“Are you sure you're not older than Belgarath? Your memory seems to be slipping a bit, old boy."

"Don't belabor it, Silk. Let's go see if we can signal that oversized barge into shore."

The two of them started down to the edge of the water.

“Was that arranged?” Garion asked Eriond.” Barak showing up, I mean?"

"We had a hand in it, yes," Eriond admitted. "You're going to need transportation back to Riva, and Barak and the others are sort of entitled to find out what happened here."

"The others, too? Is that all right? I mean, at Rheon Cyradis said "

"There's no problem now.” Eriond smiled. "The Choice has been made. There are quite a number of people on their way to meet us, actually. Our mutual friend has a passion for tying up loose ends."

"You've noticed that already, I see."

The Seabird hove to on the lee side of the reef, and a longboat put out from her starboard side to glide across what seemed to Garion to be a molten stretch of water made golden by the setting sun. They all went down to the shore to join Silk and Beldin as the longboat ran smoothly toward the shore of the reef.

"What kept you?" Silk called across the intervening water to Barak, who stood, his beard aflame in the light of the setting sun, in the prow of the boat.

Barak was grinning broadly. "How did things turn out?" he shouted.

"Quite well, actually," Silk called back. Then he seemed to think of something. "Sorry, Cyradis," he said to the Seeress. "That was insensitive of me, wasn't it?"

"Not entirely, Prince Kheldar. My companion's sacrifice was made willingly, and methinks his spirit doth rejoice in our success even as we do."

They were all in the boat with Barak, Garion saw. Mandorallen's armor gleamed just behind the huge Cherek. Hettar, lean and whiplike, was there, and Lelldorin, and even Relg. Barak's son Unrak was chained in the stern. Unrak had grown, but the restraints upon him were puzzling.

Barak placed one huge foot on the gunwale, preparing to leap from the boat.

"Careful," Silk told him. "It's deep right there. There are a fair number of Grolims who found that out the hard way."

"Did you throw them out into the water?" Barak asked.

"No. They volunteered."

The longboat's keel grated on the wave-eroded stones of the amphitheater, and Barak and the others clambered out. "Did we miss very much?" the big man asked.

"Not really," Silk replied with a shrug. "It was just your average, run-of-the-mill saving of the universe. You know how those things are. Is your son in trouble?" Silk looked at Unrak, who seemed a bit crestfallen in his chains.

"Not exactly that," Barak replied. "Along about noon, he turned into a bear, that's all. We sort of thought it was significant."

"It runs in your family, I see. But why chain him now?"