THE REQUIEM: THE WORLD IN A DOWNWARD TILT
PART TWO: TOLNEDRA

Chapter Twenty: Pawns of Politics

For a long moment, it seemed as if Geran had again been rendered silent and incapable of motion. The only sound in the hollow interior of the great oak was Xyril's deep weeping. Geran reach out gently and folded the dryad queen's hands across her chest. "Sleep well, your majesty", he thought as sadness settled in his heart. It redoubled at the thought of carrying the news of Xantha's death back to his mother. The Rivan Queen would surely weep as deeply as Xyril at her passing.

What the queen had told him weighed heavily on his mind. Something terrible and powerful that had settled in Karanda. What did that mean? Was it a person? A monster? Or…something else? And why would it have any interest in the politics of Tolnedra? Ordinary men, he could understand. There were countless ambitions that fueled the duplicity of ordinary men, but…something not human? It didn't make any sense.

He was frowning himself when a growl split the air, pouring from Wolf. Geran looked down at his companion in surprise. Wolf's hackles were raised, his ears alert, and his white teeth were bared.

"What is it?" Geran asked him in the language of the wolves.

"We must leave this place quickly." Wolf told him. "It is no longer safe."

"What?" But even as he asked, Geran felt a tremor around him. At first just a single shiver that seemed to shake the foundation of the tree and then suddenly it escalated to something that felt like an earthquake. Xyril's tawny head came up, revealing her tear streaked face, her damp eyes going wide.

"What's going on?" The dryad asked, panic in her voice.

Geran sprung into action, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the entrance they'd come through. "We have to get out of here."

But before they even reached the mouth of the chamber, the high ceiling of the hallow began to collapse. Heavy slabs of wood and bark crashed to the ground. Geran only narrowly managed to dive out of the way of one and avoid being struck on the head. He stumbled and fell and from his vantage saw that the slab of wood had been so brittle and rotted that it had broken into hundreds of splinters the moment it hit the floor. More fragments continued to rain down and Geran realized that it wasn't an earthquake. The tree was dying and as it did it was collapsing in on itself. There was no way they could escape the way they'd come. They wouldn't make it through the thick trunk in time.

A shaft of sunlight struck him on the face and he turned to look at the high openings near the top of the hollowed chamber. It was their only chance.

Geran sprung to his feet again, rushing towards the ornate chests in the corner of the room. He ignored Xyril's demand for explanation, lugging the chests to the lowest of the "windows" and stacking them up on each other. When he had piled as many as he could up, he climbed atop them and gestured to Xyril.

"Come on."

She understood immediately and rushed to his side. Without a word she clamored up his make shift ladder and stood on his shoulder. With an agile leap she made it to the opening in the thick trunk and out into the streaming sunlight. Geran turned to look down at Wolf, not stopping to wonder how he would escape after. His first concern was getting Xyril and Wolf to safety.

"You next." Geran told him.

"One will go last." Wolf said.

"One will not go without you."

"Nor this one without you." Wolf replied with absolute finality.

Geran felt simultaneously irritated and touched by the resolution. He leaned inadvertently against the wood and felt it crack and slide beneath his hands. Another idea occurred to him.

"Get on my shoulders." He suggested to Wolf. "Use your claws to tear through the bark."

Wolf let his tongue loll out and obediently scrambled awkwardly up. The ceiling continued to rain splinters and chucks of wood and Geran felt the lupine's hind claws tearing his clothing and skin as the beast awkwardly tried to find footing. At last Wolf's for paws were against the bark and without hesitation he began to tear away at the rotting wood. Geran closed his eyes to avoid being blinded by the showering pieces of bark directly above him. The sound inside the hallow was monstrous, cracking and splitting and crashes like thunder. He rocked and teetered, but willed himself to maintain his balance.

It was not the burrowing which they were saved by however. From just above him he heard a high voice call his name and Geran dared to look up. Xyril's tiny face appeared in the window she'd escaped through and she dropped a sling made of stout vine through, gesturing to him to be quick.

"Get in!" Geran ordered Wolf, helping him fit himself through the sling, before grasping the knot of the vine himself.

Xyril turned and shouted something down below and the vine was hoisted. There was a massive crack, like rock being split in two, and the wall of bark gave way. Geran felt the head of sunlight and the rush of cool air. His vision was a blur of the blue blue sky and the brown of trees and he felt himself falling through air and fragments of wood. And then the vine which he held went taunt and he was suddenly suspended several feet in the air, the vine slung over the branch of a nearby maple tree and anchored by a dozen or so of the bright haired dryads.

Right before his eyes, Xantha's oak tree shuddered and then, like a burning house, collapsed inwards until it was no more than a mountain of splinters.

"That isn't supposed to happen." Xiana was saying as Geran and Wolf were lowered to the forest floor. A cloud of dust had gone up briefly as the remains of Xantha's tree settled, filling the clearing with the sell of oak and rot. Dozens of dryads filled the trees around him and all looked either restless and afraid or were weeping openly.

Almost as soon as he was on his feat again Xyril flew into his arms, hanging off his neck. "Thank you for saving me," she said and kissed his cheek. Her lips were still damp from her tears.

"You're welcome." Geran told her, accepting the display of affection without embarrassment. "Although, you saved me too." He turned his attention towards Xiana. "Do you mean trees don't always collapse like this when they and their dryad die?"

"Not immediately." Xiana said. "Eventually the tree returns to the earth, but it's a slow process and takes dozens of years. It never happens like this!"

A murmur went up through the wood, panicked and frightful. Geran could not blame them. He stared at the ruins of Xantha's tree.

"Who will be the new queen of the dryads?" He asked.

"Princess Xera," Xyril said from her place still hanging from his neck. "But she is also very ill and her strength waning. The queen's nieces as well, they are ill within their trees just like Queen Xantha was."

"What is happening to our wood?" A high voice from among the multitude of dryads in the trees demanded.

Geran gently removed Xyril's arms from his neck. "I have to return to the imperial city." He told Xiana and the other assembled dryads. I'll return to Riva to tell my father King Belgarion and my mother Queen CeNedra what's happened. And I'll get word to Polgara and Belgarath as well." He promised.

At the mention of his grandfather, there was a ripple of the old sorcerer's name among the trees. Xiana looked contemplative.

"Belgarath is a powerful sorcerer. He and Polgara were good friends with Queen Xantha. Maybe they can tell us what's going on." Xiana turned to one of her sisters. "Bring his animal. Humans are faster when they ride them."

In no time Geran was saddled again and thundering his way out of the wood of the dryad, back towards the City of Tol Honeth.

Geran rode hard as he made his way back to the imperial city. He paused very little and slept even less. During one instance the Rivan prince fell asleep in the saddle.

He dreamed about the white queen. Not the abstract, carved chess piece still in his pocket, but as she'd appeared on the blue giant's checkered board. He saw her long braids and her night dark eyes and her phoenix crown. He saw her crouched on the floor of a bed chamber, strangely decorated. She held a young boy in her slender arms. One of her hands pressed his face protectively against her chest and the other hand held a blood stained dagger. On the carpet a few feet away was the sprawled body of a man dressed all in black, his face covered and a gaping wound in his chest. There was a second blade resting an inch or two from the dead man's limp fingers.

The boy shifted and she dropped the knife and enveloped him completely in her embrace. Her lips moves as she spoke something to the boy. Geran could not hear her voice-it was as if the scene was muted-but he somehow knew the words that came from them.

"With my life, I swear, I will protect you." She said.

There was suddenly a great deal of banging on the door to the chamber. Both she and Geran looked towards the entrance, but just as it swung open the Rivan prince was jolted roughly awake, courtesy of a burst of pain from his back. His eyes snapped open and he stared up into the dark blue expanse of night sky and Wolf's investigative muzzle. He'd fallen off his horse.

Geran made it back to the imperial city of Tol Honeth not long after the dream. He didn't brother wasting time in pausing at Alvor's house. Instead he rode right for the imperial palace. The fact that the guard's did not hesitate to admit him, nor that they did not wait for explanation or order did not register to him. As soon as he entered the courtyard someone took his horse and escorted him to the imperial wing before he could say a word.

Prince Varrob and Princess Eldanne were in the sitting room that he was brought to. Eldanne's hair was arranged into curls behind her small gold crown and she wore a dress of rose colored silk. Varrob was dressed in his military uniform and seated at a desk, penning something on a heavy sheet of parchment. Both got to their feet as Geran was brought in.

"I need a ship to take me back to Riva." He was short of breath, but he managed to force the words out.

His cousins' faces were both somber, Eldanne's eyes full of sympathy. "So you've heard already." The Tolnedran princess said sadly.

Confusion rushed through Geran's sleep deprived brain. "Heard? Heard what?"

The crown prince and princess exchanged quizzical looks. Varrob turned back to Geran first. "About your mother," the imperial prince said. "Isn't that why you want a ship to Riva? We've already arranged for one to be waiting for you in the harbor."

Geran felt a chill. "My mother? What's wrong with my mother?"

"We sent a runner to tell you." Eldanne spoke again this time. "Varana received a letter from your father the other day. Queen Ce'Nedra is dangerously ill. Your father wants you come home as quickly as possible."

It was only Eldanne's calm convincing that made Geran consent to wait until his belongings had been packed, instead of going immediately to the harbor. He guessed she'd sent a servant down to Alvor's house, because not twenty minutes later the Horbite lord appeared. Alvor, for once, seemed in different spirits. There was none of his dismissive arrogance in his bearing as he joined Geran.

"Are you alright?" The nobleman asked him.

"I'll be fine. My patience is being strained at the moment, though. Can't they get this done any faster?" He demanded in frustration.

"We could whip them. But you've always seemed to frown on that sort of thing." Alvor remarked with the patience that was escaping Geran at the moment. "Calm down, Geran. You will be less than useless if you do not."

Geran had to acknowledge that his friend was right. The lump he still had on the back of his head from his tumble off his mount seconded the nobleman's words. Alvor did not speak as he sat beside Geran. Nor did he ask about how his trip to the Wood of the Dryad had been. For once, Geran felt extremely grateful that his friend was not the loquacious sort. He did not feel interested in conversation at the moment.

It was long past sundown when Varrob came to tell him that his things had been loaded onto the ship and that it was only awaiting him before it sailed.

"A safe and speedy journey, Geran." Varrob wished him, clasping Geran to his chest affectionately. "I hope Aunt Ce'Nedra is alright."

"Thank you Varrob." Geran said sincerely, before turning to catch Eldanne as she flung herself at him for a hug.

"I'm sure she'll be fine, Geran." The crown princess assured him. She pulled back and smiled at him softly. "It was wonderful, having you with us these past months. Make sure to write us and keep us abreast of Queen Ce'Nedra's condition."

"I will, Eldanne." He promised.

A guard arrived then and Geran was escorted to the harbor. The ship waiting for him was small, with huge white sails that shifted and rippled in the evening wind. As the ship prepared the leave the harbor, Geran went to have a brief chat with the captain. They planned to sail down the Nedrane river, out into the Great Western Sea and then around the continental coast to Riva. Geran had just come up onto deck again and gone to the railing when he heard a familiar voice from behind him declare,

"Oh, there you are. I was starting to think maybe I'd gotten on the wrong boat."

Geran turned around to see Alvor strolling across the deck towards him. He stared in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"That should be obvious." Alvor replied. "I'm going with you. With my new found popularity, I could use a vacation. And what better place to re-do my research than actually in Aloria? Besides, you might need moral support."

The idea of receiving moral support from Alvor, of all people, was ludicrous. So ludicrous, in fact, that Geran felt the first inclination to laugh the he'd had in days.

Everything would be fine, he told himself. Everything had to be fine. Once he got to Riva he'd be back among friends and family. He'd see his Aunt Pol taking care of his mother. He'd tell them what had happened in the Wood of the Dryad. And everything would be fine.

He hoped.

- END PART TWO -

A/N: Part Three will return to catch up with Sithli, Urgar, and Eridis. Ultimately there will be five parts to The World in A Downward Tilt. The proceeding parts, however, will have fewer chapters than Part One and Part Two, however. I apologize for the long hiatus-induced by end of term responsibilities. Now that it's summer I will have much more time to devote to writing. Thank you to everyone who reviewed and continues to reviews! I really appreciate them! They give me a lot of my motivation.

Also, for anyone who's interested there's an absolutely stunning map created by ~Crooty of deviantart (.com/art/Belgariad-and-Malloreon-Map-157252698), which I've been using for reference.

And now, on to Part Three!