Chapter 11

"Poppa, Poppa, watch me!"

Garion watched with a smile as Polanna, his five-year-old daughter seriously tried to do a handstand. She almost made it, but as she swung her feet up the skirts of her gown fell over her face and she toppled backwards with a squeal. Laughing, Garion walked over to her and righted her.

The royal family sat at a picnic on a hill behind the city of Riva. The day was warm, and a cool breeze ruffled the long grass around their feet. Ce'Nedra had taken one look at the weather and proclaimed today a day of rest for herself and her husband. "After all," she had persisted, "you don't have any pressing business today, and you are within easy reach of the palace if any emergency comes up." Kail had agreed with her, and the basket was packet and the city was at their backs before Garion could protest.

It had really been a good idea, Garion decided. Silk had left the day before to continue his business, and he had slumped back into his melancholy almost before the Drasnian was out the door.

He sat back, cradling Polanna in his lap as he watched Geran and Beldaran tossing a bright red ball back and forth while Wolf heartily tried to get it away from them. One toss from Geran's hands sent it sailing over his sister's head. She gave him a dirty look and fetched it, scolding him all the while. When she returned, she threw it at him rather hard. She missed and hit the basket. It tipped, sending the remains of their lunch cascading across the grass. Garion saw a flash of blue and jerked as the Orb of Aldur began to roll down the side of the hill. He started to get up, but Geran said, "I'll get it, Father."

"Why did you bring that thing, Geran?" Garion demanded.

"After the number of times it's been stolen, Father?"

"It's perfectly safe in Riva. That why the city was built in the first place. And how did you get it off my sword?"

"I-" Geran looked at his mother for support. She put her hands on her hips. It looked rather odd since she was still sitting. Then she began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Garion asked. Geran also began to giggle. He turned around to find four year old Geanne placing wide blades of grass in his hair. Garion caught her with his free arm, and he, Geanne, and Polanna fell into a grassy heap.

"Geran, stop that," Ce'Nedra said, still laughing. He was trying to juggle the ball and the Orb. "Just put it away. And keep it away from your sisters."

"Yes, Mother." Looking at Wolf, he laughed.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, Mother."

She rolled her eyes. "I swear. Living with you all is going to drive me insane."

"Father says the Mrin Prophet was insane," Geran said excitedly, putting the sullenly glowing orb back into the basket. "He says they had to chain him up like a dog. Isn't that right, Father?" He paused. "I wonder what it would be like to be insane. If you went insane do you think they'd chain you up, Mother? I think they would, don't you, Father?"

"That's morbid," Ce'Nedra scolded him. "Talk about something else."

"I got a letter from Unrak."

"Oh? That's nice. What did he say?"

"He said he was telling his friends that he could turn into a bear and he wanted me to do something dangerous so he would. He told me to write him back and tell him when I wanted to do this dangerous thing so he could show them."

"What did you have in mind?" Garion asked him.

"Garion!" Ce'Nedra cried.

"I wasn't actually going to do it, Father."

"Did he say anything else?"

"Just that everyone there was well. Terzie got married last spring. And, oh, they've been seeing signs of the bear cult again, but nothing serious."

"Maybe I should ask Belar to tell them to go away for good. Maybe they'd listen to him." Garion stood, setting Geanne back on her feet, and stretched. Looking out towards the city he saw a horse and rider approaching. "Oh great," he groaned. "Here comes Kail with something that requires my immediate attention.

"I don't think it is Kail, Father," Geran disagreed.

"It does not smell like Kail," Wolf said.

As the rider neared, Garion began to make out the horse. It was a chestnut, and the rider was a blonde young man.

"It's Eriond!" Geran cried. "Wonder what he's doing here."

"Hello, Belgarion," Eriond said when he reached them.

"Eriond, Horse. What are you doing here?" Garion asked a scant second before Ce'Nedra, with a streak of red hair and a flash of feet was on Eriond, flopping him backwards into the grass almost before he had dismounted.

"How are you? Are you eating well? You look pale. Have you heard from anyone else?"

"Hello, Ce'Nedra." His voice was slightly muffled by her small body.

"I have some important news from Belgarath." He continued as he stood, helping Ce'Nedra to her feet. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything, but it's kind of important."

"News of what? I didn't think Grandfather was involved in anything now."

"He wasn't, but I sort of needed him to be."

"Does it have anything to do with the bear cult?" Garion asked with a sinking feeling.

"Yes."

"We'd better go back," Garion said, picking up the basket.

"I had no idea the Bear Cult would do something like this. It doesn't make any sense."

"In a kind of perverse way it does, Garion," Ce'Nedra told him, pulling the pictures across the table to her. They sat in the library with Eriond and Kail. Garion had gone through every book and prophecy he could think of, and was beginning to think he should just start randomly pulling ones off the shelves to search them. He idly wondered if the answer lay in the Rivan Fishing Records. "They've never had any luck with any of their plans before."

"But the whole point of the Bear Cult is to unify Aloria so it can stand against Angaraks."

"Garion, look at who you're friends with. Do you really think that Urgit and Zakath are a threat to Aloria any longer? The Bear Cult evidently doesn't, and they seem to only see the unification part of their commission. Those two concepts have bred in their fevered minds and the offspring is this." She pushed the sketches away from her.

"They're probably still pretty sore about the way they were treated at the end of the War of the West," Kail suggested. "What you and the Alorn armies did to Rheon was a major blow to them, and they really had nothing to do with the abduction of your son, even though they pretended they did."

"They did try to kill Ce'Nedra," Garion pointed out. "And Geran."

"But they failed. They know something like that won't work again. This time they're going to try something completely different and they're including you on their list of things they need to clean up. In their eyes you stand as a barrier to the ultimate coming together of Aloria."

"It's taken a long time for many of the Angaraks to recover from the loss of Torak," Eriond said sadly. "Especially the Grolims. It's been quite a few years, but the loss of one's god is something titanic. Some still refuse to speak to me." He sighed. "I've still got a lot of work to do."

"What I don't understand is how does this Sparhawk and his people fit into all of this?" Garion asked, rubbing his chin.

"I don't know, Belgarion," Eriond said.

"Maybe some Grolim hiccupped in the middle of his incantation or something," Ce'Nedra suggested wryly.

Garion's hand froze. "It could be possible."

"What? What I just said? I was joking."

"I know, but it might just be closer to the truth than you think."

"Could you do something like that?" she asked him.

"I wouldn't know where to start. But if this indigestion riddled Grolim was trying to do something else and it backfired," he paused thoughtfully. "I'd have to talk to Grandfather about it, but the idea's not a bad one. Say this Grolim is trying to do something to further the cult's new plans. I shudder to think about what. Something somewhere goes awry, or he doesn't know as much as he though he did and, and 'poof' here are all these new people from somewhere else."

"It seems like the next step," Kail said, "is to get in touch with Belgarath and speak to Sparhawk in person. Find out everything they know."

The door opened then and a servant came in. He wordlessly handed a note to Kail then left. Kail's face was bleak as he read the note.

"What is it, Kail?" Garion asked him.

"It seems like we have a reason to go to the Stronghold, anyway," he said. "King Cho-Hag has died."