I willed a barrel of water into existence. ‘Quench them,’ I told him.
He picked up that huge blade with his tongs and plunged it into the water. The cloud of steam was really quite spectacular. Then he dropped the hilt in. ‘I still don’t think we’ll be able to put them together.’
‘Trust me.’
It took quite some time for the submerged pieces of iron to stop glowing. I had to refill the barrel twice before they started to turn black.
Riva tentatively stuck his hand into the water and touched the blade. ‘I think they’re cool enough now.’
‘Take out the Orb,’ I told him.
He looked around quickly. ‘I don’t see any Angaraks,’ he said.
‘No. This is something else.’
He reached inside his tunic and took out the glowing Orb. It looked very small in that massive hand of his.
‘Now fish out the hilt,’ I instructed.
He plunged his arm into the barrel and brought out that huge hilt.
‘Put the Orb where the pommel ought to be.’
‘Why?’
‘Just do it. You’ll see.’
He held up the hilt in one hand and put the Orb against the bottom of the handle. The click that came when they adhered together was clearly audible. Riva gasped.
‘It’s all right,’ I told him. ‘That was supposed to happen. Now pick up the blade and put the bottom of it against the top of the hilt.’
He did that. ‘Now what?’
‘Push.’
‘Push? What do you mean, push?’
‘You know what the word means. Push the blade into the hilt.’
‘That’s ridiculous, Belgarath. They’re both solid steel.’
I sighed. ‘Just try it, Riva. Don’t stand around arguing with me. This is magic, and I’m the expert. Don’t push too hard, or you’ll shove the blade all the way through.’
‘Have you been drinking?’
‘Do it, Riva!’
The blade made a strange singing sound as it slowly slid into the hilt, and the sound shuddered all the snow off nearby trees. When it was fully inserted, Riva tentatively wiggled the two pieces. Then he wrenched at them. ‘What an amazing thing!’ he said. ‘It’s all one piece now!’
‘Naturally. Grab the hilt and hold your sword up.’ This was the real test.
He took hold of the two-handed hilt and lifted that huge sword a foot or so. ‘It hardly weighs anything!’ he exclaimed.
‘The Orb’s carrying the weight,’ I explained. ‘Remember that when you have to take the Orb off. If you’re holding the sword in one hand when you do that, the weight of it’ll probably break your wrist. Raise the sword, Iron-grip.’
He lifted it easily over his head, and, as I’d hoped, it burst joyously into blue flame, shearing off the rough edges and polishing the sword to mirror brightness. ‘Nice job,’ I complimented him. Then I howled with delight and danced a little jig of pure joy.
Riva was gaping at his flaming sword. ‘What happened?’ he asked.
‘You did it right, boy!’ I exulted.
‘You mean this was supposed to happen?’
‘Every time, Riva! Every time! The sword’s part of the Orb now. That’s why it’s on fire. Every time you raise it up like that, it’ll take fire, and if I understand it right, it’ll do the same thing when your son picks it up – and his son – and his son as well.’
‘I don’t have a son.’
‘Wait a while, he’ll be along. Bring your sword. We’re supposed to go up to the summit now.’
He spent a fair amount of time swishing that sword through the air as we climbed the rest of the way to the top. I’ll admit that it was impressive, but the screeching whistle it made as it carved chunks off the air began to get on my nerves after a while. He was having fun, though, so I didn’t say anything to him about it.
There was a boulder at the top of the peak that was about the size of a large house. I looked at it when we got there, and I began to have some doubts about what we were supposed to do. It was an awfully big rock.
‘All right,’ Riva said, ‘now what?’
‘Get a firm grip on your sword and split that rock.’
‘That’ll shatter the blade, Belgarath.’
‘It’s not supposed to.’
‘Why am I supposed to split rocks with my sword? Wouldn’t a sledge-hammer work better?’
‘You could pound on that boulder with a hammer for a year and not even dent it.’
‘More magic?’
‘Sort of. There used to be a river running down the valley. It got dammed up when Torak cracked the world. It’s still there, though – under that boulder. Your family’s going to repair the world, and this is where you’re going to start. Break the rock, Riva. Free the river. You’re going to need fresh water in your city anyway.’
He shrugged. ‘If you say so, Belgarath.’
Garion, I want you to notice the absolute trust that boy had. You might want to think about that the next time you feel like arguing with me.
Riva raised up that enormous flaming sword and delivered a blow that probably would have broken a lesser rock down into rubble. I’m sure that the sound startled all the deer in Sendaria.
The boulder split evenly down the middle, and the two sides fell ponderously out of the way.
The river came gushing out like a breaking wave.
Riva and I got very wet at that point. We struggled out of the water and stood looking at our river with a certain sense of accomplishment. ‘Oops,’ Riva said after a moment.
‘Oops what?’
‘Maybe I should have warned the fellows working down below,’ he replied. ‘I don’t think they’ll be too happy about this.’
‘They aren’t down in the stream-bed, Riva. That’s where they’ve been dumping the excess dirt and rock they’re scraping off those terraces.’
‘I hope you’re right. Otherwise, they’ll probably get washed out to sea, and they’ll probably swear at me for a week after they swim back.’
As it turned out, our newly released river saved those Alorns months of work. There were natural terraces under all the accumulated debris they’d been moving, and that first rush of water washed those terraces clean. The Alorns who were washed out to sea were so pleased with that turn of events that they didn’t even swear at Riva – at least not very much.
Now that Riva had his sword, I was finished with the things I was supposed to do on the Isle of the Winds. I could finally go home. I spent a day or so giving Riva and his cousin Anrak their instructions. Anrak was a little too fond of good brown ale, but he was a good-natured fellow of whom the other Alorns were all very fond. He was the perfect second-in-command. Some of the orders Riva was going to have to give his people wouldn’t go down very well. Anrak, with his boisterous, good-humored laughter, was the perfect one to make them palatable. I sketched in Riva’s throne room for him and told him how to fasten his sword to the wall behind the throne.