The Farthest Shore

Arren, the young Prince of Enlad, arrives on the island of Roke to deliver a message to the Archmage, Ged, who is also known as Sparrowhawk. In the Court of the Fountain, Arren reports that magic is failing in the western isles of Earthsea. Sorcerers are forgetting their spells, songs are being lost, and a strange apathy is spreading among the people. Sparrowhawk confirms that similar tidings have come from the South Reach. Moved by the Archmage's wisdom and presence, Arren offers his service and his ancestral sword. Sparrowhawk convenes the nine Masters of Roke to discuss the threat. In the Immanent Grove, the Master Patterner warns of a "fear at the roots."

The next morning, Arren attends the council of Masters. Most are skeptical of the danger, but Sparrowhawk argues that a "breach" has opened in the world's balance, draining away magic and meaning. He declares his intention to seek the source of this evil, admitting that his own arts cannot perceive it clearly. He decides to undertake the quest himself and invites Arren to join him, citing the Master Patterner's belief that the prince's arrival is fated. Arren accepts. Sparrowhawk tells Arren they will sail at dawn in his boat, Lookfar, and head for Hort Town in the South Reach.

Adopting the aliases of Hawk, a sea-trader, and his nephew Arren, they set sail. During the voyage, Sparrowhawk uses no magic, instead teaching Arren seamanship. He explains his theory that they seek a powerful mage who, driven by an "unmeasured desire for life," has upset the world's Equilibrium. They arrive at the lawless port of Hort Town, where Sparrowhawk disguises his famous scarred face with an illusion. The city is plagued by crime and addiction to a drug called hazia, which induces a death-like trance. They learn that magic is now dismissed as trickery and are directed to Hare, a disgraced wizard. They find him in a squalid room, and Sparrowhawk uses the Old Speech to break through his drug-induced haze. Hare speaks cryptically of a way to achieve immortality by giving up one's power and finding a path back from death. He offers to guide Sparrowhawk through a shared hazia dream.

That night, Arren is tasked with guarding Sparrowhawk as the mage enters a trance to follow Hare's spirit. However, Arren is also drawn into a vision of a "tall lord of shadows" and falls into a stupor. He awakens to find robbers robbing the unconscious Sparrowhawk. To save his master, Arren grabs the thieves' loot and flees, drawing them away. He is cornered, captured, and sold to slavers. He awakens chained in the hold of a galley captained by the pirate Egre. The ship is soon enveloped in a thick, unnatural fog. Sparrowhawk appears on deck, glowing with magelight. He frees all the slaves, strikes Egre dumb with a spell, and rescues Arren. Aboard Lookfar, Sparrowhawk explains that Arren was not merely asleep on guard but was ensnared by the same dream-state, which left them both vulnerable.

They sail south to the island of Lorbanery. During the journey, Arren is tormented by nightmares of a dark, hopeless land. Sparrowhawk recalls a powerful sorcerer named Cob, who was obsessed with cheating death, and begins to suspect a connection to their quest. They find Lorbanery, the Isle of Silk, in a state of decay, its people joyless and apathetic. They meet Akaren, a former wizard-dyer driven mad by the loss of her art, who raves about a "hole in the world" and a "King of the Shadows" who promises eternal life. Sparrowhawk eases her suffering with a naming spell. Soon after, they are confronted by her son, Sopli, a fanatic who believes in the promise of immortality and begs to join them. To Arren's dismay, Sparrowhawk agrees.

The voyage west with Sopli is tense. Arren's fear and resentment grow as he comes to see Sparrowhawk as a reckless man leading them to their doom. Influenced by his own nightmares and Sopli's paranoia, Arren begins to believe Sparrowhawk is an enemy who wants to deny them eternal life. When they sight the island of Obehol, Sopli hysterically insists it is their destination. As they try to land for water, they are attacked by islanders. Sparrowhawk is wounded by a spear. While Arren rows them to safety, Sopli, desperate to reach the shore, leaps overboard and drowns. Sparrowhawk collapses from blood loss, and Arren, consumed by despair, lets the boat drift out into the open sea.

Days later, near death, they are found by the Children of the Open Sea, a nomadic people who live on a great flotilla of rafts. The raft-folk nurse them back to health. Arren finds a temporary peace among them, but when Sparrowhawk recovers, Arren confesses his failure and despair. Sparrowhawk explains that the craving for immortality is a denial of life itself. He reaffirms his trust in Arren, calling him by his true name, Lebannen, and declaring him his guide into the darkness.

During the raft-folk's midsummer festival, the chanters suddenly forget their songs, and a terrible silence falls. At Sparrowhawk's command, Arren sings the ancient Song of the Creation, restoring the rite. At dawn, the great dragon Orm Embar arrives, seeking Sparrowhawk's help. He reports that a new, false "Dragonlord" has appeared in the west, a man who can die and return to life. This enemy is stealing the dragons' speech, driving them to madness and self-destruction. Orm Embar tells them the enemy is on Selidor, the westernmost isle of Earthsea. Sparrowhawk and Arren immediately depart, racing west with a powerful magewind.

As they race west, the decay they seek to halt spreads even to the shores of Roke. The Masters feel the world's decay. The Master Summoner, Thorion, falls into a death-like trance after seeing a vision of the "Unmaking." The Master Changer disappears, and a mood of doubt and fear grips the school.

Sparrowhawk and Arren reach the Dragons' Run, a chain of islands where they witness the dragons' madness firsthand. On Selidor, Orm Embar meets them. They are soon confronted by a magical sending of their enemy, who is revealed to be Cob. The illusion vanishes, and Orm Embar leads them to the westernmost point of the island, where a hut made of dragon bones stands on the beach. Ged summons Cob, who appears as a tall, powerful man. Cob boasts that he has conquered death by opening a door between the worlds. Orm Embar attacks him and is fatally impaled on Cob's enchanted staff, but in his death throes, the dragon crushes and burns Cob's physical body. The shriveled, spider-like form survives and crawls through a gate of darkness, the "dry spring" draining life from the world. Ged and Arren follow him into the Dry Land.

In the realm of the dead, they pass through silent cities of hopeless spirits. They follow Cob to the source of the Dry River, at the foot of the Mountains of Pain. There, Ged confronts Cob, telling him that in trading life and death for an empty immortality, he has lost his true self. Ged begins a great spell to close the door between worlds. As his power wanes, Cob attacks him. Arren strikes Cob with his sword, but the dead man cannot be killed. With the last of his strength, Ged completes the spell, sealing the door with the Rune of Ending. His magic spent, he whispers Cob's true name, releasing his spirit to true death. Powerless, Ged collapses. Arren carries him up the burning slopes of the Mountains of Pain and across the threshold back into the world of the living.

Arren awakens on the beach at Selidor next to the unconscious Ged. The ancient dragon Kalessin appears and rouses Ged by speaking his name. Kalessin allows them to mount its back and flies them eastward across Earthsea to Roke. On Roke Knoll, before the assembled Masters, Kalessin proclaims, "I have brought the young king to his kingdom, and the old man to his home." Ged kneels before Arren, acknowledging him as the future king. Bidding farewell, Ged mounts the dragon again and is flown to his home island of Gont. One legend says Ged later attended King Lebannen's coronation before sailing his boat Lookfar west into the open sea, never to be seen again. Another tells that the king came to Gont to find him, but Ged had already walked away alone into the island's forests.