Zedar was with the current Salmissra when I entered, and he really looked terrible. He was shabby and run down, and there was a haunted look in his eyes. The five centuries he’d spent in that cave watching his Master mildewing hadn’t really been very good to him. He stared at me as I entered, and the light of recognition dawned in his eyes. ‘Polgara?’ he exclaimed in a startled voice. Someone had evidently described me to him. ‘Is that really you?’
‘Marvelous to see you again, old boy,’ I lied. ‘Who’s watching over Torak’s carcass? Ctuchik, perhaps?’
‘Don’t be absurd.’ He frowned and raised a quizzical eyebrow. ‘You seem to know me,’ he said, ‘but I don’t seem to recall that we’ve ever met before.’
‘We weren’t formally introduced, dear boy, but I had the privilege – if that’s the right word – of being present during your conversations with One-eye back at Vo Mimbre.’
“That’s impossible! I’d have sensed your presence.’
‘No, as a matter of fact, you wouldn’t have. Don’t tell me that you don’t know how to do that. Your Master’s left a huge gap in your education, old boy. Shall we get down to business here? I’m much too busy to have to come down to this stinking swamp every generation or so to straighten things out.’ Then I looked directly at the Serpent Queen. She closely resembled Sally, of course, but there were some differences. She had no trace of Sally’s endearing vulnerability, for one thing. This Salmissra was made of steel. ‘I won’t waste any time here, Salmissra. You do know what I’ll do to you if you interfere with the Godslayer, don’t you? You have your own ways to see into the future, so you know exactly what’s going to happen.’
Her eyes narrowed. ‘Threats, Polgara? You’re threatening me in my own throne-room?’
‘It’s not a threat, Salmissra. It’s just a statement of fact. The next time you see me, it will happen.’
‘Issa will protect me.’
‘If he happens to be awake. I wouldn’t count on that very much, though. You have yearnings for immortality, Salmissra. I can arrange that. You won’t like it very much, but I’ll see to it that you’ll live forever. You probably won’t want to look at your mirror afterward, though. Zedar and Ctuchik – and maybe even Urvon – are going to keep waving Torak in front of you until you’re old and tired, but I wouldn’t believe them, dear. Torak only loves himself. There’s no room in his heart for anybody else – except me, of course. And when you get down to the bottom of it, he doesn’t even love me. All he wants is to dominate me and make me worship him. That’s why he lost at Vo Mimbre.’ I gave Zedar a thin smile. ‘Isn’t that about the way it went, Zedar? Torak absolutely knew he wasn’t supposed to take the field on that third day, didn’t he? But he went ahead and did it anyway. That’s why he’s lying in that cave down in Cthol Murgos growing moldier by the hour. You’ve attached yourself to a defective, Zedar, and eventually, you’ll have to live with the consequences.’
Then, quite suddenly, I had a horrible premonition, and I knew exactly what the fate of my father’s brother was going to be, and it was too horrible to even contemplate. And in that same moment I knew that it would be Zedar who would ultimately find and deliver the one who would replace Torak to all of mankind. At last I understood the absolute necessity of Zedar’s existence. He would give humanity the greatest gift it would ever receive, and all he’d get in return would be living entombment.
I think Zedar himself may have caught a hint of that premonition as well, because his face turned very pale.
I looked back at the serpent queen. ‘Take my advice, Salmissra,’ I told her. ‘Don’t get involved in this diseased game Ctuchik and Zedar are playing with you. No matter how much they promise, neither of them can deliver up Torak’s affection. They don’t control Torak. It’s the other way around, and when you get right down to the bottom of it, Torak doesn’t even particularly like his disciples. Zedar found out about that at Vo Mimbre, didn’t you, Zedar? The possibility that you’d vanish in a puff of smoke if you broke the rules didn’t particularly bother Torak, did it? You gave up the love of one God for the indifference of another. Very poor choice there, old boy.’
A look of almost overwhelming regret came over his face, accompanied by absolute hopelessness. It was so naked that I was almost ashamed of myself.
‘I’m so happy that the three of us had the chance for this little chat,’ I told them. ‘I hope that if s cleared the air. Now you both fully understand what I’m going to do to you if you keep on interfering in something that’s really none of your business. Be guided by me in this, gentles all, for, should ye persist, our next meeting shall be most unpleasant.’
I just threw that in. I thought it had a nice archaic ring to it. Evidently something of my father’s nature has filtered down to me, because every so often I get this overpowering urge to be melodramatic. Hereditary character defect there, perhaps.
Then I left Sthiss Tor, but I didn’t immediately return to Annath. I spent several weeks high in the Tolnedran mountains pondering that sudden insight that had come to me in Salmissra’s throne-room. I knew that Zedar would be the one to find Eriond, though I didn’t even know Eriond’s name at that point. The more I thought about it, the more I began to catch a strong odor of ‘tampering’. There was a difference, though. I’d encountered that kind of thing before, and there’s a different feel – ‘odor’, if you will – to mother’s tampering, or UL’s, or that of the Purpose. This time it was quite different. I didn’t recognize it at all, and that made me a little edgy. A new player had evidently taken a seat in the game. I recognize it now, of course. I should, after all, since I raised this new player from a little boy here in this very cottage.
One of these days I think I’ll have a talk with Eriond about that. I think I’d like to get to the bottom of these little visitations. If there’s a reason for them, I suppose they’re all right, but if they’re just for fun, somebody’s going to get a piece of my mind.
I was also very unhappy about what it was becoming increasingly obvious that I was going to have to do to Salmissra. She and I both knew it was going to happen, but she was evidently going to be persuaded by someone that I wouldn’t really be able to do it. My only solace now lies in the fact that since she’s become adjusted to it, she’s not really too unhappy that it happened, and Nyissa’s much better off with her on the throne in her present form.