In a rude village on the banks of the River Mrin there dwelt a man so like a beast that his family kenneled him. He spoke no human speech, but rather howled and whined like a very dog. And yet in his thirtieth year the power of Prophecy came to him, and the rapture descended upon him, and he began to speak. And as chance had it, the King of that land was one of the sons of Bear-shoulders, and he had gone with his father and ancient Belgarath to the City of Endless Night to reclaim the Orb. Now this King—whom men called Bull-neck—had been warned by Belgarath to listen for the Voice of Prophecy and to record it when it came. And so it was that King Bull-neck sent scribes to the village of the Prophet to record his words.
And we marveled at this, for the God of Angarak dwelt in a great palace high in the mountains of Karanda, and the Prophet of the River Mrin dwelt in a mud and wattle kennel by the riverbank, and yet the rapture of Prophecy was equally upon them— and it seemed in some wise that the higher and more exalted Torak became, the lower and more degraded became the one who spoke the Prophecies of the Destiny which opposed him. And behold, in his final days, after he had Prophesied for twenty years, the mind of the Prophet of Mrin broke entirely, and his idiocy became tainted with madness, and King Bull-neck perforce was obliged to have him chained to a post before his kennel lest he do himself injury or run into the fens to live with the beasts.
And from afar we watched and we waited, and when the rapture of Prophecy had passed we sent certain of our number to copy down the Prophecies of the idiot of Mrin and the God of Angarak that we might compare them and learn from them.
And there were lesser Prophecies as well during this time. The First Destiny spake through the mouth of a merchant of Darine in far-off Sendaria, and the Second Destiny spake from the mouth of a slave at Rak Cthol in the wasteland of Murgos. And a scholar in Melcena was seized by an ecstasy and spake in the voice of the First Destiny for three hundred and nine hours—and then he died. And a seaman and warrior of the far northern kingdom of Cherek leapt from his sleep aboard a Cherek war-boat to speak Prophecies of the coming of Torak, and his shipmates bound him in chains and cast him into the sea.
with the beginning of the Fourth Age, the time of Prophecy ended
And there was in all of this a design which we could not perceive. The Destinies which contended with each other at the center of creation moved mysteriously to counter each other, and whom they chose to speak and where the Prophecies were spoken were as vital as what was said—and it was beyond our understanding.
But with the beginning of the Fourth Age, the time of Prophecy ended and the time of EVENT began. And the first EVENT was the slaying of the King of Riva, who was the keeper of the Orb. And Torak exulted in the death of the King of Riva, which Zedar the Apostate had caused to come to pass. But the Dragon God knew not that by that act had his own fate been sealed. For behold, the death of the Rivan King consumed the heart of Polgara the Sorceress with eternal hatred for the maimed God, and if he could not win Polgara’s love, he was doomed.
And the next EVENT was the coming of Angarak against the Kingdoms of the West. And upon the field at Vo Mimbre was Torak overcome by the power of the Orb and bound by it to await the coming of his enemy.
And EVENTS, both large and small, followed the overthrow of Torak, and we saw in the course of those EVENTS the hands of the two Fates, and we saw also the intricate moves of their eternal game. But no EVENT resounded more in the stars than the birth of Belgarion. And in his sixteenth year he put forth his hand to claim the Orb, and when his hand touched it, all of creation rang like some vast bell.
And now the EVENT for which the universe and Time itself had waited drew near, and the two Destinies confronted each other in the ruins of the City of Night. And it came to pass that Torak, Dragon God of Angarak, was slain by the hand of Belgarion, the Keeper of the Orb. And that EVENT signaled the beginning of the Fifth Age.
And the Fifth Age began in darkness and confusion, for the Book of the Heavens had changed in the instant of Torak’s death, and we could no longer read it. Moreover, with the death of Torak we felt a shudder pass through all of creation, and we were chagrined, for one of the Destinies appeared to have been vanquished—and we had not yet chosen between them. The First Destiny had been fulfilled and the Second had failed, but we still did not know which was Good and which was Evil. And if the Prophecies of Torak had been the voice of truth, then Good had passed forever from creation, and we were doomed to eternal Evil.
Desperately we sought to learn anew the language of the Great Book of the Heavens, but one of our number, who had ever bent his attention to the voices within the rocks, came to us and spake, saying: ‘Behold, the rocks still speak with two voices.’ And the spirits also spake unto us, saying: ‘Behold, the Child of Light and the Child of Dark still contend with each other in the spirit world.’And as the Book of the Heavens became clear once more, we read with astonishment that the two Destinies continued their endless game. In the meeting between Belgarion and Torak one aspect of the one Destiny perished. And we perceived that other such meetings had taken place—and that still more would. Even now, a new aspect of the Destiny which had failed with the death of Torak had begun to move about the world—and in some regard this aspect seemed a dark reflection of Polgara the Sorceress. And we shuddered at the prospect of the meeting between this dark shape and terrible Polgara.
And as the Book of the Heavens became clearer, we read there that the struggle between the two Destinies will continue for so long as the two stones which once were one still exist. For even as the stones were once the center of all creation, each is now at the core of a different Destiny, and so long as both exist, the endless struggle will go on.
And we searched even more urgently for that stone which is the counter to the Orb, for Behold, the Orb is in the hand of Belgarion, and he is a mighty sorcerer. Should the two stones be drawn together for their final confrontation, the hand of Belgarion will surely enter into the struggle, and we do not know if this is as it should be—but how might we deny to mighty Belgarion anything he chooses to do?
The second stone is here. The rocks of this world reverberate with the sound of its presence. The two stones move toward each other as inexorably as the Fates they represent. We must find the second stone, and we must delay Belgarion lest he bring the Orb into the presence of the other stone before we have made our choice. For should the meeting take place before we have chosen, all of creation will perish.
BOOK 3
THE BOOK OF TASKS
Now These are the Tasks which have been set us:
ONCE WE SAT UPON THE EARTH in the shadow of the mountains of Korim, which are no more, and we made great moan that we had been made and cast out. And even as we grieved, the gift of sight came to one of our people, and she became a Seeress, and she spake unto us of the Feast of Life and of the Beloved Guest who would one day arrive to partake of that feast. And she exhorted us to prepare for his coming. She told us of the signs in the sky and in the earth and commanded that we learn to read those signs in order that we might choose between the two who would one day come to us.
So it was that we turned our faces first to the heavens, and we despaired for there seemed no sign there. But lo! a great light streamed across the night sky, trailing clouds of fire behind it like a veil. And in those clouds of fire read we the first word in the Book of the Heavens, and the word we read was ‘Peril’. Painfully we began to piece together the message written in the stars. And as we labored at this, others of our number strove to hear the voices which whispered within the rocks. Now there were whispers which all men might hear, but they spoke in a language which no man could translate. But lo! in a certain time the earth was seized by the throes of earthquake, and the whisper of the rocks became a shriek, and in that shriek we found the first word of the language of the rocks, and the word we heard was ‘peril’.
For centuries we struggled with the signs among the stars that we might read them, and for centuries we wrestled wit
h the whispers in the rocks that we might hear them more clearly and translate them. And in time it came to pass that one amongst us lifted his face to the sky and read clearly there the message of the stars. And the message read: ‘Peril lies at the heart of the choice, for should ye choose awry, all of creation will be bent to the design of EVIL, and GOOD shall perish and be no more.’ And at the same time, another of our scholars arose and went to a certain rock and laid his ear against it, and he heard therein the voice of the rock speaking clearly unto him. And the rock said: ‘Peril lies at the heart of the choice, for should ye choose awry, all of creation will be bent to the design of EVIL, and GOOD shall perish and be no more.’
And as we studied further, the Book of the Heavens became more clear, and the Voice of the Earth more audible. But the pages written in the stars and the volumes spoken from the earth provided no aid to us in the choice which we must make. Both earth and sky warned repeatedly that two would come to us, and that one was good and one was evil and that we must choose between them, but neither earth nor sky would advise us which was which. And we sent scholars into other realms of knowledge to seek the answer we must have. And some of them communed with the dead and others spoke with spirits and with beasts and with trees. And our seers cast their sight into the far future and the distant past, but nowhere could we find the answer.
often what the sky did not say, the earth did
And upon a certain day we gathered together upon the plains of Temba to consider our task and what we might do to complete it. And we brought together all that we had learned from earth and sky, from the living and the dead, from the spirits and the beasts and the trees. And when it was all before us, we were amazed that we had discovered so much, for often what the sky did not say, the earth did, and if neither earth nor sky spoke to a matter, the spirits did. And when it was all joined together we discovered that our first task was complete. We had learned of the division which marred creation; we have learned of the two spirits at the core of the division; and we have learned of the two stones which once were one but will never be rejoined.
And as we contemplated this, an aged man arose from our midst and did bind his eyes with a cloth and spake unto us in the voice of vision, saying:
‘BEHOLD! Thy first task is complete, and now thou wilt turn unto the second. The two spirits which mar creation with Division contend with one another upon this earth even now. One of the two stones is here and the God-form of the other Destiny also. Even now the God raises the stone against the earth. Seize upon this opportunity to study the two Fates. Learn all that may be learned of them that thou might make the choice between them.’
And even as the seer set this task upon us, the earth heaved and split asunder as the God and the stone joined to crack the world. And we turned all of our effort to the study of the two Destinies which were revealing themselves by their acts. The First Destiny we found to be obdurate and unforgiving, and some among us seized upon this, saying: ‘Surely this Destiny must be the Evil one, since Good cannot be so.’ But we pointed out to them that we had considered only the aspect of the Fate which was represented by the stone, and it is most natural for a stone to be obdurate and unforgiving. And in like manner we found the Second Destiny filled with pride of Self and with a great longing for praise and adulation; but these were the natural attributes of a certain kind of God, and it was such a God which represented the God-aspect of the Second Fate.
for the one stone there was another; for the God, there was another God
And so we bent our minds to the task of seeing beyond the aspects to the true nature of the two Fates. And in the Book of the Heavens we found the pages which spoke of the First Destiny before the arrival of the Second. The fate then of all that was all that is and all that is yet to be bent toward one EVENT, which was to come at a certain time and was to be the fulfillment of creation. And then we turned to the pages which spoke of the Second Destiny before it became aware of the existence of the First; and Behold! the Second Destiny also moved inexorably toward one EVENT. At a certain time the two Fates will confront each other in all their aspects and the fate of creation will be chosen.
And as we learned more, we discovered more and more of the aspects of the two Destinies; and we found them always to be in balance. For the one stone there was another; for the God, there was another God; for the hero, a hero; for the woman, a woman; for the sword, a sword. In all things were the two Fates so balanced that the weight of a single feather might tip the course of the ultimate EVENT.
And behind it all we found that the First Destiny of creation was unchanging and immutable, permanent and unmoving. The Second Destiny we found to be bent on change and alteration, transmutation and progression. And we saw evidence of these differences in all of the acts of the two Destinies, and we argued among ourselves concerning the nature of GOOD and the nature of EVIL, and at last we were still unsure and unable to state with certainty that change was good or evil or that absolute immutability was the Fate we should choose.
And even as we considered all that we had learned, ancient Belgarath, himself one aspect of the First Destiny, moved to retrieve his master’s Orb from the City of Endless Night. And as the morning of that day dawned, a Seeress we had not known before came down from out the mountains bordering upon Darshiva, and the voiceless man who guided her was of a strange race. And the Seeress raised her voice and laid our third task upon us.
‘Behold,’ she said, ‘the Third Age of man has begun, and this is the Age of Prophecy. And it shall be thy task to gather up all the Prophecies which are spoken by the one Destiny or by the other. Seek ye, therefore, among the lands of all men for the Prophets who will speak the words of the Fates, and gather up all that is said and carry the words of Prophecy to the speakers, who will wrest the meaning from them.’ And so saying the nameless
for the times themselves seemed mad
Seeress turned and went her way, and we saw her no more.
And the task the Seeress had lain upon us was long and hard, for Prophecy hovers ever on the verge of madness, and we were perforce obliged to seek out every madman in all the kingdoms of the world and to take down all the ravings of gibbering insanity. And some of the words of the madmen of this world seemed to be the words of Fate, and some of the words of true Prophets seemed to be the ravings of the deranged, and we knew not which was the Voice of Prophecy and which the Voice of Madness. And so, that we leave no true Prophecy un-gathered, we carried all such mouthings back to the Seers at Kell, where they winnowed Prophecy from madness.
And sometimes we despaired, for the times themselves seemed mad. And we found, moreover, that sprites and Devils oft-times in mockery would speak through innocent mouths in the tones of Prophecy to lead us astray. But we persevered, and when the Age of Prophecy ended, we found that of all that we had gathered, scant few grains were the true voices of the Fates, and all that remained was dross, and the knowledge was bitter to us.
And in the midst of our sorrow the Seeress Onatel came to us with words of comfort, saying:
‘Grieve not, nor let your shoulders be bowed down in despair, for the greatest task lies yet before ye, and all that has gone before is a preparation and a testing. And this is the task which ye must perform. All that is needful has been given. In this Age must ye make the Choice.’
And we heard her words in astonishment, for we knew not that the Third Age had ended and the Fourth Age had begun. But in time our kinsman returned from the north and told us what he had seen in the house of Torak, and we began to understand. Torak was not the culmination of the Fate which ruled him, and we must look further to find the God who would one day come to us. Yet the Seeress Onatel had told us that we had all that was needful to make the choice. How could we choose between two Gods who had not yet come to us? Clearly we had received some knowledge which we had overlooked—some sign which had escaped us. And so we gathered on the plains of Kell to consider all that we had learned.
And in time we despai
red, for we found no certainty in all that we had gathered—no truth which emerged which could guide us without the possibility of error. And again the Seeress Onatel came to us, saying:
‘Behold! I will tell you a mystery. The choice will be made by one of ye—not by all. And the choice between the two Fates will not be made in wisdom, but in desperation. At a certain time, the Fates will confront each other, and one of ye will see at last what none have seen as yet, and that one will choose.’ And with that Onatel left us.
And we reasoned that the Fates must meet in one of the great EVENTS which were written large in the Book of the Heavens, and we journeyed about the world to be present at those EVENTS. One of our number was present when the Rivan King was slain, but there was no choice to be made at that EVENT. And one of us was present when Torak set his forces in motion against the West. And one stood nearby at Vo Mimbre when maimed Torak met in single combat with the Warder of Riva and was struck down by the power of the Orb. And one of us was in the rude village where Belgarion was born and not far from the burning house in which the Godslayer’s parents perished. We were at Riva when the Orb was delivered into Belgarion’s hand and hovered for an instant on the verge of choice, but forbore a moment and the EVENT slipped past us.
The Rivan Codex Page 33