Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin

When she let the child go, Therru went to the closet and fetched out Ogion’s broom.” She laboriously swept the floor where the men from Havnor had stood, sweeping away their footprints, sweeping the dust of their feet out the door, off the doorstep.

Watching her, Tenar made up her mind.

She went to the shelf where Ogion’s three great books stood, and rummaged there. She found several goose quills and a half-dried-up bottle of ink, but not a scrap of paper or parchment.” She set her jaw, hating to do damage to anything so sacred as a book, and scored and tore out a thin strip of paper from the blank endsheet of the Book of Runes. She sat at the table and dipped the pen and wrote.” Neither the ink nor the words came easy.” She had scarcely written anything since she had sat at this same table a quar­ter of a century ago, with Ogion looking over her shoulder, teaching her the runes of Hardic and the Great Runes of Power.” She wrote:

go oak farm in midi valy to clerbrook say goha sent to look to garden & sheep

It took her nearly as long to read it over as it had to write it. By now Therru had finished her sweeping and was watching her, intent.

She added one word:

to-night

“Where’s Heather?’ ‘ she asked the child, as she folded the paper on itself once and twice. “I want her to take this to Aunty Moss’s house.”

She longed to go herself, to see Sparrowhawk, but dared not be seen going, lest they were watching her to lead them to him.

“I’ll go,” Therru whispered.” Tenar looked at her sharply.

“You’ll have to go alone, Therru. Past the village.”

The child nodded.”

“Give it only to him!”

She nodded again.

Tenar tucked the paper into the child’s pocket, held her, kissed her, let her go.” Therru went, not crouching and sidling now but running freely, flying, Tenar thought, see­ing her vanish in the evening light beyond the dark door-frame, flying like a bird, a dragon, a child, free.”

Hawks

Therru was back soon with Sparrowhawk’s reply: “He said he’ll leave tonight.”

Tenar heard this with satisfaction, relieved that he had accepted her plan, that he would get clear away from these messengers and messages he dreaded. It was not till she had fed Heather and Therm their frog-leg feast, and put Therru to bed and sung to her, and was sitting up alone without lamp or firelight, that her heart began to sink. He was gone. He was not strong, he was bewildered and uncertain, he needed friends; and she had sent him away from those who were and those who wished to be his friends. He was gone, and she must stay, to keep the hounds from his trail, to learn at least whether they stayed in Gont or sailed back to Havnor.”

His panic and her obedience to it began to seem so unreasonable to her that she thought it equally unreason­able, improbable, that he would in fact go.” He would use his wits and simply hide in Moss’s house, which was the last place in all Earthsea that a king would look for an archmage.” It would be much better if he stayed there till the king’s men left.” Then he could come back here to Ogion’s house, where he belonged, And it would go on as before, she looking after him until he had his strength back, and he giving her his dear companionship.

A shadow against the stars in the doorway: “Hsssst! Awake?” Aunty Moss came in. “Well, he’s off,” she said, conspiratorial, jubilant. “Went the old forest road. Says he’ll cut down to the Middle Valley way, along past Oak Springs, tomorrow.”

“Good,” said Tenar.

Bolder than usual, Moss sat down uninvited. “I gave him a loaf and a bit of cheese for the way.”

“Thank you, Moss. That was kind.”

“Mistress Goha.” Moss’s voice in the darkness took on the singsong resonance of her chanting and spellcasting. “There’s a thing I was wanting to say to you, dearie, with­out going beyond what I can know, for I know you’ve lived among great folks and been one of ‘em yourself, and that seals my mouth when I think of it. And yet there’s things I know that you’ve had no way of knowing, for all the learning of the runes, and the Old Speech, and all you’ve learned from the wise, and in the foreign lands.”

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