Demon Lord Of Karanda (44 page)

‘Garion,’ Polgara said from the fireplace, ‘would you go see if you can find Silk? Breakfast is almost ready.’

‘Yes, Aunt Pol,’ he replied automatically.

After they had eaten, they repacked their belongings and carried the packs out to the stable.

‘Go out through the sally port,’ Beldin said as they crossed the courtyard again. ‘Give me about an hour before you start.’

‘You’re leaving now?’ Belgarath asked him.

‘I might as well. We’re not accomplishing very much by sitting around talking. Don’t forget to leave me a trail to follow.’

‘I’ll take care of it. I wish you’d tell me what you’re going to do here.’

‘Trust me.’ The gnarled sorcerer winked. ‘Take cover someplace and don’t come out again until all the noise subsides.’ He grinned wickedly and rubbed his dirty hands together in anticipation. Then he shimmered and swooped away as a blue-banded hawk.

‘I think we’d better go back inside the house,’ Belgarath suggested. ‘Whatever he’s going to do out here is likely to involve a great deal of flying debris.’

They reentered the house and went back to the room where they had spent the night. ‘Durnik,’ Belgarath said, ‘can you get those shutters closed? I don’t think we want broken glass shooting across the room.’

‘But then we won’t be able to see,’ Silk objected.

‘I’m sure you can live without seeing it. As a matter of fact, you probably
wouldn’t
want to watch, anyway.’

Durnik went to the window, opened it slightly, and pulled the shutters closed.

Then, from high overhead where the blue-banded hawk had been circling, there came a huge roar almost like a continuous peal of swirling thunder, accompanied by a rushing surge. The House of Torak shook as if a great wind were tearing at it, and the faint light coming from between the slats of the shutters Durnik had closed vanished, to be replaced by inky darkness. Then there came a vast bellow from high in the air above the house.

‘A demon?’ Ce’Nedra gasped. ‘Is it a demon?’

‘A
semblance
of a demon,’ Polgara corrected.

‘How can anybody see it when it’s so dark outside?’ Sadi asked.

‘It’s dark around the house because the house is
inside
the image. The people hiding in the forest should be able to see it very well—too well, in fact.’

‘It’s
that
big?’ Sadi looked around. ‘But this house is enormous.’

Belgarath grinned. ‘Beldin was never satisfied with halfway measures,’ he said.

There came another of those huge bellows from high above, followed by faint shrieks and cries of agony.

‘Now what’s he doing?’ Ce’Nedra asked.

‘Some kind of visual display, I’d imagine.’ Belgarath shrugged. ‘Probably fairly graphic. My guess is that everyone in the vicinity is being entertained by the spectacle of an illusory demon eating imaginary people alive.’

‘Will it frighten them off?’ Silk asked.

‘Wouldn’t it frighten you?’

From high overhead, a dreadful booming voice roared. ‘Hungry!’ it said. ‘Hungry! Want food! More food!’ There came a ponderous, earthshaking crash, the sound of a titanic foot crushing an acre of forest. Then there was another and yet another as Beldin’s enormous image stalked away. The light returned, and Silk hurried toward the window.

‘I wouldn’t,’ Belgarath warned him.

‘But—’

‘You don’t want to see it, Silk. Take my word for it. You don’t want to see it.’

The gigantic footsteps continued to crash through the nearby woods.

‘How much longer?’ Sadi asked in a shaken voice.

‘He said about an hour,’ Belgarath replied. ‘He’ll probably make use of all of it. He wants to make a lasting impression on everybody in the area.’

There were screams of terror coming from the woods now, and the crashing continued. Then there was another sound—a great roaring that receded off into the distance toward the southwest, accompanied by the fading surge of Beldin’s will.

‘He’s leading the Chandim off now,’ Belgarath said.

‘That means he’s already chased off the Guardsmen and the Karands. Let’s get ready to leave.’

It took them a while to calm the wild-eyed horses, but they were finally able to mount and ride into the courtyard. Garion had once again donned his mail shirt and helmet, and his heavy shield hung from the bow of Chretienne’s saddle. ‘Do I still need to carry the lance?’ he asked.

‘Probably not,’ Belgarath replied. ‘We’re not likely to meet anybody out there now.’

They went out through the sally port and into the brushy woods. They circled the black house until they reached the east side, then Garion drew Iron-grip’s sword. He held it lightly and swept it back and forth until he felt it pull at his hand. ‘The trail’s over there,’ he said, pointing toward a scarcely visible path leading off into the woods.

‘Good,’ Belgarath said. ‘At least we won’t have to beat our way through the brush.’

They crossed the weed-grown clearing that surrounded the House of Torak and entered the forest. The path they followed showed little sign of recent use, and it was at times difficult to see.

‘It looks as if some people left here in a hurry.’ Silk grinned, pointing at various bits and pieces of equipment lying scattered along the path.

Then they came up over the top of a hill and saw a wide strip of devastation stretching through the forest toward the southwest.

‘A tornado?’ Sadi asked.

‘No,’ Belgarath replied. ‘Beldin. The Chandim won’t have much trouble finding his trail.’

The sword in Garion’s hand was still pointed unerringly toward the path they were following. He led the way confidently, and they increased their pace to a trot and pushed on through the forest. After a league or so, the path began to run downhill, moving out of the foothills toward the heavily forested plains lying to the east of the Karandese range.

‘Are there any towns out there?’ Sadi asked, looking out over the forest.

‘Akkad is the only one of any size between here and the border,’ Silk told him.

‘I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it. What’s it like?’

‘It’s a pigpen of a place,’ Silk replied. ‘Most Karandese towns are. They seem to have a great affinity for mud.’

‘Wasn’t Akkad the place where that Melcene bureaucrat was from?’ Velvet asked.

‘That’s what he said,’ Silk answered.

‘And didn’t he say that there are demons there?’

‘There
were
,’ Belgarath corrected. ‘Cyradis told us that Nahaz has pulled all of his demons out of Karanda and sent them off to Darshiva to fight the Grolims there.’ He scratched at his beard. ‘I think we’ll avoid Akkad anyway. The demons may have left, but there are still going to be Karandese fanatics there, and I don’t think that the news of Mengha’s death has reached them yet. In any event, there’s going to be a fair amount of chaos here in Karanda until Zakath’s army gets back from Cthol Murgos and he moves in to restore order.’

They rode on, pausing only briefly for lunch.

By midafternoon, the clouds that had obscured the skies over Ashaba had dissipated, and the sun came back out again. The path they had been following grew wider and more well traveled, and it finally expanded into a road. They picked up the pace and made better time.

As evening drew on, they rode some distance back from the road and made their night’s encampment in a small hollow where the light from their fire would be well concealed. They ate, and, immediately after supper, Garion sought his bed. For some reason he felt bone weary.

After half an hour, Ce’Nedra joined him in their tent. She settled down into the blankets and nestled her head against his back. Then she sighed disconsolately. ‘It was all a waste of time, wasn’t it?’ she said. ‘Going to Ashaba, I mean.’

‘No, Ce’Nedra, not really,’ he replied, still on the verge of sleep. ‘We had to go there so that Velvet could kill Harakan. That was one of the tasks that have to be completed before we get to the Place Which Is No More.’

‘Does all that really have any meaning, Garion?’ she asked. ‘Half the time you act as if you believe it, and the other half you don’t. If Zandramas had been there with our son, you wouldn’t have just let her walk away because all the conditions hadn’t been met, would you?’

‘Not by so much as one step, ‘he said grimly.

‘Then you
don’t
really believe it, do you?’

‘I’m not an absolute fatalist, if that’s what you mean, but I’ve seen things come out exactly the way the Prophecy said they were going to far too many times for me to ignore it altogether.’

‘Sometimes I think that I’ll never see my baby again,’ she said in a weary little voice.

‘You mustn’t ever think that,’ he told her. ‘We
will
catch up with Zandramas, and we
will
take Geran home with us again.’

‘Home,’ she sighed. ‘We’ve been gone for so long that I can barely remember what it looks like.’

He took her into his arms, buried his face in her hair, and held her close. After a time she sighed and fell asleep. In spite of his own deep weariness, however, it was quite late before he himself drifted off.

The next day dawned clear and warm. They made theirway back to the road again and continued eastward with Iron-grip’s sword pointing the way.

About midmorning, Polgara called ahead to Belgarath. ‘Father, there’s someone hiding off to the side of the road just ahead.’

He slowed his horse to a walk. ‘Chandim?’ he asked tersely.

‘No. It’s a Mallorean Angarak. He’s very much afraid—and not altogether rational.’

‘Is he planning any mischief?’

‘He’s not actually planning anything, father. His thoughts aren’t coherent enough for that.’

‘Why don’t you go flush him out, Silk?’ the old man suggested. ‘I don’t like having people lurking behind me—sane or not.’

‘About where is he?’ the little man asked Polgara.

‘Some distance back in the woods from that dead tree,’ she replied.

He nodded. ‘I’ll go talk with him,’ he said. He loped his horse on ahead and reined in beside the dead tree. ‘We know you’re back there, friend,’ he called pleasantly. ‘We don’t mean you any harm, but why don’t you come out in the open where we can see you?’

There was a long pause.

‘Come along now,’ Silk called. ‘Don’t be shy.’

‘Have you got any demons with you?’ The voice sounded fearful.

‘Do I look like the sort of fellow who’d be consorting with demons?’

‘You won’t kill me, will you?’

‘Of course not. We only want to talk with you, that’s all.’

There was another long, fearful pause. ‘Have you got anything to eat?’ The voice was filled with a desperate need.

‘I think we can spare a bit.’

The hidden man thought about that. ‘All right,’ he said finally. ‘I’m coming out. Remember that you promised not to kill me.’ Then there was a crashing in the bushes, and a Mallorean soldier came stumbling out into the road. His red tunic was in shreds, he had lost his helmet, and the remains of his boots were tied to his legs with leather thongs. He had quite obviously neither shaved nor bathed for at least a month. His eyes were wild and his head twitched on his neck uncontrollably. He stared at Silk with a terrified expression.

‘You don’t look to be in very good shape, friend,’ Silk said to him. ‘Where’s your unit?’

‘Dead, all dead, and eaten by the demons.’ The soldier’s eyes were haunted. ‘Were you at Akkad?’ he asked in a terrified voice. ‘Were you there when the demons came?’

‘No, friend. We just came up from Venna.’

‘You said that you had something for me to eat.’

‘Durnik,’ Silk called, ‘could you bring some food for this poor fellow?’

Durnik rode to the pack horse carrying their stores and took out some bread and dried meat. Then he rode on ahead to join Silk and the fear-crazed soldier.

‘Were
you
at Akkad when the demons came?’ the fellow asked him.

Durnik shook his head. ‘No,’ he replied. ‘I’m with him.’ He pointed at Silk. Then he handed the fellow the bread and meat.

The soldier snatched them and began to wolf them down in huge bites.

‘What happened at Akkad?’ Silk asked.

‘The demons came,’ the soldier replied, still cramming food into his mouth. Then he stopped, his eyes fixed on Durnik with an expression of fright. ‘Are you going to kill me?’ he demanded.

Durnik stared at him. ‘No, man,’ he replied in a sick voice.

‘Thank you.’ The soldier sat down at the roadside and continued to eat.

Garion and the others slowly drew closer, not wanting to frighten the skittish fellow off.

‘What
did
happen at Akkad?’ Silk pressed. ‘We’re going in that direction, and we’d sort of like to know what to expect.’

‘Don’t go there,’ the soldier said, shuddering. ‘It’s horrible—horrible. The demons came through the gates with howling Karands all around them. The Karands started hacking people to pieces and then they fed the pieces to the demons. They cut off both my captain’s arms and then his legs as well, and then a demon picked up what was left of him and ate his head. He was screaming the whole time.’ He lowered his chunk of bread and fearfully stared at Ce’Nedra. ‘Lady, are you going to kill me?’ he demanded.

‘Certainly not!’ she replied in a shocked voice.

‘If you are, please don’t let me see it when you do. And please bury me someplace where the demons won’t dig me up and eat me.’

‘She’s not going to kill you,’ Polgara told him firmly.

The man’s wild eyes filled with a kind of desperate longing. ‘Would
you
do it then, Lady?’ he pleaded. ‘I can’t stand the horror any more. Please kill me gently—the way my mother would—and then hide me so that the demons won’t get me.’ He put his face into his shaking hands and began to cry.

‘Give him some more food, Durnik,’ Belgarath said, his eyes suddenly filled with compassion. ‘He’s completely mad, and there’s nothing else we can do for him.’