abandoned bird’s nest any more.”
“What brought that on?”
“I haven’t got any idea, and I’m not going to ask. If she wants to
look like a girl instead of a haystack, that’s up to her.”
“You’re in a peculiar humor.”
“I know.” Then I jumped into the air and crowed exultantly.
We were all stunned when Polgara came into the room the next morning.
The plain dress she wore was blue, of course. Pol almost always wears
blue. Her long, dark hair was pulled back rather severely and tied at
the nape of her neck. Now that she was clean, we saw that her skin was
very fair, much like her sister’s, and she was startlingly beautiful.
It was her manner, however, that took us all by surprise. Even at
sixteen, Pol was as regal as any queen.
Riva and Anrak both rose to their feet and bowed to her. Then Anrak
sighed lustily.
“What’s the matter?” his cousin asked him.
“I think I’ve made a mistake.”
“There’s nothing new about that.”
“I think I’m going to regret this one, though. I might have had a
chance with Lady Polgara if I’d pressed the issue. The Vale’s pretty
isolated, so she didn’t have any other suitors. I’m afraid it’s too
late now, though. As soon as we get her to Riva, every young man on
the Isle’s going to pay court to her.”
Pol gave him a warm look.
“Why did you let her get away?” Riva asked him.
“You saw how she looked yesterday, didn’t you?”
“No, not really. I had my mind on other things.”
Beldaran blushed. They’d both had their minds on other things.
“Please don’t be offended. Lady Polgara,” Anrak said to my eldest
daughter.
“Not at all, Anrak,” she replied. She seemed quite taken with the idea
of being called
“Lady Polgara.” Just about everybody in the world calls her that now,
but I think she still gets a warm glow every time she hears it.
“Well,” Anrak said, choosing his words carefully,
“Lady Polgara was just a little indifferent to appearances when I first
saw her. I think she’s a sorceress–like her father. Of course, he’s
a sorcerer, not a sorceress, but you know what I mean. Anyway, all
sorcerers are very deep, you know, and she’d probably been thinking
about something for several million years, and–” “I’m only sixteen,
Anrak,” Pol corrected him gently.
“Well, yes, I know, but time doesn’t mean the same thing to you people
as it does to us. You can make time stop and start again any time you
want, can’t you?”
“Can we do that, father?” she asked me with some curiosity.
“I don’t know.” I looked at Beldin.
“Can we?”
“Well, theoretically, I suppose,” he replied.
“Belmakor and I discussed the possibility once, but we decided that it
wouldn’t be a good idea. You might get time all mixed up–one time in
one place and a different time in another. It’d probably be very hard
to get it all put back together right again, and you couldn’t just
leave it that way.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’d be in two places at the same time.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“It’d be a paradox, Belgarath. Belmakor and I weren’t sure what that
might do to the universe–rip it to pieces, maybe, or just make it
vanish.”
“It wouldn’t do that.”
“I wasn’t going to try it to find out.”
“You see what I mean about how deep these people are?” Anrak said to
his cousin.
“Anyway, the Lady Polgara had flown up into a tree, and she was doing
sorceress things. I sort of suggested that I might consider marrying
her–since her sister was going to marry you, and twins always like to
do things together. She didn’t think too much of the idea, I guess, so
I didn’t press the issue. To be honest about it, she wasn’t very tidy
when I first saw her.” He stopped, looking at Pol with a certain
consternation.
“I was in disguise, Anrak,” she helped him out.
“Really? Why was that?”
“It was one of those sorceress things you mentioned.”
“Oh, one of those. It was a very good disguise, Lady Polgara. You
were an absolute mess.”
“I wouldn’t push that too much further, Anrak,” Beldaran advised.
“Why don’t we have some breakfast and start packing instead? I really
want to see my new home.”
We set sail later on that same day, and we arrived at Riva’s city two
days afterward. His people were all down at the beach waiting for
us-well, for Beldaran, actually. I don’t imagine that the Rivans were
very interested in looking at Beldin and me, but they really wanted to
get a look at their new queen. Riva hovered protectively over her. He
didn’t want anybody admiring her too much.
I’m sure they got his point–at least where Beldaran was concerned.
There were other things to be admired, however.
“You’d better get yourself a club,” Beldin muttered to me.
“What?”
“A club, Belgarath–a stout stick with a big end.”
“What do I need with a club?”
“Use your eyes, Belgarath. Take a long, hard look at Polgara and then
look at the faces of all those young Alorns standing on the beach.
Believe me, you’re going to need a club.”
I didn’t, exactly, but I made a special point of not letting Pol out of
my sight while we were on the Isle of the Winds. I suspect that I
might have been more comfortable if Pol had held off on emerging from
her cocoon for a while. I was proud of her, of course, but her altered
appearance made me very nervous. She was young and inexperienced, and
the young men on the Isle were obviously very much taken with her.
My strategy was quite simple. I sat in plain view and scowled. I was
wearing one of those ridiculous white robes people are always trying to
foist off on me, and I carried a long staff–much as I had in Arendia
and Tolnedra. I had quite a reputation among Alorns, and those absurd
trappings enhanced it and got my point across. The young Rivans were
polite and attentive–which was fine. But they didn’t lure Polgara off
into dark corners–which wouldn’t have been.
Pol, of course, was having the time of her life. She didn’t exactly
encourage that crowd of suitors, but she smiled a great deal and even
laughed now and then. It’s a cruel thing to suggest, but I suspect
that she even enjoyed the fact that young Rivan girls frequently left
the room where she was holding court so that they could go someplace
private.
Gnawing on your own liver isn’t the sort of thing you want to do in
public.
We’d been in the Hall of the Rivan King for about a week when a fleet
of Cherek war boats sailed into the harbor. The other Alorn kings had
arrived for Riva’s wedding.
It was good to see Cherek and his sons again, although we didn’t really
have much chance to talk. Pol assured me that she could take care of
herself, but I didn’t feel like taking chances.
Yes, Polgara, I was jealous. Aren’t fathers supposed to be jealous? I
knew what those young men had on their minds, and I was not going to
leave you alone with them.
A couple of days after Cherek and the boys had arrived, Beldin came
looking for me. I was in my usual place wearing my usual scowl, and
Polgara was busy breaking hearts.
“I think you’d better have a talk with Bear-shoulders,” he told me.
“Oh?”
“Riva’s wedding’s starting to give Dras and Algar some ideas.”
“What kind of ideas?”
“Grow up, Belgarath. Regardless of how Riva and Beldaran feel about
each other, this is a political marriage.”
“Theological, actually.”
“It means the same thing. Dras and Algar are starting to think about
the advantages that might be involved in a marriage to Polgara.”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“I’m not the one who’s thinking about it, so don’t blame me if it’s
ridiculous. Sooner or later, one of them’s going to go to Cherek and
ask him to speak with you about it. Then he’ll come to you with some
kind of proposal. You’d better head that off before he embarrasses
himself. We still need the Alorns on our side.”
I swore and stood up.
“Can you keep an eye on Polgara for me?”
“Why not?”
“Watch out for that tall one with the blond hair. Pol’s paying a
little too much attention to him for my comfort.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“Don’t do anything permanent to him. He’s the son of a Clan-Chief, and
this Isle’s a little too confined for a clan war.” Then I went looking
for Cherek Bear-shoulders.
I stretched the truth just a bit when I told him that Aldur had
instructed me to keep Pol with me in the Vale and that she wasn’t
supposed to get married for quite some time. Once I’d headed off their