Guardians of the West

they found the city destroyed, they had to go someplace else. We could very well find them holed up in a fishing village somewhere on the west coast."
    "What do we do now, then?" Garion asked helplessly.
    "We split up," King Cho-Hag said quietly. "Anheg turns out all his forces, and they search every village and farm in Cherek. The rest of us go to Rheon and deal with those people there."
    "There's only one difficulty with that," Anheg said. "A baby is a baby. How do my men recognize Garion's son if they do run across him?"
    "That's no real problem, Anheg," Polgara told him from her chair by the fire where she sat sipping a cup of tea. "Show them your palm, Garion."
    Garion held up his right hand to show the King of Cherek the silvery mark there.
    "I'd almost forgotten that," Anheg grunted. "Does Prince Geran have the same mark?"
    "All heirs to the Rivan Throne have that mark on their palms," she replied. "It's been that way since the birth of Iron-grip's first son."
    "All right," Anheg said. "My men will know what to look for, but will the rest of you have enough men to take Rheon? With the Algar and Drasnian cultists there, Ulfgar's got quite an army."
    General Brendig rose and went over to a large map tacked up on one of the walls. "If I leave immediately for Sendar, I can put together a sizeable army in a few days. A forced march could put us in Darine within a week."
    "I'll have ships waiting there to ferry you and your men to Boktor, then," Anheg promised.
    "And I'll go south and raise the clans," Hettar said. "We'll ride straight north to Rheon."
    Garion was also peering at the map. "If Anheg's ships take me and my troops to Boktor, we can join with the Drasnian pikemen there and march toward Rheon from the west," he said. "Then the ships can go back to Darine and pick up Brendig."
    "That would save some time," Brendig agreed.
    "With the Rivans and Drasnians, you're going to have enough troops to encircle Rheon," Silk said. "You might not have enough men to take the city, but you will have enough to keep anybody from going in or out. Then all you have to do is sit and wait for Brendig and Hettar. Once they join you, you'll have an overwhelming force."
    "It's a sound plan, Garion," Barak said approvingly.
    Mandorallen stood up. "And when we arrive at this fortified city on the moors of eastern Drasnia, I will undertake with siege engines and diverse other means to weaken the walls so that we may more easily gain access when we make our final assault," he noted. "Rheon will fall, and we will bring this miscreant Ulfgar to swift and terrible justice."
    "Not too swift, I hope," Hettar murmured. "I was thinking along the lines of something more lingering."
    "We'll have time to think about that after we catch him," Barak said.
    The door opened, and Ce'Nedra, pale and wan-looking and accompanied by Queen Layla and the other ladies, entered. "Why are you all still here?" she demanded. "Why aren't you taking the world apart to find my baby?"
    "That's hardly fair, Ce'Nedra," Garion chided her gently.
    "I'm not trying to be fair. I want my baby."
    "So do I, but we're not going to accomplish much by dashing around in circles, are we?"
    "I'll raise an army myself, if I have to," she declared hotly. "I did it before and I can certainly do it again."
    "And just where would you take them, dear?" Polgara asked her.
    "Wherever it is that they've got my baby."
    "And where is that? If you know something that we don't, shouldn't you share it with us?"
    Ce'Nedra stared at her helplessly, her eyes filling with tears.
    Belgarath had not contributed anything to the discussions, but rather had sat brooding out at the storm from a deep-cushioned chair by the window. "I've got the feeling that I'm missing something," he muttered as Adara and Nerina led the distraught Ce'Nedra to a chair near the council table.
    "What did you say, Belgarath?" Anheg asked, removing his dented crown and tossing it on the table.
    "I said that I think I'm missing something," the old man replied. "Anheg, just how extensive is your library?"
    The Cherek King shrugged, scratching at his head. "I don't know that I could match the university library at Tol Honeth," he admitted, "but I've gathered most of the significant books in the world."
    "How does your collection stack up in the area of the mysteries?"
    "Of what?"
    "Prophecies -not so much the Mrin Codex or the Darine- but the others: the Gospels of the Seers at Kell, the Grolim Prophecies of Rak Cthol, the