Guardians of the West

you."
    In the corridor outside, Kail's two brothers, Verdan and Brin, met them. Verdan, the eldest of the three, was as burly as an ox, and Brin, the youngest, only slightly less so. Both men wore mail shirts and helmets and had heavy broadswords belted to their sides.
    "We think that the Orb may be trying to lead us to the prince," Kail explained tersely to them. "We might need you two when we find him." Brin flashed a broad, almost boyish grin. "We'll have the abductor's head on a pole before nightfall, then," he said.
    "Let's not be too hasty about removing heads," Belgarath told him. "I want the answers to some questions first."
    "One of you stays with Ce'Nedra at all times," Aunt Pol told Queen Layla, who had curiously trailed along behind them. "She'll probably wake up sometime this afternoon. Let Ariana sleep for now. Ce'Nedra might need her when she awakens."
    "Of course, Polgara," the plump queen of Sendaria replied.
    "And you," Aunt Pol said firmly to Errand, who was just coming down the hall. "I want you to stay in the royal apartment and do exactly what Layla tells you to do."
    "But-" he started to protest.
    "No buts, Errand. What we have to do might be dangerous, and that's something you haven't quite learned to understand yet."
    He sighed. "All right, Polgara," he said disconsolately.
    With the Orb on the pommel of the massive sword pulling him along, Garion followed the unseen track of his son's abductor out through one of the side gates with the rest of them close on his heels.
    "It seems to want to go toward the mountains," Garion said. "I thought the trail would lead down into the city."
    "Don't think, Garion," Polgara told him. "Just go where the Orb leads you."
    The trailed across the meadow rising steeply behind the Citadel and then into the forest of dark fir and spruce where Garion and Ce'Nedra had often strolled on their summer outings.
    "Are you sure it knows what it' s doing?" Garion asked as he pushed his way through a tangled patch of undergrowth. "There's no path here at all. I don't think anyone would have come this way."
    "It's following some kind of trail, Garion," Belgarath assured him. "Just keep up with it."
    They struggled through the thick underbrush for an hour or so. Once a covey of grouse exploded from under Garion's feet with a heart-stopping thunder of wings.
    "I'll have to remember this place," Brin said to Kail. "The hunting here might be very good."
    "We're hunting other game at the moment. Keep your mind on your work."
    When they reached the upper edge of the forest, Garion stared up at the steep, rock-strewn meadow rising above the timberline. "Is there a pass of any kind through these mountains?" he asked.
    "Off to the left of that big peak," Brin replied, pointing. "I use it when I go out to hunt wild stags, and the shepherds take their flocks through it to the pastures in the interior valleys."
    "Also the shepherdesses," Verdan added drily. "Sometimes the game my brother chases doesn't have horns."
    Brin threw a quick, nervous glance at Polgara, and a slow blush mounted his cheeks.
    "I've always been rather fond of shepherdesses," Belgarath noted blandly. "For the most part, they're gentle, understanding girls -and frequently lonely, aren't they, Brin?"
    "That will do, father," Aunt Pol said primly.
    It took the better part of the day to go over the pass and through the green meadows lying in the hidden valleys among the mountains beyond. The sun hovered just above the gleaming, almost molten-looking sea on the western side of the Isle when they crested a boulder-covered ridge and started down the long, rocky slope toward the cliffs and the frothy surf pounding endlessly against the western coast.
    "Could a ship have landed on this side?" Garion asked Kail as they went downhill.
    Kail was puffing noticeably from the strenuous trek across the island and he mopped his streaming face with his sleeve.
    "There are a few places where it's possible, Belgarion -if you know what you're doing. It's difficult and dangerous, but it is possible."
    Garion's heart sank. "Then he could very well have gotten away," he said.
    "I had ships out there, Belgarion," Kail said to him, pointing at the sea. "I sent them out as soon as we found out that the prince had been taken. About the only way someone could have gotten all the way across the island to this side in time to sail away before those ships got around here would be if he could fly."
    "We've got him, then," the irrepressible Brin