Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress

by David Eddings

  The course of action I was considering was certainly not new. Arendish history is full of accounts of what are called ‘palace coups’, little disturbances that had usually resulted in the death of an incumbent. I didn’t want it to go that far here, but I did want Oldoran off that throne. What I’d seen that evening strongly suggested that most of the nobles here at court shared that desire. My only problem now was the selection of Oldoran’s replacement – and a means of getting to him on fairly short notice.

  I napped briefly in an unoccupied sitting-room and went back to the central hall early the next morning to ask some questions about the clever, dark-haired young lady who’d humorously proposed that moment of silence. I described her to the servants who were cleaning up the debris of the previous evening’s festivities.

  ‘That would be the Countess Asrana, my Lady,’ a sober-faced cleaning man told me. ‘She’s a notorious flirt and very witty.’

  ‘That’s the one,’ I said. ‘I think she and I were introduced some years back, and I thought I’d look her up. Where do you suppose I might find her?’

  ‘Her apartment’s in the west tower, my Lady, on the ground floor.’

  ‘Thank you,’ I murmured, gave him a small coin, and went looking for the west tower.

  The countess was just a trifle indisposed when her maid escorted me into the room where she lay on a divan with bleary eyes and a cold, wet cloth on her forehead. ‘I don’t believe I know you,’ she told me in a tragic voice.

  ‘Are you unwell?’ I asked her.

  ‘I’m feeling just a little delicate this morning,’ she confessed. ‘I wish it were winter. If it were, I’d go out into the courtyard and stick my head in a snow bank for an hour or so.’ Then she looked at me more closely. ‘You look awfully familiar, for some reason.’

  ‘I don’t think we’ve ever met, countess.’

  ‘It’s not that we’ve met, I don’t think. It’s something I’ve heard about.’ She put her fingertips to her temples. ‘Oh, dear,’ she groaned.

  ‘We need to talk, Asrana,’ I told her, ‘but I’d better do something about your condition first’ I opened the small reticule I carried and took out a glass vial. I poured the contents into the bottom of a cup that was standing on a sideboard and then filled the cup with water. This won’t taste very good,’ I warned.

  ‘Will it make me feel better?’

  ‘It should.’

  ‘Then I really don’t care what it tastes like.’ She drank it and then shuddered. That’s dreadful,’ she said. ‘You’re a physician?’ she asked.

  ‘I’ve had some training along those lines,’ I admitted.

  ‘What a peculiar occupation for a lady of rank,’ she said. She touched her forehead. ‘I believe it’s actually getting better.’

  “That was the whole idea, countess. As soon as the potion I just gave you takes hold a little more, there’s something I’d like to talk with you about.’

  ‘I owe you my life, dear Lady,’ she said extravagantly. ‘But I still seem to know you for some reason.’ Then she made a little face. ‘Of course, on mornings like this one all sorts of strange ideas come to me.’ She shook her head slightly. ‘Amazing!’ she said. ‘My head didn’t fall off. You could make a fortune with that potion here in Vo Astur, you know. Everybody in the palace probably feels as awful as I did a while ago. Whatever it was you gave me is miraculous. I think I’ll actually live now. It’s almost like magic.’ She stopped suddenly and looked at me as if really seeing me for the first time. Then she started to tremble. ‘It was magic, wasn’t it?’

  ‘No, dear. Not really.’

  ‘Oh, yes it was! You’ve got that white lock in your hair, and you’re a physician. You’re Polgara the Sorceress, aren’t you? You’re Belgarath’s daughter!’

  ‘My terrible secret’s out, I see,’ I sighed with mock regret.

  ‘You’re a million years old!’

  I touched my cheek. ‘Does it really show that much, Asrana?’

  ‘Of course not, Lady Polgara,’ she replied. ‘You don’t look a day over a hundred thousand.’ Then we both laughed, and she winced. ‘Rushing things a bit there,’ she noted, touching her forehead slightly. ‘Please don’t make me laugh for a little while yet. Your spell hasn’t really had time to get to the bottom of this headache yet.’

  ‘It wasn’t really a spell, Asrana – just a mixture of some fairly common herbs.’ I decided not to make an issue of the fact that her mornings would be much more enjoyable if she didn’t drink so much wine every evening. ‘Is there something you could send your maid to fetch for you?’ I asked her. ‘I’d like to talk to you without anyone around.’

  ‘Breakfast, I think. I’m suddenly ravenous. Would you join me?’

  ‘I’d be delighted, dear.’

  After the girl had left, Asrana and I got down to business. ‘I’m not trying to be offensive, Countess, but I’m not very much impressed by your duke.’

  ‘Who is? We all have to be careful not to step on him when he’s in the throne room. Do you happen to have a cure for minisculism? Oldoran should probably take a double dose if you do. He’s a bug, Polgara, so stepping on him’s a natural reaction. Life around here would be much simpler if somebody’d just squish him and have done with it. Would you care for some wine?’

  ‘Ah – not just now, Asrana, and you’d probably better drink water this morning, too. Mixing wine with the potion I just gave you would make you terribly ill.’

  ‘I knew there had to be a drawback. Where were we?’

  ‘We were discussing Duke Oldoran’s shortcomings.’

  ‘And short goings as well, as I recall.’ The Countess Asrana had a quick tongue, and I rather liked her.

  ‘If the occasion arose, which of the men here at court would be best to replace him?’

  “The Earl Mangaran, of course. Have you met him?’

  ‘I saw him last night. He doesn’t seem to have a very high opinion of your duke.’

  ‘He’s not alone there. Who could possibly love his Bug ship?’

  ‘Who’s that Tolnedran who seems to have taken up residence in the duke’s pocket?’

  ‘You mean Gadon? He’s a merchant of some kind, and I think he’s made Oldoran some sort of offer – probably dishonorable and certainly disgusting. Gadon’s been knocking around the palace here for the past half-year buying up court functionaries by the gross. Nobody likes him, but he’s got the duke’s ear, so we have to be civil.’

  ‘Are you in the mood for some serious plotting this morning, Asrana?’

  ‘Now that my headache’s gone away, I’m in the mood for almost anything. What should we plot about?’

  ‘How about a revolution, Countess?’

  ‘Oh, what fun!’ she exclaimed, clapping her hands together. ‘I’d just love to be a party to the downfall of the Bug. Are you going to kill him, Polgara? If you are, can I watch?’

  ‘You’re a bad girl, Asrana.’

  ‘I know, and it’s so much fun. Are we going to sneak around in the middle of the night holding whispered conversations and secretly smuggling weapons into the palace?’

  ‘You’ve been reading too many bad epics, Asrana. A good plot doesn’t work that way. I think we ought to have a talk with Earl Mangaran before we elevate him to the throne, don’t you? He’s of advanced years, and that sort of surprise might be hard on his veins.’

  ‘Spoilsport. I thought we could give him the throne for his birthday.’

  ‘Are we likely to encounter much resistance if we move against the duke? Are there any here at court who’d back him? Relatives or officials with something to lose if we deposed him?’

  ‘Let me deal with them, Lady Polgara. I can wrap just about any man here at court around my little finger if I really want to.’

  I’ve broken a few hearts myself on occasion, and I’ve known some of the most outrageous flirts in history, but Countess Asrana was in a class by herself, and I’m certain that her towering self-confidence was fully justified.
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  After breakfast, the countess sent word to Earl Mangaran, asking him to meet us in the rose garden. Just to be on the safe side, I sent out a searching thought when Asrana and I went into the garden. This wasn’t going to be a conversation we’d care to have overheard.

  The Earl Mangaran looked weary as he joined us, but there was a tinge of impishness in his eyes nonetheless.

  ‘Should I tell him?’ Asrana asked me.

  ‘You might as well,’ I replied. ‘We won’t get very far with this if he doesn’t know.’

  ‘I’ve a bit of a surprise fery’, yer Earlship,’ Asrana said in a fair imitation of the brogue of the Wacite peasants. ‘This dear lass with th’ unspeakable beauty is after bein’ th’ Lady Polgara, don’t y’ know. Aren’t y’ honored enough t’ just fall down in a swoon t’ make her acquaintance.’

  ‘Please, Countess,’ Mangaran said, passing a weary hand across his eyes, ‘I’ve had a very trying morning. His Grace is absolutely impossible just now. He isn’t out of bed yet, and he’s already drunk. Don’t start off with fairy-tales.’

  ‘But she is, my Lord. This is really Polgara the Sorceress.’ Asrana gave me a look of wide-eyed innocence. ‘Sorcerize him, Lady Polgara,’ she urged. ‘Turn him into a toad or something.’

  ‘Do you mind, Asrana?’ I said.

  ‘He’s a skeptic, Polly. Make all his hair fall out.’

  Nobody had ever called me ‘Polly’ before – and nobody had better ever do it again.

  ‘Please forgive our Countess, my Lady,’ Mangaran said. ‘Sometimes she breaks out in this rash of cleverness. We’ve tried to break her of the habit, but you can see for yourself how fruitless it’s been.’

  ‘I’ve noticed that, my Lord,’ I said. ‘This time what she says is true, though.’ I absently plucked a deep red rose from a nearby bush. ‘Just to save some time here –’ I held out my hand with the rose lying on my palm. ‘Watch closely,’ I instructed.

  I did it slowly, in part to make it more impressive and in part to keep from alerting the Murgo who was somewhere in the palace. The rose on my palm shriveled down to almost nothing, and then it sprouted a tiny, spiraling shoot that grew quite rapidly, branching out as it reached up toward the sun. Leaves appeared first, and then the tips of the twigs swelled into buds. When the buds opened, each new rose was of a different color.

  ‘Now that’s something you don’t see every day, isn’t it, Mangaran?’ Asrana suggested mildly.

  The earl appeared more than a little startled. Then he quickly regained his composure. ‘Well, now,’ he said. ‘Welcome to Vo Astur, Lady Polgara.’ He bowed with exquisite grace.

  I translocated my rainbow rosebush into a corner of the nearby flower bed and responded to the earl’s bow with a curtsey. ‘Now that we’ve covered that, we need to talk, my Lord.’

  ‘You’ve managed to capture my undivided attention. Lady Polgara. I’m at your immediate disposal.’

  ‘Oh, please don’t dispose of him, Polly,’ Asrana said, her eyes sparkling. ‘If you don’t want him, let me have him.’

  ‘That will do, Asrana,’ I told her. Then I looked at Mangaran. ‘Are you in the mood for a touch of treason this morning, my Lord?’ I asked him.

  ‘I’m an Arend, Lady Polgara,’ he said with a faint smile. ‘I’m always in the mood for mischief.’

  Polly’s going to kill our duke,’ Asrana said breathlessly, ‘and I get to watch while she does it.’

  ‘Me too?’ Mangaran said in a tone every bit as childish as Asrana’s.

  ‘Oh, dear,’ I sighed. ‘What have I let myself in for?’

  ‘We’ll be good, Polly,’ Asrana promised. ‘How are we going to exterminate the Bug?’

  ‘We probably aren’t going to,’ I told them. ‘He might know some things I’ll need. He’s being led down the garden path by a Murgo who’s trying to start a war between Arendia and the Tolnedran empire.’

  ‘Great Chaldan!’ Mangaran exclaimed. ‘Our duke’s an idiot, but–’

  ‘He’s not the only one who’s being deceived, my Lord,’ I told him. ‘I’ve just come from Vo Wacune, and the same thing’s been going on there – and probably in Vo Mimbre as well. The Angaraks are trying to stir up dissent and wars here in the west in preparation for an invasion out of Mallorea. My father sent me here to Arendia to put a stop to it. I gather that your duke’s too thick-witted to listen to reason, so I don’t think we’ve got any choice but to depose him and put you in his place.’

  ‘Me? Why me?’

  Why does everybody keep saying that?

  I told him why him in the bluntest way imaginable, and even the unflappable Asrana seemed just a little flapped.

  ‘The duke has a lot of guards, Lady Polgara,’ Earl Mangaran said dubiously, ‘and they get paid even when the rest of the army doesn’t. They’ll defend him with their very lives.’

  ‘We could bribe them,’ Asrana suggested.

  ‘A man who can be bribed usually isn’t honorable enough to stay bribed,’ Mangaran disagreed.

  Asrana shrugged. ‘Poison the lot of them, Polly. I’m sure you’ve got something in that little bag of yours that’ll turn the trick.’

  ‘That’s not a very good idea, dear,’ I told her. ‘This is Arendia, and the bodyguards have families. If we kill them, you’ll both spend the rest of your lives looking back over your shoulders for somebody with a knife to come sneaking up behind you. I’ll take care of the bodyguards.’

  ‘When are we going to do this?’ Earl Mangaran asked.

  ‘Did you have anything planned for this evening, my Lord?’

  ‘Nothing that can’t be postponed. Aren’t we moving a little fast, though?’

  ‘I think we must, my Lord. This is Arendia, after all, and no plot here is secure for more than a few hours.’

  True,’ he sighed. ‘Sad, but true.’

  ‘Be of good cheer, my Lord Duke,’ Asrana said roguishly. ‘I’ll comfort you while Polly does the dirty work.’

  Chapter 14

  History tends to gloss over revolutions, since they’re an indication of that disunity and internal strife that academics find distressingly messy. They do happen, however, and Arendia’s the perfect place for them. I take a certain pride in the one I pulled off in Asturia that summer, because it might just be the only one that’s ever gone from inception to conclusion in a single day. That’s no mean trick in Arendia, where the people just love to drag things out. Arends are addicted to high drama, and that always takes time. If it hadn’t been for the presence of Krachack’s counterpart here in Vo Astur, we might have been able to move at a more leisurely pace, but all it would have taken to make the whole thing crumble in my hands would have been a change word in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  Asrana looked around furtively, and when she spoke to me it was in a conspiratorial whisper. ‘How do we proceed, Polly?’ she asked me.

  A word of advice to my family here. If anyone among you ever calls me ‘Polly’, you’ll all get boiled hay for supper every night for a week. I let Asrana get away with it for a very specific reason.

  ‘In the first place, Asrana, you’re going to stop doing that. No crouching, no tip-toeing down dark corridors, and no whispers. Talk in a normal voice and don’t keep looking around like a burglar with a sack-full of loot over his shoulder. When you do that, you might as well wave a flag, blow a trumpet, and hang a sign reading “conspirator” around your neck.’

  ‘You’re taking all the fun out of this, Polly,’ she pouted.

  ‘How much fun do you think spending forty years in the dungeon’s going to be?’

  ‘Not much, I suppose,’ she conceded.

  ‘Think about it, dear. Keep the idea of sleeping on moldy straw with rats for company firmly in mind all the rest of the day.’ I looked at Earl Mangaran. ‘I gather that Oldoran doesn’t really have much support here in Vo Astur, right?’

  ‘Almost none, Lady Polgara,’ he replied. ‘The members of his own family support him, of course, and there a
re a few nobles who’ve been profiting from his misrule. That’s about all – except for those bodyguards I mentioned before.’

  ‘I’ll take care of the bodyguards,’ I assured him. I thought about it for a moment. ‘Is there someone you can depend on who has a house here in Vo Astur – a house some distance from the palace?’

  He thought about it. ‘Baron Torandin sort of fits that description, my Lady.’

  ‘Does he know how to keep things to himself? And will he do as you ask without needing too many details?’

  ‘I think so, yes.’

  ‘Good. Ask him to have a party at his house this evening. Draw up a guest list that includes everybody with blood ties to the duke and those who have a financial stake in his remaining on the throne. Sprinkle the crowd with some neutrals just so that nothing’s too obvious. I don’t want any of the duke’s partisans around tonight.’

  He grinned at me. ‘Torandin’s the perfect choice, then. His parties are famous all over Asturia. Everyone he invites will be there.’

  ‘Good. Now let’s move on to our party. Let’s keep it small and exclusive. The more people who know about our scheme, the more chance there is for word of what we’re up to to reach the wrong ears. I don’t want more than a dozen people to know what we’re doing.’

  ‘You can’t overthrow a government with only a dozen people, my Lady!’

  ‘You can if you do it right, my Lord. We’re not going to run around waving swords and shouting slogans. Our scheme’s far more subtle.’

  ‘That’s a very nasty word, Polly,’ Asrana complained.

  ‘Which word was that, dear?’

  ‘ “Scheme.” Couldn’t we find something more uplifting to call it?’

  ‘Let’s see. How about “plot”? “Conspiracy”, maybe? “Treason”? “Betrayal of trust”? “Violation of a sacred oath”?’