Pawn of Prophecy

of a sPolled child, although he was a man of middle years, and he sat his horse disdainfully as if the company of the other two somehow offended him.
    After a time, the sound of another horse came from near the edge of the forest. Almost holding his breath, Garion waited. The other rider slowly approached the three who sat their horses in the snow at the edge of the trees. It was the sandy-bearded man in the green cloak whom Garion had seen creeping through the passageways of King Anheg's palace two nights before.
    "My Lord," the green-cloaked man said deferentially as he joined the other three.
    "Where have you been?" the flaxen-haired man demanded.
    "Lord Barak took some of his guests on a boar hunt this morning. His route was the same as mine, and I didn't want to follow too closely."
    The nobleman grunted sourly.
    "We saw them deeper in the wood," he said. "Well, what have you heard?"
    "Very little, my Lord. The kings are meeting with the old man and the woman in a guarded chamber. I can't get close enough to head what they're saying."
    "I'm paying you good gold to get close enough. I have to know what they're saying. Go back to the palace and work out a way to hear what they're talking about."
    "I'll try, my Lord," the green-cloaked man said, bowing somewhat stifliy.
    "You'll do more than try," the flaxen-haired man snapped.
    "As you wish, my Lord," the other said, starting to turn his horse.
    "Wait," the nobleman commended. "Were you able to meet with our friend?"
    "Your friend, my Lord," the other corrected with distaste. "I met him, and we went to a tavern and talked a little."
    "What did he say?"
    "Nothing very useful. His kind seldom do."
    "Will he meet us as he said he would?"
    "He told me that he would. If you want to believe him, that's your affair."
    The nobleman ignored that.
    "Who arrived with the King of the Sendars?"
    "The old man and the woman, another old man-some Sendarian noble, I think, Lord Barak and a weasel-faced Drasnian, and another Sendar - a commoner of some sort."
    "That's all? Wasn't there a boy with them as well?"
    The spy shrugged.
    "I didn't think the boy was important," he said.
    "He's there then-in the palace?"
    "He is, my Lord-an ordinary Sendarian boy of about fourteen, I'd judge. He seems to be some kind of servant to the woman."
    "Very well. Go back to the palace and get close enough to that chamber to hear what the kings and the old man are saying."
    "That may be very dangerous, my Lord."
    "It'll be more dangerous if you don't. Now go, before that ape Barak comes back and finds you loitering here." He whirled his horse and, followed by his two warriors, plunged back into the forest on the far side of the snowy track that wound among the dark trees.
    The man in the green cloak sat grimly watching for a moment, then he too turned his horse and rode back the way he had come.
    Garion rose from his crouched position behind the tree. His hands were clenched so tightly around the shaft of his spear that they actually ached. This had gone entirely too far, he decided. The matter must be brought to someone's attention.
    And then, some way ofi in the snowy depths of the wood, he heard the sound of hunting horns and the steely clash of swords ringing rhythmically on shields. The huntsmen were coming, driving all the beasts of the forest before them.
    He heard a crackling in the bushes, and a great stag bounded into view, his eyes wild with fright and his antlers flaring above his head. With three huge leaps he was gone. Garion trembled with excitement.
    Then there was a squealing rush, and a red-eyed sow plunged down the trail followed by a half dozen scampering piglets. Garion stepped behind his tree and let them pass.
    The next squeals were deeper and rang less with fright than with rage. It was the boar-Garion knew that before the beast even broke out of the heavy brush. When the boar appeared, Garion felt his heart quail.
    This was no fat, sleepy porker, but rather a savage, infuriated beast. The horrid tusks jutting up past the flaring snout were yellow, and bits of twigs and bark clung to them, mute evidence that the boar would slash at anything in his path-trees, bushes or a Sendarian boy without sense enough to get out of his way.
    Then a peculiar thing happened. As in the long-ago fight with Rundorig or in the scuffle with Brill's hirelings in the dark streets of Muros, Garion felt his blood begin to surge, and there was a wild ringing in his ears. He seemed to hear a defiant,