Guardians of the West
Page 111"No," Garion replied. "Durnik put him to sleep with a club is all."
"Why the blindfold?" the old man asked, indicating the strip of blue cloth tied across the captive's face.
"He was using sorcery before we captured him. I thought it might not be a bad idea to cover his eyes."
"That depends on how good he is. Durnik sent soldiers out to round up the others and then he went over to the encampment to get Pol and the other ladies."
"Can you wake him up?" Silk asked.
"Let's have Pol do it. Her touch is a little lighter than mine, and I don't want to break anything accidentally."
It was perhaps three-quarters of an hour later when they all finally gathered in the green-carpeted room. Belgarath looked around, then straddled a straight-backed chair in front of the captive. "All right, Pol," he said bleakly. "Wake him up."
Polgara unfastened her blue cloak, knelt beside the prisoner and put one hand on each side of his head. Garion heard a whispered rushing sound and felt a gentle surge. Ulfgar groaned.
"Give him a few minutes," she said, rising to her feet. "Then you can start questioning him."
"He's probably going to be stubborn about it," Brin predicted with a broad grin.
"I'll be terribly disappointed in him if he isn't," Silk said as he rifled through a drawer in a large, polished cabinet.
"Have you barbarians blinded me?" Ulfgar said in a weak voice as he struggled into a sitting position.
"No," Polgara told him. "Your eyes are covered to keep you out of mischief."
"Are my captors women, then?" There was contempt in the black-bearded man's voice.
"This one of them is," Ce'Nedra said, pushing her dark green cloak slightly to one side. It was the note in her voice that warned Garion and saved the prisoner's life. With blazing eyes, she snatched one of the daggers from Vella's belt and flew at the blindfolded man with the gleaming blade held aloft. At the last instant, Garion caught her upraised arm and wrested the knife from her grasp.
"Give me that!" she cried.
"He stole my baby!" she screamed. "I'll kill him!"
"No, you won't. We can't get any answers out of him if you cut his throat."
With one arm still about her, he handed the dagger back to Vella.
"We have a few questions for you, Ulfgar," Belgarath said to the captive.
"You're going to have to wait a long time for the answers."
"I'm so glad he said that," Hettar murmured. "Who wants to start cutting on him?"
"Do whatever you wish," Ulfgar sneered. "My body is of no concern to me."
"We'll do everything we can to change your mind about that," Vella said in a chillingly sweet voice as she tested the edge of her dagger with her thumb.
"Just what was it you wanted to know, Belgarath?" Errand asked, turning from his curious examination of a bronze statue standing in the corner. "I can give you the answers, if you want."
Belgarath looked at the blond boy sharply . "Do you know what's in his mind?" he asked, startled.
"More or less, yes."
"Where's my son?" Garion asked quickly.
"That's one thing he doesn't know," Errand replied. "He had nothing to do with the abduction."
"Who did it then?"
"He's not sure, but he thinks it was Zandramas."
"That name keeps cropping up, doesn't it?" Silk said.
"Does he know who Zandramas is?"
"Not really. It's just a name he's heard from his Master."
"Who is his Master?"
"He's afraid to even think the name," Errand said. "It's a man with a splotchy face, though."
The prisoner was struggling desperately, trying to free himself from the ropes which bound him. "Lies!" he screamed. "All lies!"
"This man was sent here by his Master to make sure that you and Ce'Nedra didn't have any children," Errand continued ignoring the screaming captive, "or to see to it that, if you did, the children didn't live. He couldn't have been behind the abduction, Belgarion. If he had been the one who crept into the nursery at Riva, he would have killed your son, not taken him away."
"Where does he come from?" Liselle asked curiously as she removed her scarlet cloak. "I can't quite place his accent."
"That's probably because he's not really a man," Errand told her. " At least not entirely. He remembers being an animal of some sort."
They all stared at the boy and then at Ulfgar.
At that point the door opened again, and the hunchbacked Beldin came into the room. He was about to say something, but stopped, staring at the bound and blindfolded prisoner. He stumped across the floor, bent, and ripped the blue cloth away from the man's eyes to stare into his face. "Well, dog", he said. "What brings you out of your kennel?"
"You!" Ulfgar gasped, his face growing suddenly pale.
"Urvon will have your heart for breakfast when he finds out how badly you've botched things," Beldin said pleasantly.
"Do you know this man?" Garion asked sharply.
"He and I have known each other for a long, long time, haven't we, Harakan?"
"I see you will need a little bit of housebreaking." Beldin grinned.
"Who is he?" Garion demanded.
"His name is Harakan. He's a Mallorean Grolim -one of Urvon's dogs. The last time I saw him, he was whining and fawning all over Urvon's feet."
Then, quite suddenly, the captive vanished.
Beldin unleashed a string of foul curses. Then he, too flickered out of sight.
"What happened?" Ce'Nedra gasped. "Where did they go?"
"Maybe Beldin isn't as smart as I thought," Belgarath said. "He should have left that blindfold alone. Our prisoner translocated himself outside the building."
"Can you do that?" Garion asked incredulously. "Without being able to see what you're doing, I mean?"
"It's very, very dangerous, but Harakan seems to have been desperate. Beldin's following him."
"He'll catch him, won't he?"
"It's hard to say."
"I still have questions that have to be answered."
I can answer them for you, Belgarion," Errand told him quite calmly.
"You mean that you still know what's in his mind -even though he's not here any more?"