Then mother and I flowed out of our assumed form and she wasn’t there any more. Our separation was actually painful to me. ‘I’m not trying to offend you, father,’ I half-apologized, ‘but I’m following instructions.’ My choice of terms was quite deliberate. The word ‘instructions’ tends to cut off arguments in our family. I suppose that my omission of just whose instructions I was following might be considered an untruth – if you want to be picky about it. ‘I think you’d better take a look at that,’ I said then, pointing at the sea of Angaraks advancing through the mist like an incoming tide.
‘I was sort of hoping that they’d get lost, or something,’ father muttered. ‘Are you sure Torak’s with them?’
‘Yes, father. I went out and looked. That iron pavilion of his is right in the center of the crowd.’
‘You did what? Polgara, that’s Torak out there! Now he knows that you’re here!’
I’d just seen Torak, so I didn’t really need to listen to my father’s introduction. ‘Don’t get excited, Old Man. I was told to do it. Torak had no way of even knowing I was there. He’s inside his pavilion, and Zedar’s with him.’
‘How long has this been going on?’
I deliberately sidestepped his question. ‘Since he left Mallorea, I’d imagine. Let’s go alert the Algars, and then I think we’ll have time for some breakfast. I’ve been up all night, and I’m positively ravenous.’ He was obviously very curious about the means I’d used to hide my presence from Torak and Zedar, but the word ‘breakfast’ worked its usual miracle on my father. If you say ‘food’ or ‘beer’ to father, you’ll have his immediate, undivided attention.
After breakfast, we went back up to the parapet to see how Torak and his henchmen planned to assault the Algarian mountain. They started out conventionally, catapulting rocks at the walls, but that had no more effect than a quarter century of rain had. I’d imagine that was very depressing for the catapult crews. Then the Angaraks rolled up huge battering rams, and that was also a waste of time and effort, since the gates weren’t locked.
That must have made the Angarak generals suspicious, because the Thulls were given the honor of making the first assault. Any time an Angarak army encounters something dirty or dangerous, they always send in the Thulls. Several regiments of the thick-bodied, dull-eyed Thulls rushed through the gates. They wandered through the labyrinthine maze inside for a while, and then the Algars and Drasnians rose from their places of concealment atop the walls of the unroofed maze and annihilated the Thullish regiments to the last man. I’m sure that the massed troops outside heard all the screaming, but they chose not to come inside to find out what was happening. I thought that was moderately tacky, but I privately approved. Torak’s brute-force attacks weren’t likely to gain him entry, and if he planned to propose marriage to me, he was going to have to get inside first.
During the night after the failed assault, the Algars amused themselves by catapulting dead Thulls into the Angarak encampment, and then when murky dawn put in her appearance, the Algar horsemen who’d been savaging the flanks of Torak’s army as he’d marched south arrived and very quietly encircled him. His foraging parties found out about that as soon as they rode out in search of food. Torak himself didn’t need to eat, but his army did, and they were on very short rations for the next several years.
Things settled down after a week or so, and father and I concluded that the siege of the Stronghold would probably continue for a number of years and that our continued presence wouldn’t really serve any purpose. We had things to do elsewhere, so we decided to go back to the Isle of the Winds. Before we left, though, I had one more talk with Gelane.
This is very exciting, Aunt Pol,’ the little boy said.
The excitement wears a little thin after a while, Gelane.’
‘How long do these siege things usually last?’
‘Several years, usually.’
‘That long? Don’t the people outside get tired of it? Can’t they see that they’re not going to get inside?’
‘They’re soldiers, Gelane. Sometimes it takes soldiers a little longer to think their way through things than it does ordinary people.’
‘You don’t like soldiers, do you. Aunt Pol?’
‘They’re all right – as individuals. It’s when you lump them together into an army that their brains desert them. I want you to be very careful here, Gelane. Stay out of sight, and don’t stand in front of any open windows. One of the reasons Torak has for being here is that he wants to kill you.’
‘Me? Why me? What’d I ever do to him?’
‘It’s not anything you’ve done, Gelane; it’s what you might do sometime in the future.’
‘Oh?’
‘You – or your son, or your son’s son, or somebody on down the line of sons that’ll descend from you – is going to kill Torak. If he kills you now, he won’t have to worry about that.’
His eyes grew very bright at that. ‘Maybe I’d better get a sword and start practicing,’ he said enthusiastically.
‘Oh, dear,’ I said, realizing my mistake when it was too late. You don’t ever want to suggest heroism to a little boy. He shouldn’t even know what the word means until he’s at least twenty. ‘Gelane,’ I said patiently, ‘you’re only six years old. Right now, you couldn’t even lift a sword, much less swing one. Here’s what you should do. There’s a pile of rocks in the southeast corner of the maze in the middle of the Stronghold.’
‘Yes, I’ve seen them.’
‘The best thing for you to do is to pick up one of those rocks and carry it up the stairs to the top of the Stronghold. Then you take it over to the battlements and drop it on the Angaraks outside the walls.’
‘I’ll bet they wouldn’t like that at all, would they?’
‘Not very much, no.’
‘What do I do then, Aunt Pol?’
‘Go get another rock.’
‘Those rocks look awfully heavy.’
‘Yes, they do, don’t they? That’s the idea, though, Gelane. Picking up heavy things is a good way to make your muscles bigger, and you’re going to have to be very strong if you’re going to get into a sword-fight with Torak.’
‘How long will it take – to get big muscles, I mean?’