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limitless, but it is not so. And, I tell thee, my sons, I would not unmake
the jewel even if it were permitted. Look about thee at the world in
its childhood and at man in his infancy. All living things must grow
or they will die. Through this Orb shall the world be changed and
shall man achieve that state for which he was made. This jewel
which I have made is not of itself evil. Evil is a thing which lies only
in the minds and hearts of men - and of Gods also.' And then MY
Master fell silent, and he sighed, and we went from him and left him
in his sadness.
In the years which followed, we saw little of our Master. Alone in his
tower he comuned with the spirit of the jewel which he had made.
We were saddened by his absence, and our work had little joy in it.
And then one day a stranger came into the Vale. He was beautiful
as no being I have ever seen was or could be, and he walked as if his
foot spurned the earth.
As was customary, we went to greet him.
'I would speak with my brother, thy Master,' he told us, and we
knew we were in the presence of a God.
As the eldest, I stepped forward. 'I shall tell my Master you have
come,' I said. I was not all that familiar with Gods, since Aldur was
the only one I had ever met, but something about this over-pretty
stranger did not sit quite well with me.
'That is not needful, Belgarath,' he told me in a tone that sat even
less well than his manner. 'My brother knows I am here. Convey me
to his tower.'
I turned and led the way without trusting myself to answer.
At the foot of the tower the stranger looked me full in the face. 'A
bit of advice for thee, Belgarath, by way of thanks for thy service to
me. Seek not to rise above thyself. It is not thy place to approve or
disapprove of me. For thy sake when next we meet I hope thou wilt
remember this and behave in a manner more seemly.' His eyes
seemed to bore directly into me, and his voice chilled me.
But, because I was still who I was and even the two thousand
years I had lived in the Vale had not entirely put the wild, rebellious
boy in me to sleep, I answered him somewhat tartly. 'Thank you for
the advice,' I said. 'Will you require anything else?' He was a God,
after all, and didn't need me to tell him how to open the tower door.
I waited watching closely for some hint of confusion.
'Thou art pert, Belgarath,' he told me. 'Perhaps one day I shall
give myself leisure to instruct thee in proper behavior.'
'I'm always eager to learn,' I told him.
He turned and gestured negligently. The great stone in the wall of
the tower opened, and he went inside.
We never knew exactly what passed between our Master and the
PREFACE
strange, beautiful God who met with him. They spoke together for
long hours, and then a summer storm broke above our heads, and
we were forced to take shelter. We missed, therefore, the departure
of the strange God.
When the storm had cleared, our Master called us to him, and we
went up into his tower. He sat at the table where he had labored so