"You're older than everyone, father," Aunt Pol said.
"You didn't have to say that, Pol."
Silk laughed sardonically. "I'm glad to see that our stupendous
friend at least has the bad taste to fall in love with another man's
wife. His nobility was beginning to get rather cloying." The little
man's expression had that bitter, self mocking cast to it Garion had
first seen in Val Alorn when they had spoken with Queen Porenn.
"Does the baron know about it?" Durnik asked.
"Naturally," Wolf replied. "That's the part that makes the Arends get
all mushy inside about it. There was a knight once, stupider than most
Arends, who made a bad joke about it. The baron promptly challenged him
and ran a lance through him during the duel. Since then very few people
have found the situation humorous."
"It's still disgraceful," Durnik said.
"Their behavior's above reproach, Durnik," Aunt Pol maintained
firmly. "There's no shame in it as long as it doesn't go any further."
"Decent people don't allow it to happen in the first place," Durnik asserted.
"You'll never convince her, Durnik," Mister Wolf told the smith.
"Polgara spent too many years associating with the Wacite Arends. They
were as bad or worse than the Mimbrates. You can't wallow in that kind
of sentimentality for that long without some of it rubbing off.
Fortunately it hasn't totally blotted out her good sense. She's only
occasionally girlish and gushy. If you can avoid her during those
seizures, it's almost as if there was nothing wrong with her."
"My time was spent a little more usefully than yours, father," Aunt
Pol observed acidly. "As I remember, you spent those years carousing in
the waterfront dives in Camaar. And then there was that uplifting period
you spent amusing the depraved women of Maragor. I'm certain those
experiences broadened your concept of morality enormously."
Mister Wolf coughed uncomfortably and looked away.
Behind them, Mandorallen had remounted and begun to gallop back down
the hill. The lady stood in the archway with her red cloak billowing in
the wind, watching him as he rode away.
They were five days on the road before they reached the River Arend,
the boundary between Arendia and Tolnedra. The weather improved as they
moved farther south, and by the morning when they reached the hill
overlooking the river, it was almost warm. The sun was very bright, and a
few fleecy clouds raced overhead in the fresh breeze.
"The high road to Vo Mimbre branches to the left just there," Mandorallen remarked.
"Yes," Wolf said. "Let's go down into that grove near the river and
make ourselves a bit more presentable. Appearances are very important in
Vo Mimbre, and we don't want to arrive looking like vagabonds."
Three brown-robed and hooded figures stood humbly at the crossroads,
their faces down and their hands held out in supplication. Mister Wolf
reined in his horse and approached them. He spoke with them briefly,
then gave each a coin.
"Who are they?" Garion asked.
"Monks from Mar Terin," Silk replied.
"Where's that?"
"It's a monastery in southeastern Tolnedra where Maragor used to be,"
Silk told him. "The monks try to comfort the spirits of the Marags."
Mister Wolf motioned to them, and they rode on past the three humble
figures at the roadside. "They say that no Murgos have passed here in
the last two weeks."
"Are you sure you can believe them?" Hettar asked.
"Probably. The monks won't lie to anybody."
"Then they'll tell anybody who comes by that we've passed here?" Barak asked.
Wolf nodded. "They'll answer any question anybody puts to them."
"That's an unsavory habit," Barak grunted darkly.
Mister Wolf shrugged and led the way among the trees beside the
river. "This ought to do," he decided, dismounting in a grassy glade. He
waited while the others climbed down from their horses. "All right," he
told them, "we're going to Vo Mimbre. I want you all to be careful
about what you say there. Mimbrates are very touchy, and the slightest
word can be taken as an insult."
"I think you should wear the white robe Fulrach gave you, father," Aunt Pol interrupted, pulling open one of the packs.
"Please, Pol," Wolf said, "I'm trying to explain something."
"They heard you, father. You tend to belabor things too much." She
held up the white robe and looked at it critically. "You should have
folded it more carefully. You've wrinkled it."
"I'm not going to wear that thing," he declared flatly.
"Yes, you are, father," she told him sweetly. "We might have to argue
about it for an hour or two, but you'll wind up wearing it in the end
anyway. Why not just save yourself all the time and aggravation?"
"It's silly," he complained.
"Lots of things are silly, father. I know the Arends better than you
do. You'll get more respect if you look the part. Mandorallen and Hettar
and Barak will wear their armor; Durnik and Silk and Garion can wear
the doublets Fulrach gave them in Sendar; I'll wear my blue gown, and
you'll wear the white robe. I insist, father."
"You what? Now listen here, Polgara-"
"Be still, father," she said absently, examining Garion's blue doublet.
Wolf's face darkened, and his eyes bulged dangerously.
"Was there something else?" she asked with a level gaze.
Mister Wolf let it drop.
"He's as wise as they say he is," Silk observed.
An hour later they were on the high road to Vo Mimbre under a sunny
sky. Mandorallen, once again in full armor and with a blue and silver
pennon streaming from the tip of his lance, led the way with Barak in
his gleaming mail shirt and black bearskin cape riding immediately
behind him. At Aunt Pol's insistence, the big Cherek had combed the
tangles out of his red beard and even rebraided his hair. Mister Wolf in
his white robe rode sourly, muttering to himself, and Aunt Pol sat her
horse demurely at his side in a short, fur-lined cape and with a blue
satin headdress surmounting the heavy mass of her dark hair. Garion and
Durnik were ill at ease in their finery, but Silk wore his doublet and
black velvet cap with a kind of exuberant flair. Hettar's sole
concession to formality had been the replacement of a ring of beaten
silver for the leather thong which usually caught in his scalp lock.
The serfs and even the occasional knight they encountered along the
way stood aside and saluted respectfully. The day was warm, the road was
good, and their horses were strong. By midafternoon they crested a high
hill overlooking the plain which sloped down to the gates of Vo Mimbre.