the ship, the ship bounced violently. A pain spread from his arms to his chest, making him unable to breathe for a while. The icy chill filled his whole body. , nothing. He staggered forward, and quickly grabbed the boat to stabilize himself.But also with this stagger and hold on to the mast, the light came back to his eyes, and he saw the shadow shuddering away from him, shrinking at the same time.其後又在他头顶上方扩大，倏忽笼罩住船帆，接著便如乘风的黑烟，无形无状地退後，先飘到水面上，再朝两面悬崖间的明亮出入口逃逸。 格得跪倒，那艘以法术补绽的小船再故弹跳，晃到最後小平稳下来，在起伏的海浪中漂动。格得伏在船内，身躯僵麻，思虑空白，只是拚命吸气。直到冰泼的海水涌到他两手底下，他才警觉应该照应一下船，因为维系它的法术正渐渐减弱。他站起来，扶住做为船桅的巫杖，重新尽力编织捆缚咒。他又冷又累，双手双臂都酸疼不堪，而且体内已经没有力量了。他真希望能够在这个海洋与山脉相会休止的黑暗地，睡在不停摇晃的水上。 他弄不清这疲乏是黑影逃逸时施加给他的巫术，或是与它碰触时的冷冽，或纯粹因饥饿、睡眠不足、耗损力量所致。但他挣扎著对付这疲乏，强迫自己为船帆升起微小的法术风，循著黑影刚才逃逸的幽黑水道驶出。 所有恐惧都消失了，所有喜悦也都消失了，从此不再有追逐。现在，他既不是被追的人，也不是追捕音。因为这第三坎，他们已经交手并接触：他左右自己的意志转身面对它，试图以活生生的两手抓住它。虽没有抓牢，却反而在彼此间锻铸出一种牢不可破的连结和环节。其实，没有必要去追捕搜寻那东西，它飞逃也徒劳无功。他们双方都逃不了彼此。终究必须交锋的时间、地点一到，他们就会相遇。 可是，此时、此地到来之前，无论日夜，不管海陆，格得都不能平静安心。他现在明白，这番道理很难懂，但他的任务绝不是去抹除他做过的事，而是去完成他起头的事。 他由深黑悬崖间驶出，海上正是开阔明亮的早晨，和风由北方吹来。 他喝了海豹皮水袋里剩下的水，绕过西端海岬，进入这小岛和西边邻岛之间的宽阔海峡。他回想心中的东陲海图，晓得这地方是“手岛”，是一对孤单的岛屿，五指状的山脉向北伸向卡耳格帝国诸岛。他肮行在两岛之间。下午，暴风雨的黑云由北方遮掩过来时，他在西岛的南岸登陆。他早看到那海滩上方有个小村庄，并有一条溪河曲折入海。他不太在意上了岸会碰上什麽样的欢迎，只要有水、温暧的火、可以睡觉，就行了。 村民都是羞怯的乡下人，看见巫杖就产生敬畏，看见陌生脸孔就谨慎警觉。不过，对一个在暴风雨将至时独自从海上来的人，倒远不失款待。他们给他很多肉和饮料，还有火光的舒适，用和他同样讲赫语的人类之声来抚慰他，最後，最棒的就是给他热水，洗去海洋的寒冷和盐份；还有一张让他安睡的床。