“The highest pinnacle,” Belgarath told him.
Kresca sighed. “I might have known,” he said. “That’s the one part of the reef where my charts aren’t too accurate. About the time I got to taking soundings around that one, a squall came out of nowhere, and I had to back off.” He thought about it. “No matter,” he decided. “We’ll stand a half mile or so off-
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shore and go in with the longboat. There’s something you ought to know about that part of the reef, though.”
“Oh?”Belgarathsaid.
“I think there are some people there.”
“I sort of doubt it.”
“I don’t really know of any other creature that builds fires, do you? There’s a cave on the north side of that pinnacle, and sailors have been seeing the light of fires coming out of the mouth of it for years now. It’s my guess that there’s a band of pirates living in there. It wouldn’t be all that hard for them to come out in small boats on dark nights and waylay merchantmen in the straits on the landward side of the reef.”
‘ ‘Can you see the fire from where we are right now?” Garion asked him.
‘ ‘I ‘d guess so. Let’s go topside and have a look. *’
The ladies, Sadi, and Toth remained in the cabin, and Garion and his other friends followed Captain Kresca up the compan-ionway to the deck. The wind, which had been howling through the rigging when the sailors had dropped anchor, had fallen off, and the surf along the reef was no longer frothy.
“There,” Kresca said, pointing. “It’s not quite as visible from this angle, but you can make it out. When you’re standing out to sea from the cave mouth, it’s really bright.”
Dimly, Garion could see a sooty red glow a short way up the side of a bulky-looking peak jutting up out of the sea. The other rocks that formed the reef appeared to be little more than slender spires, but the central peak had a different shape. For some reason, it reminded Garion of the truncated mountain that was the site of far-off Prolgu in Ulgoland.
“Nobody’s ever explained to my satisfaction how the top of mat mountain got sliced off like that,” Kresca said.
“It’s probably a very long story,” Silk told him. The litde man shivered. “It’s still a little chilly out here,” he noted. “Why don’t we go below again?”
Garion fell back to walk beside Belgarath. “What’s making that light, Grandfather?” he asked quietly.
“I’m not entirely sure,” Belgarath replied, “but I think it might be the Sardion. We know it’s in that cave.”
“We do?”
“Of course we do. At the time of the meeting, the Orb and the Sardion have to come into each other’s presence in the same way you and Zandramas do. That Melcene scholar who stole the Sardion—the one Senji told us about—sailed around the
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southern tip of Gandahar and disappeared into these waters. That was all too convenient to be mere coincidence. The Sardion was controlling the scholar, and the scholar delivered the stone to the precise place it wanted to go. It’s probably been waiting for us in that cave for about five hundred years.”
Garion looked back over his shoulder. The hilt of his sword was covered by the leather sleeve, but he was still fairly certain that he’d be able to see the muted glow of the Orb. “Doesn’t the Orb usually react to the presense of the Sardion?” he asked.
“We may not be close enough yet, and we’re still at sea. Open water confuses the Orb. Then, too, maybe it’s trying to conceal itself from the Sardion.”
‘ ‘Could it actually think its way through that complex an idea? It’s usually fairly childish, I’ve noticed.”
“Don’t underestimate it, Garion.”
“Everything’s fitting together, then, isn’t it?”
“It all has to, Garion. Otherwise what’s going to happen tomorrow couldn’t happen.”
“Well, father?” Polgara asked as they reentered the cabin.
“There’s a fire of some kind in that cave, all right,” he told her. His fingers, however, were telling her something else.—We’ll talk about it in more detail after the captain leaves.—He turned toward Kresca. “When’s the next low tide?” he asked the seaman.
Kresca squinted, calculating. “We just missed one,” he said. “The tide’s coming in now. The next low tide will come about daybreak and, if my observations are correct, it should be a neap tide. Well, I’ll leave you to get some rest now. I sort of gather that you’ve got a full day ahead of you tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Captain Kresca,” Garion said, shaking the seaman’s hand.
“Don’t mention it, Garion.” Kresca grinned. “The King of Peldane paid me very handsomely for this voyage, so being helpful doesn’t really cost me anything.”
“Good.” Garion grinned back. “I like to see friends get ahead in the world.”
The captain laughed and went back out with a hearty wave.
“What was he talking about?” Sadi asked. “What’s a neap tide?”
“It only happens a few times a year,” Beldin explained. “It’s an extreme low tide. It has to do with the positions of the sun and moon.”
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“Everything seems to be going out of its way to make tomorrow a very special day,” Silk observed.
“All right, fother,” Polgara said crisply. “What’s the story on the fire in that cave?”
“I can’t be positive, Pol, but I rather strongly suspect that it’s not a group of pirates—not after all the trouble the prophecies have gone to to keep people away from the cave.”
“What do you think it is, then?”
“It’s probably the Sardion.”
“Would it give off a red glow?”
He shrugged. “The Orb glows blue. I suppose there’s a sort of logic to the Sardion’s glowing a different color.”
“Why not green?” Silk asked.
“Green’s an in-between color,” Beldin told him. “It’samix-ture of blue and yellow.”
“You’re a real gold mine of useless information, you know that, Beldin? “Silk said.
“There’s no such thing as useless information, Kheldar.” Beldin sniffed.
“All right,” Zakath said, “how are we going to go about this?”
“Cyradis,” Belgarath said to the Seeress, “I’m guessing about this, but I think I’m fairly close. Nobody is going to reach that cave first, are they? What I mean is that the prophecies aren’t going to let Zandramas get there before we do—or let us get there first either.”
“Astounding,” Beldin murmured. “That actually sounded like real logic. Aren’t you feeling well, Belgarath?”
“Would you please?” Belgarath growled. “Well, Cyradis?”
She paused, her expression distant. Garion seemed to hear that faint choral murmuring.’ “Thy reasoning is correct, Ancient One. The same perception came to Zandramas some time ago, so I am not revealing anything unto thee which she doth not already know. Zandramas, however, hath rejected the fruits of her reasoning and hath striven to circumvent her conclusions.”
“Very well, then,” Zakath said, “since we’re all going to get there at the same time anyway, and since everybody knows about it, there’s not much point in being coy, is there? I say we just land on the beach and march straight to the cave.”
“Stopping only long enough for you and me to put on our armor,” Garion added. “It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to dress up here on board ship. It might make Kresca nervous.”
“Your plan sounds good to me, Zakath,” Durnik agreed.
“I’m not so sure,” Silk said dubiously. “There’s a certain advantage to sneaking.”
“Drasnians,” Ce’Nedra sighed.
“Listen to his reasons before you throw the notion out, Ce’Nedra,” Velvet suggested.
“It’s sort of like this,” Silk went on. “Zandramas knows— deep down—that she can’t beat us to that cave, but she’s been trying for months all the same, hoping that there’s some way she can bypass the rules. Now, let’s try to think the way she does.”
“I’d sooner take poison,” Ce’Nedra said with a shudder.
“It’s only for the sake of understanding your opponent, Ce’Nedra. Now, Zandramas has been hoping against hope that she can beat us to that cave and avoid the necessity of coming up against Garion. He did kill Torak, after all, and nobody in his right mind would willingly confront the Godslayer.”
“I’m going to have that removed from my title when I get back to Riva,” Garion said sourly.
“You can do that later,” Silk told him. “What would Zandramas most likely feel if she arrived at the cave mouth, looked around, and didn’t see us?”
“I think I see where you’re going, Kheldar,” Sadi said admiringly.
“You would,” Zakath said dryly.
“It’s really rather brilliant, you know, Kal Zakath,” the eunuch said. “Zandramas is going to feel a wild exultation. She’ll believe that she’s succeeded in circumventing the prophecies and that she’s won in spite of them.”
‘ ‘Then what’s going to happen to her when we all step out from behind a boulder and she finds out that she still has to face Garion and submit to the choice of Cyradis after all?” Silk asked.