‘Kresca, young master.’
‘I think we can drop that. Garion will do just fine.’
‘Whatever you like, Garion. Now get off my quarterdeck so I can maneuver this old tub out of the harbor.’
The speech was different, and it was half-way around the world, but Captain Kresca was so much like Barak’s friend Greldik that Garion felt suddenly very secure. He went below to join the others. ‘We’ve had a bit of luck,’ he told them. ‘Our captain is a Melcene. He’s not overburdened with scruples, but he has got charts of the reef. He’s probably the only man in these waters who does. He’s offered to advise us when the time comes to decide on where we want to land.’
‘That was helpful of him,’ Silk said.
‘Maybe, but I think his main concern is not ripping the bottom out of his ship.’
‘I can relate to that,’ Silk said. ‘– As long as I’m on board, anyway.’
‘I’m going back up on deck,’ Garion said then. ‘Staying in a stuffy compartment on the first day of a voyage always makes me a little queasy for some reason.’
‘And you’re the ruler of an island?’ Poledra said.
‘It’s just a question of getting adjusted, Grandmother.’
‘Of course.’
The sea and sky were unsettled. The heavy cloud-bank was still coming in from the west, sending long, ponderous combers rolling in from that direction, waves which had in all probability started somewhere off the east coast of Cthol Murgos. Although, as king of an island nation, Garion knew that the phenomenon was not unusual, he nonetheless felt a certain sense of superstitious apprehension when he saw that the surface winds were moving westward while those aloft as proclaimed by the movement of the clouds, moved east. He had seen this happen many times before, but this time he could not be positive that the weather was responding to natural causes or to something else. Idly, he wondered what those two eternal awarenesses might have done had he and his friends not found a ship. He had a momentary vision of the sea parting to provide a broad highway across its bottom, a highway littered with startled fish. He began to feel less and less in charge of his own destiny. Even as he had on the long trek to Cthol Mishrak, he became increasingly certain that the two prophecies were herding him toward Korim for a meeting which, though he himself might not have chosen it, was the ultimate Event toward which the entire universe had been yearning since the beginning of days. A plaintive ‘why me?’ hovered on his lips.
And then Ce’Nedra was there, burrowing under his arm as she had during those first few heady days when they had finally discovered that they did, in fact, love each other. ‘What are you thinking about, Garion?’ she asked softly. She had changed out of the antique green satin gown she had worn at the palace and now wore a gray dress of utilitarian wool.
‘I’m not, really. Probably worrying comes a lot closer.’
‘What’s there to worry about? We’re going to win, aren’t we?’
‘That hasn’t been decided yet.’
‘Of course you’re going to win. You always do.’
‘This time’s a little different, Ce’Nedra.’ He sighed. ‘It’s not just the meeting, though. I’ve got to choose my successor, and the one I choose is going to be the new Child of Light – and most probably a God. If I pick the wrong person, it’s possible that I’ll create a God who’ll be an absolute disaster. Could you imagine Silk as a God? He’d be out there picking the pockets of the other Gods and inscribing off-color jokes in the constellations.’
‘He doesn’t really seem to have the right kind of temperament for it,’ she agreed. ‘I like him well enough, but I’m afraid UL might disapprove very strongly. What else is bothering you?’
‘You know what else. One of us isn’t going to live through tomorrow.’
‘You don’t really have to concern yourself about that, Garion,’ she said wistfully. ‘It’s going to be me. I’ve known that from the very beginning.’
‘Don’t be absurd. I can make sure it’s not you.’
‘Oh? How?’
‘I’ll just tell them that I won’t make the choice if they hurt you in any way.’
‘Garion!’ she gasped. ‘You can’t do that! You’ll destroy the universe if you do!’
‘So what? The universe doesn’t mean anything to me without you, you know.’
‘That’s very sweet, but you can’t do it. You wouldn’t do it anyway. You’ve got too great a sense of responsibility.’
‘What makes you think you’re going to be the one?’
‘The tasks, Garion. Every one of us has a task – some of us more than one. Belgarath had to find out where the meeting’s going to take place. Velvet had to kill Harakan. Even Sadi had a task. He had to kill Naradas. I have no task – except to die.’
Garion decided at that point to tell her. ‘You did have a task, Ce’Nedra,’ he told her, ‘and you did it very well.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘You wouldn’t remember it. After we left Kell, you were very drowsy for several days.’
‘Yes, I remember that.’
‘It wasn’t because you were sleepy. Zandramas was tampering with your mind. She’s done it before. You remember that you got sick on your way to Rak Hagga?’
‘Yes.’
‘It was a different kind of sickness, but it was Zandramas again. She’s been trying to take control of you for more than a year now.’
Ce’Nedra stared at him.
‘Anyway, after we left Kell, she managed to put your mind to sleep. You wandered off and, out there in the forest, you thought you met Arell.’
‘Arell? She’s dead.’
‘I know, but you thought you met her all the same, and she gave you what you thought was our baby. Then this supposed Arell asked you some questions, and you answered them.’
‘What kind of questions?’
‘Zandramas had to find out where the meeting was supposed to take place, and she couldn’t go to Kell. She posed as Arell so she could ask you those questions. You told her about Perivor, about the map and about Korim. That was your task.’
‘I betrayed you?’ Her look was stricken.
‘No. You saved the universe. Zandramas absolutely has to be at Korim at the right time. Somebody had to tell her where to go, and that was your task.’