Entering the Court of the Terrenon

Ged wakes in a luxurious bed, dressed in fine clothes. He is greeted by the Lady Serret, who is revealed to be the same girl who mocked him in Re Albi years ago. She and her husband, Lord Benderesk, are the keepers of the Terrenon, a powerful and evil stone. They offer him refuge from the shadow, but Ged is suspicious. He feels a strange dullness in his mind and a coldness in the tower. He is being seduced by comfort and by Serret's beauty, but he senses the underlying evil of the place.