Chapter 7 second quarter

Tenar had known Lebannin since he was a boy, before he was crowned, and had loved him ever since, for him, for Ged, and for herself.To Tenar, Lebannen was the son who would never disappoint. But Tenar thought it might be disappointing if he continued to be so angry and dishonest with the poor girl from Hurhu. Tenar was present at the last audience of the Avabas envoy.Lebannin invited her, and she was happy to come.Came here in early summer and found the Kargs at court who Tenar had expected would shun her, or at least look at her suspiciously: the apostate priestess, with the thief eagle mage from the vaults of the tombs of Atuan Stealing the ring of Eriabah, betraying the motherland, and fleeing to Havnor with the ring.This would give the island kingdom a king again, and the Kargs would probably be hostile to her for it.

Thor of Hurhu revived the Two Gods and the Nameless One, and Tenar destroyed the most magnificent temples.This rebellion is not only political, but also religious. But that was a long time ago, more than forty years ago, it has almost become a legend, and politicians have selective memories.The envoy Thor begged if he would have the honor of seeing Tenar, and greeted him with words of deep reverence, some part of which she thought he was telling the truth.The ambassador called Tenar Lady Arha, the Eater, the Reincarnated—no one had called her that in years, and it was strange to hear Tenar again, but hearing her mother tongue, she found that she could still speak, still have Deep, melancholy satisfaction.

So Tenar came to say good-bye to the ambassador and the party, and asked the ambassador to assure the High King of Karg that the princess was well, and looked with pleasure for the last time at the tall, thin men with their light braids and their feathered Headgear, and court armor with silver rings and feathers intertwined.Tenar had seen few men of her kind when she lived on Karg, and there were only women and eunuchs in the tombs. After the ceremony, Tenar hid in the palace garden.The summer nights were warm and tumultuous, and the low bushes in bloom floated faintly in the night wind.Outside the wall, the noise of the city is like the whisper of a quiet sea.The two young courtiers walked side by side in the shade, and Tenar, not wanting to disturb them, wandered among the fountain and roses at the other end of the garden.

Lebannen left the audience room frowning again.What's wrong?As far as Tenar knew, he had never before resisted the responsibilities that came with his position.Of course he knows that the king must marry, and that he can choose his partner freely; that a king who does not obey the wishes of the people is a tyrant;The ladies of the court were happy to gossip with Tenar about the king's lovers, women who had never lost anything in being the king's lovers.Lebannin did well in this respect, but not forever.Why is King Saul so angry when he offers the perfect solution? Maybe not a perfect fit.There is something wrong with this princess.

Tenar would have to try to teach her the Hindi language, and she would have to find other ladies to teach the manners and court manners of the Princess Isles—a job Tenar could never do herself.Compared with the sophistication of the court members, she can understand the princess's ignorance better. Lebannen's refusal or inability to see the whole thing from the princess' point of view displeased Tenar.Couldn't he imagine what it was like for the princess?She grew up in the remote desert and the women's dormitory in the vassal's fortress. She may have never seen a man other than her father, uncle and priest.Suddenly taken by strangers from a life of constant poverty and harshness, into a long and terrifying sea voyage, and abandoned among what are known only as faithless, bloodthirsty monsters who live on the fringes of the world and cannot even True humans, because they were wizards who turned into animals and birds...and she had to marry one of them!

Tenar was able to leave her people and live with the monsters and wizards of the West only because she could be with Ged, whom she loved and trusted, but even that was not easy.She often loses her nerve.Though the people of Havnor were very welcome, and the crowds and the cheers, and the flowers, and the praises, and the sweet names: the Snow White Lady, the Peacemaker, Tenar of the Ring... even with all that, on a night long ago, Tenar Still huddled in her room, wallowing in misery, so lonely, no one spoke her mother tongue, and she knew nothing of the archipelago.Once the celebration was over and the ring was back where it should be, she begged Ged to take her away, and Ged kept his promise, and they sneaked off to Gont together.In Gont, as Ogion's adopted daughter and pupil, lived in the old mage's house, and learned how to be a people of the Archipelago, until she saw the way she wanted to follow as a woman.

Tenar had been younger than the princess when she came to Havnor with the ring, but she had not grown up without power, unlike the girl.Although most of the first priestesses only hold ceremonial and formal authority, she truly controls her own destiny when she breaks the harsh rules of life she has been educated to win freedom for the prisoners and herself.The daughter of a vassal king can only control trivial matters, and her father makes herself queen, she will be called a princess, have more luxurious clothes, more slaves, eunuchs and jewels, until she is given away in marriage, but she cannot express any Opinion.Except for the bedroom, the world can only be seen through the cracks in the thick walls and windows, through layers of red gauze.

Tenar considered herself lucky not to have grown up on a backward and savage island like Hurhu, so she never wore "feya", but she also knew what it was like to grow up in traditional iron hoops, so she urged herself that as long as one was in the Havnor, will try to help the princess.But she doesn't intend to stay long. She wandered the garden, watched the fountain twinkle in the stars, and wondered when and how she would be home. Tenar didn't mind court red tape, and perhaps knew that beneath the surface of civilization was chaos roiling ambition, enmity, passion, stratagem, conflict.She grew up with ritual, hypocrisy and a politics that operated in secret, none of which frightened or worried her.She was only homesick, and wanted to go back to Gont, with Ged, in their house.

She had come to Havnor because Lebanon had invited her and Tehanu, and Ged if he would come.But Ged would not come; and neither would Tehanu without her.This frightened and worried her.Could it be that the daughter could not leave her?It was Tehanu's advice Lebanon needed, not Tenar's, but the daughter clings to her like a Hurhu girl, uncomfortable and out of place in Havnor, silent and hiding like the princess. Tenar must now assume the roles of nurse, teacher, and companion, two terrified girls who didn't know how to wield power.Tenar had no dreams of the powers of the world but only to be free, to go home to where she belonged, and to help Ged tend the garden.

She wished to grow the white roses here at home, which were so fragrant and sweet at night; but the Goling summer was too windy and sunny, and the goats might eat the roses. Tenar entered at last, across the east side of the palace, into the suite she shared with Tehanu.The daughter is asleep, and the night is deep.A flame as big as a pearl burns in a small marble oil lamp.The light in the tall room is soft, with layers of shadows.She blew out the oil lamp, climbed into bed, and soon fell asleep. She was walking along the narrow and high stone corridor, holding the marble oil lamp in her hand, and the dim oval light was lost in the deep darkness in front of her.She came to a door in the corridor, and behind it was a room, and the people in the room had the wings of birds on their backs, and some had the heads of birds, such as eagles and vultures.They stood or sat still, not looking at her or anything, with white and red lines painted around their eyes, and their wings like heavy black cloaks hanging behind them.Tenar knew they could not fly.They were so sad and desperate, and the air in the room was so foul, she struggled, tried to turn and escape, but couldn't move, and woke up with a start when she resisted the feeling of not being able to move.

There were warm shadows in the room, stars outside the windows, the scent of roses, the gentle commotion of the city, and the sound of Tehanu's sleeping breath. Tenar sat up, shaking off the remnants of the dream.It was the Painted Room of the Mausoleum Labyrinth, where Ged had first come face to face, forty years ago.In the dream, the painting on the wall came to life, but it was not life.It is the endless, eternal existence of those who die and are not reborn, who are neither alive nor dead, cursed by the nameless of ages: pagans, Westerners, magicians. People are reborn after death.This is something that was taught growing up, for sure.When Tenar was still a child, she was taken to the mausoleum and became Arha the Eater. The priest told her that among all the people in the past and the future, she was the only one who would always be reborn in her own identity, life after life.Even as First Priestess, she had sometimes believed, sometimes not, and never again.But she, like all the people of the Karg continent, knows that after death, she will be reincarnated in another body, and the extinguished lamp will be lit elsewhere at the same time, returning to the world from the womb of a woman, or a small fish egg, or a mustard seed, Forget about the past life, start a new life, endless life. Only those who were exiled by the earth and the ancient forces cannot be reborn, such as the dark magicians of the land of the Hittites.The Kargs say that warlocks do not enter the world again after death, but go to a dreary, half-existent place, where they have wings but cannot fly, are neither birds nor men, and must continue hopelessly on.Priestess Kesuan relished telling Tenar what a terrible fate befell those flamboyant enemies of the God-King, that their souls were doomed to be banished forever from the Light! But Ged had described the afterlife, where his people had gone, the land that hadn't changed but cold dust and shadows... Was it less dull, less terrifying? Unsolvable questions echoed in her mind: Did she have to go to the Drylands after death because she was no longer a Karg, because she betrayed the Holy Land?Must Ged go there?There, will the two pass each other indifferently?impossible.But if Ged had to go there, and she would be reborn, the two would be separated forever? Tenar didn't want to think about it.To dream of the Painted Room again, after years of abandoning everything, was for obvious reasons: of course to see the Ambassador, and to speak Karg again.But she still lay restless, tense with the dream.She did not want to go back to the nightmares of her youth, to go back to the house on the High Hill, to lie beside Ged and hear Tehanu's sleeping breath.When Ged slept, he was as still as a stone, but the fire had hurt Tehanu's throat, and his breathing was always a little hoarse, and Tenar listened and searched night after night.The dear voice, the slightly hoarse breath, is the life, the returning life. Tenar listened, and at last fell asleep again, and if she dreamed, it was also the sky, the morning light, moving across the sky.