Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Kailasin

"Wait," Ogion--Ahal now--said to her, before the winds of death shook him and tore him from life. "It's over...all changed," he whispered, and then: "Tenar, wait..." But he didn't say what she should wait for.Maybe it was a change he saw or knew, but what change was it?Does he mean his own death, the life he ended?There was joy and joy in his words.He instructs her to wait. "What else can I do?" She said to herself, sweeping the floor of his room. "Did I do anything else?" Then, to the him she remembered, "Should I wait here, in your room?"

"Yes." The silent Aihar said silently and with a smile. So she cleaned the house, cleared the fireplace, swiped the mattress; discarded the broken dishes and leaking pans, but she was gentle with them, even putting her cheek on a cracked dish on the way to the garbage pit because it Evidence of the old mage's ailments over the past year.He strives for simplicity, living as a poor farmer, but when he is full of hearing and strength, he will never use a cracked plate or leave a cracked pan unrepaired.His signs of weakness made her mourn, and wished she had been there to care for him. "I'd love to do that," she said to the memory of him, but he didn't say anything.He has always taken care of himself, not willing to be served. "You have better things to do." Would he have said that?she does not know.He was silent, but now she knew it was right to stay in his house.

Shandy and her elderly husband, Clearstream, who had lived in Midvale longer than Tenar, would tend the sheep and the orchard.Another couple on the farm, Tiff and Siss, would be harvesting the crops; nothing else.What a pity her raspberry vines would be picked off by the neighborhood kids - she loves raspberries, but it's too cold for them to grow in this windswept Highlands.However, by the south wall of the house, in the shade of a corner, an old peach tree bears eighteen peaches.Therru watched like a cat waiting to catch a mouse, until one day she came into the house and said in a husky voice, "Two peaches are red and yellow."

"I see," said Tenar.They went to the peach tree together, picked two early-ripe peaches, bit the skin, and the juice ran down their chins.They licked their fingers. "May I plant it?" Therru asked, looking at the shriveled pit. "Yes. It's a good place to be close to the old trees. But don't get too close, so that the roots and branches of both trees have room to grow." The child selected a place, dug a small hole, put in the core and covered it.Looking at her, Tenar thought, Therru had changed during the few days she lived here: she still had no reaction, no anger, no joy, but since coming here, her extreme guard and indifference had gradually relaxed—— She longs for peaches, wants to plant pits, wants to increase the peaches of the world.At Oak Grange she had been unafraid of Tenar and Lark alone, but here she had easily adapted to Rhiaby's Shepherdess Heather, a loud, mild-mannered girl of twenty.Heather treated the boy like another sheep, a crippled lamb, and that was all right.Aunt Moss isn't bad, no matter what she smells like.

Moss was still a young witch when Tena lived in Ria Bai twenty-five years ago.She bowed, grinned, and spoke with great respect to "Miss," "Lady White," Ogion's adopted daughter, and pupil.Tenar had felt that respect was false, a cover for the envy and disgust and suspicion she was all too familiar with from women who were not her superior.They thought they were ordinary and she was extraordinary, a woman of privilege.Whether she is the priestess protecting the mausoleum of Etuan, or the adopted daughter of Master Gongte from a foreign country, she is different and superior.Men give her power and share it with her; women watch from the outside, sometimes competitive, often with a touch of mockery.

She used to feel that she was left outside, shut out.She fled from the power of the Desert Tomb, and then from the wit and skill provided by her guardian, Ogion.She turned her back to everything, went to the other side, another space that belonged to women, became one of them, became a wife, a peasant woman, a mother, a housewife, and took on the natural strength of a woman and the power allowed to her in the world. In Zhonggu, Flint’s wife, Geha, is very popular among women. Although she is a foreigner, has white skin, and speaks with a strange accent, she is good at housework and has excellent weaving skills. The children are well-behaved and healthy, and the farm is prosperous and very decent. .In the eyes of men, she is a woman of Flint, doing what a woman should do: Londoning, giving birth, baking and cooking, cleaning, weaving, sewing, and serving.Good woman, they so applaud.Firestone was still a good pick, they said.Don't know what a white woman is like, is the whole body white?Watching her, their eyes said, until she grew older and they couldn't see.

Here, now everything has changed, the past is gone.Ever since she and Moss held Ogion's vigil, the witch made it clear that she would be her friend, follower, servant, whatever she liked.Tenar wasn't sure what she wanted Aunt Moss to do, she found her unpredictable, unreliable, incomprehensible, eager, ignorant, cunning, dirty.But Moss got on well with the burned child.Perhaps Moss was instructing Therru to change and let her relax a little.Therru treated her as anyone else, blank, unresponsive, tame as dead, as stone.But the old woman kept trying, giving her sweets and trinkets, coaxing, persuading, seducing. "My dear, come with Aunt Moss! Come here, Aunt Moss will show you the most beautiful things..."

Mushroom's nose protrudes above the bald chin and thin lips. There is a wart the size of a cherry on one of her cheeks. Her hair is gray-black intertwined cursive knots and messy strands. Her body odor is strong, obvious, strong and complex like a fox's den.In the stories that the Gont children heard, the old witch would say, "Come with me to the woods, my dear!" and shut the child in the fire, and brown it, and eat it, or throw it in the well, and let it live forever. Jumping in panic, crying hoarsely, or let it fall asleep, and seal it in the big stone, until the king's son and the mage prince come, break the stone with a real character, wake up the girl with a kiss, and kill the evil witch...

"Come with me, darling!" Then she took the child into the fields, and showed her the lark's nest among the green straw, or into the swamp for white sanctum and wild mint and blueberries.She didn't have to lock the child in an oven or turn her into a monster and seal her in stone, she'd already been through that. She was kind to Therru, but often with sweet words to deceive.She seemed to talk a lot to the child when they were together, but Tenar didn't know what Moss said or taught, and perhaps the witch filled the child's head with strange powers.Incompetent as a woman's magic, so vicious as a woman's magic, she has heard these words no less than a hundred times.She did find that the sorcery of women like Moss or Ivy was often ineffective, and sometimes evil by design or ignorance.Even though the village witch knows many spells, incantations, and some chants, she is never trained in the advanced arts or principles of magic.No woman has this training, because magic is a man's business, a man's skill, and magic is made by men.There have never been female wizards, and even if someone called themselves a wizard or a sorceress, none of them were trained in their powers.Power without skill or knowledge, half hilarious, half dangerous.

Ordinary village witches like Moss rely on nothing more than a few old witches to cherish and pass on or buy mantras from warlocks at a high price, as well as many searching and repairing spells, many meaningless rituals and tricks. Combine a lot of superstition with nonsense, solid practical experience in obstetrics and gynecology, bone setting, healing human and animal diseases, and rich knowledge of herbal medicine.All based on her talent for healing, casting spells, transfiguring or casting spells.Such a mixture is both good and bad: some witches are fierce, bitter women who often justifiably hurt others; most are midwives and healers, who also sell love elixirs, conception or aphrodisiac spells, and silently look at the world with cold eyes; There are also those who are ignorant but wise, and use their gifts for pure good, but like all apprentice wizards, they can't explain why they do it, and they just talk about balance and power to justify what they do or don't do. . "I follow my heart," said one such woman to Tenar when she was Ogion's adopted daughter and student. "Master Ogion is a great mage. He teaches you, and he gives you great honor. But you watch, boy, everything he teaches you will ultimately follow your heart."

Even then, Tenar thought the wise woman was right, but not quite, and something was missing.She still thinks so. Seeing the way Moss treated Therru, she thought Moss was following her heart, but that heart was dark, wild, and strange, like a crow, doing its own thing.Perhaps, Moss is not close to Therru because of kindness, but because of Therru's injuries, the injuries, the violence, and the flames. But neither Therru's deeds nor words showed whether she had learned from Aunt Moss anything other than where the larks nested, where the blueberries grew, or played with flower rope with one hand.Therru's right hand was consumed by the fire and healed like a mallet, and the thumb could only be used as a clamp like a crab's claw.But Auntie Moss has a set of magical flower ropes, which only needs to use four fingers of one hand and one finger of the other hand, and there are rhymes to match the pattern: Stir the cherries! Burn and burn! Come on, the dragon is coming! Then the rope would dissolve into four triangles, then into a square... Therru had never chanted it aloud, but Tenar had heard her sit alone at the mage's door, turning the flowered rope and muttering to herself. Tenar wondered again, what was the connection between herself and the child, save pity, save duty to the helpless child?Lark would have kept her if Tenar had not taken her.But Tenar took her without even asking herself why.Does she follow her heart?Ogion hadn't asked anything about the child, but he had said, "People will be afraid of her." And Tenar had answered, "They were afraid of her." It was true, too, and perhaps she was afraid of the child herself, as she had been. Fear of cruelty, violence and fire.Was it fear that bound her to the child? "Gha," said Therru, squatting under the peach tree, looking at the hard soil where the peach pit was buried, "what is a dragon?" "Great creatures," said Tenar. "Like lizards in appearance, but longer than boats and bigger than houses. And have wings, like birds. And they breathe fire." "Are they coming here?" "No," Tenar said. Therru asked no more. "Did Aunt Moss tell you about the dragon?" Therru shook his head. "You said it," she said. "Ah," said Tenar, and immediately added: "The peaches you plant need water to grow. Once a day, until the rains come." Therru got up and trotted around the house to the well.Her legs are flawless.Tenar liked to watch her walk or run, the ground with her pretty little dark, dusty feet.She waddled back with Ogion's jug and poured a small flood over the seeds. "So you remember the story about men and dragons being of the same race... Men come eastwards here, but dragons stay in the far western islands. Far, far away." Therru nodded.She seemed not paying attention, but when Tenar said "Isles of the West" and pointed toward the sea, Therru turned her face to the high, bright sky that could be seen between the bean pergola and the milking shed. A goat appeared on the roof of the milking shed, sideways to them, head held dignifiedly, obviously thinking it was an alpine goat. "Sippy has escaped again," said Tenar. "Hi hiss—hi hiss—" Therru ran, calling the sheep like the heather, and the heather also appeared by the railing covered with bean vines, raised his head and called "hi hiss" to the sheep, but the sheep ignored them. He stared thoughtfully at Doudou. Tenar let them play sippie catch.She strolled across the bean field to the edge of the cliff, and walked along the cliff.Ogion's house was farther from Reyabai than any house, and closer than any house to the edge of the Hill, where there was a steep green slope with outcropping rocks for the sheep to graze.The further you go north, the steeper the cliff slope becomes, and finally falls vertically.On the path, the bare rock of the cliff gradually exposed until about a mile north of the village, the cliff narrowed into a layer of sharp red sandstone, and the ocean eroded the bottom of the cliff two thousand feet below. There is no grass at the end of Gaoling, only moss and stone bumps, and blue daisies are scattered here and there, dwarfed by the strong wind, like buttons dropped on rough and collapsed rocks.The north and east of the cliff face inland, and there is a long and narrow marshland. The dark and steep side of Gongtuo Mountain rises above it, with forests all over it, almost reaching the peak.The cliff itself soared above the bay, and had to be looked down to see the edge of the coast and the vague lowlands of Azsari.In addition, there is only sea and sky in the south and west. Tenar had liked to walk here when she lived in Reaby.Ogion loves the forest, but she once lived in the desert, and for a hundred miles there were only old peach and apple trees irrigated hand-in-hand in endless summer days, and besides that, there was nothing green, wet, or cozy, only A mountain, a plain, and the sky, so she prefers cliffs to closed woods.She likes to have nothing on top. She also liked ground moss, gray field warts, and daisies, which she knew well.As always, she sat on a rock a few feet away from the edge of the cliff, looking out to sea.The sun is hot, but the constant sea breeze blows away the sweat from the face and hands.She leaned back with her hands and thought nothing but the sun, the wind, the sky, and the sea, and she opened everything to the sun, the wind, the sky, and the sea.But the left hand called her attention and turned her to see what was scratching her heel.It turned out to be a small thorn, hiding in the crevices of sandstone, timidly stretching out the colorless needles and spines to the light and sea breeze.The strong wind forced it to nod abruptly, but it still took root in the rock cracks, resisting the wind.She stared at it for a long time. She looked at the sea again, and saw the blue line of the island in the misty blue halo where the sea and the sky meet: that is Aurenia, the eastern boundary of the inner ring islands. She stared into the fading shadow, dreaming, until a bird from the west caught her attention.It's not a seagull, because it flies very smoothly; it's a pelican, but it flies too high.Is it wild geese or the rare sea traveler albatross flying to the islands?She watched the wings flap slowly, flying high in the bright sky.Suddenly, she stood up, took a few steps back from the edge of the cliff, Wenfeng stood still, her heart beat faster, her breathing was choked, she looked at the soft and long black iron-like body, the fiery red webbed wings, the outstretched sharp claws, and the sight that disappeared behind it. Cigarettes behind. It flew straight towards Gongte, towards Gao Ling, towards her.She saw iron-red and black-and-white scales, flashing slender eyes, and she saw a cluster of flaming red tongues.Roaring, the dragon turned and landed on the cliff, and when he sighed out a flame, the burning smell filled the sea breeze. Its paws landed heavily on the rocks, its spiny tail twisted and rattled, its wings were reddened by the sun, flapped and folded on both sides, and it slowly turned its head.The dragon looked at the woman standing a paw away, and the woman looked at the dragon.She felt that the dragon was on top. She had been told that humans should not look dragons in the eye, but that was no fear to her.It stared straight at her, big yellow eyes buried in armor-like scales, a long thin nose with flaring nostrils that breathed smoke, and her soft little face and black eyes looked back. None of them spoke. The dragon tilted his head slightly so that words—or perhaps just laughter—would destroy her.It spewed out a cluster of orange flames with a "ha". "Acivaresi, Ged," it said, softly, with smoke and a fleeting flash of its burning tongue, and bowed its head. At last Tenar saw the man astride its back.He sits in the hollow between the two sword spines that run along the spine, behind the neck, above the root of the shoulder wing.His hands tightly held the iron red and black armor of the dragon's neck, and his head rested on the bottom of the sword spine, as if he was asleep. "Assi Ahrasi, Ged!" cried the Dragon again, a little more, with a long mouth that seemed always to smile, showing sharp yellow teeth as long as Tenar's forearms, with white tips. The man didn't move. The dragon turned its long head and looked at Tenar again. "Sobius," it said, hissing like iron scraping. She knew the word of creation.This language, as long as she is willing to learn, Ogion will teach it all.Come up, said the dragon, come up!Then she saw the ladder: the claw, the bent elbow, the shoulder joint, the first muscle of the wing, four steps in all.She also said: "Ha!" But it wasn't a smile, but she wanted to smooth the breath stuck in her throat.She ducked her head to stop the dizziness, then stepped forward, past the claws, the long lipless mouth, the thin yellow eyes, onto the dragon's shoulders.She took the man's arm and he didn't move but must be alive because the dragon had brought him here and was talking to him. "Get up," she said, and saw his face as she swung his clenched left hand. "Get up, Ged, get up..." He raised his head slightly, his eyes wide open but lifeless.She could only crawl behind him, let her legs be worn by the hot and hard skin of the dragon, and then wrenched his right hand away from the bottom corner of the sword spine.She let him take her arm, half-hugging and half-dragging him down the four strange steps back to the ground. The dragon turned its huge head and sniffed at the man's body like an animal. It raised its head, and half-flapped its wings with a loud metallic bang.It moved its feet away from Ged and toward the cliff.The head on Thornneck turned, looked straight at Tenar again, and said like a kiln fire, "Seth Kelassin." The sea breeze blows the dragon's half-opened wings. "Seth Tenar," said the woman in a clear, composed voice. Long turned his face away and looked towards the west across the sea.With the clang of iron scales, it twisted its long body, spread its wings suddenly, squatted, and jumped straight from the cliff into the wind, its dragging tail leaving scorched marks on the passing sand.The red wings flapped, lifted, flapped again, and Kailasin flew away from land, far to the west. Tenar watched it until it was no bigger than a goose or a gull.The air is cold.When the dragon is there, everything becomes hot like a furnace, warmed by the dragon's inner fire.Tenar shivered slightly.She buried her face in her arms and wept loudly. "What can I do?" she cried. "What can I do now?" Finally, she wiped her eyes and nose with her sleeves, patted her hair with both hands, and turned to the man lying beside her.He was lying on the bare rock so calmly and calmly, as if he could sleep forever. Tenar sighed.There's nothing she can do about it, but there's always a next step. She couldn't lift him.She had to get help, which meant leaving him alone.He seemed to be too close to the edge of the cliff, and if he tried to get up, he might fall, because he must be weak and dizzy all over.How should she move him?He was unaware when she spoke to him or touched him.She lifts his shoulders and tries to pull him, unexpectedly succeeding.Though he was dead, he was not too heavy.She dragged him ten or fifteen feet firmly, away from the exposed cliff, and lay down on the dirt, where the dry grass formed a cover.She had to keep him there.She couldn't run, her legs were still trembling, and her breathing was still crying.She walked back to Ogion's house as fast as she could, calling to Heather, Moss, and Therru as she approached. The child came out from behind the milking shed, and stood as usual, listening to Tenar's calls, but not coming forward, neither welcoming nor refusing. "Therru, hurry to the city and invite anyone here, as long as they are strong. There is a wounded man on the cliff." Therru stood dumbfounded. She had never entered the village alone.She is caught between obedience and fear.Tenar saw, and asked, "Is Aunt Moss there? Where's Heather? The three of us can carry him, but quickly. Quickly, Therru!" Lying there, he was bound to die, and when she went back, he would be gone, dead, falling, being carried away by a dragon, anything could happen.She must get back in time.Flint died suddenly on the farmland from a stroke, she didn't accompany him, he died alone, the shepherd found him lying by the fence; Ogion died, she couldn't stop him from dying, she couldn't give him breath; Ged went home to die .This is the end of everything, there is nothing left, nothing can be done, but she must go on. "Come on, Therru! Anyone!" She herself began to stagger toward the village, but saw old Moss hurry across the pasture, stumbling forward with her thick hawthorn stick. "Honey, are you calling me?" The presence of Moss reassured her greatly.She began to adjust her breathing, to think again.When Moss heard that someone was hurt and had to be carried downhill, she didn't waste time asking questions. She grabbed Tenar's thick cotroll to dry and dragged it to the end of the Gollum.She and Tenar rolled Ged onto the bedspread, and were hauling home with difficulty on the crude means of transport, when Heather came running, Therru and Sippy close behind.With the help of Shinan, who was young and strong, he finally pulled up the canvas like a stretcher and carried the man back to the house. Tenar and Therru slept in a niche in the west wall of the house, so there was only Ogion's bed on the other side, covered by a thick linen sheet.They let the man lie down there.Tenar covered him with Ogion's quilt, and Moss murmured a curse around the edge of the bed, and Heather and Therru stood watching. "Let him rest," Tenar said, leading them all into the front room. "Who is he?" Heather asked. "What is he doing in Gaoling?" Moss asked. "You know him, Moss. He was once Ogion-Ahal's apprentice." The witch shook her head. "Honey, that apprentice is a young man from Shiyang Village, the current Archmage Roke." Tenar nodded. "No, dear," Moss replied. "This man looks like him, but it's not him. This man is not a mage. Not even a warlock." Shinan turned his head again and again, thinking it was very interesting.She can't understand most of what people say, but she likes to hear people talk. "Moss, but I know him. He's Sparrowhawk." Saying the name, Ged's common name, liberated her softness, and she began to think and feel at last that it was him, and that The years that have passed since they first met are the link between the two.A long time ago, in the darkness, under the ground, she saw a light like a star, and his face in the light. "I know him, Moss." She smiled, and then smiled wider. "He was the first man I saw," she said. Moss muttered, hesitating.She didn't like to refute "Madame Geha," but she was totally unconvinced. "Could be a trick, a disguise, Transfiguration, or Shapeshifting," she said. "Better be careful, my dear. How did he end up where you found him, and it's so out of the way? He was seen walking through the village." ?" "Did none of you... see?" They stared at her with wide eyes.She tried to say "dragon" but couldn't.Her lips and tongue cannot utter the word, but a word is born and creates itself through her mouth and her breath. "Kerasin," she said. Therru stared straight at her.A wave of warmth and heat seemed to flow out of the child's body, like a fever.She was still speechless, but moved her lips as if repeating the name, and the wave of fire burned around her. "It's just tricks!" said Moss. "Now that our mage is gone, there must be all kinds of liars coming." "I followed Sparrowhawk from Otuan to Havnor, and from Havnor to Gont, in a little boat without a roof or roof," Tenar said flatly, "You saw him bring me here, Moss?" Well, he wasn't an Archmage then. But he was him, exactly the same. Do other people have scars like this?" The old woman who was refuted silently collected her thoughts.She glanced at Therru. "No. But..." "Do you think I don't recognize him?" Moss pursed her lips, frowned, rubbed her thumbs together, and looked down at her hands. "Ma'am, there are many evil things in the world that will take away a person's appearance and body, but his soul has disappeared... been eaten..." "You mean corpse puppets?" Moss flinched when she heard her utter the word so openly.She nodded. "Someone said that once, a long time ago, Sparrowhawk Mage came here, before you came with him. Then, a dark thing followed him...followed him. Maybe it's still there. Maybe..." "The dragon brought him," said Tenar, "and called him by his real name. I know the name." Tenar's voice was full of anger at the witch's stubborn suspicion. Moss stood speechless.Her silence is the better plea. "Perhaps the shadow upon him is his death," said Tenar. "Perhaps he is dying. I don't know. If Ogion—" She wept again at the thought of Ogion, and of Ged's late return.Swallowing her tears, she went to the wooden box to collect firewood.She handed the jug to Therru, and told her to fill it.As she spoke, she touched Therru's face lightly. The large, ruptured scar was hot to the touch, but she had no fever.Tenar knelt down to build a fire.In this small home, where there are witches, widows, disabled people, and mentally handicapped people, someone has to do what's right to keep the crying from frightening the children.But the dragon is gone.Is there nothing to come but death?