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He rounded a bend in the ravine and saw Beldin standing in the trail ahead of thely wet strands about his shoulders, and his beard was dripping "You'd better slon," he growled at the for a retfully, Garion reined Chretienne in

"Exactly where does this ravine lead?" Belgarath asked the hunchback

"It twists and turns a lot, but eventually it opens out onto a ridge top The ridge runs north and south If we follow it north, we'll come to the main caravan route That's the fastest way down into Dalasia"

"Everybody else knows that, too"

"That's all right We'll be at least a day ahead of the to scout ahead again?"

"Not until the rain lets up My feathers are wet It'd take a derrick to get et to that ridge, we're going to have to be careful A couple leagues north, it runs just a few miles above the spot where Nahaz has his ambush set up"

"Your choice of a route leaves a lot to be desired," Belgarath said "If someone down there happens to look up, we'll have half of Urvon's army all over us"

"Not unless they can fly An earthquake went through here a few thousand years ago and it sliced off the side of that ridge It's a very steep cliff now"

"How high?"

"High enough--a thousand feet or so"

"How far is it to the caravan route?"

"About fifteen leagues froe"

"North of Urvon's army, then?"

"Quite a bit north, yes"

"Why did Nahaz pass it by? Why didn't he just turn west?"

"He probably didn't want the Darshivans and their elephants couess he just couldn't bring hihter"

"Maybe Do you think the battle's going to start this afternoon?"

"I doubt it Elephants don'tcautiously They'll stop for the night soon First thing to noisy"

"Maybe we can get past the place where the aht"

"I wouldn't advise it You won't be able to light any torches, and that cliffs a sheer drop If you ride off the edge of it, you'll bounce all the way back to the Magan"

Belgarath grunted "Are you sure you can't fly?"

"Not a chance Right now you couldn't get e into a duck?"