Magician's Gambit

time where all this is going to be decided one way or another is getting very close, and you've got to be ready."
    "Why me?" Garion asked, brushing away a disconnected hand that appeared to be trying to clutch at his throat. "Can't somebody else do it?"
    "No," the voice told him. "That's not the way it works. The universe has been waiting for you for more millions of years than you could even imagine. You've been hurtling toward this event since before the beginning of time. It's yours alone. You're the only one who can do what needs to be done, and it's the most important thing that will ever happen - not just in this world but in all the worlds in all the universe. There are whole races of men on worlds so far away that the light from their suns will never reach this world, and they'll cease to exist if you fail. They'll never know you or thank you, but their entire existence depends on you. The other line of possibility leads to absolute chaos and the ultimate destruction of the universe, but you and I lead to something else."
    "What?"
    "If you're successful, you'll live to see it happen."
    "All right," Garion said. "What do I have to do - now, I mean?"
    "You have enormous power. It's been given to you so that you can do what you have to do, but you've got to learn how to use it. Belgarath and Polgara are trying to help you learn, so stop fighting with them about it. You've got to be ready when the time comes, and the time is much closer than you might think."
    A decapitated figure stood in the trail, holding its head by the hair with its right hand. As Garion approached, the figure raised the head. The twisted mouth shrieked curses at him.
    After he had ridden through the ghost, Garion tried to speak to the mind within his mind again, but it seemed to be gone for the moment. They rode slowly past the tumbled stones of a ruined farmstead.
    Ghosts clustered thickly on the stones, beckoning and calling seductively.
    "A disproportionate number seem to be women," Aunt Pol observed calmly to Mister Wolf.
    "It was a peculiarity of the race," Wolf replied. "Eight out of nine births were female. It made certain adjustments necessary in the customary relationships between men and women."
    "I imagine you found that entertaining," she said dryly.
    "The Marags didn't look at things precisely the way other races do. Marriage never gained much status among them. They were quite libieral about certain things."
    "Oh? Is that the term for it?"
    "Try not to be so narrow-minded, Pol. The society functioned; that's what counts."
    "There's a bit more to it than that, father," she said. "What about their cannibalism?"
    "That was a mistake. Somebody misinterpreted a passage in one of their sacred texts, that's all. They did it out of a sense of religious obligation, not out of appetite. On the whole, I rather liked the Marags. They were generous, friendly, and very honest with each other. They enjoyed life. If it hadn't been for the gold here, they'd probably have worked out their little aberration."
    Garion had forgotten about the gold. As they crossed a small stream, he looked down into the sparkling water and saw the butter-yellow flecks glittering among the pebbles on the bottom.
    A naked ghost suddenly appeared before him. "Don't you think I'm beautiful?" she leered. Then she took hold of the sides of the great slash that ran up her abdomen, pulled it open and spilled out her entrails in a pile on the bank of the stream.
    Garion gagged and clenched his teeth together.
    "Don't think about the gold!" the voice in his mind said sharply. "The ghosts come at you through your greed. If you think about gold, you'll go mad."
    They rode on, and Garion tried to push the thought of gold out of his mind.
    Mister Wolf, however, continued to talk about it. "That's always been the problem with gold. It seems to attract the worst kind of people - the Tolnedrans in this case."
    "They were trying to stamp out cannibalism, father," Aunt Pol replied. "That's a custom most people find repugnant."
    "I wonder how serious they'd have been about it if all that gold hadn't been lying on the bed of every stream in Maragor."
    Aunt Pol averted her eyes from the ghost of a child impaled on a Tolnedran spear. "And now no one has the gold," she said. "Mara saw to that."
    "Yes," Wolf agreed, lifting his face to listen to the dreadful wail that seemed to come from everywhere. He winced at a particularly shrill note in the wailing. "I wish he wouldn't scream so