"Me?" Silk leaned back comfortably. "You're not going to have all that many daughters, are you? What I'm getting at is that women are only of childbearing age for just so long."

"Silk," Garion said pointedly, "do you remember Xbell, that Dryad we met down near the River of the Woods in southern Tolnedra?"

"The one who was so fond of men all men?"

"That's the one. Would you say that she's still of childbearing age?"

"Oh, my yes."

"Xbell is over three hundred years old. Ce'Nedra's a Dryad, too, you know."

"Well, maybe you'll get too old to " Silk broke off and looked at Belgarath. "Oh, dear," he said. "You have got a bit of a problem, haven't you?"

It was almost noon when they boarded the Seabird. Barak had agreed, although somewhat reluctantly, to follow Captain Kresca to Perivor. After the two men had met and inspected each other's ships, however, things went more smoothly. Kresca had been lavish in his praise of Seabird, and that was always a way to get on the good side of Barak.

As they weighed anchor, Garion leaned on the starboard rail gazing at the strange-looking pyramid sticking out of the sea with a pillar of greasy smoke rising from the amphitheater on its north side.

"I'd have given a great deal to have been there," Hettar said quietly, leaning his elbows on the rail beside Garion. “How was it?"

"Noisy," Garion told him.

"Why did Belgarath insist on burning that dragon?"

"He felt sorry for her."

"Belgarath's funny sometimes."

"He is indeed, my friend. How are Adara and the children?"

"Fine. She's with child again, you know."

"Again? Hettar, you two are almost as bad as Relg and Taiba."

"Not quite," Hettar said modestly. "They're still a few ahead of us." He frowned critically, his hawk like face outlined against the sun. "I think somebody's cheating, though. Taiba keeps having babies in twos and threes. That makes it very hard for Adara to keep up.”

"I wouldn't want to point any fingers, but I'd suspect that Mara's been interfering there. It's going to take awhile to repopulate Maragor." He looked over to where Unrak stood in the bow with his shadow, Nathel, just behind him.

"What's that all about?" he asked.

“I’m not sure," Hettar said. "Nathel's a pathetic sort of boy, and I think Unrak feels sorry for him. I gather there hasn't been too much kindness in Nathel's life, so he'll even accept pity. He's been following Unrak around like a puppy ever since we picked him up." The tall Algar looked at Garion. "You look tired," he said. "You should get some sleep."

"I'm exhausted," Garion admitted, "but I don't want to get my days and nights turned around. Let's go talk with Barak. He seemed just a bit surly when he came ashore."