Ahira's Hangar

This chapter is a little longer than the others and to this point is the most important, if not the most lyrical. You can almost hear LeGuin coming into her style describing the jewels and dresses, age old passages and dances with the daughters of the God King. Not to mention the breath, length and maddening turns of the Labyrinth and the radiance of the Undertomb.

We go from autumn to winter here and hear that Thar has died of a wasting disease-a new High Priestess of the Twin Gods would come to replace her in the spring. Before she dies she attempts to teach Arha more of Kagard's (not so innocent) politics and her own legacy and subtly indicates that she had better watch her back around Kossil. Indeed, she's reminded (via Penthe) of Kossil's non-faith and lust for power, caterance to the current Emperor and possible plans to do away the The Hall of the Throne. She takes to avoiding Kossil as much as possible after that.

As we move from autumn to winter Arha, when her various duties do not call, begins a systematic exploration of her special domain: the Undertomb and the Labyrinth. She takes Kossil's eunuchs in and out of the Undertomb, as far as the Room of Chains, but only her trusted Manan into the Labyrinth. In the deep of winter she begins an extensive inventory of the Hall of Thrones itself through attics, passages, lofts and under basements, reliving the history and past tribute of her appointment. She plans, one night, to venture through the Labyrinth to the Painted Room, the only artwork in the entire Place, composed of odd renditions of men with wings and great eyes , the spirits of the damned? She ventures down the trapdoor alone this time and is shocked to see the Undertomb lit up by a strange marsh light, where no light should ever be,

--Saw what she had never seen, not though she had lived a hundred lives: the great vaulted cavern beneath the Tombstones, not hollowed by man's hands but by the powers of the Earth. It was jeweled with crystals and ornamented with pinnacles and filigrees of white limestone where the waters under earth had worked, eons since:immense, with glittering roof and walls. sparkling, delicate, intricate, a palace of diamonds, a house of amethyst and crystal, from which the ancient darkness had been driven out by glory.

Arha finally follows the light to it's source which rests upon the top of a wooden staff held by a hand belonging to a dark face, a man. He seemed to be examining things, looking for something. He wants to steal something, she thought, that was sacrilege...no man's foot must ever touch the soil of the Tombs...no one should ever make light where light is forbidden. She looks at him again and he is staring down at the graves of the prisoners she let die there. She screams "Begone!" and the light goes out. He must have entered by the red rock door, she checks it and it is locked-he is trapped. Arha picks up a scent of desert sage and follows it down the tunnel and on the other side of the Iron Door hear's him stumble. She reaches for the bar, pulls with all her might and seals him in.

She ascends through the trap door and kneels before the Throne and the Nameless Ones,

"Forgive me that I have seen Your darkness broken," she said, not speaking the words aloud. "Forgive me that I have seen Your tombs violated. You will be avenged. O my Masters, death shall deliver him to you, and he will never be reborn!"

Must she tell Kossil? Arha goes through this train of thought: What would be the point, sure she gets off on death but the Labyrinth is my business. He's just a mere thief how could he have gotten in? Only Kossil and I have the keys to the Prisoners Door, only a sorcerer could open it, staff, strange light---a sorcerer!

"He is a sorcerer, a wizard of the Inner Land, seeking the amulet of Erreth-Akbe."

Then she surmises that if sorcery could get him in it could get him out again. But, no, no spell could match the will of the Nameless Ones. To prove her point she rushes back to the small house knowing that the spyhole there looks down on the other side of the Iron Door. As she pries up the tile and removes the cloth she is struck by his light, she sees him rush the door a number of times with a spell of opening, Then, as if knowing he was trapped, he booms the word Emenn twice in succession making the very earth rumble, but the door stays fast.

He laughed a short laugh, that of a man who thinks, "What a fool I've made of myself!"

As this sorcerer, man, stranger begins to accept his awful fate he smiles up at Arha and beds down for the night. Thar had taught Arha pride not fear (Kossil) but, maybe, the prisoners had taught her something else: compassion?

Great chapter Danlo. I love that bit where it's revealed that he is a sorcerer, in search of the amulet.

And her shock at seeing both the light, and a stranger in the Tombs...her insular upbringing, where all respected and held true their beliefs can never have prepared her for this sort of sacrilege.

--A