Polgara the Sorceress by David Eddings Read Free Book Online Page B

– change myself into a bird and back?’
    ‘Probably, yes.’
    ‘Well now,’ I said as a whole new world of possibilities opened before my eyes. ‘Will Beldaran be able to do it too?’
    Their expressions seemed to grow a bit evasive at that question. ‘No more of this, Pol,’ uncle Beldin said sternly, ‘not until we’ve explained a few things to you. This is very dangerous.’
    ‘Dangerous?’ That startled me.
    ‘You can do almost anything you put your mind to, Pol,’ Beltira explained, ‘but you can’t uncreate things. Don’t ever say, “Be not”. If you do, the force you’ve unleashed will recoil back on you, and you’ll be the one who’s destroyed.’
    ‘Why would I want to destroy anything?’
    ‘It’ll happen,’ Beldin assured me in that growling voice of his. ‘You’re almost as bad-tempered as I am, and sooner or later something will irritate you to the point that you’ll want to make it go away – to destroy it – and that’ll kill you.’
    ‘Kill?’
    ‘And more than kill. The purpose of the universe is to create things. She won’t let you come along behind her and undo her work.’
    ‘Wouldn’t that also apply to making things?’
    ‘Whatever gave you that idea?’
    ‘If unmaking things is forbidden, it seems logical that making them would be too.’
    ‘Making things is all right,’ Beldin assured me. ‘You just made about a half-ton of birdseed and you’re still here, but don’t ever try to erase what you’ve done. If it’s not right, that’s just too bad. Once it’s been made, you’re stuck with it.’
    That hardly seems fair,’ I protested.
    ‘Did you really expect life to be fair to you, Pol?’ He replied.
    ‘But if I make it, it’s mine, isn’t it? I should be able to do anything I want with it, shouldn’t I?’
    ‘That’s not the way it works, Pol,’ Beltira told me. ‘Don’t experiment with it. We love you too much to lose you.’
    ‘What else is it that I’m not supposed to do?’
    ‘Don’t attempt the impossible,’ Belkira said. ‘Once you’ve committed your will to something, you have to go through with it. You can’t turn the will off once you’ve unleashed it. It’ll keep drawing more and more out of you to try to get the job done, and it’ll eventually take so much out of you that your heart will stop, and then you’ll die.’
    ‘How am I supposed to know what’s possible and what isn’t?’
    ‘Come to one of us before you start,’ Beltira said. ‘Talk it over with us and we’ll let you know if it’s all right.’
    ‘ Nobody tells me what to do!’ I flared.
    ‘Do you want to die?’ Beldin demanded bluntly.
    ‘Of course not.’
    ‘Then do as you’re told,’ he growled. ‘No experimenting on your own. Don’t do anything this way without consulting with one of us first. Don’t try to pick up a mountain range or stop the sun. We’re trying to protect you, Pol. Don’t be difficult.’
    ‘Is there anything else?’ I was a little sullen at that point.
    ‘You’re very noisy,’ Belkira said bluntly.
    ‘What do you mean, “noisy”?’
    ‘When you do something this way, it makes a sound we can hear. When you made all that birdseed, it sounded like a thunderclap. Always remember that we’re not the only ones in the world with this particular gift. There’ll be times when you won’t want to announce the fact that you’re around. Here, I’ll show you.’
    There was a large rock not far from the Tree, and uncle Belkira looked at it and frowned slightly. Then the rock seemed to vanish, and it instantly reappeared about a hundred yards away.
    It wasn’t exactly a noise. I felt it more than I heard it, but it still seemed to rattle my teeth.
    ‘Now do you see what I mean?’ Belkira asked me.
    ‘Yes. That’s quite a sound, isn’t it?’
    ‘I’m glad you enjoyed it.’
    They went on piling restrictions on me for quite some time. ‘Is that all?’ I asked finally. They were beginning to make me