Polgara the Sorceress by David Eddings Read Free Book Online

bird-droppings all over you.’
    I shrugged. ‘They’ll brush off as soon as they dry.’
    She rolled her eyes upward.
    I left the tower early the next morning and went to the small storehouse where the twins kept their supplies. The twins are Alorns, and they do love their beer. One of the major ingredients in beer is wheat, and I was fairly sure they wouldn’t miss a small bag or two. I opened the bin where they kept the wheat and scooped a fair amount intoa couple of canvas bags I’d found hanging on a hook on the back wall of the shed. Then, carrying the fruits of my pilferage, I started back for the Tree.
    ‘Whither goest thou, sister?’ It was my poetic lark again. It occurs to me that my affinity for the studied formality of Wacite Arendish speech may very well have been born in my conversations with that lark.
    ‘I’m going back to the Tree,’ I told him.
    ‘What are those?’ he demanded, stabbing his beak at the two bags I carried.
    ‘A gift for my new-found friends,’ I said.
    ‘What is a gift?’
    ‘You’ll see.’
    Birds are sometimes as curious as cats, and my lark badgered me about what was in my bags all the way back to the Tree.
    My birds were ecstatic when I opened the bags and spread the wheat around under the Tree, and they came in from miles around to feast. I watched them fondly for a time, and then I climbed up into the Tree and sprawled out on one huge limb to watch my new friends. I got the distinct impression that the Tree approved of what I had done.
    I thought about that for quite a long time that morning, but I was still baffled about just exactly how I’d come by this unusual talent.
    ‘ It’s the Tree’s gift to you, Polgara .’ It was mother’s voice, and suddenly everything became clear to me. Of course! Why hadn’t I thought of that?
    ‘ Probably because you weren’t paying attention ,’ mother observed.
    In the years that followed, the Tree became like a second home to me. I spent my days on my favorite perch with my skinny legs stretched out on the huge limb and my back against the massive trunk. I fed my birds and we talked. We came to know each other better and better, and they brought me information about the weather, forest fires, and occasional travelers passing through the Vale. My family was always carping about my shabby appearance, but my birds didn’t seem to mind.
    As those of you who know me can attest, I have anoccasionally sharp tongue. My family was spared all sorts of affronts because of my fondness for the Tree and its feathered inhabitants.
    The seasons rolled by, and Beldaran and I grew into an awkward coltishness – all legs and elbows. And then one morning we discovered that we had become women during the night. There was some fairly visible evidence of the fact on our bed-clothing.
    ‘Are we dying?’ Beldaran asked me in a trembling voice.
    ‘ Tell her to stop that, Polgara !’ mother’s voice came to me sharply. That was something I could never understand. Mother talked to me directly, but she never intruded into Beldaran’s mind. I’m sure there was a reason for it, but mother never got around to explaining.
    ‘ What’s happening, mother ?’ I demanded. To be honest about it, I was quite nearly as frightened as my sister was.
    ‘ It’s a natural process, Polgara. It happens to all women .’
    ‘ Make it stop !’
    ‘ No. It has to happen. Tell Beldaran that it’s nothing to get excited about .’
    ‘Mother says that it’s all right,’ I told my sister.
    ‘How can it be all right?’
    ‘Shush. I’m trying to listen to mother.’
    ‘Don’t you shush me, Polgara!’
    ‘Then be still.’ I turned my attention inward. ‘ You’d better explain this, mother ,’ I said. ‘ Beldaran’s about ready to fly apart .’ I didn’t really think it was necessary to admit that my seams were starting to come undone as well.
    Then mother gave us a somewhat clinical explanation for the bloodstains on our bedding, and I passed the