King of The Murgos

to the foot of a stone stairway that had been chipped from the rock wall of the cave. Their guide spoke briefly to Belgarath.
    "We'll have to leave the horses here," the old man said.
    "I can stay with them," Durnik offered.
    "No. The Ulgos will tend to them. Let's go up." And he started up the steep flight of stairs.
    They climbed in silence, the sound of their footsteps echoing back hollowly from the far side of the cavern.
    "Please don't lean out over the edge like that, Errand," Polgara said when they were about halfway up.
    "I just wanted to see how far down it goes," he replied. "Did you know that there's water down there?"
    "That's one of the reasons I'd rather you stayed away from the edge."
    He flashed her a sudden smile and went on up.
    At the top of the stairs, they skirted the edge of the dim subterranean abyss for several hundred yards, then entered one of the galleries where the Ulgos lived and worked in small cubicles carved from the rock. Beyond that gallery lay the Gorim's half-lit cavern with its lake and its island and the peculiarly pyramid-shaped house surrounded by solemn white pillars. At the far end of the marble causeway which crossed the lake, the Gorim of Ulgo, dressed as always in his white robe, stood peering across the water. "Belgarath?" he called in a quavering voice, "is that you?"
    "Yes, it's me, Holy One," the old man replied. "You might have guessed that I'd turn up again."
    "Welcome, old friend."
    Belgarath started toward the causeway, but Ce'Nedra darted past him with her coppery curls flying and ran toward the Gorim with her arms outstretched.
    "Ce'Nedra?" he said, blinking as she threw her arms about his neck.
    "Oh, Holy Gorim," she sobbed, burying her face in his shoulder, "someone's taken my baby."
    "They've done what?" he exclaimed.
    Garion had started almost involuntarily to cross the causeway to Ce'Nedra's side, but Polgara put her hand on his arm to stop him. "Not just yet, dear," she murmured.
    "But—"
    "This may be what she needs, Garion."
    "But, Aunt Pol, she's crying."
    "Yes, dear. That's what I've been waiting for. We have to let her grief run its course before she can begin to come out of it."
    The Gorim held the sobbing little queen in his arms, murmuring to her in a soft, comforting tone. After the first storm of her weeping had subsided, he raised his lined old face. "When did all this happen?" he asked.
    "Late last summer," Belgarath told him. "It's a fairly involved story."
    "Come inside then, all of you," the Gorim said. "My servants will prepare food and drink for you, and we can talk while you eat."
    They filed into the pyramid-shaped house standing on the Gorim's island and entered the large central room with its stone benches and table, its glowing crystal lamps hanging on chains from the ceiling, and its peculiar, inward-sloping walls. The Gorim spoke briefly with one of his silent servants, then turned with his arm still about Ce'Nedra's shoulders. "Sit, my friends," he said to them.
    As they sat at the stone table, one of the Gorim's servants entered, carrying a tray of polished crystal goblets and a couple of flagons of the fiery Ulgo drink.
    "Now," the saintly old man said, "what has happened?"
    Belgarath filled himself one of the goblets and then quickly sketched in the events of the past several months, telling the Gorim of the murder of Brand, of the attempt to sow dissension in the Alorn ranks and of the campaign against the cult stronghold at Jarviksholm.
    "And then," he went on as the Gorim's servants brought in trays of raw fruits and vegetables and a smoking roast hot from the spit, "right about at the same time we captured Jarviksholm, someone crept into the nursery in the Citadel at Riva and took Prince Geran out of his cradle. When we got back to the Isle, we discovered that the Orb will follow the baby's trail—as long as it stays on dry land, anyway. It led us to the west side of the island, and we encountered some Cherek Bear-cultists the abductor had left behind. When we questioned them, they told us that the new cult leader, Ulfgar, had ordered the abduction."
    "But what they told you was not true?" the Gorim asked shrewdly.
    "Not by half," Silk replied.
    "Of course the problem there was that they didn't know they were lying," Belgarath continued. "They'd been very carefully prepared, and the story we got from them sounded quite plausible—particularly in view of the fact that we were already at war with the cult. Anyway, we mounted