The Redemption of Althalus (101 page)

“Where are we going with this, Gher?”

“Well, I was sort of thinking that if you want me to be someplace where I can sniff out trouble before it even gets started, I should probably stick closer to Khalor than his own shadow does.”

“It wouldn’t bother you to leave the House and go live with Khalor and his new wife, then?”

“Me and Khalor get along real good, Althalus, and I can have Eliar’s mother wrapped around my finger in a flat minute. All I have to do to get any woman in the world to mother me to pieces is put on my ‘poor little orphan boy’ look. She’ll take to me like a duck takes to water. It won’t hardly take me no time at all to get settled down in Eliar’s old room, and I won’t make no big fuss about how fast I can think. I’ll just sit around kind of blank eyed like nothing was going on in my head. I’ll keep my nose to the wind and my ears wide open, though, so if somebody comes to Khalor or Chief Albron to rent Arums for some war someplace, I’ll be right there, and quicker’n you can blink, I’ll pass that on to you. Then you and me can go look up the bonehead and tell him that if he doesn’t forget about his war, we’ll chop out his liver and feed it to him.”

“Won’t you sort of miss being here in the House with Emmy and me?”

“Emmy’s got that boy-people and girl-people sort of look on her face, Althalus. You don’t have to tell her I said this, but I think I’d sooner be someplace else for a while. If I’m in Arum with Khalor and the other fellows, at least I’ll have somebody to talk to once in a while. I think I might start getting a whole lot of lonesome here in the House if I stay. Besides, I’ll be doing something pretty important, won’t I?”

“It has a lot of possibilities, Gher,” Althalus conceded, trying to sound dubious. “Let me think it over a bit, and then we’ll see what Emmy has to say.”

“Oh, that was slick,” Dweia said admiringly.

“Naturally,” Althalus replied. “When I want somebody to do something, I always maneuver him around so that he thinks it’s
his
idea. We wanted Gher to go to Arum to live with Khalor and Alaia because that was best for him. All I did was herd him along until he came up with the idea himself. If we’d
ordered
him to go, he’d have thought we were just throwing him out because we didn’t want him anymore. I wouldn’t do that to Gher, and neither would you. This way, Gher gets the permanent home and family he’s never had, and Khalor and Alaia get a son without going through the trouble of having one themselves. Everything worked out exactly the way you wanted it to, Em, and that’s why you hired me in the first place, wasn’t it?”

“You done good, Althie,” she said with a radiant smile.

“Don’t get me wrong here, Em,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “I’m very fond of the children, but it’s sort of nice to have the House to ourselves again. What are we going to do to pass the time now that we’ve saved the world and gotten the children married off or permanently settled?”

“I’ll think of something,” she promised in a tone that left little doubt about what she meant.

All as in a dream she came to him amidst the shimmer and play of the courtship of the moon and the fire of God as the song of the Knife serenaded them.

Her hair was the color of autumn, and her limbs were rounded with a perfection that made his heart ache, and her features were somehow alien in their perfect serenity. And she held out her hand to him, saying, “Come. Come with me. I will care for you.”

“Most gladly,” he replied, “for the world about me tires me, and I am weary of it. And whither shall we go, my beloved? And when shall we return?”

“If you come with me, you will never return,” she replied in a voice of song. “For we shall walk among the stars, and fortune shall never betray you more. And your days will be filled with sun and your nights with love. Come. Come with me, my beloved. I will care for you.” And she took him by the hand and led him up the familiar stairs to the tower of light where they had dwelt before.

And when they had entered, the door behind them merged with the curved wall of the tower, and the door—and all other doors—were no more.

And content was the heart of Althalus, for now was he once again home, and no more would he wander.

It was some several seasons—or centuries—later, when spring had returned to the House at the End of the World, and Althalus sat idly at the table, leafing through the pages of the Book.

A familiar sound came from the fur-robed bed, and Althalus glanced over at his wife. “What’s that all about, Em?” he asked curiously. “I thought we’d put Emmy the cat more or less behind us.”

“What
are
you talking about?” the autumn-haired Dweia asked.

“You’re purring, Em.”

She laughed then. “Maybe I am at that,” she admitted. “Old habits are hard to break.”

“It’s a pleasant sound, Em, and it doesn’t really bother me all that much.”

She sat up and stretched luxuriously. “It’s probably because I’m happy. Nothing seems to express happiness quite as much as purring.”

“I’m fairly happy myself, Em, but I manage to get by without purring.”

“Come over here, love,” she told him. “I have some news I’d like to share with you.”

He carefully replaced the pages in the white box and went over to the bed. “Spring came early this year,” he noted, glancing out the south window at the mountains lying off in that direction.

“And it’ll probably last quite a bit longer than usual,” she added.

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“The world’s celebrating, dear,” she replied.

“Some special event?” He sat down beside her.

“Very, very special, love,” she said, touching his face fondly.

“Were you planning to keep it a secret?”

“It’s not the sort of thing that’ll stay a secret for very long, pet,” she said, smiling mysteriously and gently touching her slightly rounded abdomen.

“I think you might be eating a bit too much, Em,” he observed.

“Not really.” She gave him a sly, sidelong glance. “You’re a bit thick-headed this morning, pet. What is it besides food that causes a woman’s waistline to expand?”

“Are you serious?” he exclaimed.

She stroked her tummy again. “If I’m not,
this
is. We’re going to have a baby, Althalus.”

He stared at her in absolute astonishment. Then he suddenly felt his eyes fill with tears.

“Are you crying, Althalus? I didn’t think you knew how.”

He took her in his arms then and held her with tears of joy streaming down his face. “Oh, I
do
love you, Em!” was all he could say.

A B O U T                   T H E                   A U T H O R S

D
AVID
E
DDINGS
published his first novel,
High Hunt,
in 1973, before turning to the field of fantasy and
The Belgariad,
soon followed by
The Malloreon.
Born in Spokane, Washington, in 1931, and raised in the Puget Sound area north of Seattle, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, in 1954 and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Washington in 1961. He has served in the United States Army, has worked as a buyer for the Boeing Company, has been a grocery clerk and college English teacher.

L
EIGH
E
DDINGS
has collaborated with her husband for more than a dozen years.

The Eddingses live in the Southwest.

By David and Leigh Eddings

Published by Ballantine Books

T
HE
B
ELGARIAD

Book One: Pawn of Prophecy

Book Two: Queen of Sorcery

Book Three: Magician’s Gambit

Book Four: Castle of Wizardry

Book Five: Enchanters’ End Game

T
HE
M
ALLOREON

Book One: Guardian of the West

Book Two: King of the Murgos

Book Three: Demon Lord of Karanda

Book Four: Sorceress of Darshiva

Book Five: The Seeress of Kell

B
ELGARATH THE
S
ORCERER

P
OLGARA THE
S
ORCERESS

T
HE
E
LENIUM

Book One: The Diamond Throne

Book Two: The Ruby Knight

Book Three: The Sapphire Rose

T
HE
T
AMULI

Book One: Domes of Fire

Book Two: The Shining Ones

Book Three: The Hidden City

H
IGH
H
UNT

T
HE
L
OSERS

T
HE
R
IVAN
C
ODEX

A Del Rey
^®
Book
Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group

Copyright © 2000 by David Eddings and Leigh Eddings

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by The Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., in 2000.

Del Rey is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.

www.randomhouse.com/delrey/

Library of Congress Card Number: 00-109182

eISBN: 978-0-345-44692-3

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