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"That's fine, Errand," she said, raising one hand slightly Then she looked into the boy's face After a moment, one of her eyebrows shot up "Tellher words, "do you knohat's wrong between Garion and Ce'Nedra?"

"Yes," Errand replied

"Would you tellthatthat ery She thinks that he doesn't pay enough attention to her and that he spends all his time on his work so that he won't have to spend any with her

He thinks that she's selfish and spoiled and doesn't think about anybody but herself They're both wrong, but they've had a lot of arguments about it and they've hurt each other so iven up on being married to each other They're terribly unhappy"

"Thank you, Errand," she said Then she turned to Durnik "We'll need to pack a few things," she said

"Oh?" He looked a bit surprised

"We're going to Riva," she said quite firarath ran across an old friend in a tavern near the harbor When he brought the bearded, furclad Cherek to the inn where they were staying, Polgara gave the swaying sailor a penetrating look "How long have you been drunk, Captain Greldik?" she asked bluntly"What day is it?" His reply was vague

She told hiized

"I appear to have lost track of several days somewhere Do you know by any chance eek it is?"

"Greldik," she said, "do you absolutely have to get drunk every tihtfully at the ceiling, scratching at his beard "Now that you ht about it that way before, but now that you suggest it-"

She gave him a hard stare, but the look he returned was deliberately iested "I' to getany woman's life by the way I behave, and it's absolutely certain that no woarath says that you want to go to Riva I'll round uptide"

"Will your crew be sober enough to find their way out of the harbor?"

He shrugged "We ht bump into a Tolnedran merchantman or two on the way out, but we'll find our way to the open sea eventually Drunk or sober, my crew is the best afloat We'll put you on the quay at Riva by midafternoon on the day after tomorrow -unless the sea freezes solid between now and then, in which case it ain "Par'nat her with his bleary eyes

"Greldik," Belgarath said adly, "you're the bravest htenabout the sea"

About noon of the following day, Greldik's ship was running before a freshening breeze through foa whitecaps