“In here?” Brand’s voice was shocked. “A Nyissan in the throne room? Belgarath, you’re not serious.”
“Garion is Overlord of the West, Brand,” the old man replied, “and that includes Nyissa. I don’t imagine that the snake-people will be much use to us at any time, but let’s be polite, at least.”
Brand’s face went stiff with disapproval. “What is your Majesty’s decision?” he asked Garion directly.
“Well-” Garion hesitated. “Let him come in, I guess.”
“Don’t vacillate, Garion,” Aunt Pol told him firmly.
“I’m sorry,” Garion said quickly.
“And don’t apologize,” she added. “Kings do not apologize.”
He looked at her helplessly. Then he turned back to Brand. “Tell the emissary from Nyissa to join us,” he said, though his tone was placating.
“By the way, Brand,” Belgarath suggested, “I wouldn’t let anyone get too excited about this. The Nyissan has ambassadorial status, and it would be a serious breach of protocol if he were to die unexpectedly.”
Brand bowed rather stiffly, turned, and left the Hall.
“Was that really necessary, father?” Aunt Pol asked.
“Old grudges die hard, Pol,” Belgarath replied. “Sometimes it’s best to get everything right out in front so that there aren’t any misunderstandings later.”
When the emissary of the Snake Queen entered the Hall, Garion started with surprise. It was Sadi, the chief eunuch in Salmissra’s palace. The thin man with the dead-looking eyes and shaved head wore the customary iridescent blue-green Nyissan robe, and he bowed sinuously as he approached the throne. “Greetings to his Majesty, Belgarion of Riva, from Eternal Salmissra, Queen of the Snake-People,” he intoned in his peculiarly contralto voice.
“Welcome, Sadi,” Garion replied formally.
“My queen sends her regards on this happy day,” Sadi continued.
“She didn’t really, did she?” Garion asked a bit pointedly.
“Not precisely, your Majesty,” Sadi admitted without the least trace of embarrassment. “I’m sure she would have, however, if we’d been able to make her understand what was happening.”
“How is she?” Garion remembered the dreadful transformation Salmissra had undergone.
“Difficult,” Sadi answered blandly. “Of course that’s nothing new. Fortunately she sleeps for a week or two after she’s been fed. She moulted last month, and it made her dreadfully short-tempered.” He rolled his eyes ceilingward. “It was ghastly,” he murmured. “She bit three servants before it was over. They all died immediately, of course.”
“She’s venomous?” Garion was a bit startled at that.
“She’s always been venomous, your Majesty.”
“That’s not the way I mean.”
“Forgive my little joke,” Sadi apologized. “Judging from the reactions of people she’s bitten, I’d guess that she’s at least ten times more deadly than a common cobra.”
“Is she terribly unhappy?” Garion felt a strange pity for the hideously altered queen.
“That’s really rather hard to say, your Majesty,” Sadi replied clinically. “It’s difficult to tell what a snake’s really feeling, you understand. By the time she’d learned to communicate her wishes to us, she seemed to have become reconciled to her new form. We feed her and keep her clean. As long as she has her mirror and someone to bite when she’s feeling peevish, she seems quite content.”
“She still looks at herself in the mirror? I wouldn’t think she’d want to now.”
“Our race has a somewhat different view of the serpent, your Majesty,” Sadi explained. “We find it a rather attractive creature, and our queen is a splendid-looking snake, after all. Her new skin is quite lovely, and she seems very proud of it.” He turned and bowed deeply to Aunt Pol. “Lady Polgara,” he greeted her.
“Sadi,” she acknowledged with a brief nod.
“May I convey to you the heartfelt thanks of her Majesty’s government?”
One of Aunt Pol’s eyebrows rose inquiringly.
“The government, my Lady – not the queen herself. Your – ah – intervention, shall we say, has simplified things in the palace enormously. We no longer have to worry about Salmissra’s whims and peculiar appetites. We rule by committee and we hardly ever find it necessary to poison each other any more. No one’s tried to poison me for months. It’s all very smooth and civilised in Sthiss Tor now.” He glanced briefly at Garion. “May I also offer my congratulations on your success with his Majesty? He seems to have matured considerably. He was really very callow when last we met,”
“Whatever happened to Issus?” Garion asked him, ignoring that particular observation.
Sadi shrugged. “Issus? Oh, he’s still about, scratching out a living as a paid assassin, probably. I imagine that one day we’ll find him floating facedown in the river. It’s the sort of end one expects for someone like that.”
There was a sudden blare of trumpets from just beyond the great doors at the back of the Hall. Garion started nervously, and his mouth quite suddenly went dry.
The heavy doors swung open, and a double file of Tolnedran legionnaires marched in, their breastplates burnished until they shone like mirrors, and the tall crimson plumes on their helmets waving as they marched. The inclusion of the legionnaires in the ceremony had infuriated Brand. The Rivan Warder had stalked about in icy silence for days after he had discovered that Garion had granted ambassador Valgon’s request for a proper escort for Princess Ce’Nedra. Brand did not like Tolnedrans, and he had been looking forward to witnessing the pride of the empire humbled by Ce’Nedra’s forlorn and solitary entrance into the Hall. The presence of the legionnaires spoiled that, of course, and Brand’s disappointment and disapproval had been painfully obvious. As much as Garion wanted to stay on Brand’s good side, however, he did not intend to start off the official relationship between his bride-to-be and himself by publicly humiliating her. Garion was quite ready to acknowledge his lack of education, but he was not prepared to admit to being that stupid.
When Ce’Nedra entered, her hand resting lightly on Valgon’s arm, she was every inch an Imperial Princess. Garion could only gape at her. Although the Accords of Vo Mimbre required that she present herself in her wedding gown, Garion was totally unprepared for such Imperial magnificence. Her gown was of gold and white brocade covered with seed pearls, and its train swept the floor behind her. Her flaming hair was intricately curled and cascaded over her left shoulder like a deep crimson waterfall. Her circlet of tinted gold held in place a short veil that did not so much conceal her face as soften it into luminousness.
She was tiny and perfect, exquisite beyond belief, but her eyes were like little green agates.
She and Valgon moved at stately pace down between the ranks of her tall, burnished legionnaires; when they reached the front of the Hall, they stopped.
Brand, sober-faced and imposing, took his staff of office from Bralon, his eldest son, and rapped sharply on the stone floor with its butt three times. “Her Imperial Highness Ce’Nedra of the Tolnedran Empire,” he announced in a deep, booming voice. “Will your Majesty grant her audience?”
“I will receive the princess,” Garion declared, straightening a bit on his throne.
“The Princess Ce’Nedra may approach the throne,” Brand proclaimed. Though his words were ritual formality, they had obviously been chosen with great care to make it absolutely clear that Imperial Tolnedra came to the Hall of the Rivan King as a suppliant. Ce’Nedra’s eyes flashed fire, and Garion groaned inwardly. The little princess, however, glided to the appointed spot before the dais and curtsied regally. There was no submission in that gesture.
“The Princess has permission to speak,” Brand boomed. For a brief, irrational moment Garion wanted to strangle him.
Ce’Nedra drew herself up, her face as cold as a winter sea. “Thus I, Ce’Nedra, daughter to Ran Borune XXIII and Princess of Imperial Tolnedra, present myself as required by treaty and law in the presence of His Majesty, Belgarion of Riva,” she declared. “And thus has the Tolnedran Empire once more demonstrated her willingness to fulfill her obligations as set forth in the Accords of Vo Mimbre. Let other kingdoms witness Tolnedra’s meticulous response and follow her example in meeting their obligations. I declare before these witnesses that I am an unmarried virgin of a suitable age. Will his Majesty consent to take me to wife?”
Garion’s reply had been carefully thought out. The quiet inner voice had suggested a way to head off years of marital discord. He rose to his feet and said, “I, Belgarion, King of Riva, hereby consent to take the Imperial Princess Ce’Nedra to be my wife and queen. I declare, moreover, that she will rule jointly by my side in Riva and wheresoever else the authority of our throne may extend.”
The gasp that rippled through the Hall was clearly audible, and Brand’s face went absolutely white. The look Ce’Nedra gave Garion was quizzical, and her eyes softened slightly.
“Your Majesty is too kind,” she responded with a graceful little curtsy. Some of the edge had gone out of her voice, and she threw a quick sidelong glance at the spluttering Brand. ‘Have I your Majesty’s permission to withdraw?” she asked sweetly.