Page 112 (1/2)

Errand nodded

"Why don't you start at the beginning, Errand?" Polgara suggested

"All right This Harakan, I guess his real name is, came here because his Master, the one Beldin called Urvon, sent hiarion and Ce'Nedra never had any children Harakan caained control of the Bear-cult At first he stirred up all kinds of talk against Ce'Nedra, hoping that he could force Belgarion to set her aside andto have a baby, he sent someone to try to kill her That didn't work, of course, and he started to get desperate He was terribly afraid of what Urvon would do to hiain control of Ce'Nedra when she was asleep once, to make her smother the baby, but someone -he doesn't knoho- stepped in and stopped hiht"

"Is that when he ca the bla asked

Errand frowned slightly "Killing Brand was an accident," he replied "As closely as Harakan could work it out, Brand just happened along and caught the cultists in that hallhen they were about to do what he really sent them to Riva to do"

"And as that?" Ce'Nedra asked him

"They were on their way to the royal apartments to kill you and your baby"

Her face paled

"And then they were supposed to kill themselves That as supposed to start the war between Belgarion and King Anheg Anyway, soot killed instead of you and your baby, and we found out that the cult was responsible instead of Anheg He didn't dare go back to Urvon and adot away from the Isle of the Winds with hiarion was alreadyon Rheon by the time he found out about it He was trapped here, and Zandra aith your baby"

"That Nyissan ship!" Kail exclaiarion, and then sailed off to the south and left us all floundering around here in Drasnia"

"What about the story we got froht after the abduction?" Brin asked

"A Bear-cultist isn't usually very bright," Kail replied "I don't think this Zandra those Chereks that the abduction was on Harakan's orders, and all that gibberish about the prince being raised in the cult so that one day he could claim the Rivan throne is just kind of brainsick nonsense men like that would believe"

"That's why they were left behind, then," Garion said "We were supposed to capture at least one of theet the carefully prepared story that sent us off here to Rheon, while Zandramas sailed away to the south with my son"

"It looks as if we've all been very carefully h some parchment sheets he had stacked on a polished table "Harakan as well as the rest of us "

"We can be clever, too," Belgarath said "I don't think Zandramas realizes that the Orb will follow Geran's trail If we h, we can sneak up from behind and take this clever manipulator by surprise"

"It won't work across water" the dry voice in Garion's mind said laconically

"What?"

"The Orb can't follow your son's trail over water The ground stays in one place Water keeps "

Are you sure?"