"That's all right, Holy Seeress," he said. "I think we can come up with a workable answer to the question by ourselves.” He looked at Belgarath. "All right," he said. "Torak tried to frighten me with nightmares, and now it looks as if Zandramas is trying to do the same thing, except that this time, she's doing it to all of us. If it's not one of those usual repetitions, what is it?"

"That boy's beginning to develop a rather keen analytical mind, Belgarath," Beldin said.

"Naturally," the old man said modestly.

"Don't wrench your shoulder out of its socket trying to pat yourself on the back," Beldin said sourly. He rose to his feet and started pacing up and down, his forehead creased in thought. "Now then," he began, "first: This isn't just one of the tedious repetitions that have been dogging us since the beginning, right?"

"Right," Belgarath agreed.

"Second: It happened in about the same way last time." He looked at Garion.

"Right?" he asked.

"Right," Garion said.

"That's only two times. Twice can be a coincidence, but let's assume that it's not. We know that the Child of Light always has companions, but that the Child of Dark is always solitary."

"So Cyradis tells us," Belgarath agreed.

"She doesn't have any reason to lie to us. All right, if the Child of Light has companions but the Child of Dark is alone, wouldn't that put the Dark at a serious disadvantage?"

"You'd think so."

"But the two have always been so evenly matched that not even the Gods can predict the outcome. The Child of Dark is using something to offset the apparent advantage of our side. I think these nightmares might be part of it.”

Silk rose and came over to Garion. "Discussions like this make my head ache," he said quietly. "I'm going up on deck for a while." He left the cabin, and for no apparent reason the gangly young wolf followed him.

“I don't really think a few nightmares would make that much difference, Beldin," Belgarath disagreed.

"But what if the nightmares are only a part of it, Old Wolf?" Poledra asked him. "You and Pol were both at Vo Mimbre, and that was one of these meetings, too. You two have been companions of the Child of Light twice already. What happened at Vo Mimbre?"

"We did have nightmares," Belgarath conceded to Beldin.

"Anything else?" the dwarf asked intently.

"We saw things that weren't there, but that could have come from all the Grolims in the vicinity."

"And?"

“Everybody went sort of crazy. It was all we could do to keep Brand from trying to attack Torak with his teeth, and at Cthol Mishrak I entombed Belzedar in solid rock, and then Pol wanted to dig him up so that she could drink his blood."

"Father! I did not." she objected.

"Oh, really? You were very angry that day, Pol."