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The Anger of the Dark
Pleased by Tenar’s response to his invitation, Ged mends the ring of Erreth-Akabe. More than just mends it in fact. With his words, he reshapes reality to make it as though the ring had never been broken an effort even for somebody of his prowess, as his sudden sheen of sweat shows.
(I always thought it was a normal ring before, but here it’s revealed that it was in fact an arm ring. Also I assume the effects of his patterning touch the ring only, otherwise what would happen to the past when the ring was broken? So, only changed reality for the ring, not for the world maybe?)
This done, he hastens her to leave, and they exit the treasury of the tombs, to a strange vibration that echoes through the rock, where Ged waits for Tenar to lead the way through the labyrinth, which she does.
They reach the pit, and as Ged stands on the edge and conjures a little lit to examine the now apparently crumbling stones of the narrow ledge that offers the way across, Manan, her old servant and confidant looms out of the gloom, and tries to push Ged off.
Surprised, Ged’s light blazes up as he strikes out with his staff, and it is Manan himself who falls, perhaps endlessly, into the pit. Though they listen for some time, they hear no sound as he disappears.
(This event always seemed a little low key to me…almost undramatic. Although Tenar is numbed, there seems little reaction to this death that must have been traumatic to her. Although, since she’s about to forget the way, maybe its implications are more subtle.)
They edge past the pit, and continue, until at last Tenar realises that she cannot remember the way. Uncertain, she asks Ged for light, but he refuses, suggesting the next turn. She pleads, but he explains what she may have suspected…that the spirits of the Dark know what they attempt, and are assailing their will. All his strength must go to fend these attacks off.
Hesitantly she leads on, through the passageways until at last the reach shallow stairs, and her confidence grows as they enter parts of the labyrinth that she knows so well that her mind cannot confuse her, as long as she does not think of the way. Letting her feet carry her along the path, ever more familiar, all the way to the iron door.
But even as they move, so the assault grows stronger. Her legs dragging at her until it seems she is forcing them to take each step as she whimpers once or twice at the effort of making them move. The anger of the Dark weighs her down, and Ged beside her, speaking the occasional word as he forces his way ahead until they reach the open iron door.
Now they stand in the Undertomb, the centre of the darkness beneath the temple. And there is only one way out. Where, digging in the empty grave that should have contained Ged, Tenar fears that Kossil lurks.
Afraid, she tells him she can’t go on. And Ged reveals that since the pit, he has held at bay an earthquake that would open the ground beneath them, close the walls around them, and drop the roof of the Undertomb on their heads. If he can do this, she can pass Kossil again. He implores her to trust him, even as he has trusted her.
As they circle the cave, the trembling becomes even greater, the walls beneath her fingers throbbing with the tension, and in her mind, she begs the unnamed for forgiveness. And like always before, there is no answer. There is never any answer.
When they reach the exit, it is blocked. And beyond it Ged suspects, waits Kossil, and probably guards. Rather than attempt it, they head to the other door. Hoping it will be ignored by virtue of being unopenable from the inside.
As they head toward it, Tenar is crushed almost to her knees by the malevolent pressure of the spirits, and in response to her cry of fear, Ged announces his own presence with a blinding radiance, and as the shadows are scattered, the two run through the great cave in the wake of the light, where Ged destroys the locked door by bursting its stones asunder.
Tenar collapses, begs him to leave her, refuses to go further as the pre-dawn light brightens the sky, but Ged compels her with the ring, and they walk down the hill as the open mouth of the entrance to the Tombs lets forth a howl of hatred and lament.
And from a hilltop opposite, Ged halts her and they turn to witness the destruction of the Tombs of Atuan, as the monoliths above them crash down, and the temple is destroyed by the anger of the Dark, held back by Ged until they were safe.
Exhausted, they toiled on. Until at last the collapsed, on the verge of the Western mountains.
--A
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