you must attend to this errand. Perhaps we can discuss it as we go
along and you can explain this complicated thing to me.’
‘If you wish,’ I said, since I rather liked her and was glad by then
for any company, ‘but I must warn you that I run very fast.’
‘All wolves run very fast,’ she sniffed.
And so, side by side, we ran off over the endless grassy plains in
search of the God Belar.
‘Do you intend to run both day and night?’ she asked me after we
had gone several miles.
‘I will rest when it is needful,’ I told her.
‘I’m glad of that,’ she said. Then she laughed, nipped at my
shoulder and scampered off some distance.
I began to consider the morality of my situation. Though my
companion looked quite delightful to me in my present form, I was
almost positive she would be less so once I resumed my proper
shape. Further, while it is undoubtedly a fine thing to be a father, I
was almost certain that a litter of puppies would prove an
embarrassment when I returned to my Master. Not only that, the puppies
would not be entirely wolves, and I had no desire to father a race of
monsters. But finally, since wolves mate for life, when I left her – as I
would of necessity be compelled to do – my sweet companion would
be abandoned, betrayed, left alone with a fitter of fatherless puppies,
subject to the scorn and ridicule of the other members of her pack.
propriety is a most important thing among wolves. Thus I resolved
to resist her advances on our journey in search of Belar.
I would not have devoted so much time here to this incident were
it not to help explain how insidiously the personality of the shapes
we assume begin to take us over. Let any who would practice this art
be cautious. To remain in a shape too long is to invite the very real
possibility that when the time comes to resume our proper form, we
will not desire to do so. I must quite candidly admit that by the time
my companion and I reached the land of the Bear-God, I had begun
to give long thoughts to the pleasures of the den and the hunt and
the sweet nuzzlings of puppies and the true and steadfast
companionship of a mate.
At length, we found a band of hunters near the edge of the forest
where Belar, the Bear-God, dwelt with his people. To the amazement
of my companion, I resumed my own shape and approached them.
‘I have a message for Belar, thy God,’ I told them.
‘How may we know this to be true?’ they asked me.
‘Ye may know it to be true because I say it is true,’ I told them.
‘The message is important, and there is little time to delay.’
Then one of them saw my companion and cast his spear at her. I
had no time to make what I did appear normal nor to conceal it from
them. I stopped the spear in mid-flight.
They stood gaping at the spear stuck in the air as if in a tree.
Irritated, I flexed my mind and broke the spear in two.
‘Sorcery” one of them gasped.
‘The wolf is with me,’ I told them sternly. ‘Do not attempt to injure
her again.’ I beckoned to her and she came to my side, baring her
fangs at them.
‘And now convey me unto Belar,’ I ordered them.
The God Belar appeared very young – scarcely more than a boy,
though I knew he was much, much older than I. He was a
fairseeming, open-faced God, and the people who served him were a
rowdy, undisciplined group, scarcely conscious of the dignity of
their Master.
‘Well-met, Belgarath,’ he greeted me, though we had never met
and I had told my name to no one. ‘How does it go with my brother?’
THE RIVAN CODEX
‘Not well, my Lord,’ I told him. ‘Thy brother, Torak, hath come
unto my Master and smote him and hath borne away a particular
jewel which he coveted.’
‘What?’ the young God roared, springing to his feet. ‘Torak hath
the Orb?’
‘I greatly fear it is so, my Lord,’ I told him. ‘My Master bids me
entreat thee to come to him with all possible speed.’
‘I will, Belgarath,’ Belar said. ‘I will make preparations at once.
Hath Torak used the Orb as yet?’
‘We think not, my Lord,’ I said. ‘My Master says we must make
haste, before thy brother, Torak, hath learned the full power of the
jewel he hath stolen.’
‘Truly,’ the young God said. He glanced at the young she-wolf
sitting at my feet. ‘Greetings, little sister,’ he said courteously, ‘is it
well with thee?’
‘Most remarkable,’ she said politely. ‘It appears that I have fallen
in with creatures of great importance.’
‘Thy friend and I must make haste,’ he told her. ‘Otherwise I
should make suitable arrangements for thy comfort. May I offer thee
to eat?’
She glanced at the ox turning on the spit in his great hall. ‘7hat
smells interesting,’ she said.
‘Of course,’ he said, taking up a knife and carving off a generous
portion for her.
‘My thanks,’ she said. ‘This one -‘ she jerked her head at me
was in so much hurry to reach this place that we scarce had time for
a rabbit or two along the way.’Daintily she gulped the meat down in
two great bites. ‘Quite good,’ she said, ‘though one wonders why it
was necessary to burn it.’
‘A custom, little sister,’ he laughed.
‘Oh, well,’ she said, ‘if it’s a custom.’ Carefully she licked her
whiskers clean.
‘I will return in a moment, Belgarath,’ Belar said and moved away.
‘That one is nice,’ my companion told me pointedly.
‘He is a God,’ I told her.
‘That means nothing to me,’ she said. ‘Gods are the business of
men. Wolves have little interest in such things.’
‘Perhaps you would care to return to the place where we met?’ I
suggested.
‘I will go along with you for a while longer,’ she told me. ‘I was
ever curious, and I see that you are familiar with most remarkable
things.’ She yawned, stretched, and curled up at my feet.
PREFACE
The return to the Vale where my Master waited took far less time
than had my journey to the country of the Bear-God. Though time is
a matter of indifference to them normally, when there is a need for
haste, the Gods can devour distance in ways that had not even
occurred to me. We began walking with Belar asking me questions
about my Master and our lives in the Vale and the young she-wolf
padding along sedately between us. After several hours of this, my
impatience finally made me bold.
‘My Lord,’ I said, ‘forgive me, but at this rate it will take us almost
a year to reach my Master’s tower.’
‘Not nearly so long, Belgarath,’ he replied pleasantly. ‘I believe it
lies just beyond that next hilltop.’
I stared at him, not believing that a God could be so simple, but
when we crested the hill, there lay the Vale spread before us with my
Master’s tower standing in the center.
‘Most remarkable,’ the wolf murmured, dropping onto her
haunches and staring down into the Vale with her bright yellow
eyes. I could only agree with her.
The other Gods were already with my Master in the tower, and
Belar hastened to join them.
My brothers, the other Disciples of Aldur, awaited me at the foot
of the tower. When they saw my companion, they were startled.
‘Is it wise, Belgarath, to bring such a one here?’ Belzedar asked
me. ‘Wolves are not the most trustworthy creatures.’
My companion bared her fangs at him for that.
‘What is her name,’ the gentle Beltira asked.
‘Wolves do not require names,’ I told him. ‘They know who they
are without such appendages.’
Belzedar shook his head and moved away from the wolf.
‘Is she quite tame?’Belar asked me. ‘I wonder that you had time
for such business on your journey, and I know you would not loiter’
‘She is not tame at all,’ I told him. ‘We met by chance, and she
chose to accompany me.’
‘Most remarkable,’ the wolf said to me. ‘Are they always so full of
questions?’
‘It is the nature of man,’ I told her.
‘Curious creatures,’ she said, shaking her head.
‘What a wonder,’Belkira marveled. ‘You have learned to converse
with the beasts. Pray, dear brother, instruct me in this art.’
‘It is not an art,’ I said. ‘I took the form of a wolf on my journey.
The speech of the wolf came with the form and remained. It is no
great thing.’
THE RIVAN CODEX
And then we sat, awaiting the decision of our Master and his