The next day they rounded the hook of Sendaria and beat northeasterly with a good following wind. The sails were raised, and the oarsmen were able to rest. Garion continued to wrestle with his problem.
On the third day out the weather turned stormy and bitterly cold. The rigging crackled with ice, and sleet hissed into the sea around them. “If this doesn’t break, it will be a rough passage through the Bore,” Barak said, frowning into the sleet.
“The what?” Durnik asked apprehensively. Durnik was not at all comfortable on the ship. He was just recovering from a bout of seasickness, and he was obviously a bit edgy.
“The Cherek Bore,” Barak explained. “It’s a passage about a league wide between the northern tip of Sendaria and the southern end of the Cherek peninsula – riptides, whirlpools, that sort of thing. Don’t be alarmed, Durnik. This is a good ship, and Greldik knows the secret of navigating the Bore. It may be a bit rough, but we’ll be perfectly safe unless we’re unlucky, of course.”
“That’s a cheery thing to say,” Silk observed dryly from nearby. “I’ve been trying for three days not to think about the Bore.”
“Is it really that bad?” Durnik asked in a sinking voice.
“I make a special point of not going through it sober,” Silk told him.
Barak laughed. “You ought to be thankful for the Bore, Silk,” he said. “It keeps the Empire out of the Gulf of Cherek. All Drasnia would be a Tolnedran province if it wasn’t there.”
“I admire it politically,” Silk said, “but personally I’d be much happier if I never had to look at it again.”
On the following day they anchored near the rocky coast of northern Sendaria and waited for the tide to turn. In time it slackened and reversed, and the waters of the Sea of the Winds mounted and plunged through the Bore to raise the level of the Gulf of Cherek.
“Find something solid to hold on to, Garion,” Barak advised as Greldik ordered the anchor raised. “With this following wind, the passage could be interesting.” He strode along the narrow deck, his teeth gleaming in a broad grin.
It was foolish. Garion knew that, even as he stood up and began to follow the red-bearded man toward the prow, but four days of solitary brooding over a problem that refused to yield to any kind of logic made him feel almost belligerently reckless. He set his teeth together and took hold of a rusted iron ring embedded in the prow.
Barak laughed and clapped him a stunning blow on the shoulder. “Good boy,” he said approvingly. “We’ll stand together and look the Bore right down the throat.”
Garion decided not to answer that.
With wind and tide behind her, Greldik’s ship literally flew through the passage, yawing and shuddering as she was seized by the violent riptides. Icy spray stung their faces, and Garion, half blinded by it, did not see the enormous whirlpool in the center of the Bore until they were almost upon it. He seemed to hear a vast roar and cleared his eyes just in time to see it yawning in front of him.
“What’s that?” he yelled over the noise.
“The Great Maelstrom,” Barak shouted. “Hold on.”
The Maelstrom was fully as large as the village of Upper Gralt and descended horribly down into a seething, mist-filled pit unimaginably far below. Incredibly, instead of guiding his vessel away from the vortex, Greldik steered directly at it.
“What’s he doing?” Garion screamed.
“It’s the secret of passing through the Bore,” Barak roared. “We circle the Maelstrom twice to gain more speed. If the ship doesn’t break up, she comes out like a rock from a sling, and we pass through the riptides beyond the Maelstrom before they can slow us down and drag us back.”
“If the ship doesn’t what?”
“Sometimes a ship is torn apart in the Maelstrom,” Barak said. “Don’t worry, boy. It doesn’t happen very often, and Greldik’s ship seems stout enough.”
The ship’s prow dipped hideously into the outer edges of the Maelstrom and then raced twice around the huge whirlpool with the oarsmen frantically bending their backs to the frenzied beat of the drum. The wind tore at Garion’s face, and he clung to his iron ring, keeping his eyes averted from the seething maw gaping below.
And then they broke free and shot like a whistling stone through the churning water beyond the Maelstrom. The wind of their passage howled in the rigging, and Garion felt half suffocated by its force.
Gradually the ship slowed in the swirling eddies, but the speed they had gained from the Maelstrom carried them on to calm water in a partially sheltered cove on the Sendarian side.
Barak was laughing gleefully and mopping spray from his beard. “Well, lad,” he said, “what do you think of the Bore?”
Garion didn’t trust himself to answer and concentrated on trying to pry his numb fingers from the iron ring.
A familiar voice rang out from the stern.
“Garion!”
“Now you’ve gone and got me in trouble,” Garion said resentfully, ignoring the fact that standing in the prow had been his own idea. Aunt Pol spoke scathingly to Barak about his irresponsibility and then turned her attention to Garion.
“Well?” she said. “I’m waiting. Would you like to explain?”
“It wasn’t Barak’s fault,” Garion said. “It was my own idea.” There was no point in their both being in trouble, after all.
“I see,” she said. “And what was behind that?”
The confusion and doubt which had been troubling him made him reckless. “I felt like it,” he said, half defiantly. For the first time in his life he felt on the verge of open rebellion.
“You what?”
“I felt like it,” he repeated. “What difference does it make why I did it? You’re going to punish me anyway.”
Aunt Pol stiffened, and her eyes blazed.
Mister Wolf, who was sitting nearby, chuckled.
“What’s so funny?” she snapped.
“Why don’t you let me handle this, Pol?” the old man suggested.
“I can deal with it,” she said.
“But not well, Pol,” he said. “Not well at all. Your temper’s too quick, and your tongue’s too sharp. He’s not a child anymore. He’s not a man yet, but he’s not a child either. The problem needs to be dealt with in a special way. I’ll take care of it.” He stood up. “I think I insist, Pol.”
“You what?”
“I insist.” His eyes hardened.
“Very well,” she said in an icy voice, turned, and walked away. “Sit down, Garion,” the old man said.
“Why’s she so mean?” Garion blurted.
“She isn’t,” Mister Wolf said. “She’s angry because you frightened her. Nobody likes to be frightened.”
“I’m sorry,” Garion mumbled, ashamed of himself.
“Don’t apologize to me,” Wolf said. “I wasn’t frightened.” He looked for a moment at Garion, his eyes penetrating. “What’s the problem?” he asked.
“They call you Belgarath,” Garion said as if that explained it all, “and they call her Polgara.”
“So.”
“It’s just not possible.”
“Didn’t we have this conversation before? A long time ago?”
“Are you Belgarath?” Garion demanded bluntly.
“Some people call me that. What difference does it make?”
“I’m sorry,” Garion said. “I just don’t believe it:”
“All right,” Wolf shrugged. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. What’s that got to do with your being impolite to your Aunt?”
“It’s just ” Garion faltered. “Well-” Desperately he wanted to ask Mister Wolf that ultimate, fatal question, but despite his certainty that there was no kinship between himself and Aunt Pol, he could not bear the thought of having it finally and irrevocably confirmed.
“You’re confused,” Wolf said. “Is that it? Nothing seems to be like it ought to be, and you’re angry with your Aunt because it seems like it has to be her fault.”
“You make it sound awfully childish,” Garion said, flushing slightly.
“Isn’t it?”
Garion flushed even more.
“It’s your own problem, Garion,” Mister Wolf said. “Do you really think it’s proper to make others unhappy because of it?”
“No,” Garion admitted in a scarcely audible voice.
“Your Aunt and I are who we are,” Wolf said quietly. “People have made up a lot of nonsense about us, but that doesn’t really matter. There are things that have to be done, and we’re the ones who have to do them. That’s what matters. Don’t make things more difficult for your Aunt just because the world isn’t exactly to your liking. That’s not only childish, it’s ill-mannered, and you’re a better boy than that. Now, I really think you owe her an apology, don’t you?”
“I suppose so,” Garion said.
“I’m glad we had this chance to talk,” the old man said, “but I wouldn’t wait too long before making up with her. You wouldn’t believe how long she can stay angry.” He grinned suddenly. “She’s been angry with me for as long as I can remember, and that’s so long that I don’t even like to think about it.”