Introduction | Chapter Three | Chapter Five
The mountains reared up before them, a menacing, unfamiliar group of irregularly shaped rocks off what had been the western coast of Mallorea Antiqua. No trees grew on those mountains, for less than two days ago the land that stood in front of them had lain at the bottom of the Sea of the East. Few plants grew either - most that had grown on the sea bed had been uprooted by the incredible force that had caused the vast upheaval - and it was not likely that many animals had as yet adopted the new mountains as their homes. Food would be short until they could reach whatever might remain of Gar og Nadrak.
"We might have to forage for what's left of the sea-plants as we go," said Silk. "The problem will be that we won't know which ones are poisonous and which aren't."
"That's not a problem, Silk", said Ce'Nedra. "The Lady Polg - "
She stopped in her tracks. "I'm sorry," she said to Belgarath and Poledra, who rode side by side on the horses they had stolen just outside Mal Camat. Much of the town had been deserted as the burghers fled eastwards, terrified of the earthquakes and the rearrangement of the land, and they had been able to find horses and pick up a few meagre supplies. "I didn't mean to remind you."
"You didn't have to, Ce'Nedra," Poledra said. "We hadn't forgotten."
"There's something I meant to ask you, Poledra," Silk said curiously. "How on earth did you manage to face down Torak? I mean, he is a God."
"Apart from the way UL and Aldur were standing right behind me, you mean? The same way Garion had a chance. I've been the Child of Light in the past, and it seems that our Purpose is still fond of me. You see, Torak was trying to go against something that was agreed upon by both the Prophecies. In those circumstances, anybody who'd been the direct instrument of one of them could have done the job. After all, with two Prophecies and two Gods helping me, I really just needed to stand between him and where he wanted to go."
"But our Prophecy's gone, isn't it, Lady Poledra?" Ce'Nedra asked. "I mean, we've lost."
"Not entirely," answered Poledra. "Torak may have thought it was - he always read what he wanted to read, and even went so far as to try to change any prophecy he didn't like - but when he gets back to his house in Ashaba and reads his prophecies again he'll find out differently. Our Purpose lost this particular EVENT, which puts us at a disadvantage, but there's one more to come, and our Purpose has a way of bouncing back. There's probably already a new Child of Light, even if he or she doesn't know it yet."
"Could it be you?" the princess wondered.
"It's possible. I doubt it, though, at least for now. I have other things to do."
The nimbus that surrounded Poledra had vanished after her confrontation with Torak, and she now seemed much like any other woman. Given the vast events of the last few days, her apparent resurrection from the dead had passed unremarked upon by Garion's former companions, a minor miracle to help counterbalance the soul-shattering sense of defeat they all felt. It almost seemed churlish to question it. Though Belgarath had seemed too tongue-tied to speak to her for the first day, they now spent most of their time talking quietly side by side, hardly noticing the route in front of them, while Silk did his best to find a safe way through Mallorea Antiqua and now the untravelled mountains that lay ahead.
The travel through the mountains was uneventful, since very little else in the way of life had settled there. They carefully foraged for a few of the plants that had been growing under the sea, but most of those were dead or dying for lack of their accustomed water. By the end of their week-long journey to the former western shore of the Sea of the East, they were running too low on supplies for comfort, and Silk slipped alone into Yar Marak to pick up food and information while Belgarath and Poledra watched over Ce'Nedra and Errand.
When Silk returned, his face was sombre. "There's a few hardy souls still living in the western part of the city," he reported. "They've avoided Mallorean recruiters because for the most part they're too old for battle. One of them told me that hardly any Malloreans had come through here for several days before the upheaval because the Chereks had been out in the Sea of the East sinking their troop ships."
"One of 'Zakath's men told him about that when we were staying with him," Ce'Nedra recalled.
"Any ships out at sea when Torak mended the world were probably destroyed, though. And I can't imagine that Anheg and Barak would have let a Cherek sea-force through without going with them."
"Let's hope we find them when we get down to the eastern escarpment," Belgarath said. They had decided to cut down across the northwestern part of Mishrak ac Thull in order to get to the Vale as quickly as possible, hoping that most of the troops in the country would still be concentrated around Thull Mardu in the east. From what Ce'Nedra had said of the war, they guessed that anyone they did run across would likely be part of Fulrach's supply train or whatever was left of the Armies of the West. "Prepare yourselves, though. A lot of our friends may have been lost."
They travelled southwest for about a hundred leagues over the plains of Thulldom, keeping out of sight as much as possible and talking little. Finally, they encountered the upper tributaries of the River Mardu, where Fulrach had some supply camps that had been sending barges downriver to the army. Belgarath spoke quietly to a sentry, asking to speak to the commander of the camp. A captain was quickly fetched, and the old sorcerer quizzed him briefly about the state of the army.
"A lot of the lads got out all right, Ancient One," he said. "A Nadrak force switched sides for some reason and extricated us from the trap we got ourselves caught in. King Rhodar's still commanding from back in the fortifications at the escarpment. I think most of the other kings are there, too, though I haven't heard anything about King Anheg."
"Thank you, Captain," Belgarath said. "Judging by the turmoil back where we've come from, you should be safe from the Malloreans for a while at least."
They rode a further fifty leagues west, coming at last upon the defences Ce'Nedra's army had set up once they had scaled the escarpment. The Tolnedran sentry on the perimeter took one look at Ce'Nedra and, despite his evident surprise, saluted crisply. "What can I do for you, Your Highness?" he said.
"Where's Rhodar?" Ce'Nedra asked.
"He's back in the main encampment," the sentry replied. "Most of the army's back now, and King Fulrach's started to withdraw his supply train, so he's probably getting ready to leave as soon as he can."
"Thank you," she said, and they rode on into the camp.
* * *
Far above them, an albatross soared over the peaks of the new mountains, its sharp gaze taking in the new landscape below. To the south, the foothills dipped sharply towards what remained of the once-mighty Sea of the East, gone as cataclysmically as it had been created; to the west and east, the peaks curved more gently down towards the plains of Mishrak ac Thull and Mallorea Antiqua, while the northern end of the range had turned the irregular chain of rocky islets that had been the land bridge into an otherwise undistinguished rocky ridge.
Winging its way southward and east along the coast of Likandia, the great white bird caught the edge of a current of heated air and spiraled up almost into the clouds. While the southwestern coast of the Dalasian Protectorates had remained largely untouched by the upheaval - if anything, the reefs and islands around that coast lay close enough to the new range of mountains that the water which surrounded them had perhaps become a little less deep - the albatross' slow eastern flight took it over stretches of coast which had been rather more radically altered.
Once, a large peninsula had jutted out at the base of the continent, with southern Likandia running down its western side, southern Gandahar along the eastern edge, and a low ridge of mountains along the border. Little more than the ridge had survived the sea's exodus, and that had become something not unlike a land bridge to nowhere; and, though its mountain still towered above the rest of the continent, Kell now lay all but on the coast, the forests which had always surrounded it now forming even more of a protective enclave shielding it from a hostile continent.
And Kell now had much more to contend with than the occasional Grolim missionary. Torak ruled now in Mallorea.
Introduction | Chapter Three | Chapter Five