Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress: 2-Book Collection

‘He’s one of Torak’s disciples, isn’t he?’

‘Yes. He more or less controls the Grolims at Mal Yaska, and Ctuchik runs things in Cthol Mishrak. Anyway, a few years ago Urvon wanted a survey of the native people of Mallorea, so he sent his Grolims out to have a look. The ones he sent to Kell didn’t come back. They’re still wandering around in the shadow of that huge mountain down there – blind and crazy. Of course, you can’t always tell if a Grolim’s crazy; they aren’t too rational to begin with.’

Beldin barked that ugly laugh of his. ‘You can say that again, brother.’

‘What are the Dals at Kell up to?’ I asked curiously.

‘All sorts of things – wizardry, necromancy, divining, astrology.’

‘Don’t tell me that they’re still into that tired old nonsense.’

‘I’m not entirely positive that it is nonsense, old boy. Astrology’s the province of the Seers, and they’re more or less at the top of the social structure at Kell. Kell’s been there forever, and it doesn’t really have what you could call a government. They all just do what the Seers tell them to do.’

‘Have you ever met one of these Seers?’ Beldin asked.

‘One – a young woman with a bandage over her eyes.’

‘How could she read the stars if she’s blind?’

‘I didn’t say that she was blind, old boy. Evidently she only takes the bandage off when she wants to read the Book of the Heavens. She was a strange girl, but the Dals all listened to her – not that what she said made much sense to me.’

‘That’s usually the case with people who pretend to be able to see the future,’ Beldin noted. ‘Talking in riddles is a very good way to keep from being exposed as a fraud.’

‘I don’t think they’re frauds, Beldin,’ Belmakor disagreed. ‘The Dals tell me that no Seer has ever been wrong about what’s going to happen. The Seers think in terms of Ages. The Second Age began when Torak broke the world apart.’

‘It was a sort of memorable event,’ I said. ‘The Alorns started their calendar that day. I think we’re currently in the year one hundred and thirty-eight – or so.’

‘Foolishness!’ Beldin snorted.

‘It gives them something to think about beside picking fights with their neighbors.’

The she-wolf came loping across the meadow. ‘One wonders when you are coming home,’ she said to me pointedly.

‘She’s almost as bad as a wife, isn’t she?’ Beldin observed.

She bared her fangs at him. I could never really be sure just how much she understood of what we were saying.

‘Are you going back to Mallorea?’ I asked Belmakor.

‘I don’t think so, old boy. I think I’ll look in on the Marags instead. I rather like the Marags.’

‘Well, I am going back to Mallorea,’ Beldin said. ‘I still want to find out who Torak’s third disciple is, and I’d like to keep an eye on Belzedar – if I can keep up with him. Every time I turn around, he’s given me the slip.’ He looked at me. ‘What are you going to do?’

‘Right now I’m going home – before my friend here sinks her fangs into my leg and drags me there.’

‘I meant it more generally, Belgarath.’

‘I’m not entirely sure. I think I’ll stay around here for a while – until the Master thinks of something else for me to do.’

‘Well,’ the wolf said to me, ‘are you coming home or not?’

‘Yes, dear,’ I sighed, rolling my eyes upward.

It was lonely in the Vale after Belsambar left us. Beldin and Belzedar were off in Mallorea, and Belmakor was down in Maragor, entertaining Marag women, I’m sure. That left only the twins and me to stay with our Master. There was a sort of unspoken agreement among us that the twins would always stay close to Aldur. That particular custom had started right after Torak stole our Master’s Orb. I moved around quite a bit during the next several centuries, however. There were still marriages to arrange – and an occasional murder.

Does that shock you? It shouldn’t. I’ve never made any pretense at being a saint, and there were people out there in the world who were inconvenient. I didn’t tell the Master what I was doing – but he didn’t ask, either. I’m not going to waste my time – or yours – coming up with lame excuses. I was driven by Necessity, so I did what was necessary.

The years rolled on. I would have passed my three thousandth birthday without even noticing it if my companion hadn’t brought it to my attention. For some reason she always remembered my birthday, and that was very odd. Wolves watch the seasons, not the years, but she never once forgot that day that no longer had any real meaning for me.

I stumbled rather bleary-eyed from my bed that morning. The twins and I had been celebrating something or other the night before. She sat watching me with that silly tongue of hers lolling out. Being laughed at is not a good way to start out the day. ‘You smell bad,’ she noted.

‘Please don’t,’ I said. ‘I’m not feeling well this morning.’

‘Remarkable. You felt very well last night.’

‘That was then. This is now.’

‘One is curious to know why you do this to yourself. You know that you will be unwell in the morning.’

‘It is a custom.’ I’d found over the years that shrugging things off as ‘a custom’ was the best approach with her.

‘Oh. I see. Well, if it is a custom, I suppose it is all right. You are older today, you know.’

‘I feel much, much older today.’

‘You were whelped on this day a long time ago.’

‘Is it my birthday again? Already? Where does the time go?’

‘Behind us – or in front. It depends on which way you are looking,’ Can you believe the complexity of that thought coming from a wolf?

‘You have been with me for quite some time now,’ ‘What is time to a wolf? One day is much like another, is it not?’

‘As I recall it, we first met on the grasslands to the north before the world was broken.’

‘It was about then, yes.’

I made a few quick mental calculations. ‘A thousand or so of my birthdays have passed since then.’

‘So?’

‘Do wolves normally live so long?’

‘You are a wolf – sometimes – and you have lived this long.’

‘That is different. You are a very unusual wolf.’

‘Thank you. One had thought that you might not have noticed that.’