All right. I’m digressing. So what?
It didn’t take me very long to reach Poledra’s cottage. It was early spring, but it was already fairly warm, and Polgara was out spading up her kitchen garden. Pol has very fair skin, and she sunburns quite easily. She’d woven herself a ridiculous-looking straw hat to keep the sun off her nose. I probably shouldn’t say it, but it made her look just a bit like a mushroom.
I swooped in, thrust down my talons, and had started to change back before they even touched the ground. ‘I need you, Pol,’ I told her.
‘I needed you once, remember?’ she replied coldly. ‘You didn’t seem very interested. Now I get the chance to return the favor. Go away, father.’
‘We don’t have time for this, Polgara. You can make clever remarks later. Right now, we have to go to the Isle of the Winds. Gorek’s in danger.’
‘Lots of people are in danger, father. It happens all the time.’ She paused. ‘Who’s Gorek?’
‘Have you had your head turned off for all these centuries? Don’t you have any idea at all about what’s going in the world?’
‘My world ended when you let the Asturians destroy Vo Wacune, old man.’
‘No, as a matter of fact, it didn’t. You’re still who you are, and you’re coming with me to the Isle of the Winds even if I have to pick you up in my talons and take you there.’
‘As badly as you fly? Don’t be ridiculous. Who’s this Gorek you’re so worried about?’
‘He’s the Rivan King, Pol, the Guardian of the Orb.’
‘The Chereks are still out there in the Sea of the Winds. They’ll protect him.’
‘You have been out of touch, Pol. The Chereks are letting people get through now.’
‘What? Are you insane? Why did you permit that?’
‘It’s a long story, and we don’t have the leisure to go through it. Don’t waste time with owls this time, Pol. Go to a falcon instead.’
‘Not without a good reason, I won’t.’
I resisted the urge to swear at her. ‘I just dredged the meaning out of a passage in the Mrin. Salmissra’s going to make an attempt on the life of the Rivan King - and his entire family. If she manages to pull it off, Torak wins.’
‘Salmissra? Why didn’t you say so in the first place?’
‘Because you wouldn’t let me.’
‘Let’s move, father!’
‘Hold on for just a moment. I have to warn the twins.’ I concentrated and sent out my thought. ‘Brothers!’ I called to them.
‘Belgarath?’ Beltira replied, sounding a little startled. ‘What’s the matter?’
‘There’s going to be an attempt on the life of the Rivan King. Pol and I are going there right now. We’ll be falcons if you need to reach us. Get word to Beldin. Tell him to get back home right now.’
‘At once, Belgarath. Hurry!’
‘All right, Pol,’ I said then, ‘let’s go to Riva.’
We both slipped into the forms of those fierce hunting birds, spiraled upward, and then struck out to the northwest across Ulgoland. At one point, a few leagues to the east of Prolgu, we encountered a flock of Harpies. I’ve got a few suspicions about that. I’ve traveled around in Ulgoland quite a few times over the years, and that’s the only time I’ve ever seen Harpies. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to discover that they’d been deliberately put in our path to delay us. Harpies, however, don’t fly all that well - certainly not well enough to catch a pair of streaking falcons. Pol and I simply swooped clear of them and flew on, leaving them floundering around in the air behind us.
The incident’s hardly worth even noting, except that it was a clear indication that somebody out there was doing his best to delay us. I started to keep an eye out for the dragon at that point. That could have been a problem.
We didn’t see her, however, and we managed to reach the western border of Ulgoland without any further incident.
It was growing dark, but Pol and I kept flying. I was hungry and tired, but that urgent voice in my head kept pushing me on. Pol flies better than I do, but I’m sure that our frantic pace was wearing her down almost as much as it was exhausting me. We kept going, however.
The sky behind us was starting to turn pale with the approach of dawn when we passed over Camaar and flew out across the dark waters of the Sea of the Winds.
It must have been almost noon before we saw the Isle of the Winds ahead of us to the west. We began a long, shallow descent, and the harbor at Riva seemed to come rushing up at us as we streaked down toward the city.
We’d nearly killed ourselves getting there, but we still arrived about ten minutes too late.
It was as we were crossing the choppy waters of the harbor when I discovered why Polgara had absolutely had to come along. I didn’t even see the little boy floundering around in the chill waters of the bay, but Pol did. We must have been about thirty feet above the water and streaking in as fast as we could fly when she suddenly flared her wings, and blurred back into her own form in mid-air. She effortlessly arched herself forward and plunged head first down toward the water, her arms stretched above her head. I’ve seen a lot of young men dive headfirst into pools and rivers and even into the sea from time to time - usually to impress young women - but I’ve never seen a dive like that one. She cut into the water like a knife, and it seemed to me that she was down forever. Fortunately, the harbor at Riva is very deep. You don’t want to make that kind of dive unless you’ve got a lot of water under you.
She finally popped to the surface no more than ten feet from the struggling child, and with a few strokes, she had him.
‘YES!’ the previously silent intruder in my head exulted.
‘Oh, shut up!’ I told it.
There was absolute chaos in the commercial enclave on the beach. One glance told me that Gorek and his son and the other members of his family were all dead. The Rivans, of course, were busy butchering a group of Nyissan merchants. I swooped in, flared my wings, and changed. ‘Stop!’ I thundered at the vengeful Rivans.
‘They killed our king!’ A burly fellow screamed at me. Tears were running down his face, and he was clearly hysterical.
‘Don’t you want to find out why?’ I shouted, but I immediately saw that it was useless even to try to talk to him - or to any of the others who’d been there to guard the king. I was exhausted, but I still had a little bit left in me. I drew in my Will and put an impenetrable shield around the last two Nyissans. Then, as an afterthought, I put the pair of them to sleep. I knew Salmissra well enough to realize that her assassins had probably been ordered to kill themselves once their mission had been accomplished. They were armed with poisoned knives, and they undoubtedly had little vials of toxic substances tucked into every pocket.
‘Polgara!’ I sent out my thought. ‘Is the boy all right?’
‘Yes, father. I’ve got him.’
‘Stay out of sight! Don’t let anybody see you!’
‘All right.’
Then Brand came running toward the commercial enclave from the city gate. I’ve never fully understood why the Rivan Warder always takes the name Brand. By the time I got around to asking somebody, the origins of the custom had long since been forgotten. In Arendia, where castles are commonplace, the Rivan Warder would have been called a seneschal. In some of the other kingdoms of the west - and even in some of the semi-autonomous kingdoms in Mallorea - he’d have been called the prime minister. His duties were approximately the same, no matter what he was called. He was supposed to handle the administrative details that kept the kingdom running. Like most of the men who’ve held the position, this one was a solid, competent man with a deep sense of loyalty. He was, however, still an Alorn, and the news that Gorek had been murdered made him go all to pieces. His eyes were streaming tears, and he was bellowing with rage. He had his sword out, and he ran at my invisible barrier swinging with all his might. I let him chop at it for a while, and then I took his sword away from him.
Yes, I can do that if I have to. When it’s necessary, I can be the strongest man in the world.
‘Gorek’s dead, Belgarath!’ he sobbed.
‘People die. It happens all the time.’ I said it in a flat unemotional voice.
His head came up sharply, and he stared at me in disbelief.
‘Pull yourself together, Brand,’ I told him. ‘We’ve got things to do. First off: Order your soldiers not to kill those two murderers. I need some answers, and I can’t get answers out of dead men.’
‘But -’
‘These are just hirelings. I want to find out who hired them.’ I already had a fair idea, of course, but I wanted confirmation. More than that, though, I needed to jolt Brand back to his senses.
He drew in a long, shuddering breath. ‘Sorry, Belgarath,’ he said. ‘I guess I lost my head.’
‘That’s better. Tell your men to back away from those two. Then get somebody here you can depend on to follow orders. I want those two reptiles put into a safe place and guarded very closely. As soon as I let them wake up, they’ll try to kill themselves. You’d better strip them. I’m sure they’ve got poison somewhere in their clothes.’