Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen Tehanu

The child turns left and walks some distance before turning back, letting the blooming hedge hide her. The person whose name is Bai Yang and whose real name is Ai Ruisen, in her eyes is a twisted bundle of darkness that binds her mother and father, passes a pimp through her tongue and his heart, and leads them to his hiding place place.The smell of the place made her sick, but she followed for a distance to see his movements.He leads them through a door and closes it.The floors are made of stone.She can't get in. She needs to fly, but she can't.She doesn't belong to the Wing Clan.

She ran at full speed across the fields, past Aunt Moss's house, past Ogion's house, the sheep shed, and along the cliffside road, until she reached the edge of the cliff, where she should not go, because she had only one eye.She was careful, watching carefully with that eye.She is standing on the edge of a cliff.The water is far below, and the sun is setting in the distance.She looked west with her other eye, and with another voice, she called the name she heard her mother call in her dream. She did not stay to wait for a reply, but went back the way she had come, first to Ogion's house, to see if her peach tree had grown.The old tree bears many small green peaches, but there is no trace of the young sapling.Eaten by sheep, or died because she didn't water her.She stood for a moment looking at the field, took a deep breath, and walked across the field again to Aunt Moss's house.

The chickens, which were about to enter the nest to rest, clucked and flapped their wings in protest of her entry.The room is dark and filled with various smells. "Aunt Moss?" she said in a voice for these people. "who is it?" The old woman hid in bed.She was scared and tried to block everyone with stones around her, but in vain, she wasn't strong enough. "Who is it? Who's there? Oh dear... dear boy, my little boy, my little girl, what are you doing here? Where is she? Where is she? Your mother, oh, she's in Here? Is she coming? Don't come in, don't come in, dear, he cursed the old woman, don't come near me! Don't come near!"

she cries.The child reached out and touched her. "You're so cold," she said. "You're like fire, boy, your hands burn me. Oh, don't look at me! He made my flesh rot, dry up, and rot again, but he won't let me die...he says I'll bring you here .I wanted to die, I tried, but he caught me, he disregarded my will, he let me live, the king let me die, oh let me die!" "You don't deserve to die," said the child, frowning. "Son," the old woman whispered, "Son...call me by my real name." "Happy," said the child.

"Ah. I knew... set me free, dear!" "I must wait," said the child, "until they come." The witch lay more comfortably, breathing without pain. "Until who's coming, dear?" she whispered. "My people." The witch's broad, cold hands lay in hers like a bundle of firewood.She held on tightly.Now, the house is as dark as the outside.Harpy, or Moss, fell asleep, and gradually the child, sitting on the floor beside the cot, with a hen perched nearby, also fell asleep. When the light comes, the man follows.He said, "Get up, bitch! Get up!" She got up and dropped to all fours.He laughed and said, "Stand up! You're a smart bitch and walk on your hind feet, aren't you? That's right. Pretend to be human! We've got a ways to go. Come on!" The leash was still around her neck, he tugged hard.She followed.

"Here, you take her," he said, handing the leash to the man she loved, but whose name she no longer knew. A group of people came out of the dark place.The stone opened its mouth wide to let them pass, then closed it again. He has been following her and the person holding the belt.The remaining three or four men followed behind. The fields were gray with dew, and the mountains were darkly reflected in the sky, and the birds began to sing louder and louder in the orchards and hedgerows. A group of people walked to the edge of the world, and after walking for a while, they came to a place where the ground was just bare rock and the edge was very narrow.There was a line in the bare rock, and she looked straight at it.

"He can push her down," he said, "and the eagle can fly alone." He untied the belt from her neck. "On the edge," he said.She followed the traces in the stone to the edge.There was nothing below her except the ocean.Ahead is a sheet of air. "Now, Sparrowhawk will give her a push," he said, "but first, maybe she wants to say something. She has a lot to say, as women always have. Don't you have anything you want to tell us, Lady Tenar ?” She couldn't speak, but pointed to the sea and sky. "Albatross," he said. She laughed out loud.

In the light groove, from the way of the sky, the dragon flies, and the flames burn behind the curled scales.Tenar spoke now. "Kerathine!" she cried, and then, turning, took Ged's arm, and drew him down on the rock.Immediately, a burst of blazing flames rushed over them, clanging scales, wings raised high, and sharp claws like sickles crashed into the rock with a bang. The wind blows from the sea.The tiny thorns growing from the cracks of the rock not far from her hand swayed constantly under the sea breeze. Ged was beside her, squatting shoulder to shoulder with the sea behind them and the dragon before them.

It squinted at them with one long golden eye. Ged spoke the language of dragons in a hoarse and trembling voice.Tenar understood that his words were simply "We thank you, Longest One." Kelassim looked at Tenar, and said with a loud sound of a broom dragging a gong, "Alo Tehanu?" "Child," said Tenar, "Therru!" She got up, and was about to run to find her child, when she saw her walking along the rocky cliff between the mountains and the sea, toward the Dragon. "Therrule, don't run!" she cried, but the child had seen her, and was running straight towards her.The two embraced tightly.

The dragon turned its huge, deep, rust-red head so that it could keep its eyes on them.Flames flickered from the nostrils the size of the kettle, and wisps of thin smoke drifted out.The thermal shock of the dragon's body penetrated through the icy sea breeze. "Tehanu," said the dragon. The child turned to look at it. "Kerasin," she said. Ged, who had been on his knees, staggered to his feet, clasping Tenar's arm to steady his steps.he laughed. "I know who calls you, the one who lives forever!" he said. "It's me," said the child, "I can't think of any other way, Xi Guoyi."

Still looking at the dragon, she spoke in the language of the dragon, the word that created the world. "Very good, my son," Long said, "I have been looking for you for a long time, but I have not found you." "Are we going there now?" asked the child, "to where the rest of the dragons are, to the wind above him?" "Are you willing to leave the generations here?" "No," said the boy, "can't they go?" "They can't, their lives depend on this." "I'm going to stay here with them," she said, choking up a little. Kailasin turned his head and spit out a huge stream of heat, maybe it was laughter, joy, or contempt, anger... "Ha!" Then, he looked at the child again. "Excellent. Your work here is unfinished." "I know." said the child. "I will return to you," said Kailasim, "waiting for time." Then, to Ged and Tenar, "I trust you with my son, as you will trust me with your son." "Just wait," Tenar said. Kailasin's gigantic head lightened slightly, and the corners of his long, saber-toothed mouth curled up. The dragon turned around, and Ged, Tenar, and Therru backed away.The dragon dragged its armor across the cliff, carefully placed its clawed feet, and prancing with its black hips and legs curled up like a cat.The wings with criss-crossing meridians burst red in the dawn, and the spiny tail hissed on the rocks, flew and disappeared, like a seagull, a chaffinch, a touch of longing. Where it had been, there were scattered pieces of charred cloth, pieces of leather, and other things. "Come on," said Ged. But women and children stood and looked at these things. "They are men of bones," said Therru.She turned and ran away, ahead of the man and the woman, along the narrow path. "Her tongue," said Ged. "Her mother tongue." "Tehanu," said Tenar, "her real name is Tehanu." "The giver of the real name, give her the real name." "She has been Tehanu from the beginning. She has always been Tehanu." "Come on!" said the child, looking back at them. "Aunt Moss is sick." They brought the mushrooms out into the light and air, washed her sores, burned the filthy sheets.Therru brought clean bedding from Ogion's house.She also brought Heather the shepherdess, and with the help of Heather, they let the old woman lie comfortably in bed with her chickens, and Heather promised to find something to feed them all. "Somebody's going to Gont Port," said Ged, "to get the local wizard to take care of Moss, and she'll be cured. And to the mansion. The old man will die now, and if the house is cleansed well, the grandson might live...  He sat on the steps in front of the Moss house, leaned his head against the door frame, and closed his eyes against the sunlight. "Why do we do what we do?" he said. Tenar was washing her face, hands, and arms in the basin of water she had fetched from the pump, and looked around.Exhausted, Ged had fallen asleep, his face in the morning light.She sat down on the steps next to him, resting her head on his shoulder.Are we forgiven?she thinks.Why are we pardoned? She looked down at Ged's hands loosely spread out on the steps.She thought of thorns swaying in the wind, and dragons' clawed feet, with scales of red and gold.She was half asleep when the child sat beside her. "Tehanu," she murmured. "The little tree is dead," said the child. It was a while before Tenar's tired and sleepy mind understood, and she answered with an effort of sobriety, "Are there any peaches on the old tree?" The two talked quietly so as not to wake up the sleeping man. "Only little green fruits." "After the Long Dance Festival, they will be cooked. Soon." "Can we plant one?" "More if you want. Is the house all right?" "It's empty." "Should we live there?" She regained consciousness and put her arms around the child. "I've got money," she said, "enough to buy a herd of goats, and Toby's winter pasture--if he'll sell it. Ged knows where to take 'em up the hill. Summer... wonder what we comb Is the wool still there?" she said, thinking, We have left the book, Ogion's book!On the mantelpiece at Oak Grange, leave it to Starfire, poor boy, he can't read a word! But none of this seemed to matter.There must be new things waiting to be learned.She could send for books if Ged wanted them.And her spinning wheel.Maybe next fall she can go down the mountain by herself to meet her son, visit Skylark, and stay with Ai Ping.If they wanted their own vegetables this summer, they would have to replant Ogion's garden immediately.She thought of the scent of long beans and pod flowers in rows, and of the little window facing west. "I think we could live there," she said.