David and Leigh Eddings – Belgarath the Sorcerer

have realized that something very peculiar was going on. But if you’ll

just stop and think about it for a moment, I believe you’ll understand.

You’ll recall that Poledra’s apparent death had driven me quite mad. A

man who has to be chained to his bed has problems. Then I’d spent two

or three years pickling my brains in the waterfront dives in Camaar and

another eight or nine entertaining the ladies of Mar Amon, and during

all that time I saw a lot of things that weren’t really there. I’d

grown so accustomed to that sort of thing that whenever I saw something

unusual, I just shrugged it off as another hallucination. The incident

at Beldaran’s wedding wasn’t a hallucination, but how was I supposed to

know that? Try to be a little more understanding.

It’ll make a better person of you.

And so Beldaran and Riva were married, and they were both deliriously

happy. There were other things afoot in the world, however, and since

the Alorn kings were all on the Isle of the Winds anyway, Beldin

suggested that we might want to seize the opportunity to discuss

matters of state.

All sorts of nonsense has been written about the origins of the Alorn

Council, but that’s how it really started. The Tolnedrans have been

objecting to this rather informal yearly gathering for centuries

now–largely because they aren’t invited. Tolnedrans are a suspicious

people, and any time they get word of a conference of any kind, they’re

absolutely certain that there’s a plot against them at the bottom of

it.

Polgara sat in on our conference. She didn’t particularly want to,

right at first, but I insisted. I wasn’t going to give her an

opportunity to wander about the citadel unsupervised.

I’m not sure that our impromptu conference really accomplished very

much. We spent most of the time talking about the Angaraks. None of

us were happy about their presence on this side of the Sea of the East,

but for the moment there wasn’t much we could do about it. The

distances were simply too great.

“I could probably go into that forest to the east of the moors and burn

down those cities the Nadraks are building there,” Dras rumbled in that

deep voice of his, “but there wouldn’t be much point to it. I don’t

have the manpower to occupy all that wilderness. Sooner or later I’d

have to pull out, and then the Nadraks would just come back out of the

woods and rebuild.”

“Have there been any contacts with them?” Pol asked.

He shrugged.

“A few skirmishes is about all. Every so often they come out of the

mountains, and then we chase them back. I don’t think they’re very

serious about it. They’re probably just testing our defenses.”

“I meant peaceful contacts.”

“There’s no such thing as peaceful contacts between Alorns and

Angaraks, Polgara.”

“Perhaps there should be.”

“I think that’s against our religion.”

“Maybe you should reconsider that. I understand that the Nadraks are

merchants. They might be interested in trade.”

“I don’t think they’ve got anything I’d want.”

“Oh, yes they do, Dras. They’ve got information about the Murgos, and

they’re the ones we’re really interested in. If anyone’s going to

cause us trouble, it’ll be the Murgos. If we can find out from the

Nadraks what they’re doing, we won’t have to go down to Rak Goska to

investigate for ourselves.”

“She’s got a point, Dras,” Algar told his brother.

“My people have had a few contacts with the Thulls, but you can’t get

very much information out of a Thull. From what I hear, the Nadraks

don’t care very much for the Murgos, so they probably wouldn’t mind

passing information along.”

“Can you actually climb the Eastern Escarpment to get to Mishrak ac

Thull?” Cherek asked him with a certain surprise.

“There are some ravines that cut down through the escarpment, father,”

Algar replied.

“They’re steep, but they’re passable. The Murgos patrol the western

frontier of Mishrak ac Thull, and every so often one of those patrols

comes down onto the plains of Algaria–usually to steal horses. We’d

rather they didn’t do that, so we chase them back.” He smiled

faintly.

“It’s easier to let them find those ravines for us than to go looking

for them ourselves.”

“There’s a thought,” Dras noted.

“If the Murgos want horses, couldn’t we interest them in trade, too?”

Algar shook his head.

“Not Murgos, no. Their minds don’t work that way. One of my

Clan-Chiefs questioned a Thull who actually knew his right hand from

his left. The Thull said that Ctuchik’s at Rak Goska. As long as he’s

dominating Murgo society, there won’t be any peaceful contacts with

them.”

“Pol’s right, then,” Beldin said.

“We’re going to have to try to work through the Nadraks.” He squinted

at the ceiling.

“I don’t think this Angarak migration poses much of a threat–at least

not yet. There weren’t all that many people in Cthol Mishrak to begin

with, and Ctuchik’s got them spread out fairly thin. The real threat

is still Mallorea.

I think I’ll go back there and keep an eye on things. The Angaraks on

this continent are just an advance party. They’re probably here to

build supply dumps and staging areas. You won’t have to start

sharpening your swords until the Malloreans begin coming across. I’ll

keep my ear to the ground over there and let you know when the military

moves north out of Mal Zeth toward the bridge.”

Polgara pursed her lips.

“I think we might want to establish closer ties with the Tolnedrans and

the Arends.”

“Why’s that, dear sister?” Riva asked her. He was her brother-in-law

now, and he automatically used that form of address. Family’s an

important thing to Alorns.

“We might need their help with the Malloreans.”

“The Tolnedrans wouldn’t help unless we paid them to,” Cherek

disagreed, “and the Arends are too busy fighting with each other.”

“They live here, too. Bear-shoulders,” she pointed out, “and I don’t

think they’d want Malloreans on this continent any more than we

would.

The legions could be very helpful, and the Arends have been training

for war since before Torak split the world. Besides, Chaldan and Nedra

probably would be offended if we all went off to war and didn’t invite

them to come along.”

“Excuse me, Polgara,” Dras rumbled, “but how did you learn so much

about politics? As I understand it, this is the first time you’ve ever

been out of the Vale.”

“Uncle Beldin keeps me posted,” she replied, shrugging slightly.

“It’s always nice to know what the neighbors are up to.”

“Is there any point to involving the Nyissans or the Marags?” Riva

asked.

“We should probably make the offer,” I said.

“The current Salmissra’s a fairly intelligent young woman, and she’s as

concerned about the Angaraks as we are. The Marags wouldn’t be of much

use.

There aren’t that many of them, and the fact that they’re cannibals

might make everybody else nervous.”

Beldin laughed that ugly laugh of his.

“Tell them to start eating Angaraks. Let the Murgos get nervous.”

“I think maybe we’d all better start thinking about going home,”

Cherek suggested, rising to his feet.

“The wedding’s over now, and if the Malloreans are coming, we’d better

start getting ready for them.”

And that was more or less the extent of the first Alorn Council.

“Is it always that much fun?” Polgara asked me as we were returning to

our quarters.

“Fun? Did I miss something?”

“Politics, father,” she explained.

“All this business of trying to guess what the other side’s going to

do.”

“I’ve always rather enjoyed it.”

“I guess you really are my father, then. That was much more fun than

leading young men around by their noses or turning their knees to water

just by fluttering my eyelashes at them.”

“You’re a cruel woman, Polgara.”

“I’m glad you realize that, father. It wouldn’t be much fun at all to

catch you unawares.” She gave me one of those obscure little smiles.

“Watch out for me, father,” she warned.

“I’m at least as dangerous as you are or Torak is.”

You did say it, Pol, so don’t try to deny it.

Our parting from Beldaran wasn’t one of the happier moments in our

lives. My love for my blonde daughter had been the anchor that had

hauled me back to sanity, and Polgara’s ties to her twin sister were so

complex that I couldn’t even begin to understand them.

Beldin and I talked at some length before we separated. He promised to

keep me advised about what was going on in Mallorea, but I had a few

suspicions about his motives for going back there. I had the feeling

that he wanted to continue his discussion of white-hot hooks with

Urvon, and there was always the chance of coming across Zedar in some

out-of-the-way place. There are nicer people in the world than

Beldin.

I wished him the best of luck–and I meant it. There are nicer people

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