บท 20: the belgariad pawn of prophecy 20
"I see that you've finally slipped into your dotage, Old Wolf," she said acidly.
"That's exactly the sort of thing I meant," Wolf replied blandly.
"Now gather a few necessary things, and let's be away from here. The
night is passing rapidly."
She glared at him a moment and then stormed out of the kitchen.
"I'll have to fetch some things too," Durnik said. He turned and went out into the gusty night.
Garion's mind whirled. Things were happening far too fast.
"Afraid, boy?" Wolf asked.
"Well-" Garion said. "It's just that I don't understand. I don't understand any of this at all."
"You will in time, Garion," Wolf said. "For now it's better perhaps
that you don't. There's danger in what we're doing, but not all that
great a danger. Your Aunt and I - and good Durnik, of course - will see
that no harm comes to you. Now help me in the pantry." He took a lantern
into the pantry and began loading some loaves of bread, a ham, a round
yellow cheese and several bottles of wine into a sack which he took down
from a peg.
It was nearly midnight, as closely as Garion could tell, when they
quietly left the kitchen and crossed the dark courtyard. The faint creak
of the gate as Durnik swung it open seemed enormously loud.
As they passed through the gate, Garion felt a momentary pang.
Faldor's farm had been the only home he had ever known. He was leaving
now, perhaps forever, and such things had great significance. He felt an
even sharper pang at the memory of Zubrette. The thought of Doroon and
Zubrette together in the hay barn almost made him want to give the whole
thing up altogether, but it was far too late now.
Beyond the protection of the buildings, the gusty wind was chill and
whipped at Garion's cloak. Heavy clouds covered the moon, and the road
seemed only slightly less dark than the surrounding fields. It was cold
and lonely and more than a little frightening. He walked a bit closer to
Aunt Pol.
At the top of the hill he stopped and glanced back. Faldor's farm was
only a pale, dim blur in the valley behind. Regretfully, he turned his
back on it. The valley ahead was very dark, and even the road was lost
in the gloom before them.
Part one sendaria Chapter Six
THEY HAD WALKED for miles, how many Garion could not say. He nodded
as he walked, and sometimes stumbled over unseen stones on the dark
road. More than anything now he wanted to sleep. His eyes burned, and
his legs trembled on the verge of exhaustion.At the top of another hill -
there always seemed to be another hill, for that part of Sendaria was
folded like a rumpled cloth - Mister Wolf stopped and looked about, his
eyes searching the oppressive gloom.
"We turn aside from the road here," he announced.
"Is that wise?" Durnik asked. "There are woods hereabout, and I've
heard that there may be robbers hiding there. Even if there aren't any
robbers, aren't we likely to lose our way in the dark?" He looked up at
the murky sky, his plain face, dimly seen, troubled. "I wish there was a
moon."
"I don't think we need to be afraid of robbers," Wolf said
confidently, "and I'm just as happy that there isn't a moon. I don't
think we're being followed yet, but it's just as well that no one
happens to see us pass. Murgo gold can buy most secrets." And with that
he led them into the fields that lay beside the road.
For Garion the fields were impossible. If he had stumbled now and
then on the road, the unseen furrows, holes, and clumps in the rough
ground seemed to catch at his feet with every step. At the end of a
mile, when they reached the black edge of the woods, he was almost ready
to weep with exhaustion.
"How can we find our way in there?" he demanded, peering into the utter darkness of the woods.
"There's a woodcutter's track not far to this side," Wolf said,
pointing. "We only have a little farther to go." And he set off again,
following the edge of the dark woods, with Garion and the others
stumbling along behind him. "Here we are," he said finally, stopping to
allow them to catch up. "It's going to be very dark in there, and the
track isn't wide. I'll go first, and the rest of you follow me."
"I'll be right behind you, Garion," Durnik said. "Don't worry.
Everything will be all right." There was a note in the smith's voice,
however, that hinted that his words were more to reassure himself than
to calm the boy.
It seemed warmer in the woods. The trees sheltered them from the
gusty wind, but it was so dark that Garion could not understand how Wolf
could possibly find his way. A dreadful suspicion grew in his mind that
Wolf actually did not know where he was going and was merely
floundering along blindly, trusting to luck.
"Stop," a rumbling voice suddenly, shockingly, said directly ahead of
them. Garion's eyes, accustomed slightly now to the gloom of the woods,
saw a vague outline of something so huge that it could not possibly be a
man.
"A giant!" he screamed in a sudden panic. Then, because he was
exhausted and because everything that had happened that evening had
simply piled too much upon him all at one time, his nerve broke and he
bolted into the trees.
"Garion!" Aunt Pol's voice cried out after him, "come back!"
But panic had taken hold of him. He ran on, falling over roots and
bushes, crashing into trees and tangling his legs in brambles. It seemed
like some endless nightmare of blind flight. He ran full tilt into a
lowhanging, unseen branch, and sparks flared before his eyes with the
sudden blow to his forehead. He lay on the damp earth, gasping and
sobbing, trying to clear his head.
And then there were hands on him, horrid, unseen hands. A thousand
terrors flashed through his mind at once, and he struggled desperately,
trying to draw his dagger.
"Oh, no," a voice said. "None of that, my rabbit." His dagger was taken from him.
"Are you going to eat me?" Garion babbled, his voice breaking.
His captor laughed.
"On your feet, rabbit," he said, and Garion felt himself pulled up by
a strong hand. His arm was taken in a firm grasp, and he was half
dragged through the woods.
Somewhere ahead there was a light, a winking fire among the trees,
and it seemed that he was being taken that way. He knew that he must
think, must devise some means of escape, but his mind, stunned by fright
and exhaustion, refused to function.
There were three wagons sitting in a rough half circle around the
fire. Durnik was there, and Wolf, and Aunt Pol, and with them a man so
huge that Garion's mind simply refused to accept the possibility that he
was real. His tree-trunk sized legs were wrapped in furs cross-tied
with leather thongs, and he wore a chain-mail shirt that reached to his
knees, belted at the waist. From the belt hung a ponderous sword on one
side and a short-handled axe on the other. His hair was in braids, and
he had a vast, bristling red beard.
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