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"You know," Beldin said to Belgarath, "I think he's right This isn't the first tiet the job done That business about the 'purpose of all her days' si--to bite Harakan Once she'd done that, things went back to norain" Then the hunchback looked at Eriond "How is it that you remembered exactly what she said? We were all fairly excited there in Urvon's throne room"

"I always try to remember what people say," Eriond replied "It may not always make sense at the tiether"

"This is a strange boy, Belgarath," Beldin said

"We’ve noticed that on occasion"

"Is it really possible?" Sadi asked the old sorcerer "That sort of intervention, I randfather" Garion laughed "He doesn't believe that anything's i a safe distance away frohtly "Congratulations, Zith," he said finally to the little green mother Then be looked sternly at the others "This is all very nice, I suppose," he added, "but if anybody calls theone to bed, but Ce'Nedra was restless, and she tossed and turned Suddenly she sat up "I wonder if that milk's still warm," she murmured She tossed back the blanket and padded on little bare feet to the door "Do you want some, too?" she asked Garion

"No, thanks all the same, dear"

"It would help you sleep"

"I'"

She stuck her tongue out at him and went out into the hallway When she returned a few hty little giggle

"What's so funny?" he asked her

"I saw Silk"

"So?"

"He didn't see o in and out of his bedrooain and hopped into bed "That's the point, Garion," she said "It wasn't his bedroohed in embarrassment "Drink your milk"

"I listened at the door for a mo?"

"Not particularly, no"

The rain had passed on through, although there were still ruhtning raked the western horizon Garion awoke suddenly and sat upright in bed There was a different kind of rumble outside, and it was occasionally acco noise He slipped softly out of bed and went out onto the balcony that encircled the far out there in the darkness, perhaps a halfend of the store of the wolf in his ated

The torches moved at a peculiarly slow pace as Garion loped closer to theher than they would have been if the torchbearers weresound and the peculiar bellowing continued Then he stopped beside a bramble thicket and sat down on his haunches to watch and listen A long line of huge grey beasts was plodding through the night in a northeasterly direction Garion had seen the ie, at least, of an elephant on the Isle of Verkat in Cthol Murgos when his Aunt Pol had routed the , however, but the reality is quite soer than any animal Garion had ever seen, and there was a kind of ponderous implacability about their steady pace Their foreheads and flanks were covered with skirts of chain ht of such vast weight, though the elephants moved as if the mail were as insubstantial as cobwebs Their sail-like ears swayed as they walked, and their pendulous trunks drooped down before the it to his forehead, and give vent to a shattering true, plodding beasts One, bearing a torch, sat cross-legged atop each huge neck Those riding behind were ars, and short-li astride the neck of a beast fully a yard taller than the ones in his wake, was athe black robe of a Groli no sound in the rain-wet grass Although he was certain that the elephants could easily catch his scent, he reasoned that beasts so large would pay little attention to a predator who posed no real threat to them In the presence of such immensity, he felt s His own bulk approached two hundred pounds, but an elephant's weight was ed on silent paws along the colu his nose and eyes alert His attention was concentrated on the black-robed Grolim astride the neck of the lead aniside the colu his distance

Then there appeared in the track ahead of the lead elephant a figure robed in shiny black satin that gleaht The coluure pushed back her hood with a hand that seeain in Zamad, Garion had briefly seen the face of his son's abductor, but the confrontations with the Darshivan sorceress had been so charged with danger and dread that he had not really had tiister on hisstill closer, he looked upon her torchlit face

Her features were regular, even beautiful Her hair was a lustrous black, and her skin was very nearly as pale as that of Garion's cousin Adara The similarity ended there, however Zandraularity cohtly aquiline, and her forehead was broad and unlined Her chin was pointed, whichthee, Naradas," she said in her harshly accented voice "Where hast thou been?"

"Forgive me, mistress," the Groliized "The herdsmen were farther south than we had been told" He pushed back his hood His face was cruel, and his white eyes gleale with the Disciple's minions?"