King of The Murgos

reinforcements to the city by sea. Otherwise, your king may have to hold off the Malloreans all by himself."
    "What about Prala?" Ce'Nedra asked.
    Belgarath scratched his ear. "There's no real point in taking her along," he said. "I'm sure that if she stays here, Tamazin and Oskatat can keep her from blurting out any secrets."
    "No, my Lord Belgarath," the slender Cthan Princess said firmly. "I will not stay behind. If his Majesty is going to Rak Cthaka, then so am I. I will not give you my word to remain silent. You have no choice but to take me along— or to kill me."
    "What's this?" Urgit asked, puzzled.
    Silk, however, had already guessed. "If you want to start running right now, Urgit, I'll try to hold her until you get a good head start."
    "What are you talking about, Kheldar?"
    "If you're very, very lucky, my brother, Kal Zakath won't get you, but I'm afraid that your chances of escaping this young lady are far more slender. Take my advice and start running right now."

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
    A heavy bank of gray cloud had moved in off the Great Western Sea, and a stiff offshore breeze tugged at their garments as they mounted their horses in the courtyard of the Drojim.
    "You know what to do, Oskatat?" Urgit asked his seneschal.
    The big Murgo nodded. "The ships carrying the reinforcements will depart within two days, your Majesty. You have my word on that."
    "Good. I'd rather not fight this battle all by myself. Try not to use any more of those warrants than you absolutely have to."
    "Trust me." Oskatat's face creased into a bleak smile.
    Urgit's quick answering grin was wolfish. "And look after my mother," he added.
    "I've done that for many years—without her even being aware of it."
    Gravely the Murgo King leaned down from his saddle and shook hands with his friend. Then he straightened resolutely. "All right," he said to the officer in charge of the guard detachment, "let's go."
    They clattered out of the courtyard, and Silk drew in beside his brother. "What was that business about warrants?" he asked curiously.
    Urgit laughed. "The generals might want to refuse to obey Oskatat's orders," he explained, "so I signed warrants for the execution of every one of them and left them with him to use as he sees fit.

    "Clever."
    "I should have thought of it years ago." Urgit looked up at the racing clouds overhead, with his robe flapping in the rising wind. "I'm not a very good sailor, Kheldar," he admitted with a shudder. "I tend to throw up a lot in rough weather."
    Silk laughed. "Then just remember always to stand at the leeward rail."
    The murky sky seemed somehow to Garion to be suited to the bleakness of Rak Urga. A city so devoid of any kind of beauty seemed unnatural when the sky was clear and the sun was shining. Now, however, it squatted under the roiling clouds like some torpid stone toad. The black-robed Murgos in the narrow streets stood aside for their king. Some of them bowed; others stood stony-faced and unbending as the party passed.
    They rode through a square and then on down the stone-paved street that led to the Temple. "Captain," Urgit called to the officer in the lead, "have one of your men stop by and tell the Hierarch that we're leaving. He has someone in the Temple that he wants to send along with us."
    "As your Majesty commands," the officer replied.
    The cobbled street they were following rounded a corner, and they were able to see the harbor. It lay in a sheltered bay behind the headland standing at the narrow mouth of the Gulf of Urga and was dotted with black-painted Murgo ships. The familiar smell of the meeting of sea and land, a mixture of brine, seaweed, and dead fish, rose to meet Garion's nostrils, and his blood began to race at the prospect of once again going to sea.
    The black ship moored at the side of the stone quay onto which they rode was larger than most of the other vessels in the harbor. It was a squat, broad-beamed scow with slanting masts and tarred planking. Silk eyed it distrustfully. "Do you really call that thing a ship?" he asked his brother. "I warned you about Murgo boats." There was a brief disagreement about the horses when they reached the ship. "Totally out of the question, your Majesty," the ship captain, a huge, evil-looking man, declared adamantly. "I don't carry livestock on board my ship." He stood towering over his king with a self-important expression slightly tinged with contempt on his face. Urgit's expression became one of distress. "I'd say that