again. Arends are very fond of hunting dogs, so I took the form of a
hound and followed along. The duke would assume that I was her dog,
and she’d assume that I was his.
“Your Grace.” She greeted the duke with a flowing curtsy.
“It is imperative that we speak privately. I must disclose my mind
unto thee out of the hearing of others.”
“That is not customary, Lady–?” He left it delicately hanging in the
air. He really wanted to know who this queenly visitor was.
“I will identify myself unto thee when we are alone, your Grace.
Unfriendly ears are everywhere in poor Arendia, and word of my visit
must not reach Vo Mimbre nor Vo Astur. Thy realm is in peril, your
Grace, and I am come to abate that peril. Let us not alert thine
enemies to mine advisement of thee, and my name alone would so alert
them.”
Where had she learned to speak in that archaic language?
“Thy manner and bearing are such that I am inclined to give ear unto
thee, my Lady,” the duke replied.
“Let us go apart so that thou mayest give me this vital instruction.”
He rose from his throne, offered Pol his arm, and led her from the
room.
I padded along behind them, my toenails clicking on the floor.
Arendish nobles always give their hunting dogs the free run of their
houses, so nobody paid any attention to me. The duke, however, shooed
me out when he and Pol went into a room just down the hall. That
wasn’t really any problem, though. I curled up on the floor just
outside with my head almost touching the door.
“And now, Lady,” the duke said, “prithee divulge thy name to me.”
“My name’s Polgara,” she replied, dropping the flowery speech.
“You might have heard of me.”
“The daughter of Ancient Belgarath?” He sounded stunned.
“Exactly. You’ve been receiving some bad advice lately, your Grace.
A Tolnedran merchant’s been telling you that he speaks for Ran Vordue
XVII. He does not. The House of Vordue is not offering an alliance.
If you follow his advice and invade Mimbrate territory, the legions
will not come to your aid. If you violate your alliance with the
Mimbrates, they’ll immediately ally themselves with the Asturians, and
you’ll be swarmed under.”
“The Tolnedran merchant has documents, Lady Polgara,” the duke
protested.
“They bear the Imperial Seal of Ran Vordue himself.”
“The imperial seal isn’t that difficult to duplicate, your Grace. I
can make one for you right here and now, if you’d like.”
“If the Tolnedran doth not speak for Ran Vordue, then for whom?”
“He speaks for Ctuchik, your Grace. The Murgos want strife in the
west, and Arendia, already torn by this unending civil war, is the best
place to set off new fires. Do with the deceitful Tolnedran as you
will. I must go to Vo Astur now and then on to Vo Mimbre. Ctuchik’s
scheme is very complex, and if it succeeds, its ultimate goal will be
war between Arendia and Tolnedra.”
“That must not be!” the duke exclaimed.
“Divided as we are, the legions would crush us!”
“Precisely. And then the Alorns would be drawn in, and general war
would break out. Nothing would suit Ctuchik better.”
“I will wring confirmation of this foul plot from the Tolnedran, Lady
Polgara,” he said.
“Of that I give thee my pledge.”
The door opened, and the duke stepped over me. After your dogs have
been underfoot long enough, you don’t even see them any more.
Polgara, however, didn’t step over me.
“All right, father,” she said to me in withering tones, “you can go
home now. I can manage here without you very well.”
And, as a matter of fact, she did. I still followed her, though. She
went to Vo Astur and spoke with the Asturian duke in much the same way
as she had with the duke of Vo Wacune. Then she went on to Vo Mimbre
and alerted them, as well. In that one single journey, she dismantled
something that had probably taken the cadaverous Ctuchik ten years to
build. He’d never met her, and he already had reason to hate her.
She explained it all to me when we got back to the Vale–after she’d
taken me to task for trailing along behind her.
“Ctuchik’s got people here in the western kingdoms who don’t really
look that much like Angaraks,”
she told me.
“Some of them are modified Grolims, but there are others, as well. Have
you ever heard of the Dagashi?”
“I can’t say that I have,” I replied.
“They’re a group of paid assassins based somewhere to the south of
Nyissa. They’re very good spies as well as highly skilled murderers.
At any rate, the Murgos have discovered gold in that spine of mountains
that runs northeast from Urga to Goska, so Ctuchik can afford to bribe
Tolnedrans.”
“Anybody can bribe Tolnedrans, Pol.”
“Possibly, yes. At any rate, his spies have been enlisting various
Tolnedrans to present the three duchies here in Arendia with spurious
offers of alliance that supposedly come from Ran Vordue. Ran Vordue,
of course, doesn’t know anything about them. The idea was that when
the legions didn’t turn up to assist the people who were expecting
them, the Arends would attack northern Tolnedra in retaliation.
Northern Tolnedra is Vorduvian territory, and the emperor would respond
by crushing the Arendish duchies one by one. Once the Alorns heard
about it, they’d believe that the empire was trying to expand its
borders, and they’d take steps. It was a very clever plan,
actually.”
“But you put a stop to it.”
“Yes, father, I know. We might want to keep an eye on Ctuchik. I
think he’s planning something. He’s not trying to stir up all this
mischief just for the fun of it.”
“I’ll watch him,” I promised her.
Beldin returned from one of his periodic trips to Mallorea not long
after that, and he told us that nothing much was going on there.
“Except that Zedar’s left Ashaba,” he added, almost as an
afterthought.
“Any idea of where he’s gone?” I asked.
“Not a clue. Zedar’s as slippery as an eel. For all I know, he’s
hiding out at Kell. What’s going on with the Nadraks?”
“I don’t follow you.”
“I came back from Mallorea that way, and they’re massing up about ten
leagues east of the Drasnian border. I’d say that they’re planning
something major.”
I started to swear.
“That’s what it was all about!”
“Talk sense, Belgarath. What’s been happening?”
“There’d been a certain amount of limited trade back and forth across
that border. Then the Nadraks started getting belligerent. They made
a few raids into Drasnia, and Bull-neck’s son chased them back into the
woods. It’s been quiet up there for quite some time now.”
“I think it might get noisy again fairly soon. The Nadrak cities are
almost deserted. Every man who can stand up, see lightning, and hear
thunder is camped out in the woods a day’s march from the border.”
“We’d better warn Rhonar.”
“Who’s he?”
“The current king of Drasnia. I’ll take a run up there and let him
know what’s happening. Why don’t you go up into Algaria and see if you
can find Cho-Dan, the Chief of the Clan-Chiefs? Let’s get some Algar
cavalry just north of Lake Atun.”
“Don’t the Algars have a king anymore?”
“The title’s sort of fallen into disuse. The Algars are nomads, and
clan’s more important to them than nation. I’ll go to Boktor and then
over to Val Alorn to warn the Chereks.”
Beldin rubbed his hands together.
“We haven’t had a war in a long time.”
“I haven’t missed them all that much.” I scratched at my beard.
“I
think maybe I’ll run on down to Rak Cthol and have another little chat
with Ctuchik as soon as the Alorns are in place. Maybe I can head this
off before it gets out of hand.”
“Spoilsport. Where’s Pol?”
“Over in Arendia–Vo Wacune, I think. Ctuchik’s been playing games
there, too. Pol’s keeping an eye on things. Let’s go alert the
Alorns.”
King Rhonar of Drasnia received my news with a certain amount of
enthusiasm. He was as bad or worse than Beldin. Then I went on across
the Gulf of Cherek to Val Alorn and talked with King Bledar. He was
even worse than Rhonar. His fleet sailed for Kotu the next day. I
rather hoped that Beldin could keep a tight leash on the Alorns when
they got to the Nadrak border. Pol and I had just spent several
centuries trying to keep a lid on open hostilities here in the West,
and this incipient confrontation threatened to blow that lid off.
Then I went to Rak Cthol.
I paused in the desert a few leagues to the west of that ugly mountain
and considered a number of options. My last visit undoubtedly had