Free Castle of Wizardry by David Eddings

of passes with the dry, bitter chill pressing at them like some great weight. Silk rode back often to look for any signs of pursuit, but their ruse seemed to have fooled the Murgos. Finally, about noon on a cold, sunless day when the wind was kicking up dust clouds along the horizon, they reached the broad, arid valley through which the south caravan route wound. They took cover behind a low hill while Silk rode on ahead to take a quick look.
    "Thinkest thou that Taur Urgas hath joined in the search for us?" Mandorallen, dressed again in his armor, asked Belgarath.
    "It's hard to say for sure," the old sorcerer replied. "He's a very unpredictable man."
    "There's a Murgo patrol headed east on the caravan route," Silk reported when he returned. "It will be another half hour or so until they're out of sight."
    Belgarath nodded.
    "Do you think we'll be safe once we cross over into Mishrak ac Thull?" Durnik asked.
    "We can't count on it," Belgarath replied. "Gethel, the king of the Thulls, is afraid of Taur Urgas, so he wouldn't make any kind of fuss about a border violation if Taur Urgas decided to follow us."
    They waited until the Murgos had crossed a low ridge to the east and then moved out again.
    For the next two days they rode steadily to the northwest. The terrain grew less rocky after they crossed into the land of the Thulls, and they saw the telltale dust clouds far behind them that spoke of mounted Murgo search parties. It was late in the afternoon of a murky day when they finally reached the top of the eastern escarpment.
    Barak glanced back over his shoulder at the dust clouds behind them, then pulled his horse in beside Belgarath's. "Just how rough is the ground leading down into the Vale?" he asked.
    "It's not the easiest trail in the world."
    "Those Murgos are less than a day behind us, Belgarath. If we have to pick our way down, they'll be on top of us before we make it."
    Belgarath pursed his lips, squinting at the dust clouds on the southern horizon. "Perhaps you're right," he said. "Maybe we'd better think this through." He raised his hand to call a halt. "It's time to make a couple of decisions," he told the rest of them. "The Murgos are a little closer than we really want them to be. It takes two to three days to make the descent into the Vale, and there are places where one definitely doesn't want to be rushed."
    "We could always go on to that ravine we followed coming up," Silk suggested. "It only takes a half day to go down that way."
    "But Lord Hettar and the Algar clans of King Cho-Hag await us in the Vale," Mandorallen objected. "Were we to go on, would we not lead the Murgos down into undefended country?"
    "Have we got any choice?" Silk asked him.
    "We could light fires along the way," Barak suggested. "Hettar will know what they mean."
    "So would the Murgos," Silk said. "They'd ride all night and be right behind us every step of the way down."
    Belgarath scratched sourly at his short white beard. "I think we're going to have to abandon the original plan," he decided. "We have to take the shortest way down, and that means the ravine, I'm afraid. We'll be on our own once we get down, but that can't be helped."
    "Surely King Cho-Hag will have scouts posted along the foot of the escarpment," Durnik said, his plain face worried.
    "We can hope so," Barak replied.
    "All right," Belgarath said firmly, "we'll use the ravine. I don't altogether like the idea, but our options seem to have been narrowed a bit. Let's ride."
    It was late afternoon when they reached the shallow gully at the top of the steep notch leading down to the plain below. Belgarath glanced once down the precipitous cut and shook his head. "Not in the dark," he decided. "Can you see any signs of the Algars?" he asked Barak, who was staring out at the plain below.
    "I'm afraid not," the red-bearded man answered. "Do you want to light a fire to signal them?"
    "No," the old man replied. "Let's not announce our intentions."
    "I will need a small