"Thank you, Droblek. Are you the one who sent for us?"
"No, my Lady. I helped to make the arrangements, though."
"You seem a bit nervous, Droblek," Silk said to him.
"I'm concealing something in my house that I'd rather not have here, Prince Kheldar. I could get into a lot of trouble if anyone found out about it. The Tolnedran Ambassador always has people watching my house, and he'd delight in embarrassing me."
"Where's the man we're supposed to meet?" Belgarath asked brusquely.
Droblek's face was awed as he replied. "I have a hidden chamber at the back of the house, Ancient One. He's waiting there."
"Let's go see him, then."
"At once, Eternal Belgarath." Waddling and puffing noticeably, the Drasnian official led them down a dimly lighted hallway. At its far end, he ran his hand down the wall and touched one of its stones. With a loud click, an irregularly shaped section of the wall came unlatched to protrude slightly from the rest.
"Exotic," Silk murmured.
"Who's there?" a shrill voice came from the other side 'of that hidden door.
"It's me—Droblek," the fat man answered. "The people you wanted to see have arrived." He pulled the stone-slab covered door open. "I'll go keep watch," he said to them.
Beyond the door was a small, dank, hidden chamber lighted by a single candle. Sadi the eunuch stood fearfully beside a battered wooden table. His shaven head was stubbled and his scarlet silk robe tattered. There was a hunted look about his eyes. "At last," he said with relief.
"What on earth are you doing here, Sadi?" Polgara asked him.
"Hiding," he said. "Come in, please, all of you, and close the door. I don't want anybody to find out accidentally where I am."
They stepped into the small room, and Droblek pushed the door shut behind them.
"Why is the Chief Eunuch of Salmissra's palace hiding in the house of the Drasnian Port Authority?" Silk asked curiously.
"There's been a slight misunderstanding at the palace, Prince Kheldar," Sadi replied, sinking into a chair by the wooden table. "I'm not Chief Eunuch any more. As a matter of fact, there's a price on my head—a fairly large one, I'm told. Droblek owed me a favor, so he let me hide here—not very willingly, but—" He shrugged.
"Since we're talking about prices, I'll take my money now," Issus said.
"I have one more little job for you, Issus," the eunuch said in his oddly contralto voice. "Do you think that you could get into the palace?"
"If I need to."
"There's a red leather case in my quarters—under the bed. It has brass hinges. I need it."
"Did you want to discuss the price?"
"I'll pay you whatever you think is fair."
"All right. Let's say double what you already owe me."
"Double?"
"The palace is very dangerous right now."
"You're taking advantage of the situation, Issus."
"Go fetch it yourself then."
Sadi looked at him helplessly. "All right," he surrendered, "double."
"It's always a pleasure doing business with you, Sadi," Issus said flatly. Then he went to the door and slipped out.
"What happened here?" Silk asked the nervous eunuch.
Sadi sighed. "Certain accusations were made against me," he said in a pained voice. "I wasn't entirely prepared to defend myself against them, so I thought it might be wiser to take an extended leave from my duties. I've been working too hard lately anyway."
"Were the accusations unfounded?"
Sadi ran one long-fingered hand over his stubbled scalp. "Well—not entirely," he admitted, "but the matter was blown all out of proportion."
"Who took your place at the palace?"
"Sariss." Sadi almost spat the name. "He's a third-rate schemer with no real sense of style at all. Someday I'm going to take a great deal of pleasure in cutting out several things he needs rather badly—with a dull knife."
"Issus told us that you had some information about someone called Zandramas," Belgarath said.
"I do indeed," Sadi replied. He rose from his chair and went to the narrow, unmade bed standing against one wall. He rummaged around under the dirty brown blanket, took out a small silver flask, and opened it. "Excuse me," he said, taking a small sip. He grimaced. "I wish it didn't taste so bad."
Polgara gave him a cool look. "Do you suppose you could tell us what you know about Zandramas—before you start seeing the butterflies?"
Sadi looked at her innocently. "Oh, no. This isn't one of those, Lady Polgara," he assured her, shaking the flask. "It just has a certain calming effect. My nerves have been absolutely destroyed by what's happening in the past few months."
"Why don't we get down to business?" Belgarath suggested.
"Very well. I have something you want, and you have something I want. I think a trade is in order.''
"Why don't we discuss that?" Silk said, his eyes suddenly brightening and his long nose twitching.
"I'm very much aware of your reputation, Prince Kheldar." Sadi smiled. "I'm not foolish enough to try to bargain with you."
"All right, just what is this thing you want from us, Sadi?" Belgarath asked the dead-eyed eunuch.
"You're on your way out of Nyissa. I want you to take me with you. In exchange, I'll tell you everything I've learned about Zandramas."
"Totally out of the question."
"I think you're speaking in haste, Ancient One. Hear me out first."
"I don't trust you, Sadi," Belgarath said bluntly.
"That's quite understandable. I'm not the sort of man who should be trusted."
"Then why should I saddle myself with you?"
"Because I know why you're following Zandramas—and more importantly, I know where Zandramas is going. It's a very dangerous place for you, but I can arrange a way for us to move around freely once we get there. Now, why don't we put aside all this childishness about trusting each other and get down to business?"
"We're just wasting time here," Belgarath said to the rest of them.
"I can be very useful to you, Ancient One," Sadi told him.
"Or to anyone who might want to know where we are," Silk added.
"That wouldn't be in my own best interests, Kheldar."
"Which brings up an interesting point," Silk said. "I have a splendid opportunity here to turn a quick profit. You mentioned the fact that there's a large price on your head. If you don't want to be co-operative, I might just decide to collect that price. How much did you say it was?"
"You won't do that, Kheldar," Sadi replied placidly. "You're in a hurry to catch up with Zandramas, and there are always a hundred administrative details involved in collecting a reward. It would probably be a month before you saw any of the money, and Zandramas would be that much farther ahead of you by then."
"That's probably true," Silk admitted. He reached for one of his daggers with a regretful expression. "There's this other alternative, however—messy, but usually fairly effective."
Sadi backed away from him. "Belgarath," he said in a faintly alarmed voice.
"That won't be necessary, Silk," the old man said. He turned to Polgara. "See what you can do, Pol," he suggested.
"All right, father." She turned to the eunuch. "Sit down, Sadi," she told him. "I want you to look at something."
"Of course, Lady Polgara," he agreed amiably, seating himself in a chair by the table.
"Look closely," she said, making a curious gesture in front of his eyes.
The eunuch continued to smile. "How charming," he murmured, looking at something which seemed to have appeared before his eyes. "Can you make it do any other tricks, too?"
She bent forward and looked closely into his eyes. "I see. You're more clever than I thought, Sadi." She turned back to the rest of them. "He's drugged," she said. "Probably what he drank out of that flask. Right now there's absolutely nothing I can do with him."
"That takes us back to the other alternative, doesn't it?" Silk said, reac
hing for his dagger again.
Polgara shook her head. "Right now, he wouldn't even feel it."
"Oh," Sadi said in a disappointed voice, "you made it go away—and I rather liked it."
"The drug won't last forever." Silk shrugged. "And by the time it wears off, we should be far enough from the city to be able to carve some answers out of him without the screams attracting any attention." His hand strayed again to the hilt of his dagger.
"Alorns," the dry voice in Garion's mind said disgustedly. "Why is it that your solution to every problem comes out of a scabbard?"
"What? "
"Tell the little thief to put away his knife."
"But—"
"Don't argue with me, Garion. You have to have Sadi's information about Zandramas, and I can't give it to you."
"You're not suggesting that we take him along? " Garion was profoundly shocked at the idea.
"I'm not suggesting anything, Garion. I'm telling you. Sadi goes along. You can't do what you have to do without him. Now tell your grandfather."
"He's not going to like it."
"I can face that prospect with enormous fortitude." Then the voice was gone.
"Grandfather," Garion said in a sick tone.
"What?" The old man's tone was testy.
"This isn't my idea, Grandfather, but—" Garion looked at the dreamy-faced eunuch with distaste and then lifted his hands helplessly.
"You're not serious!" Belgarath exclaimed after a moment.
"I'm afraid so."
"Am I missing something?" Sadi asked curiously.
"Shut up!" Belgarath snapped. Then he turned back to Garion. "Are you absolutely sure?"
Garion nodded dejectedly.
"This is sheer idiocy!" The old man turned and glared at Sadi. Then he reached across the table and took the front of the eunuch's iridescent robe in his fist. "Listen to me very carefully, Sadi," he said from between clenched teeth. "You're going with us, but keep your nose out of that flask. Do you understand me?"
"Of course, Ancient One," the eunuch replied in that same dreamy voice.
"I don't think you fully grasp what I'm talking about," Belgarath continued in a dreadfully quiet voice. "If I catch you with your brains full of dandelion fluff just once, I'll make you wish that Kheldar had gotten to you with his knife first. Do you follow me?"
Sadi's eyes grew wide, and his face blanched. "Y—yes, Belgarath," he stammered fearfully.
"Good. Now start talking. Just exactly what do you know about Zandramas?"
CHAPTER EIGHT
"It all started last year," Sadi began, still eyeing Belgarath apprehensively. "A Mallorean posing as a jewel merchant came to Sthiss Tor and sought out my chief rival at the palace—a petty schemer named Sariss. It was rather general knowledge that Sariss had long coveted my position, but I hadn't gotten around to having him killed yet." He made a face. "A grave oversight, as it turned out. Anyway, Sariss and the Mallorean negotiated for a bit, and the bargain they struck had nothing to do with gem stones. This so-called jeweller needed something that only someone in a position of authority could provide, so he gave Sariss certain information that Sariss was able to use to discredit me and usurp my position."
"I just love politics, don't you?" Silk said to no one in particular.
Sadi grimaced again. "The details of my fall from the queen's favor are tedious," he continued, "and I really don't want to bore you with them. At any rate, Sariss supplanted me as Chief Eunuch, and I barely escaped from the palace with my life. Once Sariss had consolidated his position, he was able to keep his part of the bargain he had reached with his Mallorean friend."
"And what exactly did the Mallorean want?" Silk asked.
"This, Prince Kheldar," Sadi said, rising and going to his rumpled cot. He drew a carefully folded parchment from beneath the mattress and handed it to the little man.
Silk read it quickly and then whistled.
"Well?" Belgarath said.
"It's an official document," Silk replied. "At least, it's over the queen's seal. Early last spring, Salmissra dispatched a diplomatic mission to Sendaria."
"That's fairly routine, Silk."
"I know, but there are also some secret instructions to the diplomats. She tells them that they will be met at the mouth of the River of the Serpent by a foreigner, and that they are to render this stranger every possible aid. The gist of the whole thing is that these diplomats were to make arrangements to get the foreigner to the port of Halberg on the west coast of Cherek and to have a Nyissan ship standing off the Rivan coast on a certain date about the middle of last summer."
"Coincidence, perhaps?" Belgarath suggested.
Silk shook his head and held up the parchment. "It identifies the foreigner by name. The diplomats were supposed to identify their passenger by the name 'Zandramas.'"
"That explains a few things, doesn't it?" Garion said.
"May I see that?" Polgara asked.
Silk handed her the parchment.
She looked at it briefly and then held it out to Sadi. "Are you positive that this is Salmissra's seal?" she asked him.
"There's no question about it, Polgara," he replied, "and no one dares to touch that seal without her consent."
"I see."
"How did you come by the document, Sadi?" Silk asked curiously.
"Four copies of all official documents are routinely made, Prince Kheldar. It's one of the resources of those with access to the queen's favor. The purchase price of the extra copies has been established for centuries."
"All right," Garion said, "so Zandramas came to Nyissa posing as a merchant, arranged to have Sariss replace you as Chief Eunuch, and somehow managed to get Salmissra to issue that order. Is that it?"
"It's not quite that simple, Belgarion," Sadi told him. "The Mallorean merchant was not Zandramas. No one here in Sthiss Tor ever saw Zandramas. The 'stranger' the document talks about joined the diplomats on their way to Sendaria. So far as I've been able to determine, Zandramas never passed through Sthiss Tor. Not only that, but after the arrangements for the ship to Halberg had been made, all the diplomats conveniently died. They were stopping over at an inn in Camaar on their way to the capital, and there was a fire in the middle of the night. No one escaped the fire."
"That's got a familiar ring to it," Silk said.
"All right then," Garion said, "who was the Mallorean jeweller?"
Sadi spread his hands helplessly. "I was never able to find out," he confessed.
"Did you ever see him?"
"Once. He was a strange-looking fellow. His eyes were absolutely colorless."
There was a long pause, and then Silk said, "That clears up a few other things, doesn't it?"
"Maybe so," Garion said, "but it still doesn't answer my main question. We know who Naradas is working for now. We know how Zandramas got to Cherek and escaped from the Isle of the Winds with my son, but what I need to know is where the trail we're following is going to lead."
Sadi shrugged. "Rak Verkat."
"How did you arrive at that conclusion?" Silk asked him.
"Sariss hasn't been in power long enough to weed out the more untrustworthy of his underlings. I found one who was open to the notion of private enterprise. Zandramas has to be in Mallorea with Prince Geran by this coming spring, and the route must be by way of Rak Verkat."
"Wouldn't it be shorter to sail from Rak Cthan?" Silk asked.
Sadi looked at him with a faintly surprised expression. "I thought you knew," he said. "Kal Zakath has put a very handsome price on the head of Zandramas, and the Mallorean reserves are concentrated at Rak Hagga. If Zandramas tried to go through Hagga to reach Cthan, all those troops would drop whatever they were doing to go head-hunting. The only safe port for Zandramas to sail from is Rak Verkat."
"Was this underling you bribed reliable?" Silk demanded.
"Of course not. As soon as he had finished telling me all this, he had planned to turn me in for the reward—dead, naturally, so he didn'
t really have any reason to lie to me, and he was too stupid to make up a coherent lie anyway." The eunuch smiled bleakly. "I know of a certain plant, though. It's a very reliable plant. The man was telling me the absolute truth. As a matter of fact, he kept telling me the truth long after it had begun to bore me. Sariss provided Zandramas with an escort across Nyissa and detailed maps of the shortest route to the Isle of Verkat."
"Was that all the fellow said?" Garion asked.
"Oh, no," Sadi replied. "He was busy confessing to me that he had cheated on an examination in school when I finally had Issus cut his throat. I can only deal with so much truth in one day."
"All right," Garion said, ignoring that, "Zandramas is going to the Isle of Verkat. How does that help us?"
"The route Zandramas will have to follow will be roundabout—because of that reward I mentioned. We, on the other hand, can go straight across southern Cthol Murgos to the Isle. It will save us months."
"That route goes right through the war zone," Silk protested.
"That's no particular problem. I can take you directly through to Verkat without any hindrance from either the Murgos or the Malloreans."
"How do you propose to manage that?"
"When I was younger, I was engaged in the slave trade in Cthol Murgos. I know all the routes and I know whom to bribe and whom to avoid. Slavers are useful to both sides in the war between the Murgos and Malloreans, so they're allowed to move around freely. All we have to do is dress as slave traders, and no one will interfere with us."
"What's to keep you from selling us to the Grolims as soon as we cross the border?" Silk asked bluntly.
"Self-interest." Sadi shrugged. "Grolims are an ungrateful lot. If I sell you to them, it's quite likely that they'll turn around and sell me to Salmissra. I don't think I'd like that at all."
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