preparations for the trip.
“Are we almost ready to leave?” Beldaran asked one fine spring
afternoon.
“I don’t think we need to bring the furniture,” Beldin said a bit
sourly. Beldin believed in traveling light.
“I’ll go get Polgara, then,” she said.
“She won’t come, Beldaran,” I said.
“Oh, she’ll come, all right.” There was an uncharacteristic hint of
steel in my younger daughter’s voice.
“She doesn’t approve of this wedding, you know.”
“That’s her problem. She is going to attend, whether she likes it or
not.” It was easy to underestimate Beldaran because of her sweet,
sunny disposition. She rarely asserted any kind of authority, largely
because she didn’t have to. We all loved her so much that she usually
got what she wanted without making any fuss about it. When one of us
crossed her, however, she could be very firm. She’d been a bit
disappointed that the twins wouldn’t be going with us, but somebody had
to stay in the Vale, and the twins weren’t really comfortable in the
presence of strangers.
I think I’d have given a great deal to have heard the conversation
between my daughters when Beldaran went to the tree to fetch Pol.
Neither of them would talk about it afterward. But though Polgara was
a bit sullen, she did come with us.
We skirted the eastern border of Ulgoland, of course, but that was
standard practice in those days. Beldin scouted ahead. We weren’t
really expecting any trouble, but Beldin never missed an opportunity to
fly.
I wonder how he and Vella are getting along. She doesn’t have her
daggers any more, but I’d imagine that her beak and talons sort of make
up for that.
The weather was particularly fine that year, and the snow had largely
melted in the passes through the Sendarian Mountains. When we reached
Muros, Anrak went on ahead.
“Riva’s instructions,” he explained.
“As soon as I get to the coast, I’m supposed to send word to him.
He’ll bring a ship and meet us in Camaar.”
“Do we really think it’s safe to take father back to Camaar?” Polgara
said with just a hint of spitefulness. But both the girls were a
little nervous in Muros. Sometimes I forgot about the fact that they’d
never been out of the Vale before, and strangers made them
uncomfortable. Muros wasn’t much of a town in those days, but it still
had more people in it than my daughters were used to.
We hired a carriage there and rode down-river in style. When we
reached Camaar, I did not revisit the waterfront. We took lodgings in
one of the better inns in the main part of town, and I let Beldin go
find Anrak.
“Riva’s on the way,” Anrak assured us when Beldin brought him to our
inn.
“He’s probably crowded on several acres of sail. He really wants to
meet you, Pretty.”
Beldaran blushed.
“Disgusting,” Polgara muttered. I knew that this was all going to come
to a head eventually. Polgara’s discontent about her sister’s
impending wedding was probably quite natural. There were ties between
my daughters that I couldn’t even begin to understand. Polgara seemed
to be the dominant twin, but she was the one who automatically spoke in
plurals–which is usually the sign of the submissive sister. To this
very day, if you’re impolite enough to ask Polgara how old she is,
she’ll probably say something like
“We’re about three thousand–or so.” Beldaran’s been gone for a long
time, but she still looms very large in Polgara’s conception of the
world.
I think that someday I’ll have a long talk with Pol about that. The
world-view of someone who’s never really been alone might be very
interesting.
And then Riva arrived in Camaar. I’m sure that the citizens noticed
him. It wasn’t so much the fact that he was seven feet tall that got
their attention. I think it might have had something to do with the
way he tried to walk straight through anything or anyone standing
between him and Beldaran. I’ve seen people who were in love before,
but nobody has ever taken it to such extremes as Riva did.
When he came into the room at the inn–Beldin was quick enough to get
the door open for him before he walked right through it–he took one
look at my blonde daughter, and that was it for him.
Beldaran had been practicing a pretty little speech, but when she saw
Riva’s face, she lost it entirely.
They didn’t say anything to each other! Have you ever spent an entire
afternoon in the room with two people who don’t talk at all, but just
sat gazing into each others’ faces?
It finally got to the point that it was embarrassing, so I spent the
afternoon looking at Polgara instead. Now, there was a study for
you.
There was so much naked emotion in that room that the air almost seemed
to crackle with it. At first Polgara looked at Iron-grip with open and
undisguised hostility. Here was her rival, and she absolutely hated
him. Gradually, however, the sheer force of the absolute adoration
with which Riva and Beldaran gazed at each other began to impress
itself upon her. Polgara can keep her emotions from showing on her
face, but she can’t control her eyes. I watched those glorious eyes of
hers flicker back and forth from steely grey to deepest lavender as her
conflicting emotions struggled within her. It took her a long time.
Polgara isn’t one to give up easily. Finally, however, she sighed a
long, quavering sigh, and two great tears welled up in those eyes. She
quite obviously realized that she had lost. There was no way she could
compete with the love between her sister and the Rivan King.
I felt a sudden wave of sympathy for her at that point, so I went over
to where she was sitting and took her dirty hand in mine.
“Why don’t we step outside, Pol?” I suggested gently.
“Get a bit of air?”
She gave me a quick, grateful look, nodded mutely, and rose to her
feet. We left the room with dignity.
There was a balcony at the end of the hallway outside the room, and we
went there.
“Well,” she said in an almost neutral tone of voice,
“I
guess that settles that, doesn’t it?”
“It was settled a long time ago, Pol,” I told her.
“This is one of those Necessities. It has to happen.”
“It always comes back to that, doesn’t it, father?”
“Necessity? Of course, Pol. It has to do with who we are.”
“Does it ever get any easier?”
“Not that I’ve noticed.”
“Well, I just hope that they’ll be happy.” I was so proud of her at
that moment that my heart almost burst.
Then she suddenly turned to me.
“Oh, father!” she cried with a broken-hearted wail. She clung to me
in a sudden storm of weeping.
I held her, saying
“There, there.” That’s one of the stupidest things a man can possibly
say, but under the circumstances, it was the best I could manage.
In time she got it under control, and she sniffed, a particularly
unlovely sound.
“Use your handkerchief,” I told her.
“I forgot to bring one.”
I made one for her–right there on the spot–and offered to her.
“Thank you.” She blew her nose and dabbed at her eyes.
“Is there a bathhouse in this place?” she asked then.
“I think so. I’ll ask the innkeeper.”
“I’d appreciate it. I think it’s time I got cleaned up. I don’t
really have any reason to be dirty any more, do I?”
Somehow that one escaped me.
“Why don’t you go out and buy me a decent gown, father?” she suggested
then.
“Of course, Pol. Anything else?”
“A comb and brush, perhaps.” She took hold of one tangled lock, pulled
it forward, and looked at it critically.
“I suppose I really ought to do something about my hair, too.”
“I’ll see what I can find. Would you like a ribbon, as well?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, father. I’m not a maypole. I don’t need
decorations.
Go talk to the innkeeper. I really want to take a bath. Oh,
incidentally, just a plain dress. This is Beldaran’s party, not mine.
I’ll be in my room.” And she went off down the hallway.
I located the bathhouse for her, and then I went looking for Anrak. I
found him and Beldin in the taproom on the main floor of the inn.
“Go find me a dressmaker,” I told him.
“A what?”
“Polgara wants a new dress.”
“What’s wrong with the one she’s got?”
“Just do it, Anrak, don’t argue with me. Oh, she wants a comb and
brush, too. The dressmaker should be able to tell you where to find
them.”
He looked mournfully into his half-full tankard.
“Now, Anrak.”
He sighed and went on out.
“What’s this all about?” Beldin asked me.
“Polgara’s had a change of heart. She doesn’t want to look like an