King of The Murgos

snake-people."
    "Formerly Chief Eunuch, I'm afraid," Sadi corrected. He bowed deeply. "I'm honored to meet the Queen Mother of the Kingdom of the Murgos."
    "Oh," Urgit said, mounting the dais and sprawling on the throne with one leg cocked up over one of its jeweled arms, "I keep forgetting the amenities. Sadi, this is my royal mother, the Lady Tamazin, jewel of the House of Hagga and grieving widow of my royal father, Taur Urgas the Deranged—may blessings rain down on the hand that sent him to the bosom of Torak."
    "Can't you ever be serious about anything, Urgit?" his mother chided him.
    "But you do grieve, don't you mother? I know that in your heart you miss all those wonderful moments you spent with my father—watching him gnaw on the furniture, listening to his insane gibbering, and enjoying all those playful blows to the stomach and kicks to the head with which he demonstrated his affection for his wives."
    "That will do, Urgit," she said firmly.
    "Yes, mother."
    "Welcome to the Drojim, Sadi," Lady Tamazin greeted the eunuch formally. She looked inquiringly at the others.
    "My servants, Lady Tamazin," Sadi said quickly. "Alorns for the most part."
    "A most unusual turn of circumstances," she murmured. "The age-old war between Murgo and Alorn has denied me the opportunity to meet very many of that race." She looked directly then at Aunt Pol. "Surely this lady is no servant," she said sceptically.
    "A temporary arrangement, my Lady Tamazin," Polgara replied with a profoundly graceful curtsy. "I needed some time in another place to avoid some unpleasantness at home."
    The Queen Mother smiled. "I do understand," she said. "Men play at politics, and women must pay the price for their folly." She turned back to her son. "And how did your interview with the Hierarch go?" she asked him.
    "Not bad." He shrugged. "I groveled enough to keep him happy."
    "That's enough, Urgit." Her voice was sharp. "Agachak's in a position to do you a great service, so show him the proper respect."
    Urgit flinched slightly at her tone. "Yes, mother," he replied meekly. "Oh, I almost forgot," he went on. "The priestess Chabat had a bit of a setback."
    The Queen Mother's expression became one of disgust. "Her behavior is a public scandal," she declared. "I can't understand why Agachak tolerates her."
    "I think he finds her amusing, mother. Grolims have a peculiar sense of humor. Anyway, she had this friend—a very close friend—who had a bit of an accident. She'll need to find another playmate before she can scandalize the good people of Rak Urga any more."
    "Why do you persist in being so frivolous, Urgit?"
    "Why don't we just call it a symptom of my incipient madness?"
    "You're not going to go mad," she said firmly.
    "Of course I'm going to go mad, mother. I'm rather looking forward to it."
    "You're impossible to talk with when you're like this," she chided him. "Are you going to stay up much longer?"
    "I don't think so. Sadi and I have a few things to discuss, but they can wait until tomorrow,"
    The Queen Mother turned back to Polgara. "My quarters are most spacious, Lady," she said. "Would you and your attendants care to share them with me during your stay here in the Drojim?"
    "We would be honored, my Lady," Polgara said.
    "Very well, then," Urgit's mother said. "Prala," she called.
    The girl who stepped from the shadows behind the throne was slender and perhaps sixteen years old. She wore a black gown and had long, lustrous black hair. The dark, angular eyes that made most Murgo men look so alien were in her case very large and delicately almond-shaped, giving her features an exotic beauty. Her expression, however, was filled with a resolve uncommon in one so young. She stepped to Lady Tamazin's chair and helped her to her feet.
    Urgit's face darkened, and his eyes grew flinty as he watched his mother limp down from the dais, leaning heavily on the girl's shoulder. "A little gift from the inestimable Taur Urgas," he said to Sadi. "One evening when he was feeling playful, he knocked my mother down a flight of stairs and broke her hip. She's had that limp ever since."
    "I don't even notice it any more, Urgit."
    "It's amazing how all of our minor aches and pains got better right after King Cho-Hag's saber slid through my father's guts." Urgit paused. "I wonder if it's too late to send Cho-Hag some small token of appreciation," he added.
    "Oh," the Queen Mother said to Polgara, "this is Lady - Prala, a princess of the House of