Castle of Wizardry

UL's name again!"
    "Will you hit me if I do? It doesn't matter that much. People have been hitting me all my life. Go ahead, Relg. Why don't you hit me?" She lifted her smudged face to him.
    Relg's hand fell.
    Sensing her advantage, Taiba put her hands to the throat of the rough gray dress Polgara had given her. "I can stop you, Relg," she told him.
    She began unfastening the dress. "Watch me. You look at me all the time anyway - I've seen you with your hot eyes on me. You call me names and say that I'm wicked, but still you watch. Look then. Don't try to hide it." She continued to unfasten the front of the dress. "If you're free of sin, my body shouldn't bother you at all."
    Relg's eyes were bulging now.
    "My body doesn't bother me, but it bothers you very much, doesn't it? But is the wickedness in my mind or yours? I can sink you in sin any time I want to. All I have to do is this." And she pulled open the front of her dress.
    Relg spun about, making strangled noises.
    "Don't you want to look, Relg?" she mocked him as he fled.
    "You have a formidable weapon there, Taiba," Silk congratulated her.
    "It was the only weapon I had in the slave pens," she told him. "I learned to use it when I had to." She carefully rebuttoned her dress and turned back to Errand as if nothing had happened.
    "What's all the shouting?" Belgarath mumbled, rousing slightly, and they all turned quickly to him.
    "Relg and Taiba were having a little theological discussion," Silk replied lightly. "The finer points were very interesting. How are you?" But the old man had already drifted back into sleep.
    "At least he's starting to come around," Durnik noted.
    "It will be several days before he's fully recovered," Polgara told him, putting her hand to Belgarath's forehead. "He's still terribly weak."
    Garion slept for most of the day, wrapped in his blankets and lying on the stony ground. When the chill and a particularly uncomfortable rock under his hip finally woke him, it was late afternoon. Silk sat guard near the mouth of the ravine, staring out at the black sand and the grayish salt flats, but the rest were all asleep. As he walked quietly down to where the little man sat, Garion noticed that Aunt Pol slept with Errand in her arms, and he pushed away a momentary surge of jealousy. Taiba murmured something as he passed, but a quick glance told him that she was not awake. She was lying not far from Relg; in her sleep, her hand seemed to be reaching out toward the slumbering Ulgo.
    Silk's sharp little face was alert and he showed no signs of weariness. "Good morning," he murmured, "or whatever."
    "Don't you ever get tired?" Garion asked him, speaking quietly so that his voice would not disturb the others.
    "I slept a bit," Silk told him.
    Durnik came out from under the canvas roof to join them, yawning and rubbing at his eyes. "I'll relieve you now," he said to Silk. "Did you see anything?" He squinted out toward the lowering sun.
    Silk shrugged. "Some Murgos. They were a couple of miles off to the south. I don't think anyone's found our trail yet. We might have to make it a little more obvious for them."
    Garion felt a peculiar, oppressive sort of weight on the back of his neck. He glanced around uncomfortably. Then, with no warning, there was a sudden sharp stab that seemed to go straight into his mind. He gasped and tensed his will, pushing the attack away.
    "What's wrong?" Silk asked sharply.
    "A Grolim," Garion snarled, clenching his will as he prepared to fight.
    "Garion!" It was Aunt Pol, and her voice sounded urgent. He turned and darted back in under the canvas with Silk and Durnik on his heels. She had risen to her feet and was standing with her arms protectively about Errand.
    "That was a Grolim, wasn't it?" Garion demanded, his voice sounding a bit shrill.
    "It was more than one," she replied tensely. "The Hierarchs control the Grolims now that Ctuchik's dead. They've joined their wills to try to kill Errand."
    The others, awakened by her sharp cry, were stumbling to their feet and reaching for weapons.
    "Why are they after the boy?" Silk asked.
    "They know that he's the only one who can touch the Orb. They think that if he dies, we won't be able to get it out of Cthol Murgos."
    "What do we do?" Garion asked her, looking around helplessly.
    "I'm going to have to concentrate on protecting the child," she told him. "Step back, Garion."
    "What?"
    "Get back away from me." She bent and drew a circle in the sand, enclosing herself and the