Free A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

little aside as if to be heard by Vetch alone, Jasper spoke, with his cool smile: “I think you’d better remind your goatherd friend again of the law that protects him. He looks sulky. I wonder, did he really think I’d accept a challenge from him? a fellow who smells of goats, a prentice who doesn’t know the First Change?”
    “Jasper,” said Ged, “what do you know of what I know?”
    For an instant, with no word spoken that any heard, Ged vanished from their sight, and where he had stood a great falcon hovered, opening its hooked beak to scream: for one instant, and then Ged stood again in the flickering torchlight, his dark gaze on Jasper.
    Jasper had taken a step backward, in astonishment; but now he shrugged and said one word: “Illusion.”
    The others muttered. Vetch said, “That was not illusion. It was true change. And enough. Jasper, listen—”
    “Enough to prove that he sneaked a look in the Book of Shaping behind the Master’s back: what then? Go on, Goatherd. I like this trap you’re building for yourself. The more you try to prove yourself my equal, the more you show yourself for what you are.”
    At that, Vetch turned from Jasper, and said very softly to Ged, “Sparrowhawk, will you be a man and drop this now—come with me—”
    Ged looked at his friend and smiled, but all he said was, “Keep Hoeg for me a little while, will you?” He put into Vetch’s hands the little otak, which as usual had been riding on his shoulder. It had never let any but Ged touch it, but it came to Vetch now, and climbing up his arm cowered on his shoulder, its great bright eyes always on its master.
    “Now,” Ged said to Jasper, quietly as before, “what are you going to do to prove yourself my superior, Jasper?”
    “I don’t have to do anything, Goatherd. Yet I will. I will give you a chance—an opportunity. Envy eats you like a worm in an apple. Let’s let out the worm. Once by Roke Knoll you boasted that Gontish wizards don’t play games. Come to Roke Knoll now and show us what it is they do instead. And afterward, maybe I will show you a little sorcery.”
    “Yes, I should like to see that,” Ged answered. The younger boys, used to seeing his black temper break out at the least hint of slight or insult, watched him in wonder at his coolness now. Vetch watched him not in wonder, but with growing fear. He tried to intervene again, but Jasper said, “Come, keep out of this, Vetch. What will you do with the chance I give you, Goatherd? Will you show us an illusion, a fireball, a charm to cure goats with the mange?”
    “What would you like me to do, Jasper?”
    The older lad shrugged, “Summon up a spirit from the dead, for all I care!”
    “I will.”
    “You will not.” Jasper looked straight at him, rage suddenly flaming out over his disdain. “You will not. You cannot. You brag and brag—”
    “By my name, I will do it!”
    They all stood utterly motionless for a moment.
    Breaking away from Vetch who would have held him back by main force, Ged strode out of the courtyard, not looking back. The dancing werelights overhead died out, sinking down. Jasper hesitated a second, then followed after Ged. And the rest came straggling behind, in silence, curious and afraid.
    ***
    T HE SLOPES OF R OKE K NOLL went up dark into the darkness of summer night before moonrise. The presence of that hill where many wonders had been worked was heavy, like a weight in the air about them. As they came onto the hillside they thought of how the roots of it were deep, deeper than the sea, reaching down even to the old, blind, secret fires at the world’s core. They stopped on the east slope. Stars hung over the black grass above them on the hill’s crest. No wind blew.
    Ged went a few paces up the slope away from the others and turning said in a clear voice, “Jasper! Whose spirit shall I call?”
    “Call whom you like. None will listen to you.” Jasper’s voice shook a little, with anger perhaps. Ged