Guardians of the West

" And what reason is that, gentle Adara?" Ariana asked.

"The baby, Ariana," Adara replied. "We've come to see your baby again, Ce'Nedra. I'm sure he's not still sleeping, so why don't you bring him in here so that we can all fuss over him?"

Ce'Nedra laughed. "I thought you'd never ask."

The council meeting began about midmorning. The kings and their advisors gathered once more in a blue-draped council chamber. The golden sunlight of a late summer morning streamed in through the windows and a gentle sea breeze stirred the draperies. There was no particular formality in these sessions, and the monarchs and the others lounged comfortably in the velvet-upholstered chairs scattered about the room.

"I really don't think we'll accomplish too much by chewing on that letter for another day," Belgarath began. "Let's agree that it's obviously a forgery of some kind and move on." He looked at Kail. "Did your father have any enemies here on the island?" he asked, "Someone wealthy enough and powerful enough to hire Cherek assassins?"

Kail frowned. "No one can go through life without stepping on a few toes, Ancient One," he replied, "but I don't think anybody was holding that kind of grudge."

"In truth, my friend," Mandorallen told him, "some men, when they feel that they have been offended, will nurture their rancor in silence and with dissembling guise conceal their enmity until opportunity doth present itself to revenge themselves. The history of Arendia is replete with stories of such acts."

"It's a possibility." King Fulrach agreed. " And it might be better if we start close to home before we begin to go further afield."

"A list might be useful," Javelin suggested. "If we write down the name of every man on the Isle of the Winds whom Brand might possibly have offended, we can start eliminating them. Once we have the list narrowed down, we can start investigating. If the man behind this is a Rivan, he'd either have had to visit Cherek or had some contact with Chereks sometime in the recent past."

It took the remainder of the morning to compile the list.

Kail sent for certain documents, and they all considered each of the decisions Brand had made during the past five years.

Since the Warder had functioned as the kingdom's chief-magistrate, there had been many decisions and usually a winner and a loser in each case.

After lunch, they began the winnowing process, discarding the names of those men without sufficient wealth or power to be able to obtain the services of paid assassins.

"It's narrowing down a bit," Javelin said as he struck off another name. He held up the list. "We've got this down to almost manageable proportions."

There was a respectful knock on the door. One of the guards posted there spoke briefly with someone outside, then came over to Barak and murmured something to him. The big red-bearded man nodded, rose, and followed him from the room.

"How about this one?" Javelin asked Kail, pointing at another name.

Kail scratched at one cheek. "I don't think so," he replied.

"It was a dispute over land," Javelin pointed out, "and some people get very intense where land is concerned."

"It was only a pasture," Kail recalled, "and not a very big one. The man has more land than he can keep track of anyway."

"Why did he go to the law, then?"

"It was the other man who brought the matter to my father."

Barak came back into the room. "Anheg," he said to his cousin, "Greldik's here. He's got something fairly important to tell you."

Anheg started to rise, then looked around. " Have him come in here," he said shortly. "I don't want anybody thinking that I've got any secrets."

"We've all got secrets, Anheg," Queen Porenn murmured.

"My situation is somewhat peculiar, Porenn." He pushed his dented crown back into place from where it had slipped down over one ear.

The bearded and fur-clad Greldik pushed past the guards and came into the chamber at that point. "You've got trouble at home, Anheg," he growled bluntly.

"What kind of trouble?"

"I just came back from Jarviksholm," Greldik replied. "They're very unfriendly there."

"There's nothing new about that."

"They tried to sink me," Greldik said. "They've lined the tops of the cliffs on both sides of the inlet leading up to the city with catapults. The boulders were coming down like hailstones for a while."

Anheg scowled. "Why would they do that?"

"Probably because they didn't want me to see what they're doing."

"What could they be doing that they'd want to keep that secret?"

"They're building a fleet."

Anheg shrugged. "Lots of people build ships in Cherek."

"A hundred at a time?"

"How many?"

"I was busy dodging boulders, so I couldn't get an exact count, but the entire upper end of the inlet is lined with yards. The keels have all been laid, and they're starting on the ribs. Oh, they're working on the city walls, too."

"The walls? They're already higher than the walls of Val Alorn."

"They're even higher now."

Anheg scowled. "What are they up to?"

"Anheg, when you build a fleet and start strengthening your fortifications, it usually means that you're getting ready for a war. And when you try to sink the ship of a man known to be friendly to the crown, that usually means that the war is going to be with your king."

"He does have a point, Anheg," Barak said.

"Who's in control at Jarviksholm right now?" Garion asked curiously.

"The Bear-cult," Anheg said in disgust. "They've been filtering into the town from all over Cherek for the past ten years."

"This is very serious, Anheg," Barak said.

"It's also totally out of character," Javelin pointed out. "The cult has never been interested in confrontational politics before."

"What kind of politics?" Anheg asked.

"Another way of saying open war with the crown," the Drasnian Chief of Intelligence explained.

"Say what you mean, man."

"An occupational peculiarity," Javelin shrugged. "Always before, the cult has tried to work from within -trying to gather enough support to be able to coerce the kings of the Alorn nations to follow their policies. I don't think they've ever even considered open rebellion before."

"There's a first time for everything, I guess," Hettar suggested.