Chapter 9 Chapter Nine Finding Words

A group of people was drying straw on the lord's vast field, scattered on the grass slopes in the bright morning light.Tenar looked into the distance and saw that three of the reapers were women, and the other two were men, one was a boy, and the other was stooped and gray.She went up along a row of haystacks and asked the woman about the man in the fur hat. "He came from the mouth of the valley," said the Reaper, "and I don't know where he has gone." Others also stepped forward, glad to have a chance to rest.Nobody knew where the man from Midvale went or why he didn't mow with the others. "That kind of person can't stay," said the gray-haired man. "Lazy. Do you know him, madam?"

"I'd rather not know him." Tian said, "He's thugs around my house, scaring the kids. I don't even know his name." "He calls himself 'Hanti,'" said the boy.Others looked at her or looked away, without saying a word.They found her to be the Karg woman who dwelt in the old mage's house--tenant farmers of Lord Rhiawhite, wary of the villagers, and suspicious of anything connected with Ogion.They swung their scythes, turned away, and scattered again to continue their work.Tenar came down from the prairie at the side of the hill, past a row of oaks, and walked up the road.

A man stood on the road.Her heart beat faster and she stepped forward to face him. The person who came was Bai Yang, the lord wizard.Leaning gracefully on a tall pine witch staff, he stood in the shade of the roadside trees.When she came to the road, he said, "Are you looking for work?" "no." "My master needs men. The weather is getting hotter, and the straw must be harvested as soon as possible." To Goha the Flint Widow, everything he said was reasonable, so Goha politely replied: "Your art will surely delay the rain until the straw is harvested." But he knew that she was the woman who Ogion told her real name before she died. , and because he understood this point, his words just now were clearly insulting and hypocritical, which was equivalent to a clear warning.She had hoped to ask him if he knew where the man called "Hanti" was, but now she said, "I'll tell the foreman here that the man he hired to cut the hay is stealing in my village and committing more crimes." Serious crime, not the worker he wants to hire. But that person seems to be gone.”

She looked at Bai Yang calmly, until he reluctantly replied: "I don't know anything about these people." On the morning of Ogion's death, she thought he was a young man, a tall and handsome boy in a gray cloak and a silver wizard's staff in his hand.But he was not as young as she thought, maybe he was young, but haggard.There was contempt in his eyes and voice now, so she replied in Goha's voice, "You're right. I'm sorry." She didn't want to provoke him.She turned around and wanted to go to the village, but Bai Yang said, "Wait!" She stops.

"You say he's not only a thief. But gossip is cheap, and a woman's broken mouth is better than a thief. You come here to stir up dissension among the workers, and spread the seeds of great chaos like a witch. You think I don't know Are you a witch? When I saw that filthy goblin sticky around you, did you think I didn't know how she was born and what your purpose was? Whoever wanted to destroy that monster did a good job, but he should Finish his work. You resisted me once through the corpse of the old wizard. I held back for the sake of him and the rest of the people present, but you went too far this time. Woman, I warn you, I will never You are not allowed to step on this territory! If you dare to violate my will, or even dare to speak to me again, I will let the dogs drive you out of Rui Yabai, and chase you down the cliff of Gaoling. Do you understand?"

"No," said Tenar, "I'll never understand a man like you." She turned and walked down the hill. Some caressing touch ran up her back, and her hair stood on end.She turned around on the spot, and saw the wizard stretching out his wand towards her, surrounded by dark lightning, his lips parted slightly, ready to speak.She thought at once, just because Ged lost his spells, I thought men were incapacitated too, but I was so wrong!Then, a polite voice said: "What's the matter, what's the matter? What happened?" Two men from Havnor emerged from a cherry orchard at the other end of the road.They looked at Poplar with peace and politeness, and then turned to Tenar, as if regretting having to stop the wizard from casting a spell on the middle-aged widow.But it's really, really inappropriate.

"Ms. Geha," said the man in the gold-embroidered shirt, bowing to her. Another bright-eyed man also smiled and bowed to her, saying: "I think Ms. Geha, like my king, has no fear of using her real name in public. When I was in Gont, maybe She prefers us to be called by her Gumt-name; but she has worn a ring that no woman has worn since Yephren, and knowing her deeds, I wish to pay my respects." Naturally, he kneeled on one knee. Kneeling down, he raised Tenar's right hand very lightly and quickly, touched her wrist with his forehead, then let go, stood up, and smiled kindly and implicitly.

"Ah," said Tenar, flustered and heartwarming, "there are different powers in the world . . . thank you." The wizard stood transfixed, his eyes wide open.He closed his mouth, did not continue to curse, and retracted the witch staff, but an obvious sinister energy still enveloped the witch staff and around his eyes. She wondered if he knew she was Tenar of the Ring all along, or just now.It doesn't matter, he already hates her to the bone.Being a woman was her fault, and in his eyes there was nothing to deepen or atone for that guilt, no punishment would suffice.He had seen the brutality suffered by Therru but approved of it.

"My lord," she said to the older man, "only a frank response will not discredit your words and deeds as my king's messenger. I hope to honor the king and his messengers, but my own honor demands silence until my friend Allow me to speak. I... my lords, I believe he will send a message eventually. I just ask you to raise your hand and allow him more time." "It should be so," said one, and the other agreed. "As much time as he needs. And lady, your trust honors us more than anything." She turned at last to the way to Reya Bai, stunned by the sudden fright and change, the hatred of the wizard's thrashing, the contempt of her own anger, the fear of suddenly knowing that the wizard had the will and the ability to harm her, The royal court sheltered and the fear suddenly ended.These messengers come in great ships with white sails, from havens of misery, from towers of swords, from thrones, from centers of righteousness and order.Her heart overflowed with gratitude.There is indeed a King on the throne, and in his crown the most important jewel will be the Peace Rune.

She liked the young man's face, intelligent and kind, kneeling to her like a queen, and the smile that concealed a tacit understanding.She turned around and looked back, the messenger and wizard Bai Yang walked towards the mansion together, the two seemed to be having a friendly conversation with the wizard, as if nothing had happened just now. This scene made her hopeful trust fade a little.Of course, as courtiers they were not supposed to argue or judge against, and he was a wizard, and the wizard of the master of the house.But, she thought, they didn't have to be so comfortable walking and talking with him.

The party from Havnor had been entertained by Lord Rheawhite for a few days, perhaps hoping that the Archmage would change his mind and seek them out, but they did not seek him out, nor pressed Tenar for his whereabouts.When they were gone at last, Tenar told herself, a decision had to be made about the future.There was no reason to stay any longer, but there were two strong reasons to leave: Bai Yang and Hantee, neither of which could let her and Therru go. But she found it hard to make up her mind, and leaving seemed unthinkable.If she left Raby now, she would really leave Ogion, lose him--she wouldn't lose him as long as she swept his house and weeded his onions.Besides, she thought, "Down there, I shall never dream of the sky." She was Tenar where Kerasim had been, and she would be Goha again in the Midvale, she thought.She procrastinated, saying to herself, "Should I be afraid of those bastards and avoid them? That's what they want me to do. Should I just let them decide whether I go or not?" She told herself, "I'll finish the cheese." ’” She kept Therru at her side at all times.The days passed. Mushrooms bring news.Tenar asked her about Poplar the wizard, and didn't tell her the whole thing, only that he threatened her--and probably that was all he had intended.Moss usually avoids the old lord's territory, but she's interested in what's going on there and doesn't resent the chance to meet friends there - including a woman who taught her to deliver babies, and others who taught her to heal or search for people.She induces them to discuss what happened in the mansion.They all hated Bai Yang, so they were willing to talk about him, but resentment and fear accounted for half of the story.However, there is also fact in fiction.Moss herself confirmed that the young master, the grandson of the king, has always been strong and strong, although he is shy and depressed, "timid." She said.Until Bai Yang came here three years ago.The young lord's mother died, and the old lord asked Roke to send a wizard. "What are you here for? Especially when Lord Ogion is only a mile away? And the people in that mansion are all wizards." But Bai Yang came.He had had no contact with Ogion except to show respect, and, said Moss, he had been at the mansion.Since then, it has become increasingly rare to see the grandson, who is said to have been bedridden day and night, "like a sick baby, completely shriveled up," said a woman who had entered the house for chores.But the old lord—whom Moth insisted was "a hundred years old, or approaching, or older," and she had no fear or respect for numbers—was full of energy, what they described as "vigorous."One of the valets (they only allow valet mansions) told one of the women that the old lord had hired a sorcerer to make him immortal, and the valet said the sorcerer was feeding him with the life of his grandson.The male servant felt that there was nothing wrong with it, "Who doesn't want to live forever?" "Ah," said Tenar, a little taken aback. "It's a dreadful story. Is it not mentioned in the village?" Moss shrugged.This is another "forget it".The deeds of the strong cannot be judged by the weak, and at the same time, there is a vague and blind loyalty deeply rooted in this land: the old man is their master, the lord of Reyabai, and what he does is no one else's business... Moss obviously I think so too. "It's dangerous," she said. "There's bound to be something wrong with that technique." But she didn't say it was evil. Handy was nowhere to be seen at the mansion.Desperate to ascertain whether he had left Goring, Tenar asked one or two acquaintances of the villagers if they had seen the man, but she got reluctant and perfunctory answers that they did not want to get involved in her business. "Forget it..." Only the old fan treated her like a friend and a villager. This may also be because his eyesight was so weak that he couldn't see Therru clearly. She took Therru with her now even into the village, or whenever she left the house. Therru did not find such confinement bothering her. She hung around Tenar like a little child, working and playing with her.Her games were picking rope, weaving baskets, and playing with the two bone dolls that Tenar had found in the little straw sack Tenar had found in the cupboard in Ogion.One of them may be a dog or a sheep, and the other is a human figure.Tenar felt no power or danger in them, and Moss said they were "just toys," but to Therru they were magical.For hours on end she would move the two little dolls as the silent story unfolded.She doesn't talk when she plays.Sometimes she built houses for little people and animals, stone piles and straw mud huts.The little doll is always packed in a small straw bag and placed in her pocket.She was learning to spin, holding the reel in one burned hand and spinning the spindle with the other.Since coming here, they have regularly groomed the goats and now have a large bag of silky goat hair ready to be spun into thread. "But I should teach her," Tenar thought, confused. "Ogion said, Teach her everything. But what am I teaching her? Cooking and spinning?" Then another part of the mind said in Goha's voice: "Aren't these true, necessary, noble arts? Intelligence exists only in words?" She was worried about it, however, so one afternoon, as Therru sat in the shade of the peach tree pulling the wool, cleaning it, breaking up the fluff, and beginning to comb it, she said, "Perhaps you should start learning things, Therru. A real name. In a language where all things have their own real name, actions and words can become one. Xi Guoyi speaks this language, which lifts the islands from the depths of the ocean. This is the language spoken by dragons. " The child listened in silence. Tenar put down the wire brush and picked up a small stone from the ground. "In this language," she said, "it's Taku." Therru watched her move, then repeated "Tuo," but did not say it, forming the word only with the right lip pulled back slightly by the scar. The stone lay in Tenar's palm, still a stone. The two were silent. "Not yet," said Tenar. "That's not what I should be teaching you now." She let the stones drop to the floor and picked up the comb, which had a handful of gray, shaggy wool to begin with. "Perhaps you should start learning these things after you get your real name. Not now. Now, just listen. Now is the time for stories, when you should start learning them. I can tell you about the Isles and the land of Karg I told you a story I heard from my friend Ahar the Reticent, and now I will tell you a story my friend Lark told a child. It is Andor and Avad Story. Before as long as "eternity", in a place as far away as the island of Celedon, there lived a man named Andor, a woodcutter, who used to go up the mountain alone. One day, in the depths of the forest, he cut down A great oak tree, when the oak tree fell, shouted at him with a human voice..." The two had a nice afternoon. But that night Tenar lay beside the sleeping child and could not sleep.She tossed and turned, worrying about one trivial worry after another: Did I close the pasture gate; did my hands hurt from brushing, or was the rheumatism about to start...and so on.Then she became very disturbed and felt that there was noise outside the house.Why don't I have a dog?She thought how foolish not to have a dog.In today's world, women and children living alone should have a dog.But this is Ogion's house!No one comes here to commit a crime.But Ogion was dead, dead, buried under the roots at the edge of the forest.No one will come.Sparrowhawk was gone, fled, he wasn't even Sparrowhawk anymore, just a shadowy man, useless to anyone, a dead man forced to live.And I have no strength, I am useless.I speak the language of creation, and it dies in my mouth, meaningless.a pebble.I am a woman, old woman, weak, stupid!Everything I did was wrong.Everything I touch turns to ashes, phantoms, stones.I am a creature of darkness, filled with darkness.Only the fire can purify me.Only fire can devour me, devour me completely, like... She sat up and shouted loudly in her native language: "The curse is reversed, reversed!" She raised her right arm, pointed straight at the closed door, jumped off the bed, walked to the door, pushed it open, and said to the cloudy night sky: " You came too late, Bai Yang. I was swallowed long ago. Go and clean up your own house!" No answer, no sound, just a faint, sour, foul smell of burning, like burnt cloth or hair. She closed the door, leaned on Ogion's wand, and turned to see Therru still asleep.She was sleepless all night. In the morning, she took Therru into the village and asked Ah Shan if he wanted the wool they spun.It was an excuse to keep the two away from the house and into the crowd temporarily.The old man said he would be happy to weave the bale, and they chatted under the big lacquer fan, the apprentice frowning and continuing to rattle the loom.As Tenar and Therru left Fan's house, someone ducked into the corner of the hut where she had lived.Something wasp or bee or something was stinging the back of Tenar's neck, and there was the sound of rain ticking all around.There was a summer rainstorm, but the sky was cloudless...little rocks.She saw gravel hitting the ground.Therru stopped in surprise and bewilderment, and looked around.Several boys ran out from behind the cottage, half hidden, shouting and laughing at each other. "Come," said Tenar evenly, and they walked on to Ogion's house. Tenar trembled all over, more so as she walked, but she tried not to let Therru see that she looked worried but not frightened, not understanding what was going on. Once inside, Tenar knew that someone had come in while they were in the village.The house smelled like burnt flesh and hair, and their beds were unkempt. As she tried to think, she knew someone had cast a spell on her.She was trembling, and her mind was confused, dull, and unable to decide.She couldn't think.She said the word, the real name of the stone, and was stoned in the face - an evil face, an ugly face - and she dared not speak... she could not speak... She thought in her mother tongue: "I can't think in Hirth, no way." She can think in Kargic, but not sharply.It was as if she wanted to ask the girl she had been a long time ago, Arha, to come out of the darkness to help her think, to help herself, just like she helped her reverse the wizard's curse last night.Arha did not know most of what Tenar and Goha knew, but she knew how to curse, how to live in darkness, and how to be silent. This is hard to do, silence.She wanted to scream, she wanted to talk... go to Moss, tell her what happened, why she had to go, at least say goodbye.She wanted to say to Shinan: "Shinan, this sheep is yours now." She said it smoothly in the He language so that Shinan could understand, but Shinan didn't understand, she opened her eyes wide and said with a smile: "They Lord Ogion's sheep!" "Then...you..." Tenar was about to say, "keep raising sheep for him," but a fatal thought came over her, and she heard her own voice scream, "Idiot, fool, fool, woman!" !” Shinan stared blankly, and stopped laughing.Tenar put her hands over her mouth.She grabbed Heather and made her turn to look at the cheeses undulating in the milking shed, and kept pointing them back and forth until Heather nodded vaguely and started laughing again, for Tenar was behaving very strangely. Tenar nodded to Therru... come here... and went inside.The stench grew stronger, making Therru cringe in fear. Tenar took out their knapsack and loafers, and put in her own bag a change of dress and shirt, Therru's two old dresses, a half-finished new dress, extra cloth, which she had carved for herself and Therru. Spindles and bindings, a little dry food for the journey, and a pottery bottle of water.Therru's bundle contained Therru's best basket, a straw bag with figures and animals, a few feathers, a piece of mushroom felt for her little labyrinth, and a bag of nuts and raisins. She wanted to say, "Go and water the peach tree." But she dared not say it.She took the child out and showed it to her.Therru watered the tiny seedlings carefully. They sweep and tidy the house quickly and silently. Tenar put a water jug ​​back on the chest of drawers, and glimpsed at the other end three large books, Ogion's. Arha saw them—insignificant to her, just a big leather box full of papers. But Tenar stared at them, biting her knuckles, frowning, trying to decide, to know what to do, how to carry.She can't move, but she has to.They cannot stay in this defiled house where hatred has set foot.They were his, Ogion's, Ged's, hers.Knowledge.Teach her everything!She emptied the bag that was originally filled with wool and wool, then put the large books one on top of the other, and finally tied the mouth of the bag tightly with a leather cord with a loop at the end. "We must go, Therru." She spoke Calgian, but the child's name was the same, originally Calgwynn, fire, burning.She followed, without asking questions, with a small bag full of all her possessions. They took hazel sticks and alder sticks, and left Ogion's staff in a dark corner by the door, and opened the door to let the sea-breeze come and go. Animal instinct led Tenar to avoid the fields and the mountain paths she had come upon.She took Therru's hand as she took a short cut from the steep pastures to the winding path that led to Gont Harbor.She knew that if she met Bai Yang, everything would be in vain, and then she thought that he might be waiting for her on the road, but maybe not on this road. After a mile or so downhill, she began to think.What she thought at first was that she had chosen the right path, because the He language vocabulary gradually returned to her mind, and after a while, the mantra also returned, so she bent down, picked up a stone, held it in her hand, and said "Tuo" in her heart , put the stone in your pocket.Facing the vast sky and complex clouds, she said "Kerasin" once in her heart.Then, like the clear sky, her thoughts became clear. They walked to a long and narrow road, with high barren mounds on both sides, and the shadows cast by the exposed rock veins made her slightly uneasy.As soon as the road turned, they saw the deep blue bay just below, and a beautiful ship with full sail was sailing in between the majestic double cliffs.Tenar had been frightened the last time she saw such a boat, but not this time.She wanted to run all the way down the hill to meet him. It's just that she can't do it.They walked at the speed of Selu, which was much faster than two months ago, and the journey down the mountain was also easy.But the ship came galloping toward them, flying over the bay like a swan on a spellwind, and was in port before Tenar and Therru had reached the next long bend. Towns, big and small, were strange to Tenar because she had never lived in them.She had seen Havnor, the greatest city in Earthsea, for a while, and she had sailed with Ged into Gond Harbor many years ago, but they had not stopped in the streets, but climbed directly up the hill to the High Ridge.The only other town she knows is Guhekou, where her daughter lives, a lazy and warm small port town. As long as a merchant ship comes from the Andro Islands, it is a big deal, and most of the residents' topics revolve around dried fish. She and the child walked the streets of Port Gont, while the sun was still high over the western sea.Therru walked fifteen miles without complaint, and did not fail, but she must have been.Tenar was tired, too, from the sleepless night before, and too much worry, and Ogion's books were too heavy.Halfway through, she put the books in the backpack, and put the dry food and clothes into the wool bag. It relieved a little, but it didn't improve much.Therefore, the two dragged their tired feet through the surrounding houses and came to the city gate.The road turns into a street after passing through a pair of stone dragons in front of the gate.The gate guards stood there and inspected them.Therru turned his burned face over his shoulder, and hid his burned hand under his apron. "Will you be staying at the town lodge, ma'am?" asked the guard, watching the child carefully. Tenar did not know what to say. She did not know that there would be guards at the gates.She has no money to pay for tolls or accommodation.She didn't know anyone in Gont Port, except... She thought of going up the hill to bury Ogion's wizard, but what was his name?She doesn't know his name.She stood there with her mouth slightly open, like heather. "Let's go, let's go." The guard said boredly, turning his back to them. She wanted to ask him how he got to the seaside road that ran south across the headland to the mouth of the valley, but she dared not call his attention again lest he be identified as a vagabond, a witch, or whatever he and the pair of stone dragons were. Things to block outside of Gont Harbor.So they passed among the stone dragons—Therru raised his head a little to look at them—and walked along the paving cobbles, step by step, more and more surprised and flustered and embarrassed.It seemed to Tenar that no one or anything in the world had ever been kept out of Gond Harbor. Everything was here.High stone houses, carriages, carts, carts, oxen, donkeys, markets, shops, crowds, people, people...the more people go inside, the more people there are.Therru clutched Tenar's hand, and walked sideways, hiding her face with her hair.Tenar clutched Therru's hand. She thought there was no way for the two of them to live here. The only thing she could do was to continue walking south until it was dark, which would be soon, and then hoped that there would be a way to camp in the woods.Tenar chose a stocky woman in a large white apron who was closing the shutters of her shop, and determined to ask her the way south out of the city.The woman's firm, ruddy face looked kindly enough, but just as Tenar mustered up the courage to speak to her, Therru held her tight, as if to hide himself against her.When she looked up, she saw a man in a fur hat walking towards her from the other side of the street.He also saw her and stopped. Tenar took Therru's arm, and with a half-drag, half-swipe, turned her around. "Come on!" she said, and strode past the man.Once past him, she walked faster, downhill toward the glint of the sunset sea, the night, and the docks and docks at the bottom of the steep street.Therru ran beside her, breathing hoarsely as if he had just been burned. The tall masts swayed against the red-yellow sky.The great ship, with its sails furled, was moored behind a great wooden galley, against the stone quay. Tenar looked back.The man followed not far away, his footsteps were not too fast or slow. She ran up to the pier, but after a while Therru stumbled and could not go on, out of breath.Tenar picked up the baby, and the child clung to her and buried his face in Tenar's shoulder.But it was such a burden to carry that Tenar could hardly move.Her legs trembled, and she took one step, one step, another step.She walked to the small wooden bridge between the pier and the deck, and put her hand on the railing. A bald, lean sailor on deck looked her up and down. "What's the matter, ma'am?" he said. "Is this... is this a ship from Havnor?" "Of course, from Wangcheng." "Let me aboard!" "Well, I can't do that," said the sailor, grinning, but his eyes moved to the man standing beside Tenar. "You don't have to run away," Handy said to her. "I mean no harm to you. I don't want to hurt you. You don't understand. I'm the one who brought her to help, didn't I? I'm really sorry that this happened. .I want to help you take care of her." He held out his hand, as if overwhelmed, drawn to Therru.Tenar could not move.She promised Therrule not to let him touch her again.She saw that hand touch the child's exposed, withdrawn arm. "What do you want from her?" said another voice.A sailor stood in the place of the bald sailor, a young man.Tenar thought it was her son. Handy answered quickly, "She's holding... she's taking my child, my niece. She's mine. She cast a spell on the child and stole her, you see..." She was completely unable to speak.Words go from her again, ripped from her.The young sailor was not her son.His face was thin and serious, and his eyes were clear.She looked at him and found the words: "Let me aboard, please!" The young man held out his hand, she took it, and he led her across the bridge to the ship. "Wait here a minute," he said to Handy, and then to her, "Come with me." But her legs couldn't hold on anymore.She slumped on the deck of the Havnor ship, throwing down the heavy bag, but holding the child tightly. "Don't let him take her, oh, don't let them take her. Don't do it again, don't do it again, don't do it again!"