‘This is starting to sound like a bad Arendish tragedy, Beldin,’ I observed.
‘Oh, it gets even worse. Taur Urgas had a very simple plan to delete a potential rival. He sent one of the more potent Nyissan poisons to a nephew of his in the city of Melcene - along with some very blunt instructions. The girl was supposed to encourage Zakath’s attentions and then to poison him at the first opportunity. A nice obedient Murgo girl would have done exactly that, but a Melcene girl would have refused. Taur Urgas is so crazy that he couldn’t tell the difference. The girl’s family was still playing for time, so they pretended to agree. Unfortunately, there are always a few black sheep in any flock, and an unscrupulous fellow in one of the minor branches of the family saw a chance to make a killing.’ Beldin made a sour face. ‘Bad choice of words there, perhaps.’
‘Yes. I think I see where this is going.’
‘I thought you might have. Anyway, this devious scoundrel sold the details of the plot to some government officials, and the word filtered up to Zakath himself. Despite his civilized manner, Zakath’s still an Angarak, so he immediately went up in flames. Without even thinking, he ordered the extermination of every member of that Melcene family. His underlings - also Angaraks - followed his orders to the letter. The girl was among the first to fall. When the information came to light later that she’d been totally innocent, Zakath quite nearly went mad with grief and remorse. He locked himself in his room for about six months, and when he came out, he was an entirely different man. Before the incident, he seemed to be a civilized, enlightened sort of fellow who probably would have made a good emperor. Now, he’s an absolute monster who rules Mallorea with a iron fist, and he’s obsessed with the idea of doing some very unpleasant things to Taur Urgas.’
‘More power to him.’ I approved. ‘If I weren’t so busy right now, I might offer to lend him a hand.’
‘You can be nasty when you set your mind to it, Belgarath, but you’re no match for Zakath. He sent Taur Urgas a letter after he came out of seclusion, and he ordered copies of the letter widely circulated - just to add to the insult, I’d imagine. I got my hands on a copy.’ He reached inside his ragged tunic and brought out a folded piece of paper. ‘Would you like to read the most insulting letter one reigning monarch has ever sent to another?’
I took the paper, unfolded it, and read.
‘To his Majesty, Taur Urgas of Murgodom,’ it began.
‘I was unamused by your recent attempt to influence Mallorean internal affairs, you Murgo dog. Were it not for current world conditions, I would bring the entire weight of my empire down upon your head for your offense.
‘To insure that there will be no recurrence of this affair, I have taken all Murgos within my boundaries into custody to serve as hostages to your continued good behavior. I am advised that several of these internees are closely related to you. Should you instigate further adventures in my realm, I shall return your kinsmen to you - piece by piece.
‘In the past, your madness has filled your world with imagined enemies. Rejoice, Taur Urgas, and put aside your insanity, for you now have a real foe, far more deadly than any of the phantoms of your lunacy. You may be assured that as soon as world conditions permit, I will descend upon you and that stinking wasteland you rule. It is my firm intention to destroy you and your entire vile race. It will be my pleasure to exterminate every last Murgo from the face of the world and to expunge every mention of your people from the record of human history.
‘Keep a watchful eye over your shoulder, you madman, for as surely as the sun rises tomorrow, one day I will be there to administer the punishment you so richly deserve.
‘Zakath.’
I whistled and handed the letter back. ‘That comes very close to being an open declaration of war,’ I said.
‘Impressive, wot?’ Beldin agreed with a broad grin. ‘I may just frame it and hang it on the wall in my tower. I’ve heard that Taur Urgas was frothing at the mouth and chewing up the carpet before he even finished reading it. Zakath’s been carrying out his threat, too. He’s been sending bits and pieces of assorted Murgos to Rak Goska for the edification of the Murgo King. Urvon’s been trying to make peace between the two of them, but he’s not making much progress. Zakath’s heart’s been turned to stone, and Taur Urgas is getting crazier by the minute.’
‘I’ll pass this on to Rhodar,’ I said. ‘Drasnian intelligence might be able to keep the pot boiling. Is Ctuchik doing anything?’
‘Ctuchik’s your responsibility, Belgarath. I did hear that he’d formed a council of hierarchs, though. I don’t know that they’ll ever be very significant, Grolim politics being what they are. I saw several Murgo caravans on the south trail as I came across. Are they up to something?’
I nodded. ‘They’re coming west in droves, pretending to be interested in trade. It’s probably Chamdar’s idea. He can read the signs as well as we can, so he knows we’re getting close. Evidently he want lots of help.’
‘Where is he now?’
‘In Tolnedra, last I heard. Drasnian intelligence is keeping track of him for me.’
‘You’ve got just about everybody in the west doing your work for you, haven’t you, Belgarath?’
‘It’s called “delegating responsibility”, brother. There’s a lot going on right now, so I have to stay flexible.’
‘Somehow I knew you’d have some facile explanation for the fact that you’re loafing. Don’t get too comfortable, Belgarath. When the time comes, you might just have to be in six or eight places all at the same time. Let’s go see the twins. This business between Zakath and Taur Urgas might have shaken a few more clues out of the Mrin.’
It hadn’t, though. The Mrin Codex remained as intractable as always. I could only assume that the Necessity knew what it was doing and that it was deliberately keeping me in the dark.
I don’t think any of us have ever given full credit to the twins for their patient centuries of labor. That pair of gentle Alorn shepherds have been so vital to what the rest of us have done that in a rather special way, they’ve been our guides. We run around the world in response to what they discover. The Necessity usually doesn’t bother to talk to us. It talks to the twins instead. They’ve worn out six or eight copies of the Mrin and the Darine over the years, and the Gods know that I wouldn’t have had that kind of patience, and neither would Beldin. To this very day, if the twins told me to jump, I’d be about four feet up in the air before I even bothered to ask, ‘Which way?’ That’s probably what Aldur had in mind when he first sent for them. The Master’s at least as much a slave to the Necessity as the rest of us are. That’s why we’re all here, I guess.
Beldin remained in the Vale for a week or so, and then he returned to southern Cthol Murgos to take up his lonely vigil over our Master’s sleeping brother. Not long after he left, I went to Boktor to advise Rhodar of the contention between Zakath and Taur Urgas. King Rhodar wasn’t getting any slimmer, but his mind seemed to be growing even faster than his waistline. He squinted at me shrewdly after I’d told him of the recent events in Mallorea. ‘This isn’t natural, Belgarath. A Murgo king wouldn’t be interested enough in what’s happening in Mallorea to take all that much trouble. There’s a whole ocean between the two countries. Some EVENT’s about to happen, isn’t it? The reports I’ve been getting are raising a strong odor of something momentous in the wind.’
There wasn’t really any point in trying to hide things from Rhodar. His spies were too good, and his mind was too quick. ‘Why don’t we just say that we’re living in interesting times and let it go at that, Rhodar?’ I suggested. ‘You deal with the ordinary world and let me take care of the other one.’
‘Is there going to be a war involved? If so, I’d better start recruiting more men for my army.’
‘That’d be premature, and don’t be too obvious about going to a war-footing. Concentrate on this enmity between the Murgos and the Malloreans instead. If it does get down to a war, I don’t want the Angaraks to be all cozy with each other.’ Then I changed the subject. ‘When are you going to get married?’
‘Not for a while yet.’ His tone was evasive and his expression slightly embarrassed. Now that I think back on it, I’m almost certain that he already had his eye on Porenn, who was only about thirteen at the time, as I recall.
I went on to Val Alorn and from there to the Isle of the Winds. I didn’t really have any specific reasons for those trips, but I always like to keep an eye on the Alorns. They have a tendency to get into trouble if you don’t watch them rather closely.
Then, in 5349, my grandson Darral was killed by a rockslide in the quarry where he worked, and I rushed back to Annath. There wasn’t anything I could do about it, of course, but I went all the same. A death in the family’s not the sort of thing you just let slide, and Polgara has always taken these things very hard. You’d think that Pol and I would have grown philosophical about the notion of human mortality by now, but we hadn’t. I’d loved Darral, naturally. He was my grandson, after all, but I’d steeled myself to the idea that one day he’d grow old and die. It happens, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Polgara, however, isn’t temperamentally equipped to take this sort of thing philosophically. She always seems to take the death of a loved one as a personal insult of some kind. Maybe her medical studies have had something to do with that. For a physician, death is the ultimate enemy.