King of The Murgos

can come back here, and we'll provide you with a ship."
    "Just how extensive is that forest out there?" Belgarath asked him.
    "It's quite large, Ancient One."
    "Good. Malloreans aren't comfortable in forests. Once we get back into the trees, it shouldn't be much of a problem to slip around them."
    "You will need to avoid the hermit who dwells in the forest, however."
    "The hermit?"
    "A poor deranged fellow. He's not really an evil person, but he's mischievous and he likes to play tricks on travelers."
    "We'll keep that in mind," Belgarath said. "Garion, go wake the others. Let's get ready to leave."
    By the time everything was ready for their departure, the sun had risen over the low range of hills to the east. Sadi looked out the door at the bright sunlight streaming over the village and sparkling on the waves in the harbor. "Where's the fog when you need it?" he asked of no one in particular.
    Belgarath looked around. "We've got about four hours until the Malloreans get here," he told them. "Let's use that time to put some distance between us and this place." He turned to Yard. "Thank you," he said simply, "for everything."
    "May all of the Gods be with you," the silvery-haired man replied. "Now go—quickly."
    They rode out of the village and up across the meadow to the edge of the dark forest.
    "Any particular direction, old friend?" Silk asked Belgarath.
    "I don't think it matters all that much," the old man replied. "Probably about all we're going to need is a thicket to hide in. Malloreans get nervous when they can't see for a mile or so in every direction, so they aren't very likely to search these woods too extensively."
    "I'll see what I can find," the little man offered. He turned his horse toward the northeast, but suddenly reined in sharply as two figures stepped out from among the trees. One was robed and cowled, and the other was a large, watchful man.
    "I greet thee, Ancient Belgarath," the hooded figure said in the clear voice of a woman. She lifted her face, and Garion saw that her eyes were bound with a dark strip of cloth. "I am Onatel," she continued, "and I am here to point out a safe path to thee."
    "We're grateful for your aid, Onatel."
    "Thy path lies southward, Belgarath. Some small way into this wood thou wilt discover an ancient track, much overgrown. It will lead thee to a place of concealment."
    "And have you seen what is to come, Onatel?" Polgara asked. "Will the soldiers search this wood?"
    "Thou and thy companions are the ones they seek, Polgara, and they will search in all parts of the island, but they will not find thee and thy friends—unless it come to pass that someone doth point thee out to them. Beware of the hermit who doth dwell in this wood, however. He will seek to test thee." She turned then with one hand outstretched. The large man standing in the shadows took that groping hand and gently led her back into the forest.
    "How convenient," Velvet murmured. "Perhaps a little too convenient."
    "She wouldn't lie, Liselle," Polgara said.
    "But she's not obliged to tell the whole truth, is she?"
    "You've got a very suspicious nature," Silk told her.
    "Let's just say that I'm cautious. When a perfect stranger goes out of her way to help me, it always makes me a little nervous."
    "Let's go ahead and find this path of hers," Belgarath said. "If we decide later on to change direction, we can do it some place private."
    They pushed into the shadows beneath the spreading evergreens. The forest floor was damp and thickly covered with fallen needles from the limbs overhead. The sun streamed down in long, slanting shafts of golden light, and the shadows had that faint bluish tinge of morning. The thick loam muffled the sound of their passage, and they rode in a kind of hushed silence.
    The track to which the seeress had directed them lay perhaps a mile back in the wood. It was deeply indented in the forest floor, as if at some time in the long-distant past it" had been much traveled. Now, however, it lay unused, and weeds and grass had reclaimed it.
    As the sun mounted in the sky, the blue cast to the shadows beneath the trees faded, and a myriad of tiny insects swirled and darted in the shafts of sunlight. Then, quite suddenly, Belgarath reined in his horse. "Listen!" he said sharply.
    From far behind them, Garion heard a series of sharp yelps.
    "Dogs?" Sadi asked, looking nervously back over his shoulder. "Did they bring dogs to sniff out our trail?"
    "Those aren't dogs," Belgarath