Demon Lord Of Karanda (42 page)

‘No, Ancient One,’ she replied, ‘as a matter of fact, I didn’t. I just seized the opportunity when it arose.’

Silk, Durnik, and Toth came back into the body-strewn throne room. ‘The house is empty,’ the little man reported. ‘We’ve got it all to ourselves.’

‘Good,’ Belgarath said. ‘Garion was just telling us why he saw fit to start his own private war.’

‘Zandramas told him to.’ Silk shrugged. ‘I’m not sure why he started taking orders from her, but that’s what happened.’

‘I was just getting to that,’ Garion said. ‘Urvon was down here telling all the Chandim that Harakan—Mengha —was going to be his first disciple. That’s when Zandramas came in—or at least she seemed to. She had a bundle under her cloak. I didn’t know it at first, but it was Geran. She and Urvon shouted at each other for a while, and Urvon finally insisted that he was a God. She said something like, “All right. Then I will summon the Godslayer to deal with you.” That’s when she put the bundle on the altar. She opened it, and it was Geran. He started to cry, and I realized all at once that it was
his
cry I’d been hearing all along. I just totally stopped thinking at that point.’

‘Obviously,’ Belgarath said.

‘Well, anyway, you know all the rest.’ Garion looked around at the corpse-littered throne room and shuddered. ‘I hadn’t altogether realized just how far things went,’ he said. ‘I guess I was sort of crazy.’

‘The word is berserk, Garion,’ Belgarath told him. ‘It’s fairly common among Alorns. I’d sort of thought you might be immune, but I guess I was wrong.’

‘There was some justification for it, father,’ Polgara said.

‘There’s never a justification for losing your wits, Pol,’ he growled.

‘He was provoked.’ She pursed her lips thoughtfully, then came over and lightly placed her hands on Garion’s temples. ‘It’s gone now,’ she said.

‘What is?’ Ce’Nedra sounded concerned.

‘The possession.’

‘Possession?’

Polgara nodded. ‘Yes. That’s how Zandramas tricked him. She filled his mind with the sound of a crying child. Then, when she laid the bundle that
seemed
to be Geran on the altar and Garion heard that same crying, he had no choice but to do what she wanted him to do.’ She looked at Belgarath. ‘This is very serious, father. She’s already tampered with Ce’Nedra, and now it’s Garion. She may try the same thing with others as well.’

‘What would be the point?’ he asked. ‘You can catch her at it, can’t you?’

‘Usually, yes—
if
I know what’s going on. But Zandramas is very skilled at this and she’s very subtle. In many ways she’s even better at it than Asharak the Murgo was.’ She looked around at them. ‘Now listen carefully, all of you,’ she told them. ‘If anything unusual begins to happen to you—dreams, notions, peculiar ideas, strange feelings—anything at all, I want you to tell me about it at once. Zandramas knows that we’re after her, and she’s using this to delay us. She tried it with Ce’Nedra while we were on our way to Rak Hagga, and now—’

‘Me?’ Ce’Nedra said in amazement. ‘I didn’t know that.’

‘Remember your illness on the road from Rak Verkat?’ Polgara said. ‘It wasn’t exactly an illness. It was Zandramas putting her hand on your mind.’

‘But nobody told me.’

‘Once Andel and I drove Zandramas away, there was no need to worry you about it. Anyway, Zandramas tried it first with Ce’Nedra and now with Garion. She could try it on any one of the rest of us as well, so let me know if you start feeling in the least bit peculiar.’

‘Brass,’ Durnik said.

‘What was that, dear?’ Polgara asked him.

He held up Urvon’s crown. ‘This thing is brass,’ he said. ‘So’s that throne. I didn’t really think there’d be any gold left here. The house has been abandoned and wide open for looters for too many centuries.’

‘That’s usually the way it is with the gifts of demons,’ Beldin told him. ‘They’re very good at creating illusions.’ He looked around. ‘Urvon probably saw all this as unearthly splendor. He couldn’t see the rotten drapes, or cobwebs, or all the trash on the floor. All he could see was the glory that Nahaz wanted him to see.’ The dirty, twisted man chuckled. ‘I sort of enjoy the idea of Urvon spending his last days as a raving lunatic,’ he added, ‘right up until the moment when I sink a hook into his guts.’

Silk had been looking narrowly at Velvet. ‘Do you suppose you could explain something for me?’ he asked.

‘I’ll try,’ she said.

‘You said something rather strange when you threw Zith into Harakan’s face.’

‘Did I say something?’

‘You said, “A present for the leader of the Bear-cult from Hunter.”’

‘Oh, that.’ She smiled her dimples into life. ‘I just wanted him to know who was killing him, that’s all.’

He stared at her.

‘You
are
getting rusty, my dear Kheldar,’ she chided him. ‘I was certain that you’d have guessed by now. I’ve done everything but hit you over the head with it.’

‘Hunter?’ he said incredulously.
‘You?’

‘I’ve been Hunter for quite some time now. That’s why I hurried to catch up with you at Tol Honeth.’ She smoothed the front of her plain gray traveling gown.

‘At Tol Honeth you told us that
Bethra
was Hunter.’

‘She
had
been, Kheldar, but her job was finished. She was supposed to make sure that we’d get a reasonable man as a successor to Ran Borune. First she had to eliminate a few members of the Honeth family before they could consolidate their positions, and then she made a few suggestions about Varana to Ran Borune while the two of them were—’ She hesitated, glancing at Ce’Nedra, and then she coughed. ‘—ah—shall we say, entertaining each other?’ she concluded.

Ce’Nedra blushed furiously.

‘Oh, dear,’ the blond girl said, putting one hand to her cheek. ‘That didn’t come out at all well, did it? Anyway,’ she hurried on, ‘Javelin decided that Bethra’s task was complete and that it was time for there to be a new Hunter with a new mission. Queen Porenn was
very
cross about what Harakan did in the west—the attempt on Ce’Nedra’s life, the murder of Brand, and everything that went on at Rheon—so she instructed Javelin to administer some chastisement. He selected me to deliver it. I was fairly sure that Harakan would come back to Mallorea. I knew that you were all coming here, too—eventually—so that’s why I joined you.’ She looked over at the sprawled form of Harakan. ‘I was absolutely amazed when I saw him standing in front of the altar,’ she admitted, ‘but I couldn’t allow an opportunity like that to slip by.’ She smiled. ‘Actually, it worked out rather well. I was just on the verge of leaving you and going back to Mal Yaska to look for him. The fact that he turned out to be Mengha, too, was just sort of a bonus.’

‘I thought you were tagging along to keep an eye on
me
.’

‘I’m very sorry, Prince Kheldar. I just made that up. I needed some reason to join you, and sometimes Belgarath can be very stubborn.’ She smiled winsomely at the old sorcerer, then turned back to the baffled-looking Silk. ‘Actually,’ she continued, ‘my uncle isn’t really upset with you at all.’

‘But you said—’ He stared at her. ‘You
lied
!’ he accused.

‘“Lie” is such an ugly word, Kheldar,’ she replied, patting his cheek fondly. ‘Couldn’t we just say that I exaggerated a trifle? I wanted to keep an eye on you, certainly, but it was for reasons of my own—which had nothing whatsoever to do with Drasnian state policy.’

A slow flush crept up his cheeks.

‘Why, Kheldar,’ she exclaimed delightedly, ‘you’re actually blushing—almost like a simple village girl who’s just been seduced.’

Garion had been struggling with something. ‘What was the point of it, Aunt Pol?’ he asked. ‘What Zandramas did to me, I mean?’

‘Delay,’ she replied, ‘but more importantly, there was the possibility of defeating us before we ever get to the final meeting.’

‘I don’t follow that.’

She sighed. ‘We know that one of us is going to die,’ she said. ‘Cyradis told us that at Rheon. But there’s always a chance that in one of these random skirmishes, someone
else
could be killed—entirely by accident. If the Child of Light—you—meets with the Child of Dark and he’s lost someone whose task hasn’t been completed, he won’t have any chance of winning. Zandramas could win by default. The whole point of that cruel game she played was to lure you into a fight with the Chandim and Nahaz. The rest of us, quite obviously, would come to your aid. In that kind of fight, it’s always possible for accidents to happen.’

‘Accident? How can there be accidents when we’re all under the control of a prophecy?’

‘You’re forgetting something, Belgarion,’ Beldin said. ‘This whole business started with an accident. That’s what divided the Prophecies in the first place. You can read prophecies until your hair turns gray, but there’s always room for random chance to step in and disrupt things.’

‘You’ll note that my brother is a philosopher,’ Belgarath said, ‘always ready to look on the dark side of things.’

‘Are you two really brothers?’ Ce’Nedra asked curiously.

‘Yes,’ Beldin told her, ‘but in a way that you could never begin to understand. It was something that our Master impressed upon us.’

‘And Zedar was
also
one of your brothers?’ She suddenly stared in horror at Belgarath.

The old man set his jaw. ‘Yes,’ he admitted.

‘But you—’

‘Go ahead and say it, Ce’Nedra,’ he said. ‘There’s nothing you can possibly say to me that I haven’t already said to myself.’

‘Someday,’ she said in a very small voice, ‘someday when this is all over, will you let him out?’

Belgarath’s eyes were stony. ‘I don’t think so, no.’

‘And if he
does
let him out, I’ll go find him and stuff him right back in again,’ Beldin added.

‘There’s not much point in chewing over ancient history,’ Belgarath said. He thought a moment, then said, ‘I think it’s time for us to have another talk with the young lady from Kell.’ He turned to Toth. ‘Will you summon your mistress?’ he asked.

The giant’s face was not happy. When he finally nodded, it was obviously with some reluctance.

‘I’m sorry, my friend,’ Belgarath said to him, ‘but it’s really necessary.’

Toth sighed and then he sank to one knee and closed his eyes in an oddly prayerful fashion. Once again, as it had happened back on the Isle of Verkat and again at Rak Hagga, Garion heard a murmur as of many voices. Then there came that peculiar, multicolored shimmering in the air not far from Urvon’s shoddy throne. The air cleared, and the unwavering form of the Seeress of Kell appeared on the dais. For the first time, Garion looked closely at her. She was slender and somehow looked very vulnerable, a helplessness accentuated by her white robe and her blindfolded eyes. There was, however, a serenity in her face—the serenity of someone who has looked full in the face of Destiny and has accepted it without question or reservation. For some reason, he felt almost overcome with awe in her radiant presence.

‘Thank you for coming, Cyradis,’ Belgarath said simply. ‘I’m sorry to have troubled you. I know how difficult it is for you to do this, but there are some answers I need before we can go any further.’

‘I will tell thee as much as I am permitted to say, Ancient One,’ she replied. Her voice was light and musical, but there was, nonetheless, a firmness in it that spoke of an unearthly resolve. ‘I must say unto thee, however, that thou must make haste. The time for the final meeting draws nigh.’

‘That’s one of the things I wanted to talk about. Can you be any more specific about this appointed time?’

She seemed to consider it as if consulting with some power so immense that Garion’s imagination shuddered back from the very thought of it. ‘I know not time in thy terms, Holy Belgarath,’ she said simply, ‘but only for so long as a babe lieth beneath his mother’s heart remains ere the Child of Light and the Child of Dark must face each other in the Place Which Is No More, and my task must be completed.’

‘All right,’ he said. ‘That’s clear enough, I guess. Now, when you came to us at Mal Zeth, you said that there was a task here at Ashaba that needed to be accomplished before we could move on. A great deal has happened here, so I can’t pinpoint exactly what that task was. Can you be a bit more specific?’

‘The task is completed, Eternal One, for the Book of the Heavens sayeth that the Huntress must find her prey and bring him low in the House of Darkness in the sixteenth moon. And lo, even as the stars have proclaimed, it hath come to pass.’

The old man’s face took on a slightly puzzled expression.

‘Ask further, Disciple of Aldur,’ she told him. ‘My time with you grows short.’

‘I’m supposed to follow the trail of the Mysteries,’ he said, ‘but Zandramas cut certain key passages out of the copy of the Ashabine Oracles she left here for me to find.’

‘Nay, Ancient One. It was not the hand of Zandramas which mutilated thy book, but rather the hand of its author.’

‘
Torak?
’ he sounded startled.

‘Even so. For know thou that the words of prophecy come unbidden, and ofttimes their import is not pleasing unto the prophet. So it was with the master of this house.’

‘But Zandramas managed to put her hands on a copy that hadn’t been mutilated?’ he asked.

The seeress nodded.

‘Are there any other copies that Burnt-face didn’t tamper with?’ Beldin asked intently.

‘Only two,’ she replied. ‘One is in the house of Urvon the Disciple, but that one lieth under the hand of Nahaz, the accursed. Seek not to wrest it from him, lest ye die.’

‘And the other?’ the hunchback demanded.

‘Seek out the clubfooted one, for he will aid thee in thy search.’

‘That’s not too helpful, you know.’

‘I speak to thee in the words that stand in the Book of the Heavens and were written ere the world began. These words have no language but speak instead directly to the soul.’