Demon Lord of Karanda

distress. He rose, went to the doorway, and pulled the knife out of the wizard's chest. He wiped it carefully and returned it to her. "Why don't you go back and stay with Ce'Nedra?" he suggested. "We can clean up here."
    "Thank you, Kheldar," she said, turned her horse, and rode out of the clearing.
    "She's only a girl," Silk said to Garion in a defensive tone. "She is good, though," he added with a certain pride.
    "Yes," Garion agreed. "Very good." He looked around at the twisted shapes lying in heaps in the clearing."Why don't we drag all these bodies over behind the temple?" he suggested. "This place is bad enough without all of this."
    There was another scream from the temple.
    Noon came and went unnoticed as Garion and the others endured the cries of the laboring woman. By midafternoon, the screams had grown much weaker, and as the sun was just going down, there came one dreadful last shriek that seemed to dwindle off into silence. No other sound came from inside, and after several minutes, Polgara came out. Her face was pale, and her hands and clothing were drenched with blood.
    "Well, Pol?" Belgarath asked her.
    "She died."
    "And the demon?"
    "Stillborn. Neither one of them survived the birth." She looked down at her clothing. "Durnik, please bring me a blanket and water to wash in."
    "Of course, Pol." With her husband shielding her by holding up the blanket, Polgara deliberately removed all of her clothing, throwing each article through the temple doorway. Then she drew the blanket about her. "Now burn it," she said to them. "Burn it to the ground."

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
    They crossed the border into Jenno about noon the following day, still following the trail of Zandramas.
    The experiences of the previous afternoon and evening had left them all subdued, and they rode on in silence.
    A league or so past the rather indeterminate border, they pulled off to the side of the road to eat. The spring sunlight was very bright and the day pleasantly warm. Garion walked a little ways away from the others and reflectively watched a cloud of yellow-striped bees industriously working at a patch of wild flowers.
    "Garion," Ce'Nedra said in a small voice, coming up behind him.
    "Yes, Ce'Nedra?" He put his arm around her.
    "What really happened back there?"
    "You saw about as much of it as I did."
    "That's not what I mean. What happened inside the temple? Did that poor woman and her baby really just die -or did Polgara kill them?"
    "Ce'Nedra!"
    "I have to know, Garion. She was so grim about it before she went inside that place. She was going to kill the baby. Then she came out and told us that the mother and baby had both died in the birth. Wasn't that very convenient?"
    He drew in a deep breath. "Ce'Nedra, think back.You've known Aunt Pol for a long time now. Has she ever told you a lie -ever?"
    "Well -sometimes she hasn't told me the whole truth. She's told me part of it and kept the rest a secret."
    "That's not the same as lying, Ce'Nedra, and you know it."
    "Well-"
    "You're angry because she said we might have to kill that thing."
    "Baby," she corrected firmly.
    He took her by the shoulders and looked directly into her face. "No, Ce'Nedra. It was a thing -half human, half demon, and all monster."
    "But it was so little -so helpless."
    "How do you know that?"
    "All babies are little when they're born."
    "I don't think that one was. I saw the woman for just a minute before Aunt Pol told me to leave the temple. Do you remember how big you were just before Geran was born? Well, that woman's stomach was at least five times as big as yours was -and she wasn't a great deal taller than you are."
    "You aren't serious!"
    "Oh, yes, I am. There was no way that the demon could have been born without killing its mother. For all I know, it might just simply have clawed its way out."
    "It's own mother?" she gasped.
    "Did you think it would love its mother? Demons don't know how to love, Ce'Nedra. That's why they're demons. Fortunately the demon died. It's too bad that the woman had to die, too, but it was much too late to do anything for her by the time we got there."
    "You're a cold, hard person, Garion."
    "Oh, Ce'Nedra, you know better than that. What happened back there was unpleasant, certainly, but none of us had any choice but to do exactly what we did."
    She turned her back on him and started to stalk away.
    "Ce'Nedra," he said, hurrying to catch her.
    "What?" She tried to free her arm from his grasp.
    "We didn't have any choice,"