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Personal visits will enhance that good will. I look forward
to seeing them. I am particularly interested in Ce'Nedra's
waist-line. One hopes that she has begun to pick up a bit
of weight. Ten or fifteen pounds on that girl would set my
mind at ease considerably.
The visit of the royal pair was pleasant. Garion
(Belgarion actually - it's hard to remember the formal
name when you've just talked with him) seems to have
matured a bit and to have become more decisive. I suspect
that a part of his retiring nature may have been the result
of Polgara's presence. That lady can be rather
overpowering at times. I'm sure that the necessity of asserting his
authority over his wife has given his backbone a bit of
steel. Ce'Nedra, alas, remains as slender as a willow.
Just before the winter storms set in, word reached us
from the south that 'Zakath has captured the Murgo city
of Rak Hagga, a major population center lying perhaps a
thousand leagues to the south of Rak Goska.
* We dropped the apostrophe at the beginning of Zakath's name,
although it was an indication that 'Kal' had been omitted ('Kal Zakath'
hints around the edges of Zakath's insanity. Right at first he was at least
as mad as Taur Urgas).
Unless
something happens to halt his conquest down there, we may be
obliged to take steps against him. His motives are obscure,
and his army a bit too large for my comfort.
5378
my apprehensions about 'Zakath appear to have
,.kbeen unfounded. King Urgit of Murgodom, who
appears not to share his late father's headlong insanity'
cleverly retreated before the advancing Malloreans,
drawing them into the vastness of the great southern forest
lying mainly in the Military District of Corut. There, using
the trees for concealment, Urgit had placed the bulk of the
Murgo army. As 'Zakath approached Rak Gorut, Urgit fell
upon him and massacred half his army. It is difficult for
me, as I look out at the snow which chokes the streets of
Val Alorn, to adjust myself to the fact that it is summer in
those southern latitudes where Urgit and 'Zakath contend
with each other across alien landscapes whose harsh
names in the Angarak tongue seem made up of the echoes
of nightmare. I suspect that this is because at heart I am a
simple man and that there lurks within me the unyielding
belief that the world is flat and the seasons everywhere
the same and that the sun rises upon every inch of the
world at the same time. Ah well.
This spring, Ran Borune became gravely ill, though not
even Rhodar's most clever agents in the palace at Tol
Honeth have been able to determine the precise nature of
his malady. Surprisingly, the old fox retains enough of his
mental faculties to realize that he is no longer able to
conduct the day-to-day business of the Empire. He has
appointed General Varana Imperial Regent, and he
concerns himself only with the most pressing of affairs.
Varana's participation in the Battle of Thull Mardu has
made him something of a national hero in Tolnedra, so the
Emperor could not have chosen more wisely.