‘Evidently, Angarak society’s not as monolithic as it seems,’ he
mused.
‘Monolithic?’ Beldin snorted. ‘Far from it, general. If Torak didn’t
have his fist wrapped firmly around the heart of every one of his
WOrshipers, they’d all be gleefully butchering each other – which is
more or less what’s happening in southern Cthol Murgos right now.,
‘Maybe if we’re lucky both sides will win,’ Cho-Ram suggested.
‘In the light of this Murgo distaste for Malloreans, how long would
YOU say that it’s going to take Urvon to march his army across
southern Cthol Murgos, Master Beldin?’ Cerran asked.
‘Half a year at least,’ Beldin said with a shrug. ‘I think we can
count on the Murgos to make the march interesting.’
‘That answers one question anyway.’
‘I didn’t follow that, general.’
‘Your friend here – and his lovely daughter of course – have told
us that this fellow who calls himself “Kal Torak” feels a powerful
religious obligation to be in Arendia on a certain specific date.’
‘It’s a little more complicated than that, but let that slide – unless
you’d like to hear an extended theological dissertation on the
peculiarities of the Angarak religion.’
‘Ah – no thanks, Master Beldin,’ Cerran replied with a faint smile.
‘We don’t know exactly what that date is, but we can make a pretty
good guess.’
‘Oh?’
‘Kal Torak’s going to want Urvon in place near the southern
border of Nyissa when that date gets closer. He’ll want to give
himself plenty of time because a two-pronged attack doesn’t work
very well if one of the prongs isn’t in place yet. That means that
Urvon’s going to have to get an early start. Let’s ignore that, though,
and use your six-month figure. The battle’s going to begin when
Urvon marches out of Rak Hagga. We’ll want to start moving into
place then. We’ll get confirmation when Torak abandons the siege
of the Stronghold to come west. That’ll be forty-five days before the
fighting starts. As you suggested, there are bound to be delays, but
let’s use Kal Torak’s calendar just to be on the safe side. We’ll move
when Urvon moves. We might get there early, but it’s better to be
early than late.’
“Tis a wonderful clever fellow th’ man is, don’t y’ know,’ Beldin
said to my father.
‘Will you stop that?’ father said irritably. Then he dipped his head
slightly to General Cerran. ‘You’re a very useful man to have around,
General. Most of my military experience has been with Alorns, and
they tend to make things up as they go along. Careful planning
seems to bore them for some reason.’
‘Belgarath!’ the grey-bearded King Eldrig objected.
‘It’s just a difference in approach, your Majesty,’ General Cerran
smoothed things over. ‘Experience has taught me that things go
wrong during military operations, and I try to take those things into
account. My estimates are very conservative, but even if Urvon and
Kal Torak don’t exactly follow my timetable, we’ll still have our
defenses in place in plenty of time. I hate being late for social
engagements
, don’t you?’
‘You look upon war as a social engagement, General?’ father
asked, sounding a bit startled.
‘I’m a soldier, Belgarath. A good war’s the closest thing a soldier
has to a social life.’
,He’s going to take some getting used to, isn’t he?’ Beldin
chuckled. ‘He’s got a good mind, though.’
You’re too kind,. Master Beldin,’ the general murmured.
our strategy sessions progressed in a much more orderly fashion
than they had at Riva. Cerran was a methodical man who ticked
off such things as ‘when’, ‘where’, and ‘how’ on his fingers. We’
already decided that when’ would be determined by some fairly
visible activity on the part of the two Angarak forces. Then we
moved on to ‘where’. The Mrin told us that the final battle would
take place in Arendia, and our convenient fiction that our knowledge
of that had come from Drasnian Intelligence had been accepted by
the Tolnedrans as a verified fact. Arendia’s a big place, though, an
it wasn’t until the sixth year of the siege of the Stronghold that the
twins wrested the exact location out of the Mrin. After that, we knew
that the battle would take place at Vo Mimbre. All we had to do
then was convince the Tolnedrans that we knew what we were
talking about.
After one of our sessions, I motioned to Brand, and the two of
us took a stroll around the rain-drenched grounds of the imperial
compound.
‘You wanted to speak with me, Pol?’ Brand asked me.
We’re going to have to lead General Cerran rather gently, Brand,’
I replied. ‘I think you’re best qualified to do that. Cerran knows that
the Alorn kings all defer to you, even though he doesn’t know
exactly why.’
‘My overpowering presence, perhaps?’ he suggested.
‘The outcome of a dice-game might be more in keeping with the
basic Alorn character, Brand,’ I twitted him.
‘Polgara!’ he protested mildly.
‘Whatever the reason, Cerran looks upon you as the leader of the
Alorns ‘ so he’s going to listen to you rather carefully. Cerran likes
to reason things out, so we’re going to have to stress the
disadvantages of all other possible battlefields and then let him decide that
VO Mimbre’s the only possible place. If we don’t, he’ll feel obliged
to have us spread our forces all over southern Arendia.’
‘That’d be disastrous,’ Brand exclaimed.
‘Moderately disastrous, yes. Now, then, I spent a great deal of
time in Arendia during the third millennium, so I’m familiar with
all the cities. You’re about to get an education in geography, dear
boy. I want you to be very familiar with the terrain around every
City in Vo Mimbre. There are tactical disadvantages to almost any city
on earth, and Mimbrate cities are no exception. Your job’s to stress
the disadvantages of every town and city – except Vo Mimbre. It
has its own disadvantages, but we’ll gloss over those. We don’t
want General Cerran to choose any battleground except VO Mimbre,
so we’ll just close all the other doors to him so that he’s only got
that one choice.’
‘You’re very good at this, Pol,’ he said admiringly.
‘I’ve had lots of practice. Wars are the national pastime among
the Arends. A healthy sneeze can start a war in Arendia. I spent six
hundred or more years trying to keep the Arends from sneezing at
the wrong time. I’ll talk with Eldrig and the others, and they’ll back
you up in your assessments of the various towns and cities.’
‘This would all be a lot easier if the Tolnedrans would just accept
the fact that you and your father aren’t like other people.’
‘That goes against their religion, dear one,’ I said with a slight
smile.
‘What is the basis of the Tolnedran religion, Pol?’
‘Money. The Tolnedrans invented it, so they think it’s holy.
They’re afraid of magic because a magician could conceivably create
money instead of swindling it out of others.’
‘Could you create money, Pol?’ His eyes had come alight at the
mere mention of the idea.
I shrugged. ‘Probably, but why should I bother? I’ve already got
more than I can spend. We’re getting off the path here. This Tolnedran
superstition’s inconvenient, I’ll grant you, but we can work our
way around it.’
After General Cerran had reached the conclusion we wanted him
to reach, my father’s disposition started to go sour for some reason.
I put up with his bad temper for about a week, and then I went to
his room in the Cherek embassy to find out what his problem was.
‘This is the problem. Pol!’ he exploded, banging), his fist down On
the scroll of the Mrin. ‘It doesn’t make sense!’
‘It’s not supposed to, father. It’s supposed to sound like pure gibberish.
Tell me about your problem. Maybe I can help.’
Father’s discontent with the passage in the Mrin lay in the seeming
suggestion that Brand was going to be in two places at the same
time. His tone was decidedly grouchy as he read it to me. “And the
Child of Light shall take the jewel from its accustomed place and
shall cause it to be delivered up to the Child of Light before the
gates of the golden city.” His frustration seemed right on the verge
of driving him to destroy the scroll.
‘Calm down, father,’ I told him. ‘Apoplexy’s not going to solve
anything.’ I saw the answer immediately, of course, but how
was I
going to explain it? ‘How long would you say that one these
EVENTS takes to run its course?’ I asked.
‘As long as it takes, I suppose.’.
Centuries? Oh, come now, father. As powerful as those two
contending Necessities are, a confrontation like that would destroy the
whole universe. A single instant’s probably closer to the truth. Then,
after the EVENT’s taken place, that particular Child of Light doesn’t
really have any further need of the title, does he? He’s done what