He straightened, and his eyes went flinty. He turned. ‘Captain Vant!’ he said sharply to a nearby officer. ‘Come here!’ He then proceeded to give the teary-eyed officer some very crisp orders.
Vant saluted and gathered up about a platoon of men. Then I spoke briefly with the soldiers. I must have made an impression on them, because they did as they were told.
‘All right, Brand,’ I said then, ‘let’s walk down the beach a ways. I don’t want anybody to hear what I’m going to tell you.’
He nodded, and we walked off toward the south. The beach at Riva is gravel, and the waves make quite a bit of noise when they come crashing in. I stopped at the water’s edge about a quarter of a mile away from the enclave. ‘What’s the name of Gorek’s youngest grandson?’ I asked.
‘Prince Geran,’ he replied.
I’m sure that most of you recognize the name. Pol and I have sort of kept it alive over the centuries.
‘All right,’ I said. ‘Keep a tight grip on yourself. I don’t want you to start dancing for joy. There are people watching. Prince Geran is alive.’
‘Thank the Gods!’
‘Well, thank my daughter, actually. She’s the one who rescued him. He’s a very brave little boy. He got away from the assassins by swimming out into the harbor. He doesn’t swim all that well, but at least he got away.’
‘Where is he?’
‘Polgara’s got him. She’s keeping him out of sight.’
‘I’ll send soldiers to escort him back to the Citadel.’
‘No you won’t. Nobody’s going to find out that he’s still alive. Pol and I are going to take him into hiding, and you’re going to give me your word never to mention this to anybody.’
‘Belgarath! The Rivan King is the keeper of the Orb! He must be here.’
‘No, actually he doesn’t. Everybody in the world knows that the Orb’s here, and as long as the Rivan King’s here too, everybody in the world knows where to find him. That’s why we’re going to have to separate them.’
‘Until the boy grows up?’
‘It might be a little longer than that. The time will come, however, when the Rivan King will return, and that’ll be when the fun starts. The next Rivan King who sits on that throne is going to be the Child of Light, and he’s the one we’ve been waiting for.’
‘The Godslayer?’
‘We can hope so.’
‘Where are you going to take Prince Geran?’
‘You don’t need to know that, Brand. He’ll be safe. That’s all you need to know.’ I looked up at the murky sky. ‘How much longer until it gets dark?’
‘A couple of hours anyway.’
I swore.
‘What’s the matter?’
‘My daughter and your king are out there in the bay, and that’s very cold water. Excuse me a moment.’ I sent out my thought again. ‘Polgara, where are you?’
‘We’re at the end of the wharf, father. Is it safe to come out yet?’
‘No. Stay where you are, and keep out of sight.’
‘The boy’s getting very cold, father.’
‘Heat the water around you, Pol. You know how to do that. You’ve been heating your bath water for centuries.’
‘What are you up to, old wolf?’
‘I’m hiding the Rivan King. Get used to it, Pol, because we’ll be doing it for quite a long time.’ Then I pulled my thought away from her. ‘All right, Brand,’ I said aloud. ‘Let’s go up to the Citadel. I want to have a long talk with those Nyissans.’
We went back up the beach and then on to the city gates.
‘Who’s going to guard the Orb if you take our king away, Belgarath?’ Brand asked me as we started up the stairs.
‘You are.’
‘Me?’
‘Of course. You’re also going to stand in for the king while he’s away. And you’re going to pass all of this on to your successor. From now on, the Rivan Warder’s going to be the only man alive who knows what we’re doing - normal man, anyway. Pol and I and my brothers don’t quite qualify as normal. We’re counting on you, Brand. Don’t let us down.’
He swallowed hard. ‘You have my word, Ancient One.’
‘Good man.’
The pair of Nyissan ‘merchants’ who had lured Gorek and his family out of the Citadel by sending word that they had gifts from Queen Salmissra were still comatose, and a number of grim-faced Rivans were sharpening knives as they stood guard over them. ‘I’ll do it,’ I announced. I said it very firmly in order to head off any protests.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not as good at interrogation as my daughter is. If you’re really interested in her methods, go talk with King Anheg of Cherek. He was present when she interrogated the Earl of Jarvik. All she seems to have to do is show somebody something - something that must be pretty awful, because they start talking immediately. My methods are a bit more direct. I’ve always had a fair amount of success with pain. The only difference between my approach and that of your run-of-the-mill torturer lies in the fact that I can hurt people without causing them any physical injury. I can keep a man in agony for a week without killing him.
As it turned out, it didn’t take me a week. After I’d erased the effects of the assorted narcotics swarming around in their blood, they became very tractable. Evidently there’s a certain amount of discomfort involved when your favorite narcotic runs out. I added a few other discomforts, and they started begging me to let them talk.
‘It was the queen!’ one of them blubbered. ‘We did it because the queen commanded us to do it!’
‘It wasn’t her idea, though!’ the other one overrode his companion. ‘A foreigner came to Sthiss Tor and spoke with Eternal Salmissra. It was only then that she summoned us to the throne room.’
‘Have you any idea of who this foreigner might have been?’ I asked him.
‘N-no!’ he stammered. ‘Please don’t hurt me any more!’
‘Relax,’ I told him. ‘Is there anything else you’d like to share with me?’
‘One of the young princes escaped us,’ the first one blurted. ‘He swam out into the harbor.’
‘And drowned?’ one of the Rivan guards demanded before I could head off that question.
‘No. A bird saved him.’
‘A bird?’
‘I wouldn’t pay too much attention to him,’ I said quickly. ‘Nyissans see things that aren’t there all the time.’
The Rivan gave me a suspicious look.
‘Have you ever been really drunk?’ I asked him.
‘Well, maybe once or twice.’
‘Nyissans have found ways to get in that condition without beer.’
‘I’ve heard about that,’ he admitted.
‘Now you’ve seen it. These two were still so drunk when I woke them up that they were probably seeing blue sheep and purple goats.’ I looked at Brand. ‘Do we need anything else?’
‘I don’t. Do you?’
‘No, I guess that just about covers it.’ I waved one hand and put the two assassins back to sleep. I didn’t want that one to talk about birds any more.
Certain versions of THE BOOK OF ALORN mention that story about the bird. Now you know where it came from. I’ve ridiculed the idea every time it came up, but there were still Rivans who believed it.
‘What should we do with these two?’ the fellow with the quick questions asked me.
I shrugged. ‘That’s entirely up to you. I’ve got what I needed out of them. Coming, Brand?’
The two of us left the prison cell and went directly to Brand’s private quarters. ‘You realize that this means war, don’t you, Belgarath?’ he said to me.
‘I suppose so,’ I agreed. ‘It’d look suspicious if we didn’t mount a punitive expedition against Nyissa at this point. Let’s not do anything out of character. I don’t want people to start making wild guesses right now.’
‘I’ll send messages to Val Alorn, Boktor, and the Algarian stronghold.’
‘Don’t bother. I’ll take care of that myself. Now let’s go fish my daughter and your king out of the bay. I want a ship moved to the end of the main wharf. Have the sailors tie it up there and then go ashore. I don’t want anybody at all on board. Then you and I are going to take a little trip.’
‘Belgarath! I can’t leave now!’
‘You’ll have to. I don’t know how to sail a ship. We’ve got to get Polgara and Prince Geran to the coast of Sendaria, and we can’t let anybody else know they’re on board.’
‘I can sail the ship, Belgarath, but I’m going to need a crew.’
‘You’ve got one. Pol and I’ll take care of manning your sails. We’ll drop anchor a few miles north of Camaar. Pol will take the prince into hiding, I’ll go to Val Alorn, and you’ll go to Camaar to commandeer a crew from any Rivan ships in the harbor and get back here as quick as you can to start mobilizing. Let’s go down to the harbor.’
When the ship had been moved and the sailors had gone down the wharf to the city, I sort of sauntered out to the end and stood looking ostentatiously out to sea. ‘Pol,’ I said quietly, ‘are you still there?’