The Rivan Codex

by David Eddings

  Now the forms of worship which the Grolims practiced were repugnant to us, but we placed no blame for those forms at the feet of Torak, for the pupil may corrupt the intent of the master and do in his name that which the master had not intended. And so we observed, and we waited, and we remained silent.

  In time the events of the world intruded upon us. The children of the Dragon God, whom men called Angarak, allied themselves by marriage with the great city-builders of the east, who called themselves Melcene, and between them they built an empire which bestrode the continent. Now the Angaraks were doers of deeds, but the Melcenes were performers of tasks. A deed once done is done forever, but a task returns every day. And the Melcenes 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 collide.

  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 all the light in all of creation went out

  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.

  yet we felt a presence, shrouded and veiled in darkness

  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 Bel
garion was the Child of Light. Further, we read that the mothers of the Child of Light and the Child of Dark would guide them to the meeting, and the signs said most clearly that Polgara was the mother of the Child of Light. But Polgara’s Destiny was to be forever childless, and this had been in her stars since before her birth.77 Moreover, even should the impossible occur and Belgarion be won over to the other Fate and, like Zedar, become Apostate, Belgarion’s mother, Ildera, had died when he was but an infant. Yet we felt a presence, shrouded and veiled in darkness, moving through the affairs of men, and the moon spake most clearly, advising us that this dark presence was a woman, and that her power was even as great as Polgara’s. But this Mother of Dark was also childless.

  And the riddles of the stars baffled us and left us as helpless as the unlettered serf for whom the lights in the night sky were only stars and for whom the voices in the earth were only the sighing of wind or the beat of raindrops. One thing we saw most clearly, however. The Ages of Man grew shorter as each one passed, and the EVENTS which were the meetings between the two Fates were growing closer and closer together. Once there had been time for leisurely consideration of all that we had learned, but now we knew that we must hasten, lest the EVENT come upon us all unaware.

  And so it was in the tenth year following the death of Torak that we met at Kell, and there we determined that we could no longer stand idly aside, observing the course of EVENTS. The time for study had passed; now the time had come to act. It was decided that, since the signs in the Book of the Heavens had become an enigma, we must in some way control or goad or deceive the participants in the next EVENT to go to a place which we knew. Thus, though we could not know what the EVENT was to be, we could know when and where it was to take place.

  And we communicated this decision to the mind of a Seeress who dwelt in the lands to the west of the great sea which had divided the lands of this world, and we besought her that she go up unto the Vale of Aldur, where dwelt the Sorceress Polgara with her husband and a foundling Belgarion had rescued from the Disciple Ctuchik, and to speak to Polgara in such wise that she must perforce set out upon the journey which must inevitably bring her to a place of our choosing. And the Seeress in the lands of the west agreed to our request, and she set forth upon the journey with only her silent guide for company.

  And we all then turned to our preparations, for much remained to be done, and we were all resolved that this EVENT should be the last. Whatever the outcome should mean for this world, the division of creation had endured for too long, and we were determined that with this meeting between the two Fates, the division would end and all would be made one again.

  BOOK 2

  THE BOOK OF FATES

  Now These are the Fates we have known:

  IN THE DAYS before the world was divided, a spirit came unto us and told us of the Feast of Life and of the Beloved Guest who would one day come to partake of that feast. And the spirit spake also to us of signs in the heavens and whispers within the rocks which foretold the coming. And we lifted our eyes to the sky to read, and we bent our ears to the earth to hear, and we learned that a false voice would speak to us and try to lead us away from the truth. For behold, the fate of man is not a clear and straightforward path. Two fates await us, and the one is true and the other false. And we turned all our effort and all our care to the task of determining which fate was true and which fate false. But the Book of the Heavens, which told us so much, spoke not to that. Clearly we could read there that which would happen should we follow truth and that which would happen should we follow falsity, but the great book written in the stars spoke no word concerning which fate was which. And we were puzzled and fearful lest we choose awry.

  And we went away from the place where this had been revealed to us and took up the great task which had been placed upon us. Clearly, it is the task of our people to learn all that may be learned of the two Destinies which divide creation and to judge between them and determine which is the path of truth. And we sought out the wisdom of spirits and the wisdom of other men and even the wisdom of Gods and Prophets. And men and spirits and Gods and Prophets gave us their wisdom, and behold, they knew no more than we. All believed that the fate they followed was the true Fate, but none could offer certainty or proof. Thus it was that the task remained before us. And we took counsel with each other, for we saw that others, by reason of their adherence to one fate or the other could read the Book of the Heavens only indistinctly, but that we, who still sought truth, could read it clearly. And the burden of our task grew heavy, for truly, in our choosing we choose for all of man.

  all believed that the fate they followed was the true Fate, but none could offer certainty or proof

  To aid us to choose aright we turned to the pages of the book of the stars that speak of beginnings. And on the first page of the Great Book it is written that at the beginning there was but one Destiny and one Fate for all that had ever been made, and the fate was a purpose and a necessity. But it came to pass in the timelessness which existed before there was any man to consider the meaning of time, that a Second Destiny came into being, and it was also a necessity and a purpose. And the second purpose was at odds with the first, and the pull of the one against the other strained the very fabric of creation. And out of that stirring there came to be awareness, for each Destiny became aware of the other. And they became mortal foes, for each stood athwart the path of the other, and so long as both existed, neither could be fulfilled. And each Fate put its hands upon events to twist them and turn them so that the other fate might be defeated. Great forces were set in motion which must inevitably collide; and the two Fates spake unto those who would be their instruments.

  and the lands parted like cloud before Torak and the stone he raised

  The voices of these two Great Destinies and the words they speak are called Prophecy, and a Prophecy must be fulfilled. Were there but one voice and one Destiny, our task would have ended with the discovery of that voice. But there are two voices and two Prophecies, and all of creation is a battleground between them. And the Prophets of the First Destiny proclaimed that the other Fate was an error and an abomination; while the Prophets of the Second declared that the First Fate had been the embodiment of evil which had now been supplanted by truth.

  And we considered these Prophecies and teachings, and it was possible that an error could lead inevitably to evil, but it was also possible that evil might have existed from the beginning of time in order to be corrected.

  Now at about the same time that we learned of the two great voices and the two Destinies, it came to pass that the world was also divided, even as the rest of creation, and behold! The dividing of our world came about as the result of the touch of one Destiny upon the other, for the God of the people called Angarak was the fruit of the Second Fate, and the stone which he raised was the instrument of the First Fate. So vast was the force of their coming together that earth herself could not bear the weight, and the lands parted like cloud before Torak and the stone he raised, and the seas came in, and that which had been one became two.

  And when the movement of the seas and the dry lands had subsided, there were two places where men dwelt, and the men in one of those places followed the First Destiny, and the men in the other place followed the Second. And we marveled at the perfection of this. Yet as we considered what had taken place, we found a flaw in it, for there was not symmetry within it. The God of Angarak and the stone which men call the Orb are not equal. For Torak is one aspect of the Second Destiny, and the Orb is a different aspect of the First. And we concluded that there must be a symmetry between the two—that there must somewhere be a God to match Torak and that somewhere there must be a stone which will represent the aspect of the Second Destiny which the Orb represents for the First. And as we turned this over in our minds, it became clear to us that when any aspect of the one Fate meets the same aspect of the other, that meeting will be the final meeting between the two, and one will triumph and one perish—but shoul
d we be unable to perform our part in this meeting, all that is will perish. Thus it was that we became aware that it would be upon this world that the ultimate contest between Good and Evil was destined to take place, and that we must prepare ourselves to do that which must be done.

  And we bent our efforts to find the stone which had been revealed by the flaw in the event which men call the Cracking of the World, for we reasoned that the coming together of the two stones was the most likely form of the final conflict, and could we find the other stone, we might be able to keep the two separate until we were ready for their meeting. But the Book of the Heavens spoke obscurely and the voices of the rocks muttered indistinctly, and our search proved in vain. Finally we realized that the two contending Destinies were concealing certain aspects of themselves from each other and from the eyes of men.

  With the beginning of the Third Age, which came into being when Belgarath and certain Alorns recovered the Orb of Aldur from the City of Endless Night, there dawned the great Age of Prophecy. And the fervor of Prophecy descended upon the maimed God of Angarak, and he spake in an ecstasy, and his words were the words of the Second Destiny. And we waited, for we knew that the First Destiny must also speak—for the word sets forth the meaning of the Event, and each Destiny must put its own meaning to the Events which inevitably must come to pass. Then from far to the north in the lands called the Kingdoms of the West came the voice of the First Destiny. And all in amaze we heard that voice—for Behold, the First Fate spake not in the voice of a God, but in the voice of an idiot.