Page 21 (1/2)

Wordlessly, Garion shut the solid oak door Belgarath went over to the wall lifted his candle and began to run his eyes over the row upon row of dusty, leather-bound books and the neatly stacked, silk-wrapped scrolls "There," he said, pointing to the top shelf "Reach that scroll down for me, Garion -the one wrapped in blue silk"

Garion stretched up on his tiptoes and took down the scroll He looked at it curiously before handing it to his grandfather "Are you sure?" he asked "This isn't the Mrin Codex, you know"

"No," Belgarath told hiet your attention so locked onto the Mrin Codex that you ignore all the others" He set down his candle and carefully untied the silver tasseled cord binding the scroll He stripped off the blue silk cover and began to unroll the crackling parch quickly over the ancient script "Here it is," he said at last "'Behold,' '' he read, " 'in the day that Aldur's Orb burns hot with crimson fire shall the name of the Child of Dark be revealed' "

"But Torak was the Child of Dark," Garion protested "What is that scroll?"

"The Darine Codex," Belgarath told him "It's not always as reliable as the Mrin, but it's the only one that mentions this particular event"

"What does itperplexed

"It's a bit coarath replied, his lips pursed and his eyes still fixed on the passage in question "Rather simply put, there are two prophecies"

"Yes, I knew that, but I thought that when Torak died, the other one just -well-"

"Not exactly I don't think it's that si in these confrontations since before the beginning of this world Each tiht and a Child of Dark When you and Torak ht and Torak was the Child of Dark It wasn't the first time the two had met Apparently it was not to be the last, either"

"You mean that it's not over yet?" Garion dearath said, tapping the parchht, if this Zandraht?"

"As far as I know, you are"

"Me? Still?"

"Until we hear so to the contrary"

"Why arath asked drily

Garion's shoulders sluain -on top of everything else"

"Oh, stop feeling sorry for yourself, Garion," Belgarath told hi about it won't change a thing"

"I wasn't sniveling"

"Whatever you call it, stop it and get to work"