Magician's Gambit

heard the others gasp as the sticklike little legs began to twitch. The colt inhaled again, and his eyes opened.
    "A miracle," Mandorallen said in a choked voice.
    "Perhaps even more than that," Mister Wolf replied, his eyes searching Garion's face.
    The colt struggled, his head wobbling weakly on his neck. He pulled his legs under him and began to struggle to his feet. Instinctively, he turned to his mother and tottered toward her to nurse. His coat, which had been a deep, solid brown before Garion had touched him, was now marked on the shoulder with a single incandescently white patch exactly the size of the mark on Garion's palm.
    Garion lurched to his feet and stumbled away, pushing past the others. He staggered to the icy spring bubbling in the opening in the wall and splashed water over his head and neck. He knelt before the spring, shaking and breathing hard for a very long time. Then he felt a tentative, almost shy touch on his elbow. When he wearily raised his head, he saw the now steadier colt standing at his side and gazing at him with adoration in its liquid eyes.

Chapter Nine
    THE STORM BLEW itself out the next morning, but they stayed in the cave for another day after the wind had died down to allow the mare to recover and the newborn colt to gain a bit more strength. Garion found the attention of the little animal disturbing. It seemed that no matter where he went in the cave, those soft eyes followed him, and the colt was continually nuzzling at him. The other horses also watched him with a kind of mute respect. All in all it was a bit embarrassing.
    On the morning of their departure, they carefully removed all traces of their stay from the cave. The cleaning was spontaneous, neither the result of some suggestion or of any discussion, but rather was something in which they all joined without comment.
    "The fire's still burning," Durnik fretted, looking back into the glowing dome from the doorway as they prepared to leave.
    "It will go out by itself after we leave," Wolf told him. "I don't think you could put it out anyway - no matter how hard you tried."
    Durnik nodded soberly. "You're probably right," he agreed.
    "Close the door, Garion," Aunt Pol said after they had led their horses out onto the ledge outside the cave.
    Somewhat self consciously, Garion took hold of the edge of the huge iron door and pulled it. Although Barak with all his great strength had tried without success to budge the door, it moved easily as soon as Garion's hand touched it. A single tug was enough to set it swinging gently closed. The two solid edges came together with a great, hollow boom, leaving only a thin, nearly invisible line where they met.
    Mister Wolf put his hand lightly on the pitted iron, his eyes far away. Then he sighed once, turned, and led them back along the ledge the way they had come two days before.
    Once they had rounded the shoulder of the mountain, they remounted and rode on down through the tumbled boulders and patches of rotten ice to the first low bushes and stunted trees a few miles below the pass. Although the wind was still brisk, the sky overhead was blue, and only a few fleecy clouds raced by, appearing strangely close.
    Garion rode up to Mister Wolf and fell in beside him. His mind was filled with confusion by what had happened in the cave, and he desperately needed to get things straightened out. "Grandfather," he said.
    "Yes, Garion?" the old man answered, rousing himself from his half doze.
    "Why did Aunt Pol try to stop me? With the colt, I mean?"
    "Because it was dangerous," the old man replied. "Very dangerous."
    "Why dangerous?"
    "When you try to do something that's impossible, you can pour too much energy into it; and if you keep trying, it can be fatal."
    "Fatal?"
    Wolf nodded. "You drain yourself out completely, and you don't have enough strength left to keep your own heart beating."
    "I didn't know that." Garion was shocked.
    Wolf ducked as he rode under a low branch. "Obviously."
    "Don't you keep saying that nothing is impossible?"
    "Within reason, Garion. Within reason."
    They rode on quietly for a few minutes, the sound of their horses' hooves muffled by the thick moss covering the ground under the trees. "Maybe I'd better find out more about all this," Garion said finally.
    "That's not a bad idea. What was it you wanted to know?"
    "Everything, I guess."
    Mister Wolf laughed. "That would take a very long time, I'm afraid."
    Garion's heart sank. "Is it that complicated?"
    "No.