Demon Lord Of Karanda Read Free Page A

about the aristocracy of talent. Angarak officers don’t like the idea, but there’s not too much they can do about it—if they want to keep their heads.’
    Garion was not really that curious about the intricacies of Mallorean politics, so he let the matter drop, to return to the subject they had been discussing previously. ‘I’m not quite clear about what you were saying, Grandfather,’ he said, ‘about our going to Rak Hagga, I mean.’
    ‘Cyradis believes that she has a choice to make,’ the old man replied, ‘and there are certain conditions that have to be met before she can make it. I’ve got a suspicion that your meeting with Zakath might be one of those conditions.’
    ‘You don’t actually believe her, do you?’
    ‘I’ve seen stranger things happen and I always walk very softly around the Seers of Kell.’
    ‘I haven’t seen anything about a meeting of that kind in the Mrin Codex.’
    ‘Neither have I, but there are more things in the world than the Mrin Codex. You’ve got to keep in mind the fact that Cyradis is drawing on the prophecies of both sides, and if the prophecies are equal, they have equal truth. Not only that, Cyradis is probably drawing on some prophecies that only the Seers know about. Wherever this list of preconditions came from, though, I’m fairly certain that she won’t let us get to this “place which is no more” until every item’s been crossed off her list.’
    ‘Won’t let us?’ Silk said.
    ‘Don’t underestimate Cyradis, Silk,’ Belgarath cautioned. ‘She’s the receptacle of all the power the Dals possess. That means that she can probably do things that the rest of us couldn’t even begin to dream of. Let’s look at things from a practical point of view, though. When we started out, we were a half a year behind Zandramas and we were planning a very tedious and time-consuming trek across Cthol Murgos—but we kept getting interrupted.’
    ‘Tell me about it,’ Silk said sardonically.
    ‘Isn’t it curious that after all these interruptions, we’ve reached the eastern side of the continent ahead of schedule and cut Zandramas’ lead down to a few weeks?’
    Silk blinked, and then his eyes narrowed.
    ‘Gives you something to think about, doesn’t it?’ The old man pulled his cloak more tightly about him and looked around at the settling snow. ‘Let’s go inside,’ he suggested. ‘It’s really unpleasant out here.’
    The coast of Hagga was backed by low hills, filmy-looking and white in the thick snowfall. There were extensive salt marshes at the water’s edge, and the brown reeds bent under their burden of wet, clinging snow. A black-looking wooden pier extended out across the marshes to deeper water, and they disembarked from the Mallorean ship without incident. At the landward end of the pier a wagon track ran up into the hills, its twin ruts buried in snow.
    Sadi the eunuch looked upward with a slightly bemused expression as they rode off the pier and onto the road. He lightly brushed one long-fingered hand across his shaved scalp. ‘They feel like fairy wings,’ he smiled.
    ‘What’s that?’ Silk asked him.
    ‘The snowflakes. I’ve almost never seen snow before—only when I was visiting a northern kingdom—and I actually believe that this is the first time I’ve ever been out of doors when it was snowing. It’s not too bad, is it?’
    Silk gave him a sour look. ‘The first chance I get, I’ll buy you a sled,’ he said.
    Sadi looked puzzled. ‘Excuse me, Kheldar, but what’s a sled?’ he asked.
    Silk sighed. ‘Never mind, Sadi. I was only trying to be funny.’
    At the top of the first hill a dozen or so crosses leaned at various angles beside the road. Hanging from each cross was a skeleton with a few tattered rags clinging to its bleached bones and a clump of snow crowning its vacant-eyed skull.
    ‘One is curious to know the reason for that, General Atesca,’ Sadi said mildly, pointing at the grim display at the