"I think I could bear it." Garion grinned at him. "If nothing else, I could always start without you. You could drop by from time to time to see how things were going. Ce'Nedra can fix you supper. Of course, she's not a very good cook, but we all have to make a few sacrifices, don't we?"

They looked at each other for a moment and then burst out laughing. The process that had begun at Rak Urga with the quixotic Urgit was now complete. Garion realized with a certain amount of satisfaction that he had taken the first few steps toward ending five thousand years of unrelenting hatred between Alorn and Angarak.

The Dals paid little attention to them as they strolled along marble streets and past sparkling fountains. The inhabitants of Kell went about their activities quietly and contemplatively, their eyes lost in thought. They spoke but little, since speech among them was largely unnecessary.

"It's an eerie sort of place, isn't it?" Zakath observed. "I'm not used to cities where nobody does anything."

"Oh, they're doing something, all right."

"You know what I mean. There aren't any shops, and nobody's even out sweeping the streets."

"It is a little odd, I suppose." Garion looked around. "What's even odder is that we haven't seen a single seer since we got here. I thought this was the place where they lived."

"Maybe they stay indoors."

"That's possible, I suppose."

Their morning stroll gained them little information. They tried occasionally to strike up conversations with the white-robed citizens, and although the Dals were unfailingly polite, they volunteered little in the way of talk. They answered questions that were put to them, and that was about all.

"Frustrating, wasn't it?" Silk said when he and Sadi returned to the house that had been assigned to them. "I've never met a group of people so disinterested in talk. I couldn't even find anybody willing to discuss the weather.''

"Did you happen to see which way Ce'Nedra and Liselle went?" Garion asked him.

"Someplace over on the other side of town, I think. I imagine they'll come back when those young women bring us our lunch.''

Garion looked around at the others. "Did anybody happen to see any of the seers?" he asked.

"They aren't here," Polgara told him. She sat by a window mending one of Durnik's tunics. "One old woman told me they have a special place. It's not in the city."

"How did you manage to get an answer out of her?" Silk asked.

"I was fairly direct. You have to push the Dals a bit when you want information."

As Silk had predicted, Velvet and Ce'Nedra returned with the young women who were bringing their meals to them.

"You have a brilliant wife, Belgarion," Velvet said after the Dalasian women had left. "She sounded for all the world as if there weren't a brain in her head. She spent the morning babbling."

"Babbling?" Ce'Nedra objected.

"Weren't you?"