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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