‘Where’s your friend?’ Cherek asked when they finally woke up.
‘He had something to attend to,’ I replied.
‘Well, it’s all over then, isn’t it?’ Dras said. ‘It’ll be good to get back to Val Alorn.’
‘You aren’t going to Val Alorn, Dras,’ I told him.
‘What?’
‘You’re going back up to those moors we just came across.’
‘Why would I want to do that?’
‘Because I’m telling you to do it.’ I was a little blunt about it. I wasn’t in a very good humor that morning. I looked at Bear-shoulders. ‘I’m sorry, Cherek,’ I told him, ‘but I’m going to have to split up your kingdom. The Angaraks aren’t just going to let this slide, so we’re going to have to get ready for them. Riva’s guarding the Orb, so the rest of you are going to have to guard him. I’m going to spread you out so that Torak’s people can’t slip up on Riva and steal back the Orb.’
‘How long’s that likely to take?’ Cherek asked me. ‘How long until I can put my kingdom back together again?’
‘You’re not going to be able to do that, I’m afraid. The division of Aloria’s going to be permanent.’
‘Belgarath!’ He said it plaintively, almost like a child protesting the removal of his favorite toy.
‘It’s out of my hands, Cherek. You’re the one who came up with the idea of stealing the Orb. Now you’re going to have to live with the consequences. Dras has to establish his own kingdom on the north moors. Algar’s going to have his down here on these grasslands. You’re going back to Val Alorn. Your kingdom’s going to be that peninsula.’
‘Kingdom?’ he exploded. ‘That’s hardly bigger than a clothes-closet!’
‘Don’t worry about it. Your kingdom’s the ocean now. Call your ship-builders together. Those scows they’ve been building aren’t good enough. I’ll draw up some plans for you. The King of the Ocean’s going to need war-boats, not floating bathtubs.’
His eyes narrowed speculatively. ‘The King of the Ocean,’ he mused. ‘That’s got a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Can you really make war with boats, though?’
‘Oh, yes,’ I assured him. ‘And the nice part of it is that you don’t have to walk to get to the battlefield.’
‘Where do you want me to go, Belgarath?’ Riva asked me.
‘I’ll show you myself. I’m supposed to go with you to help you get set up.’
‘Thanks, but where are we going?’
‘To the Isle of the Winds.’
‘That’s nothing but a rock out in the middle of the Great Western Sea!’ he objected.
‘I know, but it’s your rock. You’re going to take a sizeable number of Alorns and go there. You volunteered to pick up the Orb. Now it’s your responsibility. When we get to the Isle, you’re going to build a fortress, and you and your people are going to spend the rest of your lives guarding the Orb. Then, you’re going to turn the responsibility for guarding the Orb over to your children, and then they’ll take over.’
‘How long’s this going to last?’
‘I haven’t got the faintest idea - centuries, probably, maybe even eons. Your father’s going to build war-boats, and he’s not going to let anybody near the Isle of the Winds.’
‘This isn’t what I had in mind when we started, Belgarath,’ Cherek complained.
‘Life’s just filled with these little disappointments, isn’t it? Play-time’s over, gentlemen. It’s time to grow up. We’ve got work to do.’
I probably didn’t really have to run roughshod over them like that, but my Master hadn’t been very gentle with me, and the sniveling of Cherek and his boys was making me tired. They’d set off on the most important mission in the history of their race as if it had been some kind of lark. Now that the consequences of their little romp in the snow were coming home to roost, all they could do was stand around and complain about it.
Alorns are such babies at times.
I hammered the details of the division into them with that same callousness. I didn’t give them time to get all weepy and sentimental. I told Cherek in precise terms just how many warriors he was going to send to each of his sons to help with the founding of the new kingdoms. His expression grew mournful when he realized that I was usurping over half of his subjects. Every time he started to protest, I reminded him pointedly that the retrieval of the Orb had been his idea in the first place. I hadn’t wanted to leave my pregnant wife at the time, so I didn’t have much sympathy for them now.
‘All right,’ I concluded that evening, ‘that’s the way we’re going to do it. Any questions?’
‘What are we supposed to do when we get set up?’ Dras asked sullenly, ‘just stand around and wait for the Angaraks?’
‘You’ll get further instructions from Belar,’ I told him. ‘The Gods are involved in this, too, you know.’
‘Belar doesn’t like me,’ Dras said. ‘I beat him at dice most of the time.’
‘Don’t play dice with him, then. Try to stay on the good side of him.’
‘This is awfully open country around here,’ Algar said, looking out at the vast grassland. ‘I’m going to have to do a lot of walking.’
‘There are wild horses out there. Chase them down and ride.’
‘My feet drag on the ground when I try to sit on a horse.’
‘Chase down a bigger one, then.’
‘There aren’t any bigger ones.’
‘Breed some.’
‘The weather on the Isle of the Winds is really miserable,’ Riva complained.
‘Build houses with thick walls and stout roofs.’
‘The wind’ll blow thatch roofs right off the houses.’
‘Make your roof out of slate, then, and nail it down.’
Cherek finally got as tired of it as I was getting. ‘You’ve got your instructions,’ he told his sons. ‘Now go do as you’re told. You might be kings now, but you’re still my sons. Don’t make me ashamed of you.’
That put the starch back in their spines.
The farewells the following morning were tearful, however. Then we scattered to the winds, leaving Algar standing forlornly on the bank of the Aldur River.
Riva and I went west until we reached the mountains, and then we swung off slightly northwesterly to avoid the northern reaches of Ulgoland. I’d gotten all the entertainment I wanted out of our skirmishes with the Angaraks. I didn’t feel much like playing with Algroths or Eldrakyn.
We came down out of the mountains and crossed the fertile plains of modern-day Sendaria until we reached the shore of the Great Western Sea. We stopped there to wait for the warriors Cherek had promised to send - and their women, of course. I was establishing new countries, and I needed breeding stock.
Yes, I know that’s a blunt way to put it, and it’ll probably offend Polgara, but that’s just too bad. If she doesn’t have that to be offended about, she’ll probably just find something else.
Got you that time, didn’t I, Pol?
While Riva and I were waiting for his people to arrive from Val Alorn, I amused myself by cheating. There was a sizeable forest near the beach, and I utilized my talents to fell trees and saw them into boards. Riva had seen me do all sorts of things with the Will and the Word, but for some reason, the sight of a log spewing out unprovoked sawdust seemed to unnerve him. He finally refused entirely to watch, but sat instead staring out at the sea and muttering the word ‘unnatural’ - usually loud enough for me to hear. I tried to explain to him that we were going to need boats to get to the Isle of the Winds, and that boats implied lumber, but he refused to listen to me. It wasn’t until I had stacks of lumber spread out for a quarter of a mile along the beach that he finally came up with what came fairly close to a reasonable objection. ‘If you make boats out of those green boards, they’ll sink. They’ll have to cure for at least a year.’
‘Oh, not that long,’ I disagreed. Then, just to show him who was in charge, I looked at a nearby stack, concentrated, and said, ‘Hot.’
The stack started to smoke immediately. Riva had irritated me, and I’d gone a bit too far. I reduced the heat, and the smoke was replaced by steam as the green boards began to sweat out their moisture.
‘They’re warping,’ he pointed out triumphantly.
‘Of course they are,’ I replied calmly. ‘I want them to warp.’
‘Warped lumber’s no good.’
‘It depends on what you want to build with it,’ I disagreed. ‘We want ships, and ships have curved sides. Something with flat sides is called a barge, and it doesn’t sail very well.’
‘You’ve got an answer for everything, haven’t you Belgarath? Even for your mistakes.’
‘Why are you being so cross with me, Riva?’
‘Because you’ve torn my life apart. You’ve separated me from my family, and you’re taking me to the most wretched place on earth to spend the rest of my life. Stay away from me, Belgarath. I don’t like you very much right now.’ And he stalked off up the beach.