‘Good luck,’ the emperor said. ‘I’d better summon my generals. We’ve got a lot of planning to do.’
‘And Pol and I’d better leave for Nyissa. We’ll see how things stand when we get back.’
My daughter and I reached Sthiss Tor two days later, long before the Nyissan ambassador’s message did, so there was a bit of delay before we were escorted into Salmissra’s throne room. The snake-woman’s response to our information was profoundly unenthusiastic. ‘Why should I involve myself in your war with the Angaraks?’ she said, hardly bothering to take her eyes off her mirror.
‘It’s not just our war, Salmissra,’ Pol told her. ‘It concerns all of us.’
‘Not me, it doesn’t. One of my predecessors discovered the folly of becoming involved in this private feud between the Alorns and the Angaraks. I’m not going to make the same mistake. Nyissa will remain neutral.’
‘That option isn’t open to you, Salmissra,’ I told her. ‘Urvon’s army’s going to show up on your southern border before very long, and Nyissa stands between him and Tolnedra.’
‘So?’
‘He’ll march right straight through your country.’
She shrugged. ‘Let him. I won’t do anything to hinder him, so he won’t have any reason to do to Nyissa what Kal Torak did to Drasnia.’
‘Oh, yes he will,’ Pol disagreed. ‘Issa participated in the War of the Gods, remember? Torak has a very long memory, and he holds grudges. Urvon’s army won’t just march through. They’ll destroy Nyissa as they go along. You’re Issa’s handmaiden, so I’d imagine Urvon’s going to take special pains to find you so that the Grolims can cut out your heart.’
Salmissra’s colorless eyes grew worried. ‘He wouldn’t do that - not if I don’t offer any resistance.’
‘It’s your heart, snake-woman,’ Pol replied with a chilling kind of indifference.
‘What you do is your affair, Salmissra,’ I told her then. ‘We’ve told you what’s coming. Deal with it in any way you see fit. If you do decide to fight, you might get in touch with Ran Borune. It’s to his advantage to keep Urvon away from his southern border, so he might just lend you a few legions.’
‘Would he do that?’
‘It wouldn’t hurt to ask. Now, if you’ll excuse us, my daughter and I have some business in Maragor.’
That turned out to be a complete waste of time. Pol and I flew to Mar Amon, hoping that the news of Torak’s invasion would shake Mara out of his grief to some small degree, but I don’t think the weeping God even heard us. He refused to listen, and his wails continued to echo from the mountains surrounding haunted Maragor.
Finally we gave up and went on to Prolgu to talk with the Gorim. ‘He’ll almost have to cross Ulgoland to reach Arendia, Holy One,’ I told the ancient man after Pol and I had explained the situation. ‘I know that your people are very religious, and they might be opposed to shedding blood, but this is an unusual situation.’
‘I shall consult with Holy UL,’ he promised. ‘The circumstances might prompt him to set aside his distaste for violence.’
‘That’s entirely up to him, Gorim,’ I said with a faint smile. ‘I’m definitely not going to try to tell UL what to do. We’ll keep you advised of what’s happening. If you do decide to stay out of it, we’ll give you enough warning so that you can seal up the mouths of your caves.’
‘I appreciate that, Ancient One.’
Then Pol and I went back up through the caves to the ruins of Prolgu. ‘Now what?’ she asked me.
I considered it. ‘Since we’re this close anyway, why don’t we fly over and see how far Torak’s managed to penetrate before we go back to Riva? And I’d also like to get some idea of just how big this army of his really is.’
‘Whatever you say, father.’ It always makes me a little nervous when Pol agrees with me without any arguments.
It was cloudy over Algaria, but at least it wasn’t raining. You have no idea of how difficult it is trying to fly with wet feathers, and I’ve never really been comfortable as a duck. Ducks are probably no sillier than other birds, but they look so ridiculous.
Beltira had told me that Torak had penetrated as far as Lake Atun in northern Algaria. That had been almost a week ago, however, and he’d come quite a bit farther south. He’d crossed the Aldur River upstream from Aldurford, and his army was spread out on the grasslands of central Algaria now. They weren’t very hard to find, since there were quite a lot of them.
They weren’t moving very fast, however. Pol and I saw a number of engagements down there. As Beltira had said, Algar cavalry units were slashing at the flanks of that huge army, and their attacks went quite a bit farther than simple harassment. Algars are the finest horsemen in the world, and their long centuries of patient breeding had produced superb horses. In addition to the Malloreans, Torak’s army also included Murgos, Nadraks and Thulls, and those were the units that were bearing the brunt of the Algar attacks.
They weren’t very good at it, from what I saw. The Algars were simply too fast for them. Central Algaria is rolling country, and there are a lot of hills and grassy ravines that provide cover for the cavalry units. In most cases, the Angaraks didn’t see the Algars coming until it was too late. Torak’s army was moving slowly south, and the trail behind them was littered with their dead. That didn’t mean anything to Kal Torak, of course, but it did seem to concern his generals. They weren’t moving very fast, and they had whole platoons of scouts ranging out ahead and along the flanks. From what I was able to see, those scouts weren’t getting very much information back to the generals. Like all cavalry units the world over, the Algars carried short bows in addition to their lances and sabers. A cavalry bow doesn’t have the range that the longbows of the Asturian Arends have, but a man on a fast horse doesn’t need range. He can get close enough to do the job. Not very many Angarak scouts returned.
In effect, what was happening down there was a running battle, and it was very one-sided. Torak was taking appalling casualties, but he firmly pressed on. In addition to the scouts, the army had foragers out, looking for cows to feed that horde. The foragers were having an even worse time of it than the scouts were, since every herd of cattle they came across had dozens of Algar bowmen concealed in it. The Algars also amused themselves by stampeding cattle-herds through the Mallorean ranks, and that slowed the advance even more.
It was going to take Kal Torak a long time to reach the Stronghold.
Those stampedes were effective, I’ll grant you, but they goaded Torak’s generals into an action that ultimately caused an economic disaster in the west. At first, the foragers had gone out to round up the cows, intending to drive them along as a moving food source. After a few of those stampedes, though, they started to kill every cow they came across. It was a long time after the war was over before the Algarian herds even reached a fraction of their former numbers. Beef was very scarce in the west for years.
After we’d seen enough of that slow-moving battle, Pol and I turned and flew west toward Sendaria and the coast. I wanted to get back to Riva so that I could have a talk with Cho-Ram. The Mrin clearly stated that the Stronghold wouldn’t fall, but it never hurts to be careful. Garel was inside that fortress, after all.
It was raining in Riva when we got there. Isn’t that a surprise? The foul weather triggered by that eclipse had been very unusual elsewhere, but it’s always raining in Riva.
Ran Borune had sent word to the Alorn Kings about Urvon’s army, and they were very concerned about it. ‘Where are they right now?’ Rhodar asked me when Pol and I joined them in our customary conference room.
‘I’m not sure,’ I replied. ‘Pol and I’ve been moving around quite a bit. The twins always stay in the Vale, so Beldin usually makes his reports to them. I’ll talk with them about it later, but right now we’ve got some things to discuss and a few decisions to make. Then I want to go check out the defenses of the Stronghold.’
‘The Stronghold’s secure, Belgarath,’ Cho-Ram assured me. ‘You don’t have to go there.’
‘Just a precaution, Cho-Ram. What kind of a force have you got inside?’
‘Three clans and the Drasnian pikemen we managed to rescue. There are plenty of people inside to hold it. Besides, the walls are thirty feet thick, and no scaling ladder in the world could reach the top of them.’
‘I think that’s what Fleet-foot had in mind when he designed the place,’ I told him. ‘We know that the Stronghold won’t fall, but Torak’s probably going to keep hammering at it for several years before he gives up. That gives us some time to get ready for his next move. The Mrin says that the final battle’s going to be in Arendia, so it might not be a bad idea for us to move these sessions to Tol Honeth.’
‘Why Tol Honeth?’ Brand asked.
‘It’s closer to the battleground, for one thing, and that’s where the Tolnedran generals are, for another.’
‘The Tolnedrans aren’t going to be of much use, Belgarath,’ Eldrig protested. ‘Ran Borune’s going to be concentrating on his southern border. He’s not going to send any legions to Arendia.’