Chapter 15 4. Irian

When Azifu returned, there was a certain expression on his face, and the herb master couldn't help asking: "What's wrong?" "I don't know. Maybe we shouldn't have left Roke." "We may also be inseparable," said the herb master, "if the wind key master locks the wind towards us..." "I'm going back to where I am," Kerrikamerik said suddenly. "I don't like to leave myself like an old shoe. I'll join you here tonight." He disappeared. "Azifu, I want to walk under your tree." The herb master said with a long sigh.

"Go, Diarra. I'll stay here." The herb master left.The simple bench made by Irian leaned against the wall in front of the house, and Azifor sat down on the bench.He looked at her upstream, motionless, squatting on the shore.The sheep on the field bleat softly between them and the Hongxuan Pavilion, and the morning sun turns hot. His father named him "Banner".He came to the West and put all he knew behind him.He learned his real name from Xincheng Linmu and became Roke's Xingyi master.Throughout the year, the shadows and the shapes and meanings of the branches and roots of the trees, and all the silent languages ​​in the forest, are all about destruction, breaking the precepts, and changing everything.He knew it was their turn now.Come with her.

She was in his charge, in his care, and he knew it when he saw her.Though, as she said, she had come to destroy Roke, he must serve her.He is willing.She walked with him in the forest, tall, clumsy, and fearless.She pushes back the thorny vines with her large, careful hands; her eyes are like the water of the Suir in shadow, amber brown, and see all; she listens, silent.He wanted to protect her, but knew he couldn't.He gave her a little warmth when she was cold, he had nothing else to give.Where she must go, she goes; she does not understand the danger.She has no wisdom, only innocence; no armor, only anger.Irian, who are you?He told her, watching her crouch like an animal locked in silence.

The herb master returned from the forest and sat with him for a while without speaking.At noon, he returned to Hongxuan Pavilion and agreed to return with the gatekeeper in the morning.They will ask all masters to meet them in Dalin. "But he won't come," Diarra said, and Azifor nodded. All day he stayed near Otter House, watching Irian and asking her to share a little food with him.She came to the house, but when they had finished eating, she went back to the bank and sat still.He also felt a sense of powerlessness in body and mind, a kind of sluggishness, which he resisted but could not get rid of.He thought of Master Summoner's eyes, and then, it was him who felt cold, cold all over, even sitting in the summer heat was useless.The dead rule us, he thought.Thoughts can't go round and round.

He was grateful to see Kerrikamerik coming slowly from the north along the banks of the Syre.The old man waded across the stream barefoot, holding his shoes in one hand and a witch's staff in the other. When he slipped and fell on the stones, he growled twice.He sat down on the bank of the river not far away, dried his feet, and put on his shoes. "When I go back to the Tower, I'll take a carriage. Hire a coachman and buy a mule. I'm old, Azif." "Come inside." Master Xingyi said, setting out water and food for Master Name. "What about the girl?" "Asleep." Azif nodded towards where she lay, curled up in the grass above the small waterfall.

The heat of the day was fading, and the shadows of the big forest moved across the grass, but the Otter House still stood in the sun.Kerrikamerik sat on a bench with her back against the wall of the house, and Azifor sat on the steps. "We have come to the end." The old man broke the silence. Azifu nodded silently. "Azifu, what brought you here?" asked the name master, "I often want to ask you. It's been a long journey. Besides, there are no wizards in your Karg continent." "Yes. But we have things that form witchcraft. Water, stones, trees, language..."

"But not Genesis." "No. No dragons either." "Never?" "Only in the far east, the old stories in the Huerhu Desert. Before gods, before humans, people were dragons before they became humans." "That's interesting," said the old scholar, sitting up straight. "As I told you, I've been studying dragons lately. You know, they're rumored to fly across the Inner Pole Sea, as far east as Gont. No doubt Kalassim brought Ged home, and the sailors fueled it Vinegar, makes the story better. But here a boy swears to me that their whole village has seen dragons fly this spring, west of Mount Oun. That's why I read old books to know when they stopped coming east past Bendo .in an ancient parn scroll, i saw your story, or something like that. Said people were of the same race, but they quarreled. Some went west, some went east, became two races, forget ever It's a family."

"We're going to the Far East," said Azif, "but do you know what an army general is in my native language?" "Adelan," the name master replied immediately, and then laughed, "the leader of the scale insect, the dragon..." 『Note: The original text is "Drake", which means "dragon" in medieval English, so the Chinese translation here takes the definition from "Shuowen Jiezi" and replaces it. 』 After a while, he said, "I will chase the word source to the edge of doom... But Azifor, I think we are already on the edge of doom. We can't knock him down."

"He has the advantage." Azif said very flatly. "Indeed. I admit that there is no hope, I admit that there is no possibility...but if we do defeat him...if he returns to the dead zone and leaves us here alive...then what shall we do? What's next ?” After a long time, Azifu said, "I don't know." "Didn't your leaf thinning tell you anything?" "Change, change." Master Xingyi said, "Change." He looked up suddenly.The flocks of sheep that had gathered near the pens ran wildly, and someone came from the path in front of the Hongxuan Hall.

"A group of young men," said the herbalist out of breath, coming up to the two of them. "Thorion's army. Come here, come and take the girl, drive her out." He sucked as he stood. In one breath, "When I left, the gatekeeper was talking to them. I think..." "Here he is," said Azifor.The Master Gatekeeper arrives, his smooth, tawny face as serene as ever. "I told them," he said, "that if they walk out of the Medra's Gate today, they will never be able to go through again and return to the pavilion they know. Some were in favor of going back then, but the Windkey Master and the Cantor Master drove them forward. They'll be here soon."

They heard a man's voice in the field east of the Great Forest. Azif walked quickly to the place where Irian was lying by the river, and the others followed.She woke up with a start and stood up with a dazed look on her face.About thirty people passed the hut and stood around her like guards as they approached.Most of the people who came were older students, and there were five or six wizards and wizards in the crowd, led by Master Fengkey.His thin, sharp old face looked taut and tired, but he greeted the four mages politely by title. They also greeted him, and then Azifu spoke first: "Master Fengkey, please enter Dalin, we will wait for others there." "First, we must resolve the matter that divides us," said Master Fengkey. "It's a rock-solid thing," said Master Name. "The woman around you is breaking the law of Roke," said Master Windkey. "She must leave. There is a boat waiting to pick her up at the pier, and I can tell you that the wind will blow steadily to Way Island." "My lord, I have no doubts about this," Azif said, "but I doubt whether she will go." "Master Xingyi, will you violate our laws and communities, the power that has been used to maintain order and resist destruction for a long time? Could it be that you are the one who breaks the Xingyi of all things in the world?" "The form and meaning of all things are not glass, which cannot be broken." Azifu said, "It is breath and flame." It was with great difficulty that he could speak. "It doesn't know death," he said, but in his mother tongue, which they couldn't understand.He moved closer to Irian, feeling the warmth of her body.She stood and stared in that animal silence, as if she didn't understand what anyone was saying. "Lord Thorion has come back from the dead to save us all," said the Windkeymaster fiercely and clearly. "He will be the Archmage. Under him Roke will be restored to his former glory. The King will receive from him." Crown of Righteousness, rule under his direction as Morad reigns. No witch shall defile the sacred lands, no dragon shall menace the Inner Seas. Order, security, and peace shall come." The four mages around Irian didn't answer.In the silence, the people around Master Fengkey murmured, and one of the voices said, "Give the witch to us." "No." Azifor said, but couldn't say more.He held a willow wand, but in his hand the wand was just wood. Among the four, only the gatekeeper moved and spoke.He took a step forward, examining the group of young men one by one. "You trust me and give me your real names. Are you willing to trust me now?" "My lord," said one of them, with a delicate, dark face, holding an oaken witch's staff, "we do trust you, and that's why we ask you to let the witch go and bring peace back." Irian stepped forward before the gatekeeper could reply. "I'm not a witch," she said.Her voice was high-pitched and harsh behind the man's deep voice. "I have no skills, no knowledge, I come to learn." "We don't teach women here," said Windkey Master. "You know that." "I don't know anything," said Irian.She took another step forward, facing the mage directly. "Tell me who I am." "Woman, recognize your status." The mage said coldly and passionately. "My position." She said slowly, her voice dragging each word, "My position is on the mountain. Everything there is as it is. Tell the dead man, I will wait for him there." Master Fengkey stood silent.A crowd whispers, rages, some of them move forward.Azif stood between her and them, her words freeing him from the paralysis of physical and mental restraints. "Tell Thorion that we will meet him on Roke Knoll. We will be there when he comes. Come with me now," he said to Irian. The name master, the gatekeeper master, and the herb master followed the two into Dalin.They have a trail to walk.But by the time some young men started following, the trail had disappeared. "Come back." Master Fengkey said to those young people. They turned back, hesitant.The low setting sun was still bright on the fields and the roofs of the Hongxuan Pavilion, but the forest was full of shadows. "Witchcraft," they said, "blasphemy, defilement." "We'd better leave," said Master Windkey, his face hard and serious, his piercing eyes worried.He set off back to the Academy, and the rest of the group scattered behind, arguing and arguing in frustration and anger. They had just entered the big forest, and when they were still by the river, Irian stopped, turned to one side, and squatted next to the huge and thick tree roots, which were willow trees leaning on the water.Four mages stood on the path. "She spoke in his breath," Azifor said. The name master nodded. "So we have to follow her?" asked the herb master. This time the gatekeeper nodded, smiled slightly, and said, "It seems so." "Very well," said the herbalist, with a patient, apprehensive look on his face, and walked a little way to one side, knelt down and gazed at some kind of small plant or fungus on the forest floor. Time passed as usual in the big forest, seemingly without passing, but disappeared, and the day was in a few long breaths, in the trembling of leaves, in the distance, a bird's cry, and a bird's song in the distance answered time, quietly disappeared.Irian stood up slowly.She didn't speak, just looked down at the path and walked along the path.Four men followed behind. A group of people stepped out and entered the quiet and spacious sunset air.They forded the Syl and crossed the fields until they came to Roke Knoll, where the sky was still lighted, and Roke Knoll rose before them in a tall dark arc against the sky. "Here they come," said the gatekeeper.Someone crossed the vegetable garden and climbed the path of the Hongxuan Pavilion.Five mages, many students.They were led by Thorion the Summoner, tall and tall in a gray cloak, holding a bone-white longwood staff with a dim witchlight floating on the top. The two paths met and merged, winding their way up to the top of the dome, and Thorian stopped and waited at the junction.Irian strode forward to face him. "Irian of Way," said the Summoner in a deep, clear voice, "For the sake of peace and order, and with the greatest balance in mind, I ask you to leave this island at this time. We cannot give you what we ask, so we beg you Forgive me, but if you insist on staying here, you will lose your apology and have to suffer the consequences of breaking the precept." She stepped forward, almost as tall and as tall as him.She was silent for a moment, and then said in a high piercing voice, "Thorion, come to the hill." She left him standing at the intersection, on flat ground, and she walked up a short mountain road with a few strides.She turned around and looked down at him: "Why don't you go up the mountain?" The sky darkened around them.There is only a dull red line in the west, and the sky in the east is the shadow of the sea. Master Summoner looked up at Irian.Slowly he raised his hands and white wand, and began to chant the incantation, in the language of all Roke wizards and mages, the language of their craft, the language of creation, and said: "Irian, with your True name, I summon you and bind you to obey me!" She hesitated for a moment, seemed about to yield for a moment, about to turn to him, and then cried, "I'm not just Irian!" Upon hearing this, Master Summoner ran towards her, stretched out his hands, and rushed towards her, as if trying to catch her.Both of them are standing on the mountain now.She was above him inconceivably, flames burst out between the two of them, a cluster of fiery red flames in the twilight, flashing golden red scales, huge wings, and then disappeared without a trace, leaving only the woman standing on the mountain trail, and The man who bowed low in front of her slowly bowed to the ground and lay down. The first to move is the herb master, the healer.He walked up the path and knelt beside Thorian. "My lord," he called, "my friend." Under the collapsed gray cloak, his hands only touched a ball of clothing, dry bones, and a broken witch staff. "It is better this way, Thorion," he said, but wept. The old name master stepped forward and asked the woman on the hill, "Who are you?" "I don't know my other real name," she said.She spoke the same language as he, the language she spoke to the Summoner—the language of creation, the language of dragons. She turned away and started walking up the hill. "Irian," said Azifor, Master of Shape and Meaning, "will you come back to us?" She stopped and let him walk towards her. "If you call me, I will," she said. She reached out to touch his hand.He gasped hastily. "Where are you going?" he asked. "Find those who will give me my true name. In the fire, not in the water. My people." "In the West," he said. "More west than west," she said. She turned her back on him and the others and walked up the hill in the growing darkness.She drifted away, they saw her, everyone saw her, a strong body with golden scales, a thorny curly tail, sharp claws, and a breath reflecting fire.She paused at the top of the knoll and turned her long neck slowly across Roke Isle.She stared at Dalin the longest, where it is now just a mist in the darkness.Then, with a clucking sound like swaying copper, the dragon spread its wide wings, leaped into the air, circled Roke Knoll, and flew away. A curl of fire, a wisp of smoke, floats down in the dark night sky. Azifu, the master of form and meaning, stood with his left hand holding the right hand that was burning after she touched it.He looked down at the crowd standing silently at the foot of the mountain, staring at the dragon's back. "So, my friends," said he, "what now?" Only the gatekeeper answered."I think we should go back and open the doors," he said.