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Unsung, then, they filed in and took their seats on the cushioned benches facing the uncushioned throne. They
stood again as the king came in. With him came the Woman of Gont, whom most of them had seen before so that her
appearance caused no stir, and a slight man in rusty black. "Looks like a village sorcerer," a merchant from Kamery
said to a shipwright from Way, who answered, "No doubt," in a resigned, forgiving tone. The king was loved also by
many of the councillors, or at least liked; he had after all put power in their hands, and even if they felt no obligation to
be grateful him, they respected his judgment.
The elderly Lady of Ebea hurried in late, and Prince Sege, who presided over protocol, told the council to be seated.
They all sat down. "Hear the king," Sege said, and they listened.
He told them, and for many it was the first real news of these matters, about the dragons' attacks on West Havnor, and
how he had set out with the Woman of Gont, Tehanu, to parley with them.
He kept them in suspense while he spoke of the earlier attacks by dragons on the islands of the west, and told them
briefly Onyx's tale of the girl who turned into a dragon on Roke Knoll, and reminded them that Tehanu was claimed as
daughter by Tenar of the Ring, by the onetime Archmage of Roke, and by the dragon Kalessin, on whose back the
king himself had been borne from Selidor.
Then finally he told them what had happened at the pass in the Faliern Mountains at dawn three days ago.
He ended by saying, "That dragon carried Tehanu's message to Orm Irian in Paln, who then must make the long flight
here, three hundred miles or more. But dragons are swifter than any ship even with the magewind. We may look for
Orm Irian at any time."
Prince Sege asked the first question, knowing the king would welcome it: "What do you hope to gain, my lord, by
parley with a dragon?"
The answer was prompt: "More than we can ever gain by trying to fight it. It is a hard thing to say, but it is the truth:
against the anger of these great creatures, if indeed they were to come against us in any number, we have no true
defense. Our wise men tell us there is maybe one place that could stand against them, Roke Island. And on Roke there
is maybe one man who could face the wrath of even a single dragon and not be destroyed. Therefore we must try to
find out the cause of their anger and, by removing it, make peace with them."
"They are animals," said the old Lord of Felkway. "Men cannot reason with animals, make peace with them."
"Have we not the Sword of Erreth-Akbe, who slew the Great Dragon?" cried a young councillor.
He was answered at once by another: "And who slew Erreth-Akbe?"
Debate in the council tended to be tumultuous, though Prince Sege kept strict rule, not letting anyone interrupt
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another or speak for more than one turn of the two-minute sandglass. Babblers and droners were cut off by a crash of
the prince's silver-tipped staff and his call to the next speaker. So they talked and shouted back and forth at a fast
pace, and all the things that had to be said and many things that did not need to be said were said, and refuted, and
said again. Mostly they argued that they should go to war, fight the dragons, defeat them.
"A band of archers on one of the king's warships could bring them down like ducks," cried a hot-blooded merchant
from Wathort.
"Are we to grovel before mindless beasts? Are there no heroes left among us?" demanded the imperious Lady of
O-tokne.
To that, Onyx made a sharp reply: "Mindless? They speak the Language of the Making, in the knowledge of which
our art and power lies. They are beasts as we are beasts. Men are animals that speak."
A ship's captain, an old, far-traveled man, said, "Then isn't it you wizards who should be talking with them? Since you
know their speech, and maybe share their powers? The king spoke of a young untaught girl who turned into a dragon.
But mages can take that form at will. Couldn't the Masters of Roke speak with the dragons or fight with them, if need
be, evenly matched?"
The wizard from Paln stood up. He was a short man with a soft voice. "To take the form is to be the being, captain," he
said politely. "A mage can look like a dragon. But true Change is a risky art. Especially now. A small change in the
midst of great changes is like a breath against the wind… But we have here among us one who need use no art,
and yet can speak for us to dragons better than any man could do. If she will speak for us."
At that, Tehanu stood up from her bench at the foot of the dais. "I will," she said. And sat down again.
That brought a pause to the discussion for a minute, but soon they were all at it again.
The king listened and did not speak. He wanted to know the temper of his people.
The sweet silver trumpets high on the Tower of the Sword played all their tune four times, telling the sixth hour, noon.
The king stood, and Prince Sege declared a recess until the first hour of the afternoon.
A lunch of fresh cheese and summer fruits and greens was set out in a room in Queen Heru's Tower. There Lebannen
invited Tehanu and Tenar, Alder, Sege, and Onyx; and Onyx, with the king's permission, brought with him the Pelnish
wizard Seppel. They sat and ate together, talking little and quietly. The windows looked over all the harbor and the
north shoreline of the bay fading off into a bluish haze that might be either the remnants of the morning fog or smoke
from the forest fires in the west of the island.
Alder remained bewildered at being included among the king's intimates and brought into his councils. What had he
to do with dragons? He could neither fight with them nor talk with them. The idea of such mighty beings was great and
strange to him. At moments the boasts and challenges of the councillors seemed to him like a yapping of dogs. He had
seen a young dog once on a beach barking and barking at the ocean, rushing and snapping at the ebb wave, running
back from the breaker with its wet tail between its legs.
But he was glad to be with Tenar, who put him at ease, and whom he liked for her kindness and courage, and he found
now that he was also at ease with Tehanu.
Her disfigurement made it seem that she had two faces. He could not see them both at one time, only the one or the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]