The Farthest Shore Read Free Page B

which is iebera , and so also the sepal, which is partonath ; and stem and leaf and root hath each his
     name. . . .”
    But under his tree the Archmage Ged, who knew all the names of moly,
     withdrew his sending and, stretching out his legs more comfortably and keeping his eyes
     shut, presently fell asleep in the leaf-spotted sunlight.

CHAPTER 2
THE MASTERS OF ROKE
    T HE SCHOOL ON R OKE IS where boys who show promise in sorcery are sent from all the Inner
     Lands of Earthsea to learn the highest arts of magic. There they become proficient in
     the various kinds of sorcery, learning names, and runes, and skills, and spells, and
     what should and what should not be done, and why. And there, after long practice, and if
     hand and mind and spirit all keep pace together, they may be named wizard, and receive
     the staff of power. True wizards are made only on Roke.
    Since there are sorcerers and witches on all the isles, and the uses of
     magic are as needful to their people as bread and as delightful as music, so the School
     of Wizardry is a place held in reverence. The nine mages who are the Masters of the
     School are considered the equals of the great princes of the Archipelago. Their master,
     the warden of Roke, the Archmage, is held to be accountable to no man at all, except the
     King of All the Isles; and that only by an act of fealty, by heart’s gift, for not
     even a king could constrain so great a mage to serve the common law, if his will were
     otherwise.Yet even in the kingless centuries, the Archmages of Roke
     kept fealty and served that common law. All was done on Roke as it had been done for
     many hundreds of years; a place safe from all trouble it seemed, and the laughter of
     boys rang in the echoing courts and down the broad, cold corridors of the Great
     House.
    Arren’s guide about the school was a stocky lad whose cloak was
     clasped at the neck with silver, a token that he had passed his novicehood and was a
     proven sorcerer, studying to gain his staff. He was called Gamble,
     “because,” said he, “my parents had six girls, and the seventh child,
     my father said, was a gamble against Fate.” He was an agreeable companion, quick
     of mind and tongue. At another time Arren would have enjoyed his humor, but today his
     mind was too full. He did not pay him very much attention, in fact. And Gamble, with a
     natural wish to be given credit for existence, began to take advantage of the
     guest’s absentmindedness. He told him strange facts about the school, and then
     told him strange lies about the school, and to all of them Arren said, “Oh,
     yes” or “I see,” until Gamble thought him a royal idiot.
    “Of course they don’t cook in here,” he said, showing
     Arren past the huge stone kitchens all alive with the glitter of copper cauldrons and
     the clatter of chopping-knives and the eye-prickling smell of onions. “It’s
     just for show. We come to the refectory, and everybody charms up whatever he wants to
     eat. Saves dishwashing too.”
    “Yes, I see,” said Arren politely.
    “Of course novices who haven’t learnt the spells yet often
     lose agood deal of weight, their first months here; but they learn.
     There’s one boy from Havnor who always tries for roast chicken, but all he ever
     gets is millet mush. He can’t seem to get his spells past millet mush. He did get
     a dried haddock along with it, yesterday.” Gamble was getting hoarse with the
     effort to push his guest into incredulity. He gave up and stopped talking.
    “Where . . . what land does the Archmage come
     from?” said that guest, not even looking at the mighty gallery through which they
     were walking, all carven on wall and arched ceiling with the Thousand-Leaved Tree.
    “Gont,” said Gamble. “He was a village goatherd
     there.”
    Now, at this plain and well-known fact, the boy from Enlad turned and
     looked with disapproving unbelief at Gamble. “A goatherd?”
    “That’s what most