of every gust of wind or rain squall. I’m not denying that there might
actually be a few signs that you won’t want to miss. Knowing the
difference is the tricky part.
I’ve always enjoyed the company of my grandsons. There’s a peculiarly
earnest quality about them that I find appealing. I’m not trying to
say that they don’t occasionally do things that are a bit foolish and
sometimes downright dangerous–Garion’s encounter with the wild boar in
the woods outside Val Alorn sort of leaps to mind–but if you’re
willing to follow their occasionally faulty reasoning, you’ll find
that, in their own minds at least, most of the things they do are fully
justified. The descendants of Iron-grip and Beldaran always have been
very serious little boys.
A sense of humor might have rounded out their personalities, but you
can’t have everything.
Despite the fact that Polgara had ruthlessly dragooned me into watching
over Geran, I’ll admit that I enjoyed those months I spent with him.
I’ll never be the kind of fisherman Durnik is, but I know the
basics-which is to say that I can bait a hook. But Geran was at that
age in a young boy’s life when catching fish becomes an all-consuming
passion.
Years of observation have taught me that this particular passion crops
up just before the boy suddenly realizes that there are two kinds of
people in the world–boy-people and girl-people. In a general sort of
way, most boys approve of that.
If only they wouldn’t behave as if they thought they’d invented it.
Anyway, Geran and I spent that spring and summer in search of the wily
trout. There are other kinds of fish in the world, of course, but it’s
always seemed to me that trout are the most challenging. Moreover, if
you’re not too noisy about it, you can have some fairly serious
conversations while you’re waiting for the fish to start biting.
I particularly remember one truly miserable, but at the same time
absolutely wonderful day my grandson and I spent huddled on a makeshift
raft in the center of a small mountain lake with a drizzling rain
hissing into the water around us. I’m not sure exactly why, but the
trout were in a positive frenzy. Geran and I caught more fish that day
than we’d normally catch in a week.
About mid-afternoon, when we were both soaked to the skin and the
wicker basket we’d brought along “just in case we got lucky” was filled
almost to the brim with silvery-sided trout, things began to slow down
a bit.
“This is really a lot of fun, grandfather,” my fishing partner noted.
“I
wish we could do it more often.”
“Geran,” I replied, “we’ve been out fishing every day for the past
three weeks. You can’t get much more often than that.”
“Yes, but today we’re catching them.”
I laughed.
“That always seems to help,” I agreed.
“We’re not the same as other people, are we?” He asked then.
“Because we both like to fish? There are a lot of fishermen in the
world, Geran.”
“That’s not what I mean. I’m talking about our family. It seems to me
that there’s something sort of different about us–something a little
odd and . . . special.” He made a small face and wiped the water off
his nose on his sleeve.
“I didn’t say that very well, did I? I’m not trying to say that we’re
really important or anything like that, but we’re just not like other
people–at least that’s the way it seems to me. Aunt Pol never talks
to me about it, but sometimes at night I can hear her talking with my
father down in the kitchen before I go to sleep. She knows a lot of
people, doesn’t she?”
“Your aunt? Oh, yes, Geran. Your Aunt Pol knows people in just about
every Kingdom in the West.”
“What I can’t understand is how she got to know all those kings and
nobles and such. She almost never goes anywhere. You know what I
think?”
“What’s that, boy?”
“I think Aunt Pol’s a lot older than she looks.”
“She’s what they call “well preserved,” Geran. I wouldn’t make a big
issue of it, if I were you, though. Ladies are a little sensitive
about how old they are.”
“You’re old, and it doesn’t seem to bother you.”
“That’s because I never really grew up. I still know how to have
fun.
That’s what keeps you young. Your aunt thinks that having fun isn’t
important.”
“She’s very strange, isn’t she? Sometimes I think she’s the strangest
woman in the world.”
I broke down and laughed at that point.
“What’s so funny?”
“Someday I’ll explain it to you. You’re right, though. Our family is
special, but it’s important for us all to behave as if we were
ordinary. Your aunt will explain it to you when you’re a little
older.”
“Does it make you feel good? Being special, I mean?”
“Not really. It’s just something else that you have to carry around
with you. It’s not all that complicated, Geran. There’s something
very important that our family has to do, and there are people in the
world who don’t want us to do it.”
“We’ll do it anyway, though, won’t we?” His boyish face was very
determined.
“I think we probably will–but that’s still a ways off yet. Are you
going to pull that fish in? Or are you planning to just keep him on
the line for the rest of the day?”
My grandson gave a small whoop and pulled in a trout that probably
weighed about five pounds.
I think back on that day fairly often. All things considered, it was
one of the better ones.
It was almost winter when Polgara returned. The leaves had changed
color and then fallen to the ground, the sky had turned grey, and there
was the smell of approaching snow when she came walking down the single
street of Annath with a blue cloak wrapped about her and a look of
satisfaction on her face.
I saw her coming and I went out to meet her.
“Back so soon, Pol?” I bantered.
“We hardly even had time to miss you. Now do you suppose you could
tell me where you went and what you were doing?”
She shrugged.
“I had to go to Nyissa again. There were some people there I had to
meet.”
“Oh? Who?”
“Zedar, for one, and the current Salmissra, for another.”
“Pol, stay away from Zedar! You’re good, but not that good.”
“It was required, father. Zedar and I have to know each other. It’s
one of those things.”
“What’s Zedar up to?” I demanded.
“I can’t see why you’ve all been so excited about Zedar. Actually,
he’s rather pathetic. He’s terribly shabby, he’s not eating right, and
he looks awfully unhealthy.”
“Good. I wish him all the pleasures of ill-health. I’ll even invent
some new diseases for him, if what’s currently available starts to bore
him.”
“You’re a barbarian, father.”
“You’ve noticed. What’s he doing in Nyissa?”
“As far as I can tell, he’s turned into a vagabond. He’s sort of
wandering around the world desperately looking for something–or
somebody.”
“Let’s all hope that he doesn’t find whatever or whomever it is.”
“On the contrary, he absolutely has to. If he doesn’t find it, you’re
going to have to find it yourself, and you wouldn’t even know where to
begin looking.”
“Does he?”
“No. What he’s looking for is going to find him.”
And that was the first hint we had that Eriond was coming. Beldin and
I talked about it once, and we sort of agreed that Eriond and Torak
were mirror images of each other–Torak on one side, and Eriond on the
other. Each of them was the exact opposite of his counterpart.
Sometimes I wonder if Torak knew that he was a mistake.
That in itself would justify my entire existence.
“Why did you have to talk to Salmissra?” I asked.
“To warn her,” my daughter replied.
“She’ll do something in a few years, and I’ll have to do something to
her in return. She won’t like it much–and neither will I.” Polgara
sighed.
“It’s going to be fairly dreadful, I’m afraid, but I won’t have any
choice.” She suddenly threw her arms around me and buried her face in
my shoulder.
“Oh, father,” she wept, “why do I have to be the one who has to do
it?”
“Because you’re the only one who can, Pol.” Then I patted her
shoulder.
“There, there,” I said.
“There, there.”
The next couple of years were quiet, and that made me very edgy. The
most momentous event in the history of the world was right on the verge
of happening, and I wanted to get on with it. I’m not really very good
at waiting.
Then, in 5340, Ran Borune XXIII was crowned Emperor of Tolnedra, and
not long thereafter he was married to one of his cousins, a red-haired