Then he heard or felt another sound joining with that unbelievably ancient hymn. A peculiar sighing within his mind signaled that these people, gathered in their strange circles, were bringing their combined wills to bear in a mystic accompaniment to the song their voices raised to the starry sky.
There was a shimmering in the air in the very center of the clearing, and the glowing form of Cyradis appeared, robed and cowled in white linen and with her eyes covered by a strip of cloth.
"Where did she come from?" Silk breathed.
"She's not really there," Garion whispered. "It's a projection. Listen."
"Welcome, Holy Seeress," Vard greeted the glowing image. "We are grateful that thou hast responded to our summons."
"Thy gratitude is unnecessary, Vard," the clear voice of the blindfolded girl replied. "I respond out of the duty imposed upon me by my task. Have the seekers arrived, then?"
"They have, Holy Cyradis," Vard answered, "and the one called Belgarion hath found that which he sought here."
"The quest of the Child of Light hath but only begun," the image stated. "The Child of Dark hath reached the coast of far-off Mallorea and even now doth journey toward the House of Torak at Ashaba. The time hath come for the Eternal man to open the Book of Ages."
Vard's face grew troubled. "Is that wise, Cyradis?" he asked. "Can even Ancient Belgarath be trusted with what he may find in that volume? His entire life hath been devoted to but one of the two spirits which control all things."
"It must be so, Vard, else the meeting of the Child of Light and the Child of Dark will not come to pass at the appointed time, and our task will remain uncompleted." She sighed. "The time draws nigh," she told them. "That for which we have waited since the beginning of the First Age fast approaches, and all must be accomplished ere the moment in which I must perform that task which hath lain upon us throughout the weary centuries. Give the Book of Ages to Eternal Belgarath that he may lead the Child of Light to the place which is no more—where all will be decided forever." Then she turned to the towering mute standing impassively beside the white-robed Vard. "My heart is empty without thee," she told him in a voice very near to tears. "My steps falter, and I am alone. I pray thee, my dear companion, make haste in the completion of thy task, for I am made desolate by thine absence."
Quite clearly in the flickering torchlight Garion could see the tears in Toth's eyes and the anguish on his face. The giant reached out toward the glowing image, then let his hand fall helplessly.
Cyradis also raised her hand, it seemed almost involuntarily.
Then she vanished.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
"Are you sure she said Ashaba?" Belgarath asked intently."I heard her, too, Grandfather," Garion confirmed what Silk had just reported. "She said that the Child of Dark had reached Mallorea and was journeying to the House of Torak at Ashaba."
"But there's nothing there," Belgarath objected. "Beldin and I ransacked that place right after Vo Mimbre." He began to pace up and down, scowling darkly. "What could Zandramas possibly want there? It's just an empty house."
"Maybe you can find some answers in the Book of Ages," Silk suggested.
Belgarath stopped and stared at him.
"Oh, I guess we hadn't got to that part yet," the little man said. "Cyradis told Vard that he was supposed to give you the book. He didn't like it very much, but she insisted."
Belgarath's hands began to tremble, and he controlled himself with an obvious effort.
"Is it important?" Silk asked curiously.
"So that's what this has all been about!" the old man burst out. "I knew there was a reason for bringing us here."
"What's the Book of Ages, Belgarath?" Ce'Nedra asked him.
"It's a part of The Mallorean Gospels—the holy book of the Seers at Kell. It looks as if we were led here specifically for the purpose of putting that book into my hands."
"This is all just a little obscure for me, old friend," Silk said, shivering. "Let's go get cleaned up, Garion. I'm soaked all the way through."
"How did you two get so wet?" Velvet asked.
"We were crawling around in the grass."
"That would account for it, I suppose."
"Do you really have to do that, Liselle?"
"Do what?"
"Never mind. Come on, Garion."
"What is it about her that irritates you so much?" Garion asked as the two of them went down the hall toward the back of the house.
"I'm not really sure," Silk replied. "I get the feeling that she's laughing at me all the time—and that she's got something on her mind that she isn't telling me. For some reason, she makes me very nervous."
After they had dried themselves and changed into clean clothing, they returned to the warm, firelit main room of the house to find that Toth had returned. He sat impassively on a bench near the door, with his huge hands folded on his knees. All traces of the anguish Garion had seen on his face in the clearing were gone now, and his expression was as enigmatic as ever.
Belgarath sat beside the fire holding a large leather-bound book tilted to catch the light, his eyes poring over it intently.
"Is that the book?" Silk asked.
"Yes," Polgara replied. "Toth brought it."
"I hope that it says something to make this trip worth all the trouble."
As Garion, Silk, and Toth ate, Belgarath continued to read, turning the crackling pages of the Book of Ages impatiently.
"Listen to this," he said. He cleared his throat and began to read aloud: '"Know ye, oh my people, that all adown the endless avenues of time hath division marred all that is—for there is division at the very heart of creation. But the stars and the spirits and the voices within the rocks speak of the day when the division will end and all will be made one again, for creation itself knows that the day will come. And two spirits contend with each other at the very center of time, and these spirits are the two sides of that which hath divided creation. Now the day must come when we must choose between them, and the choice we must make is the choice between absolute good and absolute evil, and that which we choose—good or evil—will prevail until the end of days. But how may we know which is good and which is evil?
" 'Behold also this truth; the rocks of the world and of all other worlds murmur continually of the two stones which lie at the center of the division. Once these stones were one, and they stood at the very center of all of creation, but, like all else, they were divided, and in the instant of division were they rent apart with a force that destroyed whole suns. And where these stones are found together, there surely will be the last confrontation between the two spirits. Now the day will come when all division will end and all will be made as one again—except that the division between the two stones is so great that they can never be rejoined. And in the day when the division ends shall one of the stones cease forever to exist, and in that day also shall one of the spirits forever vanish.'"