Demon Lord of Karanda

decisions."
    "What's to decide? You go after Zandramas and I go after Urvon. It's all pretty much cut and dried, isn't it?"
    "Not entirely. In any event, I'm not going to let you chase after Nahaz in the dark. You know as well as I do that the darkness multiplies his power -and I haven't got so many brothers left that I can afford to lose one just because he's irritated."
    Their eyes locked, and the ugly hunchback finally turned away. He stumped back toward the dais, pausing long enough to kick a chair to pieces on his way, muttering curses all the while.
    "Is everyone all right?" Silk asked, looking around as he re-sheathed his knife.
    "So it would seem," Polgara replied, pushing back the hood of her blue cloak.
    "It was a bit tight there for a while, wasn't it?" The little man's eyes were very bright.
    "Also unnecessary," she said, giving Garion a hard look. "You'd better take a quick look through the rest of the house, Kheldar. Let's make sure that it's really empty. Durnik, you and Toth go with him."
    Silk nodded and started back up the blood-splashed aisle, stepping over bodies as he went, with Durnik and Toth close behind him.
    "I don't understand," Ce'Nedra said, staring in bafflement at the gnarled Beldin, who was once again dressed in rags and had the usual twigs and bits of straw clinging to him. "How did you change places with Feldegast -and where is he?"
    A roguish smile crossed Beldin's face. "Ah, me little darlin'," he said to her in the juggler's lilting brogue, "I'm right here, don't y' know. An' if yer of a mind, I kin still charm ye with me wit an' me unearthly skill."
    "But I liked Feldegast," she almost wailed.
    "All ye have t' do is transfer yer affection t' me, darlin'."
    "It's not the same," she objected.
    Belgarath was looking steadily at the twisted sorcerer. "Have you got any idea of how much that particular dialect irritates me?" he said.
    "Why, yes, brother." Beldin grinned. "As a matter of fact I do. That's one of the reasons I selected it."
    "I don't entirely understand the need for so elaborate a disguise," Sadi said as he put away his small poisoned dagger.
    "Too many people know me by sight in this part of Mallore ," Beldin told him. "Urvon's had my description posted on every tree and fence post within a hundred leagues of Mal Yaska for the last two thousand years, and let's be honest about it, it wouldn't be too hard to recognize me from even the roughest description."
    "You are a unique sort of person, Uncle," Polgara said to him, smiling fondly.
    "Ah, yer too kind t' say it, me girl," he replied with an extravagant bow.
    "Will you stop that?" Belgarath said. Then he turned to Garion. "As I remember, you said that you were going to explain something later. All right -it's later."
    "I was tricked," Garion admitted glumly.
    "By whom?"
    "'Zandramas"
    "She's still here?" Ce'Nedra exclaimed.
    Garion shook his head. "No. She sent a projection here -a projection of herself and of Geran."
    "Couldn't you tell the difference between a projection and the real thing?" Belgarath demanded.
    "I wasn't in any condition to tell the difference when it happened."
    "I suppose you can explain that."
    Garion took a deep breath and sat down on one of the benches. He noticed that his bloodstained hands were shaking. "She's very clever," he said. "Ever since we left Mal Zeth, I've been having the same dream over and over again."
    "Dream?" Polgara asked sharply. "What kind of dream?'
    "Maybe dream isn't the right word," he replied, "but over and over again, I kept hearing the cry of a baby. At first I thought that I was remembering the cry of that sick child we saw in the streets back in Mal Zeth, but that wasn't it at all. When Silk and Beldin and I were in that room just above this one, we could see down into the throne room here and we saw Urvon come in with Nahaz right behind him. He's completely insane now. He think's he's a God. Anyway, he summoned Mengha -only Mengha turned out to be Harakan, and then-"
    "Wait a minute," Belgarath interrupted him. "Harakan is Mengha?"
    Garion glanced over at the limp form sprawled in front of the altar. Zith was still coiled atop the black stone, muttering and hissing to herself. "Well, he was," he said.
    "Urvon made the announcement before all this broke out," Beldin added. "We didn't have the time to fill you in."
    "That explains a great many things, doesn't it?" Belgarath mused. He looked at Velvet. "Did you know about this?" he asked her.
    "No, Ancient One," she