The moment you've all been waiting for; the title says it all.
Oh, and Earthsea's not mine – didn't I tell you that before?
Orm Embar
Ged was walking through the Imminent Grove at Roke, the sun shining fierce and hot on the nape of his neck. He paused in the clearing and turned his face up to the burning white-hot eye of heaven, letting a dry wind play over his features. Suddenly he was in the Room of Shelves, running between the rows of books and crumbling scrolls. He was being pursued and surrounded by the fiery wind. His chest was burning— his heart was going to explode—
Ged awoke, eyes wide and unseeing. He was panting, skin drenched in sweat from the dream. He closed his eyes, forcing his breathing to slow.
"Only a dream", he repeated silently to himself.
A scalding wind washed over him once more, accompanied by a faint metallic scent— but he was awake.
Ged opened his eyes and immediately sat up, hand convulsively gripping his wizard's staff.
Lounging on the sand before him was a golden giant, head glinting like light made solid, terrible scaly splendour from crown to thorny tail-tip. The drafts of boiling air had been the dragon's breath as he'd watched the sleeper, and now the corners of his mouth curled slightly up. From his previous encounters Ged knew that a dragon's smile was never a good sign, but this one seemed more amused than anything else.
The young man scrambled to his feet, staff held loosely in one hand, and still the dragon didn't even blink. He wondered how long the creature had been watching him sleep and shuddered inwardly at the thought.
"Orm Embar?" he asked shakily, "Lord of Selidor?" The golden dragon nodded his great head once, gaze and expression unwavering. Ged acutely felt the need to be courteous— helped, no doubt, by the impressive rows of yellow- white teeth— and introduced himself.
"I am called Sp— I am Ged." The wizard was not about to hide his true name from one so mighty who freely wore his own true name.
"Ged," the dragon repeated slowly, crimson tongue shaping the name amid a curl of white steam. Orm Embar's slitted green eyes wandered over the young mage, pausing at the scars on his cheek, the staff in his hand, and the chain around his throat. The dragon said no more, so Ged asked respectfully, "How long have you been watching my slumber?"
"I return to my land under the moon," the dragon rumbled, "And I find thee, a stranger upon the beach. Wouldst thou not stay and watch as I have done?"
Ged smiled and relaxed slightly. He stood at ease, leaning upon his staff. The dragon shifted, settling himself more comfortably in the ivory sand and stretching his vast wings as he did so. Ged's breath caught; they must have been ninety feet across, light shining through the membrane and illuminating it in a smoky gold.
"What seeketh thou, Ged?" Orm Embar asked. "For thy spirit hath seen much toil."
The young wizard shrugged simply. "I seek answers. I seek names. I seek to make order out of chaos, for that is a mage's calling."
The dragon's bright green gaze studied him intently once more, and Ged carefully avoided eye contact. When the dragon spoke again, his brassy voice was tinged with irony: "The answer doth lie about thy neck."
Ged's brown hands instantly flew to his throat, and his fingers brushed the chain. Slowly, wondering whether the dragon was jesting or not, he lifted from beneath his tunic a bit of dark metal: the half-circle of a broken ring. "This is what you speak of?" he asked politely, hiding his disbelief; this was nought but a piece of broken jewellery that he kept out of gratitude to an old woman.
"Thou desireth order in the world, and peace." It was a statement, not a question, but Ged nodded at the dragon's words.
He lifted the chain over his head and placed the metal on his palm, studying it. Under the dirt, tarnish, and grime of many years, Ged's sharp eyes caught something he had never seen before. Using the cuff of his woollen tunic, he carefully polished away at the half-ring as the dragon watched patiently.
Finally, the symbols etched into the inner surface could be read: "Pirr... Ges... Anh... Daia..." Ged looked up from his scrutiny, "Four of the runes of power— and half of another."
The dragon lowered his head so that Ged needn't strain his neck and spoke, breath scorching the young man's face.
"That is one half of the Lost Rune, the key to peace. Thou holdeth in thy palm the lost half of the Ring of Erreth-Akbe."
So it all comes out! Finally, Ged knows what he's been wearing around his neck all this time. Read on; not too far to go now!