That gave us something else to do when we grew tired of cleaning
house. Geran had a quick mind, and he was reading in a surprisingly
short length of time.
We settled into a kind of routine, cleaning in the morning and
lessons in the afternoons. It was a fairly comfortable way to live,
and we were both quite content.
The twins kept me advised of the progress of father’s punitive
expedition into Nyissa, and I passed the news on to Geran. He
seemed to take a certain amount of satisfaction in his grandfather’s
rampant destruction of the land of the Snake People.
Spring came, and my youthful charge and I took up gardening
as a hobby. I suppose I could have continued to buy food from
neighboring farms, but I didn’t really like to leave Geran alone, and
if my face became too familiar in the area, a chance word dropped
in some local tavern might alert a passing Murgo.
I think it was early summer when father and uncle Beldin came
by to pay us a call. I still remember Geran coming down the stairs
with a sword in his hand. He was very young, but he knew that it
was a man’s duty to protect his women-folk. I didn’t really need
protection, but his little gesture touched me all the same. He greeted
MY father enthusiastically and immediately asked if the Old Wolf
had kept his promise to kill the Serpent Queen.
‘She was dead the last time I looked,’ father replied. He was a
little evasive about it, I thought.
‘Did you hit her for me the way I asked you to?’ Geran pressed.
‘That he did, Laddy buck,’ uncle Beldin said. ‘That he did.’
Uncle Beldin’s distorted appearance seemed to make Geran just
a little apprehensive, so I introduced them.
‘You aren’t very tall, are you?’ Geran blurted.
‘It has its advantages sometimes, Laddy Buck,’ uncle Beldin
replied. ‘I’m almost never after hittin’ me head on a low-hangin’
branch, don’t y’ know.’
‘I like him, Aunt Pol,’ Geran said, laughing.
Then father went into some of the details of the little get-together
he’d planned. He pointed out the fact that the assassination of Gorek
had been a major EVENT and that we’d probably better all gather
in the Vale to consider our various options. He advised us that he’d
go on to the Isle of the Winds to fetch Brand while uncle Beldin
escorted Geran and me to the Vale.
Before we’d even finished crossing the Sendarian mountains,
Geran and uncle Beldin were fast friends. I’ve never completely
understood why old men and little boys always seem to
automatically take to each other, and I’m always a little offended when the
white-haired member of that little group shrugs it off by saying,
‘It’s a man sort of thing, Pol. You wouldn’t understand.’ They can
talk about ‘man things’ until they’re blue in the face, but my own
suspicions strongly lean in the direction of approaching senility and
its accompanying reversion to childhood. if not outright infantilism,
0on the part of one of them. It was that journey that persuaded me
that no Woman in her right mind should ever allow an old man and
a little boy anywhere within five miles of any patch of water. Their
hands will automatically sprout fishing poles, and nothing at all
will get done for the rest of the day.
When the three of us finally reached the Vale, Geran met the
twins, and they fussed over him as much as uncle Beldin had. I
began to feel definitely left out.
They did let me do the cooking, though and the cleaning up
afterward. Wasn’t that nice of them?
Father and Brand arrived after a few weeks, and we all got down
to business. Geran sat quietly on a chair in a corner while we
discussed the state of the world and what we were going to do about
it.
Evidently my little charge had been greatly impressed with that
tired old saw, ‘children should be seen and not heard’. It kept him
from asking a lot of questions, though.
Uncle Beltira advised us that according to the calendar of the
Dals, the Third Age had ended. All of the prophecies were now in
place, and now that we had our instructions, all we had to do was
carry them out.
Then uncle Beldin told us that an Angarak general named Kallath
was busy unifying all of Mallorea and bringing it under Torak’s
domination.
Prince Geran did bend the rules ‘once during that discussion.
‘Excuse me,’ he said. ‘What’s supposed to happen in Arendia? Isn’t
that the place that scroll you’ve got was talking about when it said
something about “the lands of the Bull-God”?’
. ‘Very good, Geran,’ father complimented the boy’s perceptiveness
in identifying the reference contained in the obscure language of
the Mrin.
‘There’s going to be an EVENT, your Highness,’ uncle Beltira told
him
,what kind of event?’Geran hadn’t quite caught on to the peculiar
emphasis my family gave that word.
‘The prophecy we call the Mrin Codex uses the term when it’s
talking about a meeting between the Child of Light and ‘the Child
Of Dark,’ Belkira explained.
‘Who are they?’
‘Nobody, specifically,’ Beldin said. ‘They’re sort of like titles. They
get passed around quite a bit. Anyway, everything’s moving in the
direction of one of those EVENTS. If we’re reading these things
right, the Child of Light and the Child of Dark are going to meet
in Arendia some time in the future, and the meeting’s probably not
going to be a friendly one. I don’t think they’ll be talking about the
weather.’
‘A battle?’ Geran asked enthusiastically. He was fairly young after
all.
I was in the kitchen area fixing supper. ‘The arrival of this Kallath
right at this particular time isn’t a coincidence, is it?’ I suggested.
‘Probably not, Pol,’ father agreed.
‘Excuse me again,’ Geran said. ‘If Torak’s got prophecies of his
own, then he knows that something important’s going to happen
in Arendia the same as we do, doesn’t he?’
‘I’m sure he does,’ Beldin replied.
‘Do you know what I think?’ the boy said, his brow knitted in
concentration. ‘I don’t think that what happened to my family really had
anything to do with somebody trying to steal the Orb. I think that
Torak was just trying to keep us so busy that we wouldn’t pay any
attention to what this Kallath person was doing in Mallorea. If the
Nyissans hadn’t murdered my family when they did, one of you
would have gone to Mallorea to keep Kallath from taking over the
whole place. But you all got so busy punishing the Nyissans that you
didn’t pay any attention to what was going on in Mallorea.’ He
stopped, suddenly aware of the fact that we were all paying very close
attention to what he was saying. ‘Well,’ he added apologetically,
‘that’s what I think anyway, and this Zedar person you all know was
probably the best one to fool you, since he knows you all so well.’
‘What have you done to this boy, Pol?’ Beldin growled at me. ‘He
isn’t supposed to be thinking this clearly yet.’
‘I taught him to read, uncle,’ I replied. ‘He took it from there.’
‘What a waste!’ the dwarf muttered.
‘I don’t think I followed that, uncle.’
‘The boy and I could have been arguing philosophy instead of
molesting fish while we came across the mountains.’
‘You absolutely have to tamper with things, don’t you, Pol?’ father
said accusingly.
‘Tamper? It’s called “education”, father. Didn’t you tamper with
me? I seem to remember a long string of “whys” coming from Your
mouth a few years back.’
,You always have to make those clever remarks, don’t you, Pol?’
he said with a certain distaste.
,It’s good for you, father,’ I replied lightly. ‘It keeps you on your
toes, and that helps you to ward off senility – for a little while,
anyway.’
,What did you mean by that, Aunt Pol?’ Geran asked me.
,It’s a game they play, Geran,’ Beltira explained. ‘It embarrasses
them to admit that they actually like each other, so they play this
game instead. It’s their way of saying that they don’t really hate
each other.’
The twins have such sweet faces that I think we tend to forget
just how wise they are. Beltira had seen right to the center of our
silly game, and his explanation embarrassed both my father and
me.
Fortunately, Brand stepped in to cover our confusion. ‘It would
seem that my prince is very gifted,’ the Rivan Warder mused. ‘We’ll
have to protect that mind.’
‘That’s my job, Brand,’ I told him.
‘Polgara,’ mother’s voice came to me at that point, ‘listen very
carefully. The Master has a question to ask you.’
Then we all sensed the Master’s presence. We couldn’t see him,
but we knew that he was there. ‘Dost thou accept this responsibility