Sorceress of Darshiva

entered, "did you find what we wanted?"
    He nodded. "Why don't we talk about that after we get on board ship, though? We've done what we came to do in Melcena and we can talk while our ship's moving." He led the way out and down the stairs.
    It was a silvery evening. The full moon had risen early and it filled the streets of Melcena with its pale light. Candles glowed golden in the windows of the houses they passed, and hundreds of lanterns winked from the rigging of the ships anchored in the harbor. Garion rode in silence, his melancholy thoughts still on the dreadful communication Torak had left for him thousands of years ago.
    They boarded their ship quickly and went immediately below to the cramped cabin beneath the aft deck.
    "All right," Belgarath said to them after Durnik had closed the door, "we found the Oracles and we also found the place where the Sardion was kept until just about the time of the battle of Vo Mimbre."
    "That was a profitable trip, wasn't it?" Silk noted. "Is Senji really as old as they say?"
    Betdin grunted. "Older."
    "Wouldn't that mean that he's a sorcerer?" Ce'Nedra asked. Perhaps it was the somber gray dress, but she seemed a bit disconsolate as she sat on an ornately carved bench I under a swinging oil lamp.
    Belgarath nodded. "He's not very good at it, but he does have the ability, yes."
    "Who was his instructor?" Polgara wanted to know. She sat down beside Ce'Nedra and laid one arm affectionately facross the little queen's shoulders.
    "Nobody," Belgarath said with a certain disgust. "Would you believe that he just stumbled over it on his own?"
    "Did you look into that?"
    "Yes. Beldin's got a theory. He can explain it to you later. At any rate, the Sardion was brought to the university here several thousand years ago. They kept it in a museum, don't think anybody knew what it really was. Then, about five hundred years ago, one of the scholars stole it and took it around the southern tip of Gandahar and sailed off in the general direction of the Dalasian Protectorates. Nobody knows for sure what happened to it after that. Anyway, Senji did have an unmutilated copy of the Ashabine Oracles."
    "What did it say?" Velvet asked intently.
    "A great deal. We found out why Zandramas abducted Geran."
    "As a sacrifice?" she said.
    "Only in an obscure sense of the word. If the Dark prophecy wins out, Geran is going to be the new God of igarak."
    "My baby?" Ce'Nedra exclaimed.
    "He won't be your baby any more, I'm afraid," the old man told her bleakly. "He'll be Torak."
    "Or worse," Beldin added. "He'll have the Orb in one id and the Sardion in the other. He'll have dominion over everything that exists, and I don't think he'll be a kindly god"
    "We have to stop her!" Ce'Nedra cried. "We can't let this happen!"
    "I think that's the general idea, your Majesty," Sadi told her.
    "What else did it say, father?" Polgara asked.
    "It said something about Zandramas that's a little obscure. For some reason her body's being gradually taken by some kind of light. The sea captain who carried her to Selda caught a glimpse of her hand and he said that there are moving lights under her skin. The Oracles said it was going to happen."
    "What does it mean?" Durnik asked.
    "I haven't got the faintest idea," Belgarath admitted. He looked at Garion and moved his fingers slightly. I don't think we need to tell Ce'Nedra what the book said about her, do you?— "
    Garion shook his head.
    "Anyway, we're going to have to go to Kell."
    "Kell?" Polgara's voice was startled. "What for?"
    "The location of the place we're looking for is in the copy of the Mallorean Gospels the seers keep there. If we go to Kell, we can get to this meeting place before Zandramas does."
    "That might be a nice change," Silk said. "I'm getting a little tired of tagging along behind her."
    "But we'll lose the trail," Ce'Nedra protested.
    "Little girl," Beldin said to her gruffly, "if we know where Zandramas is going, we won't need the trail. We can just go directly to the Place Which Is No More and wait for her to show up."
    Polgara's arm curled more tightly about Ce'Nedra's shoulders in a protective fashion. "Be gentle with her, uncle. She was brave enough to kiss you at the archduke's house, and I'd imagine that was quite a shock to her sensibilities."
    "Very funny, Pol." The ugly hunchback dropped heavily into a chair and scratched vigorously at one armpit.
    "Was there anything else, father?" Polgara asked.
    "Torak wrote something to Garion,"