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as Vo Mimbre and tumbled fully armed knights from
their saddles. The second ripped open the sky and
engulfed the entire battlefield in an unbelievable
downpour of rain and hail. With a single word he stopped the
torrential rain and then spoke to the two armies in a voice
which could be heard clearly three leagues away. His
words are clearly engraved upon the memories of all who
were present.
'Stop this foolishness at once!' he commanded them.
He then pointed his sword at the Baron of Vo Ebor. 'You,'
he said, 'come here.' The Baron tremblingly approached
him. 'You,' he said then to Sir Mandorallen, 'I want you
over here, too.' Palefaced, the great knight obeyed.
Belgarion then proceeded to give the two a blistering
dressing-down. Finally, after he had reduced the pair of
them nearly to tears, he ended their war with a series of
blunt commands. To the Baron of Vo Ebor he said, 'You
will immediately surrender any and all claims of
authority over the person and future of the Baroness Nerina.' To
Sir Mandorallen he said, 'You will return immediately to
Vo Mandor, where you will marry the lady in question.
You will - here and now - relinquish any and all territorial
claims on behalf of the Baroness. In short, gentlemen, the
Baron gets the land, and Mandorallen gets the lady - and
that is that!' He then glared at them. 'Now go home,' he
said. 'I'm sick of looking at both of you.' And that ended
the civil war.
The Baroness Nerina, an Arend to the bone, protested
vigorously when Belgarion and Mandorallen advised her
that she was that day to be married to the man she had
loved for all those years. Quite clearly she saw all those
splendid opportunities for tragic suffering flying out the
window. Belgarion, however, would have none of that.
Bluntly he silenced her and then quite literally drove the
pair of them before him to the chapel and stood
threateningly over them while the priest of Chaldan performed
the ceremony. Thus ended one of the great tragic
lovestories of contemporary history. The melancholy Baroness
is now radiant; gloomy Mandorallen now smiles foolishly
all the time; and Belgarion returned to Riva with a
selfcongratulatory smirk on his lips.
The incident provides a certain insight into our
Belgarion's character which is quite instructive. He is an
extraordinarily long-suffering fellow, but he will only
allow things to go so far before he takes steps. Once he
decides that the time has come to act, nothing in the
world can stand in his path. I must remember never to
cross him.
in Algaria, Hettar and Adara have had their second
child, a girl. Everyone in the whole world seems to be
having children - except for Belgarion and Ce'Nedra. I
wonder if they're doing something wrong.
5383
'ZaKATH has returned to his campaign in southern
Cthol Murgos. His absence gave King Urgit time
to gather up the shattered remnants of his army and
to reorganize them. He has no hope, of course, of