"Did you kill him?" Garion demanded fiercely.
"I try not to do that more than I have to," Wolf said. "It disrupts the natural course of events too much. I had some other ideas at the time—much more unpleasant than killing." His eyes were icy. "As it turned out though, I never got the chance. He threw you at me—you were only a baby—and I had to try to catch you. It gave him time to get away. I left you with Polgara and then I went looking for your enemy. I haven’t been able to find him yet, though."
"I’m glad you haven’t," Garion said.
Wolf looked a little surprised at that.
"When I get older, I’m going to find him," Garion said, "I think I ought to be the one who pays him back for what he did, don’t you?"
Wolf looked at him gravely. "It could be dangerous," he said.
"I don’t care. What’s his name?"
"I think that maybe I better wait a while before I tell you that," Wolf said. "I don’t want you jumping into something before you’re ready."
"But you will tell me?"
"When the time comes."
"It’s very important, Grandfather"
"Yes," Wolf said. "I can see that."
"Do you promise?"
"If you insist. And if I don’t, I’m sure your Aunt will. She feels the same way you do."
"Don’t you?"
"I’m much older," Wolf said. "I see things a little differently."
"I’m not that old yet," Garion said. "I won’t be able to do the kind of things you’d do, so I’ll have to settle for just killing him." He stood up and began to pace back and forth, a rage boiling in him.
"I don’t suppose I’ll be able to talk you out of this," Wolf said, "but I really think you’re going to feel differently about it after it’s over."
"Not likely," Garion said, still pacing.
"We’ll see," Wolf said.
"Thank you for telling me, Grandfather," Garion said.
"You’d have found out sooner or later anyway," the old man said, "and it’s better that I tell you than for you to get a distorted account from someone else."
"You mean Aunt Pol?"
"Polgara wouldn’t deliberately lie to you," Wolf said, "but she sees things in a much more personal way than I do. Sometimes that colors her perceptions. I try to take the long view of things. I could take—under the circumstances."
Garion looked at the old man whose white hair and beard seemed somehow luminous in the morning sun. "What’s it like to live forever, Grandfather?" He asked.
"I don’t know," Wolf said. "I haven’t lived forever."
"You know what I mean."
"The quality of life isn’t much different," Wolf said. "We all live as long as we need to. It just happened that that I have something to do that’s taken a very long time." He stood up abruptly. "This conversation’s taken a gloomy turn," he said.
"This thing that we’re doing is very important, isn’t it, Grandfather?" Garion asked.
"It’s the most important thing in the world right now," Wolf said.
"I’m afraid I’m not going to be very much help," Garion said.
Wolf looked at him gravely for a moment and then put one arm round his shoulders. "I think you may be surprised about that before it’s all over, Garion," he said.
And then they turned and looked out over the prow of the ship at the snowy coast of Cherek sliding by on their right as the sailors rowed the ship south towards Camaar and whatever lay beyond.
Here ends Book One of the Belgariad. Book Two, Queen of Sorcery will reveal Garion’s own dangerous powers of sorcery and more on his heritage, which underlies their quest.
