‘It might be contagious,’ Hettar agreed.
An impossible hope had sprung up in Garion’s heart.
‘May I borrow the Orb again, Garion’ Eriond asked politely.
‘Of course.’ Garion almost snatched the Orb from the pommel of the sword and offered it to the youthful God.
Eriond took the glowing jewel and approached Belgarath and his wife. Then He reached out with it and gently touched it to each of their foreheads. Garion, knowing that the touch of the jewel meant death, leaped forward with a strangled cry, but it was too late.
Belgarath and Poledra began to glow with a blue nimbus as they looked deeply into each others’ eyes. Then Eriond handed the Orb back to the Rivan King.
‘Won’t you get into trouble about this?’ Garion asked.
‘It’s all right, Garion,’ Eriond assured him. ‘I’m probably going to have to break all kinds of rules in the next several years, so I might as well get into practice.’
A deep organ note came from the incandescent columns of light at the edge of the water. Garion looked quickly at the assembled Gods and saw that the albatross had become so intensely bright that he could not bear to look at it.
And then the albatross was gone, and the Father of the Gods stood where it had hovered, and he was surrounded by His sons. ‘Very well done, my Son,’ UL said.
‘It took me a little while to perceive what thou hadst in thy mind, Father,’ Eriond apologized. ‘I’m sorry to have been so dense.’
‘Thou art unaccustomed to such things, my Son,’ UL forgave him. ‘Thy use of thy Brother’s Orb in this was unanticipated, however, and most ingenious.’ A faint smile touched the Eternal Face. ‘Even had I been inclined not to relent, that alone would have forestalled me.’
‘I thought such might be the case, Father.’
‘I pray thee, Poledra,’ UL said then, ‘forgive me my cruel-seeming subterfuge. Know that the deception was not meant for thee, but for my son. He hath ever been of a retiring nature, reluctant to exercise his will, but his will shall prevail upon this world, and He must learn now to unleash it or to restrain it as seemeth him best.’
‘It was a test, then, Most Holy?’ Belgarath’s voice had a slight edge to it.
‘All things which happen are tests, Belgarath,’ UL explained calmly. ‘Thou mayest take some satisfaction in the knowledge that thou and thine espoused wife did very well in this. It was the decisions of you two which compelled my Son to make his. Still do you both serve even now, when all seems complete. And now, Eriond, join with me and thy brothers. Let us go apart a ways that we may welcome Thee unto this world which we now deliver into thy hands.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
THE SUN HAD risen, a golden disc hanging low on the eastern horizon. The sky was intensely blue and the light breeze blowing steadily in from the west touched the tops of the waves with white. There was still the faint, damp smell of the previous day’s fog lingering on the stones of the strangely shaped pyramid which jutted up out of the sea to form the center of the reef.
Garion was light-headed with exhaustion. His body screamed for rest, but his mind skittered from impression to thought to image and back again, keeping him awake but all bemused on the very edge of sleep. There would be time later to sort out everything which had happened here in the Place Which Is No More. And then he rearranged his thinking about that. If ever there was a place that was, it was Korim. Korim was more eternally real than Tol Honeth, Mal Zeth, or Val Alorn. He gathered his sleeping wife and his son closer in his arms. They smelled good. Ce’Nedra’s hair had its usual, flowerlike fragrance, and Geran smelled like every little boy who had ever lived – a small creature probably at least marginally in need of a bath. Garion’s own need for bathing was, he concluded, somewhat more than marginal. Yesterday had been very strenuous.
His friends were gathered in strange little groupings here and there around the amphitheater. Barak, Hettar, and Mandorallen were talking with Zakath. Liselle sat with a look of abstract concentration on her face, combing Cyradis’ hair. The ladies all seemed quite determined to take the Seeress of Kell in hand. Sadi and Beldin sprawled on the stones near the carcass of the dragon, drinking ale. Sadi’s expression was polite, but it nonetheless revealed that he was consuming the bitter brew more out of politeness than from any sense of gusto. Unrak was exploring, and close on his heels was Nathel, the slack-faced young King of the Thulls. The Archduke Otrath stood alone near the now-sealed portal to the grotto, his face filled with apprehensive dread. Kal Zakath had not yet seen fit to discuss certain matters with his kinsman, and Otrath was obviously not looking forward to their conversation. Eriond was talking quietly with Aunt Pol, Durnik, Belgarath, and Poledra. The young God had a strange nimbus of pale light about Him. Silk was nowhere in sight.
And then the little man came around the shoulder of the pyramid. Behind him, on the far side of the peak, rose a column of dark smoke. He came down the stairway to the floor of the amphitheater and crossed to where Garion was sitting.
‘What were you doing?’ Garion asked him.
‘I set out a signal for Captain Kresca,’ Silk replied. ‘He knows the way back to Perivor, and I’ve seen Barak navigate in confined waters before. Seabird’s meant for the open sea, not for close quarters.’
‘You’ll hurt his feelings if you tell him that, you know.’
‘I wasn’t planning to tell him.’ The rat-faced little man sprawled on the stones beside Garion and his family.
‘Did Liselle have that little chat with you as yet?’ Garion asked.
‘I think she’s saving it up. She wants to have plenty of uninterrupted time for it. Is marriage always like this? I mean, do you always live in perpetual apprehension, waiting for these conversations?’
‘It’s not uncommon. You’re not married yet, though.’
‘I’m closer to it than I ever thought I’d be.’
‘Are you sorry?’
‘No, not really. Liselle and I are suited for each other. We have a great deal in common. I just wish she wouldn’t keep things hanging over my head is all.’ Silk looked sourly around the amphitheater. ‘Does he have to glow like that?’ he asked, pointing at Eriond.
‘He probably doesn’t even know He’s doing it. He’s new at this. He’ll get better at it as he goes along.’
‘Do you realize that we’re sitting around criticizing a God?’