Silk's Wedding Chapter 6
Rose G (who can't believe the length of this story)
Belgarath grimaced and run one hand over the stubble of what had been his beard as he regarded the prone form on the cave floor. Beside him, Barak was nearly choking with laughter, and Tabia was smiling broadly. Relg held his head on one side, looking like a faintly puzzled parrot.
'What did he do that for, Belgarath? The Ulgo zealot rasped, his eyes questioning. 'You never said that this would happen.'
The old sorcerer waved his hands about wildly, then laid a finger on his lips as the Grolim shook his silvery head as he stared down at the unconscious Silk. 'Belgarath, you know that my people are opposed to violence, even as UL himself is opposed to it. Whatever it is that you have done to Prince Kheldar is likely to bring His wrath down on you, unless you have an extremely good reason.'
Belgarath touched a hand to his chin again, then glared. 'I do have an extremely good reason Holy One. My recent lack of a beard, for one and the loss of my money for another. He cheated, and the Alorn law says a cheater shall be punished.'
Between his bellows of laughter, Barak roared 'Unfortunately, they either never passed that law in Drasnia or Silk can't read. Good on you, Belgarath. Someone should have done that to him a long while ago. But why did you have to involve Relg?'
The Eternal Man grimaced and crouched down by the unconscious merchant under the watchful gaze of the Grolim. 'Silk! Wake up, Silk! Prince Kheldar!' He grasped Silk's shoulders and shook him, heedless of the fact that his head kept cracking onto the cave floor. The Grolim shook his old head again and nodded to Barak.
The hulking red haired Cherek knelt down next to the old man and smiled sorrowfully. 'That isn't the way, Belgarath. Let me wake him up - I've done it often enough in the past. Silk makes a habit of sleeping too much, so I've had enough practice.' He rested one huge hand on Silk's shoulder, shaking him gently and speaking in a very soft voice.
'Wake up, Silk. Yarblek just told me there's problems with a Tolnedran spy who's infiltrated your business empire. Silk, Silk, you're losing money right now. Money, Silk. Money.'
The little spy twitched, rolled over and came round quickly. He sat bolt upright. 'Money? Who said money?'
The group of onlookers laughed, apart from Barak, who was soothing Silk quietly. 'Nobody did, Silk. You must have been dreaming or something. Why did you pass out? We've been in the caves almost a week, Relg's been travelling with us for two days, so what happened this time?'
Silk stumbled to his feet, the elegance and grace of his normal movements gone and relieved himself of his breakfast onto the rocky cave floor. He then threw a look of hatred at Belgarath that even a demon could not have bettered. 'He had a lot to do with it, didn't you, Belgarath? Just because you lost that little card game we had last night. Such a bad loser that you had to put Relg up to a trick like that. How could you?'
Belgarath swallowed hard and backed behind the Grolim, deciding that although Silk was looking ill he could still attack without warning.
Tabia smiled winsomely, her blond hair catching Silk's eye even in the midnight darkness of the caves. 'But what happened, Silk?'
'That idiot Relg was told by Belgarath to stand in that wall just there, then to put his hands round my neck as I walked past. And being Relg he obeyed. He knows I'm scared of the caves.' Silk scowled and advanced on Relg rather than Belgarath, who was now cowering most satisfactorily as Silk reached for a dagger.
Relg and all the other Ulgos were profoundly grateful that Tabia choose that moment to throw her arms around Silk's neck and kiss him on the forehead in a way that would distract most men and turned Prince Kheldar into putty. And due to Belgarath's timing in pulling his stunt, by the time Silk had recovered from the kiss, they were outside in the sunlight and the corrupt crown Prince of Drasnia was so relieved to see the sun he forgot, for the moment anyway, about murdering the sorcerer.
Anyway, he soon had something else to worry about. Belgarath was talking to Mith again. 'You're going to meet one of your sisters tomorrow, dear. And your mother.'
Silk hid his head in his hands.
A/N - Next chapter, they catch up with the rest of the group along with Mandorallean, Lelldorian and Sadi, amongst others. And find out more about the 'card game.' And meet more snakes.