Sadi had opened his red leather case and he handed Polgara one of his little vials. She judiciously tapped three drops of the yellow liquid into a cup and then filled the cup with water.

"Ce'Nedra, dear," she said to the little queen, "you must be thirsty. This might help.” She handed the cup to the red-haired girl.

"Why, thank you, Lady Polgara." Ce'Nedra drank deeply. " As a matter of fact, I was just about to ask someone for a drink of water."

"Very smooth, Pol," Beldin whispered.

"Rudimentary, uncle."

"Do you have any idea of what they're talking about?" Zakath asked Garion.

"Aunt Pol implanted the notion of thirst into Ce'Nedra's mind."

"You people can actually do that?"

"As she said, it's rudimentary."

"Can you do it?"

"I don't know. I’ve never tried." Garion's attention was, however, firmly fixed on his blissfully smiling little wife.

Polgara calmly waited.

"I think you can begin now, Lady Polgara," Sadi said after a few minutes.

"Sadi," she said absently, "we know each other well enough by now to skip the formalities, I'm not going to choke over 'your Excellency,' so why should you strangle on 'my Lady'?"

"Why, thank you, Polgara."

"Now, Ce'Nedra," Polgara said.

"Yes, Aunt Pol?" the tiny queen said, her eyes slightly unfocused.

"There's a first," Silk said to Beldin.

"She's been living with Garion for quite a while now," the dwarf replied. "Things do rub off after a bit."

“I wonder what Polgara'd do if I called her by that name?”

“I don't recommend experimentation,” Beldin told him. “It's up to you, though, and you'd make a very interesting looking radish."

"Ce'Nedra," Polgara said, "why don't you tell me exactly how you got your baby back?"

"Arell found him for me." Ce'Nedra smiled. "Now I have even more reason to love Arell.”

"We all love Arell."

"Isn't he beautiful?" Ce'Nedra turned back the blanket to reveal her rags.

"He's lovely, dear. Did you and Arell have a chance to talk at all?"

"Oh, yes, Aunt Pol. She's doing something that's very important. That's why she couldn't join us just now. She said she might be able to catch up with us at Perivor or maybe later at Korim."

"Then she knew where we're going?"

"Oh, no, Aunt Pol." Ce'Nedra laughed. "I had to tell her. She does so want to be with us, but she has this important thing to do. She asked me where we were going, and I told her about Perivor and Korim. She seemed a little surprised about Korim, though."

Aunt Pol's eyes narrowed. "I see," she said. "Durnik, why don't you set up a tent? I think Ce'Nedra and her baby should get a little rest."

"Right away, Pol," her husband agreed after a quick look at her.