"Where's Beldin?"

"He said that he had to keep an eye on the Grolims. Can you help us?"

"Ce'Nedra, I'm a thousand leagues away from you. Garion, Silk, and I are in Mallorea - practically on Torak's doorstep. If I so much as raise my hand, it will wake him, and Garion's not ready to meet him yet."

"We're doomed, then," Ce'Nedra wailed.

"Stop that," he snapped. "This isn't the time for hysterics. You're going to have to wake Polgara."

"We've tried - and Beldin says that we've got to let her rest."

"She can rest later," Belgarath retorted. "Is that bag she always carries somewhere about - the one she keeps all those herbs in?"

"I - I think so. Durnik was carrying it a little while ago."

"Durnik's with you? Good. Now listen, and listen carefully. Get the bag and open it. What you want will be in a silk pouch. Don't open any jars or bottles. She keeps her poisons in those. In one of the silk bags you'll find a yellow-colored powder. It has a very acrid odor to it. Put a spoonful or so of that powder into a pot of boiling water. Put the pot beside Pol's head and cover her face with a cloak so she has to breathe the fumes."

"What will that do?"

"It will wake her up."

"Are you sure?"

"Don't argue with me, Ce'Nedra. She'll wake up, believe me. Those fumes would wake up a dead stick. As soon as she's awake, she'll know what to do."

Ce'Nedra hesitated. "Is Garion there?" she blurted finally.

"He's asleep. We had a rough time last night."

"When he wakes up, tell him that I love him." She said it very fast, as if afraid that if she thought about it at all, she wouldn't be able to say it.

"Why confuse him?" the old man asked her.

"Belgarath!" Ce'Nedra's voice was stricken.

"I was teasing. I'll tell him. Now get to work - and don't do this any more. I'm trying to sneak up on Torak, and it's a little hard to sneak when you're shouting at somebody a thousand leagues away."

"We aren't shouting."

"Oh yes we are - it's a special kind of shouting, but it's shouting all the same. Now take your hand off that amulet and get to work." And then his voice was gone.

Durnik, of course, would never understand, so Ce'Nedra did what was necessary by herself. She rummaged around until she found a small pot. She filled it with water and set it on the small fire the smith had built the night before. Then she opened Polgara's herb bag. The blond child, Errand, stood at her side, watching her curiously.

"What are you doing, Princess?" Durnik asked, still hovering anxiously over the sleeping Polgara.

"I'm fixing something to make her rest easier," Ce'Nedra lied.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing? Some of those are very dangerous."