Entering the Court of the Terrenon

Ged, exhausted and desperate after his flight from the shadow that had pursued him across the Osskil Sea, stumbled through the gate of the Court of the Terrenon, a tower-keep that rose like a sharp white tooth from the bleak Keksemt Moors. He had been guided there by the gebbeth-possessed Skiorh, who had called him by his true name, paralyzing his wizardry, and had driven him to the very threshold of this ancient fortress. The gate itself shimmered with a pale light, and as Ged plunged through it, he collapsed, his mind utterly spent, and was caught before he fell. He woke in a high room, clothed in silk and cloth-of-silver, his burned hand salved and bound, and found himself a guest of the Lady Serret, a woman of startling beauty who spoke to him with a familiar, seductive warmth. She was the same girl who had mocked him in the meadows above Re Albi years before, the daughter of the Lord of Re Albi and a sorceress of Osskil, though Ged did not recognize her at first. Serret told him he was safe from the shadow within the Court's walls, which were built not only of stone but of mighty spells, and she offered him rest and the chance to regain his strength. She spoke of the Terrenon, a jewel that was the foundation of the keep, a stone made before Segoy raised the islands of the world, which could answer any question and grant its master power over destiny itself. She led Ged down winding stairs of marble, through rich rooms and halls, past high windows that looked out over the desolate, snow-patched moorlands, and finally to a locked door in the base of the tower. Beyond three doors, unlocked with a silver key, a gold key, and a Great Word of unbinding, they entered a small, rough stone room, bitterly cold, where a single unshapen paving-stone lay on the floor. This was the Terrenon, and Ged felt its power as a sickness and a cold that entered his marrow. Serret urged him to touch the stone and ask it how to defeat his enemy, but Ged refused, recognizing the stone as an Old Power of Earth, a spirit of great evil sealed in stone, not for men to use. He told her, "I will not speak with that spirit," and warned her that it would not work her well. Serret, however, insisted that the stone had waited for him, that he was the one who could master it, and that it would give him power to crush any enemy, mortal or of the other world. She spoke of the man in Orrimy who had directed Ged to Osskil, revealing him as a servant of the Terrenon, a wizard who had thrown away his staff to serve a greater power. She argued that only shadow could fight shadow, only darkness could defeat the dark, and that the Terrenon would tell Ged the shadow's name. Ged was shaken and tormented, but when Serret whispered that he would be mightier than all men, a king among men, and that she would rule with him, he suddenly saw Lord Benderesk standing nearby, listening and smiling. In that moment, Ged's eyes cleared, and he understood that he had been lured, that they had used his fear to lead him on, and that once his will was captured by the Stone, they would let the shadow into the walls to possess him. He declared, "It is light that defeats the dark," and refused the Stone's power. Benderesk, enraged, began a spell of Changing to transform Serret into a hideous thing, but Ged stepped forward and struck the lord's hands down with a single word, his will prevailing even on that alien, evil ground. Serret, in a shaking voice, urged Ged to flee before Benderesk could summon the Servants of the Stone, and together they ran through the passages and halls, down the long twisted stairs, and out into the courtyard. There, three castle-servants barred their way, but Serret spoke a sibilant Osskilian spell that made them fall back, writhing and screaming. Ged led her through the enchanted gate, speaking a word of Opening, and they passed out of the silvery twilight of the Court onto the drear, snow-covered moors. As they emerged, Ged found the body of his otak, Hoeg, stiff and cold in the snow, killed by the shadow or the servants of the Stone. Serret, in terror, shrank into a grey gull and flew away, but Ged, in a hot rage of hate, plucked a blade of wild grass from the snow and spoke to it in the True Speech, transforming it into a great wizard's staff that blazed with white magefire. He fought off the black, flapping creatures that swooped from the tower, and then, taking the shape of a Pilgrim Falcon, he pursued them, but they had already caught and killed Serret in her gull-form. Ged, in his hawk-shape, screamed in defiant rage and flew on, crossing the low beaches of Osskil and out over the breakers of the sea, leaving the Court of the Terrenon and its dark temptations behind forever.