"These are the names as they are written in the stars -and in the prophecies. The incidental and worldly names which were given them at the time of their births are of no moment in the timeless realm of the two Necessities which contend with each other at the center of all that is or ever will be. Each of these companions hath a certain task, and all tasks must be completed 'ere the meeting which is to come, else the Prophecy which hath guided thy steps since time began will fail."
"And what is my task, Cyradis?" Polgara asked her coolly."
"It is as it hath ever been, Holy Polgara. Thou must guide, and nurture, and protect, for thou art the mother -even as Ancient Belgarath is the father." The faintest of smiles touched the blindfolded girl's lips. "Others will aid thee in thy quest from time to time, Belgarion," she continued, "but those I have named must be with thee at that final meeting."
"What about us?" Barak demanded, "Hettar and Mandorallen and Lelldorin and me?"
"The tasks of each of you are complete, most Dreadful Bear, and the responsibility for them hath descended to your sons. Shouldst thou or the Bowman or the Horse Lord or the Knight Protector seek to join with Belgarion in this quest, thy presence will cause him to fail."
"Ridiculous!" the big man sputtered. "I'm certainly not staying behind."
"That choice is not thine to make." She turned back to Garion, laying her hand on the massive arm of her mute protector. "This is Toth," she said, slumping as if a great weariness were about to overcome her. "He hath guided my faltering steps since the day that other sight came upon me and I bound up mine eyes that I might better see. Though it doth rend my soul, he and I must now part for a little while. I have instructed him to aid thee in thy search. In the stars, he is called the Silent Man, and it is his destiny to be one of thy companions." She began to tremble as if in exhaustion. "One last word for thee, Belgarion," she said in a quavering voice. "Thy quest will be fraught with great peril, and one of thy companions shall lose his life in the course of it. Prepare thine heart therefore, for when this mischance occurs, thou must not falter, but must press on to the completion of the task which hath been laid upon thee."
"Who?" he said quickly. "Which one of them is going to die?"
"That hath not been revealed to me," she said. And then with an obvious effort, she straightened. "Remember me," she said, "for we shall meet anon." With that she vanished.
"Where did she go?" General Brendig exclaimed.
"She was never really here," Errand replied.
"It was a projection, Brendig," Belgarath said. "But the man -Toth- is solid. Now how did they work that? Do you know, Errand?"
Errand shrugged. "I can't tell, Belgarath. But it took the combined power of all the Seers at Kell."
"What absolute nonsense!" Barak burst out angrily, pounding one huge fist on the table. "Nothing in this world could make me stay behind!" "Mandorallen, Hettar, and Lelldorin vehemently nodded their agreement.
Garion looked at Polgara. "Could she possibly have been lying?" he asked.
"Cyradis? No. A seeress isn't capable of lying. She may have concealed a few things, but she could never have lied. What she told us was what she saw in the stars."
"How can she see the stars with that blindfold over her eyes?" Lelldorin objected.
Polgara spread her hands. "I don't know. The seers perceive things in ways we don't entirely understand."
"Maybe she read them wrong," Hettar suggested.
"The Seers at Kell are usually right," Beldin growled, "so I wouldn't necessarily want to bet my life on that."
"That brings us right to the point," Garion said. "I'm going to have to go alone."
"Alone?" Ce'Nedra gasped.
"You heard what she said. Somebody who goes with me is going to get killed."
"That hath ever been a possibility, Garion," Mandorallen said soberly.
"But never a certainty."
"I won't let you go by yourself," Barak declared.
Garion felt a peculiar wrench, almost as if he had been rudely pushed aside. He was powerless as a voice which was not his came from his lips. "Will you people stop all this babbling?" it demanded. "You've been given your instructions. Now follow them."
They all stared at Garion in amazement. He spread his hands helplessly, trying to let them know that he had no control over the words coming from his mouth.
Belgarath blinked. "This must be important, if it can make you take a hand directly," he said to the awareness that had suddenly usurped Garion's voice.
"You don't have time to sit around debating the issue, Belgarath. You have a very long way to go and only so much time."
"Then what Cyradis said was true?" Polgara asked.
"As far as it went. She's still not taking sides, though."
"Then why did she come at all?" Beldin asked.
"She has her own task, and this was part of that. She must also give instructions to Zandramas."
"I don't suppose you could give us a hint or two about this place we're supposed to find?" Belgarath asked hopefully.
"Belgarath, don't do that. You know better. You have to stop at Prolgu on your way south."
"Prolgu?"
"Something that has to occur is going to happen there. Time is running out on you, Belgarath, so stop wasting it."
You keep talking about time. Could you be a bit more specific?"
"He's gone, Grandfather," Garion said, regaining control of his voice.
"He always does that," Belgarath complained. "Just when the conversation gets interesting, he leaves."
"You know why he does it, Belgarath," Beldin said.
Belgarath sighed. "Yes, I suppose I do." He turned to the others. "That's it, then," he said. "I guess we do exactly what Cyradis told us to do."
"You're surely not going to take Ce'Nedra with you," Porenn objected.
"Of course I'm going, Porenn," Ce'Nedra declared with a little toss of her head. "I'd have gone anyway -no matter I what that blind girl said."
"But she said that one of Garion's companions would die."
I'm not his companion, Porenn. I'm his wife."
There were actual tears in Barak's eyes. "Isn't there anything I can say to persuade you to change your mind?" he pleaded.
Garion felt the tears also welling up in his own eyes. Barak had always been one of the solid rocks in his life, and the thought of beginning this search without the big red-bearded man at his side left a great emptiness inside him. "I'm afraid we don't have any choice, Barak," he said very sadly. "If it were up to me-" He left it hanging, unable to go on.
"This hath rent mine heart, dearest Ce'Nedra," Mandorallen said, kneeling before the queen. "I am thy true knight, thy champion and protector, and yet I am forbidden to accompany thee on thy perilous quest."
Great, glistening tears suddenly streamed down Ce'Nedra's cheeks. She put her arms about the great knight's neck. "Dear, dear Mandorallen," she said brokenly, kissing his cheek.
"I've got some people working on a few things in Mallorea," Silk said to Yarblek. "I'll give you a letter to them so that they can keep you advised. Don't make any hasty decisions, but don't pass up any opportunities, either."
"I know how to run the business, Silk," Yarblek retorted.
"At least as well as you do."
"Of course you do, but you get excited. All I'm saying is that you should try to keep your head." The little man looked down rather sadly at his velvet doublet and all the jewels he was wearing. He sighed. "Oh, well, I've lived without all this before, I suppose." He turned to Durnik. "I guess we should start packing," he said.
Garion looked at him in perplexity.
"Weren't you listening, Garion?" the little man asked him. "Cyradis told you whom you were supposed to take along. Durnik's the Man with Two Lives, Errand is the Bearer of the Orb, and in case you've forgotten, I'm the Guide."
Garion's eyes widened.
"Naturally I'm going with you," Silk said with an impudent grin. "You'd probably get lost if I were
n't along to show you the way."
.
Here ends Book I of The Malloreon.
Book II, King of the Murgos.
begins the quest for Garion's son across strange new lands to the place that is no more and a conflict of opposing destinies that will decide the fate of all mankind.
-- King of the Murgos (1988) --
Version 3.0
Extensive re-proofing and formatting by me.
5 June 2002
There may be a few instances where the spelling departs from the American standard. I tried to leave things as they would be in the original book, but Americans do spell things in a strange fashion, and I’m not one of them. If you like this book go out and buy it! There is nothing quite so satisfying as holding a real book in your hands. And authors very much deserve the compensation they receive for sales.
PROLOGUE
Being an account of how Belgarion's Son was stolen and how he learned the Abductor was that Zandramas against whom the puissant Orb of Aldur had warned.
—from The Lives of Belgarion the Great (Introduction, Vol. IV)
Now, as has been told, in the earliest of days the Gods created the world and filled it with all manner of beasts and fowls and plants. Men also they created, and each God chose from among the races of men those whom they would guide and over whom they would rule. The God Aldur, however, took none, choosing to live apart in his tower and study the creation which they had made.
But a time came when a hungry child arrived at Aldur's tower, and Aldur took the child in and taught him the Will and the Word, by which all power may be used, in the manner that men call sorcery. And when the boy showed promise, Aldur named him Belgarath and made him a disciple. Then in time others came, and Aldur taught them and made them also his disciples. Among these was a malformed child whom Aldur named Beldin.
There came a day when Aldur took up a stone and shaped it and he called it his Orb, for the stone had fallen from beyond the stars and was a seat of great power, a center for one of the two Destinies which had been in conflict for control of all creation since the beginning of days.
But the God Torak coveted the stone and stole it, for the Dark Destiny had claimed his soul for its agent. Then the men of Aloria, known as Alorns, met with Belgarath, who led Cherek Bear-shoulders and his three sons into the far East where Torak had built Cthol Mishrak, the City of Eternal Night. By stealth, they stole back the Orb and returned with it.
With the counsel of the Gods, Belgarath divided Aloria into the kingdoms of Cherek, Drasnia, Algaria, and Riva, naming each for one who had accompanied him. And to Riva Iron-grip, who was to rule over the Isle of the Winds, he gave the keeping of the Orb, which Riva placed on the pommel of the great sword that he hung upon the wall of the Hall of the Rivan King, behind his throne.
Then Belgarath sought his home, but found tragedy awaiting him. His beloved wife Poledra had passed from the world of the living in giving birth to twin girls. In time, he sent Beldaran, the fairer of these, to be a wife to Riva Iron-grip to found the line of Rivan kings. His other daughter, Polgara, he kept with him, since her dark hair bore a single lock of white, the mark of a sorceress.
Guarded by the power of the Orb, all went well with the West for thousands of years. Then, on an evil day, King Gorek of Riva and his sons and sons' sons were slain by foul treachery. One child escaped, however, to be henceforth guarded in secret by Belgarath and Polgara. On the Isle, the Rivan Warder, Brand, sorrowfully took over the authority of his slain lord, and his sons continued to guard Aldur's Orb and all were known as Brand.
But there came a time when Zedar the Apostate found a child of such innocence that he could touch the Orb without being destroyed by its fire. Thus Zedar stole the Orb and fled with it toward the place where his dread Master, Torak, lay hidden.
When Belgarath learned of this, he went up to the quiet farm in Sendaria where Polgara was rearing a boy named Garion, who was the last descendant of the Rivan line. Taking the boy with them, they set out after the Orb. After many perilous adventures, they found the child, whom they named Errand. And, with Errand bearing the Orb, they returned to set the Orb back upon the sword.
Then Garion, now named Belgarion for the powers of sorcery he had shown, learned of the Prophecy, which revealed that the time was at hand when he, as the Child of Light, must confront the evil God Torak, to kill or to be killed. Fearfully, he departed eastward for the City of Endless Night to meet his fate. But with the aid of the great sword that bore the Orb of Aldur, he prevailed and slew the God.
Thus Belgarion, descendant of Riva Iron-grip, was crowned King of Riva and Overlord of the West. He took to wife the Tolnedran Princess Ce'Nedra, while Polgara took the faithful smith Durnik as her husband, since the Gods had raised him from the dead and had given him the power of sorcery to be her equal. With Belgarath, she and Durnik left for the Vale of Aldur in Algaria, where they planned to rear the strange, gentle child Errand.
The years passed as Belgarion learned to be a husband to his young bride and began mastering his powers of sorcery and the power of his throne. There was peace in the West, but trouble stirred in the South, where Kal Zakath, Emperor of Mallorea, waged war upon the King of the Murgos. And Belgarath, returning from a trip to Mallorea, reported dark rumours of a stone known as the Sardion. But what it might be, other than an object of fear, he could not say.
Then on a night when young Errand was visiting in the Citadel at Riva, he and Belgarion were awakened by the voice of the Prophecy within their minds and directed to the throne room. And there the blue Orb on the pommel of the sword turned angry red of a sudden and it spoke, saying, "Beware Zandramas" But none could learn who or what Zandramas was.
Now, after years of waiting, Ce'Nedra found herself with child. But the fanatic followers of the Bear-cult were active again, crying that no Tolnedran should be Queen and that she must be set aside for one of the true blood of the Alorns.
When the Queen was great with child, she was set upon by an assassin in her bath and almost drowned. The assassin fled to the tower of the Citadel and from there threw herself to her death. But Prince Kheldar, the Drasnian adventurer who was also known as Silk, saw from her garments that she might be a follower of the cult. Belgarion was wroth, but he did not yet move to war.
Time passed, and Queen Ce'Nedra was delivered of a healthy male heir to the Throne of Riva. And great was the rejoicing from all the lands of the Alorns and beyond, and notables assembled at Riva to rejoice and celebrate this happy birth.
When all had departed and peace again descended upon the Citadel, Belgarion resumed his studies of the ancient Prophecy which men called the Mrin Codex. A strange blot had long troubled him, but now he found that he could read it in the light cast by the Orb. Thus he learned that the Dark Prophecy and his obligations as the Child of Light had not ended with the slaying of Torak. The Child of Dark was now Zandramas, whom he must meet in time to come "in the place which is no more."
His soul was heavy within him as he journeyed hastily to confer with his grandfather Belgarath in the Vale of Aldur. But even as he was speaking with the old man, new words of ill were brought him by messenger. Assassins had penetrated the Citadel at night, and the faithful Rivan Warder, Brand, had been killed.
With Belgarath and his Aunt Polgara, Belgarion sped to Riva, where one assassin weakly clung to life. Prince Kheldar arrived and was able to identify the comatose assassin as a member of the Bear-cult. New evidence revealed that the cult was massing an army at Rheon in Drasnia and was building a fleet at Jarviksholm on the coast of Cherek.
Now King Belgarion declared war upon the Bear-cult. Upon the advice of the other Alorn monarchs, he moved first against the shipyards at Jarviksholm to prevent the threat of a hostile fleet in the Sea of the Winds. His attack was quick and savage. Jarviksholm was razed to the ground, and the half-built fleet was burned before a single keel touched water.
But victory turned to ashes when a message from Riva reached him. His in
fant son had been abducted.
Belgarion, Belgarath, and Polgara turned themselves into birds by sorcery and flew back to Riva in a single day. The city of Riva had already been searched house by house. But with the aid of the Orb, Belgarion was able to follow the trail of the abductors to the west coast of the Isle. There they came upon a band of Cherek cultists and fell upon them. One survived, and Polgara forced him to speak. He declared that the child had been stolen on the orders of Ulfgar, leader of the Bear-cult, whose headquarters were at Rheon in eastern Drasnia. Before Polgara could wrest further information from him, however, the cultist leaped from the top of the cliff upon which they stood and dashed himself to death on the rocks below.
Now the war turned to Rheon. Belgarion found his troops badly outnumbered and an ambush awaiting his advance toward the city. He was facing defeat when Prince Kheldar arrived with a force of Nadrak mercenaries to turn the tide of battle. Reinforced by the Nadraks, the Rivans besieged the city of Rheon.
Belgarion and Durnik combined their wills to weaken the wails of the city until the siege engines of Baron Mandorallen could bring them down. The Rivans and Nadraks poured into the city, led by Belgarion. The battle inside was savage, but the cultists were driven back and most of them were slaughtered. Then Belgarion and Durnik captured the cult leader, Ulfgar.
Though Belgarion had already learned that his son was not within the city, he hoped that close questioning might drag the child's whereabouts from Ulfgar. The cult leader stubbornly refused to answer; then, surprisingly, Errand drew the information directly from Ulfgar's mind.
While it became clear that Ulfgar had been responsible for the attempt on Ce'Nedra's life, he had played no part in the theft of the child. Indeed, his chief goal had been the death of Belgarion's son, preferably before its birth. He obviously knew nothing of the abduction, which did not at all suit his purpose.
Then the sorcerer Beldin joined them. He quickly recognized Ulfgar as Harakan, an underling of Torak's last living disciple Urvon. Harakan suddenly vanished, and Beldin sped in pursuit.
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