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| Southwestern Mallorea: Barak and friends arrive at the port of Dal Zerba, then head upriver to Dal Finda, checking with Silk's factors to see if anyone knows where he is. The next day, while heading downriver (since Silk's last known destination was Kell), they encounter Zandramas finishing off Agachak. They take King Nathel of Mishrak ac Thull with them (he's really just an overgrown child). (SK 108-113) |
| The Companions begin to encounter traps set for them by Zandramas, designed not to kill anyone, but to delay them so that she can get to Perivor first (and maybe get to Korim first, too). Zakath sends a message to the Imperial garrison commander at Lengha, who sends out troops and takes the Darshivan troops into custody. The Companions proceed to Lengha, where they are met by a ship. (The Dals arranged for the ship, of course–probably several eons ago.) (SK 118-123) |
| Cyradis gives Garion and Zakath two suits of Arendish-style full plate armor. They are to wear the armor with visors down at all times, save by Cyradis' leave, while they're on Perivor. When they land on Perivor, they discover a castle, looking as if it had been transplanted directly from Arendia. According to Cyradis, the island's peculiarities are a result of the shipwreck of a band of Arendish adventurers on the island who, realizing that getting home would not be possible, settled on the island. The island's population is thus a combination of Dal and Arend. (SK 123-129) |
| The castle is Vo Astellig, and the baron who resides there invites the Companions to shelter for the night–after all, they are on a quest. The baron also says that a kinsman of his just arrived from Dal Perivor, and that a wizard has enchanted the king (not that that would be a difficult task, since the king is evidently fairly dense) and, within a space of a few hours, has become the king's closest advisor. There is also a general truce in effect, since there is to be a tournament to determine who is best able to deal with a "recurrent problem" facing the island; Sir Astellig invites the Companions to accompany him to the tourney. (SK 129-136) |
| The Companions arrive at Dal Perivor. (Along the way, Garion figures out exactly who the wolf is. Nobody else does, though. It's also shown that the combination of Dal and Arend significantly improves certain irritating Arendish traits–like the tendency to make war at the drop of a hat.) They are introduced to the king, and to his new advisor, Erezel–or should I say Naradas? Naradas manages to delay the Companions for at least ten days, until the tournament. He has also already ransacked the library; however, he did not destroy the chart. The chart is simply not in the library. Garion and Zakath go out for a bit of jousting training. (SK 137-152) |
| The day of the tournament arrives. Garion makes the decision to cheat just a bit–neither his lance nor Zakath's will break, and both are surrounded by force fields. It eventually becomes apparent that Garion and Zakath are unbeatable, and the entirety of the uninjured knights of Perivor surrender to them. That's when Naradas steps in, revealing why the tournament had been held: the winner gets to go fight the dragon! (SK 152-158) |
| The Companions finally come up with a way to deal with Naradas. Well, Sadi does, anyway. It takes some time to put it into effect, however, and before Sadi can poison the man, he manages to bring word that the dragon is busily doing dragonish things to the countryside–burning farms, eating horses, that sort of thing. Garion, Zakath, Belgarath, and the wolf go to deal with it. Belgarath manages to get Cyradis to divulge that the dragon is the real dragon (i.e., not Zandramas), but is being influenced by some other spirit. Garion and Zakath manage to drive her off without injuring themselves. The ladies, needless to say, are unimpressed. (SK 159-182) |
| Naradas has a bowl of soup that's so good that he just curls up and dies. The king goes into mourning; however, because Zandramas broke the rules (and sent Naradas to get the chart, rather than getting it herself), Cyradis is allowed to help. Garion and Zakath persuade the king to come to the chapel at midnight; Cyradis contacts one of her people–a necromancer. The necromancer channels Naradas' spirit, thus revealing to the king who "Erezel" really was and what he was doing on Perivor. (SK 182-192) |
| Garion and Zakath are finally able to remove their visors, and reveal to the king of Perivor who they are. The king, by way of apology for allowing Naradas to influence him to delay the Companions (being part Dal, he does know what's going on), offers to have his ships search for the place of the meeting–anywhere from the shores of Ebal to the reef of (wait for it) Korim. The king shows his chart to Belgarath, and the last necessary event before the final meeting occurs. Belgarath and Beldin, from the king's description of the reef, decide that the meeting must be in the cave observed on the tallest peak. Garion learns of his last task as the Child of Light. Poledra finally reveals herself, and the last of the Companions, the Woman Who Watches, joins the group. (SK 192-208) |
| The Companions depart for Korim. Once they're at sea, the good-byes begin; everyone is convinced that he (or she) will be the one to die. They approach the reef as night falls. (SK 211-226) |
| Rak Urga, Cthol Murgos: Urgit discovers that Agachak is no longer in Cthol Murgos (he is apparently not yet aware that Zandramas has killed the Grolim); to pass word to Garion, he decides to make some saber-rattling noises near Rak Cthaka to get the Malloreans' attention–the idea being that they'll pass word back to their commanders, who'll tell the Emperor, who'll pass the information to Garion. It also just might be the reopening of diplomatic relations between Zakath and Urgit, and possibly the beginning of peace. (SK 227-230) |
| Greldik's ship, at sea: Anheg and Varana continue their pursuit of Barak and his friends. Anheg reveals that he's prepared to ram Barak's ship, if it's necessary to stop Barak. (SK 230-232) |
| Boktor, Drasnia: Porenn orders all the spies out of a wing of the palace. She confers with Yarblek and Vella, to learn what they found out in Yar Nadrak, and also to get him to pass disinformation back through his and Silk's factors regarding Silk's whereabouts. Vella announces that she wants Yarblek to sell her when the current crisis is over. (SK 232-236) |
| Mallorean Army enclave, Darshiva: Atesca and Brador decide to retake Darshiva and Peldane–and if their forces just happen to encounter the Emperor, well… (SK 236-238) |
| The Seabird, near Korim: The Prophecies have been conspiring to delay Barak so that he can't interfere with what's going to happen. At this point, it's a major storm that's arisen with no warning whatsoever. (SK 238-241) |
| Zandramas, as it happens, is the only significant representative of the Dark Prophecy present at Korim; the others with her are limited in number to match the force that the Companions can bring to bear. Beldin is there to offset the presence of "one who is beyond the prophecies." They decide to sneak up on Zandramas–the idea being that she knows that she can't beat the Companions to the Sardion, but is still trying, and if she looks around and doesn't see the Companions, then she just might get thrown off-balance when they actually do show up. Ce'Nedra asks for Garion's knife (she wants to kill Zandramas–veeeerrrry slowly). (SK 242-252) |
| Garion has some very bad nightmares–sort of a shadowy reflection of the dreams he had the night before his coronation. In the morning, he finds out that he was not the only one–everybody did. According to Cyradis, the nightmares–even though Garion had them before Cthol Mishrak, and Polgara and Belgarath admitted to having them before Vo Mimbre–are not a part of the usual repetitions. Instead, it's how the Child of Dark is so evenly balanced with the Child of Light–the Child of Light uses physical weapons, but the Child of Dark attacks the mind. The morning starts off with a nice thick (perfectly natural) fog. (SK 252-259) |
| The Companions land on Korim. Belgarath informs the captain of their vessel that, if they don't signal him by the following morning, he should return to Perivor, because they probably won't be coming back. Silk and Beldin scout ahead. Silk discovers that the peak is manmade–or at least, modified by humans. The peak is, in fact, where Torak spurned his father, and where the Angaraks had their original Temple. It's also one of the holiest places on the planet. The "cave" proves to be the entrance to the temple's inner sanctum. (SK 259-268) |
| The Companions' tactic of waiting seems to have paid off. About an hour or so after landing on Korim, Beldin goes out for a look–Zandramas is evidently swearing so well that she's impressed even him. She had about forty Grolim sorcerers with her, but five are now quite dead, having attempted to enter the temple. Zandramas herself looks quite the collection of fireflies. Both Geran and Archduke Otrath are present as well. They wait for the fog to clear off (and the Grolims to notice them). Zandramas, of course, isn't ready to concede that she can't evade the Prophecies, so she has her Grolims attack. Garion, Durnik, Toth, and Zakath descend to the floor of the ampitheatre, making short and very, very bloody work of their opponents. Zandramas' attempt to frighten them into insanity fails when Garion realizes that what he's seeing is the product of illusion, not delusion; Cyradis foils an attempt on her life by the remaining Grolims by invoking the same curse that lies on the lands around Kell. (The affected Grolims flee out to sea… without benefit of anything that can float.) (SK 269-280) |
| Cyradis (among others) is surprised by Zandramas' sudden acceptance of being required to submit to the Choice. She forces Mordja, who has possessed the body of the dragon, to emerge from the temple. Mordja is also armed with Cthrek Goru, the Blade of Shadows. Poledra forces Mordja to reveal his true purpose at Korim–he is an agent of the King of Hell, and intends to seize both the Orb and the Sardion and bear them back to his master… but unfortunately forgot that all choices made at Korim at this time are irrevocable, and therefore, that his only ally is not the King of Hell, but merely the dragon. (And his control of the dragon is tenuous.) While the others distract her, Garion leaps on the dragon's back and does his best to dig a hole between her shoulderblades. He's ultimately thrown clear of her, and that's when Toth closes in and begins chopping at the base of the dragon's throat, seriously threatening the dragon's life. Mordja, sensing his own danger, strikes with Cthrek Goru, killing Toth. Mordja is no match for Garion at that point, however, and the Rivan King kills both Demon Lord and dragon. (SK 280-288) |
| Cyradis, after recovering from the immediate shock of Toth's death, orders Garion and Zandramas into the grotto. Garion manages a small triumph by saying something that stings the Dark Spirit, rather than just Zandramas. Once in the grotto, Garion places himself between Zandramas and the Sardion–on the off chance that she tries something. Zandramas does, in fact, try something. She picks up Geran and advances on the Sardion… heading directly for the point of Garion's sword. Ce'Nedra places herself between Garion and Zandramas, evidently intending to force Garion to kill her as well, if he should be forced to kill Geran. It proves to be a trick–Ce'Nedra grabs Geran and flees back to Polgara, leaving Zandramas to submit to Cyradis' Choice, or be killed by either Garion or Poledra. Zandramas submits. (SK 288-298) |
| The time arrives for Garion and Zandramas to choose their successors. Zandramas has already made her choice–Geran. Garion, suspecting that Zandramas still has something up her sleeve, extracts every ounce of theatricality from the moment that he can (in an attempt to throw Zandramas off-balance), before ultimately choosing Eriond. (SK 299-303) |
| The moment of the Choice arrives. Zandramas' final ploy proves to be an attack on Cyradis herself; she's bombarding the Seeress with waves of indecision, hoping to prevent Cyradis from being able to choose–or better yet, to choose not to choose at all, and leave the whole thing in the hands of chance. Polgara acts, removing Cyradis' blindfold and leaving her as an ordinary human being. Zandramas then makes her fatal mistake… she presumes to choose for Cyradis. Which pisses Cyradis off. Which leads to Cyradis choosing Eriond. (SK 303-307) |
| Eriond begins to radiate Presence. And glow. (He's a God now, you see.) He entrusts Cyradis to Zakath, then asks Garion for the Orb. Eriond uses the Orb to destroy the Sardion. Zandramas is also destroyed, the substance that had formerly composed her body joining with the fragments of the Sardion in speeding back to the site of the original accident that started the whole thing as a sort of patch. The Fifth Age ends. (SK 307-310) |
| Note: DE & LE don't actually say that the Fifth Age ends at this point, of course… but it's the logical ending point. In any event, events after this point I'm going to place in the "Sixth Age". |
The Sixth Age
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