“Then you should have died, Sariss,” the serpent whispered. “You know that I do not like to be disturbed.”
“The queen is displeased,” half of the kneeling eunuchs murmured.
“Ah,” the other half responded with a certain spiteful satisfaction.
Salmissra swung her swaying head slightly to fix her eyes on Issus. “I seem to know you,” she said.
The one-eyed man bowed. “Issus, your Majesty,” he replied. “The assassin.”
“I do not wish to be disturbed just now,” the Serpent Queen told him in her emotionless whisper. “If that means that you’re going to kill Sariss, please take him out into the corridor to do it.”
“We will not disturb you for long, Salmissra,” Polgara said, pushing back the hood of her cloak.
The snake’s head turned slowly, her forked tongue tasting the air. “Ah, Polgara,” she hissed without any evident surprise. “It has been some time since your last visit.”
“Several years,” Polgara agreed.
“I no longer take note of the years.” Salmissra’s dead gaze turned to Garion. “And Belgarion,” she said. “I see that you’re not a boy any more.”
“No,” he replied, fighting down an involuntary shudder.
“Come closer,” she whispered. “Once you thought that I was beautiful and yearned for my kiss. Would you like to kiss me now?”
Garion felt a strange compulsion to obey and found that he could not take his eyes from those of the Serpent Queen. Not even aware that he did it, he took a hesitant step toward the dais.
“The fortunate one approaches the throne,” the eunuchs murmured.
“Garion!” Polgara said sharply.
“I will not hurt him, Polgara. I never intended to hurt him.”
“I have a few questions for you, Salmissra,” Polgara said coldly. “Once you answer them, we’ll leave you to your entertainments.”
“What manner of questions, Polgara? What could I possibly know that your sorcery could not ferret out?”
“You recently met a Malloreon named Naradas,” Polgara said. “A man with colorless eyes.”
“Is that his name? Sariss never told me.”
“You made an arrangement with him.”
“Did I?”
“At his request, you sent diplomats to Sendaria. Among them was a foreigner named Zandramas. Your diplomats were instructed to give the foreigner every possible assistance in getting to Halberg on the west coast of Cherek. You also ordered a ship to the Isle of the Winds to bring Zandramas back to Nyissa.”
“I gave no such orders, Polgara. I have no interest in the affairs of Zandramas.”
“The name is familiar to you?”
“Of course. I told you once that the priests of Angarak and the sorcerers of Aloria are not the only ones who can find a truth that lies hidden. I know of your desperate pursuit of the one who took Belgarion’s son from the Citadel at Riva.”
“But you say that you were in no way involved in the arrangements?”
“The one you call Naradas came to me with gifts,” Salmissra whispered, “but said nothing more than that he wished my permission to trade here in Nyissa.”
“Then how do you explain this?” Aunt Pol took the parchment sheet Sadi had given her from under her cloak.
Salmissra flicked her tongue at one of the kneeling eunuchs. “Bring it to me,” she ordered.
The eunuch leaped to his feet, took the parchment from Aunt Pol, and then knelt on the edge of the dais, holding the sheet open and extended toward his queen.
“This is not the order I gave,” Salmissra said flatly after the briefest of glances. “I ordered the diplomats to Sendaria—nothing more. Your copy is not accurate, Polgara.”
“Would the original be about anywhere?” Garion asked her.
“Sariss should have it.”
^ Garion looked at the fat eunuch groveling on the floor. “Where is it?” he demanded.
Sariss stared at him, then his gaze went in terror to the enthroned serpent.
Garion considered several alternatives but discarded most of them in favor of simplicity. “Make him talk, Issus,” he said shortly.
The one-eyed man stepped over, straddled the trembling eunuch, and grasped his chin firmly from behind. Then he pulled up sharply until Sariss was arched backward. The saw-edged dagger made a steely grating sound as it came out of its sheath.
“Wait!” Sariss begged in a choked voice. “It—it’s in the drawer at the bottom of my wardrobe in my room.”
“Your methods are direct, assassin,” the queen observed.
“I’m a simple man, your Majesty,” Issus replied. “I do not have the temperament for subtlety nor intricacy. I’ve found that directness saves time in the long run.” He released the terrified Sariss and pushed his UIgo dagger back into his sheath. He looked at Garion. “Do you want me to go get the parchment?” he asked.
“I think we’re going to need it.”
“All right.” Issus turned and left the room.
“An interesting man,” Salmissra noted. She bent and caressingly touched her mottled coils with her blunt nose. “My life is much changed since you were last here, Polgara,” she whispered in her dusty voice. “I am no longer driven by those hungers I had before, but pass my days instead in restless doze. I lull myself into slumber with the sweet sound of my own scales caressing each other. As I sleep, I dream. I dream of mossy caves in deep, cool forests, and I dream of the days when I was still a woman. But sometimes in my dreams, I am a bodiless spirit, seeking out the truths that others would hide. I know of the fear which lies in your heart, Polgara, and the desperate need that drives Zandramas. I even know of the terrible task which lies upon Cyradis.”
“But you still say that you are not involved in this matter?”
“I have no interest in it. You and Zandramas can pursue each other across all the kingdoms of the world, but I am incurious as to the outcome.”
Aunt Pol’s eyes narrowed as she looked at her.
“I have no reason to He to you, Polgara,” Salmissra said, sensing the suspicion in that look. “What could Zandramas possibly offer me that would buy my aid? All of my needs are satisfied, and I no longer have desires.” Her blunt head came up and her tongue flickered. “I rejoice, however, that your quest has brought you again into my presence so that I may gaze once more upon the perfection of your face.”
Polgara’s chin lifted. “Look quickly then, Salmissra. I have little patience for the involuted amusements of a snake.”
“The centuries have made you waspish, Polgara. Let us be civil to one another. Would you like to have me tell you what I know of Zandramas? She is no longer what she once was.”
“She!” Garion exclaimed.
“You did not even know that?” the serpent hissed maliciously. “Your sorcery is a sham, then, Polgara. Could you not sense your enemy is a woman? And did you perhaps not even realize that you have already met her?”
“What are you talking about, Salmissra?”
“Poor, dear Polgara. The long, long centuries have filled your wits with cobwebs. Did you really think that you and Belgarath are the only ones in the world who can change their shapes? The dragon who visited you in the mountains above Arendia appears quite different when she resumes her natural form.”
The door to the throne room opened and Issus came back in, holding a parchment sheet with a red wax seal on the bottom of it.
“Bring it to me,” Salmissra commanded.
Issus looked at her, his single eye narrowing as he gauged the distance between the serpent’s throne and his own unprotected skin. Then he went over to the prostrate eunuch who had presented Polgara’s document to the queen. Without changing expression, he kicked the man solidly in the ribs. “Here,” he said, thrusting out the parchment. “Take this to her Majesty.”
“Are you afraid of me, Issus?” Salmissra asked, sounding faintly amused.
“I am unworthy to approach you too closely, my Queen.”
Salmissra bent her head to examine the parchment the trembling eunuch held out for her to read. “There appears to be some discrepancy,” she hissed. “This document is the same as the one you showed me, Polgara, but it is not the document to which I ordered my seal affixed. How is this possible?”
“May I speak, my Queen?” the eunuch who held the parchment asked in a quavering voice.
“Of course, Adiss,” she replied almost pleasantly, “so long as you realize that if your words displease me, the kiss I will give you in payment will bring you death.” Her forked tongue flickered out toward him.
The eunuch’s face went a ghastly gray color, and his trembling became so violent that he very nearly collapsed.
“Speak, Adiss,” she whispered. “It is my command that you disclose your mind to me. We will determine then whether you live or die. Speak. Now.”
“My Queen,” he quavered, “the Chief Eunuch is the only %. person in the palace permitted to touch your Majesty’s royal seal. If the document in question is false, must we not look to him for an explanation?”