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in the world. The covenant we have struck between us here prepares
the West for the day in which the Rivan King returns and Torak
wakes from his long slumber to contest with him for Empire and
Dominion. All that may be done in this age to gird the West against
that great and final war hath been done. And here have the wounds
of Arendia been healed by reason of the wedding of Korodullin and
Mayaserana, and the strife which hath bloodied the fair fields and
forests of Noble Arendia for two thousand years and more is ended.
I am content with it all. Hail then and farewell.'
And he turned from them and rode north with the Aged One and
the Queenly Woman as always by his side. And they did take ship at
Camaar in Sendaria and set sail for Riva, and returned no more to
the kingdoms of the West.
AFTERWORD
To me it has fallen to wrestle the chaos of documents, ancient and modern,
herein contained into some kind of order. This has not been a task which I
have undertaken willingly. The documents, for the most part, have no
verifiable authenticity and no scholar wishes to have his name appended to such
questionable material. Moreover, it is clearly evident that many perhaps all
of the manuscripts in hand were pilfered from one source or another, and I
personally find it odious to deal with material so obtained.
Unfortunately, in my capacity as tutor to the Imperial Household, I
am subject to Imperial whim. Thus it was that when her Highness, Ce'Nedra,
Imperial Princess of Tolnedra, and now (unfortunately) queen of Riva,
charged me with this task, I had no choice but to comply as graciously as
possible. This is small reward for the support and protection I gave her on
that ghastly journey ten years ago. True to her nature - and, I might add,
to the nature of all the Borunes - Princess Ce'Nedra has chosen to ignore
one of the most time-honored traditions in the scholarly community It is
customary, if I may be so bold as to point it out to Her Majesty, for an
Imperial tutor to be named to a major chair at the Imperial University upon
the completion of his service to his pupil. It was for this reason and for this
reason only that I accepted my post in the Palace in the first place. I assure
her that my fidelity to the near-impossible task of hammering some minimal
semblance of education into a willful. arrogant, spoiled and over-pampered
pupil had no other motive.
My enemies at this point are undoubtedly gloating over the fate which my
frankness here must inevitably bring down upon my head. To immediately
rob them of even that minuscule enjoyment, let me state here that it is my
intention, when this loathsome chore is completed, to enter the Monastery at
Mar Terin and to pass my final years in peace and quiet with nothing but the
shrieks of the spirit Of Mara and the wails Of the Marag ghosts to disturb my
slumbers. From that sanctuary, beyond the reach of Imperial punishment or
reward, I shall have that last and best laugh at the discomfort my words here
shall cause those who have so cruelly betrayed me.
It is certainly fitting that those remarkable events of ten years ago be
recorded by a competent Scholar, but this present mass of gibberish is
certainly not that record. Once I am safely within the sanctuary at Mar Terin
I shall undertake that study. Let the mighty tremble at that prospect. It is my
intention to present those events precisely as they occurred. I will not
genuflect before some high-sounding but empty concept of Borune dignity nor
will I quiver in awe at the mention of the name of the Rivan King. I know
that Ran Borune >(Xlil is a doddering old fool, a fitting crown to the third
(and hopefully last) Borune Dynasty. I know that Ce'Nedra is a spoiled brat.
I know that Garion (or Belgarion as he now prefers to be called) is nothing