“All men are capable of killing, Leomin,” Adina said, “if given the right motivation. If the wars with my brother have taught me nothing else, they have taught me that. Belgarin wasn’t always cruel, you know? Sure, he was always stiff and rigid, always wrapped up in the picture he painted for others of himself. So much sometimes that you could almost see him painting it, could see him working out each nuance of his speech and his words, so that they always rung false, somehow. Contrived. He was pompous, but he was not cruel. Not evil. At least, that is, until my father did not gift him the
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