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A few of the less indisposedthe lines and keeping a more or less alert eye on the stern where Greldik, puffy-eyed and obviously suffering, clung to the tiller

"Aren't you going to shorten your sail?" Belgarath asked him

"What for?"

"Because if you leave full sail up in this kind of wind, you'll uproot your arath," Greldik told hiood ti before the ed " Alarath stared at hiood idea"

By evening the wind had abated, and Greldik's ship continued across a quieter sea as night fell There were only occasional glimpses of the stars, but they were sufficient; when the sun rose the next , it was, as the ard captain had predicted, dead astern By ed peaks that formed the crest of the Isle of the Winds were poked above the western horizon, and their ship was once again plunging like a spirited horse through the whitecaps under a crisp blue sky A broad grin split Greldik's bearded face as his ship swooped and lurched and shuddered her way through the ha spray each time she knifed into a wave

"That's a very unreliablestare

"He really seeood sailor, Pol," Durnik saidabout, Durnik"

"Oh"

The ship tacked smoothly between two rocky headlands and into the sheltered harbor of the city of Riva The gray stone buildingsbattlements of the Citadel which brooded over the city and the harbor below

"This place always looks so bleak," Durnik noted "Bleak and uninviting"

"That was sort of the idea when they built it, Durnik," Belgarath replied "They didn't really want many visitors"

Then, at the end of a starboard tack, Greldik swung his tiller hard over, and his ship, her prow knifing through the dark water, ran directly at the stone quay jutting out fro his tiller again To the flapping of her patched sails, the ship coasted the last few yards and buainst the salt-crusted stones of the quay

"Do you think anybody saw us coarath replied, pointing toward the arched gate that had just swung open to reveal the broad flight of stone stairsthe seaward side of Riva A nuate; in the center of the group strode a tall young man with sandy-colored hair and a serious expression on his face

"Let's step over to the other side of the ship," Belgarath suggested to Durnik and Errand "I want to surprise hinized Garion's voice, even though it sounded older, ly over the rail "You've grown, boy," he said to the King of Riva Acustomary terms of respect