Sorceress of Darshiva

don't you know. It was a very boring century. I yawned all the way through it." He went back to reading. " 'Senji, a fifteenth-century practitioner of alchemy at the university in the imperial city, was notorious for his ineptitude.' " He paused. "I might want to edit that part just a bit," he noted critically. He glanced at the next line. "And this just won't do at all," he added. " 'To be quite frank about it,’ " he read with distaste, " 'Senji's experiments more often turned gold into lead than the reverse. In a fit of colossal frustration at the failure of his most recent experiment, Senji accidentally converted a half ton of brass plumbing into solid gold. An immediate debate arose, involving the Bureau of Currency, the Bureau of Mines, the Department of Sanitation, the faculty of the College of Applied Alchemy and the faculty of the College of Comparative Theology about which organization should have control of Senji's discovery. After about three hundred years of argumentation, it suddenly occurred to the disputants that Senji was not merely talented, but also appeared "to be immortal. In the name of scientific experimentation, the varying bureaus, departments, and faculties agreed that an effort should be made to have him assassinated to verify that fact.' "
    "They didn't!" Beldin said.
    "Oh, yes," Senji replied with a grim smugness. "Melcenes are inquisitive to the point of idiocy. They'll go to any lengths to prove a theory."
    "What did you do?"
    Senji smirked so hard that his long nose and pointed chin almost touched. " 'A well-known defenestrator was retained to throw the irascible old alchemist from a high window in one of the towers of the university administration building,' " he read. " "The experiment had a threefold purpose. What the curious bureaus wished to find out was: (A) if Senji was in fact unkillable, (B) what means he would take to save his life while plummeting toward the paved courtyard, and (C) if it might be possible to discover the secret of flight by giving him no other alternative.' " The clubfooted alchemist tapped the back of his hand against the text. "I've always been a little proud of that sentence," he said. "It's so beautifully balanced."
    "It's a masterpiece," Beldin approved, slapping the little man on the shoulder so hard that it nearly knocked him off the table. "Here," he said, taking Senji's cup, "let me refill that for you." His brow creased, there was a surge, and the cup was full again. Senji took a sip and fell to gasping.
    "It's a drink that a Nadrak woman of my acquaintance brews," Beldin told him.
    "Robust, isn't it?"
    "Very," Senji agreed in a hoarse voice.
    "Go on with your story, my friend."
    Senji cleared his throat—several times—and went on. " 'What the officials and learned men actually found out as a result of their experiment was that it is extremely dangerous to threaten the life of a sorcerer—even one as inept as Senji. The defenestrator found himself suddenly translocated to a position some fifteen hundred meters above the harbor, five miles distant. At one instant he had been wrestling Senji toward the window; at the next, he found himself standing on insubstantial air high above a fishing fleet. His demise occasioned no particular sorrow—except among the fishermen, whose nets were badly damaged by his rapid descent.' "
    "That was a masterful passage," Beldin chortled, "but where did you discover the meaning of the word 'translocation'?"
    "I was reading an old text on the exploits of Belgarath the Sorcerer, and I—" Senji stopped, going very pale, turned, and gaped at Garion's grandfather.
    "It's a terrible letdown, isn't it?" Beldin said. "We always told him he ought to try to look more impressive."
    "You're in no position to talk," the old man said.
    "You're the one with the earthshaking reputation." Beldin shrugged. "I'm just a flunky. I'm along for comic relief."
    "You're really enjoying this, aren't you, Beldin?"
    "I haven't had so much fun in years. Wait until I tell Pol."
    "You keep your mouth shut, you hear me?"
    "Yes, O mighty Belgarath," Beldin said mockingly.
    Belgarath turned to Garion. "Now you understand why Silk irritates me so much," he said.
    "Yes, Grandfather, I think I do."
    Senji was still a little wild-eyed.
    "Take another drink, Senji," Beldin advised. "It's not nearly so hard to accept when your wits are half-fuddled."
    Senji began to tremble. Then he drained his cup in one gulp without so much as a cough.
    "Now