Garion suddenly remembered something. “Has anyone ever suggested anything to him that might have encouraged these ambitions?” he asked.
“I certainly didn’t,” she declared. She frowned blearily sat the far wall. “Now that you mention it, though, there was a fellow who came through here a few years ago—a fellow with white eyes. Have you ever seen anybody with eyes like that? It makes your blood run cold. Anyway, he and the archduke went off to my husband’s study to talk.” She snorted derisively. “Study! I don’t think my idiot husband can even read. He can barely talk to me, but he calls the room his study. Isn’t that absurd? Well, at any rate, that happened at a time when I was still curious about the oaf’s affairs. I’d had one of the footmen drill a hole through the wall so I could watch—and hear—what the fool was up to.” Her lower lip began to tremble. “Not long after that, I saw him in there with the upstairs maid.” She threw her arms out tragically, sloshing ale on Beldin. “Betrayed!” she cried. “In my own house!”
“What were they talking about?” Garion asked her gently. “Your husband and the white-eyed man, I mean?”
“White-eyes told my husband that somebody named Zandramas could guarantee him succession to the throne in Mal Zeth. That name sounds familiar for some reason. Has anybody ever heard it before?” She looked around, trying to focus her eyes.
“Not that I recall,” Silk lied blandly. “Have you ever seen this white-eyed man again?”
The archduchess was busily trying to dip the last bit of ale out of the cask. “What?” she asked.
“The white-eyed man,” Belgarath said impatiently. “Did he ever come back?”
“Of course.” The lady leaned back and lustily drained her tankard. “He was here just a few days ago. He came here with some woman in a black satin robe and a little boy.” She belched modestly. “Could you give that bellpull over there a bit of a jerk, my twisted little friend?” she asked Beldin. “I think we’ve used up all of this cask, and I’m still sort of thirsty.”
“I’ll see to it at once, me darlin’!” The hunchback stumped to the bellpull.
“It’s so very nice to have friends about,” the archduchess said dreamily. Then her head drooped to one side and she began to snore.
“Wake her up, Pol,” Belgarath said.
“Yes, father.”
It was a very light surge, but the tipsy noblewoman’s eyes popped open immediately. “Where was I?” she asked.
“Ah—you were telling us about the visit of the white-eyed man a few days back, your Grace,” Silk supplied.
“Oh, yes. He came in about dusk—him and that hag in black satin.”
“Hag?” Silk asked.
“She must have been a hag. She went to a lot of trouble to keep her face covered. The little boy was adorable, though—reddish-blond curls and the bluest eyes you ever saw. I got some milk for him, because he was hungry. Anyway, White-eyes and the hag went off along with my husband, and then they all took horses and rode off. The toad, my husband, told me that he was going to be gone for a while and that I should send for my dressmaker—something about a gown suitable for an imperial coronation. I forget exactly.”
“What happened to the little boy?” Ce’Nedra asked in a very tense voice.
The archduchess shrugged. “Who knows? As far as I know, they did take him with them.” She sighed. “I’m suddenly so sleepy,” she murmured.
“Did your husband give you any hint about where they were going?” Silk asked her.
She waved her hands helplessly. “I stopped listening to him years ago,” she said. “We have a small yacht in a cove about a mile from here. It’s gone, so I think they took that. My husband was saying something about those commercial wharves south of the city.” She looked around. “Has that other cask of ale got here yet?” she asked drowsily.
“ ‘Twill only be a moment or two, me darlin’,” Beldin assured her in a gentle voice.
“Oh, good.”
“You need anything more?” Silk quietly asked Belgarath.
“I don’t think so.” The old man turned to his daughter. “Put her to sleep again, Pol,” he said.
“There’s no need, father,” she replied. She looked rather sadly at the lush-bodied noblewoman, who had once again wrapped her arms about Beldin’s neck, burrowed her face into his shoulder, and was lightly snoring. Gently, the dwarfed hunchback disengaged her arms and laid her softly on the couch. He straightened her gown, then crossed the room, picked up a comforter from a divan, returned, and covered her with it. “Sleep well, my Lady,” he murmured, touching her face with one sad hand. Then he turned and glared pugnaciously at Belgarath. “Well?” he demanded in the tone of a man ready to fight.
“I didn’t say anything,” Belgarath said to him.
Wordlessly, Ce’Nedra rose, went to the hideous little man, embraced him, and kissed him on the cheek.
“What was that all about?” he asked suspiciously.
“I didn’t say anything either,” she replied, absently picking a few pieces of straw out of his beard and handing them to him.
CHAPTER SIX
As they emerged from the house, Garion went immediately to Chretienne and swung up into his saddle.
“What have you got in mind?” Silk asked him.
“I’m going to stay on the trail,” Garion replied.
“Why? All it’s going to do is run down to that cove the lady mentioned and then go out to sea again.”
Garion looked at him helplessly.
“I’d say that the best thing for us to do right now is get back to Melcena as quickly as possible. I have a lot of people working for me there. I’ll saturate those commercial wharves with men—the same way we did in Jarot. Naradas won’t be hard to follow.”
“Why don’t I just take the Orb and go down to the wharves myself?” Garion protested.
“Because all you’ll find out that way is which wharf she sailed from. We need more than that.” Silk looked sympathetically at his friend. “I know you’re impatient, Garion—we all are—but my way’s going to be faster, actually. My people can find out when Zandramas sailed and where she was going. That’s the thing we really have to know.”
“All right, then,” Belgarath said, “let’s ride.” They mounted quickly and rode at a canter back up the drive to the road. Then they went south toward Melcena at a gallop.
It was about noon when they reached the north gate and not long after that when they dismounted in front of Silk’s house. They went inside and on up the stairs to the sitting room. “Would you ask Vetter to come up?” the little man asked a passing servant as they entered the room.
“At once, your Highness.”
“I’d say we’d better pack again,” Silk suggested, removing his businessman’s robe. “As soon as we find out where Zandramas is going, I think we’ll be leaving again.”
Sadi smiled faintly. “Poor Zith,” he murmured. “She’s getting very tired of traveling.”
“She’s not the only one,” Velvet said a bit ruefully. “When this is all over, I don’t think I’ll ever want even to look at another horse.”
There was a polite knock at the door, and Vetter opened it. “You wanted to see me, your Highness?” he asked.
“Yes, Vetter. Come in, please.” Silk was pacing up and down, his eyes deep in thought. “We’ve been looking for some people,” he said.
“I surmised as much, your Highness.”
“Good. We know that these people came to Melcena not too long back. Then they left again about three days ago. We need to know where they went.”
“Very well, your Highness. Can you give me a description?”
“I was just getting to that. There were two men, a woman, and a small boy. One of the men was the Archduke Otrath. Do you know him?”
Vetter nodded. “I can give our people an accurate description of him, yes.”
“Very good, Vetter. The other man is named Naradas.”
“I’ve heard the name, your Highness, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him.”
“You wouldn’t have forgotten him. His eyes are totally white.”
“He’s a blind man?”
“No, but his eyes have no color to them.”
“That should make things simpler.”
“I thought it might. The woman’s been going to some trouble to keep her face covered, but she should be with the archduke and Naradas. We’ve picked up the information that they may have sailed from one of the commercial wharves to the south of the city. Start out by concentrating the search there. Send every man you can put your hands on down there. Have them talk with everybody on those wharves. We need information and we need it fast. Spread money around if you have to. I want to know when they left, on which ship, and where they were going. If the ship happens to be back in port, bring me one of the sailors—or even better yet, the captain. Speed is essential, Vetter.”