closely as I can determine, you have been with me somewhat in
excess of a thousand years,’ I told her.
‘And?’ she said in that infuriating manner of hers.
‘Don’t you find that a trifle remarkable?’
‘Not particularly,’ she said placidly.
‘Do wolves normally live so long?’
‘Wolves live as long as they choose to live,’ she said, somewhat
smugly, I thought.
one day soon after that I found it necessary to change*my form in
order to complete a task my Master had set me to.
‘So that’s how you do it,’ the wolf marveled. ‘What a simple
thing.’ And she promptly turned herself into a snowy owl.
‘Stop that,’ I told her.
‘Why?’ she said, carefully preening her feathers with her beak.
‘It’s not seemly.’
‘What is “seemly” to a wolf – or an owl, I should say?’ And with
that she spread her soft, silent wings and soared out the window.
After that I knew little peace. I never knew when I turned around
what might be staring at me – wolf or owl, bear or butterfly. She
seemed to take great delight in startling me, but as time wore on,
more and more she retained the shape of the owl.
‘What is this thing about owls?’ I growled one day.
‘I like owls,’ she explained as if it were the simplest thing in the
world. ‘During my first winter when I was a young and foolish
thing, I was chasing a rabbit, floundering around in the snow like a
puppy, and a great white owl swooped down and snatched my
rabbit almost out of my jaws. She carried it to a nearby tree and ate
it, dropping the scraps to me. I thought at the time that it would be a
fine thing to be an owl.’
‘Foolishness,’ I snorted.
‘Perhaps,’ she replied blandly, preening her tail feathers, But it
amuses me. It may be that one day a different shape will amuse me
even more.’
I grunted and returned to my work.
Some time later – days or years or perhaps even longer – she came
swooping through the window, as was her custom, perched sedately
on a chair and resumed her proper wolf-shape.
‘I think I will go away for a while,’ she announced.
‘oh?’ I said cautiously.
She stared at me, her golden eyes unblinking. ‘I think I would like
to look at the world again,’ she said.
‘I see,’ I said.
‘The world has changed much, I think.’
‘It’s possible.’
‘I might come back some day.’
‘As you wish,’ I said.
‘Goodbye, then,’ she said, blurred into the form of an owl again,
and with a single thrust of her great wings she was gone.
Strangely, I missed her. I found myself turning often to show her
something. She had been a part of my life for so long that it
somehow seemed that she would always be there. I was always a bit
saddened not to see her in her usual place.
And then there came a time when, on an errand for my Master, I
went some leagues to the north. On my way back I came across a
small, neatly thatched cottage in a grove of giant trees near a small
river. I had passed that way frequently, and the house had never
been there before. Moreover, to my own certain knowledge, there
was not another human habitation within five hundred leagues. In
the house there lived a woman. She seemed young, and yet perhaps
not young. Her hair was quite tawny, and her eyes were a curious
golden color.
She stood in the doorway as I approached – almost as if she had
been expecting me. She greeted me in a seemly manner and invited
me to come in and sup with her. I accepted gratefully, for no sooner
did she mention food than I found myself ravenously hungry’
The inside of her cottage was neat and cheery. A fire burned
merrily upon her hearth, and a large kettle bubbled and hiccuped
over it. From that kettle came wondrous smells. The woman seated
me at the table, fetched me a stout earthenware plate and then set
before me a meal such as I had not seen in hundreds of years. It
consisted, as I recall, of every kind of food which I liked most.
VVhenWhen I had eaten – more than I should have probably, since as all
who know me can attest, good food was ever a weakness of mine
we talked, the woman and I, and I found her to have most
uncommon good sense. Though my errand was urgent, I found myself
lingering, thinking of excuses not to go. Indeed, I felt quite as giddy
as some adolescent in her presence.
Her name, she told me, was Poledra. ‘And by what name are you
known?’ she asked.
‘I am called Belgarath,’ I told her, ‘and I am a Disciple of the God
Aldur.’
‘How remarkable,’ she said, and then she laughed. There was
something hauntingly familiar in that laugh.
THE RIVAN CODEX
I never learned the truth about Poledra, though of course I had
suspicions.
When the urgency of my errand compelled me to leave that fair
grove and the small, neat cottage, Poledra said a most peculiar
thing. ‘I will go along with you,’ she told me. ‘I was ever curious.’
And she closed the door of her house and returned with me to the
Vale.
Strangely, my Master awaited us, and he greeted Poledra
courteously. I can never be sure, but it seemed that some secret glance
passed between them as if they knew each other and shared some
knowledge that I was unaware of.
I had, as I say, some suspicions, but as time went on they became
less and less important. After a while, I didn’t even think about them
any more.
That following spring Poledra and I married. My Master himself,
burdened though he was with care and the great task of preparing
for the day of the final struggle between good and evil, blessed our
union.
There was joy in our marriage, and I never thought about those
things which I had prudently decided not to think about; but that, of
course, is another story’
* That is not another story’. It’s the core of this one.
The hoLY
-Books
THE BOOK OF ALORN*
Of the Beginnings
Note-The myths of the Alorns describe a time when men and Gods lived
together in harmony This was the time before the world was cracked
and the eastern sea rushed in to cover the land where they dwelt, a
country which lay to the east of what is now Cthol Murgos and
Mishrak ac Thull.
The cracking of the world is known in Alorn mythology as ‘the
sundering’ or ‘the dividing of the peoples’, and their count of time
begins then.
At the beginning of days made the Gods the world and the seas and
the dry land also. And cast they the stars across the night sky and
did set the sun and his wife, the moon, in the heavens to give light
unto the world.
And the Gods caused the earth to bring forth the beasts, and the
waters to bud with fish, and the skies to flower with birds.
And they made men also, and divided men into Peoples.
Now the Gods were seven in number and were all equal, and their
names were Belar, and Chaldan, and Nedra, and Issa, and Mara, and
Aldur, and Torak.
Now Belar was the God of the Alorns, and dwelt with them and
loved them, and his totem is the bear.
And Chaldan was the God of the Arends, and he dwelt with them
and was judge over them, and his totem is the bull.
And Nedra was God over the people who called themselves after
This is a creation myth with resonances of the myths of several cultures on this world. It
even has a flood. The flood myths on planet Earth were probably generated by the
meltdown of the last ice age about I2,000 years ago. The flood on Garion’s world was the
result of a volcanic incident, which is described in some detail in the preliminary studies
to the Malloreon.
THE RIVAN CODEX
his name, the Toh-iedrans, and he cherished them and accepted their
worship, and his totem is the lion.
And Issa was God over the snake people, and he accepted their
dull-eyed worship, and his totem is the serpent.
And Mara was God over the Marags, which are no more, and his
totem was the bat, but his temples are cast down and vacant, and the
spirit of Mara weeps alone in the wilderness.
But Aldur was God over no people, and dwelt alone and
considered the stars in his solitude. But some few of the people of the other
Gods heard of his wisdom and journeyed unto him and besought
him to allow them to stay with hhnhim and be his pupils. And he relented