David Eddings - Malloreon 2 King of the Murgos

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PROLOGUE

Being an account of how Belgarion's Son was stolen and how he learned

the Abductor was that Zandramas against whom the puissant Orb ofAldur

had warned. —from The Lives ofBelgarion the Great (Introduction, Vol.

IV)

Now, as has been told, in the earliest of days the Gods created the

world and filled it with all manner of beasts and fowls and plants.

Men also they created, and each God chose from among the races of men

those whom they would guide and over whom they would rule. The God

Aldur, however, took none, choosing to live apart in his tower and

study the creation which they had made.

But a time came when a hungry child arrived at Aldur's tower, and

Aldur took the child in and taught him the Will

2 KING OF THE MURGOS

and the Word, by which all power may be used, in the manner that men

call sorcery. And when the boy showed promise, Aldur named him

Belgarath and made him a disciple. Then in time others came, and

Aldur taught them and made them also his disciples. Among these was a

malformed child whom Aldur named Beldin.

There came a day when Aldur took up a stone and shaped it and he

called it his Orb, for the stone had fallen from beyond the stars and

was a seat of great power, a center for one of the two Destinies

which had been in conflict for control of all creation since the

beginning of days.

But the God Torak coveted the stone and stole it, for the Dark

Destiny had claimed his soul for its agent. Then the men of Aloria,

known as Alorns, met with Belgarath, who led Cherek Bear-shoulders

and his three sons into the far East where Torak had built Cthol

Mishrak, the City of Eternal Night. By stealth, they stole back the

Orb and returned with it.

With the counsel of the Gods, Belgarath divided Aloria into the

kingdoms of Cherek, Drasnia, Algaria, and Riva, naming each for one

who had accompanied him. And to Riva Iron-grip, who was to rule over

the Isle of the Winds, he gave the keeping of the Orb, which Riva

placed on the pommel of the great sword that he hung upon the wall of

the Hall of the Rivan King, behind his throne.

Then Belgarath sought his home, but found tragedy awaiting him. His

beloved wife Poledra had passed from the world of the living in

giving birth to twin girls. In time, he sent Beldaran, the fairer of

these, to be a wife to Riva Iron-grip to found the line of Rivan

kings. His other daughter, Polgara, he kept with him, since her dark

hair bore a single lock of white, the mark of a sorceress.

Guarded by the power of the Orb, all went well with the West for

thousands of years. Then, on an evil day, King Gorek of Riva and his

sons and sons' sons were slain by foul treachery. One child escaped,

however, to be henceforth guarded in secret by Belgarath and Polgara.

On the Isle, the Rivan Warder, Brand, sorrowfully took over the

authority of his slain lord, and his sons continued to guard Aldur's

Orb and all were known as Brand.

But there came a time when Zedar the Apostate found a child of such

innocence that he could touch the Orb without being destroyed by its

fire. Thus Zedar stole the Orb and

DAVID EDDINGS 3

fled with it toward the place where his dread Master, Torak, lay

hidden.

When Belgarath learned of this, he went up to the quiet farm in

Sendaria where Polgara was rearing a boy named Garion, who was the

last descendant of the Rivan line. Taking the boy with them, they set

out after the Orb. After many perilous adventures, they found the

child, whom they named Errand. And, with Errand bearing the Orb, they

returned to set the Orb back upon the sword.

Then Garion, now named Belgarion for the powers of sorcery he had

shown, learned of the Prophecy, which revealed that the time was at

hand when he, as the Child of Light, must confront the evil God

Torak, to kill or to be killed. Fearfully, he departed eastward for

the City of Endless Night to meet his fate. But with the aid of the

great sword that bore the Orb of Aldur, he prevailed and slew the

God.

Thus Belgarion, descendant of Riva Iron-grip, was crowned King of

Riva and Overlord of the West. He took to wife the Tolnedran Princess

Ce'Nedra, while Polgara took the faithful smith Durnik as her

husband, since the Gods had raised him from the dead and had given

him the power of sorcery to be her equal. With Belgarath, she and

Durnik left for the Vale of Aldur in Algaria, where they planned to

rear the strange, gentle child Errand.

The years passed as Belgarion learned to be a husband to his young

bride and began mastering his powers of sorcery and the power of his

throne. There was peace in the West, but trouble stirred in the

South, where Kal Zakath, Emperor of Mallorea, waged war upon the King

of the Murgos. And Belgarath, returning from a trip to Mallorea,

reported dark rumors of a stone known as the Sardion. But what it

might be, other than an object of fear, he could not say.

Then on a night when young Errand was visiting in the Citadel at

Riva, he and Belgarion were awakened by the voice of the Prophecy

within their minds and directed to the throne room. And there the

blue Orb on the pommel of the sword turned angry red of a sudden and

it spoke, saying, "Beware Zandramasf" But none could learn who or

what Zandramas was.

Now, after years of waiting, Ce'Nedra found herself with child. But

the fanatic followers of the Bear-cult were active again, crying that

no Toinedran should be Queen and that she must be set aside for one

of the true blood of the Alorns.

4 KING OF THE MURGOS

When the Queen was great with child, she was set upon by an assassin

in her bath and almost drowned. The assassin fled to the tower of the

Citadel and from there threw herself to her death. But Prince

Kheldar, the Drasnian adventurer who was also known as Silk, saw from

her garments that she might be a follower of the cult. Belgarion was

wroth, but he did not yet move to war.

Time passed, and Queen Ce'Nedra was delivered of a healthy male heir

to the Throne of Riva. And great was the rejoicing from all the lands

of the Alorns and beyond, and notables assembled at Riva to rejoice

and celebrate this happy birth.

When all had departed and peace again descended upon the Citadel,

Belgarion resumed his studies of the ancient Prophecy which men

called the Mrin Codex. A strange blot had long troubled him, but now

he found that he could read it in the light cast by the Orb. Thus he

learned that the Dark Prophecy and his obligations as the Child of

Light had not ended with the slaying of Torak. The Child of Dark was

now Zandramas, whom he must meet in time to come "in the place which

is no more."

His soul was heavy within him as he journeyed hastily to confer with

his grandfather Belgarath in the Vale of Aldur. But even as he was

speaking with the old man, new words of ill were brought him by

messenger. Assassins had penetrated the Citadel at night, and the

faithful Rivan Warder, Brand, had been killed.

With Belgarath and his Aunt Polgara, Belgarion sped to Riva, where

one assassin weakly clung to life. Prince Kheldar arrived and was

able to identify the comatose assassin as a member of the Bear-cult.

New evidence revealed that the cult was massing an army at Rheon in

Drasnia and was building a fleet at Jarviksholm on the coast of

Cherek.

Now King Belgarion declared war upon the Bear-cult. Upon the advice

of the other Alorn monarchs, he moved first against the shipyards at

Jarviksholm to prevent the threat of a hostile fleet in the Sea of

the Winds. His attack was quick and savage. Jarviksholm was razed to

the ground, and the half-built fleet was burned before a single keel

touched water.

But victory turned to ashes when a message from Riva reached him. His

infant son had been abducted.

Belgarion, Belgarath, and Polgara turned themselves into

DAVID EDDINGS 5

birds by sorcery and flew back to Riva in a single day. The city of

Riva had already been searched house by house. But with the aid of

the Orb, Belgarion was able to follow the trail of the abductors to

the west coast of the Isle. There they came upon a band of Cherek

cultists and fell upon them. One survived, and Polgara forced him to

speak. He declared that the child had been stolen on the orders of

Ulfgar, leader of the Bear-cult, whose headquarters were at Rheon in

eastern Drasnia. Before Polgara could wrest further information from

him, however, the cultist leaped from the top of the cliff upon which

they stood and dashed himself to death on the rocks below.

Now the war turned to Rheon. Belgarion found his troops badly

outnumbered and an ambush awaiting his advance toward the city. He

was facing defeat when Prince Kheldar arrived with a force of Nadrak

mercenaries to turn the tide of battle. Reinforced by the Nadraks,

the Rivans besieged the city of Rheon.

Belgarion and Durnik combined their wills to weaken the wails of the

city until the siege engines of Baron Mandorallen could bring them

down. The Rivans and Nadraks poured into the city, led by Belgarion.

The battle inside was savage, but the cultists were driven back and

most of them were slaughtered. Then Belgarion and Durnik captured the

cult leader, Ulfgar.

Though Belgarion had already learned that his son was not within the

city, he hoped that close questioning might drag the child's

whereabouts from Ulfgar. The cult leader stubbornly refused to

answer; then, surprisingly, Errand drew the information directly from

Ulfgar's mind.

While it became clear that Ulfgar had been responsible for the

attempt on Ce'Nedra's life, he had played no part in the theft of the

child. Indeed, his chief goal had been the death of Beigarion's son,

preferably before its birth. He obviously knew nothing of the

abduction, which did not at all suit his purpose.

Then the sorcerer Beldin joined them. He quickly recognized Ulfgar as

Harakan, an underling of Torak's last living disciple Urvon. Harakan

suddenly vanished, and Beldin sped in pursuit.

Messengers now arrived from Riva. Investigations following

Beigarion's departure had discovered a shepherd in the hills who had

seen a figure carrying what might have been

6 KING OF THE MURGOS

a baby embark upon a ship of Nyissan design and sail southward.

Then Cyradis, a Seeress of Kell, sent a projection of herself to tell

them more. The child, she claimed, had been taken by Zandramas, who

had spun such a web of deceit to throw the blame upon Harakan that

even the cult members who had been left behind to be discovered had

believed what Polgara had extracted from the captive on the cliff of

the Isle of the Winds.

Clearly, she said, the Child of Dark had stolen the baby for a

purpose. That purpose was connected with the Sardion. Now they must

pursue Zandramas. Beyond that she would not speak, except to identify

those who must go with Bel-garion. Then, leaving her huge, mute guide

Toth behind to accompany them, she vanished.

Belgarion's heart sank within him as he realized that his son's

abductor was now months ahead and that the trail had grown extremely

dim. But he grimly gathered his companions to pursue Zandramas, even

to the edge of the world or beyond, if need be.

Part One

THE SERPENT QUEEN

CHAPTER ONE

Somewhere in the darkness, Garion could hear the crystalline tap of

water dripping with a slow, monotonous regularity. The air around him

was cool, smelling of rock and dampness overlaid with the musty odor

of pallid white things that grow in the dark and flinch from the

light. He found himself straining to catch all the myriad sounds that

whispered through the dark caves of Ulgo—the moist trickle of water,

the dusty slither of dislodged pebbles slowly running down a shallow

incline, and the mournful sighing of air coming down from the surface

through minute fissures in the rock.

Belgarath stopped and lifted the smoky torch that filled the

passageway with flickering orange light and leaping shadows. "Wait

here a moment," he said, and then he moved off down the murky gallery

with his scuffed, mismatched

KING OF THE MURGOS

boots shuffling along the uneven floor. The rest of them waited with

the darkness pressing in all around them.

"I hate this," Silk muttered, half to himself. "I absolutely hate

it."

They waited.

The ruddy flicker of Belgarath's torch reappeared at the farend of

the gallery. "Allright," hecalled. "It's this way."

Garion put his arm about Ce'Nedra's slender shoulders. A kind of deep

silence had fallen over her during their ride south from Rheon as it

had grown increasingly evident that their entire campaign against the

Bear-cult in eastern Drasnia had done little more than give Zandramas

a nearly insurmountable lead with the abducted Geran. The frustration

that made Garion want to beat his fists against the rocks around him

and howl in impotent fury had plunged Ce'Nedra into a profound

depression instead, and now she stumbled through the dark caves of

Ulgo, sunk in a kind of numb misery, neither knowing nor caring where

the others led her. He turned his head to look back at Polgara, his

face mirroring all his deep concern. The look she returned him was

grave, but seemingly unperturbed. She parted the front of her blue

cloak and moved her hands in the minute gestures of the Drasnian

secret language. —Be sure she stays warm—she said. —She's very

susceptible to chills just now,—

A half-dozen desperate questions sprang into Garion's mind; but with

Ce'Nedra at his side with his arm about her shoulders, there was no

way he could voice them.

—It's important for you to stay calm, Garion—Polgara's ringers told

him. —Don't let her know how concerned you are. I'm watching her, and

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摘要：

PROLOGUEBeinganaccountofhowBelgarion'sSonwasstolenandhowhelearnedtheAbductorwasthatZandramasagainstwhomthepuissantOrbofAldurhadwarned.—fromTheLivesofBelgariontheGreat(Introduction,Vol.IV)Now,ashasbeentold,intheearliestofdaystheGodscreatedtheworldandfilleditwithallmannerofbeastsandfowlsandplants.Mena...

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David Eddings - Malloreon 2 King of the Murgos

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