Guardians of the West

-or Cthrag Sardius, maybe?"
    Silk frowned, tapping the rim of his goblet thoughtfully against his lower lip. "It's got a familiar ring to it, but I can't quite put my finger on where I heard it."
    "If you happen to remember, I'd appreciate your telling me anything you can find out about it."
    "Is it important?"
    "I think it might be. Grandfather and Beldin have been trying to track it down."
    "I've got some contacts in Mal Zeth and Melcene," Silk noted. "When I get back, I'll see what I can find out."
    "You're going back soon, then?"
    Silk nodded. "I'd have stayed there, but a little crisis came up in Yar Nadrak. King Drosta started to get greedy. We've been paying him some very healthy bribes to persuade him to look the other way about some of our activities in his kingdom. He got the notion that we were making a great deal of money and he was toying with the idea of expropriating our holdings in Gar og Nadrak. I had to come back and talk him out of that notion."
    "How did you manage that? I've always had the impression that Drosta does pretty much what he wants in Gar og Nadrak."
    "I threatened him," Silk said. "I pointed out that I'm closely related to the King of Drasnia and hinted that I was on very good terms with Kal Zakath. The prospect of an invasion from either the East or the West didn't appeal to him, so he dropped the idea."
    "Are you on good terms with 'Zakath?"
    "I've never met him -but Drosta doesn't know that."
    "You lied? Isn't that dangerous?"
    Silk laughed. "Lots of things are dangerous, Garion. We've both been in tight spots before. Rak Cthol wasn't the safest place in the world, if you'll recall, and Cthol Mishrak made me definitely edgy."
    Garion toyed with his goblet. "You know something, Silk?" he said. "I sort of miss all that."
    " All what?"
    "I don't know -the danger, the excitement. Things have settled down pretty much for me. About the only excitement I get these days is in trying to maneuver my way around the Tolnedran ambassador. Sometimes I wish- " He left it hanging there.
    "You can come to Mallorea with me, if you'd like," Silk offered. "I could find interesting work for a man of your talents."
    "I don't think Ce'Nedra would be too pleased if I left just now."
    "That's one of the reasons I never married," Silk told him. "I don't have to worry about things like that."
    "Are you going to stop in Boktor on your way back?"
    "Briefly, maybe. I visited the people I needed to see on my way here from Yar Nadrak. Porenn's doing very well with Kheva. He's probably going to be a good king when he grows up. And I stopped by to see Javelin, of course. It's more or less expected. He likes to get our impressions of foreign countries -even when we're not acting in any official capacity."
    "Javelin's very good, isn't he?"
    "He's the best."
    "I always thought you were."
    "Not by a long way, Garion." Silk smiled. "I'm too erratic -brilliant, maybe, but erratic. I get sidetracked too easily. When Javelin goes after something, he doesn't let anything distract him until he gets it. Right now, he's trying to get to the bottom of this Bear-cult thing."
    "Is he having any luck?"
    "Not yet. He's been trying for several years to get somebody into the inner councils of the cult, but he hasn't been able to manage it. I told him that he ought to send in Hunter, but he told me that Hunter's busy with something else and to mind my own business."
    "Hunter? Who's Hunter?"
    "I have no idea," Silk admitted. "It's not really a who, you see. It's a name that's applied to the most secret of our spies, and it changes from time to time. Only Javelin knows who Hunter is and he won't tell anybody -not even Porenn. Javelin himself was Hunter for a time -about fifteen years ago. It's not always necessarily a Drasnian, though -or even a man. It can be anybody in the world. It might even be somebody we know -Barak, maybe, or Relg- or maybe somebody in Nyissa."
    "Mandorallen, perhaps?" Garion suggested, smiling.
    Silk considered that. "No, Garion," he concluded. "I don't think Mandorallen has the right equipment. It can surprise you though. On several occasions, Hunter has even been a Murgo."
    "A Murgo? How could you possibly trust a Murgo?"
    "I didn't say we always have to trust Hunter."
    Garion shook his head helplessly. "I'll never understand spies and spying."
    "It's a game," Silk told him. " After you've played for a while, the game itself gets to be more important than which side you're on. Our reasons for doing things