Things continued to progress slowly over the following days. The Twins and
I hadn't found anything useful in the records we had of Western sorcerers,
and Durnik had had no luck with the Mallorean records either. We'd looked
through all the records of each kingdom of the West (and guess where, to my
surprise, most of the spontaneous sorcerers we had encountered came from.
It seems more Tolnedrans stumbled onto the secret of the Will and the Word
than Arends and Alorns put together, with Sendars a fairly close second. It
seems that for all their lack of belief in anything the least bit
'supernatural', Tolnedrans are more likely to get annoyed and tell
something to do what they want it to than those of other races. Arends and
Alorns will take out their anger on the object in question physically,
while the Nyissans and Ulgos are just uninterested. In fact, I don't think
I've ever met a Nyissan or Ulgo sorcerer. The closest people I've come
across are the Salmissras, the Gorims and the Ulgo zealots who have odd
abilities. But anyway, I should really get back to the point) and we hadn't
found anybody who could possibly have caused the disturbance. In
desperation, I sent the Twins to help Durnik with the Mallorean records
while I would go and see Urgit and Drosta to get whatever records the
Murgos and Nadraks had of their sorcerers, although I didn't hold out much
hope of finding anything. Any independent Angarak sorcerers were probably
either killed or co-opted by the Grolims, and any that escaped detection
are unlikely to be easily found. I wasn't going to bother with the Thulls
as they've never kept records and their king would probably drop dead at
the sight of me or as soon as he heard I was looking for him. While my
reputation amongst Angaraks has been useful at times, it's never yet helped
me get information out of a Thull. Actually, though, I might be being a bit
harsh on young Gethel. Since his experiences in Mallorea and his
acquaintance with Barak, Hettar, and company he's actually become quite
brave, for a Thull. He's probably going to be one of the best kings the
Thull's have ever had. It was really the lack of records that kept me from
planning a visit, and Mishrak Ac Thull has never been one of my favourite
places. I was just about to go wolf and head for Yar Nadrak when I saw
something that astonished me. Those of you who've been to the Vale will
know that while there are many types of bird living there more or less in
harmony (which is due mostly, I think, to Pol's influence), there are no
ravens. There hasn't been a raven in the Vale for thousands of years since
Beldin chased the last one off. Ravens hold painful memories for us.
Because of this I was shocked when I saw a raven circle overhead then land
gracefully next to the ruins of Belzedar's tower. I soon saw that it was a
huge raven. I had only ever seen one raven that size before. It was the
favoured form of my apostate brother. Even before the raven had changed
shape I was running towards it with murder in my eyes. I reached the raven
just as it blurred into a human shape. I ground my teeth together and
growled in a dangerous tone of voice "Zedar."
Several things went through my mind when I saw Zedar. First of all, I was in shock. Not only had he got out of his rocky prison, but he looked in much better health than he had for the last few centuries too. Varying emotions warred for supremacy. For a second I wasn't sure whether I'd obey my overwhelming rage at the sight and obliterate Zedar in some awful way, or whether my eternal curiosity would win out and I'd talk to him in a semi- civilised way. In the end, curiosity narrowly won. "How did you get out of the rock, Zedar?" I asked him coldly.
"Rock? Belgarath, what in Aldur's name are you on about?" was the response I got.
Zedar's mention of the Master was almost enough to tip me over the edge. I doubt he knows how fragile his life was at that point. Somehow I remained calm and managed to reply in a very cold manner.
"You know very well what I'm on about, Zedar. How did you escape from the prison I stuffed you into back at Cthol Mishrak?"
"Cthol Mishrak? Prison? Are you losing it Belgarath? I haven't got the slightest clue what you're on about. I just got here from Mallorea and you're treating me like your worst enemy. What is the problem here?"
Zedar appeared honestly confused. If I didn't know better, I might actually have believed him. Instead my anger was rapidly increasing and my tone of voice growing even icier.
"I'm perfectly aware you were in Mallorea. I trapped you in rock there Zedar. Do not pretend you don't know what I'm on about. How did you escape from Cthol Mishrak?"
"Belgarath, what is this about? I've never been to Cthol Mishrak. That's the last place I would want to go. And why do you keep calling me Zedar? You know Aldur added the Bel to all of our names. In the name of our Master, tell me what's going on and what the hell happened to my tower!"
Zedar appeared to be almost as annoyed with me as I was with him, unbelievable as that seemed. He wasn't overacting either. All of this was beginning to make me wonder if Zedar had lost his memory. This didn't calm me when I heard him call Aldur "our Master". I would have killed Zedar there and then if it wasn't for something that astonished me even more than the appearance of Zedar. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a large bird flying into view and I realised it was a Melcene eagle owl, a bird that had never been native to anywhere other than the Melcene islands, just before I heard an amused urbane voice that I hadn't heard since before Polgara was born.
"Your tower, old boy? What about my tower? At least there's some left of yours, dear Belzedar. Mine has been completely flattened. So has poor Belsambar's. And Belgarath, I'm forced to agree with Belzedar. What are you talking about, dear chap?"
I nearly fainted. It was impossible. The owner of that voice was dead and had been for thousands of years. But the owl suggested it was him. That always was his favourite form. How could he possibly be here?
"Belmakor?!" I exclaimed in shock. "How can you be here?"
"Belgarath, why wouldn't I be here? Or Belzedar? We've just got here from Mallorea because we felt Belsambar die. We met up over the Sea of the East and travelled the rest of the way together. I need to talk to Beldin, though. Over Eastern Aloria something odd happened. We got blown into some sort of hole in the air, knocked unconscious on the way through and when we came to there were Angaraks in place instead, and there is a big city, although maze is probably a better description, in the plains not far from the Vale. I want Beldin to help me figure out what happened."
I don't know if I could have been more shocked. Here, apparently, were about the two people I least expected to see ever again. About the only thing that would have astonished me more would have been Torak rising from the grave and turning up on my doorstep to apologize for stealing the Orb. If anyone had as much as tapped me at that point I would almost certainly have collapsed. Somehow, I managed to keep the shock out of my voice when I responded to Belmakor. "Belmakor, if that is who you really are, you should not be here. It is not possible for you or Zedar to be here. You've been dead for over three thousand years. Zedar here soon afterwards revealed that he was working for Torak. He became Torak's third disciple when he went to Mallorea with Beldin." I noticed Zedar flinch a little when I said that. Good. Making him feel uncomfortable was something I felt not the slightest bit of remorse about.
The eagle owl shifted to the Belmakor I remembered, immaculately groomed and dressed. That was one of the things that always irritated me about him. He could walk through a huge storm and he would still seem to have not a hair out of place and his clothes would be spotless. "Are you all right, Belgarath? You seem slightly hysterical, old boy. I think I would know if I was dead, don't you? Dieing is the last thing I would do."
If this isn't Belmakor, I thought, whoever he is is a great actor. That restrained sense of humour is exactly like Belmakor. I don't think there's anyone who could pretend that well, even if Zedar spent a hundred years training them.
"Belgarath? Say something. You're beginning to worry me."
"Sorry, Belmakor," I apologised. "I was somewhere else for a moment. I don't have a clue what's happened. About the only thing I can come up with is that somehow you've travelled through time. Beldin mentioned once that the two of you discussed something about time and decided not to mess with it."
"Yes, I suppose that's as likely as anything. I'll accept that as a working hypothesis, at least until we come up with a better one. I suppose you'd better fill me in on what's been going on since Belsambar died."
"I remember when Belsambar died, and you and Belzedar turned up pretty much like you just did. That was thousands of years ago. A lot has changed since then. I got married, you died, I went to Mallorea with a bunch of Alorns and stole back the Orb, ." I gave Belmakor (and Zedar) a brief history of the world since the death of Belsambar. To give him a fuller picture, I gave him a copy of my and Polgara's books after I'd finished. Zedar's eyes glazed over in shock when I got to the very recent past. "Zedar stole the Orb with the aid of a child. I went and picked up Polgara, Garion, Durnik, Silk and Barak and we headed off on our destined quest, picking up allies on the way. To cut a long story short, Garion learnt how to use the Will and the Word, we took back the Orb, crowned Garion king, went to Cthol Mishrak, fought Zedar and Torak, killed Torak and shut Zedar up in an eternal stone prison, brought Durnik back from the dead and went home. A few years later we went off and installed Eriond as the new God of the Angaraks."
"Torak's dead and the Orb has been recovered?" Zedar asked.
I took great pleasure in responding. "Why yes. Sorry to tell you your life has become meaningless, old boy. You should have stayed on our side Zedar."
I think the look in his eyes when I finished telling the story was the moment my revenge upon him was complete. While I doubt I'll ever forgive Zedar, I was now willing to give this Zedar a chance, at least provisionally.
"Much as I appreciate this reminiscing, I think it would be better if we got to work on figuring out what the hell happened." Belmakor cut in. "Belezedar and I appear to be a few thousand years out of our time. I can't really understand how that could be. I especially can't understand how Belzedar can be here. From what you've said, there isn't anything left of me in this time, but Belzedar is entombed in the rock of Cthol Mishrak. That should create a paradox, and there should be no way that would have been allowed to happen, especially since the Purpose of the universe is now back to being on just one path rather than two. I sincerely hope that our arrival here hasn't broken things again. I'd quite like to get a few thousand years of peace in."
Belmakor's musings set me to thinking. Could the arrival of my two brothers have caused another Accident? Or perhaps it was the result of another Accident? To a certain extent, I hoped that was the case, as otherwise we were dealing with two very clever hoaxers, one of which could very easily be my apostate brother, both of whom were very probably heavily involved with the incident. I knew that I needed to go to Riva so that I could talk to Garion and (hopefully) his friend. However, I knew I also needed some help with these two in case they did prove to be the ones responsible for the disorientation we all felt. I sent my thought out to Beldin's tower calling on my newest brother for help. Durnik, I need you. Now!
It wasn't long before my son-in-law came running up to me to see what the problem was. "What is it, Belgarath?" he asked. Half an instant later he recognised one of my companions (though only barely. As I said, he looked in much better health than he did the last time Durnik saw him) and reacted forcefully, picking Zedar up by the front of his shirt and holding him there at arms length. I've seen some amazing feats of strength over the years, but I think that was the most impressive. "What is he doing here, Belgarath?" he asked me.
"To be honest, Durnik, I haven't got a clue. He just showed up here a few minutes ago along with another of our brothers. Durnik, this is Belmakor." I told him as I gestured at the Melcene. "Belmakor, this is the newest disciple of the Master and my son-in-law Durnik."
"Delighted to make your acquaintance, old boy, although I doubt Belzedar feels the same right now. It is most impressive how you've grabbed him."
I think Belmakor was amused at the situation Zedar found himself in. To be quite honest about it, none of the rest of us were overly fond of Belzedar. Something about him set our teeth on edge and after the cracking of the world he became much more distant. We all (except for Beltira, Belkira and Belsambar most of the time) enjoyed taking him down a peg or two and did so every chance we got. This reaction made me more convinced that this was the real Belmakor.
"Belgarath, I don't want to worry you, but isn't Belmakor dead?" Durnik asked.
"And that worries you, Durnik?" I responded amused. "As I recall you were dead too once." Then to put him out of his misery I said "It seems as if these two have somehow travelled about three and a half thousand years into the future." At the same time as this I told him "at least, I think that's who they are. We need to keep an eye on them, though" in the Drasnian secret language which Pol had insisted he learn. She was right all those years ago. It was a most useful skill to learn.
"I see," he responded to both my messages. "So why did you call me down here?"
"The twins are more than capable of searching through the records you were looking at. They've been doing that sort of thing for thousands of years now. We need to go to Riva and talk to Garion. I think you would be more useful with me." I conveyed the rest of the reason I wanted him with me in the secret language. "Also, I need another person to help keep an eye on them. If they try something I'd rather have somebody with me and you are the closest choice."
"All right, Belgarath. So how are we going to get there?"
"I think speed is vital. We're going to have to fly to Riva. I think falcon is the form we need to use."
"Even if we go falcon, it will take a few days to reach Riva."
"I know, Durnik, but I don't see much option. Oh, and could you put Zedar down? I think he and Belmakor should go with us."
Durnik dropped Zedar in a heap. When Zedar had salvaged what little dignity he could from the situation, the four of us headed off to the Isle of the Winds as falcons. After a couple of hours, Durnik sent his thought to me. Belgarath, I just realized that we forgot to tell Pol what we were doing. She'll worry and be very angry with us.
Don't worry, Durnik, I told him. I took care of it.
You did? That's good news.
Oh, yes. I left her a note.
Several things went through my mind when I saw Zedar. First of all, I was in shock. Not only had he got out of his rocky prison, but he looked in much better health than he had for the last few centuries too. Varying emotions warred for supremacy. For a second I wasn't sure whether I'd obey my overwhelming rage at the sight and obliterate Zedar in some awful way, or whether my eternal curiosity would win out and I'd talk to him in a semi- civilised way. In the end, curiosity narrowly won. "How did you get out of the rock, Zedar?" I asked him coldly.
"Rock? Belgarath, what in Aldur's name are you on about?" was the response I got.
Zedar's mention of the Master was almost enough to tip me over the edge. I doubt he knows how fragile his life was at that point. Somehow I remained calm and managed to reply in a very cold manner.
"You know very well what I'm on about, Zedar. How did you escape from the prison I stuffed you into back at Cthol Mishrak?"
"Cthol Mishrak? Prison? Are you losing it Belgarath? I haven't got the slightest clue what you're on about. I just got here from Mallorea and you're treating me like your worst enemy. What is the problem here?"
Zedar appeared honestly confused. If I didn't know better, I might actually have believed him. Instead my anger was rapidly increasing and my tone of voice growing even icier.
"I'm perfectly aware you were in Mallorea. I trapped you in rock there Zedar. Do not pretend you don't know what I'm on about. How did you escape from Cthol Mishrak?"
"Belgarath, what is this about? I've never been to Cthol Mishrak. That's the last place I would want to go. And why do you keep calling me Zedar? You know Aldur added the Bel to all of our names. In the name of our Master, tell me what's going on and what the hell happened to my tower!"
Zedar appeared to be almost as annoyed with me as I was with him, unbelievable as that seemed. He wasn't overacting either. All of this was beginning to make me wonder if Zedar had lost his memory. This didn't calm me when I heard him call Aldur "our Master". I would have killed Zedar there and then if it wasn't for something that astonished me even more than the appearance of Zedar. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a large bird flying into view and I realised it was a Melcene eagle owl, a bird that had never been native to anywhere other than the Melcene islands, just before I heard an amused urbane voice that I hadn't heard since before Polgara was born.
"Your tower, old boy? What about my tower? At least there's some left of yours, dear Belzedar. Mine has been completely flattened. So has poor Belsambar's. And Belgarath, I'm forced to agree with Belzedar. What are you talking about, dear chap?"
I nearly fainted. It was impossible. The owner of that voice was dead and had been for thousands of years. But the owl suggested it was him. That always was his favourite form. How could he possibly be here?
"Belmakor?!" I exclaimed in shock. "How can you be here?"
"Belgarath, why wouldn't I be here? Or Belzedar? We've just got here from Mallorea because we felt Belsambar die. We met up over the Sea of the East and travelled the rest of the way together. I need to talk to Beldin, though. Over Eastern Aloria something odd happened. We got blown into some sort of hole in the air, knocked unconscious on the way through and when we came to there were Angaraks in place instead, and there is a big city, although maze is probably a better description, in the plains not far from the Vale. I want Beldin to help me figure out what happened."
I don't know if I could have been more shocked. Here, apparently, were about the two people I least expected to see ever again. About the only thing that would have astonished me more would have been Torak rising from the grave and turning up on my doorstep to apologize for stealing the Orb. If anyone had as much as tapped me at that point I would almost certainly have collapsed. Somehow, I managed to keep the shock out of my voice when I responded to Belmakor. "Belmakor, if that is who you really are, you should not be here. It is not possible for you or Zedar to be here. You've been dead for over three thousand years. Zedar here soon afterwards revealed that he was working for Torak. He became Torak's third disciple when he went to Mallorea with Beldin." I noticed Zedar flinch a little when I said that. Good. Making him feel uncomfortable was something I felt not the slightest bit of remorse about.
The eagle owl shifted to the Belmakor I remembered, immaculately groomed and dressed. That was one of the things that always irritated me about him. He could walk through a huge storm and he would still seem to have not a hair out of place and his clothes would be spotless. "Are you all right, Belgarath? You seem slightly hysterical, old boy. I think I would know if I was dead, don't you? Dieing is the last thing I would do."
If this isn't Belmakor, I thought, whoever he is is a great actor. That restrained sense of humour is exactly like Belmakor. I don't think there's anyone who could pretend that well, even if Zedar spent a hundred years training them.
"Belgarath? Say something. You're beginning to worry me."
"Sorry, Belmakor," I apologised. "I was somewhere else for a moment. I don't have a clue what's happened. About the only thing I can come up with is that somehow you've travelled through time. Beldin mentioned once that the two of you discussed something about time and decided not to mess with it."
"Yes, I suppose that's as likely as anything. I'll accept that as a working hypothesis, at least until we come up with a better one. I suppose you'd better fill me in on what's been going on since Belsambar died."
"I remember when Belsambar died, and you and Belzedar turned up pretty much like you just did. That was thousands of years ago. A lot has changed since then. I got married, you died, I went to Mallorea with a bunch of Alorns and stole back the Orb, ." I gave Belmakor (and Zedar) a brief history of the world since the death of Belsambar. To give him a fuller picture, I gave him a copy of my and Polgara's books after I'd finished. Zedar's eyes glazed over in shock when I got to the very recent past. "Zedar stole the Orb with the aid of a child. I went and picked up Polgara, Garion, Durnik, Silk and Barak and we headed off on our destined quest, picking up allies on the way. To cut a long story short, Garion learnt how to use the Will and the Word, we took back the Orb, crowned Garion king, went to Cthol Mishrak, fought Zedar and Torak, killed Torak and shut Zedar up in an eternal stone prison, brought Durnik back from the dead and went home. A few years later we went off and installed Eriond as the new God of the Angaraks."
"Torak's dead and the Orb has been recovered?" Zedar asked.
I took great pleasure in responding. "Why yes. Sorry to tell you your life has become meaningless, old boy. You should have stayed on our side Zedar."
I think the look in his eyes when I finished telling the story was the moment my revenge upon him was complete. While I doubt I'll ever forgive Zedar, I was now willing to give this Zedar a chance, at least provisionally.
"Much as I appreciate this reminiscing, I think it would be better if we got to work on figuring out what the hell happened." Belmakor cut in. "Belezedar and I appear to be a few thousand years out of our time. I can't really understand how that could be. I especially can't understand how Belzedar can be here. From what you've said, there isn't anything left of me in this time, but Belzedar is entombed in the rock of Cthol Mishrak. That should create a paradox, and there should be no way that would have been allowed to happen, especially since the Purpose of the universe is now back to being on just one path rather than two. I sincerely hope that our arrival here hasn't broken things again. I'd quite like to get a few thousand years of peace in."
Belmakor's musings set me to thinking. Could the arrival of my two brothers have caused another Accident? Or perhaps it was the result of another Accident? To a certain extent, I hoped that was the case, as otherwise we were dealing with two very clever hoaxers, one of which could very easily be my apostate brother, both of whom were very probably heavily involved with the incident. I knew that I needed to go to Riva so that I could talk to Garion and (hopefully) his friend. However, I knew I also needed some help with these two in case they did prove to be the ones responsible for the disorientation we all felt. I sent my thought out to Beldin's tower calling on my newest brother for help. Durnik, I need you. Now!
It wasn't long before my son-in-law came running up to me to see what the problem was. "What is it, Belgarath?" he asked. Half an instant later he recognised one of my companions (though only barely. As I said, he looked in much better health than he did the last time Durnik saw him) and reacted forcefully, picking Zedar up by the front of his shirt and holding him there at arms length. I've seen some amazing feats of strength over the years, but I think that was the most impressive. "What is he doing here, Belgarath?" he asked me.
"To be honest, Durnik, I haven't got a clue. He just showed up here a few minutes ago along with another of our brothers. Durnik, this is Belmakor." I told him as I gestured at the Melcene. "Belmakor, this is the newest disciple of the Master and my son-in-law Durnik."
"Delighted to make your acquaintance, old boy, although I doubt Belzedar feels the same right now. It is most impressive how you've grabbed him."
I think Belmakor was amused at the situation Zedar found himself in. To be quite honest about it, none of the rest of us were overly fond of Belzedar. Something about him set our teeth on edge and after the cracking of the world he became much more distant. We all (except for Beltira, Belkira and Belsambar most of the time) enjoyed taking him down a peg or two and did so every chance we got. This reaction made me more convinced that this was the real Belmakor.
"Belgarath, I don't want to worry you, but isn't Belmakor dead?" Durnik asked.
"And that worries you, Durnik?" I responded amused. "As I recall you were dead too once." Then to put him out of his misery I said "It seems as if these two have somehow travelled about three and a half thousand years into the future." At the same time as this I told him "at least, I think that's who they are. We need to keep an eye on them, though" in the Drasnian secret language which Pol had insisted he learn. She was right all those years ago. It was a most useful skill to learn.
"I see," he responded to both my messages. "So why did you call me down here?"
"The twins are more than capable of searching through the records you were looking at. They've been doing that sort of thing for thousands of years now. We need to go to Riva and talk to Garion. I think you would be more useful with me." I conveyed the rest of the reason I wanted him with me in the secret language. "Also, I need another person to help keep an eye on them. If they try something I'd rather have somebody with me and you are the closest choice."
"All right, Belgarath. So how are we going to get there?"
"I think speed is vital. We're going to have to fly to Riva. I think falcon is the form we need to use."
"Even if we go falcon, it will take a few days to reach Riva."
"I know, Durnik, but I don't see much option. Oh, and could you put Zedar down? I think he and Belmakor should go with us."
Durnik dropped Zedar in a heap. When Zedar had salvaged what little dignity he could from the situation, the four of us headed off to the Isle of the Winds as falcons. After a couple of hours, Durnik sent his thought to me. Belgarath, I just realized that we forgot to tell Pol what we were doing. She'll worry and be very angry with us.
Don't worry, Durnik, I told him. I took care of it.
You did? That's good news.
Oh, yes. I left her a note.