‘What does he look like?’
I shrugged. ‘Tall, dark hair, blue eyes.’ I went over to the wash-stand and filled the basin with water. ‘Here,’ I said to her, ‘I’ll show you.’ And I put the image of Riva’s face on the surface of the water.
‘He’s gorgeous!’ she squealed. Then her eyes narrowed slightly. ‘Does he have to wear that beard?’
‘He’s an Alorn, Beldaran. Most Alorn men wear beards.’
‘Maybe I can talk to him about that.’
Polgara’s reaction was a bit peculiar. ‘Why did you choose Beldaran?’ she asked.
‘Actually I didn’t,’ I replied. ‘Riva did – or he had the choice made for him. He’s been dreaming about her ever since he landed on the Isle of the Winds. It was probably Belar who put Beldaran’s face in Riva’s dreams. Belar’s partial to blonde girls.’
‘This is ridiculous, father. You’re going to marry my sister off to a complete stranger.’
‘They’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other.’
‘How old is this Alorn?’
‘Oh, I don’t know – probably in his late thirties.’
‘You’re going to marry Beldaran to an old man?’
‘I’d hardly call thirty-five or forty old, Pol.’
‘Naturally you wouldn’t, since you’re thirty-five or forty thousand yourself.’
‘No. Four, actually.’
‘What?’
‘I’m four thousand, Pol, not forty thousand. Don’t make it any worse than it already is.’
‘When is this absurdity going to take place?’
‘We have to go to the Isle of the Winds first. It shouldn’t be too long after that. Alorns don’t believe in long engagements.’
She stormed out of the tower muttering curses.
‘I’d sort of hoped she’d be happy for me,’ Beldaran sighed.
‘She’ll come around, dear.’ I tried to sound hopeful about it, but I had some fairly serious doubts. Once Polgara got something in her mind, it was very hard to get her to turn around.
Things might have gone a little better if we’d been able to start out immediately, but it was still winter, and I had no intention of dragging my daughters out in bad weather. Beldaran put the time to good use sewing on her wedding gown. Polgara, however, took up residence in the tree again, and she steadfastly refused even to talk to us.
It was about a month after I’d made the decision when Riva’s cousin Anrak showed up in the Vale with another Alorn. ‘Ho, Belgarath!’ the boisterous Anrak greeted me. ‘Why are you still here?’
‘Because it’s still winter.’
‘Oh, it’s not all that bad. Riva’s getting impatient to meet the girl he’s going to marry.’
‘How did he find out about it?’
‘He had another one of those dreams.’
‘Oh. Who’s your friend?’
‘His name’s Gelheim. He’s a sort of an artist. Riva wants a picture of his bride.’
‘He knows what she looks like. He’s been dreaming about her for the last fifteen years.’
Anrak shrugged. ‘He just wants to be sure you’ve picked the right one, I guess.’
‘I don’t think Belar and Aldur would have let me make a mistake, do you?’
‘You never know. Sometimes the Gods are a little strange. Have you got anything to drink?’
‘I’ll introduce you to the twins. They make fairly good beer. They’re Alorns, so they know how it’s done.’
Beldaran and Anrak hit it off immediately, but Polgara was a different matter. It started out innocently enough one morning when Anrak came by just after breakfast. ‘I thought you had two daughters,’ Riva’s cousin said to me.
‘Yes,’ I told him. ‘Polgara’s a little unhappy with me right now. She’s living in a tree.’
‘It doesn’t sound to me as if she’s quite right in the head. Does she look like her sister?’
‘Not too much, no.’
‘I thought they were twins.’
‘That doesn’t always mean that they look alike.’
‘Where’s this tree of hers?’
‘Down in the center of the Vale.’
‘I think I’ll go down and have a look at her. If Riva’s going to get married, maybe I should, too.’
Beldaran giggled.
‘What’s so funny, Pretty?’ he asked her. It was his favorite nickname for her.
‘I don’t think my sister’s the marrying kind, Anrak. You can suggest it to her, if you’d like, but leave yourself plenty of running room when you do.’
‘Oh, she can’t be that bad.’
Beldaran concealed a smirk and gave him directions to the tree.
His eyes still looked a bit startled when he came back to the tower. ‘Unfriendly, isn’t she?’ he noted mildly. ‘Is she always that dirty?’
‘My sister doesn’t believe in bathing,’ Beldaran replied.
‘She doesn’t particularly believe in good manners, either. I could probably clean her up, but that mouth of hers might cause some problems. I’m not even sure what some of those words mean.’
‘What did you say to her to set her off?’ Beldaran asked him.
‘I was honest,’ Anrak replied with a shrug. ‘I told her that Riva and I usually did things together, and that as long as he was going to get married, I might as well, too – and since she wasn’t attached …’ He scratched at his beard. ‘That’s about as far as I got, actually.’ He looked slightly injured. ‘I’m not used to having people laugh at me. It was a perfectly honorable suggestion. It wasn’t as if I’d made an improper proposal.’ He went across the room to look into Beldaran’s mirror. ‘Is there something the matter with my beard?’ he asked. ‘It looks all right to me.’
‘Polgara’s not particularly partial to beards, Anrak,’ I explained.
‘She didn’t have to be so insulting though, did she? Do I really look like a rat hiding in a clump of bushes?’
‘Polgara exaggerates sometimes,’ Beldaran told him. ‘She takes a little getting used to.’
‘I don’t think it’d work out,’ he decided. ‘I’m not trying to insult you, Belgarath, but you left a lot of the bark on that one when you were raising her. If I decide that I really want to get married, I think I’ll choose a nice Alorn girl. Sorcerese girls are a little too complicated for me.’
‘Sorcerese?’
‘Isn’t that what your race is called?’
‘It’s a profession, Anrak, not a race.’
‘Oh. I didn’t know