Guardians of the West
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Guardians of the West (ISBN 0-345-35266-1) is the first part of The Malloreon, a fantasy book series written by David Eddings. It is followed by King of the Murgos.
At the end of the previous series, The Belgariad, Garion has slain the evil god Torak and thinks that his major problems are over. Initially this seem true, with the first half of the book concentrating on the first eight years of Belgarion's reign, going through many minor problems including Queen Ce'Nedra's seeming infertility and an assassination attempt. All of these problem sort themselves out without much trouble.
Eventually Brand, the Rivan Warder, is accidentally murdered by assassins aiming to kill Ce'Nedra and her new son Geran. The assassins are traced back to the Bear-cult, who have taken over several cities as their base of operations. Riva and the other western nations take military action against the Bear-cult, but while Belgarion and the others are engaging in battles, Geran is kidnapped. Although Belgarion's suspicion falls upons the Bear-cult, it turns out the kidnapping was carried out by Zandramas, who is the new Child of Dark.