The night air was filled with smoke from the burning city, the reek of burning flesh, and the dreadful smell of decay.
Yarblek also sniffed, then grimaced. "From the odor, I'd say that the dead-carts have missed a few." he said.
He led the way to the mouth of the alley and peered out into the street. "It's clear enough," he grunted. "Just a few looters picking over the dead. Come on."
They went out of the alley and moved along a street illuminated by a burning house. Garion saw a furtive movement beside the wall of another house and then made out the shape of a raggedly dressed man crouched over a sprawled body. The man was roughly rifting through the plague victim's clothes. "Won't he catch it?" he asked Yarblek, pointing at the looter.
"Probably." Yarblek shrugged. "I don't think the world's going to miss him very much if he does, though."
They rounded a corner and entered a street where fully half the houses were on fire. A dead-cart had stopped before one of the burning houses, and two rough-looking men were tossing bodies into the fire with casual brutality.
"Stay back!" one of the men shouted to them. "There's plague here!"
"There's plague everywhere in this mournful city, don't y' know," Feldegast replied. "But we thank ye fer yer warnin' anyway. We'll just go on by on the other side of the street, if ye don't mind." He looked curiously at the pair. "How is it that yer not afraid of the contagion yerselves?" he asked.
"We've already had it," one replied with a short laugh.
"I've never been so sick in my life, but at least I didn't die from it -and they say you can only catch it once."
" 'Tis a fortunate man y' are, then," Feldegast congratulated him.
They moved on past the rough pair and on down to the next corner.
"We go this way." Feldegast told them.
"How much farther is it?" Belgarath asked him.
"Not far, an' then we'll be back underground where it's safe."
"You might feel safe underground," Silk said sourly, "but I certainly don't."
Halfway along the street Garion saw a sudden movement in one of the deeply inset doorways, and then he heard a feeble wail. He peered at the doorway. Then, one street over, a burning house fell in on itself, shooting flame and sparks high into the air. By that fitful light he was able to see what was in the shadows. The crumpled figure of a woman lay huddled in the doorway, and seated beside the body was a crying child, not much more than a year old. His stomach twisted as he started at the horror before his eyes.
Then, with slow cry, Ce'Nedra darted toward the child with her arms extended.
"Ce'Nedra!" he shouted, trying to shake his hand free of Chretienne's reins. "No!"
But before he could move in pursuit, Vella was already there. She caught Ce'Nedra by the shoulder and spun her around roughly. "Ce'Nedra!" she snapped. "Stay away!"
"Let me go!" Ce'Nedra almost screamed. "Can't you see that it's a baby?" She struggled to free herself.
Very coolly, Vella measured the little Queen, then slapped her sharply across the face. So far as Garion knew, it was the first time anyone had ever hit Ce'Nedra.
"The baby's dead, Ce'Nedra," Vella told her with brutal directness, "and if you go near it, you'll die, too." She began to drag her captive back toward the others.
Ce'Nedra stared back over her shoulder at the sickly wailing child, her hand outstretched toward it.
Then Velvet moved to her side, put an arm about her shoulders, and gently turned her so that she could no longer see the child. "Ce'Nedra," she said, "you must think first of your own baby. Would you want to carry this dreadful disease to him?"
Ce'Nedra stared at her.
"Or do you want to die before you ever see him again?"
With a sudden wail, Ce'Nedra fell into Velvet's arms, sobbing bitterly.
"I hope she won't hold any grudges," Vella murmured.
"You're very quick, Vella," Polgara said, "and you think very fast when you have to."
Vella shrugged. "I've found that a smart slap across the mouth is the best cure for hysterics."
Polgara nodded. "It usually works," she agreed approvingly.
They went on down the street until Feldegast led them into another smelly alley. He fumbled with the latch to the wide door of a boarded-up warehouse, then swung it open. "Here we are, then," he said, and they all followed him inside. A long ramp led down into a cavernous cellar, where Yarblek and the little juggler moved aside a stack of crates to reveal the opening of another passageway.
They led their horses into the dark opening, and Feldegast remained outside to hide the passage again. When he was satisfied that the opening was no longer visible, he wormed his way through the loosely stacked crates to rejoin them. "An' there we are," he said, brushing his hands together in a self-congratulatory way. " No man at all kin possibly know that we've come this way, don't y' know, so let's be off."
Garion's thoughts were dark as he trudged along the passageway, following Feldegast's winking lantern. He had slipped away from a man for whom he had begun to develop a careful friendship and had left him behind in a plague-stricken and burning city. There was probably very little that he could have done to aid Zakath, but his desertion of the man did not make him feel very proud.
He knew, however, that he had no real choice. Cyradis had been too adamant in her instructions. Compelled by necessity, he turned his back on Mal Zeth and resolutely set his face toward Ashaba.
PART THREE ??ASHABA
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The road leading north from Mal Zeth passed through a fair, fertile plain where new-sprouted grain covered the damp soil like a low, bright green mist and the warm spring air was filled with the urgent scent of growth. In many ways, the landscape resembled the verdant plains of Arendia or the tidy fields of Sendaria. There were villages, of course, with white buildings, thatched roofs, and dogs that came out to stand at the roadside and bark. The spring sky was an intense blue dotted with puffy white clouds grazing like sheep in their azure pastures.The road was a dusty brown ribbon laid straight where the surrounding green fields were flat, and folded and curved where the land rose in gentle, rounded hills.
They rode out that morning in glistening sunshine with the sound of the bells fastened about the necks of Yarblek's mules providing a tinkling accompaniment to the morning song of flights of birds caroling to greet the sun.
Behind them there rose a great column of dense black smoke, marking the huge valley where Mal Zeth lay burning.