David and Leigh Eddings – Belgarath the Sorcerer

nervous. Does that suggest to you who really runs the world?

Polgara–dressed in blue, naturally–came immediately behind Ildera and

Grettan. Though this was supposed to be a happy event, Polgara’s face

was stern. There was an enormous potential for violence in the air,

and Pol wanted everybody to understand that she’d brook no nonsense

here.

The double ceremony seemed to go on for hours. I’m fairly sure that

Geran felt it did, at any rate. The Algar priest invoked the blessing

of Belar at some length, and the Sendarian priest responded by invoking

the blessing of each of the other six Gods in turn. I tried not to

show any visible signs of amusement when he got to Torak. I was almost

positive that even if he’d been awake, Torak wouldn’t have responded,

since this particular wedding and its ultimate outcome was most

definitely not the sort of thing to fill the One-eyed God with

rejoicing and goodwill. The Sendars are broadly ecumenical, however,

so they habitually include all seven Gods in their religious

observances.

At any rate, the ceremony was finally completed, and the bride and

groom exchanged a chaste kiss. Then came the wedding banquet, which

Pol herself had prepared, and there were many toasts to the bride and

groom. Along about sunset, the happy couple was escorted to the front

door of the house Geran had built for them by everyone still sober

enough to walk.

Then, as a soft and luminous evening settled over Annath, the fights

got under way.

All in all, it was a fairly successful wedding.

I spent the night in Darral’s house, and the next morning, Pol woke me

up just as the sun was rising.

“What was all the shouting and noise last night?” she asked me.

“The wedding guests were celebrating.”

“Really? It didn’t sound exactly like a celebration to me.”

“Weddings are emotional events, Pol, and all sorts of emotions were

floating around last evening.”

“It sounded like a general brawl, father.”

“No wedding’s complete without a few fights. They make the occasion

memorable.”

“Were there many fatalities?”

“None that I know of. That windy Priest of Belar won’t be giving any

long sermons for a while, though–at least not until his broken jaw

heals.”

“No cloud’s without its silver lining, I suppose. What are your

plans?”

“I think I’ll go back to the Vale. This wedding’s been a kind of

EVENT, and it might have shaken a few more things out of the Mrin.

Besides, I’d better get away from Annath. Chamdar’s in Tolnedra right

now, but I’m sure he’s got Grolims out scouting around, and I don’t

want to attract attention to this place.”

“Wise decision. Give my best to the twins.”

“I’ll do that.”

And so I got up and dressed. I ate a rather hasty breakfast and

rambled down to the other end of the single street of the village of

Annath to pay my respects to the bride and groom. Geran had that

somewhat startled look on his face that new husbands always seem to

have, and Ildera spent a lot of time blushing, as new wives almost

always do. I took that to be a good sign. Then I left Annath and went

on back to the Vale.

I didn’t really do much when I got home. Something very important was

about to happen, and my anticipation made it a little hard for me to

concentrate. Despite their best efforts, the twins had been unable to

dig anything else significant out of the Mrin. Garion’s friend, like

the rest of us, seemed to be just biding his time.

Sometimes it seems that I’ve spent most of my life biding my time.

It was just after Erastide the following winter when Beldin came home.

I don’t really like to travel in the wintertime myself, but Beldin has

always ignored the seasons–one of the results of his peculiar

childhood, I’d imagine. Just to pass the time, I’d been rereading an

ancient Melcene epic that recounted the probably mythic adventures of

one of their national heroes, the half-wit who’d blundered out to sea

in a small boat and had discovered the Melcene Islands off the east

coast of Mallorea.

“Belgarath!” my distorted brother bellowed up to me from down below.

“Open your stupid door!”

I went to the head of the stairs.

“Open!” I told the flat boulder that kept most of the weather out of

the vestibule of my tower. It rolled smoothly off to one side, and

Beldin came in.

“Why do you keep that silly thing closed?” he demanded, stamping the

snow off his feet.

“Habit, I suppose,” I replied.

“Come on up,”

He clumped up the stairs.

“Aren’t you ever going to clean this place?” he asked, looking around

at clutter I’ve grown so accustomed to that I didn’t even notice it any

more.

“I’ll get to it–one of these days. What finally persuaded you to come

down off the top of that ridge in southern Cthol Murgos?”

“An earthquake, actually. Did something significant happen last

spring?”

“Oh, Geran and Ildera got married.”

“If the twins are right, that’s probably the most significant thing to

happen since Vo Mimbre. That explains the earthquake, I guess.”

“Did it wake up Torak?”

“Not as far as I could tell. He didn’t blow out the side of his cave,

anyway. How was the wedding?”

“Not bad. The ceremony itself was tedious, but the fights afterward

were fairly exciting.”

“Sorry I missed it, then,” he said with that short, ugly laugh of

his.

“Is Ildera pregnant yet?”

“Not that I’ve heard.”

“What’s taking them so long?”

“The Necessity, I’d imagine. The birth of the Godslayer’s going to be

one of those EVENTS, and time’s rather crucial in those. Ildera won’t

get pregnant until the Necessity decides that it’s the proper moment.

Has Zedar ever come back to that cave?”

“Not yet. He’s probably still wandering around. Have the twins found

out what he’s looking for?”

“No. At least they haven’t said so to me.”

“Are you sure that Geran’s going to be the father of the one we’ve been

waiting for?”

“The twins seem to think so. It’s going to happen in this century,

anyway.”

“Well, it’s about time!”

“Patience was never one of your strong points, brother mine. What took

you so long to get here from Cthol Murgos?”

“I went out and had a look around. There’s trouble in Mallorea.”

“Oh?”

“Zakath’s been crowned emperor, and that terrified Taur Urgas for some

reason, so he decided to take steps.”

“Why’s Taur Urgas so afraid of Zakath?”

“Taur Urgas is crazy, Belgarath, and crazy people don’t need reasons

for the things they do–or for the way they feel. Zakath’s a very

ambitious young man, though, and Taur Urgas has agents in Mallorea

keeping an eye on him. Mallorea’s a big place, but the notion of being

Overking of All of Angarak seems to appeal to Zakath for some reason,

and word of that’s been filtering back to Rak Goska. I guess it’s

making Taur Urgas very nervous. Mallorea’s at least twice the size of

Cthol Murgos, and it’s got about five times as many people. If Zakath

decides that he wants to rule the Angarak world, there wouldn’t be very

much Taur Urgas could do to prevent it.”

“If we’re lucky, we might see a repetition of what happened in the

Desert of Araga just before Vo Mimbre.”

“I wouldn’t get my hopes up, Belgarath. Torak’s going to wake up

before too much longer, and Old Burnt-face is at least as crazy as Taur

Urgas is, but he does have a long memory. He’s not going to permit

Taur Urgas and Zakath to repeat what Ctuchik and Urvon did to disrupt

his plans last time.”

“You said that Taur Urgas was taking steps. What did he do?”

“I think I told you that Zakath went to Melcena to study at the

university. He was very impressed with Melcena. When you get right

down to it, Mal Zeth’s not much more than an army camp, but Melcena’s

very civilized and sophisticated. Zakath was the crown prince of

Mallorea, so he was customarily invited into the best homes in town. He

was introduced to a high-ranking Melcena girl of his own age, and she

absolutely took his breath away.” He sighed.

“If that’d been allowed to run its course, it probably would have

changed the course of history. The girl was beautiful and brilliant.

Her influence on Zakath would have been enormous.”

“What happened?”

“I was just getting to that. It was at that point that Taur Urgas

stepped in. His agents reported the connection between Zakath and the

Melcene girl, and they also reported that the girl was a member of a

high-ranking family that was in debt up to its eyebrows. Taur Urgas is

crazy, but he’s not stupid. He saw the possibilities of the situation

immediately.

He sent orders to his people in Melcena to quietly buy up those

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