came among us to seek out those who might aid them in
their endless tasks. And we aided them in some measure,
but concealed our true nature from them. Now as it
chanced to happen, one of our kinsmen who had been
selected by the Melcenes to aid them had occasion to
journey to the north in performance of a duty which had been
laid upon him. And he came to a certain place and sought
shelter there from a storm which had overtaken him Now
this certain place was in the care of the Grolims, but the
master of the house was not Grolim nor Angarak nor any
other man. Our kinsman had come unaware upon the
house of Torak; and as it happened Torak was curious
concerning our people, and he sent for the traveler, and
our kinsman went in to behold the Dragon God. And in
the instant that he looked first upon Torak, the Third Age
ended and the Fourth Age began. For lo, the Dragon God
of Angarak was not one of the Gods for whom we waited.
The signs which were upon him did not lead beyond
him, and our kinsman saw in an instant that Torak was
doomed and that which he was would die with him.
And then we perceived our error, and we marveled at
what we had not seen – that even a God might be but the
tool of Destiny. For Behold, Torak was of one of the two
Fates, but he was not the entire Fate. And as we grew to
understand this difficult truth, we realized that the two
contending Necessities contained the ultimate power in
the Universe and that even the Gods must bow before
them. Now the world moved on as we pondered this, and
we observed the touch of the two Fates as they guided
and turned events into the unalterable courses which must
in the fullness of time cowde.
Now it happened that on the far side of the world a
king was slain, and all his family with him – save one.
And this king had been the keeper of one of the two
stones which lie at the center of the division which mars
creation. And when word of this was brought to Torak, he
exulted, for he believed that an ancient foe was no more.
Then it was that he began his preparations to move
against the kingdoms of the west. But the signs in the
heavens and the whispers in the rocks and the voices of
the spirits told us that it was not as Torak believed. The
stone was still guarded and the line of the guardian
remained unbroken, and Torak’s war would bring him to
grief.
And now for the first time we began to feel the echoes
of another presence, far away. Faintly down through the
years we had felt the movements of the First Disciple of
the God Aldur – whom men and Gods call Belgarath.
Now we perceived that he had been joined by another – a
woman – and between them they moved to counter the
moves of Torak and of his minions. And we knew this to
be of the greatest significance, for now events which had
previously taken place among the stars had moved to this
world, and it was here that the final meeting would take
place.
The preparations of the Dragon God were long, and the
tasks he laid upon his people were the tasks of
generations. And even as we, Torak watched the heavens to read
there the signs which would tell him when to move
against the west. But Torak watched only for the signs he
wished to see, and he did not read the entire message
written in the sky. Reading thus but a small part of the
signs, he set his forces in motion upon the worst possible
day. Perceiving this, we took counsel with each other.
Though our people were perforce gathered up in the great
army which was to attack the west, we felt that we should
not interfere with the course of either Fate. A different task
had been selected for us, and if we were to perform it, we
must needs allow the courses of the Fates to continue
unhampered. We were troubled, however, that other men
and even Gods could not read those messages in the skies
which were to us as clear as if they had been engraved
upon stone.
And, as we had known it must, disaster befell the
armies of Torak there on the broad plain lying before the
city of Vo “mimbre. And we mourned with all of Mallorea,
for hosts of our kinsmen perished there. There it was also
that the Dragon God of Angarak was overthrown by the
power of the stone, and he was bound in sleep to await
the coming of his enemy.
And now was the course of events in the hands of
the Disciples of Gods rather than of the Gods themselves.
And the names of the Disciples rang from the stars, and
we read the accounts of their exploits and of their
ordering of events in the Book of the Heavens. Now the
Disciples of Torak were Ctuchik and Zedar and Urvon,
and their enchantments and sorceries were mighty; but the
Disciples of Aldur who countered those acts with sorceries
of their own, were Beltira and Belkira and Beldin. And the
most powerful of all the sorcerers was Belgarath, whom
men called eternal, and close to him in power stood his
daughter, Polgara the Sorceress. Then it was that a whisper
began to reach us with yet another name. As all the twisted
skeins of events moved into those final channels from
which there can be no turning the whisper of that name
became clearer to us. And upon the day of his birth, the
whisper of his name became a great shout, and we knew
him. Belgarion the Godslayer had come at last.
And now the pace of events, which had moved at times
with ponderous tread, quickened, and the rush toward
the awful meeting became so swift that the account of
it could not be read in the stars, for the Book of the
Heavens is so vast that it takes lifetimes to read a single
page. But we could hear Belgarion’s power stirring, and
the thundershocks of his first efforts were terrible. And
then upon the day which men celebrate as the day when
the world was made, the Orb of Aldur, which the men
of Angarak call Cthrag-Yaska, was delivered up to
Belgarion; and in the instant that his hand closed upon it,
the Book of the Heavens filled with a great light, and the
sound of Belgarion’s name rang from the farthest star.
Events now moved so swiftly that we could only guess
at their course. We could feel Belgarion moving toward
Mallorea, bearing the stone with him, and we could feel
Torak stirring as his sleep grew fitful. We could also feel
the movements of armies, but Belgarion led no army A
great battle was joined in the West, but the outcome of that
battle had no bearing upon that which was about to
happen.
Finally there came that dreadful night. As we watched
helplessly, the vast pages of the Book of the Heavens
moved so rapidly that we could not read them. And then
the Book stopped, and we read the one terrible line, ‘Torak
is slain,’ and the Book shuddered, and all the light in all of
creation went out. And in that dreadful instant of
darkness and silence, the Fourth Age ended and the Fifth Age
began.
And Behold, when the light returned, we could no
longer read the Book of the Heavens! Its language, which
had been clear to us, was now foreign and obscure, and
we were compelled to begin once again to piece together
its meaning even as we had during the First Age. And
when we could once again read the pages written in the
stars, we found therein a mystery. Before, all had moved
toward the meeting between Belgarion and Torak, but
now events moved toward a different meeting. There
were signs among the stars which told us that the Fates
had selected yet other aspects for their next meeting, and
we could feel the movements of those presences, but we
knew not who or what they might be, for the pages which
told of their births or origins had been forever lost to us
during those years when the Book spake in an alien
tongue. There was, moreover, a great confusion in the
signs which we read, for the Book seemed to say that the
Keeper of the Orb was destined to succeed Torak as the
Aspect of the Second Fate which was called the Child of
Dark. But this we knew to be impossible, for Belgarion
was the Keeper of the Orb, and Belgarion was the Child of