“You’d be amazed at how many people have told me the same thing today,” Garion murmured.
“I really think we should leave almost immediately,” Silk said.
“What for?” Durnik asked. “You got away, didn’t you?”
“You forget the tracks, Durnik.” Silk held up one foot. “Rivan boots—an affectation, perhaps. They’re very comfortable, but they do leave distinctive tracks. I expect that it’s only going to be a matter of time before somebody puts a few things together and I’m not really in the mood for dodging Honethite assassins. They’re fairly inept, but they can be an inconvenience.”
The door opened rather quietly, and Silk instantly went into a crouch, his hands diving inside his smeared doublet for his daggers.
“My goodness,” the lavender-gowned Velvet said mildly, entering and closing the door behind her, “aren’t we jumpy this evening?”
“What are you doing in here?” Silk demanded.
“I was attending the Imperial Ball. You have no idea how much gossip one can pick up at such affairs. The whole ballroom is buzzing with the accidents that have been befalling the Honeths in the past couple nights. Under the circumstances, I thought it might have occurred to you that it was time for us to leave.” . “Us?”
“Oh, didn’t I tell you? How forgetful of me. I’ll be joining you.”
“You most certainly will nor!” Belgarath said.
“I hate to contradict you, Ancient One,” she said regretfully, “but I’m acting on orders.” She turned to Silk. “My uncle has been a little nervous about some of your activities during the past few years. He trusts you, my dear Kheldar—you must never think that he doesn’t trust you— but he does sort of want somebody to keep an eye on you.” She frowned. “I think that he’s going to be quite cross when he hears about your midnight visits to the Honeth family.”
“You know the rules, Liselle,” Silk replied. “Bethra was one of our people. We don’t let those things go.”
“Naturally not. But Javelin prefers to order that sort of retaliation personally. Your somewhat hasty vengeance has robbed him of that opportunity. You’re just too independent, Silk. He’s right, you know. You do need to be watched.” She pursed her lips slightly. “I must admit, though, that it was a very nice job.”
“Now you listen to me, young lady,” Belgarath said hotly. “I am not conducting a guided tour for the benefit of the Drasnian spy network.”
She gave him a disarming little smile and fondly patted his bearded cheek. “Oh, come now, Belgarath,” she said, her soft brown eyes appealing, “do be reasonable. Wouldn’t it. be more civilized—and convenient—to have me in your party rather than trailing along behind you? I am going to follow my orders, Revered One, whether you like it or not.”
“Why is it that I have to be surrounded by women who won’t do as they’re told?”
Her eyes went very wide. “Because we love you, Immortal One,” she explained outrageously. “You’re the answer to every maiden’s dreams, and we follow you out of blind devotion.”
“That’s about enough of that, Miss,” he said ominously. “You’re not going with us, and that’s final.”
“You know,” the dry voice in Garion’s mind mused, “I think I’ve finally isolated the difficulty I’ve always had with Belgarath. It’s his pure, pigheaded contrariness. He doesn’t really have any reason for these arbitrary decisions of his. He just does it to irritate me.”
“Do you mean that she’s supposed to go along?” Garion blurted, so startled that he said it aloud.
“Of course she is. Why do you think I went to all the trouble to get her to Tol Honeth before you all left. Go ahead and tell him.”
Belgarath’s expression, however, clearly showed that Garion’s inadvertent exclamation had already told him that he had just been overruled. “Another visitation, I take it?” he said in a slightly sick tone of voice.
“Yes, Grandfather,” Garion said. “I’m afraid so.”
“She goes along then?”
Garion nodded.
“I love to watch his expression when he loses one of these arguments,” the dry voice said smugly.
Polgara began to laugh.
“What’s so funny, Pol?” Belgarath demanded.
“Nothing, father,” she replied innocently.
He suddenly threw his hands into the air. “Go ahead,” he said in exasperation. “Invite all of Tol Honeth to come along. I don’t care.”
“Oh, father,” Polgara said to him, “stop trying to be such a curmudgeon.”
“Curmudgeon? Pol, you watch your tongue.”
“That’s really very difficult, father, and it makes one look ridiculous. Now, I think we should make a few plans. While the rest of us are changing clothes and packing, why don’t you and Garion go explain to Varana that we’re going to have to leave. Think up some suitable excuse. I don’t know that we necessarily want him to know about Silk’s nocturnal activities.” She looked at the ceiling thoughtfully. “Durnik and Eriond and Toth will see to the horses, of course,” she mused, “and I have a rather special little job for you, Prince Kheldar.”
“Oh?”
“Go wash—thoroughly.”
“I suppose I should have my clothes laundered as well,” he noted, looking down at his garbage-saturated doublet and hose.
“No, Silk. Not laundered—burned.”
“We can’t leave tonight, Lady Polgara,” Ce’Nedra said. “All the gates of the city are locked, and the legionnaires won’t open them for anybody—except on the Emperor’s direct orders.”
“I can get us out of the city,” Velvet said confidently.
“How are you going to manage that?” Belgarath asked her.
“Trust me.”
“I wish people wouldn’t keep saying that to me.”
“Oh, by the way,” she continued, “I saw an old friend of ours today. A large group of Honeths were riding toward the south gate.” She looked over at Silk. “You really must have frightened them, Kheldar. They had whole battalions of their soldiers drawn up around them to keep you at a distance. Anyway, riding right in the middle of them and looking every inch a Tolnedran gentleman was the Malloreon, Harakan.”
“Well, well,” Silk said. “Isn’t that interesting?”
“Prince Kheldar,” Velvet said pleasantly, “please do go visit the baths—or at the very least, don’t stand quite so close.”
CHAPTER SIX
A chill gray fog had risen from the river to shroud the broad avenues of Tol Honeth. The snow had turned to rain—a cold drizzle that sifted down through the fog, and, although the roofs and courtyards were still mantled in white, the thoroughfares and avenues were clogged with seeping brown slush, crossed and crisscrossed with the tracks of wagons and carriages. It was nearly midnight when Garion and the others quietly left the grounds of the Imperial Compound, and the few bands of holiday revelers they encountered in the streets were much the worse for drink.
Velvet, riding a chestnut mare and wrapped and cowled in a heavy gray cloak, led them down past the marble-fronted houses of the merchant barons of Tol Honeth, through the empty central marketplace and into the poorer quarters of the city lying to the south. As they turned the corner of a side street, an authoritative voice came out of the fog. “Halt!”
Velvet reined in her horse and sat waiting as a squad of helmeted and red-cloaked legionnaires armed with lances marched out of the rainy mist. “State your business, please,” the sergeant in charge of the patrol said brusquely.
“It’s not really business, dear fellow,” Velvet replied brightly. “We’re on our way to an amusement. Count Norain is giving a party at his house. You do know the count, don’t you?”
Some of the suspicion faded from the sergeant’s face. “No, your Ladyship,” he answered. “I’m afraid not.”
“You don’t know Norry?” Velvet exclaimed. “What an extraordinary thing! I thought everyone in Tol Honeth knew him—at least he always says so. Poor Norry’s going to be absolutely crushed. I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you and your men come along with us so that you can meet him? You’ll adore it. His parties are always so amusing.” She gave the sergeant a wide-eyed, vapid smile.
“I’m sorry, your Ladyship, but we’re on duty. Are you certain that you’re following the right street, though? You’re entering one of the meaner sections of the city, and I don’t recall any noblemen’s houses hereabouts.”
“It’s a short cut,” Velvet told him. “You see, we go down through here, and then we turn left.” She hesitated, “Or was it right? I forget exactly, but I’m sure one of my friends knows the way.”
“You must be careful in this part of town, your Ladyship. There are footpads and cutpurses about.”
“My goodness!”
“You really ought to be carrying torches.”
“Torches? Great Nedra, no! The smell of the smoke from a torch lingers in my hair for weeks. Are you sure you can’t join us? Norry’s parties are so delightful.”
“Give the count our regrets, your Ladyship,”
“Come along, then,” Velvet said to the others. “We really must hurry. We’re terribly late as it is. Good-bye, Captain.”