‘He was a friend first, Silk. Friends can criticize us without giving offense.’

‘My, aren’t we philosophical this morning? My heart almost stopped when He touched Belgarath and Poledra with the Orb, though.’

‘Mine, too,’ Garion admitted, ‘but it appears he knew what he was doing.’ He sighed.

‘What’s the problem?’

‘It’s all over now. I think I’m going to miss it – at least I will just as soon as I get caught up on my sleep.’

‘It has been a little hectic for the past few days, hasn’t it? I suppose that if we put our heads together, we can come up with something exciting to do.’

‘I know what I’m going to be doing,’ Garion told him.

‘Oh? What’s that?’

‘I’m going to be very busy being a father.’

‘Your son won’t stay young forever, Garion.’

‘Geran isn’t going to be an only child. My friend up here in my head warned me to expect large numbers of daughters.’

‘Good. It might help to settle you down a bit. I don’t want to seem critical, Garion, but sometimes you’re awfully flighty. Hardly a year goes by when you’re not running off to some corner of the world with that burning sword in your hand.’

‘Are you trying to be funny?’

‘Me?’ Silk leaned back comfortably. ‘You’re not going to have all that many daughters, are you? What I’m getting at is that women are only of child-bearing age for just so long.’

‘Silk,’ Garion said pointedly, ‘Do you remember Xbell, that Dryad we met down near the River of the Woods in southern Tolnedra?’

‘The one who was so fond of men – all men?’

‘That’s the one. Would you say that she’s still of child-bearing age?’

‘Oh, my yes.’

‘Xbell is over three hundred years old. Ce’Nedra’s a Dryad, too, you know.’

‘Well, maybe you’ll get too old to—’ Silk broke off and looked at Belgarath. ‘Oh, dear,’ he said. ‘You have got a bit of a problem, haven’t you?’

It was almost noon when they boarded the Seabird. Barak had agreed, although somewhat reluctantly, to follow Captain Kresca to Perivor. After the two men had met and inspected each others’ ships, however, things went more smoothly. Kresca had been lavish in his praise of Seabird, and that was always a way to get on the good side of Barak.

As they weighed anchor, Garion leaned on the starboard rail gazing at the strange-looking pyramid sticking out of the sea with a pillar of greasy smoke rising from the amphitheater on its north side.

‘I’d have given a great deal to have been here,’ Hettar said quietly, leaning his elbows on the rail beside Garion. ‘How was it?’

‘Noisy,’ Garion told him.

‘Why did Belgarath insist on burning that dragon?’

‘He felt sorry for her.’

‘Belgarath’s funny sometimes.’

‘He is indeed, my friend. How are Adara and the children?’

‘Fine. She’s with child again, you know.’

‘Again? Hettar, you two are almost as bad as Relg and Taiba.’

‘Not quite,’ Hettar said modestly. ‘They’re still a few ahead of us.’ He frowned critically, his hawklike face outlined against the sun. ‘I think somebody’s cheating, though. Taiba keeps having babies in twos and threes. That makes it very hard for Adara to keep up.’

‘I wouldn’t want to point any fingers, but I’d suspect that Mara’s been interfering there. It’s going to take awhile to repopulate Maragor.’ He looked over to where Unrak stood in the bow with his shadow, Nathel, just behind him. ‘What’s that all about?’ he asked.

‘I’m not sure,’ Hettar said. ‘Nathel’s a pathetic sort of boy, and I think Unrak feels sorry for him. I gather there hasn’t been too much kindness in Nathel’s life, so he’ll even accept pity. He’s been following Unrak around like a puppy ever since we picked him up.’ The tall Algar looked at Garion. ‘You look tired,’ he said. ‘You should get some sleep.’

‘I’m exhausted,’ Garion admitted, ‘but I don’t want to get my days and nights turned around. Let’s go talk with Barak. He seemed just a bit surly when he came ashore.’

‘You know how Barak is. Missing a fight always makes him discontent. Tell him some stories. He likes a good story almost as much as he likes a good fight.’

It was good to be back among his old friends again. There had been a sort of emptiness in Garion since he had left them behind at Rheon. The absence of their burly self-confidence had been part of it, of course, but even more than that, perhaps, had been the camaraderie, that sense of good-natured friendship that lay under all the apparent bickering. As they started aft to where Barak stood with one beefy hand on the tiller, Garion saw Zakath and Cyradis standing on the lee side of a longboat. He motioned to Hettar to stop and laid one finger to his lips.

‘Eavesdropping isn’t very nice, Garion,’ the tall Algar whispered.

‘It’s not exactly eavesdropping,’ Garion whispered back. ‘I just need to be sure that I won’t have to take steps.’

‘Steps?’

‘I’ll explain later.’

‘And what will you do now, Holy Seeress?’ Zakath was asking the slim girl, his heart in his voice.

‘The world lies open before me, Kal Zakath,’ she replied a little sadly. ‘The burden of my task hath been lifted, and thou needst no longer address me as “Seeress,” for, indeed, that burden hath also been lifted. Mine eyes are now fixed on the plain, ordinary light of day, and I am no more than a plain, ordinary woman.

‘Hardly plain, Cyradis, and far from ordinary.’

‘Thou art kind to say so, Kal Zakath.’

‘Let’s drop that “Kal”, shall we, Cyradis? It’s an affectation. It means King and God. Now that I’ve seen real Gods, I know just how presumptuous it was of me to encourage its use. But let’s return to the point. Your eyes have been bound for years, haven’t they?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then you haven’t had occasion to look into a mirror lately, have you?’

‘Neither occasion nor inclination.’

Zakath was a very shrewd man and he fully realized when the time had come for extravagance. ‘Then let mine eyes be thy mirror, Cyradis,’ he said. ‘Look into them and see how fair thou art.’