‘I must complete one task first, Huntress,’ Cyradis told her. She held out both hands, and Toth placed the heavy book he had carried down from the mountain in them. ‘Ancient Belgarath,’ she said in that strangely choral voice, ‘thus do we commend into thy hands our holy book as the stars have instructed us to do. Read it carefully, for thy destination is revealed in its pages.’
Belgarath rose quickly, crossed to her, and took the book, his hands trembling with eagerness. ‘I thank you, Cyradis. I know how precious the book is, and I will care for it while it is in my hands and return it once I’ve found what I need.’ Then he went to a smaller table near the window, sat, and opened the heavy volume.
‘Move over,’ Beldin told him, stumping to the table and drawing up another chair. The two old men bent their heads over the crackling pages, oblivious to all around them.
‘Will you eat now, Cyradis?’ Polgara asked the blindfolded girl.
‘Thou art kind, Polgara,’ the Seeress of Kell replied. ‘I have fasted since thine arrival here in preparation for this meeting, and mine hunger weakens me.’
Polgara gently led her to the table and seated her between Ce’Nedra and Velvet.
‘Is my baby well, Holy Seeress?’ Ce’Nedra asked urgently.
‘He is well, Queen of Riva, although he doth yearn to be returned to thee.’
‘I’m surprised he even remembers me.’ Ce’Nedra said it with some bitterness. ‘He was only a baby when Zandramas stole him.’ She sighed. ‘There’s so much I’ve missed – so many things I’ll never see.’ Her lower lip began to tremble.
Garion went to her and put his arms comfortingly around her. ‘It’s going to be all right, Ce’Nedra,’ he assured her.
‘Will it, Cyradis?’ she asked in a voice near to tears. ‘Will everything really be all right again?’
‘That I cannot say, Ce’Nedra. Two courses stand before us, and not even the stars know upon which we will place our feet.’
‘How was the trip?’ Silk asked, more, Garion thought, to get past an uncomfortable moment than out of any burning curiosity.
‘Nervous,’ Garion replied. ‘I don’t fly very well, and we ran into some bad weather.’
Silk frowned. ‘But it’s been absolutely clear all day.’
‘Not where we were, it wasn’t.’ Garion glanced at Cyradis and decided not to make an issue of the near-disastrous downdraft. ‘Is it all right to tell them about the place where you live?’ he asked her.
‘Of a certainty, Belgarion,’ she smiled. ‘They are of thy company, and thou shouldst conceal nothing from them.’
‘Do you remember Mount Kahsha in Cthol Murgos?’ Garion asked his friend.
‘I’ve been trying to forget.’
‘Well, the seers have a city that’s sort of like the one the Dagashi built at Kahsha. It’s inside a very large cave.’
‘I’m glad I didn’t go there, then.’
Cyradis turned her face toward him, a concerned little frown touching her forehead. ‘Hast thou not yet mastered this unreasoning fear of thine, Kheldar?’
‘Not noticeably, no – and I’d hardly call it unreasoning. Believe me, Cyradis, I have reasons – lots and lots of reasons.’ he shuddered.
‘Thou must summon up thy courage, Kheldar, for the time will surely come when thou must enter a place such as thou holdest in dread.’
‘Not if I can help it, I won’t.’
‘Thou must, Kheldar. No choice is open to thee.’
His face was bleak, but he said nothing.
‘Tell me, Cyradis,’ Velvet said then, ‘were you the one who interrupted the progress of Zith’s pregnancy?’
‘Thou art shrewd to have perceived the pause in that most natural of events, Liselle,’ the Seeress told her, ‘but nay, it was not I. The wizard Vard on the Isle of Verkat bade her to wait until her task at Ashaba was completed.’
‘Vard is a wizard?’ Polgara asked in some surprise. ‘I can usually detect them, but in his case, I didn’t sense a thing.’
‘He is most subtle,’ Cyradis agreed. ‘Things stand so in Cthol Murgos that great care must be exercized in the practice of our arts. The Grolims in the land of the Murgos are ever alert to the disturbances such acts inevitably cause.’
‘We were quite put out with you on Verkat,’ Durnik told her. ‘That was before we understood the reason for what you did. I’m afraid I treated Toth very badly for a while. He was good enough to forgive me, though.’
The big mute smiled at him and made a few gestures.
Durnik laughed. ‘You don’t really have to do that any more, Toth,’ he told his friend. ‘I finally figured out how you were talking to me.’
Toth lowered his hands.
Durnik seemed to listen for a moment. ‘Yes,’ he agreed. ‘It’s much easier this way – and faster, too – now that we don’t have to wave our hands at each other. Oh, by the way, Eriond and I found a pond a little ways below the city here. It has some very nice trout in it.’
Toth grinned broadly.
‘I thought you might feel that way.’ Durnik grinned back.
‘I’m afraid we’ve corrupted your guide, Cyradis,’ Polgara apologized.
‘Nay, Polgara.’ The Seeress smiled. ‘This passion hath been upon him since boyhood. Oft times in our travels he hath found excuse to linger for a time by some lake or stream. I do not chide him for this, for I am fond of fish, and he doth prepare them exquisitely.’
They finished their meal and sat, talking quietly to avoid disturbing Belgarath and Beldin who still sat pouring over the Mallorean Gospels.
‘How is Zandramas going to find out where we’re all going?’ Garion asked the Seeress. ‘Since she’s a Grolim, she can’t come here.’
‘That I may not tell thee, Child of Light. She will, however, arrive at the appointed place at the proper time.’
‘With my son?’
‘As it hath been foretold.’
‘I’m looking forward to that meeting.’ He said it bleakly. ‘There are a great many things Zandramas and I have to settle.’
‘Let not thy hatred blind thee to thy tasks,’ she told him quite seriously.
‘And what is my task, Cyradis?’
‘That thou wilt know when it doth face thee.’
‘But not before?’