“Yes it has, father,” Aunt Pol agreed.
“Any regrets?”
“I can live with them, Old Wolf”
“Let’s go in then.”
Garion started toward the door.
“Not you, Garion,” Aunt Pol told him. “You’ll wait here with Errand. You two will come in later.”
“You’ll send somebody for us?” he asked her. “What I mean is, how will we know when we’re supposed to come in?”
“You’ll know,” Belgarath told him. And then they left him alone with Errand.
“They didn’t give us very complete instructions, did they?” Garion said to the child. “I hope we don’t make any mistakes.”
Errand smiled confidently, reached out and put his small hand in Garion’s. At his touch, the song of the Orb filled Garion’s mind again, sponging away his worries and doubts. He could not have said how long he stood holding the child’s hand and immersed in that song.
“It’s come at last, Belgarion.” The voice seemed to come from outside somehow, no longer confined within Garion’s mind, and the look on Errand’s face made it quite clear that he also could hear the words.
“Is this what I’m supposed to do?” Garion asked.
“It’s part of it.”
“What are they doing in there?” Garion looked rather curiously toward the door.
“They’re getting the people in the Hall ready for what’s going to happen. ”
“Will they be ready?”
“Will you?” There was a pause. “Are you ready, Belgarion?”
“Yes,” Garion replied. “Whatever it is, I think I’m ready for it.”
“Let’s go then.”
“You’ll tell me what to do?”
“If it’s necessary. ”
With his hand still holding Errand’s, Garion walked toward the door. He raised his other hand to push it open, but it swung inexplicably open ahead of him before he touched it.
There were two guards at the huge, carved door a few steps down the hall, but they seemed frozen into immobility as Garion and Errand approached. Once again Garion raised his hand, and the immense doors to the Hall of the Rivan King swung silently open in response to his hand alone.
The Hall of the Rivan King was a huge, vaulted throne room with massive and ornately carved wooden buttresses supporting the ceiling beams. The walls were festooned with banners and green boughs, and hundreds of candles burned in iron sconces. Three great stone firepits were set at intervals in the floor; instead of logs, blocks of peat glowed in the pits, radiating an even, fragrant warmth. The Hall was crowded, but there was a broad avenue of blue carpet leading from the doors to the throne. Garion’s eyes, however, scarcely noted the crowd. His thoughts seemed suspended by the song of the Orb, which now filled his mind completely. Bemused, freed of all thought or fear or hint of self consciousness, he walked with Errand close beside him toward the front of the Hall where Aunt Pol and Belgarath stood, one on each side of the throne.
The throne of the Rivan King had been chiseled from a single basalt block. Its back and arms were all one height, and there was a massiveness about it that made it seem more permanent than the mountains themselves. It sat solidly against the wall and, hanging point downward above it, was a great sword.
Somewhere in the Citadel, a bell had begun to peal, and the sound of it mingled with the song of the Orb as Garion and Errand moved down the long, carpeted pathway toward the front of the Hall. As they passed each sconce, the candles inexplicably dropped to the merest pinpoint. There was no draft, no flickering, as, one by one, the candles dimmed and the Hall filled with deepening shadow.
When they reached the front of the Hall, Belgarath, his face a mystery, looked gravely at them for a moment, then looked out at the throng assembled in the Hall of the Rivan King.
“Behold the Orb of Aldur,” he announced in a solemn voice.
Errand released Garion’s hand, tugged open the pouch, and reached inside. As he turned to face the darkened Hall, Errand drew the round gray stone out of the pouch and lifted it with both hands, displaying it for all to see.
The song of the Orb was overpowering; joining with it, there was a kind of vast, shimmering sound. The sound seemed to soar, rising, ringing higher and higher as Garion stood beside the child, looking at the faces of the assemblage. Within the stone Errand held aloft there seemed to be a pinpoint of intense blue light. The light grew brighter as the shimmering sound rose higher. The faces before him were all familiar, Garion could see. Barak was there and Lelldorin, Hettar, Durnik, Silk, and Mandorallen. Seated in a royal box beside the Tolnedran ambassador, with Adara and Ariana directly behind her, was Ce’Nedra, looking every inch an Imperial Princess. But, mingled somehow with the familiar faces were others—strange, stark faces, each so caught up in a single overriding identity that they seemed almost masklike. Mingled with Barak was the Dreadful Bear, and Hettar bore with him the sense of thousands upon thousands of horses. With Silk stood the figure of the Guide and with Relg that of the Blind Man. Lelldorin was the Archer and Mandorallen the Knight Protector. Seeming to hover in the air above Taiba was the sorrowing form of the Mother of the Race That Died, and her sorrow was like the sorrow of Mara. And Ce’Nedra was no longer a princess but now a queen—the one Ctuchik had called the Queen of the World. Strangest of all, Durnik, good solid Durnik, stood with his two lives plainly evident on his face. In the searing blue light of the Orb and with the strange sound shimmering in his ears, Garion looked in wonder at his friends, realizing with amazement that he was seeing for the first time what Belgarath and Aunt Pol had seen all along.
From behind him he heard Aunt Pol speak, her voice calm and very gentle. “Your task is completed, Errand. You may now give up the Orb.”
The little boy crowed with delight, turned, and presented the glowing Orb to Garion. Uncomprehending, Garion stared at the fiery stone. He could not take it. It was death to touch the Orb.
“Reach forth thy hand, Belgarion, and receive thy birthright from the child who hath borne it unto thee.” It was the familiar voice, and yet at the same time it was not. When this voice spoke, there was no possibility of refusal. Garion’s hand stretched out without his even being aware that it was moving.
“Errand!” the child declared, firmly depositing the Orb in Garion’s outstretched hand. Garion felt the peculiar, seething touch of it against the mark on his palm. It was alive! He could feel the life in it, even as he stared in blank incomprehension at the living fire he held in his naked hand.
“Return the Orb to the pommel of the sword of the Rivan King,” the voice instructed, and Garion turned with instant, unthinking obedience. He stepped up onto the seat of the basalt throne and then onto the wide ledge formed by its back and arms. He stretched up, taking hold of the huge sword hilt to steady himself, and placed the Orb on the great sword’s pommel. There was a faint but clearly audible click as the Orb and the sword became one, and Garion could feel the living force of the Orb surging down through the hilt he gripped in one hand. The great blade began to glow, and the shimmering sound rose yet another octave. Then the huge weapon quite suddenly came free from the wall to which it had been attached for so many centuries. The throng in the Hall gasped. As the sword began to drop free, Garion caught hold of the hilt with both hands, half turning as he did so, striving to keep the great blade from falling to the floor.
What pulled him off balance was the fact that it had no apparent weight. The sword was so huge that he should not have been able to hold it, much less lift it; but as he braced himself with his feet widespread and his shoulders pressed back against the wall, the point of the sword rose easily until the great blade stood upright before him. He stared at it in amazement, feeling a strange throbbing between the hands he had clasped about the hilt. The Orb flared and began to pulsate. Then, as the shimmering sound soared into a mighty crescendo of jubilation, the sword of the Rivan King burst into a great tongue of searing blue flame. Without knowing why, Garion lifted the flaming sword over his head with both hands, staring up at it in wonder.