"Fifteen last Erastide. Aunt Pol says that people who are born on Erastide are very lucky, only I haven"t noticed that I"m luckier than-"
"And who is Aunt Pol?"
"She"s my aunt. We used to live on Faldor"s farm, but Mister Wolf came and we-"
"Do people call her something besides Aunt Pol?"
"King Fulrach called her Polgara - that was when Captain Brendig took us all to the palace in Sendar. Then we went to King Anheg"s palace in Val Alorn, and-"
"Who"s Mister Wolf?"
"My grandfather. They call him Belgarath. I didn"t used to believe it, but I guess it has to be true because one time he-"
"And why did you all leave Faldor"s farm?"
"I didn"t know why at first, but then I found out that it was because Zedar stole the Orb of Aldur off the pommel of the Sword of the Rivan King, and we"ve got to get it back before Zedar can take it to Torak and wake him up and-"
"This is the boy we want," the hissing voice whispered.
Garion turned around slowly. The room seemed brighter now, as if the tiny flame were putting out more light. In the corner, rearing out of its own coils and with a strangely flattened neck and glowing eyes was a very large snake.
"We can take it to Salmissra now," the snake hissed. It lowered itself to the floor and crawled across to Garion. He felt its cold, dry nose touch his leg, and then, though a hidden part of his mind shrieked, he stood unresisting as the scaly body slowly mounted his leg and coiled upward until the snake"s head reared beside his face and its flickering tongue touched his face. "Be very good, boy," the snake hissed in his ear, "very, very good." The reptile was heavy, and its coils thick and cold.
"This way, boy," Sadi told Garion, rising to his feet.
"I want my money," Issus demanded.
"Oh," Sadi said almost contemptuously, "that. It"s in that pouch there on the table." Then he turned and led Garion from the room.
"Garion." The dry voice that had always been in his mind spoke quietly to him. "I want you to listen carefully. Don"t say anything or let anything show on your face. Just listen to me. "
"Who are you?" Garion asked silently, struggling with the fog in his brain.
"You know me, " the dry voice told him. "Now listen. They"ve given you something that makes you do what they want you to do. Don"t fight against it. Just relax and don"t fight it. "
"But - I said things I shouldn"t have. I-"
"That doesn"t matter now. Just do as I say. If anything happens and it starts to get dangerous, don"t fight. I"ll take care of it - but I can"t do it if you"re struggling. You have to relax so that I can do what has to be done. If you suddenly find yourself doing things or saying things you don"t understand, don"t be afraid and don"t try to fight. It won"t be them; it will be me."
Comforted by this silent rea.s.surance, Garion walked obediently beside Sadi the eunuch while the coils of the snake, Maas, lay heavily about his chest and shoulders and the bluntly pointed reptilian head rested, almost nuzzling, against his cheek.
They entered a large room where the walls were heavily draped and crystal oil lamps hung glittering on silver chains. An enormous stone statue, its upper third lost in the shadows high above, raised its ma.s.s t.i.tanically at one end of the room, and directly in front of the statue was a low stone platform, carpeted and strewn with cushions. Upon the platform stood a heavy divan that was not quite a chair and not quite a couch.
There was a woman on the divan. Her hair was raven black, cascading in loose coils down her back and across her shoulders. About her head was an intricately wrought golden crown sparkling with jewels. Her gown was white and spun of the filmiest gauze. It did not in any way conceal her body, but rather seemed to be worn only to provide a material to which her jewels and adornments could be attached. Beneath the gauze, her skin was an almost chalky white, and her face was extraordinarily beautiful. Her eyes were pale, even colorless. A large, gold-framed mirror stood on a pedestal at one side of the divan, and the woman lounged at ease, admiring herself in the gla.s.s.
Two dozen shaven-headed eunuchs in crimson robes knelt in a cl.u.s.ter to one side of the dais, resting on their haunches and gazing at the woman and the statue behind her with worshipful adoration.
Among the cushions at the side of the divan lolled an indolent, pampered-looking young man whose head was riot shaved. His hair was elaborately curled, his cheeks were rouged, and his eyes were fantastically made up. He wore only the briefest of loincloths, and his expression was bored and sulky. The woman absently ran the fingers of one hand through his curls as she watched herself in the mirror.
"The queen has visitors," one of the kneeling eunuchs announced in a singsong voice.
"Ah," the others chanted in unison, "visitors."
"Hail, Eternal Salmissra," Sadi the eunuch said, prostrating himself before the dais and the pale-eyed woman.
"What is it, Sadi?" she demanded. Her voice was vibrant and had a strange, dark timbre.
"The boy, my Queen," Sadi announced, his face still pressed to the floor.
"On your knees before the Serpent Queen," the snake hissed in Garion"s ear. The coils tightened about Garion"s body, and he fell to his knees in their sudden crushing grip.
"Come here, Maas," Salmissra said to the snake.
"The queen summons the beloved serpent," the eunuch intoned. "Ah."
The reptile uncoiled itself from about Garion"s body and undulated up to the foot of the divan, reared half its length above the reclining woman and then lowered itself upon her body, its thick length curving, fitting itself to her. The blunt head reached up to her face, and she kissed it affectionately. The long, forked tongue flickered over her face, and Maas began to whisper sibilantly in her ear. She lay in the embrace of the serpent, listening to its hissing voice and looking at Garion with heavy-lidded eyes.
Then, pushing the reptile aside, the queen rose to her feet and stood over Garion. "Welcome to the land of the snake-people, Belgarion," she said in her purring voice.
The name, which he had heard only from Aunt Pol before, sent a strange shock through Garion, and he tried to shake the fog from his head.
"Not yet,"the dry voice in his mind warned him.
Salmissra stepped down from the dais, her body moving with a sinuous grace beneath her transparent gown. She took one of Garion"s arms and drew him gently to his feet; then she touched his face lingeringly. Her hand seemed very cold. "A pretty young man," she breathed, almost as if to herself. "So young. So warm." Her look seemed somehow hungry.
A strange confusion seemed to fill Garion"s mind. The bitter drink Sadi had given him still lay on his consciousness like a blanket. Beneath it he felt at once afraid and yet strangely attracted to the queen. Her chalky skin and dead eyes were repellent, yet there was a kind of lush invitation about her, an overripe promise of unspeakable delights. Unconsciously he took a step backward.
"Don"t be afraid, my Belgarion," she purred at him. "I won"t hurt you - not unless you want me to. Your duties here will be very pleasant, and I can teach you things that Polgara hasn"t even dreamed of."
"Come away from him, Salmissra," the young man on the dais ordered petulantly. "You know I don"t like it when you pay attention to others."
A flicker of annoyance showed in the queen"s eyes. She turned and looked rather coldly at the young man. "What you like or don"t like doesn"t really concern me anymore, Essia," she said.
"What?" Essia cried incredulously.
"Do as I say at once!"
"No, Essia," she told him.
"I"ll punish you," he threatened.
"No," she said, "you won"t. That sort of thing doesn"t amuse me anymore, and all your pouting and tantrums have begun to grow boring. Leave now."
"Leave?" Essia"s eyes bulged with disbelief.
"You"re dismissed, Essia."
"Dismissed? But you can"t live without me. You said so yourself."
"We all say things we don"t mean sometimes."
The arrogance went out of the young man like water poured from a bucket. He swallowed hard and began to tremble. "When do you want me to come back?" he whined.
"1 don"t, Essia."
"Never?" he gasped.
"Never," she told him. "Now go, and stop making a scene."
"What"s to become of me?" Essia cried. He began to weep, the makeup around his eyes running in grotesque streaks down his face.
"Don"t be tiresome, Essia," Salmissra said. "Pick up your belongings and leave-now! I have a new consort." She stepped back up on the dais.
"The queen has chosen a consort," the eunuch intoned.
"Ah," the others chanted. "Hail the consort of Eternal Salmissra, most fortunate of men."
T"he sobbing young man grabbed up a pink robe and an ornately carved jewel box. He stumbled down from the dais. "You did this," he accused Garion. "It"s all your fault." Suddenly, out of the folds of the robe draped over his arm, he pulled a small dagger. "I"ll fix you," he screamed, raising the dagger to strike.
There was no thought this time, no gathering of will. The surge of force came without warning, pushing Essia away, driving him back. He slashed futilely at the air with his little knife. Then the surge was gone.
Essia lunged forward again, his eyes insane and his dagger raised. The surge came again, stronger this time. The young man was spun away. He fell, and his dagger clattered across the floor.
Salmissra, her eyes ablaze, pointed at the prostrate Essia and snapped her fingers twice. So fast that it seemed almost like an arrow loosed from a bow, a small green snake shot from beneath the divan, its mouth agape and its hiss a kind of snarl. It struck once, hitting Essia high on the leg, then slithered quickly to one side and watched with dead eyes.
Essia gasped and turned white with horror. He tried to rise, but his legs and arms suddenly sprawled out from under him on the polished stones. He gave one strangled cry and then the convulsions began. His heels pattered rapidly on the floor, and his arms flailed wildly. His eyes turned vacant and staring, and a green froth shot like a fountain from his mouth. His body arched back, every muscle writhing beneath his skin, and his head began to pound on the floor. He gave one thrashing, convulsive leap, his entire body bounding up from the floor. When he came down, he was dead.
Salmissra watched him die, her pale eyes expressionless, incurious, with no hint of anger or regret.
"Justice is done," the eunuch announced.
"Swift is the justice of the Queen of the Serpent People," the others replied.
Chapter Twenty-eight.
THERE WERE OTHER THINGS they made him drink - some bitter, some sickeningly sweet - and his mind seemed to sink deeper with each cup he raised to his lips. His eyes began to play strange tricks on him. It seemed somehow that the world had suddenly been drowned and that all of this was taking place under water. The walls wavered and the figures of the kneeling eunuchs seemed to sway and undulate like seaweed in the endless wash and eddy of tide and current. The lamps sparkled like jewels, casting out brilliant colors in slow-falling showers. Garion slumped, all bemused, on the dais near Salmissra"s divan, his eyes filled with light and his head washed clean of all thought. There was no sense of time, no desire, no will. He briefly and rather vaguely remembered his friends, but the knowledge that he would never see them again brought only a brief, pa.s.sing regret, a temporary melancholy that was rather pleasant. He even shed one crystal tear over his loss, but the tear landed on his wrist and sparkled with such an unearthly beauty that he lost himself utterly in contemplating it.
"How did he do it?" the queen"s voice said somewhere behind him. Her voice was so beautifully musical that the sound of it pierced Garion"s very soul.
"It has power," Maas replied, his serpent voice thrilling Garion"s nerves, vibrating them like the strings of a lute. "Its power is untried, undirected, but it is very strong. Beware of this one, beloved Salmissra. It can destroy quite by accident."
"I will control him," she said.
"Perhaps," the snake replied.
"Sorcery requires will," Salmissra pointed out. "I will take his will away from him. Your blood is cold, Maas, and you"ve never felt the fire that fills the veins with the taste of oret or athal or kaldiss. Your pa.s.sions are also cold, and you can"t know how much the body can be used to enslave the will. I"ll put his mind to sleep and then smother his will with love."
"Love, Salmissra?" the snake asked, sounding faintly amused.
"The term serves as well as any other," she replied. "Call it appet.i.te, if you wish."
"That I can understand," Maas agreed. "But don"t underestimate this one - or overestimate your own power. It does not have an ordinary mind. There"s something strange about it that I can"t quite penetrate."
"We"ll see," she said. "Sadi," she called the eunuch.
"Yes, my Queen?"
"Take the boy. Have him bathed and perfumed. He smells of boats and tar and salt water. I don"t like such Alorn smells."
"At once, Eternal Salmissra."
Garion was led away to a place where there was warm water. His clothes were taken from him, and he was immersed and soaped and immersed again. Fragrant oils were rubbed into his skin, and a brief loincloth was tied about his waist. Then he was taken quite firmly by the chin and rouge was applied to his cheeks. It was during this process that he realized that the person painting his face was a woman. Slowly, almost incuriously, he let his eyes move around the bath chamber. He realized then that except for Sadi, everyone there was female. It seemed that something about that should bother him - something having to do with appearing naked in the presence of women - but he could not exactly remember what it was.
When the woman had finished painting his face, Sadi the eunuch took his arm and led him again through the dim, endless corridors back to the room where Salmissra half lay on her divan beneath the statue, admiring herself in the pedestaled mirror beside her.
"Much better," she said, looking Garion up and down with a certain appreciation. "He"s much more muscular than I thought. Bring him here."
Sadi led Garion to the side of the queen"s divan and gently pressed him down onto the cushions where Essia had lounged.
Salmissra reached out with a lingeringly slow hand and brushed her cold fingertips across his face and chest. Her pale eyes seemed to burn, and her lips parted slightly. Garion"s eyes fixed themselves on her pale arm. There was no trace of hair on that white skin.
"Smooth," he said vaguely, struggling to focus on that peculiarity.
"Of course, my Belgarion," she murmured. "Serpents are hairless, and I am the queen of the serpents."
Slowly, puzzled, he raised his eyes to the l.u.s.trous black tresses tumbling down across one of her white shoulders.
"Only this," she said, touching the curls with a sensuous kind of vanity.
"How?" he asked.
"It"s a secret." She laughed. "Someday perhaps I"ll show you. Would you like that?"
"I suppose so."
"Tell me, Belgarion," she said, "do you think I"m beautiful?"
"I think so."
"How old would you say I am?" She spread her arms so that he could see her body through the filmy gauze of her gown.
"I don"t know," Garion said. "Older than I am, but not too old." A brief flicker of annoyance crossed her face. "Guess," she ordered somewhat harshly.