Sorceress of Darshiva

eating, the eunuch had taken his red case to the far end of the kitchen and had been trying to coax Zith from her little home with a saucer of fresh, warm milk. ; "What is it, Sadi?" Velvet said, seeming to shake off the effects of the drug and Polgara's insistence that she remain calm.
    "Zith had a little surprise for us," Sadi replied in a delighted tone. "Several little surprises, in fact."
    Velvet went curiously to his side. "Oh," she said with a little catch in her voice, "aren't they adorable?"
    "What is it?" Polgara asked.
    "Our dear little Zith is a mother," Velvet said.
    The rest of them rose and went to the other end of the room to look at the new arrivals. Like their mother, they were all bright green with the characteristic red stripe running from nose to tail. There were five of them, and they were no larger than angleworms. They all had their chins on the edge of the saucer and they were lapping up warm milk with their forked little tongues, purring all the while. Zith hovered over them protectively, somehow managing to look demure.
    "That would explain why she's been so bad-tempered lately," Sadi said. "Why didn't you tell me, Zith? I could heave helped you with the delivery."
    "I'm not sure I'd want to be a midwife to a snake," Silk said. "Besides, I thought reptiles laid eggs."
    "Most of them do," Sadi admitted. "Some kinds are live-bearers, though. Zith happens to be one of those kinds."
    "And here I thought she was just getting fat," Velvet said, "and all the time she was pregnant." Durnik was frowning. "Something doesn't quite fit here," he said. "Isn't Nyissa the only place where her species is found?"
    "Yes," Sadi said, "and they're very rare even in Nyissa."
    "Then how ..." Durnik flushed slightly. "What I'm getting at is, how did this happen? We've been away from Nyissa for a long time. Where did she meet the father?"
    Sadi blinked. "That's true, isn't it? This is impossible. Zith, what have you been up to?"
    The little green snake ignored him.
    "It's really not such a mystery, Sadi," Eriond told him, smiling slightly. "Don't you remember what Cyradis said to Zith at Ashaba?"
    "Something about something being delayed. I didn't really pay that much attention. We were in the middle of something fairly distracting at the moment, if I remember right."
    "She said, 'Be tranquil, little sister, for the purpose of all thy days is now accomplished, and that which was delayed may now come to pass.' This is what she was talking about. This is what was delayed."
    "You know," Beldin said to Belgarath, "I think he's right. This isn't the first time the prophecy's tampered with things in order to get the job done. That business about the 'purpose of all her days' simply means that Zith was born for one thing—to bite Harakan. Once she'd done that, things went back to normal again." Then the hunchback looked at Eriond. "How is it that you remembered exactly what she said? We were all fairly excited there in Urvon's throne room."
    "I always try to remember what people say," Eriond replied. "It may not always make sense at the time they say it, but sooner or later it always seems to fit together."
    "This is a strange boy, Belgarath," Beldin said.
    "We’ve noticed that on occasion."
    "Is it really possible?" Sadi asked the old sorcerer. "That sort of intervention, I mean?"
    "That's the wrong question to ask my grandfather." Garion laughed. "He doesn't believe that anything's impossible."
    Silk was standing a safe distance away from Zith and her new brood. His eyebrow was raised slightly. "Congratulations, Zith," he said finally to the little green mother. Then be looked sternly at the others. "This is all very nice, I suppose," he added, "but if anybody calls them little nippers, I'll just scream."
    They had bathed and gone to bed, but Ce'Nedra was restless, and she tossed and turned. Suddenly she sat up. "I wonder if that milk's still warm," she murmured. She tossed back the blanket and padded on little bare feet to the door. "Do you want some, too?" she asked Garion.
    "No, thanks all the same, dear."
    "It would help you sleep."
    "I'm not the one who's having trouble sleeping."
    She stuck her tongue out at him and went out into the hallway. When she returned a few moments later with her glass of milk, she was stifling a naughty little giggle.
    "What's so funny?" he asked her.
    "I saw Silk."
    "So?"
    "He didn't see me, but I saw him. He was going into a bedroom."
    "He can go in and out of his bedroom if he