The king looked interested. The word ‘quest’ rang bells in Mimbrate heads.
‘As thou may have noticed, your Majesty,’ Astellig continued, ‘my friends are visored. This is not to be taken as a gesture of disrespect, but is a necessary concealment required by the nature of their quest. A foul evil is abroad in the world, and they journey with diverse companions to confront it. They each have some eminence in the world beyond the shores of our isle, and should they reveal their faces, they would instantly be recognized, and the evil one they seek would be forewarned of their coming and would seek to impede them. Thus it is that their visors must remain closed.’
‘A reasonable precaution,’ the king agreed. ‘Greetings, Sir Knights, and well-met.’
‘Thou art kind, your Majesty,’ Garion said, ‘and we are grateful to thee for thy gracious understanding of our circumstances. Our quest is fraught with perilous enchantments, and I do fear me that should we reveal our identities, we might well fail, and the whole world would suffer as a result.’
‘I do fully understand, Sir Knight, and I will not press thee for further details of thy quest. The walls of any palace have ears, and some there are even here who might be in league with the villain thou seekest.’
‘Wisely spoken, my King,’ a rasping voice said from the back of the throne room. ‘As I myself know full well, the powers of enchanters are myriad, and even the prowess of these two brave knights may not be sufficient to match them.’
Garion turned. The man who had spoken had absolutely white eyes.
‘The wizard of whom I told thee,’ Baron Astellig whispered to Garion. ‘Be wary of him, Sir Knight, for he hath the king in thrall.’
‘Ah, good Erezel,’ the king said, his face lighting up, ‘an it please thee, approach the throne. Mayhap in thy wisdom thou mayest advise these two questors concerning the possibility of avoiding the perils posed by the enchantments certain to be strewn in their path.’
‘It shall be my pleasure, Lord King,’ Naradas replied.
‘You know who he is, don’t you?’ Zakath murmured to Garion.
‘Yes.’
Naradas came down to the throne. ‘If I may be so bold as to suggest it, Sir Knights,’ he said in an unctuous tone, ‘a great tourney is planned not long hence. Should you not participate, it might arouse suspicion in the minions the one you seek hath doubtless placed here. My first advice to you, therefore, is that you enter our tourney and thus avoid that mischance.’
‘A most excellent suggestion, Erezel,’ the empty-headed king approved. ‘Sir Knights, this is Erezel, a great wizard and the closest advisor to our throne. Consider well his words, for they have great merit. We will, moreover, be greatly honored to have two such mighty men join with us in our forthcoming entertainment.’
Garion ground his teeth together. With that one innocent-seeming suggestion, Naradas had effectively achieved the delay he had been seeking for weeks now. There was no way out, however. ‘We would be honored to join with thee and thy valiant knights in thy sport, your Majesty,’ he said. ‘Prithee, when are the games to begin?’
‘Ten days hence, Sir Knight.’
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
THE QUARTERS TO which they were escorted were again hauntingly familiar. The displaced Arends who had been washed ashore here so many centuries ago had, it appeared, lovingly recreated the royal palace at Vo Mimbre down to the last detail – even including its inconveniences. Durnik, ever practical, noticed this immediately. ‘You’d think they’d have taken advantage of the opportunity to improve a few things,’ he observed.
‘There’s a certain charm in archaism, dear,’ Polgara said, smiling.
‘It’s nostalgic, perhaps, Pol, but a few modern touches wouldn’t have hurt all that much. You have noticed that the baths are located down in the cellar, haven’t you?’
‘There’s a point there, Lady Polgara,’ Velvet agreed.
‘It was much more convenient in Mal Zeth,’ Ce’Nedra concurred. ‘A bath in one’s own apartments offers all sorts of opportunities for fun and mischief.’
Garion’s ears turned bright red.
‘I seem to be missing the more interesting parts of this conversation,’ Zakath said slyly.
‘Never mind,’ Garion told him shortly.
And then the dressmakers arrived, and Polgara and the other ladies were whisked away to engage in that activity which, Garion had noticed, always seems to fill the feminine heart with a kind of dreamy bliss.
Immediately behind the dressmakers came the tailors, equally bent on making everyone look as old-fashioned as possible. Beldin, of course, adamantly refused their ministrations, even going so far as to show one insistent fellow a gnarled and very large fist to indicate that he was perfectly satisfied with the way he looked already.
Garion and Zakath, however, were under the constraint placed upon them by the Seeress of Kell, and so they remained buckled up in their armor.
When they were finally alone, Belgarath’s expression grew grave. ‘I want you two to be careful in that tournament,’ he told the armored men. ‘Naradas knows who we are, and he’s already managed to delay us. He may try to go a little farther.’ He looked sharply toward the door. ‘Where are you going?’ he demanded of Silk.
‘I thought I’d nose around a bit,’ the little thief said innocently. ‘It never hurts to know what you’re up against.’
‘All right, but be careful – and don’t let anything slip into your pockets by mistake. We’re walking on some fairly shaky ground here. If someone sees you pilfering, we could all get into a great deal of trouble.’
‘Belgarath,’ Silk replied in an offended tone, ‘no one has ever seen me steal anything.’ And then he went out muttering to himself.
‘Is he trying to say that he doesn’t steal?’ Zakath asked.
‘No,’ Eriond replied. ‘Only that no one ever sees him doing it.’ He smiled gently. ‘He has a few bad habits, but we’ve been trying to break him of them.’ It was the first time in quite a while that Garion had actually heard his young friend say anything. Eriond had grown increasingly more and more reticent – one might even say withdrawn. It was troubling. He had always been a strange boy, and he seemed to be able to perceive things that none of the rest of them could. A chill came over Garion as he remembered the fateful words of Cyradis at Rheon, ‘Thy quest will be fraught with great peril, Belgarion, and one of thy companions shall lose his life in the course of it.’