Garion looked at Cyradis. The blindfolded girl’s face was calm, even serene. The half-concealment of the strip of cloth across her eyes had always at least partially concealed her features from him. In this light, however, he suddenly realized just how extraordinarily beautiful she really was. ‘That raises something rather interesting, Grandfather,’ he said. ‘Cyradis, didn’t you tell us that the Child of Dark has always been solitary? Doesn’t that mean that she’ll have to face us alone tomorrow?’
‘Thou hast misread my meaning, Belgarion of Riva. Thou and each of thy companions have had your names writ large in the stars since the beginning of days. Those who will accompany the Child of Dark, however, are of no moment. Their names do not stand in the book of the heavens. Zandramas is the only emissary of the dark prophecy of any significance. The others she will bring with her were doubtless chosen at random, and their numbers are limited to match your force.’
‘A fair fight, then,’ Velvet murmured approvingly. ‘I think we can probably cope.’
‘That doesn’t bode too well for me, though,’ Beldin said. ‘Back at Rheon, you rather carefully listed the people who were supposed to come here with Garion. As I recall, my name wasn’t on the list. Do you suppose they forgot to send me an invitation?’
‘Nay, gentle Beldin. Thy presence here is necessary now. Zandramas hath included in her forces one who is beyond the prophecies. Thou art here to offset that one, though in numbers only.’
‘Zandramas can’t ever play a game without cheating, can she?’ Silk said.
‘Can you?’ Velvet asked him.
‘That’s different. I’m only playing for worthless counters – bits and pieces of unimportant metal. The stakes in this game are a lot higher.’
The cabin door opened, and Captain Kresca entered with several rolls of parchment under his arm. He had changed out of his doublet and now wore a tar-stained canvas sea-coat and no hat. Garion saw that his short-cropped hair was as silvery as Belgarath’s, a startling contrast to his deeply tanned and weathered face. ‘The storm seems to be abating,’ he announced. ‘At least around the reef it is. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a storm like this.’
‘I’d be surprised if you had, Captain,’ Beldin told him. ‘As closely as we can determine, this is the first one – and probably the last – of its kind.’
‘I think you’re wrong, friend,’ Captain Kresca disagreed. ‘There’s nothing new in the way of weather in the world. It’s all happened before.’
‘Just let it lie,’ Belgarath said quietly to Beldin. ‘He’s a Melcene. He’s not really prepared for this sort of thing.’
‘All right,’ the captain said, pushing their soup bowls out of the way and laying his charts on the table. ‘We’re here.’ He pointed. ‘Now, which part of the reef was it you propose to land on?’
‘The highest pinnacle,’ Belgarath told him.
Kresca sighed. ‘I might have known,’ he said. ‘That’s the one part of the reef where my charts aren’t too accurate. About the time I got to taking soundings around that one, a squall came out of nowhere, and I had to back off.’ He thought about it. ‘No matter,’ he decided. ‘We’ll stand a half-mile or so off shore and go in with the long-boat. There’s something you ought to know about that part of the reef, though.’
‘Oh?’ Belgarath said.
‘I think there are some people there.’
‘I sort of doubt it.’
‘I don’t really know of any other creature that builds fires, do you? There’s a cave on the north side of that pinnacle, and sailors have been seeing the light of fires coming out of the mouth of it for years now. It’s my guess that there’s a band of pirates living in there. It wouldn’t be all that hard for them to come out in small boats on dark nights and waylay merchantmen in the straits on the landward side of the reef.’
‘Can you see the fire from where we are right now?’ Garion asked him.
‘I’d guess so. Let’s go topside and have a look.’
The ladies, Sadi, and Toth remained in the cabin, and Garion and his other friends followed Captain Kresca up the companionway to the deck. The wind which had been howling through the rigging when the sailors had dropped anchor had fallen off, and the surf along the reef was no longer frothy.
‘There,’ Kresca said, pointing. ‘It’s not quite as visible from this angle, but you can make it out. When you’re standing out to sea from the cave-mouth, it’s really bright.’
Dimly, Garion could see a sooty red glow a short way up the side of a bulky-looking peak jutting up out of the sea. The other rocks that formed the reef appeared to be little more than slender spires, but the central peak had a different shape. For some reason, it reminded Garion of the truncated mountain which was the site of far-off Prolgu in Ulgoland.
‘Nobody’s ever explained to my satisfaction how the top of that mountain got sliced off like that,’ Kresca said.
‘It’s probably a very long story,’ Silk told him. The little man shivered. ‘It’s still a little chilly out here,’ he noted. ‘Why don’t we go below again?’
Garion fell back to walk beside Belgarath. ‘What’s making that light, Grandfather?’ he asked quietly.
‘I’m not entirely sure,’ Belgarath replied, ‘but I think it might be the Sardion. We know it’s in that cave.’
‘We do?’
‘Of course we do. At the time of the meeting, the Orb and the Sardion have to come into each others’ presence in the same way you and Zandramas do. That Melcene scholar who stole the Sardion – the one Senji told us about – sailed around the southern tip of Gandahar and disappeared into these waters. That was all too convenient to be mere coincidence. The Sardion was controlling the scholar, and the scholar delivered the stone to the precise place it wanted to go. It’s probably been waiting for us in that cave for about five hundred years.’
Garion looked back over his shoulder. The hilt of his sword was covered by the leather sleeve, but he was still fairly certain that he’d be able to see the muted glow of the Orb. ‘Doesn’t the Orb usually react to the presence of the Sardion?’ he asked.
‘We may not be close enough yet, and we’re still at sea. Open water confuses the Orb. Then, too, maybe it’s trying to conceal itself from the Sardion.’
‘Could it actually think its way through that complex an idea? It’s usually fairly childish, I’ve noticed.’
‘Don’t underestimate it, Garion.’
‘Everything’s fitting together, then, isn’t it?’
‘It all has to, Garion. Otherwise what’s going to happen tomorrow couldn’t happen.’
‘Well, father?’ Polgara asked as they re-entered the cabin.
‘There’s a fire of some kind in that cave, all right,’ he told her. His fingers, however, were telling her something else. – We’ll talk about it in more detail after the captain leaves. – He turned toward Kresca. ‘When’s the next low tide?’ he asked the seaman.
Kresca squinted, calculating. ‘We just missed one,’ he said. ‘The tide’s coming in now. The next low tide will come about day-break and, if my observations are correct, it should be a neap tide. Well, I’ll leave you to get some rest now. I sort of gather that you’ve got a full day ahead of you tomorrow.’
‘Thank you, Captain Kresca,’ Garion said, shaking the seaman’s hand.
‘Don’t mention it, Garion,’ Kresca grinned. ‘The King of Peldane paid me very handsomely for this voyage, so being helpful doesn’t really cost me anything.’
‘Good,’ Garion grinned back. ‘I like to see friends get ahead in the world.’
The captain laughed and went back out with a hearty wave.
‘What was he talking about?’ Sadi asked. ‘What’s a neap tide?’
‘It only happens a few times a year,’ Beldin explained. ‘It’s an extreme low tide. It has to do with the positions of the sun and moon.’
‘Everything seems to be going out of its way to make tomorrow a very special day,’ Silk observed.
>
‘All right, father,’ Polgara said crisply. ‘What’s the story on the fire in that cave?’
‘I can’t be positive, Pol, but I rather strongly suspect that it’s not a group of pirates – not after all the trouble the prophecies have gone to, keep people away from the cave.’
‘What do you think it is, then?’
‘It’s probably the Sardion.’
‘Would it give off a red glow?’
He shrugged. ‘The Orb glows blue. I suppose there’s a sort of logic to the Sardion’s glowing a different color.’
‘Why not green?’ Silk asked.
‘Green’s an in-between color,’ Beldin told him. ‘It’s a mixture of blue and yellow.’
‘You’re a real gold mine of useless information, you know that, Beldin?’ Silk said.
‘There’s no such thing as useless information, Kheldar,’ Beldin sniffed.
‘All right,’ Zakath said, ‘how are we going to go about this?’
‘Cyradis,’ Belgarath said to the Seeress, ‘I’m guessing about this, but I think I’m fairly close. Nobody is going to reach that cave first, are they? What I mean is that the prophecies aren’t going to let Zandramas get there before we do – or let us get there first either.’
‘Astounding,’ Beldin murmured. ‘That actually sounded like real logic. Aren’t you feeling well, Belgarath?’
‘Would you please?’ Belgarath growled. ‘Well, Cyradis?’
She paused, her expression distant. Garion seemed to hear that faint choral murmuring. ‘Thy reasoning is correct, Ancient One. The same perception came to Zandramas some time ago, so I am not revealing anything unto thee which she doth not already know. Zandramas, however, hath rejected the fruits of her reasoning and hath striven to circumvent her conclusions.’
‘Very well, then,’ Zakath said, ‘since we’re all going to get there at the same time anyway, and since everybody knows about it, there’s not much point in being coy, is there? I say we just land on the beach and march straight to the cave.’
‘Stopping only long enough for you and me to put on our armor,’ Garion added. ‘It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to dress up here on board ship. It might make Kresca nervous.’
‘Your plan sounds good to me, Zakath,’ Durnik agreed.
‘I’m not so sure,’ Silk said dubiously. ‘There’s a certain advantage to sneaking.’
‘Drasnians,’ Ce’Nedra sighed.
‘Listen to his reasons before you throw the notion out, Ce’Nedra,’ Velvet suggested.
‘It’s sort of like this,’ Silk went on. ‘Zandramas knows – deep down – that she can’t beat us to that cave, but she’s been trying for months all the same, hoping that there’s some way she can by-pass the rules. Now, let’s try to think the way she does.’
‘I’d sooner take poison,’ Ce’Nedra said with a shudder.
‘It’s only for the sake of understanding your opponent, Ce’Nedra. Now, Zandramas has been hoping against hope that she can beat us to that cave and avoid the necessity of coming up against Garion. He did kill Torak, after all, and nobody in his right mind would willingly confront the Godslayer.’
‘I‘m going to have that removed from my title when I get back to Riva,’ Garion said sourly.
‘You can do that later,’ Silk told him. ‘What would Zandramas most likely feel if she arrived at the cave-mouth, looked around, and didn’t see us?’
‘I think I see where you’re going, Kheldar,’ Sadi said admiringly.
‘You would,’ Zakath said drily.
‘It’s really rather brilliant, you know, Kal Zakath,’ the eunuch said. ‘Zandramas is going to feel a wild exultation. She’ll believe that she’s succeeded in circumventing the prophecies and that she’s won in spite of them.’
‘Then what’s going to happen to her when we all step out from behind a boulder and she finds out that she still has to face Garion and submit to the choice of Cyradis after all?’ Silk asked.
‘She’s probably going to be very disappointed,’ Velvet said.
‘I think disappointment might be too mild a term,’ Silk suggested. ‘I think chagrin might come closer. Couple that with exasperation and a healthy dose of fear, and we’ll be looking at somebody who’s not going to be thinking too clearly. We’re fairly sure there’s going to be a fight when we get there, and you’ve always got an advantage in a fight when the opposing general is distracted.’
‘It’s sound tactical reasoning, Garion,’ Zakath conceeded.
‘I’ll go along with it,’ Belgarath said. ‘If nothing else, it should give me the opportunity to pay Zandramas back for all the times she’s upset me. I think I still owe her just a bit for slicing pieces out of the Ashabine Oracles. I’ll talk with Captain Kresca early tomorrow morning and find out if there’s a beach on the east side of the peak. With a neap tide, our chances should be pretty good. Then we’ll work our way up along the side of the peak, staying out of sight. We’ll take cover near the cave mouth and wait for Zandramas to put in an appearance. Then we’ll step out and surprise her.’
‘I can add an even bigger advantage,’ Beldin said. ‘I’ll scout on ahead and let you know when she lands. That way, you’ll be ready for her.’
‘Not as a hawk, though, Uncle,’ Polgara suggested.
‘Why not?’
‘Zandramas isn’t stupid. A hawk wouldn’t have any business on that reef. There wouldn’t be anything there for him to eat.’
‘Maybe she’ll think the storm blew me out to sea.’
‘Do you want to risk your tail feathers on a maybe? A seagull, Uncle.’
‘A seagull?’ he objected. ‘But they’re so stupid – and so dirty.’
‘You? Worried about dirt?’ Silk asked him, looking up. Silk had been busily counting on his fingers.
‘Don’t push it, Kheldar,’ Beldin growled ominously.
‘What day of the month was Prince Geran born on?’ Silk asked Ce’Nedra.
‘The seventh, why?’
‘We appear to have another one of those things that’s setting out to make tomorrow very special. If I’ve counted right, tomorrow will be your son’s second birthday.’
‘It can’t be!’ she exclaimed. ‘My baby was born in the winter time.’
‘Ce’Nedra,’ Garion said gently, ‘Riva’s up near the top of the world. This reef is near the bottom. It is winter in Riva right now. Count up the months since Geran was born – the time he spent with us before Zandramas stole him, the time we spent marching on Rheon, the trip to Prolgu then to Tol Honeth and on to Nyissa and all those other places where we had to stop. I think if you count rather closely, you’ll find that it has been very close to two years.’
She frowned, ticking the months off. Finally, her eyes went very wide. ‘I think he’s right!’ she exclaimed. ‘Geran will be two years old tomorrow!’
Durnik laid his hand on the little queen’s arm. ‘I’ll see if I can make something for you to give him as a present, Ce’Nedra,’ he said gently. ‘A boy ought to have a birthday present after he’s been separated from his family for so long.’
Ce’Nedra’s eyes filled with tears. ‘Oh, Durnik!’ She wept, embracing him. ‘You think of everything.’
Garion looked at Aunt Pol, his fingers moving slightly. – Why don’t you ladies take her in and put her to bed?—he suggested.—We’re all through here, and if she thinks too much about this, she’s going to get herself worked up.—Tomorrow’s going to be hard enough for her anyway.—
—You might be right.—
After the ladies had left, Garion and the other men sat around the bolted-down table reminiscing. They covered in some detail the various adventures they had shared since that wind-tossed night so long ago when Garion, Belgarath, Aunt Pol and Durnik had crept out through the gate of Faldor’s farm into the world where the possible and the impossible inexorably merged. Again, Garion felt that sense of cleansing, coupled with something else. It was as if, by recapitulating all that had happened in thei
r long journey to the reef lying out there in the darkness, they were somehow bringing everything into focus to strengthen their resolve and their sense of purpose. It seemed to help for some reason.
‘I think that’s about enough of that,’ Belgarath said finally, rising to his feet. ‘Now we all know what’s behind us. It’s time to pack all that away and start looking ahead. Let’s get some sleep.’
Ce’Nedra stirred restlessly when Garion slipped into bed. ‘I thought you were going to stay up all night,’ she said sleepily.
‘We were talking.’
‘I know. I could hear the murmur of voices even in here. And men think women talk all the time.’
‘Don’t you?’
‘Probably, but a woman can talk while her hands are busy. A man can’t.’
‘You might be right.’
There was a moment of silence. ‘Garion,’ she said.
‘Yes, Ce’Nedra?’
‘Can I borrow your knife – the little dagger Durnik gave you when you were a boy?’
‘If you want something cut, point it out. I’ll cut it for you.’
‘It’s nothing like that, Garion. I just want to have a knife tomorrow.’
‘What for?’
‘As soon as I see Zandramas, I’m going to kill her.’
‘Ce’Nedra!’
‘I have every right to kill her, Garion. You told Cyradis you didn’t think you could do it because Zandramas is a woman. I don’t suffer from the same kind of delicacy as you do. I’m going to carve out her heart – if she has one – slowly.’ She said it with a fierceness he had never heard in her voice before. ‘I want blood, Garion! Lots of blood, and I want to hear her scream as I twist the knife in her. You’ll lend me your dagger, won’t you?’
‘Absolutely not!’
‘That’s all right, Garion,’ she said in an icy tone. ‘I’m sure Liselle will lend me one of hers. Liselle’s a woman and she knows how I feel.’ Then she turned her back on him.
‘Ce’Nedra,’ he said placatingly.
‘Yes?’ Her tone was sulky.