“Thank you,” Garion said gratefully. Then he squared his shoulders. “And what is my task?” he asked.
“Thy task hath already been revealed to thee by the Seeress of Kell, Belgarion. Thou must bar the path of Zandramas to the Sardion; for should the Child of Dark reach that dread stone with thy son, the Dark shall prevail in this final meeting.”
Garion steeled himself and then blurted his next question, afraid of what the answer might be. “In the Oracles of Ash-aba it says that the Dark God will come again,” he said. “Does that mean that Torak will be reborn and that I’m going to have to fight him again?”
“Nay, Belgarion. My son himself will not return. Thy flaming sword reft him of his life, and he is no more. The enemy in this meeting will be more perilous. The spirit which infused Torak hath found another vessel. Torak was maimed and imperfect by reason of his pride. The one who shall rise in his stead—shouldst thou fail in thy task—will be invincible; and not thy sword nor all the swords in all this world will be enough to withstand him.”
“Then it’s Zandramas that I have to fight,” Garion said grimly. “I’ve got reason enough, that’s certain.”
“The meeting between the Child of Light and the Child of Dark shall not be a meeting between thee and Zandramas,” UL told him.
“But the Codex says that Zandramas is the Child of Dark,” Garion protested.
“At this present time, yes—even as at this present time thou art the Child of Light. That burden, however, shall pass from each of you ere the final meeting can take place. Know this, moreover. The event which began with the birth of thy son must be completed in a certain time. The tasks which lie before thee and thy companions are many, and all must be completed ere the time appointed for this meeting. Shouldst thou or any of thy companions fail in the completion of any task, then shall all our striving for uncounted ages come to naught. This final meeting between the Child of Light and the Child of Dark must be complete, and all of the necessary conditions must be met, for it is in this meeting that all that was divided shall be made one again. The fate of this world—and of all other worlds—lies in thy hands, Belgarion, and the outcome will not depend upon thy sword but upon a choice which thou must make.”
The Father of the Gods looked at the two of them fondly. “Be not afraid, my sons,” he told them, “for though you are different in many ways, you share the same spirit. Aid and sustain each other and be comforted in the knowledge that I am with you.” Then the glowing figure shimmered and was gone, and the caves of Ulgo resounded with an echo like the aftersound of some unimaginably huge bell.
CHAPTER TWO
A kind of unthinking serenity had come over Garion, a calm resolve much akin to that which he had felt when he had faced Torak in the decaying ruins of the City of Endless Night half a world away. As he thought back on that dreadful night, he began to grope his way toward a startling truth. The maimed God had not been striving for a purely physical victory. He had been trying with all the dreadful force of his will to force them to submit to him, and it had been their steadfast refusal to yield, more than Garion’s flaming sword, which had defeated him in the end. Slowly, almost like the onset of dawn, the truth came to Garion. Although evil might seem invincible as it stalked the world in darkness, it nonetheless yearned toward the light, and only in the surrender of the light could the darkness prevail. So long as the Child of Light remained firm and unyielding, he was still invincible. As he stood in the dark cave listening to the shimmering aftersound of UL’s departure, Garion seemed to see directly into the mind of his enemy. Beneath it all, Torak had been afraid, and even now that same fear gnawed at the heart of Zandramas.
And then Garion perceived yet another truth, a truth at once enormously simple and at the same time so profound that the scope of it shook every fiber of his being. There was no such thing as darkness! What seemed so vast and overwhelming was nothing more than the absence of light. So long as the Child of Light kept that firmly in mind, the Child of Dark could never win. Torak had known this; Zandramas knew it; and now at last Garion himself understood it, and the knowledge brought with it a surging exultation.
“It gets easier once you understand, doesn’t it?” the young man they had always called Errand asked quietly.
“You knew what I was thinking, didn’t you?”
“Yes. Does that bother you?”
“No. I suppose not.” Garion looked around. The gallery in which they stood suddenly seemed very dark now that UL was gone. Garion knew the way back, but the idea which he had just grasped seemed to require some kind of affirmation. He turned his head and spoke directly to the Orb riding on the pommel of his great sword. “Could you give us a bit of light?” he asked it.
The Orb responded by igniting into blue fire and at the same time filling Garion’s mind with its crystal song. Garion looked at Eriond. “Shall we go back now? Aunt Pol was sort of worried when she couldn’t find you.”
As they turned and followed the deserted gallery back along the way they had come, Garion laid his arm affectionately across his young friend’s shoulders. For some reason they seemed very close just now.
They emerged from the gallery at the brink of the dim abyss where pale lights dotted the sheer walls and the murmur of a waterfall far below came whispering up to them.
Garion suddenly remembered something that had happened the day before. “What is it about you and water that concerns Aunt Pol so much?” he asked curiously.
Eriond laughed. “Oh, that. When I was little—just after we moved into Poledra’s cottage in the Vale—I used to fall into the river fairly often.”
Garion grinned. “That seems like a perfectly natural thing to me.”
“It hasn’t happened for a long time now, but I think that Polgara feels that maybe I’m saving it up for a special occasion of some sort.”
Garion laughed, and they entered the cubicle-lined corridor that led toward the Gorim’s cavern. The Ulgos who lived and worked there threw startled glances in their direction as they passed.
“Uh—Belgarion,” Eriond said, “the Orb is still glowing.”
“Oh,” Garion replied, “I’d forgotten about that.” He looked back over his shoulder at the cheerfully burning stone. “It’s all right now,” he told it. “You can stop.” The Orb’s final flicker seemed faintly disappointed. The others were gathered at breakfast in the central room of the Gorim’s house. Polgara looked up as the two of them entered. “Where have you—” she began, then stopped as she looked into Eriond’s eyes more closely. “Something’s happened, hasn’t it?” she asked instead.
Eriond nodded. “Yes,” he replied. “UL wanted to talk with us. There were some things we needed to know.”
Belgarath pushed aside his plate, his face becoming intent. “I think you’d better tell us about this,” he said to them. “Take your time and don’t skip over anything.”
Garion crossed to the table and sat down beside Ce’Nedra. He described the meeting with the Father of the Gods carefully, trying as best he could to repeat UL’s exact words. “And then he said that Eriond and I shared the same spirit and that we were supposed to aid and sustain each other,” he concluded.
“Was that all he said?” Belgarath asked. “Pretty much, yes.”
“Except that he told us he was with us,” Eriond added. “He didn’t say anything more specific about this certain time when everything has to be completed?” the old man demanded with a slightly worried expression.
Garion shook his head. “No. I’m sorry, Grandfather. I’m afraid not.”
Belgarath’s expression suddenly became exasperated. “I hate working to a schedule I haven’t seen,” he muttered. “I can’t tell if I’m ahead or behind.” Ce’Nedra had been clinging to Garion, her face filled with both concern and relief. “Are you really sure he said that our baby is all right?” she demanded.
“He said that he is well,” Eriond assured her. “He told us that the one who holds him will see to his needs and that for the moment he’s in no danger.”
“For the moment?” Ce’Nedra exclaimed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“He didn’t get any more specific, Ce’Nedra,” Garion said.
“Why didn’t you ask UL where he is?”
“Because I’m sure he wouldn’t have told me. Finding Geran and Zandramas is my job, and I don’t think they’re going to let me evade it by getting somebody else to do it for me.”