The Seeress of Kell

seems appropriate.'' Sadi smiled faintly. "Much better," he approved. "We'll teach you the rudiments of practical politics yet."
    They led the horses up the steep hill to the caravan route and mounted. The howling wind that had accompanied the blizzard had scoured most of the snow from the track, although there were deep drifts in sheltered places where the road curved behind bands of trees and rock outcroppings. They made good time when the road was in the open, but it was slow going when they came to the drifts. Now that the storm had passed, the sunlight on the new snow was dazzling, and even though he squinted his eyes nearly shut, Garion found that after about an hour he was beginning to develop a splitting headache.
    Silk reined in. "I think it's time for a precaution or two," he announced. He took a light scarf from inside his cloak and bound it across his eyes. Garion was suddenly reminded of Relg and the way the cave-born zealot had always covered his eyes when out in the open.
    "A blindfold?" Sadi asked. "Have you suddenly become a seer, Prince Kheldar?"
    "I'm not the sort to have visions, Sadi," Silk replied. "The scarf is thin enough so that I can see through it. The idea is to protect the eyes from the glare of sunlight on the snow.'' "It is rather bright, isn't it?" Sadi agreed.
    "It is indeed, and if you look at it long enough, it can blind you—at least temporarily." Silk adjusted the covering on his eyes. "This is a trick the reindeer herders in northern Drasnia came up with. It works fairly well."
    "Let's not take any chances," Belgarath said, also covering his eyes with a piece of cloth. He smiled. "Maybe this is how the Dalasian wizards struck the Grolims blind when they tried to go to Kell."
    "I'd be terribly disappointed if it was that simple," Velvet said, tying a scarf across her eyes. "I like to have my magic nice and inexplicable. Snow blindness would be such a prosaic thing."
    They plowed on through the drifts, climbing now toward a high pass between two towering peaks. It was midafternoon when they reached the pass. The track wound up between massive boulders, but straightened out when they reached the summit. They stopped to rest the horses and to took out over the vast wilderness that lay beyond the pass. Toth unbound his eyes and gestured to Durnik. The smith pulled down his protective scarf, and the big mute pointed. Durnik's face was suddenly filled with awe. "Look!" he said in a half-choked whisper.
    The rest of them also uncovered their eyes.
    "Belar!" Silk gasped. "Nothing can be that big!"
    The peaks around them that had seemed so enormous shrank into insignificance. Standing quite alone in solitary splendor rose a mountain so huge and high that the mind could not comprehend it. It was perfectly symmetrical, a steep, white cone with sharply sloping sides. Its base was enormous, and its summit soared thousands of feet above nearby peaks. An absolute calm seemed to surround it, as if, having achieved everything that any mountain could, it simply existed.
    "It's the highest peak in the world,'' Zakath said very quietly. "The scholars at the University of Melcene have calculated its height and compared that with the heights of peaks on the western continent. It's thousands of feet higher than any other mountain."
    "Please, Zakath," Silk said with a pained look, "don't tell me how high."
    Zakath looked puzzled.
    "As you may have noticed, I 'm not really a very large person. Immensity depresses me. I’ll admit that your mountain is bigger than I am. I just don't want to know how much bigger."
    Toth was gesturing to Durnik again.
    "He says that Kell lies in the shadow of that mountain," the smith said.
    "That's a little unspecific, Goodman," Sadi said wryly. "I'd guess that about half the continent lies in the shadow of that thing."
    Beldin came soaring in again. "Big, isn't it?" he said, squinting at the huge white peak looming into the sky.
    "We noticed," Belgarath replied. "What's on up ahead?"
    "A fair amount of downhill going—at least until you get to the slopes of that monster there."
    "I can see that from here."
    "Congratulations. I found a place where you can get rid of your Grolim. Several places, actually."
    "Exactly how do you mean 'get rid of,' uncle?" Polgara asked suspiciously.
    "There are quite a few high cliffs alongside this track on the way down," he replied blandly. "Accidents do happen, you know."
    "Out of the question. I didn't treat his wounds just to keep him