Castle of Wizardry

behind their hands and waiting for me to go back to being the way I was before." A note of steel crept into her voice. "Well, it's not going to happen," she declared, "so they can laugh all they want to."
    "I'm glad to hear that, Merel," Aunt Pol replied.
    "Oh, Polgara," Merel said with a helpless little laugh, "he looks so much like a great shaggy bear, but he's so gentle inside. Why couldn't I have seen that before? All those years wasted."
    "You had to grow up, Merel," Aunt Pol told her. "It takes some people longer, that's all."
    After Lady Merel had left, Garion came back in and looked quizzically at Aunt Pol. "Has it always been like that?" he asked her. "What I mean is - do people always come to you when they've got problems?"
    "It happens now and then," she replied. "People seem to think that I'm very wise. Usually they already know what they have to do, so I listen to them and agree with them and give them a bit of harmless support. It makes them happy. I set aside a certain amount of time each morning for these visits. They know that I'm here if they feel the need for someone to talk to. Would you care for some tea?"
    He shook his head. "Isn't it an awful burden - all these other people's problems, I mean?"
    "It's not really that heavy, Garion," she answered. "Their problems are usually rather small and domestic. It's rather pleasant to deal with things that aren't quite so earthshaking. Besides, I don't mind visitors whatever their reason for coming."
    The next visitor, however, was Queen Islena, and her problem was more serious. Garion withdrew again when the maid announced that the Queen of Cherek wished to speak privately with the Lady Polgara; but, as before, his curiosity compelled him to listen at the door of the adjoining chamber.
    "I've tried everything I can think of, Polgara," Islena declared, "but Grodeg won't let me go."
    "The High Priest of Belar?"
    "He knows everything, naturally," Islena confirmed. "All his underlings reported my every indiscretion to him. He threatens to tell Anheg if I try to sever my connection with the Bear-cult. How could I have been so stupid? He's got his hand around my throat."
    "Just how indiscreet have you been, Islena?" Aunt Pol asked the queen pointedly.
    "I went to some of their rituals," Islena confessed. "I put a few cult members in positions in the palace. I passed some information along to Grodeg."
    "Which rituals, Islena?"
    "Not those, Polgara," Islena replied in a shocked voice. "I'd never stoop to that."
    "So all you really did was attend a few harmless gatherings where people dress up in bearskins and let a few cultists into the palace where there were probably a dozen or more already anyway - and pass on a bit of harmless palace gossip? - It was harmless, wasn't it?"
    "I didn't pass on any state secrets, Polgara, if that's what you mean," the queen said stiffly.
    "Then Grodeg doesn't really have any hold over you, Islena."
    "What should I do, Polgara?" the queen asked in an anguished voice.
    "Go to Anheg. Tell him everything."
    "I can't."
    "You must. Otherwise Grodeg will force you into something worse. Actually, the situation could be turned to Anheg's advantage. Tell me exactly how much you know about what the cult is doing?"
    "They've begun creating chapters among the peasants, for one thing."
    "They've never done that before," Aunt Pol mused. "The cult's always been restricted to the nobility and the priesthood."
    "I can't be sure," Islena told her, "but I think they're preparing for something major - some kind of confrontation."
    "I'll mention it to my father," Aunt Pol replied. "I think he'll want to take steps. As long as the cult was the plaything of the priesthood and the minor nobility, it wasn't really all that important, but rousing the peasantry is quite another thing."
    "I've heard a few other things as well," Islena continued. "I think they're trying to penetrate Rhodar's intelligence service. If they can get a few people in the right places in Boktor, they'll have access to most of the state secrets in the West."
    "I see." Aunt Pol's voice was as cold as ice.
    "I heard Grodeg talking once," Islena said in a tone of distaste. "It was before he found out that I didn't want anything more to do with him. He'd been reading the auguries and the signs in the heavens, and he was talking about the return of the Rivan King. The cult takes the term 'Overlord of the West' quite seriously. I honestly believe that their ultimate goal is to elevate