"We're getting very close to Ashaba," Belgarath told him. "Something about Torak did this to the ground."
"Didn't he know?" Velvet said sadly.
"Know what?" Ce'Nedra asked her.
"That his very presence befouled the earth?"
"No," Ce'Nedra replied, "I don't think he did. His mind was so twisted that he couldn't even see it. The sun hid from him, and he saw that only as a mark of his and not as a sign of its repugnance for him."
It was a peculiarly astute observation, which to some degree surprised Garion. His wife oftentimes seemed to have a wide streak of giddiness in her nature which made it far too easy to think of her as a child, a misconception reinforced by her diminutive size. But he had frequently found it necessary to reassess this tiny, often willful little woman who shared his life. Ce'Nedra might sometimes behave foolishly, but she was never stupid. She looked out at the world with a clear, unwavering vision that saw much more than gowns and jewels and costly perfumes. Quite suddenly he was so proud of her that he thought his heart would burst.
"How much farther is it to Ashaba?" Sadi asked in a subdued tone. "I hate to admit it, but this particular swamp depresses me."
"You?" Durnik said. "I thought you liked swamps."
"A swamp should be green and rich with life, Goodman, " the eunuch replied. "There's nothing here but death." He looked at Velvet. "Have you got Zith, Margravine?" he asked rather plaintively. "I'm feeling a bit lonesome just now."
"She's sleeping at the moment, Sadi," she told him, her hand going to the front of her bodice in an oddly protective fashion. "She's safe and warm and very content. She's even purring."
"Resting in her perfumed little bower." He sighed. "There are times when I envy her."
"Why, Sadi," she said, blushing slightly, lowering her eyes, and then flashing her dimples at him.
"Merely a clinical observation, my dear Liselle," he said to her rather sadly. "There are times when I wish it could be otherwise, but . . ." He sighed again.
"Do you really have to carry that snake there?" Silk asked the blond girl.
"Yes, Kheldar," she replied, "as a matter of fact, I do."
"You didn't answer my question, Ancient One," Sadi said to Belgarath. "How much farther is it to Ashaba?"
"It's up there," the old sorcerer replied shortly, pointing toward a ravine angling sharply up from the reeking wasteland. "We should make it by dark."
"A particularly unpleasant time to visit a haunted house," Feldegast added.
As they started up the ravine, there came a sudden hideous growling from the dense undergrowth to one side of the weedy track, and a huge black Hound burst out of the bushes, its eyes aflame and with foam dripping from its cruel fangs. "Now you are mine!" it snarled, its jaws biting off the words.
Ce'Nedra screamed, and Garion's hand flashed back over his shoulder; but quick as he was, Sadi was even quicker. The eunuch spurred his terrified horse directly at the hulking dog. The beast rose, its jaws agape, but Sadi hurled a strangely colored powder of about the consistency of coarse flour directly into its face.
The Hound shook its head, still growling horribly. Then it suddenly screamed, a shockingly human sound.
Its eyes grew wide in terror. Then it began desperately to snap at the empty air around it, whimpering and trying to cringe back. As suddenly as it had attacked, it turned and fled howling back into the undergrowth.
"What did you do?" Silk demanded.
A faint smile touched Sadi's slender features. "When ancient Belgarath told me about Torak's Hounds, I took certain precautions," he replied, his head slightly cocked as he listened to the terrified yelps of the huge dog receding off into the distance.
"Poison?"
"No. It's really rather contemptible to poison a dog if you don't have to. The Hound simply inhaled some of that powder I threw in its face. Then it began to see some very distracting things -very distracting." He smiled again. "Once I saw a cow accidentally sniff the flower that's the main ingredient of the powder. The last time I saw her, she was trying to climb a tree." He looked over at Belgarath. "I hope you didn't mind my taking action without consulting you, Ancient One, but as you've pointed out, your sorcery might alert others in the region, and I had to move quickly to deal with the situation before you felt compelled to unleash it anyway."
"That's quite all right, Sadi," Belgarath replied. "I may have said it before, but you're a very versatile fellow."
"Merely a student of pharmacology, Belgarath. I've found that there are chemicals suitable for almost every situation."
"Won't the Hound report back to its pack that we're here?" Durnik asked, looking around worriedly.
"Not for several days." Sadi chuckled, brushing off his hands, holding them as far away from his face as possible.
They rode slowly up the weed-grown track along the bottom of the ravine where mournful, blackened trees spread their branches, filling the deep cut with a pervading gloom. Off in the distance they could hear the baying of Torak's Hounds as they coursed through the forest.
Above them, sooty ravens flapped from limb to limb, croaking hungrily.
"Disquieting sort of place," Velvet murmured.
"And that adds the perfect touch," Silk noted, pointing at a large vulture perched on the limb of a dead snag at the head of the ravine.
"Are we close enough to Ashaba yet for you to be able to tell if Zandramas is still there?" Garion asked Polgara.
"Possibly," she replied. "But even that faint a sound could be heard."
"We're close enough now that we can wait," Belgarath said. "I'll tell you one thing, though," he added. "If my great-grandson is at Ashaba, I'll take the place apart stone by stone until I find him and I don't care how much noise it wakes."
Impulsively, Ce'Nedra pulled her horse in beside his, leaned over, and locked her arms about his waist. "Oh, Belgarath," she said, "I love you." And she burrowed her face into his shoulder.
"What's this?" His voice was slightly surprised.
She pulled back, her eyes misty. She wiped at them with the back of her hand, then gave him an arch look.
"You're the dearest man in all the world," she told him. "I might even consider throwing Garion over for you," she added, "if it weren't for the fact that you're twelve thousand years old, that is."