‘You’re missing the point, Yarblek,’ Silk told him. ‘Porenn is Rhodar’s queen, and he trusts her even more than he used to trust me. She’ll know that I sent you, and she’ll pass anything you tell her on to my uncle. Rhodar will be reading Drosta’s message three days after you ride into Boktor. I guarantee it.’
‘You’d let a woman know about all this?’ Drosta objected violently. ‘Kheldar, you’re insane. The only woman safe with a secret is one who’s had her tongue cut out.’
Silk shook his head firmly. ‘Porenn’s in control of Drasnian intelligence right now, Drosta. She already knows most of the secrets in the world. You’re never going to get an emissary through an Alorn army to Rhodar, so forget that. There’ll be Chereks with him, and they’ll kill any Angarak on sight. If you want to communicate with Rhodar, you’re going to have to use Drasnian intelligence as an intermediary, and that means going through Porenn.’
Drosta looked dubious. ‘Maybe,’ he concluded after a moment’s thought. ‘I’ll try anything at this point – but why should Yarblek get involved? Why can’t you carry my message to the Drasnian queen?’
Silk looked a trifle pained. ‘That wouldn’t be a good idea at all, I’m afraid,’ he replied. ‘Porenn was rather central to my difficulties with my uncle. I’m definitely unwelcome at the palace just now.’
One of King Drosta’s shaggy eyebrows shot up. ‘So that’s the way it is.’ He laughed. ‘Your reputation’s well-earned, I see.’ He turned to Yarblek. ‘It’s up to you, then. Make the necessary arrangements for the trip to Boktor.’
‘You already owe me money, Drosta,’ Yarblek replied bluntly, ‘the reward for bringing in Kheldar, remember?’
Drosta shrugged. ‘Write it down someplace.’
Yarblek shook his head stubbornly. ‘Not hardly. Let’s keep your account current. You’re known as a slow payer, once you’ve got what you want.’
‘Yarblek,’ Drosta said plaintively, ‘I’m your king.’
Yarblek inclined his head somewhat mockingly. ‘I honor and respect your Majesty,’ he said, ‘but business is business, after all.’
‘I don’t carry that much money with me,’ Drosta protested.
‘That’s all right, Drosta. I can wait.’ Yarblek crossed his arms and sat down in a large chair with the air of a man planning to stay for quite some time.
The king of the Nadraks stared at him helplessly.
Then the door opened and Belgarath stepped into the room, still dressed in the rags he had worn in the tavern downstairs. There was no furtiveness about his entrance, and he moved like a man on serious business.
‘What is this?’ Drosta exclaimed incredulously. ‘Guards!’ he bawled, ‘get this drunken old man out of here.’
‘They’re asleep, Drosta,’ Belgarath replied calmly. ‘Don’t be too harsh with them, though. It’s not their fault.’ He closed the door.
‘Who are you? What do you think you’re doing?’ Drosta demanded. ‘Get out of here!’
‘I think you’d better take a closer look, Drosta,’ Silk advised with a dry little chuckle. ‘Appearances can be deceiving sometimes, and you shouldn’t be so quick to try to throw somebody out. He might have something important to say to you.’
‘Do you know him, Kheldar?’ Drosta asked.
‘Just about everybody in the world knows him,’ Silk replied. ‘Or of him.’
Drosta’s face creased into a puzzled frown, but Yarblek had started from his chair, his lean face suddenly pale. ‘Drosta!’ he gasped. ‘Look at him. Think a minute. You know who he is.’
Drosta stared at the shabby-looking old man, and his bulging eyes slowly opened even wider. ‘You!’ he blurted.
Yarblek was still gaping at Belgarath. ‘He’s been involved in it from the very beginning. I should have put it together down in Cthol Murgos – him, the woman, all of it.’
‘What are you doing in Gar og Nadrak?’ Drosta asked in an awed voice.
‘Just passing through, Drosta,’ Belgarath replied. ‘If you’re quite finished with your discussion here, I need these two Alorns. We have an appointment, and we’re running a little behind schedule.’
‘I always thought you were a myth.’
‘I like to encourage that as much as I can,’ Belgarath told him. ‘It makes moving around a lot easier.’
‘Are you mixed up in what the Alorns are doing?’
‘They’re acting more or less on my suggestions, yes. Polgara’s keeping an eye on them.’
‘Can you get word to them and tell them to disengage?’
‘That won’t really be necessary, Drosta. I wouldn’t worry too much about ‘Zakath and Taur Urgas, if I were you. There are more important things afoot than their squabbles.’
‘So that’s what Rhodar’s doing,’ Drosta said in sudden comprehension. ‘Is it really that late?’
‘It’s even later than you think,’ the old sorcerer answered. He crossed to the table and poured himself some of Drosta’s wine. ‘Torak’s already stirring, and the whole matter’s likely to be settled before the snow flies.’
‘This is going too far, Belgarath,’ Drosta said. ‘I might try to maneuver my way around Taur Urgas and ‘Zakath, but I’m not going to cross Torak.’ He turned decisively toward the door.
‘Don’t do anything rash, Drosta,’ Belgarath advised him calmly, sitting in a chair and taking a sip of his wine. ‘Grolims can be most unreasonable, and the fact that I’m here in Yar Nadrak could only be viewed as the result of some collusion on your part. They’d have you bent backward over an altar and your heart sizzling in the coals before you ever got the chance to explain – king or no king.’
Drosta froze in his tracks, his pockmarked face going very pale. For a moment, he seemed to be struggling with himself. Then his shoulders slumped and his resolution seemed to wilt. ‘You’ve got me by the throat, haven’t you, Belgarath?’ he said with a short laugh. ‘You’ve managed to make me outsmart myself, and now you’re going to use that to force me to betray the God of Angarak.’
‘Are you really all that fond of him?’
‘Nobody’s fond of Torak. I’m afraid of him, and that’s a better reason to stay on the good side of him than any sentimental attachment. If he wakes up—’ The king of the Nadraks shuddered.
‘Have you ever given much thought to the kind of world we’d have if he didn’t exist?’ Belgarath suggested.
‘That’s too much to even wish for. He’s a God. No one could hope to defeat him. He’s too powerful for that.’
‘There are things more powerful than Gods, Drosta – two that I can think of offhand, and those two are rushing toward a final meeting. It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to put yourself between them at this point.’
But something else had occurred to Drosta. He turned slowly with a look of stunned incredulity and stared directly at Garion. He shook his head and wiped at his eyes, like a man trying to clear away a fog. Garion became painfully aware of the great sword strapped across his back. Drosta’s bulging eyes widened even more as the realization of what he was seeing erased the Orb’s suggestion that his brain not record what stood in plain sight before him. His expression became awed, and desperate hope dawned on his ugly face. ‘Your Majesty,’ he stammered, bowing with profound respect.
‘Your Majesty,’ Garion replied, politely inclining his head.
‘It looks as if I’m forced to wish you good luck,’ Drosta said in a quiet voice. ‘Despite what Belgarath says, I think you’re going to need it.’
‘Thank you, King Drosta,’ Garion said.
Chapter Six
‘Do you think we can trust Drosta?’ Garion asked Silk as they followed Belgarath along the garbage-littered alley behind the tavern.
‘Probably about as far as we could throw him,’ Silk replied. ‘He was honest about one thing though. His back’s to the wall. That might make him bargain with Rhodar in good faith – initially at least.’
When they reached the street at the end of the alle
y, Belgarath glanced up once at the evening sky. ‘We’d better hurry,’ he said. ‘I want to get out of the city before they close the gates. I left our horses in a thicket a mile or so outside the walls.’
‘You went back for them?’ Silk sounded a little surprised.
‘Of course I did. I don’t plan to walk all the way to Morindland.’ He led them up the street away from the river.
They reached the city gates in fading light just as the guards were preparing to close them for the night. One of the Nadrak soldiers raised his hand as if to bar their way, then apparently changed his mind and motioned them through irritably, muttering curses under his breath. The huge, tar-smeared gate boomed shut behind them, and there was the clinking rattle of heavy chains from inside as the bolts were thrown and locked. Garion glanced up once at the carved face of Torak which brooded down at them from above the gate, then deliberately turned his back.
‘Are we likely to be followed?’ Silk asked Belgarath as they walked along the dirt highway leading away from the city.
‘I wouldn’t be very surprised,’ Belgarath replied. ‘Drosta knows – or suspects – a great deal about what we’re doing. Mallorean Grolims are very subtle, and they can pick the thoughts out of his head without his knowing it. That’s probably why they don’t bother to follow him when he goes off on his little excursions.’
‘Shouldn’t you take some steps?’ Silk suggested as they moved through the gathering twilight.
‘We’re getting a bit too close to Mallorea to be making unnecessary noise,’ Belgarath told him. ‘Zedar can hear me moving around from a long way off, and Torak’s only dozing now. I’d rather not take the chance of waking him up with any more loud clatter.’
They walked along the highway toward the shadowy line of rank undergrowth at the edge of the open fields surrounding the city. The sound of frogs from the marshy ground near the river was very loud in the twilight.
‘Torak isn’t really asleep any more then?’ Garion asked finally. He had harbored somewhere at the back of his mind the vague hope that they might be able to creep up on the sleeping God and catch him unaware.
‘No, not really,’ his grandfather replied. ‘The sound of your hand touching the Orb shook the whole world. Not even Torak could sleep through that. He isn’t really awake yet, but he’s not entirely asleep, either.’
‘Did it really make all that much noise?’ Silk asked curiously.
‘They probably heard it on the other side of the universe. I left the horses over there.’ The old man pointed toward a shadowy willow grove several hundred yards to the left of the road.
From behind them there was the rattle of a heavy chain, startling the frogs into momentary silence.
‘They’re opening the gate,’ Silk said. ‘They wouldn’t do that unless somebody gave them an official reason to.’
‘Let’s hurry,’ Belgarath said.
The horses stirred and nickered as the three of them pushed their way through the rustling willows in the rapidly descending darkness. They led the horses out of the grove, mounted, and rode back toward the highway.
‘They know we’re out here somewhere,’ Belgarath said. ‘There’s not much point being coy about it.’
‘Just a second,’ Silk said. He dismounted and rummaged through one of the canvas bags tied to their packhorse. He pulled something out of the bag, then climbed back on his horse. ‘Let’s go then.’
They pushed into a gallop, thudding along the dirt road under a starry, moonless sky toward the denser shadows where the forest rose at the edge of the scrubby, burned-off expanse surrounding the Nadrak capital.
‘Can you see them?’ Belgarath called to Silk, who was bringing up the rear and looking back over his shoulder.
‘I think so,’ Silk shouted back. ‘They’re about a mile behind.’
‘That’s too close.’
‘I’ll take care of it as soon as we get into the woods,’ Silk replied confidently.
The dark forest loomed closer and closer as they galloped along the hard-packed road. Garion could smell the trees now.
They plunged into the black shadows under the trees and felt that slight extra warmth that always lies in a forest. Silk reined in sharply. ‘Keep going,’ he told them, swinging out of his saddle. ‘I’ll catch up.’
Belgarath and Garion rode on, slowing a bit in order to pick the road out of the darkness. After several minutes, Silk caught up with them. ‘Listen,’ the little man said, pulling his horse to a stop. His teeth flashed in the shadows as he grinned.
‘They’re coming,’ Garion warned urgently as he heard a rumble of hoofs. ‘Hadn’t we better—’
‘Listen,’ Silk whispered sharply.
From behind there were several startled exclamations and the heavy sound of men falling. A horse squealed and ran off somewhere.
Silk laughed wickedly. ‘I think we can press on,’ he said gaily. ‘They’ll be delayed for a bit while they round up their horses.’
‘What did you do?’ Garion asked him.
Silk shrugged. ‘I stretched a rope across the road, about chest-high on a mounted man. It’s an old trick, but sometimes old tricks are the best. They’ll have to be cautious now, so we should be able to lose them by morning.’
‘Let’s go, then,’ Belgarath said.
‘Where are we headed?’ Silk asked as they moved into a canter.
‘We’ll make directly for the north range,’ the old man replied. ‘Too many people know we’re here, so let’s get to the land of the Morindim as soon as we can.’
‘If they’re really after us, they’ll follow us all the way, won’t they?’ Garion asked, looking back nervously.
‘I don’t think so,’ Belgarath told him. ‘They’ll be a long way behind by the time we get there. I don’t think they’ll risk going into Morind territory just to follow a cold trail.’
‘Is it that dangerous, Grandfather?’
‘The Morindim do nasty things to strangers if they catch them.’
Garion thought about that. ‘Won’t we be strangers too?’ he asked. ‘To the Morindim, I mean?’
‘I’ll take care of that when we get there.’
They galloped on through the remainder of the velvety night, leaving their now-cautious pursuers far behind. The blackness beneath the trees was dotted with the pale, winking glow of fireflies, and crickets chirped interminably. As the first light of morning began to filter through the forest, they reached the edge of another burned-off area, and Belgarath reined in to peer cautiously out at the rank scrub, dotted here and there with charred snags. ‘We’d better have something to eat,’ he suggested. ‘The horses need some rest, and we can catch a bit of sleep before we go on.’ He looked around in the gradually increasing light. ‘Let’s get away from the road, though.’ He turned his horse and led them off along the edge of the burn. After several hundred yards, they reached a small clearing that jutted out into the coarse brush. A spring trickled water into a mossy pool at the very edge of the trees, and the grass in the clearing was intensely green. The outer edge of the opening was hemmed in by brambles and a tangle of charred limbs. ‘This looks like a good place,’ Belgarath decided.
‘Not really,’ Silk disagreed. He was staring at a crudely squared-off block of stone standing in the center of the clearing. There were ugly black stains running down the sides of the stone.
‘For our purposes it is,’ the old man replied. ‘The altars of Torak are generally avoided, and we don’t particularly want company.’
They dismounted at the edge of the trees, and Belgarath began rummaging through one of the packs for bread and dried meat. Garion was in a curiously abstracted mood. He was tired, and his weariness made him a bit light-headed. Quite deliberately, he walked across the springy turf to the blood-stained altar; he stared at it, his eyes meticulously recording details without considering their implication. The blackened stone sat solidly in the center of the clearing, casting no shadow in the pale dawn light. It was an old altar
, and had not been used recently. The stains that had sunk into the pores of the rock were black with age, and the bones littering the ground around it were half-sunk in the earth and were covered with a greenish patina of moss. A scurrying spider darted into the vacant eye socket of a mossy skull, seeking refuge in the dark, vaulted emptiness. Many of the bones were broken and showed the marks of the small, sharp teeth of forest scavengers who would feed on anything that was dead. A cheap, tarnished silver brooch lay with its chain tangled about a lumpy vertebra, and not far away a brass buckle, green with verdigris, still clung to a bit of moldering leather.
‘Come away from that thing, Garion,’ Silk told him with a note of revulsion in his voice.
‘It sort of helps to look at it,’ Garion replied quite calmly, still staring at the altar and the bones. ‘It gives me something to think about beside being afraid.’ He squared his shoulders, and his great sword shifted on his back. ‘I don’t really think the world needs this sort of thing. Maybe it’s time somebody did something about it.’
When he turned around, Belgarath was looking at him, his wise old eyes narrowed. ‘It’s a start,’ the sorcerer observed. ‘Let’s eat and get some sleep.’
They took a quick breakfast, picketed their horses, and rolled themselves in their blankets under some bushes at the edge of the clearing. Not even the presence of the Grolim altar nor the peculiar resolve it had stirred in him was enough to keep Garion from falling asleep immediately.
It was almost noon when he awoke, pulled from sleep by a faint whispering sound in his mind. He sat up quickly, looking around to find the source of that disturbance, but neither the forest nor the brush-choked burn seemed to hold any threat. Belgarath stood not far away, looking up at the summer sky where a large, blue-banded hawk was circling.
‘What are you doing here?’ The old sorcerer did not speak aloud but rather cast the question at the sky with his mind. The hawk spiraled down to the clearing, flared his wings to avoid the altar, and landed on the turf. He looked directly at Belgarath with fierce yellow eyes, then shimmered and seemed to blur. When the shimmering was gone, the misshapen sorcerer Beldin stood in his place. He was still as ragged, dirty, and irritable as he had been the last time Garion had seen him.
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