On the fourth day, the leaders of Mimbre, Asturia, and Wacune signed the ‘instrument of peace’, and immediately thereafter Duke Corrolin rose and invited everybody to stay for the wedding. Countess Asrana could move very fast when it suited her.
Once again I found myself pressed into service as a bridesmaid, and all went smoothly. Asrana and Mandorin were married with not so much as an earthquake or tidal wave to alert poor Arendia to a dangerous new force that had come into being right at her very heart.
Part Four:
Ontrose
Chapter 17
I hate to admit this, but when you get right down to the core of things, my father and I are very much alike. We both know that our primary business will always be study and the slow accumulation of knowledge. Interruptions crop up from time to time, though, and we’ll both assume surly expressions when someone comes rushing into the Vale begging us to go out and save the world. Would you be at all surprised if I told you that our apparent grouchiness is only a sham? To be completely honest about it, we enjoy putting out these little brush-fires almost as much as we’d enjoy discovering just exactly why two and two makes four.
When I’d spent those years on the Isle of the Winds, I’d been at the very center of things, and I’d found that to be engrossing. Then, when I’d been called away again to deal with Ctuchik’s scheme in Arendia, I’d enjoyed that just as much. Like my father, I’ll always be happy to lay my book aside when the fire-bell rings.
Given the tentative nature of the peace father and I had crammed down the throats of assorted Arends, it was fairly obvious that I was going to have to stay in Arendia to make sure that it stayed crammed. And so it was that in the spring of the year 2313 I returned briefly to father’s tower to pick up a few things I might need. I suppose I could have just willed what I needed into existence, but they wouldn’t have been the same, for some reason.
Father had returned to the Vale during the previous winter, and when I reached his tower, he called the twins over, and the four of us got down to cases. ‘I’d rather hoped to see uncle Beldin,’ I said.
‘He’s still off in Mallorea, Pol,’ Belkira said. ‘What’s happening in Arendia?’
‘What’s always happening in Arendia?’ Beltira snorted.
‘Pol took steps,’ father told them. “There’s this unnatural silence hovering over Arendia right now. I think it’s referred to as peace.’
‘I don’t know that I’d go quite that far, father,’ I disagreed, getting up to check the ham I was baking for supper. ‘Ctuchik had things fairly well stirred up, and the Arends were having a lot of fun with his little fires. Now that we’ve doused them with cold water, the Arends are at a loss for excuses to slaughter each other. I wouldn’t really call it peace yet, though. They’re sitting around waiting for somebody to come up with new reasons to go to war.’
‘I’m sure they’ll find something,’ he said sourly.
‘That’s why I’m going back,’ I told them. ‘I want to make it very obvious to the Arends that if they don’t behave themselves, I’ll spank them.’
They aren’t actually children, Pol,’ Belkira objected.
‘Oh, really? You haven’t been there lately, uncle. Arends are a very charming people, but a lot of that charm lies in the fact that they’ve never grown up.’
‘Are you going to settle in one place, Pol?’ Beltira asked, ‘or were you planning to be a traveling fire-brigade?’
‘I’ve had invitations from all three of the rulers in Arendia, uncle, but I think I’ll set up operations in Vo Wacune. It’s far more attractive than Vo Astur or Vo Mimbre, and Duke Kathandrion shows a few flickers of intelligence. At least he can see beyond his own borders. I don’t think Mangaran or Corrolin can yet. I’ll probably have to rush about quite a bit until peace gets to be a habit, but it’s always nice to have a place to call home.’ Then I thought of something the twins ought to know about. ‘Ctuchik’s come up with a way to disguise his agents,’ I told them. There’s a quasi-religious order headquartered in the Great Desert of Araga off to the southeast of Nyissa. They’re called the Dagashi, and they’re half-breed Murgos. Their mothers – and probably grandmothers as well – are slave women from other races. The Dagashi are bred down to the point that they don’t have Angarak features, and they’re trained as spies and assassins. Don’t automatically assume that just because somebody doesn’t look like an Angarak, it means that he isn’t one.’
‘That could be fairly troublesome,’ Beltira said, frowning.
‘It already has been several times,’ I said. ‘I thought we all ought to know about that. Oh, there’s something else as well. Evidently the Murgos have discovered gold in their mountains. They’re very free with their bribes now. I think there are iron deposits near their mines, because Murgo gold always has a reddish tinge to it. That might help us to identify somebody who’s been bribed.’ I leaned back in my chair. ‘Ctuchik’s getting very much involved in things here in the west,’ I mused. “That might just mean that Torak’s getting ready to come out of seclusion at Ashaba, or it might mean something else. I’ll try to keep a lid on things in Arendia, but you gentlemen are going to have to stand watch over the other kingdoms.’
‘Thanks,’ father said sourly.
‘Don’t mention it.’ I smiled sweetly at him.
Then the following morning, I packed up the things I wanted and left for Vo Wacune.
It was late spring or early summer of that year when I returned to the fairy-tale city in the Arendish forest. Kathandrion insisted that I live in the palace, and now that I had some leisure, I was able to take a bit of time to get to know a wider circle of people in the Wacite court. Kathandrion’s wife was named Elisera, and she was an ethereal lady with reddish blonde hair who spent most of her time reading interminably long Arendish epics and overwrought love poetry. Her reading habits may have distorted her view of reality just a bit. She took me around to the various lords and ladies of the court, and even in the face of my protests, she insisted on introducing me as ‘Polgara the Sorceress’. Despite her shortcomings, I liked her. I also liked Crown Prince Alleran, her son. Alleran was a sturdy little boy of about ten who had a very unArendish streak of good sense in him. Unfortunately, his parents were doing their very best to educate that trait out of him before he reached maturity.