‘Did he describe her to you?’ the Sendar asked. What a dunce! Even if the Murgo’s transparent fiction had been true, he’d have had a description. In his case, however, he had no problem at all. Ctuchik had probably engraved a portrait of Polgara on the inside of his eyeballs.
‘He said that she was quite tall and very beautiful.’
‘That describes a lot of the ladies here in Sulturn, friend. Did he give you any other details?’
‘She has very dark hair,’ the Murgo said, ‘but the thing that really stood out in my friend’s mind was the fact that she’s got a white streak in her hair - just above her brow.’
The Sendar laughed. ‘That’s easy,’ he said. ‘Your friend’s been taken with Mistress Pol, the aunt of Darion the cabinet-maker. He’s not the first, but you might as well tell him to try his luck somewhere else. Mistress Pol’s not interested, and she goes out of her way to let people know that. She can blister the bark off a tree from a half mile away.’
I swore under my breath. I was going to have to have a talk with Pol about that. What good did it do to hide if she didn’t change her name, her appearance, or her temperament?
I didn’t really need to stay any longer. The Murgo had what he wanted, and so did I. I pushed back my bowl of watery turnip stew, got up, and left.
The streets of Sulturn were nearly deserted, and a chill, gusty autumn wind howled around the corners of the solid stone houses. Heavy clouds covered the moon, and the few torches that were supposed to illuminate the streets were flaring and guttering as the wind tore at them. I didn’t really pay too much attention to the weather, though. I was more interested in whether or not there might be another Murgo following me. I doubled back several times, circled around through the narrow, nearly dark streets, and came at Darion’s cabinet-shop from the far side.
It was after nightfall, so the shop was closed, but the lights in the windows of the living quarters upstairs clearly announced that Darion and his family were home. I didn’t pound on the door. There wasn’t any point in disturbing the neighbors. I picked the lock instead, went inside, and blundered around in the dark until I found the stairs. I went up them two at time, fumbled around until I found the lock on the door at the top, and picked that one as well.
The door opened into the kitchen, and I’d have recognized it as Polgara’s even if I’d entered it somewhere on the far side of the moon. It was warm and cheerful, and it was arranged in that familiar way all of Polgara’s kitchens have been arranged. Pol and her little family were eating supper at the kitchen table when I slipped into the room. ‘Pol!’ I hissed sharply, ‘We’ve got to get you out of here!’
She came quickly to her feet, her eyes blazing. ‘What are you doing here, old man?’ she demanded. So much for disguises, I guess.
Darion stood up. I hadn’t seen him since he was a child. He was quite tall, and there was a certain bulkiness to his shoulders that reminded me of Dras Bull-neck. ‘Who is this man, Aunt Pol?’ he demanded.
‘My father.’ she replied shortly.
‘Holy Belgarath?’ His voice was startled.
‘That “holy” might be open to some question,’ she said dryly. ‘I told you to stay away from me, father.’
‘This is an emergency, Pol. We’ve got to leave Sulturn right now. Have you ever thought of hiding that white lock? It makes you awfully conspicuous, you know.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘There’s a Murgo at an inn not a half-mile from here. He’s been asking after you. Worse yet, he’s been getting answers. He knows exactly where you are. Gather up what you need, and let’s get out of here. I don’t know if he’s alone or not, but even if he is now, he won’t be for long.’
‘Why didn’t you kill him?’
Darion’s eyes went very wide. ‘Aunt Pol!’ he gasped.
‘How much does he know?’ I asked, pointing at Darion.
‘As much as he needs to know.’
‘That’s a little vague, Pol. Does he know who he is?’
‘In a general sort of way.’
‘I think it’s time for a few specifics. You’d better pack a few things. We can buy more in Kotu.’
‘Kotu?’
‘There are too many Murgos snooping around here in Sendaria. It’s time for you to move to one of the Alorn kingdoms. Throw some things together while I explain the situation to Darion and his wife.’
‘I still think you should have killed the Murgo.’
‘This is Sendaria, Pol, not Cherek. Dead bodies attract attention here. As soon as you’re ready, I’ll go buy some horses.’
‘Get a wagon instead, father. Selana’s pregnant. I’m not going to let you bounce her around in a saddle.’
‘Congratulations, your Majesty,’ I said to Darion.
‘What did you say?’
‘Congratulations.’
‘No, the other - that “your Majesty” business.’
‘Oh, Polgara!’ I said irritably. ‘This is ridiculous! How many other facts haven’t you told him? Start packing, and I’ll explain things to him.’ I turned back to the heir. ‘All right, Darion, listen carefully - you too, Selana. I won’t have time to repeat this.’ I glossed over a number of things. As you may have noticed, this is a very long story. After about fifteen minutes, though, Darion and his wife at least knew that he was the heir to Iron-grip’s throne and why we had to avoid Murgos.
‘I can’t just leave my shop behind, Ancient One,’ he protested.
‘I’ll set you up in business again once we get to Kotu. You’ll have to abandon this one, I’m afraid.’
‘Go get a wagon, father,’ Pol told me.
‘Where am I going to be able to buy a wagon at this time of night?’
‘Steal one, then.’ Her eyes had gone flinty.
‘I’ve got a two-wheeled cart,’ Darion said. ‘I use it as a hand-cart to deliver furniture. It’s a little rickety, but it’s got two shafts. I suppose we could come up with some way to hitch a horse to it. It might be a bit crowded, but the four of us should fit in it.’
I suddenly laughed. ‘How very appropriate,’ I said.
‘I didn’t quite follow that.’
‘A very old friend of mine used to travel around in a rickety two-wheeled cart.’ Then I had an idea - a very good one, even if I do say so myself. ‘I think a fire might be useful here,’ I suggested.
‘A fire?’
‘You’re going to have to leave all this behind anyway, Darion, but we can still get some use out of it. A burning house causes a lot of confusion and attracts crowds of gawkers. That might just be the thing to distract the Murgo long enough to give us time to get away.’
‘All my things are here!’ Selana protested, ‘All my furniture, my bedding, my clothes!’
‘That’s the nice thing about leaving town in a hurry, dear child,’ I told her gaily. ‘You get all new things when you get to where you’re going. I’ll buy you whatever you want when we get to Kotu. Frankly, I’d burn down this whole town if it’d help us evade that Murgo.’
‘I don’t think it’ll work, Ancient One,’ Darion said dubiously. ‘I’m fairly well-known here in Sulturn, and somebody’s bound to see us leaving.’
‘I’ll hide you three in the back of the cart,’ I told him. ‘The only thing people are going to see is a humorous fellow in a rickety cart.’
‘Would that work?’
‘It always has in the past. I’ll go get my horse while you three finish packing.’ I went back downstairs and up the street to the inn. I stopped briefly to glance into the common room on my way to the stables. My Murgo was still there, and the tipsy Sendar was still talking to him. The Murgo evidently didn’t intend to follow up on the information he’d received until morning. This was all working out better and better.
Polgara had improved on my plan during my absence. She’d been very subtle about it, since I hadn’t heard a thing, and if I hadn’t heard it, I was sure that the Murgo - or Grolim, or whatever he was - hadn’t heard her either. Three complete human skeletons were huddled together near one of the windows.
‘Nice touch, Pol,’ I congratulated her.
‘Just a little more confusion for your Murgo, father. If he believes that Darion, Selana and I all died in the fire, he won’t come looking for us.’
‘I’m sure Ctuchik’ll be delighted to hear the news - at least until he goes back and re-reads his prophecies. Then he’ll probably turn our Murgo inside out.’
‘Wouldn’t that be a shame?’
I put the three of them in the back of the cart and covered them with some blankets, and then I drove the cart out into the deserted street. I waited until we’d almost reached the north gate before I set fire to Darion’s shop. I didn’t start a big fire - just a baby one in a back corner. The shop had large stacks of seasoned lumber in it and wood shavings piled up in the corners, so my little fire had plenty to eat. It took a while, but eventually it grew up.