"No, that's all right, Zakath." The dwarf grinned. "As long as I'm on the opposite side from at least some Angaraks, I like to be able to hear them coming. Did Kheldar make it back yet?”

"Not yet," Garion told him.

"What's he doing? These stone blocks are much too big to steal."

Then Silk slipped over the edge of the niche and dropped tightly to the stone floor. "You're not going to believe this," he said.

"Probably not," Velvet said, "but why don't you go ahead and tell us anyway?"

"This peak is man-made or at least something made it. These blocks encircle it like terraces, all straight and smooth. The thing forms steps up to that flat place on top. There's an altar up there and a huge throne.”

"So that's what it meant!" Beldin exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "Belgarath, have you ever read the Book of Torak?"

"I’ve struggled through it a few times. My Old Angarak isn't really all that good."

"You can speak Old Angarak?" Zakath asked with some surprise. "It's a forbidden language here in Mallorea. I suspect Torak was changing a few things, and he didn't want anyone to catch him at it."

"I learned it before the prohibition went into effect. What's the point of this, Beldin?”

"Do you remember that passage near the beginning in the middle of all that conceited blather when Torak said he went up into the High Places of Korim to argue with UL about the creation of the world?"

"Vaguely."

"Anyway, UL didn't want anything to do with it, so Torak turned his back on his father and went down and gathered up the Angaraks and led them back to Korim. He told them what he had in mind for them, and then, in true Angarak fashion, they fell down on their faces and started butchering each other as sacrifices. There's a word in that passage, 'Halagachak.' It means 'temple,' or something like that. I always thought that Torak was speaking figuratively, but he wasn't. This peak is that temple. The altar up there more or less confirms it, and these terraces were where the Angaraks stood to watch while the Grolims sacrificed people to their God. If I'm right, this is also the place where Torak spoke with his father. Regardless of how you feel about old Burnt-Face, this is one of the holiest places on earth."

"You keep talking about Torak's father," Zakath said, looking puzzled. "I didn't know that the Gods had fathers."

"Of course they do," Ce'Nedra said loftily. "Everybody knows that."

"I didn't."

“UL is their father,” she said in a deliberately offhand manner.

"Isn't he the God of the Ulgos?"

"Not by choice exactly," Belgarath told him. "The original Gorim more or less bullied him into it."

"How do you bully a God?"

"Carefully," Beldin said, "Very, very carefully."

"I’ve met UL," Ce'Nedra supplied gratuitously. "He sort of likes me."