Sorceress of Darshiva

you, and Vella's got a couple more that she won't even talk about—at least not to me."
    "Just start at the beginning, Yarblek."
    "Any way you want it." He scratched at his beard. "The way I got the story is that Silk and Belgarath and the others were in Cthol Murgos. They got captured by the Malloreans, and Zakath took them all to Mal Zeth. The young fellow with the big sword—Belgarion, isn't it? Anyway, he and Zakath got to be friends—"
    "Garion and Zakath?" Porenn asked incredulously. "How?"
    "I wouldn't know. I wasn't there when it happened. To make it short, they were friends, but then the plague broke out in Mal Zeth. I managed to sneak Silk and the others out of the city, and we went north. We separated before we got to Venna. They wanted to go to this Ashaba place, and I had a caravan load of goods I wanted to get to Yar Marak. Made a fairly good profit, actually."
    "Why were they going to Ashaba?"
    "They were after some woman named Zandramas—the one who abducted Belgarion's son."
    "A woman! Zandramas is a woman?"
    "So they told me. Belgarath gave me a letter for you. It's all in there. I told him that he shouldn't write it down, but he wouldn't listen to me." Yarblek unwound himself from his chair, fished around inside his overcoat, and handed a rumpled and none-too-clean piece of parchment to the queen. Then he strolled to the window and looked out. "Isn't that Trellheim's boy down there?" he asked. "The husky one with the red hair?"
    Porenn was reading the parchment. "Yes," she said absently, trying to concentrate on the message.
    "Is he here? Trellheim, I mean?"
    "Yes. I don't know if he's awake yet, though. He stayed up rather late last night and he was a little tipsy when he went to bed."
    Yarblek laughed. "That's Barak, all right. Has he got his wife and daughters with him, too?"
    " No," Porenn said. '' They stayed in Val Alorn, making the preparations for his oldest daughter's wedding."
    "Is she that old already?"
    "Chereks marry young. They seem to think it's the best way to keep a girl out of trouble. Barak and his son came here to get away from all the fuss."
    Yarblek laughed again. "I think I'll go wake him up and see if he's got anything to drink." He touched his forefinger to the spot between his eyes with a pained look, "I'm feeling a little delicate this morning, and Barak's a good man to get well with. I'll stop back when I'm feeling better. Besides, you've got your mail to read.
    Oh," he said, "I almost forgot. Here are some others." He started rummaging around inside his shabby coat. "One from Polgara." He tossed it negligently on the table.
    "One from Belgarion. One from Silk, and one from the blond girl with the dimples—the one they call Velvet. The snake didn't send anything—you know how snakes are. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm really not feeling too good." He lurched to the door and went out.
    "That is the most exasperating man in the world," Porenn declared.
    "He does it on purpose." Vella shrugged. "He thinks it's funny."
    "Yarblek said that you have some messages for me, too," the queen said. "I suppose I should read them all at once— get all the shocks over with at one time."
    "I've only got one, Porenn," Vella replied, "and it isn't in writing. Liselle—the one they call Velvet—asked me to tell you something when we were alone."
    "All right," Porenn said, putting down Belgarath's letter.
    "I'm not sure how they found out about this," Vella said, "but it seems that the King of Cthol Murgos is not the son of Taur Urgas."
    "What are you saying, Vella?"
    "Urgit isn't even related to that frothing lunatic. It seems that a number of years ago, a certain Drasnian businessman paid a visit to the palace in Rak Goska. He and Taur Urgas' second wife became friendly." She smiled with one eyebrow slightly raised. "Very friendly. I've always had that suspicion about Murgo women. Anyway, Urgit was the result of that friendship."
    A terrible suspicion began to dawn on Queen Porenn. Vella grinned impishly at her. "We all knew that Silk had royal connections," she said. "We just didn't know how many royal families he was connected to."
    "No!" Porenn gasped.
    Vella laughed. "Oh, yes. Liselle confronted Urgit's mother with it, and the lady confessed." The Nadrak girl's face grew serious. "The whole point of Liselle's message is that Silk doesn't want that bony fellow, Javelin, to find out about it. Liselle felt that she had to report it to somebody. That's why she told me to pass it