"If all you're going to do is talk in riddles, why bother with it at all? Why go to all the trouble of saying things that nobody's able to understand?"

"Because it's necessary to say it. The word determines the event. The word puts limits on the event and shapes it. Without the word, the event is merely a random happening. That's the whole purpose of what you call prophecy - to separate the significant from the random. "

"I don't understand."

"I didn't think you would, but you asked, after all. Now stop worrying about it. It has nothing to do with you."

Garion wanted to protest, but the voice was gone. The conversation, however, had made him feel a little better - not much, but a little. To take his mind off it, he pulled his horse in beside Belgarath's as they reentered the forest on the far side of the burn. "Exactly who are the Morindim, Grandfather?" he asked. "Everybody keeps talking about them as if they were terribly dangerous."

"They are," Belgarath replied, "but you can get through their country if you're careful."

"Are they on Torak's side?"

"The Morindim aren't on anybody's side. They don't even live in the same world with us."

"I don't follow that."

"The Morindim are like the Ulgos used to be - before UL accepted them. There were several groups of Godless Ones. They all wandered off in various directions. The Ulgos went to the west, the Morindim went north. Other groups went south or east and disappeared."

"Why didn't they just stay where they were?"

"They couldn't. There's a kind of compulsion involved in the decisions of the Gods. Anyway, the Ulgos finally found themselves a God. The Morindim didn't. The compulsion to remain separated from other people is still there. They live in that treeless emptiness up there beyond the north range - small nomadic bands, mostly."

"What did you mean when you said that they don't live in the same world with us?"

"The world is a pretty terrible place for a Morind - a demon-haunted place. They worship devils and they live more in dreams than they do in reality. Their society is dominated by the dreamers and the magicians."

"There aren't really any devils, are there?" Garion asked skeptically.

"Oh, yes. The devils are very real."

"Where do they come from?"

Belgarath shrugged. "I haven't any idea. They do exist, though, and they're completely evil. The Morindim control them by the use of magic."

"Magic? Is that different from what we do?"

"Quite a bit. We're sorcerers - at least that's what we're called. What we do involves the Will and the Word, but that's not the only way to do things."

"I don't quite follow."