Castle of Wizardry

even looking. Instead, she peered intently at his face. "You aren't getting enough rest," she accused him.
    "How can I rest with all that going on?" He waved at the window again.
    "You're just going to agitate yourself, father, and that's bad for you. Try to keep your composure."
    "We have to be in Riva by Erastide, Pol."
    "Yes, father, I know. Have you been taking your tonic?"
    "There's just no talking with her." The old man appealed directly to Garion. "You can see that, can't you?"
    "You don't really expect me to answer a question like that, do you, Grandfather? Not right here in front of her?"
    Belgarath scowled at him. "Turncoat," he muttered spitefully.
    The old man's concern, however, was unfounded. Four days before Erastide, Captain Greldik's familiar ship sailed into the harbor out of a seething sleet storm. Her masts and bulwarks were coated with ice, and her main sail was ripped down the center.
    When the bearded sailor arrived at the palace, he was escorted to the room where Belgarath waited with Captain - now Colonel - Brendig; the sober baronet who had arrested them all in Camaar so many months before. Brendig's rise had been very rapid, and he was now, along with the Earl of Seline, among King Fulrach's most trusted advisors.
    "Anheg sent me," Greldik reported laconically to Belgarath. "He's waiting at Riva with Rhodar and Brand. They were wondering what was keeping you."
    "I can't find any ship captain willing to venture out of the harbor during this storm," Belgarath replied angrily.
    "Well, I'm here now," Greldik told him. "I've got to patch my sail, but that won't take too long. We can leave in the morning. Is there anything to drink around here?"
    "How's the weather out there?" Belgarath asked.
    "A little choppy," Greldik admitted with an indifferent shrug. He glanced through a window at the twelve-foot waves crashing green and foamy against the icy stone wharves in the harbor below. "Once you get out past the breakwater it isn't too bad."
    "We'll leave in the morning then," Belgarath decided. "You'll have twenty or so passengers. Have you got room?"
    "We'll make room," Greldik said. "I hope you're not planning to take horses this time. It took me a week to get my bilges clean after the last trip."
    "Just one," Belgarath replied. "A colt that seems to have become attached to Garion. He won't make that much mess. Do you need anything?"
    "I could still use that drink," Greldik replied hopefully.
    The following morning the queen of Sendaria went into hysterics. When she learned that she was going to accompany the party to Riva, Queen Layla went all to pieces. King Fulrach's plump little wife had an absolute horror of sea travel - even in the calmest weather. She could not so much as look at a ship without trembling. When Polgara informed her that she had to go with them to Riva, Queen Layla promptly collapsed.
    "Everything will be all right, Layla," Polgara kept repeating over and over again, trying to calm the agitated little queen. "I won't let anything happen to you."
    "We'll all drown like rats," Queen Layla wailed in stark terror. "Like rats! Oh, my poor orphaned children."
    "Now stop that at once!" Polgara told her.
    "The sea monsters will eat us all up," the queen added morbidly, "crunching all our bones with their horrid teeth."
    "There aren't any monsters in the Sea of the Winds, Layla," Polgara said patiently. "We have to go. We must be in Riva on Erastide."
    "Couldn't you tell them that I'm sick - that I'm dying?" Queen Layla pleaded. "If it would help, I will die. Honestly, Polgara, I'll die right here and now on this very spot. Only, please, don't make me get on that awful ship. Please."
    "You're being silly, Layla," Polgara chided her firmly. "You have no choice in the matter - none of us do. You and Fulrach and Seline and Brendig all have to go to Riva with the rest of us. That decision was made long before any of you were born. Now stop all this foolishness and start packing."
    "I can't!" the queen sobbed, flinging herself into a chair.
    Polgara looked at the panic-stricken queen with a kind of understanding sympathy, but when she spoke there was no trace of it in her voice. "Get up, Layla," she commanded briskly. "Get on your feet and pack your clothes. You are going to Riva. You'll go even if I have to drag you down to the ship and tie you to the mast until we get there."
    "You wouldn't!" Queen Layla gasped, shocked out of her hysteria as instantly as if she had just been doused