"But Zandramas managed to put her hands on a copy that hadn't been mutilated?" he asked.
The seeress nodded.
"Are there any other copies that Burnt-face didn't tamper with?" Beldin asked intently.
"Only two," she replied. "One is in the house of Urvon the Disciple, but that one lieth under the hand of Nahaz, the accursed. Seek not to wrest it from him, lest ye die."
"And the other?" the hunchback demanded.
"Seek out the clubfooted one, for he will aid thee in thy search."
"That's not too helpful, you know."
"I speak to thee in the words that stand in the Book of the Heavens and were written ere the world began. These words have no language but speak instead directly to the soul."
"Naturally," he said. "All right. You spoke of Nahaz. Is he going to line our path with demons all the way across Karanda?"
"Nay, gentle Beldin. Nahaz hath no further interest in Karanda, and his legions of darkness abide no longer there and respond to no summons, however powerful. They infest instead the plains of Darshiva where they do war upon the minions of Zandramas."
"Where is Zandramas now?" Belgarath asked her.
"She doth journey unto the place where the Sardion lay hidden for unnumbered centuries. Though it is no longer there, she hopes to find traces of it sunk into the very rocks and to follow those traces to the Place Which Is No More."
"Is that possible?"
Her face grew very still. "That I may not tell thee," she replied. Then she straightened. "I may say no more unto thee in this place, Belgarath. Seek instead the mystery which will guide thee. Make haste, however, for Time will not stay nor falter in its measured pace." And then she turned toward the black altar standing before the dais where Zith was coiled, still muttering and hissing in irritation. "Be tranquil, little sister," she said, "for the purpose of all thy days is now accomplished, and that which was delayed may now come to pass." She then seemed, even though blindfolded, to turn her serene face toward each of them, pausing briefly only to bow her head to Polgara in a gesture of profound respect. At last she turned to Toth. Her face was filled with anguish, but she said nothing. And then she sighed and vanished.
Beldin was scowling. "That was fairly standard," he said. "I hate riddles. They're the entertainment of the preliterate."
"Stop trying to show off your education and let's see if we can sort things out," Belgarath told him. "We know that this is all going to be decided one way or the other in nine more months. That was the number I needed."
Sadi was frowning in perplexity. "How did we arrive at that number?" he asked. "To be perfectly frank, I didn't understand very much of what she said."
"She said that we have only as much time as a baby lies in its mother's womb," Polgara explained. "That's nine months."
"Oh," he said. Then he smiled a bit sadly. "That's the sort of thing I don't pay too much attention to, I guess."
"What was that business about the sixteenth moon?" Silk asked. "I didn't follow that at all."
"This whole thing began with the birth of Belgarion's son," Beldin told him. "We found a reference to that in the Mrin Codex. Your friend with the snake had to be here at Ashaba sixteen moons later."
Silk frowned, counting on his fingers. "It hasn't been sixteen months yet," he objected.
"Moons, Kheldar," the hunchback said. "Moons, not months. There's a difference, you know."
"Oh. That explains it, I guess."
"Who's this clubfoot who's supposed to have the third copy of the Oracles?" Belgarath said.
"It rings a bell somehow," Beldin replied. "Let me think about it."
"What's Nahaz doing in Darshiva?" Garion asked.
"Apparently attacking the Grolims there," Belgarath replied. "We know that Darshiva is where Zandramas originally came from and that the church in that region belongs to her. If Nahaz wants to put the Sardion in Urvon's hands, he's going to have to stop her. Otherwise, she'll get to it first."
Ce'Nedra seemed to suddenly remember something. She looked at Garion, her eyes hungry. "You said that you saw Geran -when Zandramas tricked you."
"A projection of him, yes."
"How did he look?"
"The same. He hadn't changed a bit since the last time I saw him."
"Garion, dear," Polgara said gently. "That's not really reasonable, you know. Geran's almost a year older now. He wouldn't look the same at all. Babies grow and change a great deal during their first few years."
He nodded glumly. "I realize that now," he replied. "At the time, I wasn't really in any condition to think my way through it." Then he stopped. "Why didn't she project an image of him the way he looks now?"
"Because she wanted to show you something she was sure you'd recognize."
"Now you stop that!" Sadi exclaimed. He was standing near the altar and he had just jerked his hand back out of Zith's range. The little green snake was growling ominously at him. The eunuch turned toward Velvet. "Do you see what you've done?" he accused. "You've made her terribly angry."
"Me?" she asked innocently.
"How would you like to be pulled out of a warm bed and thrown into somebody's face?"
"I suppose I hadn't thought about that. I'll apologize to her, Sadi -just as soon as she regains her composure a bit. Will she crawl into her bottle by herself?"
"Usually, yes."
"That might be the safest course, then. Lay the bottle on the altar and let her crawl inside and sulk a bit."
"You're probably right," he agreed.
"Are any of the other rooms in the house habitable?" Polgara asked Silk.
He nodded. "More or less. The Chandim and the Guardsmen were staying in them."
She looked around at the corpse-littered throne room.
"Why don't we move out of here, then?" she suggested to Belgarath. "This place looks like a battlefield, and the smell of blood isn't that pleasant."
"Why bother?" Ce'Nedra said. "We're leaving to follow Zandramas, aren't we?"
"Not until morning, dear," Polgara replied. "It's dark and cold outside, and we're all tired and hungry."
"But-"
"The Chandim and the Guardsmen ran away, Ce'Nedra -but we can't be at all sure how far they went. And, of course, there are the Hounds as well. Let's not make the mistake of blundering out into a forest at night when we can't see what might be hiding behind the first tree we come to."