The double ceremony seemed to go on for hours. I’m fairly sure that Geran felt it did, at any rate. The Algar priest invoked the blessing of Belar at some length, and the Sendarian priest responded by invoking the blessing of each of the other six Gods in turn. I tried not to show any visible signs of amusement when he got to Torak. I was almost positive that even if he’d been awake, Torak wouldn’t have responded, since this particular wedding and its ultimate outcome was most definitely not the sort of thing to fill the One-eyed God with rejoicing and good will. The Sendars are broadly ecumenical, however, so they habitually include all seven Gods in their religious observances.

At any rate, the ceremony was finally completed, and the bride and groom exchanged a chaste kiss. Then came the wedding banquet, which Pol herself had prepared, and there were many toasts to the bride and groom, and along about sunset, the happy couple was escorted to the front door of the house Geran had built for them by everyone still sober enough to walk.

Then, as a soft and luminous evening settled over Annath, the fights got under way.

All in all, it was a fairly successful wedding.

I spent the night in Darral’s house, and the next morning, Pol woke me up just as the sun was rising. ‘What was all the shouting and noise last night?’ she asked me.

‘The wedding guests were celebrating.’

‘Really? It didn’t sound exactly like a celebration to me.’

‘Weddings are emotional events, Pol, and all sorts of emotions were floating around last evening.’

‘It sounded like a general brawl, father.’

‘No wedding’s complete without a few fights. They make the occasion memorable.’

‘Were there many fatalities?’

‘None that I know of. That windy priest of Belar won’t be giving any long sermons for a while, though - at least not until his broken jaw heals.’

‘No cloud’s without its silver lining, I suppose. What are your plans?’

‘I think I’ll go back to the Vale. This wedding’s been a kind of EVENT, and it might have shaken a few more things out of the Mrin. Besides, I’d better get away from Annath. Chamdar’s in Tolnedra right now, but I’m sure he’s got Grolims out scouting around, and I don’t want to attract attention to this place.’

‘Wise decision. Give my best to the twins.’

‘I’ll do that.’

And so I got up and dressed. I ate a rather hasty breakfast, and rambled down to the other end of the single street of the village of Annath to pay my respects to the bride and groom. Geran had that somewhat startled look on his face that new husbands always seem to have, and Ildera spent a lot of time blushing, as new wives almost always do. I took that to be a good sign.

Then I left Annath and went on back to the Vale.

I didn’t really do much when I got home. Something very important was about to happen, and my anticipation made it a little hard for me to concentrate. Despite their best efforts, the twins had been unable to dig anything else significant out of the Mrin. Garion’s friend, like the rest of us, seemed to be just biding his time.

Sometimes it seems that I’ve spent most of my life biding my time.

It was just after Erastide the following winter when Beldin came home. I don’t really like to travel in the winter time myself, but Beldin has always ignored the seasons - one of the results of his peculiar childhood, I’d imagine. Just to pass the time, I’d been rereading an ancient Melcene epic that recounted the probably mythic adventures of one of their national heroes, the half-wit who’d blundered out to sea in a small boat and had discovered the Melcene Islands off the east coast of Mallorea.

‘Belgarath!’ my distorted brother bellowed up to me from down below, ‘open your stupid door!’

I went to the head of the stairs. ‘Open!’ I told the flat boulder that kept most of the weather out of the vestibule of my tower. It rolled smoothly off to one side, and Beldin came in. ‘Why do you keep that silly thing closed?’ he demanded, stamping the snow off his feet.

‘Habit, I suppose,’ I replied. ‘Come on up.’

He clumped up the stairs. ‘Aren’t you ever going to clean this place?’ he asked, looking around at clutter I’ve grown so accustomed to that I didn’t even notice it any more.

‘I’ll get to it - one of these days. What finally persuaded you to come down off the top of that ridge in southern Cthol Murgos?’

‘An earthquake, actually. Did something significant happen last spring?’

‘Oh, Geran and Ildera got married.’

‘If the twins are right, that’s probably the most significant thing to happen since Vo Mimbre. That explains the earthquake, I guess.’

‘Did it wake up Torak?’

‘Not as far as I could tell. He didn’t blow out the side of his cave, anyway. How was the wedding?’

‘Not bad. The ceremony itself was tedious, but the fights afterward were fairly exciting.’

‘Sorry I missed it, then,’ he said with that short, ugly laugh of his. ‘Is Ildera pregnant yet?’

‘Not that I’ve heard.’

‘What’s taking them so long?’

‘The Necessity, I’d imagine. The birth of the Godslayer’s going to be one of those EVENTS, and time’s rather crucial in those. Ildera won’t get pregnant until the Necessity decides that it’s the proper moment. Has Zedar ever come back to that cave?’

‘Not yet. He’s probably still wandering around. Have the twins found out what he’s looking for?’

‘No. At least they haven’t said so to me.’

‘Are you sure that Geran’s going to be the father of the one we’ve been waiting for?’

‘The twins seem to think so. It’s going to happen in this century, anyway.’

‘Well, it’s about time!’

‘Patience was never one of your strong points, brother mine. What took you so long to get here from Cthol Murgos?’

‘I went out and had a look around. There’s trouble in Mallorea.’

‘Oh?’

‘Zakath’s been crowned emperor, and that terrified Taur Urgas for some reason, so he decided to take steps.’

‘Why’s Taur Urgas so afraid of Zakath?’

‘Taur Urgas is crazy, Belgarath, and crazy people don’t need reasons for the things they do - or for the way they feel. Zakath’s a very ambitious young man, though, and Taur Urgas has agents in Mallorea keeping an eye on him. Mallorea’s a big place, but the notion of being “Overking of all of Angarak” seems to appeal to Zakath for some reason, and word of that’s been filtering back to Rak Goska. I guess it’s making Taur Urgas very nervous. Mallorea’s at least twice the size of Cthol Murgos, and it’s got about five times as many people. If Zakath decides that he wants to rule the Angarak world, there wouldn’t be very much Taur Urgas could do to prevent it.’

‘If we’re lucky, we might see a repetition of what happened in the desert of Araga just before Vo Mimbre.’

‘I wouldn’t get my hopes up, Belgarath. Torak’s going to wake up before too much longer, and Old Burnt-face is at least as crazy as Taur Urgas is, but he does have a long memory. He’s not going to permit Taur Urgas and Zakath to repeat what Ctuchik and Urvon did to disrupt his plans last time.’

‘You said that Taur Urgas was taking steps. What did he do?’

‘I think I told you that Zakath went to Melcena to study at the university. He was very impressed with Melcene. When you get right down to it, Mal Zeth’s not much more than an army camp, but Melcena’s very civilized and sophisticated. Zakath was the Crown Prince of Mallorea, so he was customarily invited into the best homes in town. He was introduced to a high-ranking Melcene girl of his own age, and she absolutely took his breath away.’ He sighed. ‘If that’d been allowed to run its course, it probably would have changed the course of history. The girl was beautiful and brilliant. Her influence on Zakath would have been enormous.’

‘What happened?’

‘I was just getting to that. It was at that point that Taur Urgas stepped in. His agents reported the connection between Zakath and the Melcene girl, and they also reported that the girl was a member of a high-ranking family that was in debt up to its eyebrows. Taur Urgas is crazy, but he’s not stupid. He saw the possibilities of the situation immediately. He sent orders to his people in Melcene to quietly buy up those debts. Once he owned their obligations, he was in a position to put quite a bit of pressure on the girl’s family.’

‘What did he hope to gain from that?’

‘Zakath came to the throne when he was eighteen or so, and it was fairly common knowledge in Melcena that there was a marriage proposal in the wind. Taur Urgas is a Murgo, so he’s abysmally ignorant of the nature of the Melcenes. Murgo women are kept penned up and ignorant, so they do what their families tell them to do. Obedience is beaten into them from the cradle. A Murgo girl would cut her own throat if her father told her to. Melcene girls are more spirited, but Taur Urgas didn’t know that. He just assumed that the girl would do whatever her family ordered her to do. He sent word to his people in Melcene to give the girl’s family some very specific instructions and to threaten to call in their debts if they didn’t obey. The family had been scrambling round trying to raise enough money to pay off those debts, but they needed more time, so they seemed to go along with the plot.’