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PROLOGUE

Being an Account those Events came to the Throne of Riva and how he slew the Accursed God Torak-froends of Aloria

After the seven Gods created the world, it is said that they and those races of ether in peace and harmony But UL, father of the Gods, remained aloof, until Gorih htily Then the heart of UL melted, and he lifted up Gorios

The God Aldur re the power of the Will and the Word to Belgarath and other disciples And a tier than the heart of child Men named the stone the Orb of Aldur, and it was filled with enormous power, for it was the e of tiarak peoples, coveted lordship and do Necessity When he learned of the Orb, he was sorely troubled, fearing that it would counter his destiny He went therefore to Aldur to plead that the stone be set aside When Aldur would not give up the stone, Torak smote him and fled with the Orb

Then Aldur suhty ar that his Angaraks must be defeated, raised the Orb and used its power to crack the world and bring in the Sea of the East to divide hiered that Torak should use it thus and it lashed hiony could not be quenched

Torak's left hand was burned away, his left cheek was seared in the arts of sorcery and charred, and his left eye took flame and was ever after filled with the fire of the Orb's wrath

In agony, Torak led his people into the wastelands of Mallorea, and his people built hiht, for Torak hid it under an endless cloud There, in a tower of iron, Torak contended with the Orb, trying in vain to quell its hatred for him

Thus it endured for two thousand years Then Cherek Bear-Shoulders, King of the Alorns, went down to the Vale of Aldur to tell Belgarath the Sorcerer that the northern as clear Together they left the Vale with Cherek's three rip They stole through the uide theht, they stole into Torak's iron tower And while the maimed God tossed in pain-haunted slumber, they crept to the roorip, whose heart ithout ill intent, took up the Orb, and they left for the West

Torak waked to find the Orb gone and he pursued thery flame filled Torak with fear Then the company passed froarath divides Aloria into four kingdoar Fleet-foot To Riva Iron-grip and to his line he gave the Orb of Aldur and sent him to the Isle of the Winds

Belar, God of the Alorns, sent doo stars, and frohty sword and placed the Orb on its po the sword on the wall of the throne roouard the West froarath returned to his home, he discovered that his wife, Poledra, had borne hihters, but then had passed away In heartsick sorrow, he naara and Beldaran And when they were of age, he sent Beldaran to Riva Iron-grip to be his wife and ara he kept with hie at the loss of the Orb, Torak destroyed the City of Night and divided the Angaraks The Murgos, the Nadraks, and the Thulls he sent to dwell in the wastelands along the western shores of the Sea of the East The Malloreans he kept to subdue all of the continent on which they dwelt

Over all, he set his Grolie any who faltered, and to offer human sacrifices to him

Many centuries passed Then Zedar the Apostate, who served Torak, conspired with Salmissra, Queen of the snake-people, to send emissaries to the Isle of the Winds to slay Gorek, Riva's descendant, and all his fah some claimed that a lone child escaped; but none could say for certain

Eathered his host and invaded the West, planning to enslave the peoples and regain the Orb At Vo Miaraks hter And there Brand the Rivan Warder, bearing the Orb upon his shield, le co that, were disheartened and they were overthrown and destroyed But at night, as the Kings of the West celebrated, Zedar the Apostate took the body of Torak and spirited it away Then the High Priest of the Ulgos, nah Priests had been, revealed that Torak had not been killed, but bound in slu of the line of Riva sat once s of the West believed that meant forever, for it was held that the line of Riva had perished utterly But Belgarath and his daughter Polgara knew better For a child had escaped the slaughter of Gorek's family, and they had concealed hienerations

But ancient prophecies revealed to the was not yet come

Many more centuries passed Then, in a nameless city on the far side of the world, Zedar the Apostate cao secretly with him to the Isle of the Winds There he hoped that the innocence of the child ht enable that child to take the Orb of Aldur fro It occurred as he wished, and Zedar fled with the child and the Orb toward the East

Polgara the Sorceress had been living with a young boy, who called her Aunt Pol, in obscurity on a farm in Sendaria

This boy was Garion, the orphaned last descendant of the Rivan line, but he was unaware of his parentage

When Belgarath learned of the theft of the Orb, he hastened to Sendaria to urge his daughter to join hiara insisted that the boy must accompany thearath, whom he knew as a storyteller who sometimes visited the farm and whom he called Grandfather

Durnik, the far with them Soon they were joined by Barak of Cherek and by Kheldar of Drasnia, whom men called Silk In time, their quest for the Orb was joined by others: Hettar, horse-lord of Algaria; Mandorallen, the Mio zealot