She nodded. “I think we’re past the immediate danger. He seems stronger physically. But it’s not his physical body I’m worried aboutit’s his mind. That’s why I wanted to talk to you alone.”
Garion felt a sudden cold grip of fear. “His mind?”
“Keep your voice down, dear,” she told him quietly. “This has to be kept strictly between us.” Her eyes were still on Belgarath’s face. “An episode like this can have very serious effects, and there’s no way to know how it will be with him when he recovers. He could be very seriously weakened.”
“Weakened? How?”
“His will could be greatly reduced – to that of any other old man. He drained it to the utter limit, and he might have gone so far that he could never regain his powers.”
“You mean he wouldn’t be a sorcerer any more?”
“Don’t repeat the obvious, Garion,” she said wearily. “If that happens, it’s going to be up to you and me to conceal it from everybody. Your grandfather’s power is the one thing that has held the Angaraks in check for all these years. If something has happened to that power, then you and I will have to make it look as if he’s the same as he always was. We’ll have to conceal the truth even from him, if that is possible.”
“What can we do without him?”
“We’d go on, Garion,” she replied quietly, looking directly into his eyes. “Our task is too important for us to falter because a man falls by the wayside – even if that man happens to be your grandfather. We’re racing against time in all this, Garion. We absolutely must fulfill the Prophecy and get the Orb back to Riva by Erastide, and there are people who must be gathered up to go with us.”
“Who?”
“Princess Ce’Nedra, for one.”
“Ce’Nedra?” Garion had never really forgotten the little princess, but he failed to see why Aunt Pol was making such an issue of her going with them to Riva.
“In time you’ll understand, dear. All of this is part of a series of events that must occur in proper sequence and at the proper time. In most situations, the present is determined by the past. This series of events is different, however. In this case, what’s happening in the present is determined by the future. If we don’t get it exactly the way it’s supposed to be, the ending will be different, and I don’t think any of us would like that at all.”
“What do you want me to do?” he asked, placing himself unquestioningly in her hands.
She smiled gratefully at him. “Thank you, Garion,” she said simply. “When you rejoin the others, they’re going to ask you how father’s coming along, and I want you to put on your best face and tell them that he’s doing fine.”
“You want me to lie to them.” It was not even a question.
“No place in the world is safe from spies, Garion. You know that as well as I, and no matter what happens, we can’t let any hint that father might not recover fully get back to the Angaraks. If necessary, you’ll lie until your tongue turns black. The whole fate of the West could depend on how well you do it.”
He stared at her.
“It’s possible that all this is totally unnecessary,” she reassured him. “He may be exactly the same as always after he’s had a week or two of rest, but we’ve got to be ready to move smoothly, just in case he’s not.”
“Can’t we do something?”
“We’re doing all we can. Go back to the others now, Garion – and smile. Smile until your jaws ache if you have to.”
There was a faint sound in the corner of the room, and they both turned sharply. Errand, his blue eyes very serious, stood watching them.
“Take him with you,” Aunt Pol said. “See that he eats and keep an eye on him.”
Garion nodded and beckoned to the child. Errand smiled his trusting smile and crossed the room. He reached out and patted the unconscious Belgarath’s hand, then turned to follow Garion from the room.
The tall, brown-haired girl who had accompanied Queen Silar out through the gates of the Stronghold was waiting for him in the corndor outside. Her skin, Garion noticed, was very pale, almost translucent, and her gray eyes were direct. “Is the Eternal Man really any better?” she asked.
“Much better,” Garion replied with all the confidence he could muster. “He’ll be out of bed in no time at all.”
“He seems so weak,” she said. “So old and frail.”
“Frail? Belgarath?” Garion forced a laugh. “He’s made out of old iron and horseshoe nails.”
“He is seven thousand years old, after all.”
“That doesn’t mean anything to him. He stopped paying attention to the years a long time ago.”
“You’re Garion, aren’t you?” she asked. “Queen Silar told us about you when she returned from Val Alorn last year. For some reason I thought you were younger.”
“I was then,” Garion replied. “I’ve aged a bit this last year.”
“My name is Adara,” the tall girl introduced herself. “Queen Silar asked me to show you the way to the main hall. Supper should be ready soon.”
Garion inclined his head politely. In spite of the worry gnawing at him, he could not shake off the peculiar feeling that he ought to know this quiet, beautiful girl. Errand reached out and took the girl’s hand, and the three of them passed hand in hand down the torch-lighted corridor.
King Cho-Hag’s main hall was on a lower floor. It was a long, narrow room where chairs and padded benches sat in little clusters around braziers filled with glowing coals. Barak, holding a large ale tankard in one huge fist, was describing with some embellishment their descent from the top of the escarpment.
“We didn’t really have any choice, you see,” the big man was saying. “Taur Urgas had been frothing on our heels for several days, and we had to take the shortest way down.”
Hettar nodded. “Plans sometimes have a way of changing when the unexpected crops up,” he agreed. “That’s why we put men to watching every known pass down from the top of the escarpment.”
“I still think you might have let us know you were there.” Barak sounded a little injured.
Hettar grinned wolfishly. “We couldn’t really take the chance, Barak,” he explained. “The Murgos might have seen us, and we didn’t want to frighten them off. It would have been a shame if they’d gotten away, wouldn’t it?”
“Is that all you ever think about?”
Hettar considered the question for a moment. “Pretty much, yes,” he admitted.
Supper was announced then, and they all moved to the long table at the far end of the hall. The general conversation at the table made it unnecessary for Garion to lie directly to anyone about the frightening possibility Aunt Pol had raised, and after supper he sat beside Adara and lapsed into a kind of sleepy haze, only half listening to the talk.
There was a stir at the door, and a guard entered. “The priest of Belar!” he announced in a loud voice, and a tall man in a white robe strode into the room, followed by four men dressed in shaggy furs. The four walked with a peculiar shuffling gait, and Garion instantly recognized them as Bear-cultists, indistinguishable from the Cherek members of the same group he had seen in Val Alorn.
“Your Majesty,” the man in the white robe boomed.
“Hail, Cho-Hag,” the cultists intoned in unison, “Chief of the ClanChiefs of the Algars and guardian of the southern reaches of Aloria.”
King Cho-Hag inclined his head briefly. “What is it, Elvar?” he asked the priest.
“I have come to congratulate your Majesty upon the occasion of your great victory over the forces of the Dark God,” the priest replied.
“You are most kind, Elvar,” Cho-Hag answered politely.
“Moreover,” Elvar continued, “it has come to my attention that a holy object has come into the Stronghold of the Algars. I presume that your Majesty will wish to place it in the hands of the priesthood for safekeeping.”
Garion, alarmed at the priest’s suggestion, half rose from his seat, but stopped, not knowing how to voice his objection. Errand, however, with a confident smile, was already walking toward Elvar. The knots Durnik had so carefully tied were undone, and the child took the Orb out of the pouch at his waist and offered it to the startled priest. “Errand?” he said.
Elvar’s eyes bulged and he recoiled from the Orb, lifting his hands above his head to avoid touching it.
“Go ahead, Elvar,” Polgara’s voice came mockingly from the doorway. “Let him who is without ill intent in the silence of his soul stretch forth his hand and take the Orb.”
“Lady Polgara,” the priest stammered. “We thought – that is – I -“