‘You’re surely not proposing an actual meeting between me and that Mimbrate butcher, are you?’

‘Only if you’ll both agree to be chained to the walls at opposite ends of the room, Eldallan. I’ll make arrangements with the Sendarian ambassador in Vo Mimbre. We’ll have the Sendars serve as go-betweens – at least until the Angaraks actually invade Arendia. When that happens, we’ll come up with a way to keep you and the Mimbrates at opposite ends of the battlefields.’

Then father and I went on down across the rain-soaked plain of southern Arendia to Vo Mimbre. Once again I was almost overwhelmed with memories. I don’t think my father has ever fully understood just how great an attachment I have for Arendia. Arends are a child-like people, and in a very real sense I had been their universal mother for almost six hundred years.

The dark-haired Duke – or ‘King’ as he preferred it – Aldorigen was terrified of snakes, of all things, and that seriously strained my creativity, since there aren’t very many snakes in Drasnia. I’ll confess to a deliberate falsehood here. I created an Angarak ‘custom’ out of whole cloth, and Duke Aldorigen found my imaginary snake pits into which whole Drasnian villages were cast while shrieking in terror entertaining enough to bring him around to our way of thinking.

All right, it was dishonest. Did you want me to suspend the story while we discuss the ethical implications of ‘ends justifying the means’ for a week or two?

After father had rammed his truce down Aldorigen’s throat and had more or less commanded the Sendarian ambassador to serve as liaison between Mimbre and Asturia, we prepared to leave the golden city. Before we left, however, I took a very long look at Aldorigen’s sandy-haired son, Korodullin. He was eight or nine years old, as I recall. To be honest, the word ‘coincidence’ never even occurred to me. I was just a little surprised to discover that the ‘bell’ which has periodically rung inside my head isn’t always set off by the descendants of Beldaran and Riva Iron-grip. Other destined arrangements also make it ring. I clearly remember listening to it the first time Relg met Taiba. Oddly, though, I didn’t hear any bells the first time I met Durnik.

Aldorigen provided us with horses, and so my father and I, bundled up to ward off that perpetual rain, forded the River Arend about ten leagues downstream from Vo Mimbre and plodded on down through northern Tolnedra to that gleaming island that is Tol Honeth.

When we reached the marble-clad imperial palace, we were taken directly to the emperor without the usual delay. Father’s earlier visit had convinced Ran Borune that he was an emissary for the Alorn kings, which wasn’t exactly true, though it did have some basis in fact, I suppose. The obliteration of Drasnia had brought the kingdoms of the north to the forefront of Ran Borune’s attention, and he hungered for any information anyone could provide. ‘Ah, there you are, Belgarath,’ he said crisply when we were escorted into his somewhat overly ornate office. ‘Dreadful about Drasnia. Please convey my deepest sympathy to Rhodar the next time you see him. Have the Alorns come up with any ideas about where Kal Torak might strike next?’

‘Tentatively, your Imperial Majesty,’ father replied. ‘Oh, this is my daughter Polgara, by the way.’

‘Charmed, I’m sure,’ the young emperor said perfunctorily. Ran Borune and I were not getting off to a good start. ‘I really need to know where Torak’s going to go, Belgarath. Have you got any spies in his army?’

‘I wouldn’t exactly call them spies, Ran Borune,’ father said a bit sourly. ‘Kal Torak doesn’t have any non-Angaraks in his army – at least not yet. We haven’t seen Melcenes or Dals or Karands among his forces.’

‘Have the Alorns made any sort of plans as yet?’

‘Nothing very definitive. They’re trying to keep defenses in place on all the likely fronts. Our major advantage lies in the mobility of the Alorns. Those Cherek war-boats can put an army down on any beach in the western world in a very short period of time. The defensive forces in Algaria, Cherek, and Sendaria should be sufficient to delay Torak until reinforcements arrive.’

‘Are there any clues in those religious writings?’

The prophecies, you mean?’

‘I hate that word,’ Ran Borune said just a bit absently. ‘It absolutely reeks of superstition.’

‘Possibly,’ father admitted, ‘but there are enough correspondences between the Alorn prophecies and the Angarak ones that they might give us some clues about what this fellow who calls himself Kal Torak will try next. A man who thinks he’s a God usually tries to fulfill any prophecy that’s handy in order to prove his divinity.’

Just a word here. Note that none of us ever came right out and told Ran Borune that the invader from the east was really Torak himself. We maintained the fiction that we were dealing with an Angarak madman instead. There wasn’t much point in offending Tolnedran sensibilities by arguing theology with them when there were easier ways to get their cooperation.

‘I guess I hadn’t thought about that,’ Ran Borune conceded. ‘Will the Aloms need some of my legions in the north?’

‘I don’t think so. Thanks all the same.’

‘Are you and Lady Polgara planning to stay here for long? Can I offer you the hospitality of the palace here?’

‘We appreciate the thought, Ran Borune,’ I told him, ‘but it might cause you some problems. The Honethites and Vorduvians could make hay of the fact that you’re consorting with “heathen sorcerers”.’

‘I’m the emperor here, Lady Polgara, and I’ll consort with whomever I bloody-well please. If the Vorduvians and Honethites don’t like it, that’s just too bad.’ He gave me an odd look. ‘You seem quite conversant with our little peculiarities, my Lady.’

‘A diversion of mine, your Majesty,’ I replied. ‘I find that reading Tolnedran political commentary puts me to sleep at night almost as fast as Arendish epics do.’

He winced. ‘I think I had that coming, didn’t I?’ he said ruefully.

‘Yes, your Majesty, you did. Look upon it as instructional. Father always tells me that it’s our duty to teach up the young.’

‘Please,’ he said lightly, ‘no more thrusts. I surrender.’

‘Wise decision there, Ran Borune,’ father said. ‘People who fence with Pol usually come away leaking from all sorts of places. We’ll be staying at the Cherek embassy, I think. I need to move around and contact several people, and an escort of palace spies trailing along behind me might be a little cumbersome. I’ll also need to stay in contact with the Alorn kings, and the Cherek ambassador’s got a war-boat available. Who’s the current Nyissan ambassador?’