we were forced to take shelter. We missed, therefore, the departure
of the strange God.
When the storm had cleared, our Master called us to him, and we
went up into his tower. He sat at the table where he had labored so
long over the Orb. There was a great sadness in his face, and my
heart wept to see it. There was also a reddened mark upon his cheek
which I did not understand.
But Belzedar, ever quick, saw at once what I did not see. ‘Master,’
he said, and his voice had the sound of panic in it, ‘where is the
jewel? Where is the Orb of power which thou hast-made?’
‘Torak, my brother, hath taken it away with him,’ my Master said,
and his voice had almost the sound of weeping in it.
‘Quickly,’ Belzedar said, ‘we must pursue him and reclaim it
before he escapes us. We are many, and he is but one.’
‘He is a God, my son,’ Aldur said. ‘Thy numbers would mean
nothing to him.’
‘But, Master,’ Belzedar said most desperately, ‘we must reclaim
the Orb. It must be returned to us.’
‘How did he obtain it from thee, Master?’ the gentle Beltira asked.
‘Torak conceived a desire for the thing,’ Aldur said, ‘and he
besought me that I should give it to him. When I would not, he
smote me and took the Orb and ran.’
A rage seized me at that. Though the jewel was wondrous, it was
still only a stone. The fact that someone had struck my Master
brought flames into my brain. I cast off my robe, bent my win into
the air before me and forged a sword with a single word. I seized the
sword and leapt to the window.
‘No!’ my Master said, and the word stopped me as though a wall
had been placed before me.
‘Open!’ I commanded, slashing at the wall with the sword I had
just made.
‘No!’ my Master said, and it would not let me through.
‘He hath struck thee, Master,’ I raged. ‘For that I will slay him
though he be ten times a God.’
‘No,’ my Master said again. ‘Torak would crush thee as easily
as thou would
* This is grammatically incorrect. When using archaic language it is important to pay
attention to the verb forms, which are not the same in second person familiar as they are in
second person formal. The proper form here would be ‘wouldst’.
crush a fly which annoyed thee. I love thee
much, my eldest son, and I would not lose thee so.’
‘There must be war, Master,’ Belnakor said. ‘The blow and the
theft must not go unpunished. We will forge weapons, and
Belgarath shall lead us, and we shall make war upon this thief who
calls himself a God.’
‘My son,’ our Master said to him, ‘there will be war enough to
glut thee of it before thy life ends. The Orb is as nothing. Gladly
would I have given it unto my brother, Torak, were it not that the
Orb itself had told me that one day it would destroy him I would
have spared him had I been able, but his lust for the thing was too
great, and he would not listen.’ He sighed and then straightened.
There will be war,’ he said. ‘My brother, Torak, hath the Orb in
his possession. It is of great power, and in his hands can do great
mischief. We must reclaim it or alter it before Torak learns its full
power./
‘Alter?’ Belzedar said, aghast. ‘Surely, Master, surely thou wouldst
not destroy this precious thing?’
‘No,’ Aldur said. ‘It may not be destroyed but will abide even
unto the end of days; but if Torak can be pressed into haste, he will
attempt to use it in a way that it will not be used. Such is its power.’
Belzedar stared at him.
‘The world is inconstant, my son,’ our Master explained, ‘but
good and evil are immutable and unchanging. The Orb is an object
of good, and is not merely a bauble or a toy. It hath understanding
not such as thine – but understanding nonetheless – and it hath a
will. Beware of it, for the will of the Orb is the will of a stone. It is, as
I say, a thing of good. If it be raised to do evil, it will strike down
whomever would so use it – be he man or be he God. Thus we must
make haste. Go thou, my Disciples, unto my other brothers and tell
them that I bid them come to me. I am the eldest, and they will come
out of respect, if not love.’
And so we went down from our Master’s tower and divided
ourselves and went out of the Vale to seek out his brothers, the other
Gods. Because the twins Beltira and Belkira could not be separated
without perishing, they remained behind with our Master, but each
of the rest of us went forth in search of one of the Gods.
Since haste was important, and I had perhaps the farthest to go in
my search for the God, Belar, I traveled for a time in the form of an
eagle. But my arms soon grew weary with flying, and heights have
ever made me giddy. I also found my eyes frequently distracted by
tiny movements on the ground, and I had fierce urges to swoop
down and kill things. I came to earth, resumed my own form and sat
for a time to regain my breath and consider.
PREFACE
I had not assumed other forms frequently. It was a simple trick
without much advantage to it. I now discovered a major drawback
involved in it. The longer I remained in the assumed form, the more
the character of the form became interwoven with my own. The
eagle, for all his splendor, is really a stupid bird, and I had no desire
to be distracted from my mission by every mouse or rabbit on the
ground beneath me.
I considered the horse. A horse can run very fast, but he soon
grows tired and he is not very intelligent. An antelope can run for
days without growing wear34 but an antelope is a silly creature, and
too many things upon the plain looked upon the antelope as food. I
had not the time it would take to stop and persuade each of those
things to seek food elsewhere. And then it occurred to me that of all
the creatures of the plain and forest, the wolf was the most
intelligent, the swiftest, and the most tireless.
It was a decision well-made. As soon as I became accustomed to
going on all fours, I found the shape of the wolf most satisfactory
and the mind of the wolf most compatible with my own. I quickly
discovered that it is a fine thing to have a tail. It provides an
excellent means of maintaining one’s balance, and one may curl it about
himself at night to ward off the chill. I grew very proud of my tail on
my journey in search of Belar and his people.
I was stopped briefly by a young she-wolf who was feeling
frolicsome. She had, as I recall, fine haunches and a comely muzzle.
‘Why so great a hurry, friend?’ she said to me coyly in the way of
wolves. Even in my haste I was amazed to discover that I could
understand her quite easily. I stopped.
‘What a splendid tail you have,’ she complimented me, quickly
following her advantage, ‘and what excellent teeth.’
‘Thank you,’ I replied modestly. ‘Your own tail is also quite fine.
and your coat is truly magnificent.’
‘Do you really think so?’ she said, preening herself. Then she
nipped playfully at my flank and dashed off a few yards, trying to
get me to chase her.
‘I would gladly stay a while so that we might get to know each
other better,’ I told her, ‘but I have a most important errand.’
‘An errand?’ she laughed. ‘Who ever heard of a wolf with any
errand but his own desires?’
‘I’m not really a wolf,’ I told her.
‘Really?’ she said. ‘How remarkable. You look like a wolf and you
talk like a wolf and you certainly smell like a wolf, but you say you
are not really a wolf. What are you, then?’
‘I’m a man,’ I said.
She sat, a look of amazement on her face. She had to accept what I
said as the truth since wolves are incapable of lying. ‘You have a
tail,’ she said. ‘I’ve never seen a man with a tail before. You have a
fine coat. You have four feet. You have long, pointed teeth, sharp
ears and a black nose, and yet you tell me you are a man.’
‘It’s very complicated,’ I told her.
‘It must be,’ she said. ‘I think I will run with you for a while since