Castle of Wizardry

Garion was a farm boy until the Orb that has long shielded the West from the evil god Torak was stolen. Since then he has learned that his aunt is the sorceress Polgara, that his grandfather is Belgarath, the Eternal Man, and that he is a sorcerer himself. The quest to recover the Orb has succeeded.

The danger has not passed. The questors must first get out of a crumbling enemy fortress, then cross a desert where Murgo soldiers are hunting them. Grolim Hierarchs work against them the whole way with dark magic. Somehow they have to reach Riva with the Orb by Erastide.

Garion expects his part in these events to end once the Orb is home. The Prophecy has other plans for him, and for the young Princess Ce'Nedra.

This is the fourth book of the Belgariad, an epic fantasy set against seven thousand years of conflict among gods, kings and men. Readers new to the series will meet characters already deep into the quest, so the earlier volumes give the background. The pace here is one of flight and pursuit, with a deadline to meet and a prophecy moving toward its fulfilment.