Silk reined in. ‘I think it’s time for a precaution or two,’ he announced. He took a light scarf from inside his cloak and bound it across his eyes. Garion was suddenly reminded of Relg and the way the cave-born zealot had always covered his eyes when out in the open.

‘A blindfold?’ Sadi asked. ‘Have you suddenly become a seer, Prince Kheldar?’

‘I’m not the sort to have visions, Sadi,’ Silk replied. ‘The scarf is thin enough so that I can see through it. The idea is to protect the eyes from the glare of sunlight on the snow.’

‘It is rather bright, isn’t it?’ Sadi agreed.

‘It is indeed, and if you look at it long enough, it can blind you – at least temporarily.’ Silk adjusted the covering on his eyes. ‘This is a trick the reindeer herders in northern Drasnia came up with. It works fairly well.’

‘Let’s not take any chances,’ Belgarath said, also covering his eyes with a piece of cloth. He smiled. ‘Maybe this is how the Dalasian wizards struck the Grolims blind when they tried to go to Kell.’

‘I’d be terribly disappointed if it were that simple,’ Velvet said, trying a scarf across her eyes. ‘I like to have my magic nice and inexplicable. Snow blindness would be such a prosaic thing.’

They plowed on through the drifts, climbing now toward a high pass between two towering peaks. It was midafternoon when they reached the pass. The track wound up between massive boulders, but straightened out when they reached the summit. They stopped to rest the horses and to look out over the vast wilderness which lay beyond the pass.

Toth unbound his eyes and gestured to Durnik. The smith pulled down his protective scarf, and the big mute pointed. Durnik’s face was suddenly filled with awe. ‘Look!’ he said in a half-choked whisper.

The rest of them also uncovered their eyes.

‘Belar!’ Silk gasped. ‘Nothing can be that big!’

The peaks around them that had seemed so enormous shrank into insignificance. Standing quite alone in solitary splendor rose a mountain so huge and high that the mind could not comprehend it. It was perfectly symmetrical, a steep, white cone with sharply sloping sides. Its base was enormous, and its summit soared thousands of feet above nearby peaks. An absolute calm seemed to surround it, as if, having achieved everything that any mountain could, it simply existed.

‘It’s the highest peak in the world,’ Zakath said very quietly. ‘The scholars at the University of Melcene have calculated its height and compared that with the heights of peaks on the western continent. It’s thousands of feet higher than any other mountain.’

‘Please, Zakath,’ Silk said with a pained look, ‘don’t tell me how high.’

Zakath looked puzzled.

‘As you may have noticed, I’m not really a very large person. Immensity depresses me. I’ll admit that your mountain is bigger than I am. I just don’t want to know how much bigger.’

Toth was gesturing to Durnik again.

‘He says that Kell lies in the shadow of that mountain,’ the smith said.

‘That’s a little unspecific, Goodman,’ Sadi said wryly. ‘I’d guess that about half the continent lies in the shadow of that thing.’

Beldin came soaring in again. ‘Big, isn’t it?’ he said, squinting at the huge white peak looming into the sky.

‘We noticed,’ Belgarath replied. ‘What’s on up ahead?’

‘A fair amount of downhill going – at least until you get to the slopes of that monster there.’

‘I can see that from here.’

‘Congratulations. I found a place where you can get rid of your Grolim. Several places, actually.’

‘Exactly how do you mean “get rid of”, uncle?’ Polgara asked suspiciously.

‘There are quite a few high cliffs alongside this track on the way down,’ he replied blandly. ‘Accidents do happen, you know.’

‘Out of the question. I didn’t treat his wounds just to keep him going until you found time to throw him off a cliff.’

‘Polgara, you’re interfering with the practice of my religion.’

She raised one eyebrow.

‘I thought you knew. It’s an article of the faith: “Kill every Grolim you come across.”’

‘I might even consider converting to that religion,’ Zakath said.

‘Are you absolutely certain you’re not Arendish?’ Garion said to him.

Beldin sighed. ‘Since you’re going to be such a spoilsport about this, Pol, I found a group of sheepherders below the snowline.’

‘Shepherds, uncle,’ she corrected.

‘It means the same thing. If you really look at it, it’s even the same word.’

‘Shepherd sounds nicer.’

‘Nicer,’ he snorted. ‘Sheep are stupid, they smell bad, and they taste worse. Anybody who spends his life tending them is either defective or degenerate.’

‘You’re in rare form this afternoon,’ Belgarath congratulated him.

‘It’s been a great day for flying,’ Beldin explained with a broad grin. ‘Do you have any idea of how much warm air comes up off new snow when the sun hits it? I flew up so high once that I started getting spots in front of my eyes.’

‘That’s stupid, uncle,’ Polgara snapped. ‘You should never go up where the air’s that thin.’

‘We’re all entitled to a little stupidity now and then.’ He shrugged. ‘And the dive from that height is unbelievable. Why don’t you join me, and I’ll show you.’

‘Will you never grow up?’

‘I doubt it, and I certainly hope not.’ He looked at Belgarath. ‘I think you’d better go down a mile or so and make camp.’

‘It’s early yet.’

‘No. Actually it’s late. That afternoon sun is quite warm – even up here. All this snow’s starting to get soft. I’ve seen three avalanches already. If you make a wrong guess up here, you might get down a lot quicker than you want to.’

‘Interesting point there. We’ll get down out of this pass and set up for the night.’

‘I’ll go on ahead.’ Beldin crouched and spread his arms. ‘Are you sure you don’t want to come along, Pol?’

‘Don’t be silly.’

He left a ghostly chuckle behind him as he soared away.

They set up for the night on a ridge line. Although it exposed them to the constant wind, it was free from the danger of avalanche. Garion slept poorly that night. The wind which raked the exposed ridge set the taut canvas of the tent he shared with Ce’Nedra to thrumming, and the noise intruded itself upon him as he tried again and again to drift off. He shifted restlessly.