The sorcerer Alder fears sleep. He dreams of the land of death, of his wife who died young and longs to return to him so much that she kissed him across the low stone wall that separates our world from the Dry Land, where the grass is withered, the stars never move, and lovers pass without knowing each other. The dead are pulling Alder to them at night. Through him they may free themselves and invade Earthsea.
Years before, they had escaped together from the sinister Tombs of Atuan -- she, an isolated young priestess, he, a powerful wizard. Now she is a farmer's widow, having chosen for herself the simple pleasures of an ordinary life. And he is a broken old man, mourning the powers lost to him not by choice. A lifetime ago, they helped each other at a time of darkness and danger. Now they must join forces again, to help another -- the physically and emotionally scarred child whose own destiny remains to be revealed.
To her much-loved Earthsea novels Le Guin appends five tales that, she states, "will profit by being read after, not before, the novels." One of them, a novella, is set during a dark era, some 300 years prior to the novels' time, when it is dangerous to practice sorcery. This richly told narrative provides background to the novels as it tells of a search for identity, a romance, and the beginning of a school for magicians.
