Belgarath laughed. If I start telling that story, well still be sitting here a year from now, and we wont even be half-way through by then. Weve all got better things to do.
Do we really, grandfather? Garion asked. You just said that our part of this is over. Wouldnt this be a good time to sum it all up?
What good would it do? Youve got a kingdom to run, and Durniks got this farm to tend. Youve both got more important things to do than sit around listening to me tell stories.
Write it down, then. The notion suddenly caught fire in Garions mind. You know, grandfather, the more I think about it, the more I think you ought to do just that. Youve been here since the very beginning. Youre the only one who knows the whole story. You really should write it down, you know. Tell the world what really happened.
Belgaraths expression grew pained. The world doesnt care, Garion. All Id do is offend a lot of people. Theyve got their own preconceptions, and theyre happy with them. Im not going to spend the next fifty years scribbling on scraps of paper just so that people can travel to the Vale from the other side of the world to argue with me. Besides, Im not a historian. I dont mind telling stories, but writing them down doesnt appeal to me. If I took on a project like that, my hand would fall off after a couple of years.
Dont be coy, grandfather. Durnik and I both know that you dont have to do it by hand. You can think the words onto paper without ever picking up a pen.
Forget it, Belgarath said shortly. Im not going to waste my time on something as ridiculous as that.
Youre lazy, Belgarath, Durnik accused.
Are you only just noticing that? I thought you were more observant.
You wont do it then? Garion demanded.
Not unless somebody comes up with a better reason than you two have so far.
The bedroom door opened, and Poledra came out into the kitchen. Are you three going to talk all night? she demanded in a quiet voice. If you are, go do it someplace else. If you wake the babies she left it hanging ominously.
We were just thinking about going to bed, dear, Belgarath lied blandly.
Well, do it then. Dont just sit there and talk about it.
Belgarath stood up and stretched perhaps just a bit theatrically. Shes right, you know, he said to his two friends. Itll be daylight before long, and the twins have been resting up all night. If were going to get any sleep, wed better do it now.
Later, after the three of them had climbed up into the loft and rolled themselves into blankets on the pallets Durnik kept stored up there, Garion lay looking down at the slowly waning firelight and the flickering shadows in the room below. He thought of CeNedra and his own children, of course, but then he let his mind drift back over the events of this most special of nights. Aunt Pol had always been at the very center of his life, and with the birth of her twins, her life was now fulfilled.
Near to sleep, the Rivan King found his thoughts going back over the conversation he had just had with Durnik and his grandfather. He was honest enough with himself to admit that his desire to read Belgaraths history of the world was not entirely academic. The old sorcerer was a very strange and complex man, and his story promised to provide insights into his character that could come from no other source. Hed have to be pushed, of course. Belgarath was an expert at avoiding work of any kind. Garion, however, thought he knew of a way to pry the story out of his grandfather. He smiled to himself as the fire burned lower and lower in the room below. He knew he could find out how it all began.
And then, because it was really quite late, Garion fell asleep, and, perhaps because of all the familiar things in Aunt Pols kitchen down below, he dreamed of Faldors farm, where his story had begun.
PART ONE
The Vale
Chapter 1
The problem with any idea is the fact that the more it gets bandied about, the more feasible it seems to become. What starts out as idle speculation something mildly entertaining to while away a few hours before going to bed can become, once others are drawn into it, a kind of obligation. Why cant people understand that just because Im willing to talk about something, it doesnt automatically follow that Im actually willing to do it?
As a case in point, this all started with Durniks rather inane remark about wanting to hear the whole story. You know how Durnik is, forever taking things apart to see what makes them work. I can forgive him in this case, however. Pol had just presented him with twins, and new fathers tend to be a bit irrational. Garion, on the other hand, should have had sense enough to leave it alone. I curse the day when I encouraged that boy to be curious about first causes. He can be so tedious about some things. If hed have just let it drop, I wouldnt be saddled with this awful chore.
But no. The two of them went on and on about it for day after day as if the fate of the world depended on it. I tried to get around them with a few vague promises nothing specific, mind you and fervently hoped that theyd forget about the whole silly business.
Then Garion did something so unscrupulous, so underhanded, that it shocked me to the very core. He told Polgara about the stupid idea, and when he got back to Riva, he told CeNedra. That would have been bad enough, but would you believe that he actually encouraged those two to bring Poledra into it?
Ill admit right here that it was my own fault. My only excuse is that I was a little tired that night. Id inadvertently let something slip that Ive kept buried in my heart for three eons. Poledra had been with child, and Id gone off and left her to fend for herself. Ive carried the guilt over that for almost half of my life. Its like a knife twisting inside me. Garion knew that, and he coldly, deliberately, used it to force me to take on this ridiculous project. He knows that under these circumstances, I simply cannot refuse anything my wife asks of me.
Poledra, of course, didnt put any pressure on me. She didnt have to. All she had to do was suggest that shed rather like to have me go along with the idea. Under the circumstances, I didnt have any choice. I hope that the Rivan King is happy about what hes done to me.
This is most certainly a mistake. Wisdom tells me that it would be far better to leave things as they are, with event and cause alike half-buried in the dust of forgotten years. If it were up to me, Id leave it that way. The truth is going to upset a lot of people.