**Gees, some people have no patience.**

There were two other girls in the sitting room. They looked very much like Ce'Vanne, but more like each other, and were obviously twins.

These then, must be X'Arell and X'Adara, Ce'Nedra's third and fourth daughters.

Belstad remembered the last time he had seen them, he'd only been six years old and the twins had been little more than babies. That meant now they would be. eleven. Yes. Just eleven.

They both stood, staring at the company who marched into the room purposefully, with Ce'Vanne skipping along beside Belgera. The young Drasnian closed the door.

"What's going on in there?" called a woman's voice softly from the other room. "Ce'Nedra's asleep." The door opened, and the Drasnian ducked behind Geran.

"Liselle!" said Polgara. "Finally someone with a bit of sense."

Geran, apparently, was too worried to stand up to this remark.

"Polgara?" said the blonde woman who had emerged. She ran forward and embraced Belstad's mother. "Oh. you're all here!" she said. "Thank the Gods!"

"Thank Polgara, actually," said Durnik proudly. "It was her idea."

"What?" said Liselle, surprised. "But. Kheldar went to fetch you. didn't he reach you?"

Everyone turned to look at Geran. "That's your 'normal messenger', is it?" asked Belgarath with a growl.

"Best one we've got at the moment," Geran retorted. "He was a little miffed to have to work when he's meant to be on holiday."

"I'm not surprised," Belgarath muttered.

"But he's worried about father too," Geran finished.

"Everyone is," said Liselle. Her eyes narrowed. "Don't think I can't see you there, young man."

With a sigh, the Drasnian lad who had followed them from the dock came out from behind Geran.

"What are you doing here?" Liselle demanded, as people's eyes flicked from one to the other.

"Nothing," the young man said innocently.

Liselle threw her arms up in the air in a manner so familiar that Belstad snorted, and got glared at by his mother.

"You aren't supposed to leave the rooms!"

"I'm not supposed to, but I do anyway," retorted the Drasnian lad, perhaps a little louder than he'd meant to. "I don't care how many people are out to kill me, mother, I'm not staying locked up like a prisoner."

"Dhelbir, I don't care what you want, it's for your own protection!" screamed Liselle at her son.

"What's going on?" said a sleepy voice from the door from which Liselle had emerged. A red head which was more bushy than curly after her nap, poked around the corner of the door.

"Aunt Pol?"

"Hello, Ce'Nedra," said Polgara, her shoulders relaxing as she saw her nephew's wife.

"Your Majesty," said Dhelbir, and bowed low, before turning. "Mother," he said coldly, and left, the door swinging behind him.

"And don't move!" Liselle called after him.

There was no answer.

After a moment's indecision, she said "Just a moment," and went after him.

"Aunt Pol!" Ce'Nedra cried, threw herself into Polgara's waiting arms, and burst into tears.

"Hush," said Polgara. "Hysterics never helped anyone. Close the door, Belstad."

He obeyed.

One of the twins came forward. "Mummy," she said. "Please don't cry. It scares me."

Polgara let go of Ce'Nedra, who turned to her daughter. "Oh my darling," she sobbed. "I'm so sorry."

X'Arell and X'Adara ran forward into her arms, where they too began to cry.

Belgarath sighed. "I suppose we'd better get comfortable," he said. "This could take a while."

Poledra gave him a withering look. "How are you, dear?" she asked Ce'Vanne, who was watching her mother and younger sisters worriedly.

"I'm fine," she said in a shaky voice. "I'm glad you're here."

"So that was Dhelbir, was it?" Belgarath asked her.

"Yes," she said, surprised. "Didn't you know?"

Belgarath turned to Geran, who looked down at him in familiar looking innocence.

"Didn't you?" he asked.

"You look just like your father when you do that, did you know?" said Belgarath.

The Queen looked up.

"What is actually wrong with him, Ce'Nedra?" asked Polgara softly, helping her to a chair by the fire.

Tears were still rolling down Ce'Nedra's cheeks as she hugged herself around the shoulders.

"It's awful, Aunt Pol," she sobbed as the others also settled themselves in chairs and the twins sat on the carpet. "It's just. awful. Sometimes he doesn't even remember his own name, and he keeps screaming."

"What does he say?" Poledra asked.

"I don't understand," said Ce'Nedra.

Belstad understood why Geran was looking so serious and Ce'Vanne, X'Arell and X'Adara were looking so scared.

From the little he remembered of the little Queen, and what he had read in the copies of his mother's and Grandfather's books, Ce'Nedra was usually strong and straightforward.

To have her worried and frightened like this was as if the world was falling to pieces.

"Sometimes it's names," she went on. "My name, the children, Aunt Pol, Grandfather, Barak, even Silk sometimes. Other times."

"Yes?" asked Poledra.

"Shrieks," Ce'Vanne said, shivering. "Just. screams. Like he's in pain."

Liselle came back in. "That's sorted." She said. "Ce'Nedra. are you all right?"

The Queen nodded through her tears. Liselle went over and hugged her.

"But look at me," said Ce'Nedra. "Concerned only with my own troubles and not a word to the lovely children."

She straightened up, and went to Belgera, commenting on how much she had grown in the space of ten years.

Polgara's daughter smiled, and listened to her cousin by marriage patiently.

Belstad tried to fade into the shadows, but Ce'Nedra caught him. Before he too was embraced by the tiny young woman, he caught his mother's eye as she smiled.

This was more like the Ce'Nedra they knew.

"Ah," said Ce'Nedra, stepping back. "But you're not a child anymore, are you Belstad? A strapping young man now, just like my sulking one over there."

Geran, who had been leaning with one foot against the wall and his arms crossed, stood up quickly.

"Don't think I can't see you Geran," Ce'Nedra teased, trying to act normally. "I bet Belstad here doesn't even think of getting mucky shoe marks on the walls, do you?"

"He's made plenty of them in his time, Ce'Nedra," said Durnik. "Stop flirting with my son."

Ce'Nedra turned on him, much to Belstad's relief. "Oh, dear Durnik!" She hugged him, and then drew back. "I'm so sorry about this. It's the first time I've seen all of you in, what? Ten years? And the first thing I do is get your cloak wet, Aunt Pol."

"That's quite all right dear," said Polgara.

This, Belstad thought, showed more than anything else how worried his mother was. Normally, when someone cried, she'd say, "Careful, you'll dry yourself up," or "crying will not cause a flood, but it certainly doesn't do anyone any good" or something like that.

"As for you, Liselle." said Polgara.

The petite blonde sighed. "I know, I know."

"He's a fine son you've got there," said Durnik. "Why do you want to lock him up? Did he say something about."

"Yes," said Liselle. "He's been in the academy since months after you last saw him, when he was two. When the masters weren't watching him, Kheldar and I were. Kheldar even started teaching!"

"What?" exclaimed Belgarath.

"I know. I don't think at the time Dhelbir realised what we were doing, but he's a clever lad, just like his father, though I'm loathe to admit it."

Belgera giggled.

"He told us to leave him alone but we weren't having any. That was when he was about seven."

"Very smart," said Durnik.

"Yes. He got used to it in the end. He was proud, I know, of having a famous father and being related to the head of Drasnian Intelligence before Javelin stepped down. But Kheldar is one of the richest men in the world, and there are quite a few people out for that money. Kheldar would do anything for Dhelbir. I know he hasn't been attached to many things in his life but now he has a weak spot. Of course he does his best not to make it known - and I think Dhelbir understands that, too. But all along I think he suspected we'd stop trying to protect him once he left the academy."

"But you didn't?" said Poledra, shaking her head.

Sensing her disapproval, Liselle said. "We would have done. We both started getting restless - I missed my saddle and Kheldar isn't exactly comfortable being cooped up for long, especially in Drasnia - "

"You missed your saddle?" Belgarath enquired with a smile.

Liselle smiled back at him. "Hard as it is to believe, yes. I missed the adventure too, of course, and the thrill of the chase. So we started going away for periods of time, separately at first. I came here for a couple of weeks, usually, or to Sthiss Tor. Kheldar came to visit you, I know, or he went to Cthol Murgos to see Urgit."

Ce'Nedra sat down again and hugged her children to her, apparently knowing what came next.

"It happened when Kheldar and I finally decided to do a trip together. We hadn't been spending all that much time with each other lately and we decided it was time to renew our relationship a little."

Polgara nodded, approvingly.

"We did a sweeping circle, passing through Jarviksholm and getting a ship to the Isle of the Winds. Garion gave us a stunning welcome and we'd been here for a couple of weeks - I'd been catching up on Ce'Nedra's news and exchanging children horror stories."

"Thanks," said Geran and Ce'Vanne at the same time. Ce'Vanne made a face at her brother, who grinned back at her and rested his foot back against the wall.

"Kheldar and Garion had been catching up on each other's fighting techniques. Honestly, men do such strange things at reunions, I'll never - "

"Just get to the point, Liselle," said Belgarath, gruffly. Belstad felt his grandfather's worry, and thought he could guess what came next.