The Seeress of Kell

tracks." He looked around. "Where's your wolf?" be asked Garion.
    "Hunting. She's been looking for signs of her pack.''
    "That brings something up," Belgarath said quietly, looking around to make sure that Ce'Nedra was out of earshot. "The wolf told Garion that there's a large animal of some kind in this area. Pol's going to go out and take a look around tonight, but it might not hurt if you nosed around tomorrow, as well. I'm not in the mood for any surprises.''
    "I'll see what I can find."
    Sadi and Velvet sat on the far side of the fire. They had placed the little earthenware bottle on its side and were trying to coax Zith and her children out with morsels of cheese. "I wish we had some milk," Sadi said in his contralto voice.
    "Milk is very good for young snakes. It strengthens their teeth."
    "I'll remember that," Velvet said.
    "Were you planning a career as a snakeherdess, Margravine?"
    "They're nice little creatures," she replied. "They're clean and quiet, and they don't eat very much. Besides, they're very useful in emergencies.''
    He smiled at her affectionately. "We'll make a Nyissan of you yet, Liselle."
    "Not if I can help it," Silk muttered darkly to Garion.
    They had broiled trout for supper that evening. After Durnik and Toth had finished setting up their encampment, they had adjourned to the riverbank with their poles and lures. Durnik's recent elevation to disciplehood had changed him in some ways, but had not lessened his appetite for his favorite pastime. It was no longer necessary for him and his mute friend even to discuss these excursions. Any time they camped in the vicinity of a lake or stream, their reaction was automatic.
    After supper, Polgara flew off into the shadowy forest, but when she returned, she reported having seen no sign of the large beast the she-wolf had warned them about. It was cold the following morning, and there was a trace of frost in the air. The horses' breath steamed in the mountain air as they set out, and Garion and the others rode with their cloaks wrapped tightly about them.
    As Beldin had predicted, they reached the snow line late that afternoon. The first windrows of white in the wagon ruts were thin and crusty, but farther on ahead they could see deeper drifts. They made camp below the snow and set out again early the following morning. Silk had devised a sort of yoke for one of the packhorses, and trailing on ropes behind the yoke were a dozen or so head-size round rocks. The little man critically examined the tracks the rocks made in the snow as they started up the track into the world of perpetual white. "Good enough," he said in a self-congratulatory tone.
    "I don't quite see the purpose of your contrivance, Prince Kheldar," Sadi confessed.
    "The rocks leave trails that look about the same as wagon tracks," Silk explained.
    "Horse tracks by themselves might make the soldiers coming up behind us suspicious. Wagon tracks on a caravan route aren't going to look all that remarkable."
    "Clever,'' the eunuch said, "but why not just cut bushes and drag them behind us?"
    Silk shook his head. "If you brush out all the tracks in the snow, it looks even more suspicious. This is a fairly well-traveled route."
    "You think of everything, don't you?"
    "Sneaking was his major field of study at the academy," Velvet said from the little carriage she shared with Ce'Nedra and the wolf pup. "Sometimes he sneaks just to keep in practice."
    "I don't know if I'd go that far, Liselle," the little man objected in a pained tone.
    "Don't you?"
    "Well, yes, I suppose so, but you don't have to come right out and say it—and 'sneak' has such an ugly ring to it."
    "Can you mink of a better term?"
    "Well, 'evasion' sounds a bit nicer, doesn't it?"
    "Since it means the same thing, why quibble over terminology?" She smiled winsomely at him, her cheeks dimpling.
    "It's a question of style, Liselle."
    The caravan track grew steeper, and the snow had piled in deeper and deeper drifts along the sides. Miles-long plumes of snow blew from the mountaintops ahead, and the wind grew stronger with a biting, arid chill to it. About noon, the peaks ahead were suddenly obscured by an ominous-looking cloudbank rolling in from the west, and the die-wolf came loping down the track to meet them.
    "One advises that you seek shelter for the pack and your beasts," she said with a peculiar kind of urgency.
    "Have you found the creature who dwells here?" Garion asked.
    "No. This is more dangerous." She looked