‘F ther is seven thousand years old, Ce’Nedra. In that long a time
e bound to be periods when nothing was happening.’
n’t go into anything that happened to you, though. He
very much about those years you spent at Vo Wacune
ou did in Car og Nadrak or any of those other places. I
,twant to know what you did.’
,,It ‘What on earth for?’
‘I want the whole story, Aunt Pol. He left so much out.’
ou re as bad as Garion was. He always used to badger my father
,.Afor more details every time the Old Wolf told him a story.’ Polgara
roke off abruptly. ‘Away from the fireplace!’ she said sharply to
t e twins.
They giggled, but they did as they were told. Ce’Nedra gatl.-iered
that it was a game of sorts. ‘Anyway,’ she picked up the thread of
her thought, ‘Belgarath sent some letters when he had those last
few chapters delivered to Riva. The letter he sent to me is what
gave me the idea of coming here to talk with you. First he accused
us all of getting together and bullying him into writing the history.
He said that he knew there were gaps in the story, but he suggested
that you could fill them in.’
‘How typical,’ Polgara murmured. ‘My father’s an expert at starting
things and then tricking others into finishing them for him. Well,
this time he’s out of luck. Forget it, Ce’Nedra. I don’t pretend to be
a storyteller, and I’ve got better things to do with my time.’
‘But – I
‘No buts, dear. Now, go call Garion and Durnik in for supper.’
Ce’Nedra was shrewd enough not to raise the issue again, but a
way around Polgara’s refusal had already begun to form in her
devious little mind.
‘Garion, dear,’ she said when she and her husband were in bed
later that night in the warm and comfortable darkness.
‘Yes, Ce’Nedra?’
‘You can reach out and talk to your grandfather, can’t you?’
‘I suppose so. Why?’
‘Wouldn’t you like to see him – and your grandmother? I mean,
we’re this close anyway, and it’s not really very far from Belgarath’s
tower to the cottage here, and they’d be terribly disappointed if we
let this opportunity for a visit slip by, wouldn’t they?’
‘What are you up to, Ce’Nedra?’
‘Why must I always be “up to” something?’
‘You usually are.’
‘That’s not very nice, Garion. Isn’t it just possible that all I want
is a family reunion?’
‘I’m sorry. Maybe I misjudged you.’
‘Well – actually, your Aunt Pol’s being a little stubborn about
this. I’m going to need some help convincing her to write her story.’
‘Grandfather won’t help you. He already told you that in his
letter.’
‘I’m not talking about help from him. I want to talk to Poledra.
Aunt Pol will listen to her mother. Please, Garion.’ She said it in
her most winsome and appealing tone.
‘All right. I’ll talk it over with Durnik and see what he thinks.’
‘Why don’t you let me talk with Durnik? I’m sure I can persuade
him that it’s a good idea.’ She nuzzled at her husband’s neck
affectionately. ‘I’m nice and warm now, Garion,’ she said invitingly.
‘Yes, I noticed that.’
‘Are you really very sleepy?’
‘Not that sleepy, dear,’ and he turned to embrace her.
This wouldn’t be terribly difficult, Ce’Nedra decided. She was an
expert at getting her own way, and she was confident that she could
get Garion and Durnik to agree with her plan. Poledra, on the other
hand, might take a little more work.
Garion, as he usually did, slipped quietly out of bed before it was
even light. The Rivan King had grown up on a farm, and farmers
habitually rise early. Ce’Nedra decided that it might not be a bad
idea to keep track of him for the next couple of days. A chance
conversation between her husband and Durnik might disrupt her
plan – Ce’Nedra deliberately avoided the word ‘scheme’. So she
touched the fingertips of her right hand to Beldaran’s amulet and
searched with her mind for Garion.
‘Oh, hush.’ It was Durnik’s voice, and it was peculiarly gentle.
‘It’s only me. Go back to sleep. I’ll feed you
later.’There was a muttering, some soft, grumbling sounds – birds of
some kind, Ce’Nedra judged. Then they clucked a bit and settled
back down again.
‘Do you always talk to them that way?’ It was Garion’s voice.
‘It keeps them from getting excited and flying off in the dark and
hurting themselves,’ Durnik replied. ‘They insist on roosting in that
tree right here in the dooryard, and I have to pass that tree every
morning. They know me now, so I can usually persuade them to
settle down again. Birds pick these things up fairly quickly. The
deer take a little longer, and the rabbits are timid and very flighty.’
‘You feed them all, don’t you, Durnik?’
‘They live here, too, Garion, and this farm produces more food
than Pol and I and the babies can possibly eat. Besides, that’s one
of the reasons we’re here, isn’t it? The birds and the deer and the
rabbits can look out for themselves in the summer, but winter’s a
lean time, so I help them out a bit.’
He was such a good man! Ce’Nedra’s eyes almost filled with tears.
Polgara was the pre-eminent woman in all the world, and she could
have chosen any king or emperor for a husband and lived in a
palace. She’d chosen a simple country blacksmith instead and lived
on this remote farmstead. Now Ce’Nedra knew why.
As it turned out, Durnik was fairly easy to manipulate. Ce’Nedra’s
suggestion of ‘a little family re-union, since we’re all here anyway’,
brought him over to her side almost immediately. Durnik was too
innocent to suspect ulterior motives in others. It was so easy that
Ce’Nedra was almost ashamed of herself.
Garion was not nearly so innocent. He had lived with his wilful
little Dryad wife for quite a while now, after all. With both Dumik
and Ce’Nedra urging the reunion, though, he didn’t really have any
choice. He did cast a few suspicious looks in Ce’Nedra’s direction
before he sent his thought out to his grandfather, however.
Belgarath and Poledra arrived a day or so later, and the old man’s
expression when he greeted the Rivan Queen clearly indicated that
he knew that she was ‘up to something’. That didn’t really concern
Ce’Nedra very much, though. What she was ‘up to’ didn’t involve
Belgarath. She concentrated on Poledra instead.
It was several days before Ce’Nedra had the chance to get her
husband’s grandmother off to one side for some serious talk, family
reunions being what they are and all. Polgara’s twins, of course,
were the center of everyone’s attention. The twins enjoyed that, and
Ce’Nedra was patient. The right moment would come, she was sure
of that, so she simply enjoyed the closeness of the peculiar family
into which she had married and bided her time.
There was a strange quality about the tawny-haired Poledra that
made Ce’Nedra a little hesitant about approaching her. Ce’Nedra
had read Belgarath’s story several times, and she was fully aware
of Poledra’s peculiar background. She frequently caught herself
studying Belgarath’s wife, looking for wolfish traits. They were
probably there, but Ce’Nedra was Tolnedran, and wolves are not
so common in Tolnedra that she’d have recognized the traits even
if they’d been more obvious. The thing that disturbed Ce’Nedra the
most was the disconcertingly direct way Poledra had of looking at
people. Cyradis had called Poledra ‘the Woman who Watches’, and
the Seeress of Kell had been right on that score. Poledra’s golden
eyes seemed quite capable of seeing through all of Ce’Nedra’s
defences and concealments into that secret place where the Rivan
Queen stored her motives. The tiny queen really didn’t want
anybody snooping around in there.
Finally she screwed up her courage one morning and approached
Polgara’s golden-eyed mother. Garion, Belgarath, and Durnik were
outside, conducting one of their endless surveys of the farmstead,
and Polgara was bathing the twins. ‘I need to ask a favor of you,
Lady Poledra.’ Ce’Nedra was not certain of the proper form of
address, so she fell back on a somewhat inappropriate usage.
‘I rather suspected you might,’ Poledra replied quite calmly. ‘You
went to a great deal of trouble to arrange this gathering, and you’ve
been watching me for the last several days. I was fairly certain that
you’d eventually get to the point. What’s bothering you, child?’
‘Well – “bother” might not be the exact term,’ Ce’Nedra amended,
averting her eyes slightly. Those penetrating golden eyes made her
nervous. ‘There’s something I need from Polgara, and she’s being
stubborn about it. You know how she can be sometimes.’
‘Yes. It’s a fan-tily trait.’
‘I didn’t say that very well, did I?’ Ce’Nedra apologized. ‘I love
her, of course, but -‘
‘What do you want from her? Don’t run in circles, Ce’Nedra. Get