Magician's Gambit

pounded the ground with his fists, wanting to howl with frustration.
    The sun rose higher, and it started to get hot.
    It was early afternoon when Hettar and Silk, following the prancing little colt, found him.
    "How in the world did you manage to do that?" Silk asked curiously.
    "I don't want to talk about it," Garion muttered, somewhere between relief and total embarrassment.
    "He probably can do many things that we can't," Hettar observed, climbing down from his horse and untying Durnik's shovel from his saddle. "The thing I can't understand, though, is why he'd want to do it.
    "I'm positive he had a good reason for it," Silk assured him. "Do you think we should ask him?"
    "It's probably very complicated," Silk replied. "I'm sure simple men like you and me wouldn't be able to understand it."
    "Do you suppose he's finished with whatever it is he's doing?"
    "We could ask him, I suppose."
    "I wouldn't want to disturb him," Hettar said. "It could be very important."
    "It almost has to be," Silk agreed.
    "Will you please get me out of here?" Garion begged.
    "Are you sure you're finished?" Silk asked politely. "We can wait if you're not done yet."
    "Please, " Garion asked, almost in tears.

Chapter Twelve
    "WHY DID YOU try to lift it?" Belgarath asked Garion the next morning after he and Aunt Pol had returned and Silk and Hettar had solemnly informed them of the predicament in which they had found the young man the afternoon before.
    "It seemed like the best way to tip it over," Garion answered. "You know, kind of get hold of it from underneath and then roll it-sort of."
    "Why didn't you just push against it - close to the top? It would have rolled over if you'd done it that way."
    "I didn't think of it."
    "Don't you realize that soft earth won't accept that kind of pressure?" Aunt Pol asked.
    "I do now," Garion replied. "But wouldn't pushing on it have just moved me backward?"
    "You have to brace yourself," Belgarath explained. "That's part of the whole trick. As much of your will goes to holding yourself immobile as it does to pushing against the object you're trying to move. Otherwise all you do is just shove yourself away."
    "I didn't know that," Garion admitted. "It's the first time I've ever tried to do anything unless it was an emergency . . . Will you stop that?" he demanded crossly of Ce'Nedra, who had collapsed into gales of laughter as soon as Silk had finished telling them about Garion's blunder.
    She laughed even harder.
    "I think you're going to have to explain a few things to him, father," Aunt Pol said. "He doesn't seem to have even the most rudimentary idea about the way forces react against each other." She looked at Garion critically. "It's lucky you didn't decide to throw it," she told him. "You might have flung yourself halfway back to Maragor."
    "I really don't think it's all that funny," Garion told his friends, who were all grinning openly at him. "This isn't as easy as it looks, you know." He realized that he had just made a fool of himself and he was not sure if he were more embarrassed or hurt by their amusement.
    "Come with me, boy," Belgarath said firmly. "It looks as if we're going to have to start at the very beginning."
    "It's not my fault I didn't know," Garion protested. "You should have told me."
    "I didn't know you were planning to start experimenting so soon," the old man replied. "Most of us have sense enough to wait for guidance before we start rearranging local geography."
    "Well, at least I did manage to move it," Garion said defensively as he followed the old man across the meadow toward the tower.
    "Splendid. Did you put it back the way you found it?"
    "Why? What difference does it make?"
    "We don't move things here in the Vale. Everything that's here is here for a reason, and they're all supposed to be exactly where they are."
    "I didn't know," Garion apologized.
    "You do now. Let's go put it back where it belongs." They trudged along in silence.
    "Grandfather?" Garion said finally.
    "Yes?"
    "When I moved the rock, it seemed that I was getting the strength to do it from all around me. It seemed just to flow in from everyplace. Does that mean anything?"
    "That's the way it works," Belgarath explained. "When we do something, we take the power to do it from our surroundings. When you burned Chamdar, for example, you drew the heat from all around you - from the air, from the ground, and from everyone who was in the area. You drew a little heat from everything to build the fire.