The knight bowed, beaming. Then he went back down the hallway.

"Where did you ever learn to speak like that, Kheldar?" Velvet asked in some surprise.

"Ah, dear Lady," Silk replied with outrageous extravagance, "knowest thou not that the poet doth lurk beneath the most common exterior? An it please thee, I will deliver unto thee fulsome compliments upon thine every ravishing and unsurpassed part." He eyed her up and down suggestively.

"Kheldar!" she exclaimed, blushing bright red.

"That's sort of fun, you know," Silk said, referring to the archaic speech at least Garion hoped that was what he was referring to. "Once you learn how to wrap your tongue around the 'haths,' and 'doths,' and 'forasmuches,' it has a certain ring and cadence to it, doesn't it?"

"We're surrounded by charlatans, mother." Polgara sighed.

"Belgarath," Durnik said seriously, "there's not much point in taking the horses, is there? What I mean is that we're going to be clambering over rocks and wading in surf when we get to the reef. Wouldn't the horses just be in the way?"

"You're probably right, Durnik," the old man agreed.

"I'll go down to the stables and talk with the grooms," the smith said. "The rest of you go on ahead. I'll catch up." He turned and left the room.

"An eminently practical man," Poledra observed.

"The poet, however, doth lurk beneath that most practical of exteriors, Mother " Polgara smiled " -and thou wouldst not believe how much pleasure I take in that aspect of him."

"I think it's time for us to get off this island, Old Wolf," Poledra said wryly. "Two more days and they'll all be sitting around composing bad poetry."

Servants arrived then to carry their packs to the harbor, and Garion and his companions trooped through the halls of the palace and out into the streets of Dal Perivor. Although the morning had dawned bright and sunny, a bank of heavy clouds had begun to build up off to the west, heavy, purple clouds that spoke eloquently of the likelihood of bad weather over Korim.

"I suppose we should have known." Silk sighed. "Once-just once I'd like to see one of these stupendous events happen in good weather."