Ho pescato in giro il prologo del VI volume della Ruota del Tempo The Lord of Chaos. In attesa del libro ad Ottobre da leggiucchiare qualcosa e magari se qualche super traduttore si fa avanti si potrebbe appunto tradurre.

OCCHIO AGLI SPOILERS PER CHI NON E' ARRIVATO ANCORA AL 5 VOLUME

LORD OF CHAOS

Sixth Book of The Wheel of Time

by Robert Jordan

Prologue

The First Message

Demandred stepped out onto the black slopes of Shayol Ghul, and the gateway, a hole in reality's fabric, winked out of existence. Above, roiling gray clouds hid the sky, an inverted sea of sluggish ashen waves crashing around the mountain's hidden peak. Below, odd lights flashed across the barren valley, washed-out blues and reds, failing to dispel the dusky murk that shrouded their source. Lightning streaked up at the clouds, and slow thunder rolled. Across the slope steam and smoke rose from scatter ed vents, some holes as small as man's hand and some large enough to swallow ten men.

He released the One Power immediately, and with the vanished sweetness went the heightened senses that made everything sharper, clearer. The absence of saidin left him hollow, yet here only a fool would even appear ready to channel. Besides, here only a fool would want to see or smell or feel too clearly.

In what was now called the Age of Legends, this had been an idyllic island in a cool sea, a favorite of those who enjoyed the rustic. Despite the steam it was bitter cold, now; he did not allow himself to feel it, but instinct made him pull his fur-lined velvet cloak closer. Feathery mist marked his breath, barely visible before the air drank it. A few hundred leagues north the world was pure ice, but Thakandar was always dry as any desert, though always wrapped in winter.

There was water, of a sort, an inky rivulet oozing down the rocky slope beside a gray-roofed forge. Hammers rang inside, and with every ring, white light flared in the cramped windows. A ragged woman crouched in a hopeless heap against the forge's rough stone wall, clutching a babe in her arms, and a spindly girl buried her face in the woman's skirts. Prisoners from a raid down into the Borderlands, no doubt. But so few; the Myrddraal must be gnashing their teeth. Their blades failed after a time and had to be replaced, no matter that raids into the Borderlands had been curtailed.

One of the forgers emerged, a thick slow-moving man-shape that seemed hacked out of the mountain. The forgers were not truly alive; carried any distance from Shayol Ghul, they turned to stone, or dust. Nor were they smiths as such; they made nothing but the swords. This one's two hands held a swordblade in long tongs, a blade already quenched, pale like moon-lit snow. Alive or not, the forger took care as it dipped the gleaming metal into the dark stream. Whatever semblance of life it had could be en ded by the touch of that water. When the metal came out again, it was dead black. But the making was not done yet. The forger shuffled back inside, and suddenly a man's voice raised a desperate shout.

"No! No! NO!" He shrieked then, the sound dwindling away without losing intensity, as though the screamer had been yanked into unimaginably far distance. Now the blade was done.

Once more a forger appeared--perhaps the same, perhaps another--and hauled the woman to her feet. Woman, babe and child began to wail, but the infant was pulled away and shoved into the girl's arms. At last the woman found a scrap of resistance. Weepin g, she kicked wildly, clawed at the forger. It paid no more mind than stone would have. The woman's cries vanished as soon as she was inside. The hammers began ringing again, drowning the sobs of the children.

One blade made, one making, and two to come. Demandred had never before seen fewer than fifty prisoners waiting to give their mite to the Great Lord of the Dark. The Myrddraal must be gnashing their teeth, indeed.

"Do you loiter when you have been summoned by the Great Lord?" The voice sounded like rotted leather crumbling.

Demandred turned slowly--how dare a Halfman address him in that tone--but the quelling words died in his mouth. It was not the eyeless stare of its pasty-pale face; a Myrddraal's gaze struck fear in any man, but he had rooted fear out of himself long ago . Rather, it was the black-clad creature itself. Every Myrddraal was the height of a tall man, a sinuous imitation of a man, as alike as though cast in one mold. This one stood head and shoulders taller.

"I will take you to the Great Lord," the Myrddraal said. "I am Shaidar Haran." It turned away and began climbing the mountain, like a serpent in its fluid motion. Its inky cloak hung unnaturally still, without even a ripple.

Demandred hesitated before following. Halfmen's names were always in the Trollocs' tongue-wrenching language. "Shaidar Haran" came from what people now named the Old Tongue. It meant "Hand of the Dark." Another surprise, and Demandred did not like sur prises, especially not at Shayol Ghul.

The entry into the mountain could have been one of the scattered vents, except that it emitted no smoke or steam. It gaped enough for two men abreast, but the Myrddraal kept the lead. The way slanted down almost immediately, the tunnel floor worn smooth as polished tiles. The cold faded as Demandred followed Shaidar Haran's broad back down and down, slowly replaced by increasing heat. Demandred was aware of it, but did not let it touch him. A pale light rose from the stone, filling the tunnel, bright er than the eternal twilight outside. Jagged spikes jutted from the ceiling, stony teeth ready to snap shut, the Great Lord's teeth to rend the unfaithful or the traitor. Not natural, of course, but effective.

Abruptly, he noticed something. Every time he had made this journey, those spikes all but brushed the top of his head. Now they cleared the Myrddraal's by two hands or more. That surprised him. Not that the height of the tunnel changed--the strange wa s ordinary here--but the extra space the Halfman was given. The Great Lord gave his reminders to Myrddraal as well as men. That extra space was a fact to be remembered.

The tunnel opened out suddenly onto a wide ledge overlooking a lake of molten stone, red mottled with black, where man-high flames danced, died and rose again. There was no roof, only a great hole rising through the mountain to a sky that was not the sky of Thakandar. It made that of Thakandar look normal with its wildly striated clouds streaking by as though driven by the greatest winds the world had ever seen. This, men called the Pit of Doom, and few knew how well they had named it.

Even after all his visits--and the first lay well over three thousand years in the past--Demandred felt awe. Here he could sense the Bore, the hole drilled through so long ago to where the Great Lord had lain imprisoned since the moment of Creation. Her e the Great Lord's presence washed over him. Physically, this place was no closer to the Bore than any other in the world, but here there was a thinness in the Pattern that allowed it to be sensed.

Demandred came as close to smiling as he ever did. What fools they were who opposed the Great Lord. Oh, the Bore was still blocked, though more tenuously than when he had wakened from his long sleep and broken free of his own prison in it. Blocked, but larger than when he woke. Still not so large as when he had been cast into it with his fellows at the end of the War of the Power, but at each visit since waking, a little wider. Soon the blockage would be gone, and the Great Lord would reach out acros s the earth again. Soon would come the Day of Return. And he would rule the world for all time. Under the Great Lord, of course. And with those of the other Chosen who survived, also of course.

"You may leave now, Halfman." He did not want the thing here to see the ecstacy overcome him. The ecstasy, and the pain.

Shaidar Haran did not move.

Demandred opened his mouth--and a voice exploded in his head.

DEMANDRED.

To call it a voice was to call a mountain a pebble. It nearly crushed him against the inside of his own skull; it filled him with rapture. He sank to his knees. The Myrddraal stood watching impassively, but only a small part of him could even notice th e thing with that voice filling his brain.

DEMANDRED. HOW FARES THIS WORLD?

He was never sure how much the Great Lord knew of the world. He had been as startled by ignorance as by knowledge. But he had no doubt what the Great Lord wanted to hear.

"Rahvin is dead, Great Lord. Yesterday." There was pain. Euphoria too strong became pain quickly. His arms and legs twitched. He was sweating, now. "Lanfear has vanished without a trace, just as Asmodean did. And Graendal says Moghedien failed to m eet her as they had agreed. Also yesterday, Great Lord. I do not believe in coincidence."

THE CHOSEN DWINDLE, DEMANDRED. THE WEAK FALL AWAY. WHO BETRAYS ME SHALL DIE THE FINAL DEATH. ASMODEAN, TWISTED BY HIS WEAKNESS. RAHVIN DEAD IN HIS PRIDE. HE SERVED WELL, YET EVEN I CANNOT SAVE HIM FROM BALEFIRE. EVEN I CANNOT STEP OUTSIDE OF TIM E.

For an instant terrible anger filled that awful voice, and--could it be frustration? An instant only.

DONE BY MY ANCIENT ENEMY, THE ONE CALLED DRAGON. WOULD YOU UNLEASH THE BALEFIRE IN MY SERVICE, DEMANDRED?

Demandred hesitated. A bead of sweat slid half an inch on his cheek; it seemed to take an hour. For a year during the War of the Power, both sides had used balefire. Until they learned the consequences. Without agreement, or truce--there had never bee n a truce any more than there had been quarter--each side simply stopped. Entire cities died in balefire that year, hundreds of thousands of threads burned from the Pattern; reality itself almost unraveled, world and universe evaporating like mist. If b alefire was unleashed once more, there might be no world to rule.

Another point pricked him. The Great Lord already knew how Rahvin had died. And seemed to know more of Asmodean than he. "As you command, Great Lord, so shall I obey." His muscles might be jerking, but his voice was rock steady. His knees began to bl ister from the hot stone, yet the flesh might as well have been someone else's.

SO YOU SHALL.

"Great Lord, the Dragon can be destroyed." A dead man could not wield balefire again, and perhaps then the Great Lord would see no need for it. "He is ignorant and weak, scattering his attentions in a dozen directions. Rahvin was a vain fool. I--."

WOULD YOU BE NAE'BLIS?

Demandred's tongue froze. Nae'blis. The one who would stand only a step below the Great Lord, commanding all others. "I wish only to serve you, Great Lord, however I may." Nae'blis.

THEN LISTEN, AND SERVE. HEAR WHO WILL DIE AND WHO LIVE.

Demandred screamed as the voice crashed home. Tears of joy rolled down his face.

Unmoving, the Myrddraal watched him.

* * *

"Stop fidgeting." Nynaeve testily flipped her long braid over her shoulder. "This won't work if you twitch around like children with an itch."

Neither of the women across the rickety table appeared any older than she, though they were by twenty years or more, and neither was really fidgeting, but the heat had Nynaeve on edge. The small windowless room seemed airless. She dripped sweat; they ap peared cool and dry. Leane, in a Domani dress of too-thin blue silk, merely shrugged; the tall coppery-skinned woman possessed an apparently infinite store of patience. Usually. Siuan, fair and sturdy, seldom had any.

Now Siuan grunted and resettled her skirts irritably; she used to wear fairly plain clothes, but this morning she was in fine yellow linen embroidered with a Tairen maze around a neckline that barely missed being too low. Her blue eyes were cold as deep wellwater. As cold as deep wellwater would have been if the weather had not gone mad. Her dresses might have changed, but not her eyes. "It won't work in any case," she snapped. Her manner of speaking was the same, too. "You can't patch a hull when t he whole boat's burned. Well, it's a waste of time, but I promised, so get on with it. Leane and I have work to do." The pair of them ran the networks of eye-and-ears for the Aes Sedai here in Salidar, the agents who sent in reports and rumors of what was going on in the world.

Nynaeve smoothed her own skirts to soothe herself. Her dress was plain white wool, with seven bands of color at the hem, one for each Ajah. An Accepted's dress. It annoyed her more than she could ever have imagined. She would much rather have been in the green silk she had packed away. She was willing to admit her acquired taste for fine clothes, privately at least, but her choice of that particular dress was only for comfort--it was thin, light--not because green seemed one of Lan's favorite colors. Not at all. Idle dreaming of the worst sort. An Accepted who put on anything except the banded white would soon learn she was a long step below Aes Sedai. Firmly she put all that out of her head. She was not here to fret over fripperies. He liked b lue, too. No!

Delicately she probed with the One Power, first at Siuan, then Leane. In a manner of speaking, she was not channeling at all. She could not channel a scrap unless angry, could not even sense the True Source. Yet it came to the same thing. Fine filamen ts of saidar, the female half of the True Source, sifted through the two women at her weaving. They just did not originate with her.

On her left wrist Nynaeve wore a slender bracelet, a simple segmented silver band. Mainly silver, anyway, and from a special source, though that made no difference. It was the only piece of jewelry she wore aside from the Great Serpent ring; Accepted we re firmly discouraged from wearing much jewelry. A matching necklace snugged close around the neck of the fourth woman, on a stool against the rough-plastered wall with her hands folded in her lap. Clad in a farmer's rough brown wool, with a farmer's wo rn sturdy face, she did not sweat a drop. She did not move a muscle either, but her dark eyes watched everything. To Nynaeve, the radiance of saidar surrounded her, but it was Nynaeve who directed the channeling. Bracelet and necklace created a link be tween them, much in the way Aes Sedai could link to combine their power. Something about "absolutely identical matrices" was involved according to Elayne, after which the explanation truly became incomprehensible. In truth, Nynaeve did not think Elayne understood half as much as she pretended. For herself, Nynaeve did not understand at all, except that she could feel the other woman's every emotion, feel the woman herself, but tucked away in a corner of her head, and that all the other woman's grasp of saidar was in her control. Sometimes she thought it would have been better if the woman on the stool were dead. Simpler, certainly. Cleaner.

"There's something torn, or cut," Nynaeve muttered, wiping absently at the sweat on her face. It was just a vague impression, barely there at all, but it was also the first time she had sensed more than emptiness. It could be imagination, and the desper ate wanting to find something, anything.

"Severing," the woman on the stool said. "That was what it was called, what you name stilling for women and gentling for men."

Three heads swiveled toward her; three sets of eyes glared with fury. Siuan and Leane had been Aes Sedai until they were stilled during the coup in the White Tower that put Elaida on the Amyrlin Seat. Stilled. A word to cause shudders. Never to channe l again. But always to remember, and know the loss. Always to sense the True Source and know you could never touch it again. Stilling could not be Healed any more than death.

That was what everyone believed, anyway, but in Nynaeve's opinion the One Power should be able to Heal anything short of death. "If you have something useful to add, Marigan," she said sharply, "then say it. If not, keep quiet."

Marigan shrank back against the wall, eyes glittering and fixed on Nynaeve. Fear and hate rolled through the bracelet, but they always did to one degree or another. Captives seldom loved their captors, even--perhaps especially--when they knew they deser ved captivity and worse. The problem was that Marigan also said severing--stilling--could not be Healed. Oh, she was full of claims that anything else except death could be Healed in the Age of Legends, that what the Yellow Ajah called Healing now was o nly the crudest hasty battlefield work. But try to pin her down on specifics, on even a hint of how, and you found nothing there. Marigan knew as much about Healing as Nynaeve did about blacksmithing, which was that you stuck metal in hot coals and hit it with a hammer. Certainly not enough to make a horseshoe. Or Heal much beyond a bruise.

Twisting around in her chair, Nynaeve studied Siuan and Leane. Days of this, whenever she could pry them away from their other work, and so far she had learned nothing. Suddenly she realized she was turning the bracelet on her wrist. Whatever the gain, she hated being linked to the woman. The intimacy made her skin crawl. At least I might learn something, she thought. And it couldn't fail any worse than everything else has.

Carefully she undid the bracelet--the clasp was impossible to find unless you knew how--and handed it to Siuan. "Put this on." Losing the Power was bitter, but this had to be done. And losing the waves of emotion was like taking a bath. Marigan's eyes followed the narrow length of silver as if hypnotized.

"Why?" Siuan demanded. "You tell me this thing only works--."

"Just put it on, Siuan."

Siuan eyed her stubbornly for a moment--Light, but the woman could be obstinate!--before closing the bracelet around her wrist. A look of wonder came onto her face immediately, then her eyes narrowed at Marigan. "She hates us, but I knew that. And ther e's fear, and.... Shock. Not a glimmer on her face, but she's shocked to her toes. I don't think she believed I could use this thing, either."

Marigan shifted uneasily. So far only two who knew about her could use the bracelet. Four would give more chances for questions. On the surface she seemed to be cooperating fully, but how much was she hiding? As much as she could, Nynaeve was sure.

With a sigh, Siuan shook her head. "And I cannot. I should be able to touch the Source through her, isn't that right? Well, I can't. A grunter could climb trees first. I've been stilled, and that is that. How do you get this thing off?" She fumbled at the bracelet. "How do you bloody get it off?"

Gently Nynaeve laid a hand over Siuan's on the bracelet. "Don't you see? The bracelet won't work for a woman who can't channel any more than the necklace would work on her. If I put either on one of the cooks, it would be no more than a pretty piece for her."

"Cooks or no cooks," Siuan said flatly, "I cannot channel. I have been stilled."

"But there is something there to be Healed," Nynaeve insisted, "or you'd feel nothing through the bracelet."

Siuan jerked her arm free and stuck her wrist out. "Take it off."

Shaking her head, Nynaeve complied. Sometimes Siuan could be as bullheaded as any man!

When she held the bracelet toward Leane, the Domani woman lifted her wrist eagerly. Leane pretended to be as sanguine over having been stilled as Siuan was--as Siuan pretended to be--but she did not always succeed. Supposedly, the only way to survive st illing for long was to find something else to fill your life, to fill the hole left by the One Power. For Siuan and Leane that something was running their networks of agents, and more importantly, trying to convince the Aes Sedai here in Salidar to suppo rt Rand al'Thor as the Dragon Reborn without letting any of the Aes Sedai know what they were doing. The question was whether that was enough. The bitterness on Siuan's face, and the delight on Leane's as the bracelet snapped shut, said maybe nothing co uld ever be.

"Oh, yes." Leane had a brisk, clipped way of speaking. Except when talking to men, anyway; she was Domani, after all, and of late making up for time lost in the Tower. "Yes, she really is stunned, isn't she? Beginning to control it now, though." For a few moments she sat silently, considering the woman on the stool. Marigan stared back warily. At last, Leane shrugged. "I cannot touch the Source, either. And I tried to make her feel a fleabite on her ankle. If it had worked, she would have had to show something." That was the other trick of the bracelet; you could make the woman wearing the necklace feel physical sensations. Only the sensations---there was no mark whatever you did, no real damage--but the feel of a sound switching or two had suf ficed to convince Marigan that cooperation was her best choice. That and the alternative, a quick trial followed by execution.

Despite her failure, Leane watched closely as Nynaeve undid the bracelet and refastened it on her own wrist. It seemed that she, at least, had not given up completely on channeling again one day.

Regaining the Power was wonderful. Not as wonderful as drawing saidar herself, being filled with it, but even touching the Source through the other woman was like redoubling the life in her veins. To hold saidar inside was to want to laugh and dance wit h pure joy. She supposed that one day she would become used to it; full Aes Sedai must. Balanced against that, linking with Marigan was a small price. "Now that we know there's a chance," she said, "I think--."

The door banged open, and Nynaeve was on her feet before she knew it. She never thought of using the Power; she would have screamed if her throat had not closed tight. She was not the only one, but she hardly noticed Siuan and Leane leaping up. The fea r cascading through the bracelet seemed an echo of her own.

The young woman who shut the splintery wooden door behind her took no notice of the commotion she had caused. Tall and straight in an Accepted's banded white dress, with sun-gold curls nestled on her shoulders, she looked spitting mad. Even with her fac e tight with anger and dripping sweat she somehow managed to look beautiful, though; it was a knack Elayne had. "Do you know what they're doing? They are sending an embassy to...to Caemlyn! And they refuse to let me go! Sheriam forbade me to mention it again. Forbade me even to speak of it!"

"Did you never learn to knock, Elayne?" Straightening her chair, Nynaeve sat down again. Fell, really; relief weakened her knees. "I thought you were Sheriam." Just the thought of discovery cored out her middle.

To her credit, Elayne blushed and apologized immediately. Then spoiled it by adding, "But I don't see why you were so goosey. Birgitte is still outside, and you know she would warn you if anyone else came close. Nynaeve, they must let me go."

"They must do nothing of the kind," Siuan said gruffly. She and Leane were seated again, too. Siuan sat up straight, as always, but Leane sagged back, as flimsy as Nynaeve's knees. Marigan was leaning against the wall, breathing hard, eyes closed and h ands pressed hard against the plaster. Relief and stark terror surged through the bracelet in alternating jolts.

"But--."

Siuan did not allow Elayne another word. "Do you think Sheriam, or any of the others, will let the Daughter-Heir of Andor fall into the hands of the Dragon Reborn? With your mother dead--."

"I don't believe that!" Elayne snapped.

"You don't believe Rand killed her," Siuan went on relentlessly, "and that's a different thing. I don't, either. But if Morgase was alive, she would come forward and acknowledge him the Dragon Reborn. Or, if she believed him a false Dragon in spite of the proof, she'd be organizing resistance. None of my eyes-and-ears have heard a whisper of either. Not just in Andor, but not here in Altara and not in Murandy."

"They have," Elayne forced in. "There's rebellion in the west."

"Against Morgase. Against. If it's not a rumor, too." Siuan's voice was flat as a planed board. "Your mother is dead, girl. Best to admit as much and get your weeping done."

Elayne's chin rose, a very annoying habit she had; she was the picture of icy arrogance, though most men seemed to find it attractive for some reason. "You complain continually over how long it is taking to get in touch with all of your agents," she said coolly, "but I will set aside whether you can have heard all there is to hear. Whether my mother is alive or not, my place is in Caemlyn, now. I am Daughter-Heir."

Siuan's loud snort made Nynaeve jump. "You've been Accepted long enough to know better." Elayne had as much potential as had been seen in a thousand years. Not as much as Nynaeve, if she ever learned to channel at will, but still enough to make any Aes Sedai's eyes light up. Elayne's nose wrinkled--she knew very well that if she had already been on the Lion Throne, the Aes Sedai still would have gotten her away for training, by asking if possible, by stuffing her into a barrel if necessary--and she op ened her mouth, but Siuan did not even slow down. "True, they'd not mind you taking the throne sooner than later; there hasn't been a Queen who was openly Aes Sedai in far too long. But you won't be let go until you're a full sister, and even then, beca use you are Daughter-Heir and will be Queen soon, they won't let you near the Dragon bloody Reborn until they know how far they can trust him. Especially since this...amnesty of his." Her mouth twisted sourly around the word, and Leane grimaced.

Nynaeve's tongue curdled, too. She had been brought up to fear any man who could channel, fated to go mad and, before the Shadow-tainted male half of the Source killed him horribly, bring terror to everyone around him. But Rand, who she had watched grow up, was the Dragon Reborn, born both as a sign that the last Battle was coming and to fight the Dark One in that battle. The Dragon Reborn; humanity's only hope--and a man who could channel. Worse, reports were that he was trying to gather others like him. Of course, there could not be many. Any Aes Sedai would hunt down one of those--the Red Ajah did little else--but they found few, far fewer than once, according to the records.

Elayne was not about to give up, though. That was one admirable thing about her; she would not give up if her head was on the block and the axe descending. She stood there with her chin up, facing Siuan's stare, which Nynaeve often found hard to do. "T here are two clear reasons why I should go. First, whatever has happened to my mother, she is missing, and as Daughter-Heir, I can calm the people and assure them the succession is intact. Second, I can approach Rand. He trusts me. I would be far bett er than anyone the Hall chooses."

The Aes Sedai here in Salidar had chosen their own Hall of the Tower, a Hall-in-exile as it were. They were supposed to be mulling over the choice of a new Amyrlin Seat, a rightful Amyrlin to challenge Elaida's claim to the title and the Tower, but Nynae ve had not seen much sign of it.

"So kind of you to sacrifice yourself, child," Leane said drily. Elayne's expression did not change, yet she colored furiously; few outside this room knew, and no Aes Sedai, but Nynaeve had no doubt that Elayne's first act in Caemlyn would be to get Rand alone and kiss him within an inch of his life. "With your mother...missing...if Rand al'Thor has you, and Caemlyn, he has Andor, and the Hall won't let him have any more of Andor than they have to, or anywhere else if they can help it. He carries Tear and Cairhien in his pocket, and the Aiel as well, it seems. Add Andor, and Murandy and Altara--with us in it--fall if he sneezes. He is growing too powerful, too fast. He might decide he doesn't need us. With Moiraine dead, there's no one near him we can trust."

That made Nynaeve wince. Moiraine was the Aes Sedai who had brought her and Rand out of the Two Rivers and changed their lives. Her and Rand and Egwene and Mat and Perrin. For so long she had wanted to make Moiraine pay for what she had done to them th at losing her was like losing a piece of herself. But Moiraine was dead in Cairhien, taking Lanfear with her; she was fast becoming a legend among the Aes Sedai here, the only Aes Sedai to have killed one of the Forsaken, much less two. The only good th ing Nynaeve could find in it, much as it shamed to find any good, was that now Lan was freed from being Moiraine's Warder. If she could ever find him.

Siuan took up immediately where Leane left off. "We can't afford to let the boy go sailing off with no guidance at all. Who knows what he might do? Yes, yes, I know you're ready to argue for him, but I don't care to hear it. I'm trying to balance a liv e silverpike on my nose, girl. We can't let him grow too strong before he accepts us, and yet we don't dare hold him back too much. And I'm trying to keep Sheriam and the others convinced they should support him when half the Hall secretly don't want an ything to do with him, and the other half think in their heart of hearts that he should be gentled, Dragon Reborn or not. In any case, whatever your arguments, I suggest you heed Sheriam. You won't change any minds, and Tiana doesn't have enough novices here to keep her busy."

Elayne's face tightened angrily. Tiana Noselle, a Gray sister, was Mistress of Novices here in Salidar. An Accepted had to step considerably further out of line to be sent to Tiana than did a novice, but by the same token, the visit was always that much more shaming and painful. Tiana might show a little kindness to a novice, if only a little; she felt Accepted should know better, and made sure they felt the same long before they left her small cubby-hole of a study.

Nynaeve had been studying Siuan, and now something popped into her head. "You knew all about this...embassy, or whatever it is...didn't you? You two always have your heads together with Sheriam and her little circle." The Hall might have all the suppose d authority until they chose an Amyrlin, but Sheriam and the handful of other Aes Sedai who had first organized the arrivals in Salidar still kept the real control of things. "How many are they sending, Siuan?" Elayne gasped; plainly she had not thought of this. That showed how upset she was. Usually she caught nuance's Nynaeve missed.

Siuan denied nothing. Since being stilled she could lie like a wool merchant, but when she decided to be open, she was as open as a slap in the face. "Nine. `Enough to do honor to the Dragon Reborn'--fishguts! An embassy to a king is seldom more than t hree!--`but not enough to frighten him.' If he's learned enough to be frightened."

"You had better hope he has," Elayne said coldly. "If he hasn't, then nine may be eight too many."

Thirteen was the dangerous number. Rand was strong, perhaps as strong as any man since the Breaking, but thirteen Aes Sedai linked could overwhelm him, shield him from saidin, and take him prisoner. Thirteen was the number assigned when a man was gentle d, though Nynaeve had begun to think the assignment more custom than requirement. Aes Sedai did a good many things because they always had.

Siuan's smile was far from pleasant. "I wonder why no one else thought of that? Think, girl! Sheriam does, and so does the Hall. Only one will go near him at first, and no more after that than he's comfortable with. But he'll know nine came, and somebo dy will certainly tell him what an honor that is."

"I see," Elayne said in a small voice. "I should have known one of you would think of it. I'm sorry." That was another good thing about her. She could be stubborn as a cross-eyed mule, but when she decided she was wrong, she admitted it as nicely as a ny village woman. Most unusual for a noble.

"Min will be going too," Leane said. "Her...talents may be useful to Rand. The sisters won't know that part, of course. She can keep her secrets." As if that were the important thing.

"I see," Elayne said again, flatly this time. She made an effort to brighten her tone, a miserable failure. "Well, I see you're busy with...with Marigan. I did not mean to disturb you. Please, don't let me interrupt." She was gone before Nynaeve coul d open her mouth, the door banging shut behind her.

Angrily, Nynaeve rounded on Leane. "I thought Siuan was the mean one of you, but that was vicious!"

It was Siuan who answered. "When two women love the same man, it means trouble, and when the man is Rand al'Thor.... The Light knows how sane he still is, or what course they might send him off on. If there's any hair-pulling and clawing to be done, le t them do it now, here."

Without thought, Nynaeve's hand found her braid and jerked it back over her shoulder. "I ought to...." Trouble was, there was little she could do, and nothing to make any difference. "We'll go on from where we left off when Elayne came in. But, Siuan. ... If you ever do something like that to her again," or to me, she thought, "I'll make you sorry you--. Where do you think you're going?" Siuan had scraped back her chair and risen, and after a glance, Leane did the same.

"We have work," Siuan said curtly, already heading for the door.

"You promised to make yourself available, Siuan. Sheriam told you to." Not that Sheriam thought it any less a waste of time than Siuan, but Nynaeve and Elayne had earned rewards, and a certain amount of indulgence. Like Marigan to be their maid, to giv e them more time for Accepted's studies.

Siuan gave her an amused look from the door. "Maybe you'll complain to her? And explain how you do your research? I want time with Marigan this evening; I have some more questions."

As Siuan left, Leane said sadly, "It would be nice, Nynaeve, but we have to do what we can do. You could try Logain." Then she was gone, too.

Nynaeve scowled. Studying Logain had taught her even less than studying the two women. She was no longer certain she could learn anything from him at all. Anyway, the last thing she wanted was to Heal a gentled man. He made her nervous in any case.

"You bite at one another like rats in a sealed box," Marigan said. "On the evidence, your chances are not very good. Perhaps you should consider...other options."

"Hold your filthy tongue!" Nynaeve glared at her. "Hold it, the Light burn you!" Fear still oozed through the bracelet, but something else as well, something almost too feeble to exist. A faint spark of hope, perhaps. "The Light burn you," she mutter ed.

The woman's real name was not Marigan, but Moghedien. One of the Forsaken, trapped with her own over-weening pride and held prisoner in the midst of Aes Sedai. Only five women in the world knew, none Aes Sedai, but keeping Moghedien secret was purest ne cessity. The Forsaken's crimes made her execution as sure as the sun rising. Siuan agreed; for every Aes Sedai who counseled waiting, if any did, ten would demand immediate justice. Into an unmarked grave with her would go all her knowledge from the Ag e of Legends, when things were done with the Power undreamed of today. Nynaeve was not sure she believed half of what the woman told her of that Age. She certainly understood less than half.

Digging information out of Moghedien was not easy. Sometimes it was like Healing; Moghedien had not been interested in much that could not advance her, preferably by shortcuts. The woman was hardly likely to reveal the truth, but Nynaeve suspected she h ad been some sort of swindler or the like before swearing her soul over to the Dark One. Sometimes she and Elayne just did not know the questions to ask. Moghedien seldom volunteered anything, that was certain. Even so, they had learned a great deal, a nd passed most on to the Aes Sedai. As results of their researches and studies as Accepted, of course. They had gained a lot of credit.

She and Elayne would have kept knowledge of her to themselves if they could, but Birgitte had known from the start, and Siuan and Leane had to be told. Siuan had known enough of the circumstances that led to Moghedien's capture to demand a full explanati on, and had the leverage to obtain one. Nynaeve and Elayne knew some of Siuan and Leane's secrets; they seemed to know all of her and Elayne's except the truth about Birgitte. It made for a precarious balance, with the advantage to Siuan and Leane. Bes ides, bits of Moghedien's revelations concerned supposed Darkfriend plots and hints of what the other Forsaken might be up to. The only way to pass those on was to make it seem to have come from Siuan and Leane's agents. Nothing about the Black Ajah--hi dden deep and long denied--though that interested Siuan most. Darkfriends disgusted her, but the very idea of Aes Sedai swearing themselves to the Dark One was enough to screw Siuan's anger to an icy rage. Moghedien claimed to have been afraid to go nea r any Aes Sedai, and that was believable enough. Fear was a permanent part of the woman. No wonder she had hidden in the shadows enough to be called the Spider. All in all, she was a treasure trove too valuable to give to the headsman, yet most Aes Sed ai would not see it so. Most Aes Sedai might refuse to touch or trust anything learned from her.

Guilt and revulsion stabbed Nynaeve, not for the first time. Could any amount of knowledge justify keeping one of the Forsaken from justice? Turning her in meant punishment, probably dreadful, for everyone involved, not just herself, but Elayne and Siuan and Leane. Turning her in meant Birgitte's secret would come out. And all that knowledge lost. Moghedien might know nothing of Healing, but she had given Nynaeve a dozen hints of what was possible, and there had to be more in her head. With those to guide her, what might she discover eventually?

Nynaeve wanted a bath, and it had nothing to do with the heat. "We will talk about the weather," she said bitterly.

"You know more about controlling weather than I do." Moghedien sounded weary, and an echo slid through the bracelet. There had been enough questions on the subject. "All I know is that what is happening is the Great--the Dark One's work." She had the nerve to smile ingratiatingly at the slip. "No mere human is strong enough to change that."

It took effort for Nynaeve not to grind her teeth. Elayne knew more about working weather than anyone else in Salidar, and she said the same. Including the Dark One part, though any but a fool would know that, with the heat so strong when it should be c oming on for snow, with no rain and the streams drying. "Then we'll talk about using different weaves to Heal different illnesses." The woman said that took more time than what was done now, but all the strength for it came from the Power, not from the patient and the woman channeling. Of course, she said men had actually been better at some kinds of Healing, and Nynaeve was not about to believe that. "You must have seen it done at least once."

She settled down to bore away for nuggets in the dross. Some knowledge was worth a great deal. She just wished she did not feel that she was digging through slime.

* * *

Elayne did not hesitate once she was outside, only waved to Birgitte and went on. Birgitte, her golden hair in an intricate waist-long braid, was playing with two small boys while she kept watch in the narrow alley, her bow propped against a leaning fenc e beside her. Or trying to play with them. Jaril and Seve stared at the woman in her odd wide yellow trousers and short dark coat, but they showed no more reaction than that. They never did, and they never spoke. They were supposed to be "Marigan's" c hildren. Birgitte was happy playing with them, and a touch sad; she always liked playing with children, especially little boys, and she always felt that way when she did. Elayne knew it as well as she knew her own feelings.

If she had thought Moghedien had anything to do with their condition.... But the woman claimed they were as they were when she picked them up for her disguise in Ghealdan, orphans in the street, and some of the Yellow sisters said they had just seen too much in the riots in Samara. Elayne could believe it from what she herself had encountered there. The Yellow sisters said time and care would help them; Elayne hoped it was so. She hoped she was not allowing the one responsible to escape justice.

She did not want to think about Moghedien now. Her mother. No, she definitely did not want to think about her. Min. And Rand. There had to be some way to handle like this. Barely seeing Birgitte's return nod, she hurried up the alley and out onto th e main street of Salidar beneath a cloudless broiling midday sky.

For years Salidar had stood abandoned before Aes Sedai fleeing Elaida's coup began to gather there, but now fresh thatch topped the houses, most of which showed considerable new repairs and patches, and the three large stone buildings that had been inns. One, the largest, was called the Little Tower by some; that was where the Hall met. Only what was necessary had been done, of course; cracked glass filled many windows, or none. More important matters were afoot than re-pointing stonework or painting. The dirt streets were filled to bursting. Not just with Aes Sedai, of course, but Accepted in banded dresses and scurrying novices in pure white, Warders moving with the deadly grace of leopards whether lean or bulky, servants who had followed Aes Sedai from the Tower, even a few children. And soldiers.

The Hall here was preparing to enforce its claims against Elaida by arms if necessary, just as soon as they chose a true Amyrlin Seat. The distant clang of hammers, cutting through the crowds' murmur from forges outside the village, spoke of horses being shod, armor being mended. A square-faced man, his dark hair heavy with gray, went riding slowly down the street in a buff-colored coat and battered breastplate. Picking his way through the crowd, he eyed marching clusters of men with long pikes on thei r shoulders, or bows. Gareth Bryne had agreed to recruit and lead the Salidar Hall's army, though Elayne wished she knew the full how and why. Something to do with Siuan and Leane, though what, she could not imagine since he ran both women ragged, espec ially Siuan, fulfilling some oath she did not have the straight of either. Just that Siuan complained bitterly about having to keep his room and his clothes clean on top of her other duties. She complained, but she did it; it must have been a strong oat h.

Bryne's eyes passed across Elayne with barely a hesitation. He had been coolly polite and distant since she arrived in Salidar, though she had known him since her cradle. Until less than a year ago he had been Captain-General of the Queen's Guards, in A ndor. Once, Elayne had though he and her mother would marry. No, she was not going to think of her mother! Min. She had to find Min and talk.

No sooner had she had begun to weave through the crowded dusty street though, than two Aes Sedai found her. There was no choice but to stop and curtsy, while the throng streamed around them. Both women beamed. Neither sweated a drop. Pulling a handker chief from her sleeve to dab at her face, Elayne wished she had already been taught that particular bit of Aes Sedai lore. "Good day, Anaiya Sedai, Janya Sedai."

"Good day, child. Do you have any more discoveries for us today?" As usual, Janya Frende spoke as though there was no time to get the words out. "Such remarkable strides you've made, you and Nynaeve, especially for Accepted. I still don't see how Nyna eve does it, when she has so many difficulties with the Power, but I cannot say I'm less than delighted." Unlike most Brown sisters, often absent minded beyond their books and studies, Janya Sedai was quite neat, every dark hair in place in a cap around the ageless face that marked Aes Sedai who had worked very long with the Power. But the slender woman did not avoid every hint to her Ajah. Her dress was plain gray, and stout wool--Browns seldom thought of clothes as more than decent covering--and even when she was talking to you, she wore a little frown, as though squinting in thought about something else entirely. She would have been pretty without that frown. "That way of wrapping yourself in light to become invisible. Remarkable. I'm sure someo ne will find how to stop the ripples, so you can move about with it. And Carenna is quite excited over that little eavesdropping trick of Nynaeve's. Naughty of her, to think of that, but useful. Carenna thinks she sees how to adapt it to talk to someon e at a distance. Think of it. To talk with someone a mile away! Or two, or even--." Anaiya touched her arm, and she cut off, blinking at the other Aes Sedai.

"You are making great strides, Elayne," Anaiya said calmly. The bluff-faced woman was always calm. Motherly was the word to describe her, and comforting usually, though Aes Sedai features made putting an age to her impossible. She was also one of the s mall circle around Sheriam who held the real power in Salidar. "Greater than any of us expected, truly, and we expected much. The first to make a ter'angreal since the Breaking. That is remarkable, child, and I want you to know that. You should be ver y proud."

Elayne stared at the ground in front of her toes. Two waist-high boys went dodging by through the crowd, laughing. She wished no one was close enough to hear this. Not that any of the passersby gave them a second glance. With so many Aes Sedai in the village, not even novices curtsied unless an Aes Sedai addressed them, and everyone had errands that needed to be done yesterday.

She did not feel proud at all. Not with all of their "discoveries" coming from Moghedien. There had been a good many, beginning with "inverting," so a weave could not be seen by any but the woman who had woven it, yet they had not passed everything on. How to hide your ability to channel, for one. Without that, Moghedien would have been unmasked in hours--any Aes Sedai within two of three paces of a woman could sense whether she could channel--and if they learned how to do that, they might learn how t o penetrate it. And how to disguise yourself; inverted weaves made "Marigan" look nothing at all like Moghedien.

Some of what the woman knew was just too repulsive. Compulsion for instance, bending people's will, and a way to implant instructions so the recipient would not even remember the orders when he carried them out. Worse things. Too repulsive, and maybe t oo dangerous to trust anyone with. Nynaeve said they had to learn them in order to learn how to counter them, but Elayne did not want to. They were keeping so many secrets, telling so many lies to friends and people on their side, that she almost wished she could take the Three Oaths on the Oath Rod without waiting to be raised Aes Sedai. One of those bound you to speak no word that was not true, bound you as though a part of your flesh.

"I haven't done as well as I might with the ter'angreal, Anaiya Sedai." That, at least, was hers and hers alone. The first had been the bracelet and necklace--a fact kept well hidden, needless to say--but they were an altered copy of a nasty invention, the a'dam, that the Seanchan left behind when their invasion was driven into the sea at Falme. The plain green disc that allowed someone not strong enough to work the invisibility trick--not many were--had been her idea from the first. She had no angrea l or sa'angreal to study, so they had been impossible to make so far, and even after her ease in copying the Seanchan device, ter'angreal had not proven as easy as she had thought. They used the One Power instead of magnifying it, used it for one specifi c purpose, to do one thing. Some could even be used by people who could not channel, even men. They should have been simpler. Maybe they were, in function, but not simple to make.

Her modest statement unleashed a torrent from Janya. "Nonsense, child. Absolute nonsense. Why, I've no doubt that as soon as we are back in the Tower and can test you properly and put the Oath Rod in your hand, you'll be raised to the shawl as well as the ring. No doubt. You really are fulfilling all the promise that was seen in you. And more. No one could have expected--." Anaiya touched her arm again; it seemed a set signal, because once more Janya stopped and blinked.

"No need to swell the child's head too far," Anaiya said. "Elayne, I'll have no sulking out of you. You should have outgrown that long since." The mother could be firm as well as kindly. "I won't have you pouting over a few failures, not when your suc cess was so wonderful." Elayne had made five tries at the stone disc. Two did nothing, and two made you appear blurry, as well as sick to your stomach. The one that worked had been the third attempt. More than a few failures in Elayne's book. "Everyt hing you've done is wonderful. You, and Nynaeve, too."

"Thank you," Elayne said. "Thank you both. I'll try not to be sulky." When an Aes Sedai said you were sulky, the one thing you did not do was tell her you were not. "Will you excuse me, please? I understand the embassy to Caemlyn is leaving today, and I want to say goodbye to Min."

They let her go, of course, though Janya might have taken half an hour to do so without Anaiya there. Anaiya eyed Elayne sharply--she surely knew all about the words with Sheriam--but said nothing. Sometimes an Aes Sedai's silences were as speaking as w ords.

Thumbing the ring on the third finger of her left hand, Elayne darted on at a near trot, eyes focused far enough ahead that she could claim not to have seen anyone else who tried to stop her for congratulations. It might work, and it might mean a visit t o Tiana; indulgences for good work only went so far. Right that moment, she would much prefer Tiana to praise she did not deserve.

The gold ring was a serpent biting its own tail, the Great Serpent, a symbol of Aes Sedai, but worn by Accepted too. When she donned the shawl, fringed in the color of the Ajah she selected, she would wear it on the finger she chose. It would be the Gre en Ajah for her, of necessity; only Green sisters had more than one Warder, and she wanted to have Rand. Or as much of him as she could, at least. The difficulty was that she had already bonded Birgitte, the first woman ever to become a Warder. That wa s why she could sense Birgitte's feelings, how she knew Birgitte had gotten a splinter in her hand that morning. Only Nynaeve knew about the bond. Warders were for full Aes Sedai; for an Accepted who overstepped that bound, no indulgences in the world w ould save her hide. For them it had been necessity, not whim--Birgitte would have died, else--but Elayne did not think that would make any difference. Breaking a rule with the Power could be fatal for yourself and others; to set that firmly in your mind , Aes Sedai seldom let anyone get away with breaking any rule for any reason.

There was so much subterfuge here in Salidar. Not just Birgitte, and Moghedien. One of the Oaths kept an Aes Sedai from lying, but what was not spoken of did not have to lied over. Moiraine had known how to weave a cloak of invisibility, maybe the same one they learned from Moghedien; Nynaeve had seen Moiraine do it once, before Nynaeve knew anything of the Power. No one else in Salidar had known, though. Or admitted to it, anyway. Birgitte had confirmed what Elayne had begun to suspect. Most Aes S edai, maybe all, kept back at least part of what they learned; most had their own secret tricks. Those might become common knowledge taught to novices or Accepted, if enough Aes Sedai learned them--or they might die with the Aes Sedai. Two or three time s she thought she had seen a glimmer in someone's eyes when she demonstrated something. Carenna had leaped onto the eavesdropping trick with suspicious quickness But it was hardly the sort of accusation an Accepted could make against Aes Sedai.

Knowing did not make her own deceptions more palatable, but maybe it helped a little. That and remembering necessity. If only they would stop praising her for what she had not done.

She was sure she knew where to find Min. The River Eldar lay not three miles west of Salidar, and a tiny stream ran through the edge of the village on its way through the forest to the river. Most of the trees that had grown up in the town had been cut down after Aes Sedai began arriving, but a small patch on the stream's bank remained behind some houses, on a scrap of land too narrow to be useful. Min claimed to like cities best, yet she often went to sit among those trees. It was a way to escape the company of Aes Sedai and Warders awhile, and for Min that was almost essential.

Sure enough, when Elayne edged her way around the corner of a stone house onto the slender strip, along a runnel of water no wider, Min was sitting there with her back against a tree, watching the little brook burble over rocks. As much as was left of it ; the stream trickled down a bed of dried mud twice as wide as it was. The trees held a few leaves here, though most of the surrounding forest was beginning to go bare. Even the oaks.

A dried branch cracked under Elayne's slipper, and Min jumped to her feet. As usual she wore a boy's gray coat and breeches, but she had had small blue flowers embroidered on the lapels and up the sides of the snug legs. Oddly, since she said the three aunts who raised her had been seamstresses, Min seemed not know one end of a needle from the other. She stared at Elayne, then grimaced and ran her fingers through dark shoulder-length hair. "You know," was all she said.

"I thought we should talk."

Min scrubbed her hands through her hair again. "Siuan didn't tell me until this morning. I've been trying to work up courage to tell you ever since. She wants me to spy on him, Elayne. For the embassy, and she gave me names in Caemlyn, people who can send messages back to her."

"You won't do it, of course," Elayne said, without a hint of question, and Min gave her a grateful look. "Why were you afraid to come to me? We are friends, Min. And we promised each other not to let a man come between us. Even if we do both love him."

Min's laugh had a huskiness to it; Elayne supposed many men would find that attractive. And she was pretty, in a mischievous sort of way. And a few years older; was that in her favor, or against? "Oh, Elayne, we said that when he was safely away from bo th of us. Losing you would be like losing a sister, but what if one of us changes her mind?"

Best not to ask which of them that was supposed to be. Elayne tried not to think of the fact that if she bound and gagged Min with the Power and inverted the weave, she might be able to hide the woman in a basement until the embassy was long gone. "We w on't," she said simply. No, she could not do that to Min. She wanted Rand all to herself, but she could not hurt Min. Maybe she could just ask the other woman not to go until they both could. Instead, she said, "Is Gareth releasing you from your oath? "

This time Min's laugh was a bark. "Hardly. He says he'll make me work it off sooner or later. Siuan's the one he really wants to hold onto, the Light knows why." A slight tensing of her face made Elayne think there was a viewing involved in it, but sh e did not ask. Min never talked about those unless they concerned you.

She had an ability known to few in Salidar. Elayne and Nynaeve, Siuan and Leane; that was all. Birgitte did not know, but then Min did not know about Birgitte. Or Moghedien. So many secrets. But Min's was her own. Sometimes she saw images or auras a round people, and sometimes she knew what they meant. When she knew, she was always right; for instance, if she said a man and woman would marry, then sooner or later they married, even if they plainly hated one another now. Leane called it "reading the Pattern," but it had nothing to do with the Power. Most people carried the images only occasionally, but Aes Sedai and Warders always. Min's retreats here were to escape that deluge.

"Will you carry a letter to Rand for me?"

"Of course." The other woman's assent was so quick, her face so open, that Elayne blushed and went on hurriedly. She was not sure she would have agreed had the circumstances been reversed. "You mustn't let him know about your viewings, Min. Concerning us, I mean." One thing Min had viewed about Rand was that three women would fall hopelessly in love with him, be tied to him forever, and that one of them would one herself. The second had turned out to be Elayne. "If he learns about the viewing, he m ight decide it isn't what we want, only the Pattern, or his being ta'veren. He could decide to be noble and save us by not letting either of us near him."

"Maybe," Min sid doubtfully. "Men are strange. More likely, if he realizes we'll both come running when he crooks a finger, he'll crook it. He won't be able to help himself. I've seen them do it. I think it has something to do with the hair on their chins." She had such a wondering look that Elayne was not sure whether or not that was a joke. Min seemed to know a lot about men; she had worked mainly in stables--she liked horses--but once she had mentioned serving table in a tavern. "Either way, I won't tell. You and I will divide him up like a pie. Maybe we'll let the third have a bit of crust when she shows up."

"What are we going to do, Min?" Elayne had not meant to say that, certainly not in a near wail. Part of her wanted to say unequivocally that she would never come for a crooked finger; part wanted him to crook it. Part of her wanted to say she would not share Rand, not in any way, not with anyone, even a friend, and Min's viewings could go to the Pit of Doom; part wanted to box Rand's ears for doing this to her and Min. It was all so childish she felt like hiding her head, but she could not untangle th e snarl in her feelings. Leveling her voice, she answered her own question before Min could. "What we're going to do is sit here awhile and talk." She suited the words, choosing a spot where the dead leaves were particularly thick. A tree made a fine backrest. "Only not about Rand. I am going to miss you, Min. It's so good to have a friend I can trust."

Min sat cross-legged beside her and idly began digging up pebbles and tossing them into the stream. "Nynaeve is your friend. You trust her. And Birgitte certainly seems to be one; you spend more time with her than you do with Nynaeve, even." A slight frown creased her forehead. "Does she really believe she's Birgitte out of the legends. I mean, the bow and the braid--every tale mentions those, even if her bow isn't silver--and I can't think she was born with the name."

"She was born with it," Elayne said carefully. It was true, in a way. Best to steer the talk another way. "Nynaeve can't decide whether I'm a friend or somebody she has to browbeat into doing what she think's right. She's better, but she used to be so prickly I don't know whether she knew the difference. And she spends more time remembering I'm her Queen's daughter than I do. I think she holds it against me sometimes. You never do that."

"Maybe I'm not so impressed." Min wore a grin, but on the other she sounded serious. "I was born in the Mountains of Mist, Elayne, at the mines. Your mother's writ runs pretty thin that far west." The smile vanished from her face. "I'm sorry, Elayne. "

Stifling a flash of indignation--Min was every bit as much a subject of the Lion Throne as Nynaeve!--Elayne let her head fall back against the tree. "Let's talk of something happy." The sun sat molten overhead through the branches; the sky was a clear s heet of blue, unmarked by even one cloud to the horizon. On impulse, she opened herself to saidar and let it fill her, as though all the joy of life in the world had been distilled and every drop in her veins replaced with the essence. If she could make just one cloud form, it would be a sign that everything would come out all right. Her mother would be alive. Rand would love her. And Moghedien...would be dealt with. Somehow. She wove a tenuous web through the sky as far as she see, using Air and W ater, searching for the moisture for a cloud. If she only strained hard enough.... The sweetness quickly built close to pain, the danger sign; draw much more of the Power, and she could still herself. Just one little cloud.

"Happy?" Min said. "Well, I know you don't want to talk about Rand, but aside from you and me, he's still the most important thing in the world right now. And the happiest. Forsaken fall dead when he appears, and nations line up to bow. The Aes Sedai here are ready to support him. I know they are, Elayne; they have to. Why, next Elaida will hand the Tower over to him. The Last Battle will be a walk for him. He's winning, Elayne. We're winning."

Releasing the Source, Elayne sagged back, staring at a sky as empty as her mood had become. You did not need to be able to channel to see the Dark One's hand at work, and if he could touch the world this much, if he could touch it at all.... "Are we?" she said, but too softly for Min to hear.

* * *

The manor house was unfinished yet, the

...........................................

Of course, the manor was only an overgrown farmhouse, the greatroom stretched fewer than fifteen paces--how Perrin had stared when she insisted on it being even that big; he was still used to thinking of himself as a blacksmith, or even a blacksmith's app rentice--and the name given her at birth had been Zarine, not Faile. These things did not matter. Zarine was a name for a languorous woman who sighed tremulously over poems composed to her smiles. Faile, the name she had chosen as a sworn Hunter for th e Horn of Valere, meant falcon in the Old Tongue. No one who got a good look at her face, with its bold nose and high cheekbones and dark tilted eyes that flashed when she was angry, could doubt which suited her best. For the rest, intentions counted a great deal. So did what was right and proper.

Her eyes were flashing right then. It had nothing to do with Perrin's stubbornness, and little with the unseasonable heat. Though in truth, futilely working a pheasant feather fan against the sweat sliding down her cheeks did not help her temper at all.

This late in the afternoon few remained of the crowd who had come to have her judge their disputes. Actually, they came for Perrin to hear them, but the idea of passing judgement on people he had grown up among horrified him. Unless she managed to corne r the man, he vanished like a wolf in fog when it cam time for the daily audience. Luckily, the people did not consider it having to settle for less when Lady Faile heard them instead of Lord Perrin. Or few did, anyway, and those wise enough to hide the fact.

"You brought this to me," she said in a flat voice. The two women perspiring before her chair shuffled their feet uneasily and studied the polished floorboards.

Coppery-skinned Sharmad Zeffar's plump curves were covered, if far from obscured, by a high-necked but barely opaque Domani dress, the pale golden silk worn at hem and cuffs, still with a sprinkling of small travels-stains beyond cleaning; silk was silk, after all, and little to be had here. Patrols into the Mountains of Mist searching for remnants of the past summer's Trolloc invasion found few of the bestial Trollocs and far between--and no Myrddraal, thank the Light--but they did find refugees very ne arly every day, ten here, twenty there, five somewhere else. Most came out of Almoth Plain, but a good many from Tarabon and, like Sharmad, from Arad Doman, all fleeing lands ruined by anarchy on top of civil war. Faile did not want to think of how many died in the mountains. Lacking roads or even paths, it would have been no easy journey in the best of times, and these were far from the best.

Rhea Avin was no refugee, for all she wore a copy of a Taraboner dress in fine-woven wool, soft gray folds that molded and emphasized almost as much as Sharmad's thinner garb. Those who survived the long trek over the mountains brought more than troublin g rumors, skills previously unseen in the Two Rivers, and hands to work farms depopulated by the Trollocs. Rhea was a pretty, round-faced woman born not two miles from where the manor now stood, her dark hair in a wrist-thick braid to her waist. In the Two Rivers, girls did not braid their hair until the Women's Circle said they were old enough to marry, whether that was fifteen or thirty, though few went beyond twenty. In fact, Rhea was a good five years older than Faile, her hair four years braided, but at the moment she looked as if she still wore it loose on her shoulders and had just realized that what had seemed a wonderful idea at the time was really the stupidest thing she could have done. For that matter, Sharmad seemed even more abashed, for all she had a year or two on Rhea; for a Domani to find herself in this situation must be humiliating. Faile wanted to slap the pair of them cross-eyed--except that a lady could not do that.

"A man," she said as levelly as she could manage, "is not a horse or a field. Neither of you can own him, and to ask me to say which has the right to him...." She drew a slow breath. "If I thought Wil al'Seen had been leading you both on, I might have something to say on the matter." Wil had an eye for the women, and they for him--he had very well-turned calves--but he never made promises. Sharmad looked ready to sink into the floor; Domani women had a reputation for twining men around their fingers, after all, not the other way around. "As it is, this is my judgement. You will both go to the Wisdom and explain matters to her, leaving nothing out. She will handle this. I expect to hear that she's seen you before nightfall."

The pair flinched. Daise Congar, the Wisdom here in Emond's Field, would not tolerate this sort of nonsense. In fact, she would go well beyond not tolerating it. But they curtsied, muttering "Yes, my Lady," in forlorn unison. If not already, they soon would be regretting sorely wasting Daise's time.

And mine, Faile thought firmly. Everyone knew Perrin rarely sat in audience, or they would never have brought their fool "problem." Had he been here where he belonged, they would have slipped away rather than mention it in front of him. Faile hoped the heat had Daise in a prickle. Too bad there was no way to get Daise to take Perrin in hand.

Cenn Buie replaced the women almost before they could get out of the way on dragging feet. Despite leaning heavily on a walking staff nearly as gnarled as himself, he managed a florid bow, then spoiled it by raking bony fingers through lank thinning hair . As usual, his rough brown coat looked slept in. "The Light shine on you, my Lady Faile, and on your honored husband, the Lord Perrin." The grand words sounded odd in his scratchy voice. "Let me add my wishes for your continued happiness to those of the Council, which I was reminded of at our meeting this morning. Your intelligence and beauty make our lives brighter, as does the justice of your pronouncements."

Faile drummed her fingers on the arm of her chair before she could stop herself. Flowery praises instead of the normal sour grumbling. Reminding her that he sat on the Emond's Field Village Council and so was a man of influence, due respect. And playin g for sympathy with that staff; the thatcher was as spry as anyone half his age. He wanted something. "What do you bring me today, Master Buie?"

Cenn straightened, forgetting to prop himself up with his stick. And forgetting to keep the acrid note out of his voice. "It's all these outlanders flooding in, bringing all sorts of things we don't want here." He seemed to have forgotten she was an ou tlander, too; most Two Rivers folks had. "Strange ways, my Lady. Indecent clothes. You'll be hearing from the women about the way those Domani hussies dress, if you haven't already." She had, as it happened, from some of them, though a momentary gleam in Cenn's eye said he would have regretted it had she acceded to their demands. "Strangers stealing the food from our mouths, taking away our trades. That Taraboner fellow and his fool tile-making, for example. Taking up hands that could be put to use ful work. He doesn't care about good Two Rivers people. Why, he...."

Fanning herself, she stopped listening while giving every appearance of paying close attention; it was a skill her father had taught her, necessary at times like this. Of course. Master Hornval's rooftiles would compete with Cenn's thatchwork.

Not everyone felt as Cenn did about the newcomers. Haral Luhhan, the Emond's Field blacksmith, had gone into partnership with a Domani cutler and a whitesmith from Almoth Plain, and Master Aydaer had hired three men and two women who knew furniture makin g and carving, and gilding as well, though there certainly was no gold lying about for that. Her chair and Perrin's were their work, and as fine as she had seen anywhere. For that matter, Cenn himself had taken on half a dozen helpers, and not all Two R ivers folk; a good many roofs had burned when the Trollocs came, and new houses were going up everywhere. Perrin had no right to make her listen to this nonsense alone.

The people of the Two Rivers might have proclaimed him their lord--as well they might after he led them to victory over the Trollocs--and he might be beginning to realize he could not change that--as he certainly should, when they bowed and called him Lor d Perrin to his face right after he told them not to--yet he dug in his heels at the trappings that went with being a lord, all the things that people expected from their lords and ladies. Worse, he balked at the duties of a lord. Faile knew those thing s exactly, as the eldest surviving child of Davram t'Ghaline Bashere, Lord of Bashere, Tyr and Sidona, Guardian of the Blightborder, Defender of the Heartland, Marshal-General to Queen Tenobia of Saldaea. True, she had run away to become a Hunter for the Horn--and then given that up for a husband, which sometimes still stunned her--but she remembered. Perrin listened when she explained, and even nodded his head in the proper places, but trying to make him actually do any of it was like trying to make a horse dance the sa'sara.

Cenn finally ran down in splutters, only just remembering himself enough to swallow the invective that bubbled behind his teeth.

"Perrin and I chose to use thatch," Faile said calmly. While Cenn was still nodding in self-satisfaction, she added, "You haven't finished it, yet." He gave a start. "You seem to have taken on more roofs than you can handle, Master Buie. If ours isn't done soon, I fear we will have to ask Master Hornval about his tiles." Cenn's mouth worked in vigorous silence; if she put a tile roof on the manor, others would follow. "I have enjoyed your discourse, but I am sure you would rather finish my roof than waste time in idle conversation, however pleasant."

Lips thinning, Cenn glowered for a moment then made a sketchy bow. Muttering something unintelligible except for a strangled "my Lady" at the end, he stalked out thumping the bare floor with his stick. The things people found to waste her time. Perrin was going to do his share of this if she had to tie him hand and foot.

The rest were not so provoking. A once-stout woman, her patched flower-embroidered dress hanging on her like a sack, who had come all the way from Toman Head, beyond Almoth Plain, and wanted to deal in herbs and cures. Hulking Jon Ayellin rubbing his ba ld head and skinny Thad Torfinn twisting the lapels of his coat, disputing the boundaries of their fields. Two dark Domani men in long leather vests, with close-trimmed beards, miners who thought they had seen signs of gold and silver nearby on their way through the mountains. And iron, though they were less interested in that. And finally, a wiry Taraboner, a transparent veil across her narrow face and her pale hair in a multitude of thin braids, who claimed to have been a master carpetweaver and to k now the making of ruglooms.

The woman with an interest in herbs Faile directed to the local Women's Circle; if Espara Soman knew what she was about, they would find her a place under one of the village Wisdoms. With all the new people coming in, many in a bad way from the journey, not a Wisdom in the Two Rivers but had an apprentice or two, and all were on the lookout for more. Maybe not exactly what Espara wanted, but where she would have to start. A few questions made it plain that neither Thad nor Jon really remembered where t he boundary lay--apparently they had been arguing it since before she was born--so she directed them to split the difference. Which seemed to be what each had thought the Village Council would decide, the reason for keeping the argument between themselve s so long.

The others she granted the permissions they sought. They did not really need permission, but it was best to let them know where authority lay from the start. In return for her consent and enough silver to buy supplies, Faile made the two Domani agree to give Perrin a tenth part of what they found, as well as to locate the iron mentioned in passing. Perrin would not like it, but the Two Rivers had nothing like taxes, and a lord was expected to do things and provide things that required money. And the i ron would be as useful as the gold. As for Liale Mosrara, if the Taraboner claimed more skill than she had, her enterprise would not last long, but if she did.... Three clothweavers already insured that the merchants would find more than raw wool when t hey came down from Baerlon next year, and decent carpets would be another trade item to bring in more coin. Liale promised the first and finest from her looms to the manor, and Faile nodded a gracious acceptance of the gift; she could give more if and wh en the carpets appeared. The floors did need covering. All in all, everyone seemed reasonably satisfied. Even Jon and Thad.

As the Taraboner woman backed away curtsying, Faile stood, glad to be done, then stopped when four women entered through one of the doorways that flanked the far fireplace, all sweating in dark stout Two Rivers woolens. Daise Congar, as tall as most men and wider, overtopped the other Wisdoms and thrust herself forward to take the lead here on the outskirts of her own village. Edelle Gaelin, from Watch Hill, gray-braided and slender, made it plain with her straight back and stiff face that she thought s he should have Daise's place, by virtue of age and her long time in office if no other reason. Elwinn Taron, the Wisdom of Deven Ride, was the shortest, a round woman with a pleasant motherly smile that she wore even when she was making people do what th ey did not want to. The last, Milla al'Azar, from Taren Ferry, trailed behind; the youngest, almost young enough to be Edelle's daughter, she always appeared uncertain around the others.

Faile remained standing, fanning herself slowly. She truly wished Perrin there, now. Very much. These women had as much authority in their villages as the mayor--sometimes, in some ways, more--and they had to be handled carefully, with due dignity and respect. That made matters difficult. They turned into simpering girls around Perrin, eager to please, but with her.... The Two Rivers had had no nobles in centuries; they had not seen so much as a single representative of the Queen in Caemlyn for seve n generations. Everyone was still working out how to behave toward a lord and a lady, including these four. Sometimes they forgot she was the Lady Faile and saw only a young woman whose marriage Daise had presided over just a few months ago. They could be all curtsies and "yes, of course, my Lady," and right in the middle of it tell her exactly what to do about something in no uncertain terms without seeing anything at all incongruous. You are not going to leave this to me any more, Perrin.

They curtsied now, with varying degrees of skill, and said "The Light shine on you, my Lady," on top of one another.

Amenities out of the way, Daise started in before she was completely upright again. "Three more boys have run off, my Lady." Her tone fell halfway between the respect of the words and the now-you-listen-to-me-young-woman she sometimes used. "Dav Ayelli n, Ewin Finngar, and Elam Dowtry. Run off to see the world because of Lord Perrin's stories about what's out there."

Faile nearly blinked in surprise. Those three were hardly boys, Dav and Elam as old as Perrin, and Ewin her own age. And Perrin's stories, which he told seldom and reluctantly, were hardly the only way Two Rivers youths had of learning about the outside world now. "I could ask Perrin to speak to you, if you wish."

They stirred, Daise looking for him expectantly, Edelle and Milla automatically smoothing their skirts, Elwinn just as unconsciously drawing her braid over her shoulder and arranging it carefully. Abruptly they realized what they were doing and froze, no t looking at one another. Or at her. The one real advantage Faile had with them was that they knew the effect her husband had on them. So many times she had seen one or another firm herself up after meeting with Perrin, plainly vowing not to let it hap pen again; so many times she seen resolution fly out the window at a sight of him. None was really sure whether she preferred to deal with him or with her.

"That will not be necessary," Edelle said after a moment. "Boys running off are a bother, but only a bother." Her tone had slid a little further from "my Lady" than Daise's, and plump Elwinn finished the move with a smile suitable for mother to young da ughter.

"As long as we're here, my dear, we really might as well mention something else. Water. You see, some of the people are worried."

"It hasn't rained in months," Edelle added, and Daise nodded.

This time Faile did blink. They were too intelligent to think Perrin could do anything about that. "The springs are all still flowing, and Perrin has ordered more wells dug." Actually he had only suggested it, but it had come to the same thing, fortuna tely. "And long before planting time, the irrigation canals from the Waterwood will be done." That was her doing; half the fields in Saldaea were irrigated, but no one here had ever heard of it. "Anyway, the rains have to come sooner or later. The can als are only in case." Daise nodded again, slowly, and Elwinn and Edelle. But they knew all this as well as she.

"It isn't the rain," Milla muttered. "Not exactly, anyway. It isn't natural. You see, none of us can Listen to the Wind." She hunched her shoulders under the others' sudden frowns. Plainly she was saying too much, and giving away secrets besides. Su pposedly all the Wisdoms could predict the weather by Listening to the Wind; at least, they maintained the fiction that they all could. But even so she plowed on doggedly. "Well, we can't! We look at clouds instead, and how the birds behave, and the ant s and caterpillars and...." Drawing a deep breath, she straightened, but still avoided the other Wisdoms' eyes. Faile wondered how she ever managed to deal with the Women's Circle in Taren Ferry, much less the Village Council. Of course, they were as n ew at it as Milla; that village had lost its whole population when the Trollocs came, and everyone there now was new. "It isn't natural, my Lady. The first snows should have been here weeks ago, but it might as well be the middle of summer. We're not w orried, my Lady, we're frightened! If nobody else will admit it, I will. I lay awake most nights. I haven't slept properly in a month, and...." She trailed off, color blooming in her face as she realized she might have gone too far. A Wisdom was suppo sed to be in control in all times; she did not run around saying she was frightened.

The others shifted their gazes from Milla to Faile. They said nothing, faces expressionless enough for Aes Sedai.

Faile understood, now. Milla had spoken simple truth. The weather was not natural; it was most unnatural. Faile often lay awake herself, praying for rain, or better still snow, trying not to think of what lay behind the heat and drought. Yet a Wisdom was supposed to reassure others. Who could she go to when she needed reassurance herself?

These women might have not known what they were doing, but they had come to the right place. Part of the compact between noble and commoner, ingrained in Faile from her birth, was that nobles provided safety and security. And a part of giving security w as to remind people that evil times were not forever. If today was bad, then tomorrow would be better, and if not tomorrow, then the day after. She wished she could be certain of that herself, but she had been taught to give those under her strength eve n when she had none herself, to soothe their fears, not infect them with her own.

"Perrin told me about his people before I ever came here," she said. He was not a man to brag, but things had a way of coming out. "When hail flattens your crops, when the winter kills half your sheep, you buckle down and keep going. When Trollocs dev astated the Two Rivers, you fought back, and when you were done with them, you set about rebuilding without missing a step." She would not have believed that without seeing for herself, not of southerners. These people would have done very well in Salda ea, where Trolloc raids were a matter of course, in the northern parts at least. "I cannot tell you the weather will be what it should tomorrow. I can tell you that Perrin and I will do what needs to be done, whatever can be done. And I don't need to t ell you that you will take what each day brings, whatever it is, and be ready to face the next. That is the kind of people the Two Rivers breeds. That is who you are."

They truly were intelligent. If they had not admitted to themselves why they had come, they had to now. Had they been less intelligent, they might have taken umbrage. But even words they had said themselves before had the desired effect coming from som eone else. Of course, that carried its own embarrassment. It was a proper muddle, and they were a study in crimson cheeks and unspoken wishes to be somewhere else.

"Well, of course," Daise said. Planting stout fists on ample hips, she stared at the other Wisdoms, daring them to gainsay her. "I've said as much, haven't I? The girl talks sense. I said as much when she first came here. That girl has a head on her, I said."

Edelle sniffed. "Did anyone say she didn't, Daise? I didn't hear it. She does very well." To Faile she added, "You do very well, indeed."

Milla bobbed a curtsy. "Thank you, Lady Faile. I know I've said the same to fifty people, but coming from you, somehow it--." A loud harrumph from Daise cut her short; that was going too far. Milla grew even redder in the face.

"This is very nice work, my Lady." Elwinn leaned forward to finger the narrow, divided riding skirt that Faile favored. "There's a Taraboner seamstress down in Deven Ride who could do even better for you, though. If you don't mind my saying. I had a w ord with her, and she only makes decent dresses except for married women, now." That motherly smile came onto her face again, indulgent and iron at the same time. "Of if they're courting. Beautiful things, she makes. Why, she'd count it a pleasure to work with your coloring and figure."

Daise began smiling complacently before the other woman was done. "Therille Marza, right here in Emond's Field, is already making Lady Faile half a dozen dresses. And the most beautiful gown." Elwinn drew herself up, and Edelle pursed her lips, and eve n Milla looked thoughtful.

As far as Faile was concerned, the audience was over. The Domani seamstress required a firm hand and constant vigilance to keep her from dressing Faile for the court in Ebou Dar. The gown had been Daise's idea, sprung as a surprise, and even if it was i n the Saldaean style not Domani, Faile did not know where she was to wear it. It would be a long time before the Two Rivers ran to balls or promenades. Left to themselves, the Wisdoms would soon be competing to see which village would dress her.

She offered them tea, with a casual comment that they could discuss how to hearten the people about the weather. That hit too close to home, too soon after the last few minutes, and they nearly tripped over themselves regretting duties that would not all ow them to stay.

Thoughtfully, she watched them go, Milla drawing up the rear as usual, a child tagging after older sisters. It might be possible to have a few quiet words with some of the Women's Circle in Taren Ferry. Each village needed a strong mayor and a strong Wi sdom to stand up for their interests. Quiet, careful words. When Perrin discovered she had been talking to the men in Taren Ferry before the election for mayor--if a man had good wits and was strong for her and Perrin, why should the men who were going to vote not know that she and Perrin returned that support?--when he found out.... He was a gentle man, slow to anger, but just to be safe she had barricaded herself in their bedroom until he cooled down. Which had not happened until she promised not to "interfere" again in any mayoral election, in the open or behind his back. That last had been most unfair of him. It was most inconvenient, too. But it had not occurred to him to mention Women's Circle voting. Well, what he did not know would do him a great deal of good. And Taren Ferry, too.

Thinking of him made her remember her promise to herself. The feathered fan picked up speed. Today had not been the worst for nonsense, and not even the worst with the Wisdoms--there had been no questions about when Lord Perrin could expect an heir, the Light be blessed!--but maybe the unrelenting heat had finally screwed her irritation to the sticking place. Perrin would do his duty, or....

Thunder rolled over the manor, and lightning lit the windows. Hope swelled inside her. If rain had come....

She ran silently on slippered feet, searching out Perrin. She wanted to share the rain with him. And she still intended a few firm words. More than a few, if necessary.

Perrin was where she expected, all the way up on the third floor, on the roofed porch at the front, a curly-haired man in a plain brown coat, with heavy shoulders and arms. Broad back to her, he was leaning against one of the porch columns. Staring down at the ground to one side of the manor, not up at the sky. Faile stopped in the doorway.

Thunder boomed again, and lightning sheeted blue across the sky. Heat lightning, in a cloudless sky. Not a herald of rain. No rain to break heat. No snow to follow. Sweat beaded on her face, but she shivered.

"The audience is over?" Perrin said, and she jumped. He had not raised his head. It was difficult sometimes to get used to how sensitive his hearing was. Or he could have smelled her; she hoped it was the perfume, not the sweat.

"I half thought I'd find you with Gwil or Hal." That was one of his worst faults; she tried to train servants, and to him they were men to laugh with and have a mug of ale. At least he did not have a roving eye, as so many men did. He never realized Ca lle Coplin had taken service in the manor because she hoped to do more for Lord Perrin than make his bed. He had not even noticed when Faile chased Calle out with a stick of kindling.

Moving up beside him, she saw what he was watching. Two men, stripped to the waist, working with wooden practice swords below. Tam al'Thor was a solid, graying man, Aram slender and young. Aram was learning fast. Very fast. Tam had been a soldier, an d a blademaster, but Aram was pressing him hard.

Automatically her eyes went to the tents clustered in a stone-fenced field half a mile toward the Westwood. The rest of the Tinkers were camped amid half-finished wagons like small houses on wheels. Of course, they no longer acknowledged Aram as one of them, not since he picked up that sword. The Tuatha'an never did violence, not for any reason. She wondered whether they would go as they planned, when the wagons the Trollocs had burned were replaced. Even after gathering in all those who had hidden i n the thickets they numbered little more than a hundred. Probably they would, leaving Aram behind of his own choice. No Tuatha'an had ever settled in one place that she had ever heard.

But then, people in the Two Rivers used to say nothing there ever changed, yet a great deal had since the Trollocs. Emond's Field, just a hundred paces south of the manor, was larger than she had first seen, all the burned houses rebuilt and new going up . Some in brick, another new thing. And some with tile roofs. At the rate new dwellings were being erected, the manor would in the village soon. There was talk of a wall, in case the Trollocs returned. Change. A handful of children were following Lo ial's great height along one of the village streets. How few months since the sight of the Ogier, with his tufted ears and broad nose almost as wide as his face, half again as tall as a man, had drawn every child in the village in gaping wonder, and thei r mothers in a terror to protect them? Now mothers sent their children for Loial to read to them. The outlanders in their strangely cut coats and dresses, dotted among Emond's Fielders, stood out almost as much as Loial, but no one looked at them twice, or at the village's three Aiel, strange, tall folk in browns and grays. Until a few weeks ago there had been two Aes Sedai here, as well, and even they had gotten no more than respectful bows and curtsies. Change. The two flagpoles not far from the Win espring, on the Green, were visible over the rooftops, one bearing the red-bordered red wolf's head that had become Perrin's sigil, the other the crimson eagle in flight of Manetheren. Manetheren had vanished in the Trolloc Wars, some two thousand years ago, but this land had been part of it, and the Two Rivers flew that flag almost by acclamation. Change, and they had no notion how large it was, how inexorable it was. But Perrin would see them through it to whatever came beyond. With her help, he wou ld.

"I used to hunt rabbits with Gwil," Perrin said. "He's only a few years older than me, and he used to take me hunting sometimes."

It took her a moment to remember what he was talking about. "Gwil is trying to learn how to be a footman. You don't help him when you invite him to go smoke his pipe with you in the stables and talk horses." She took a deep slow breath. This would not be easy. "You have a duty to these people, Perrin. However hard it is, however much you want not to, you have to do your duty."

"I know," he said softly. "I can feel him tugging at me."

His voice was so strange that she reached up to grip his short beard and make him look down at her. His golden eyes, still as strange and mysterious to her as ever, looked sad. "What do you mean? You might think fondly of Gwil, but he--."

"It's Rand, Faile. He needs me."

The knot inside her that she had been trying to deny clenched even tighter. She had convinced herself this danger had gone with the Aes Sedai. Foolish, that. She was married to a ta'veren, a man fated to bend lives around him into the shape the Pattern required, and he had grown up with two more ta'veren, one the Dragon Reborn himself. It was a part of him she had to share. She did not like sharing even a hair, but there it was. "What are you going to do?"

"Go to him." His gaze shifted for a moment, and her eyes followed. Against the wall leaned a blacksmith's heavy hammer and an axe with a wicked halfmoon blade and a haft a pace long. "I couldn't...." His voice was almost a whisper. "I couldn't find h ow to tell you. I'll go tonight, when everyone's asleep. I don't think there's much time, and it could be a long way. Master al'Thor and Master Cauthon will help you with the mayors, if you need it. I spoke to them." He tried to make his voice lighte r, a pitiful effort. "You shouldn't have any trouble with the Wisdoms anyway. Funny; when I was a boy the Wisdoms always seemed so fearsome, but they're really easy as long as you're firm."

Faile compressed her lips. So he had spoke to Tam al'Thor and Abell Cauthon, had he, but not to her. And the Wisdoms! She would like to make him wear her skin for a day and see how easy the Wisdoms were. "We can't leave as quickly as that. It will tak e time to organize a proper entourage."

Perrin's eyes narrowed. "We? You're not going! It will be--!" He coughed, went on in a milder tone. "It will be best if one of us stays here. If the lord goes off, the lady should remain to take care of things. That makes sense. More refugees every day. All those disputes to be settled. If you go, too, it'll be worse than the Trollocs around here."

How could he think she would not notice such a clumsy recovery? He had been going to say it would be dangerous. How could his wanting to keep her out of danger always make her feel so warm inside at the same time it made her so angry? "We will do what yo u think best," she said mildly, and he blinked suspiciously, scratched his beard, then nodded.

Now it was only necessary to make him see what really was best. At least he had not said right out she could not go. Once he dug in his heels, she could as easily shift a grainbarn with her hands as shift him, but with care it could be avoided. Usually .

Abruptly she threw her arms around him and buried her face against his broad chest. His strong hands smoothed her hair softly; he probably thought she was worried about him leaving. Well, she was, in a way. Just not about him leaving without her; he ha d not yet learned what it meant to have a Saldaean wife. They had been getting on so well away from Rand al'Thor. Why did the Dragon Reborn need Perrin now, so strongly that Perrin could feel across however many hundred leagues lay between them? Why was time so short? Why? Perrin's shirt clung to his sweaty chest, and the unnatural heat sent more sliding down her face, but Faile shivered.

* * *

One hand on his swordhilt, Gawyn Trakand bounced a small rock on his palm as he made another circuit of his men, checking their positions around the tree-topped hill. A dry hot wind carrying dust across the rolling brown grasslands fluttered the plain gr een cloak hanging down his back. Nothing to be seen but dead grass, scattered thickets and a dotting of mostly withered bushes. There was too much front to cover with the men he had if it came to a fight here. He had grouped them in clusters of five sw ordsmen afoot, with bowmen fifty paces back up the hill. Fifty more waited with lance and horse near the camp on the crest, to be committed where necessary. He hoped it was not necessary today.

There had been fewer Younglings in the beginning, but their reputation brought recruits. The added numbers would be helpful; no recruit was allowed out of Tar Valon until he was up to standard. It was not that he expected fighting this day more than any other, but he had learned it came most often when unexpected. Only Aes Sedai would wait until the last minute to tell a man about a thing like what was to happen today.

"Is everything well?" he said, stopping beside a group of swordsmen. In spite of the heat, some wore their green cloaks so that Gawyn's white charging boar showed, embroidered on the breast.

Jisao Hamora was the youngest, still with a boy's grin, but also the only one of the five with the small silver tower on his collar, symbol of a veteran of the fighting in the White Tower, so he answered. "All is well, my Lord."

The Younglings deserved their name. Gawyn himself, a few years past twenty, was among the oldest. It was a rule that they accepted none who had served in any army, or borne arms for any lord or lady, or even worked as a merchant's guard. The first Youn glings had gone to the Tower as boys and young men to be trained by the Warders, the finest swordsmen, the finest fighters, in the world, and they continued part of that tradition, at least, though Warders no longer trained them. Youth was no detriment. They had held a small ceremony only a week past for the first whiskers Benji Dalfor had ever shaved that were not fuzz, and he bore a scar across his cheek from the Tower fighting. The Aes Sedai had been too busy for Healing in the days right after Siua n Sanche was deposed as Amyrlin. She might still be Amyrlin if the Younglings had not faced many of their former teachers and bested them in the halls of the Tower.

"Is there any point to this, my Lord?" Hal Moir asked. He was two years older than Jisao, and like many who did not wear the silver tower, he regretted not having been there. He would learn. "There isn't a glimmer of Aielmen."

"You think not?" Without any hefting to give warning, Gawyn hurled the rock as hard as he could at the only bush close enough to hit, a scraggly thing. The rustle of dead leaves was the only sound, but the bush shook just a bit more than it should have, as though a man somehow hidden behind it had been struck in a tender place. Exclamations rose from the newer men; Jisao only eased his sword. "An Aiel, Hal, can hide in a fold in the ground you wouldn't even stumble over." Not that Gawyn knew any more of Aiel than he read in books, but he had read every book he could find in the White Tower's library by any man who had actually fought them. He had read every book he could find by any soldier who seemed to know what he was talking about. A man had to ready himself for the future, and it seemed the world's future was war. "But if the Light pleases, there won't be any fighting today."

"My Lord!" came a hail from the hill as the lookout above him spotted what he just had. Three women emerging from a small thicket a few hundred paces west, coming toward the hill. West; a surprise. But Aiel always liked surprise.

He had read about Aiel women fighting alongside the men, but these women could never fight in those dark bulky skirts and white blouses. They carried shawls looped over their arms despite the heat. On the other hand, how had they had reached that thicke t unseen? "Keep your eyes open, and not on them," he said, and then disobeyed himself by watching the three Wise Ones, the emissaries from the Shaido Aiel, with interest. They could be no other, out here.

They came on at a stately pace, not at all as if approaching a large party of armed men. Their hair was long, to the waist--he had read Aiel kept it cut short--and held back by folded kerchiefs. They wore so many bracelets and long necklaces of gold and silver and ivory that the glitter should have given them away at a mile.

Straight-backed and proud-faced, the three women strode past the swordsmen with hardly a glance and started up the hill. Their leader was a golden-haired woman, her loose blouse unlaced to show considerable tanned cleavage. The other two were gray, with leathery faces; she had to be less than half their age.

"I wouldn't mind asking that one to dance," one of the Younglings said admiringly when the women had gone past. He was a good ten years younger than the golden-haired woman.

"I wouldn't if I were you, Arwin," Gawyn said drily. "It might be misunderstood." He had read that Aiel called battle "the dance." "Besides, she'd have your liver for dinner." He had caught a glimpse of her pale green eyes, and he had never seen harde r.

He watched the Wise Ones until they had climbed the hill to where half a dozen Aes Sedai waited with their Warders. Those who had Warders; two were Red Ajah, and Reds did not. When the women disappeared into one of the tall white tents, and the five War ders had taken up guard around it, he went on with his circuit of the hill.

The Younglings were alert since word of the Aiel's arrival spread, which did not please him. They should have been this alert before. Even most who did not wear the silver tower had seen fighting around Tar Valon. Eamon Valda, the Whitecloak Lord Capta in in command, had pulled nearly all his men out to the west more than a month ago, but the handful he left behind tried to keep together the brigands and bullyboys Valda had gathered. The Younglings had dispersed those, at least. Gawyn wished he could think they had driven Valda off, too--the Tower had certainly kept its own soldiers far from the skirmishing, for all that the Whitecloaks only reason for being there had been to see what harm they could do the Tower--but he suspected that Valda had his o wn reasons. Likely orders from Pedron Niall, and Gawyn would have given much to know what they were. Light, but he hated not knowing. It was like fumbling your way in the dark.

The truth was, he admitted, that he was irritated. Not only about the Aiel, about not being told of this meeting until this morning. He had not been told where they were going, either, until he was taken aside by Coiren Sedai, the Gray sister who led th e Aes Sedai. Elaida had been close-mouthed and imperious when she was his mother's advisor in Caemlyn; since being raised to the Amyrlin Seat she made the old Elaida seem open and warm. No doubt she had pressured him to form this escort as much to get h im away from Tar Valon as for any other reason.

The Younglings had sided with her in the fighting--the old Amyrlin was stripped of Staff and Stole by the Hall, the attempt to free her rebellion against the law, clear and simple--but Gawyn had had his doubts about all Aes Sedai long before he heard the charges against Siuan Sanche read. That they pulled strings and made thrones dance was a thing said so often that he had hardly paid it any mind, but then he saw the strings being pulled. The effects at least, and his sister Elayne was the one who dance d, danced right out of his sight, out of existence for all he knew. Her, and another. He had fought to keep Siuan imprisoned, then turned around and let her escape. If Elaida ever discovered that, his mother's crown would not keep him alive.

Even with that, Gawyn had chosen to stay, because his mother had always supported the Tower, because his sister wanted to be Aes Sedai. And because another woman wanted to. Egwene al'Vere. He had no right to even think of her, but abandoning the Tower would be abandoning her. For such flimsy reasons did a man chose his fate. Knowing they were flimsy did not change them, though.

He glared at the sere windswept grasslands as he strode from one position to the next. So here he was, hoping the Aiel did not decide to attack despite--or because of--whatever it was the Shaido Wise Ones were talking over with Coiren and the others. He suspected there might be enough out there to overrun him even with Aes Sedai help. He was on his way to Cairhien, and he did not know how he felt about that. Coiren had made him swear to hold secret what she told him, and even then spoke as though hers elf afraid of what she was saying. Well she might be. It was always best to examine carefully what an Aes Sedai said--they could not lie, but they could spin truth like a top--yet even so, he found no hidden meanings. The six Aes Sedai were going to as k the Dragon Reborn to accompany them to the Tower, with the Younglings, commanded by the son of the Queen of Andor, for an escort of honor. There could be only one reason, one that plainly shocked Coiren enough that she only hinted at it. It shocked Ga wyn. Elaida intended to announce to the world that the White Tower supported the Dragon Reborn.

It was almost unbelievable. Elaida had been a Red before she became Amyrlin. Reds hated the very idea of men channeling; they did not think much of men in general, for that matter. Yet the fall of the once-invincible Stone of Tear, fulfilling prophecy, said Rand al'Thor was the Dragon Reborn, and even Elaida said the Last Battle was coming. Gawyn could hardly reconcile the frightened farmboy who had literally fallen into a garden of the Royal Palace in Caemlyn with the man he had heard of in rumors th at drifted up the River Erinin to Tar Valon. It was said he had hanged Tairen High Lords and let Aiel loot the Stone. He had certainly brought the Aiel across the Spine of the World, for only the second time since the Breaking, to ravage Cairhien. Perh aps it was the madness. He had rather liked Rand al'Thor; he regretted that the man had turned out to be what he was.

By the time he came back to Jisao's group, someone else was in sight coming from the west, a peddler in a floppy hat, leading a slab-sided packmule. Straight toward the hill; he had seen them.

Jisao shifted, then went still again when Gawyn touched his arm. Gawyn knew what the younger man was thinking, but if the Aiel decided to kill this fellow, there was nothing they could do. Coiren would be less than pleased if he started a battle with th e people she was talking to.

The peddler shambled along unconcernedly, right by the bush Gawyn had thrown the rock at. The mule started cropping desultorily at the brown grass as the man pulled off his hat, sketched a bow that took them all in, and began mopping his grizzled face wi th a grimy neckerchief. "The Light shine on you, my Lords. You're well set up for traveling in these parlous times, as any man can see, but if there's any small thing you need, like as not old Mil Tesen's got it in his packs. Ain't no better prices in ten miles, my Lords."

Gawyn doubted there was as much as a farm within ten miles. "Parlous times indeed, Master Tesen. Aren't you afraid of Aiel?"

"Aiel, my Lord? They's all down to Cairhien. Old Mil can smell Aiel, he can. Truth, he wishes there was some here. Fine trading with Aiel. They got lots of gold. From Cairhien. And they don't bother peddlers. Everybody knows that."

Gawyn forbore asking why, if the Aiel in Cairhien made such good trading, the man was not heading south. "What news of the world, Master Tesen? We're from the north, and you may have heard what hasn't caught up to us yet from the south."

"Oh, big doings southward, my Lord. You'll have heard of Cairhien? Him that calls himself Dragon and all?" Gawyn nodded, and he went on. "Well, now he's taken Andor. Most of it, anyway. Their queen's dead. Some say he'll take the whole world before- -." The man cut off with a strangled yelp before Gawyn realized he had seized the fellow's lapels.

"Queen Morgase is dead? Speak, man! Quickly!"

Tesen rolled his eyes looking for help, but he spoke, and quickly. "That's what they say, my Lord. Old Mil don't know, but he thinks it so. Everybody says it, my Lord. Everybody says this Dragon did it. My Lord? Old Mil's neck, my Lord! My Lord!"

Gawyn jerked his hands away as though burned. He felt on fire inside. It had been another neck he wanted in his hands. "The Daughter-Heir." His voice sounded far off. "Is there any word of the Daughter-Heir, Elayne?"

Tesen backed away a long pace as soon as he was free. "Not as old Mil knows, my Lord. Some says she's dead, too. Some says he killed her, but old Mil don't know for sure."

Gawyn nodded slowly. Thought seemed to be drifting up from the bottom of a well. My blood shed before hers; my life given before hers. "Thank you, Master Tesen. I...." My blood shed before hers.... That was the oath he had taken when barely tall eno ugh to peer into Elayne's cradle. "You may trade with.... Some of my men may need...." Gareth Bryne had had to explain to him what it meant, but even then he had known he had to keep that oath if he failed at everything else in his life. Jisao and the others were looking at him worriedly. "Take care of the peddler," he told Jisao roughly, and turned away.

His mother dead, and Elayne. Only a rumor, but rumors on everyone's lips sometimes had a way of turning out true. He climbed half a dozen paces toward the Aes Sedai camp before he knew it. His hands hurt. He had to look to realize they were cramping f rom the grip he had on his swordhilt, and he had to force them to let go. Coiren and the others meant to take Rand al'Thor to Tar Valon, but if his mother was dead.... Elayne. If they were dead, he would see whether the Dragon Reborn could live with a sword through his heart!

CONTINUA...........................

...............................................

* * *

Adjusting her red-fringed shawl, Katerine Alruddin rose from the cushions with the other women in the tent. She almost sniffed when Coiren, plump and pompous, intoned, "As it has been agreed, so shall it be." This was a meeting with savages, not the con clusion of a treaty between the Tower and a ruler.

The Aiel women showed no more reaction, no more expression, than when they first arrived. That was something of a surprise; kings and queens betrayed their innermost feelings when faced by two or three Aes Sedai, much less six; simple savages surely shou ld be shivering visibly by now. Perhaps that should have been almost no reaction. Their leader--her name was Sevanna, followed by some nonsense about septs and being Shaido Aiel and wise--said, "It is agreed so long as I get to see his face." She had a sulky mouth, and wore her blouse unlaced to attract men's eyes; that the Aiel chose one like her to lead made a poor impression. "I want to see him, and have him see me, when he is defeated. Only with that will be your Tower be allied to the Shaido."

The hint of eagerness in her voice made Katerine suppress a smile. Wise? This Sevanna truly was a fool. The White Tower did not have allies; there were those who served its ends willingly and those who served unwillingly, no others.

A slight thinning at the corners of Coiren's mouth betrayed her irritation. The Gray was a good negotiator, but she did like to have things done just so, every foot placed exactly where it had been planned to go. "Without doubt, your service deserves wh at you ask."

One of the gray-haired Aiel--Tarva, or some such--narrowed her eyes, but Sevanna nodded, hearing what Coiren had wanted her to hear.

Coiren set out to escort the Aiel women as far as the foot of the hill, along with Erian, a Green, and Nesune, a Brown, and the five Warders they had been between them. Katerine went as far as the edge of the trees to watch. On arrival the Aiel had been allowed to come up alone, to show them they were supplicants, but now they were given all honor to make them believe they truly were friends and allies. Katerine wondered whether they were civilized enough to recognize the subtleties.

Gawyn was down there, sitting on a rock, staring off across the grasslands. What would that young man think if he learned he and his children were only here to get them away from Tar Valon? Neither Elaida nor the Hall liked having a pack of young wolves about who refused to accept the leash. Perhaps the Shaido could be prevailed upon to eliminate the problem. Elaida had intimated as much. That way his death would not rebound against the Tower with his mother.

"If you stare so at the young man much longer, Katerine, I will begin to think you should be a Green."

Katerine stamped out a quick spark of anger and inclined her head respectfully. "I was only speculating on his thoughts, Galina Sedai."

That was as much respect as was proper in so public a place, and perhaps even a touch more. Galina Casban looked less than Katerine's true age at most and was twice that, and for eighteen years the round-faced woman had been the head of the Red Ajah. A fact not known outside the Ajah, of course; such things were for the Ajah alone. She was not even one of the Sitters for the Red in the Hall of the Tower; Katerine suspected that the heads of most other Ajahs were. Elaida would have named her leader of this expedition instead of that self-important Coiren, except that Galina herself had pointed out that a Red might make Rand al'Thor suspicious. The Amyrlin Seat was supposed to be of all Ajahs and none, renouncing her old, but if Elaida deferred to anyo ne--which was debatable, true--she deferred to Galina.

"Will he come willingly, as Coiren thinks?" Katerine asked.

"Perhaps," Galina said drily. "The honor this delegation does him should be enough to make a king carry his throne to Tar Valon on his back."

Katerine did not bother to nod. "The woman Sevanna will kill him given a chance."

"Then she must not be given a chance." Galina's voice was cold, her plump mouth tight. "The Amyrlin Seat will not be pleased to have her plans disrupted. And you and I will have days to scream in the dark before we die."

Drawing her shawl up over her shoulders reflexively, Katerine shuddered. There was dust in the air; she would get out her light cloak. It would not be Elaida's rage that killed them, though her fury could be terrible. For seventeen years Katerine had b een Aes Sedai, but not until the morning before they departed Tar Valon had she learned that she shared more than the Red Ajah with Galina. Twelve years she had been a member of the Black Ajah, never knowing that Galina had too, for far longer. Of neces sity Black sisters kept themselves hidden, even from each other. Their rare gatherings were held with faces covered and voices disguised. Before Galina, Katerine had known only two to recognize. Orders were left on her pillow, or even in a pocket of he r cloak, the ink ready to vanish if any hand but hers touched the paper. She had a secret place to leave messages, and dire orders she had never dared disobey not to try to see who came to take them. There might be Black sisters among those following a day behind, but she had no way of knowing.

"Why?" she asked. Orders to preserve the Dragon Reborn made no sense, even if they delivered him into Elaida's hands.

"Questions are dangerous for one sworn to obey without."

Katerine shuddered again, and barely stopped herself from curtsying. "Yes, Galina Sedai." But she could not help wondering. Why?

* * *

"They show neither respect nor honor," Therava growled. "They allow us to enter their camp as though we were toothless dogs, then take us out under guard like suspected thieves."

Sevanna did not look around. She would not until safely back among the trees. The Aes Sedai would be watching for signs of nervousness. "They agreed, Therava," she said. "That is enough for now." For now. One day, these lands would be the Shaido's f or the looting. Including the White Tower.

"This is all badly thought out," the third woman said in a tight voice. "Wise Ones avoid Aes Sedai; it has always been so. Perhaps it was well enough for you, Sevanna--as Couladin's widow, and Suladric's, you speak as clan chief until we send another ma n to Rhuidean--but the rest of us should be no part of it."

Sevanna barely forced herself to keep walking. Desaine had spoken against her being chosen as a Wise One, speaking loudly about her having served no apprenticeship and paid no visit to Rhuidean, claiming that her place standing for the clan chief disqual ified her. Besides, as the widow of not just one, but two dead chiefs, perhaps she carried bad luck. Fortunately, enough of the Shaido Wise Ones had listened to Sevanna, not Desaine. It was unfortunate that Desaine had too many listeners to be safely d one away with. Wise Ones were supposed to be inviolate--they even came and went freely among the Shaido from those betrayers and fools down in Cairhien--but Sevanna meant to find a way.

As though Desaine's doubts had infected Therava, she began muttering, only half to herself. "What is ill done is going against Aes Sedai. We served them before the Breaking, and failed them; that is why we were sent to the Three-fold Land. If we fail t hem again, we will be destroyed."

That was what everyone believed; it was part of the old tales, almost part of custom. Sevanna was not so sure. These Aes Sedai looked weak and foolish to her, traveling with a few hundred men for escort through lands where the true Aiel, the Shaido, cou ld smother them with thousands. "A new day has come," she said sharply, repeating part of one of her speeches to the Wise Ones. "We are no longer bound to the Three-fold Land. Any eye can see that what was, has changed. We must change, or be ended as if we never were." She had never told them how much change she intended, of course. The Shaido Wise Ones would never send a man to Rhuidean, if she had her way.

"New day or old day," Desaine grumbled, "what are we to do with Rand al'Thor if we do manage to take him from the Aes Sedai? Better, and easier, to slip a knife between his ribs while they are escorting him north."

Sevanna did not answer. She did not know what to answer. Not yet. All she knew was that once she had the so-called car'a'carn, the chief of chiefs of all the Aiel, chained before her tent like a vicious dog, then this land would truly belong to the Sha ido. And to her. She had known that even before the strange wetlander man somehow found her in the mountains these people called Kinslayer's Dagger. He had given her a small cube of some hard stone, intricately carved in strange patterns, and told her what to do with it, with the aid of a Wise One who could channel, once al'Thor was in her hands. She carried it in her beltpouch at all times; she had not decided what to do about it, but so far she had told no one about man or cube. Head high, she walk ed on beneath that blistering sun in an autumn sky.

* * *

The palace garden might have had a semblance of coolness had there been any trees, but the tallest things were fanciful topiary, tortured into the shapes of running horses or bears performing like tumblers or the like. Shirt-sleeved gardeners scurried ab out with buckets of water beneath the scalding afternoon sun, trying to save their creations. They had given up on the flowers, clearing all the patterned beds and laying them with sod that was dying too.

"A pity the heat is so bad," Ailron said. Sweeping a lace handkerchief from the lace-fringed sleeve of his yellow silk coat, he dabbed delicately at his face then tossed it aside. A servant in gold-and-red livery quickly snatched it from the graveled wa lk and faded into the background again: another liveried man laid a fresh replacement in the King's hand to be tucked up his sleeve. Ailron did not acknowledge it, of course, or even appear to notice. "These fellows usually manage to keep everything ali ve till spring, but I may lose a few this winter. Since it doesn't seem as if we'll have any winter. They take cold better than drought. Don't you think they're very fine, my dear?"

Ailron, Anointed by the Light, King and Defender of Amadicia, Guardian of the Southern Gate, was not as handsome as rumor made him, but then, Morgase had suspected when she first met him, years ago, that he might be the source of those rumors himself. Hi s dark hair was full and wavy--and quite definitely receding in front. His nose was a bit too long, his ears a touch too big. His whole face vaguely suggested softness. One day she would have to ask. The Southern Gate to what?

Working her carved ivory fan, she eyed one of the gardeners'...constructs. It seemed to be three huge nude women wrestling desperately with gigantic serpents. "They are quite remarkable," she said. One said what one must when coming as a beggar.

"Yes. Yes, aren't they? Ah, it looks as if affairs of state call me. Pressing matters, I fear." A dozen men, coated as colorfully as the flowers that were no longer there, had appeared on the short marble stair at the far end of the walk and were waiti ng in front of a dozen fluted columns that supported nothing. "Until this evening, my dear. We will speak further of your dreadful problems, and what I can do."

He bowed over her hand, stopping just short of kissing it, and she curtsied slightly, murmuring appropriate inanities, and then he swept away, followed by all but one of the coterie of servants that had been trailing them everywhere.

With him gone, Morgase worked the fan harder than she could in his presence--the man pretended the heat barely touched him, with sweat streaming down his face--and turned back toward her apartments. Hers by sufferance, just as the pale blue gown she wore was a gift. She had insisted on the high neck despite the weather; she had definite ideas about low necklines.

The lone serving man followed behind her, at a short distance. And Tallanvor, of course, on her heels and still insisting on wearing the rough green coat he had traveled here in, sword on his hip as though he expected an attack in the Seranda Palace, not two miles from Amador. She tried to ignore the tall young man, but as usual, he would not be ignored.

"We should have gone to Ghealdan, Morgase. To Jehannah."

She had let some things go on far too long. Her skirts swished as she whirled to confront him, and her eyes blazed. "On our journey, certain discretions were necessary, but those around us now know who I am. You will remember that too, and show proper respect for your Queen. On your knees!"

To her shock, he did not move. "Are you my Queen, Morgase?" At least he lowered his voice so the servant could not overhear and spread it about, but his eyes.... She very nearly backed away from the stark desire there. And the anger. "I will not aban don you this side of death, Morgase, but you abandoned much when you abandoned Andor to Gaebril. When you find it again, I will kneel at your feet, and you can strike off my head if you chose, but until then.... We should have gone to Ghealdan."

The young fool would have been willing to die fighting the usurper even after she discovered no House in Andor would support her, and day by day, week by week since she decided she had no choice but to seek foreign aid, he had grown more insolent and insu bordinate. She could ask Ailron for Tallanvor's head, and receive it with no questions asked. But just because they were unasked did not mean they would be unthought. She truly was a beggar here, and could not afford to ask one favor more than absolute ly necessary. Besides, without Tallanvor, she would not be here. She would be a prisoner--worse than a prisoner--to Lord Gaebril. Those were the only reasons Tallanvor would keep his head.

Half the rest of her entourage, her army, guarded the ornately carved doors to her apartments. Basel Gill was a pink-cheeked man with graying hair combed vainly combed back over a bald spot, wearing a leather jerkin sewn with steel discs and straining ar ound his girth, and a sword he had not touched in twenty years before belting it on to follow her. Lamgwin was bulky and hard, though heavy-lidded eyes made him look half asleep. He wore a sword too, but the scars on his face and a nose broken more than once made it plain he was more used to employing fists, or a cudgel. An innkeeper and a street tough; aside from Tallanvor, that was the sum of the army she had so far to take back Andor and her throne from Gaebril.

The pair were all awkward bows, but she glided past and slammed the door in Tallanvor's face. "The world," she announced in a growl, "with be a far better place without men."

"An emptier place, certainly," Morgase's old nurse said from her chair beside a velvet-draped anteroom window. With her head bent over her embroidery hoop, Lini's gray bun waggled in the air. A reed-thin women, she was not nearly so frail as she looked. "I assume Ailron was no more forthcoming today? Or is it Tallanvor, child? You must learn not to let men put your in a fret. Fretting makes your face blotchy." Lini never would admit that she was out of the nursery, despite having been nurse to Morgas e's daughter in turn.

"Ailron was charming," Morgase said carefully. The third woman in the room, on her knees taking folded bedsheets from a chest, sniffed loudly, and Morgase avoided glaring at her with an effort. Breane was Lamgwin's...companion. The short sun-tanned wom an followed where he went, but she was Cairhienin, and Morgase was no queen of hers, as she made clear. "Another day or two," Morgase continued, "and I think I will get a pledge from him. Today, he finally agreed I need soldiers from outside to retake Caemlyn. Once Gaebril is driven from Caemlyn, the nobles will flock to me once more." She hoped they would; she was in Amadicia because she had let Gaebril blind her, had mistreated even her oldest friends among the Houses at his behest.

"'A slow horse does not always reach the end of the journey,'" Lini quoted, still intent on her embroidery. She was very fond of old sayings, some of which Morgase suspected her of making up on the spot.

"This one will," Morgase insisted. Tallanvor was wrong about Ghealdan; according to Ailron, that country was in near anarchy because of this Prophet all the servants whispered about, the fellow preaching the Rebirth of the Dragon. "I would like some pun ch, Breane," The woman only looked at her until she added, "If you please." Even then she set about the pouring with a wooden sulkiness.

The mixture of wine and fruit juices was iced, and refreshing in the heat; the silver goblet felt good against Morgase's forehead. Ailron had snow and ice brought down from the Mountains of Mist, though it took nearly a steady stream of wagons to provide enough for the palace.

Lini took a goblet, too. "Concerning Tallanvor," she began when she had taken a sip.

"Leave over, Lini!" Morgase snapped.

"So he is younger that you," Breane said. She had poured for herself, as well. The effrontery of the woman! She was supposed to be a servant, whatever she had been in Cairhien. "If you want him, take him. Lamgwin says he is sworn to you, and I have se en him look at you." She laughed huskily. "He will not refuse." Cairhienin were disgusting, but at least most of them kept their dissolute ways decently hidden.

Morgase was about to order her from the room when a knock came at the door. Without waiting permission, a white haired man who looked all sinew and bone entered. His snowy cloak, emblazoned with a flaring golden sun on the breast, left no doubt what he was. She had hoped to avoid Whitecloaks until she had Ailron's seal on a firm agreement. The chill of the wine abruptly passed straight into her bones. Where were Tallanvor and the others, that he had walked right in?

Dark eyes going straight to her, he made the most minimal of bows. His face was aged, the skin drawn tight, but this man was as feeble as a hammer. "Morgase of Andor?" he said in a firm deep voice. "I am Pedron Niall." Not just any Whitecloak; the Lor d-Captain Commander of the Children of the Light himself. "Do not fear. I have not come to arrest you."

Morgase held herself straight. "Arrest me? On what charge? I cannot channel." No sooner were the words out of her mouth than she nearly clicked her tongue in exasperation. She should not have mentioned channeling; that she had put herself on the defen sive was an indication how flustered she was. It was true, what she had said, so far as it went. Fifty times trying to sense the True Source to find it once, and when found, twenty times attempting to open herself to saidin in order to be filled with a dribble once. A Brown sister named Verin had told her that her ability was so small there was hardly any need for the Tower to hold her until she learned to handle it safely. The Tower did anyway, of course. Still, even that much ability to channel was outlawed in Amadicia, the penalty death. The Great Serpent ring on her hand that so fascinated Ailron now seemed hot enough to glow.

"Tower trained," Niall murmured. "That is forbidden, as well. But as I said, I come not to arrest, but to help. Send your women away, and we will talk." He made himself at home, taking a tall padded armchair and flipping his cloak over the back. "I w ill have some of that punch before they go." To Morgase's displeasure, Breane brought him a goblet immediately, eyes down and face as expressionless as a board.

Morgase made an effort to take back control. "They stay, Master Niall." She would not give this man the satisfaction of a title. The lack did not appear to faze him. "What has happened to my men outside? I will hold it against you if they've been harm ed. And why do you think I need your help?"

"Your men are uninjured," he said dismissively over his wine. "Do you think Ailron will give you what you need? You are a beautiful woman, Morgase, and Ailron prizes women with sun-gold hair. He will come a little closer each day to the agreement you se ek, never quite reaching it, until you decide that perhaps, with...a certain sacrifice, he will yield also. But he will come no nearer what you want, whatever you give. This so-called Prophet's mobs ravage the north of Amadicia. To the west lies Tarabo n, with a ten-sided civil war, brigands sworn to the so-called Dragon Reborn, and rumors of Aes Sedai and the false Dragon himself to frighten Ailron. Give you soldiers? Could he find ten men for every one he has under arms now, or even two, he would mor tgage his soul. But I can send five thousand Children of the Light riding to Caemlyn with you at their head if you but ask."

To say she was stunned would have been to trivialize how Morgase felt. She made her way to a chair across from him with a proper stateliness, and sat down before her legs gave way. "Why would you want to help me oust Gaebril?" she demanded. There was n o question that he knew everything; no doubt he had spies among Ailron's servants. "I've never given the Whitecloaks the free rein they want in Andor."

This time he grimaced. Whitecloaks did not like that name. "Gaebril? Your lover is dead, Morgase. The false Dragon Rand al'Thor has added Caemlyn to his conquests." Lini made a faint noise as if she had pricked herself, but he kept his eyes on Morgase .

For herself, Morgase had to grip the arm of her chair to keep from pressing a hand against her stomach. If her other hand had not been resting the goblet on the other chairarm, she would have slopped punch onto the carpet. Gaebril dead? He had gulled he r, turned her into his pet doxie, usurped her authority, oppressed the land in her name, and finally named himself King of Andor, which had never had a king. How, after all that, could there possibly be even this faint regret that she would never feel hi s hands again? It was madness; if she had not known it was impossible, she would have believed he had used the One Power on her in some way.

But al'Thor had Caemlyn now? That might change everything. She had met him once, a frightened country youth from the west trying his best to show proper respect for his queen. But a youth carrying the heron-mark sword of a blademaster. And Elaida had b een wary of him. "Why do you call him a false Dragon, Niall?" If he intended to call her by name, he could do without even a commoner's "master." "The Stone of Tear has fallen, as the Prophecies of the Dragon said. The High Lords of Tear themselves ha ve acclaimed him the Dragon Reborn."

Niall's smile was mocking. "Everywhere he has appeared, there have been Aes Sedai. They do his channeling for him, mark me. He is no more than a puppet of the Tower. I have friends in many places"--he meant spies--"and they tell me there's evidence th e Tower set up Logain, the last false Dragon, too. Perhaps he got above himself, so they had to finish him."

"There is no proof of that." She was pleased that her voice was steady. She had heard the rumors about Logain on the way to Amador. but they were only rumors.

The man shrugged. "Believe as you will, but I prefer truth to foolish fancies. Would the true Dragon Reborn do as he has done? The High Lords acclaimed him? How many did he hang before the rest bowed down? He let Aiel loot the Stone, and all of Cairhien . He says Cairhien shall have a new ruler--one he will name--but the only real power in Cairhien is himself. He says there will be a new ruler in Caemlyn, too. You are dead; did you know that? There is mention of the Lady Dyelin, I believe. He has sat on the Lion Throne, used it for audiences, but I suppose it was too small, being made for women. He has put it up as a trophy of his conquest and replaced it with his own throne, in the Grand Hall of your Royal Palace. Of course, all has not gone well for him. Some Andoran Houses think he killed you; there's sympathy for you, now you're dead. It doesn't mean he does not hold what he holds of Andor in an iron fist, though, with a horde of Aiel and an army of Borderland ruffians the Tower recruited for him. But if you think he will welcome you back to Caemlyn and give you back your throne...."

He let the words trail off, but the torrent had hit Morgase like hailstones. Dyelin was next in line for the throne only if Elayne died without issue. Oh, Light, Elayne! Was she still safe in the Tower? Strange to think she had such an antipathy for Aes Sedai, largely because they had lost Elayne for a time, that she had demanded Elayne's return when no one demanded anything from the Tower, yet now she hoped they held her daughter tightly. She remembered one letter from Elayne, after she returned to Ta r Valon. Had there been others? So much of what had happened while Gaebril held her in thrall was vague. Surely Elayne must be safe. She should be worried about Gawyn too, and Galad--the Light knew where they were--but Elayne was her heir. Peace in An dor depended on a smooth succession.

She had to think carefully. It all hung together, yet well-crafted lies did, and this man would be a master at that craft. She needed facts. That Andor believed her dead was no surprise; she had had to sneak from her own realm to avoid Gaebril and thos e who might turn her over to him or else avenge Gaebril's wrongs on her. If sympathy came from it, she could make use of it when she rose from the dead. Facts. "I will need time to think," she told him.

"Of course." Niall rose smoothly; she would have too, so he did not tower over her, but she was still not sure her legs would support her. "I will return in a day or two. In the meantime, I wish to be sure of your safety. Ailron is so wrapped in his o wn concerns, there is no telling who might slip in, perhaps intent on harm. I have taken the liberty of posting a few of the Children here. With Ailron's consent."

Morgase had few misgivings it had been granted quickly. She had always heard that the Whitecloaks were the true power in Amadicia, and she was certain she had just heard proof.

Niall was slightly more formal in his leaving than in coming, to the extent of making a bow that might have done for an equal. One way and another, he was letting her know that she had no choice.

No sooner had he gone that Morgase pushed to her feet, but Breane was still quicker in darting for the doors. Even so, before either woman had gone three steps, one of them banged open, Tallanvor and the other two men spilling into the room.

"Morgase," Tallanvor breathed, trying to absorb her with his eyes. "I was afraid--."

"Afraid?" she said contemptuously. It was too much; he would not learn. "Is this how you protect me? A boy could have done as much! But then, a boy did."

That smoldering gaze remained on her a moment longer, then he turned and pushed his way past Basel and Lamgwin.

The innkeeper stood wringing his hands. "They were at least thirty, my Queen. Tallanvor would have fought; he tried to cry out, to warn you, but they clubbed him with a hilt. The old one said they didn't mean to hurt you, but they didn't need any but y ou, and if they had to kill us...." His eyes went to Lini and Breane, who was staring Lamgwin up and down to make sure he had taken no injury. The man appeared as concerned for her. "My Queen, if I'd thought we could do any good.... I'm sorry. I faile d you."

"'The right medicine always tastes bitter,'" Lini murmured softly. "Most of all for a child who throws a sulky tantrum." At least for once she did not say it for the whole room to hear.

She was right. Morgase knew that. Except about the tantrum, of course. Basel looked miserable enough to welcome beheading. "You did not fail me, Master Gill. I may ask you die for me one day, but only when there's greater good to come of it. Niall o nly wanted to talk." Basel perked up right away, but Morgase could feel Lini's eyes on her. Very bitter. "Will you ask Tallanvor to come to me. I--I wish to apologize to him for my hasty words."

"The best way to apologize to a man," Breane said, "is to trip him in a secluded part of the garden."

Something snapped in Morgase. Before she knew it she had hurled her goblet at the woman, spraying punch across the carpet. "Get out!" she shrieked. "All of you, get out! You can deliver my apologies to Tallanvor, Master Gill."

Breane calmly brushed punch from her dress, then took her time about walking to Lamgwin and linking her arm through his. Basel was all but bouncing on his toes trying to herd them out.

To Morgase's surprise, Lini went, too. That was not Lini's way; she was much more likely to remain and lecture her old charge as if she was still ten. Morgase did not know why she put up with it. Still, she almost told Lini to stay. But then they were all gone, the door was shut--and she had more important matters to worry about than whether Lini's feelings were bruised.

Pacing across the carpet, she tried to think. Ailron would demand trade concessions--and maybe Niall's "sacrifice"--for help. She was willing to give him the trade concessions, but she feared Niall might be right about how many soldiers Ailron would spa re her. Niall's demands would be easier to grant, in a way. Probably free access to Andor for as many Whitecloaks as he chose. And freedom for them to root out the Darkfriends they found in every attic, to rouse mobs against friendless women they accus ed of being Aes Sedai, to kill real Aes Sedai. Niall might even demand a law against channeling, against women going to the White Tower.

It would be possible--but difficult, and bloody--to oust the Whitecloaks once they entrenched themselves, but she had to know whether it was necessary to let them in at all. Rand al'Thor was the Dragon Reborn--she was certain of that no matter what Niall said; she was almost certain--yet ruling nations was no part of the Prophecies of the Dragon that she knew. Dragon Reborn or false Dragon, he could not have Andor. Yet how was she to know?

A timid scratch at the door brought her around. "Come," she said sharply.

The door opened slowly to admit a grinning young man in gold-and-red livery, a tray in his hands bearing a fresh pitcher of iced punch, the silver already beading with cold. She had half expected Tallanvor. Lamgwin stood guard alone in the corridor, as far as she could see. Or rather lounged against a wall like a tavern bouncer. She waved the young man to put his tray down.

Angrily--Tallanvor should have come; he should come!--she resumed her pacing. Basel and Lamgwin might hear rumors in the nearest village, but they would be rumors, and maybe planted by Niall. The same held true for the palace servants.

"My Queen. May I speak, my Queen?"

Morgase turned in amazement. Those were the accents of Andor. The young man was on his knees, grin flashing from uncertain to cocky and back. He might have been good looking except that his nose had been broken and not properly tended. On Lamgwin it l ooked rugged, if low; this lad looked as if he had tripped and fallen on his face.

"Who are you?" she demanded. "How did you come here?"

"I'm Paitr Conel, my Queen. From Market Sheran. In Andor?" he added, as if she might not realize that. Impatiently she motioned him to go on. "I came to Amador with my Uncle Jen. He's a merchant from Four Kings, and he thought he might find some Tar aboner dyes. They're dear, with all the troubles in Tarabon, but he thought they might be cheaper--." Her mouth tightened, and he went on in a rush. "We heard about you, my Queen, that you were here in the palace, and given the law in Amadicia, and you being trained in the White Tower and all, we thought we could help you...." He swallowed hard, and finished in a small voice. "Help you escape."

"And are you prepared to help me...escape?" Not the best plan, but she could always ride north to Ghealdan. How Tallanvor would gloat. No, he would not, and that would be worse.

But Paitr shook his head wretchedly. "Uncle Jen had a plan, but now there's Whitecloaks all over the palace. I didn't know what else to do but come on to you, the way he told me. He'll think of something, my queen. He's smart."

"I'm sure he is," she murmured. So Ghealdan went glimmering again. "How long are you gone from Andor? A month? Two?" He nodded. "Then you don't know what is happening in Caemlyn," she sighed.

The young man licked his lips. "I.... We're staying with a man in Amador who has pigeons. A merchant. He gets messages from everywhere. Caemlyn, too. But its all bad news that I hear, my Queen. It may take a day or two, but my uncle will figure out another way. I just wanted to let you know help was nearby."

Well, that was as might be. A race between Pedron Niall and this Paitr's Uncle Jen. She wished she was not so sure how to bet. "In the meantime, you can tell me just how bad matters are in Caemlyn."

"My queen, I was just supposed to let you know about the help. My uncle will be mad if I stay--."

"I am your Queen, Paitr," Morgase said firmly, "and your Uncle Jen's, too. He will not mind if you answer my questions." Paitr looked as though he might bolt, but she settled herself in a chair and began digging for the truth.

* * *

Pedron Niall was feeling quite good by the time he dismounted in the main courtyard of the Fortress of the Light and tossed his reins to a stableman. Morgase was well in hand, and he had not had to lie once. He did not like lying. It had all been his o wn interpretation of events, but he was sure of it. Rand al'Thor was a false Dragon and a tool of the Tower. The world was full of fools who could not think. The last Battle would not be some titanic struggle between the Dark One and a Dragon Reborn, a mere man. The Creator had abandoned mankind to its own devices long ago. No, when Tarmon Gai'don came, it would be as in the Trolloc Wars two thousand years ago and more, when hordes of Trollocs and other Shadowspawn poured out of the Great Blight, tor e through the Borderlands and nearly drowned humanity in a sea of blood. He did not mean to let mankind face that divided and unprepared.

A ripple of bows from white-cloaked Children followed him through the stone-walled corridors of the Fortress, all the way to his private audience chamber. In the anteroom, his pinch-faced secretary, Balwer, leaped to his feet with a fussy recitation of w hat papers awaited the Lord Captain's signature, but Niall's attention was on the tall man who rose easily from one of the chairs against the wall, a crimson shepherd's crook behind the golden sun on his cloak and three golden knots of rank below.

Jaichim Carridin, Inquisitor of the Hand of the Light, looked as hard as he was, but with more gray at his temples than the last time Niall saw him. His dark deep-set eyes held a tinge of worry, and it was no wonder. The last two missions he had been gi ven ended in disaster; not auspicious for a man who aspired to be High Inquisitor one day, and perhaps even Lord Captain Commander.

Tossing his cloak to Balwer, Niall motioned Carridin to follow into the audience chamber proper, where captured battle flags and the banners of old enemies made trophies on the dark paneled walls and a huge sunburst set into the floor held enough gold to make most men stare. Aside from that, it was a plain, soldier's room, a reflection of Niall himself. Niall seated himself in a high-backed chair, well-made but undecorated. The long twin hearths at either end of the room stood cold and swept bare at a time of year when they should have held roaring fires to keep back the cold. Proof enough that the Last Battle was near. Carridin bowed deeply and knelt on the sunburst, worn smooth by centuries of feet and knees.

"Have you speculated on why I sent for you, Carridin?" After Almoth Plain and Falme, after Tanchico, the man could not be blamed if he believed he was to informed of his own arrest. But if he suspected such a possibility, nothing showed in his voice. A s usual, he could not help showing that he knew more than anyone else. Definitely more than he was supposed to.

"The Aes Sedai in Altara, my Lord Captain Commander. A chance to wipe out half the Tar Valon witches, right on our doorstep." An exaggeration; a third were in Salidar, perhaps, but no more.

"And have you speculated aloud, among your friends?" Niall doubted that Carridin had any, but there were those he drank with. Of late, got drunk with. The man had certain skills, though; useful skills.

"No, my Lord Captain Commander. I know better than that."

"Good," Niall said. "Because you are not going anywhere near this Salidar, and neither is any other of the Children." He could not be sure whether it was relief that flashed across Carridin's face. If so, it was out of character; the man had never show n any lack of courage. And relief certainly did not suit his reply.

"But they are waiting to be snapped up. This is proof the rumors are true, the Tower is divided. We can destroy this lot without the others raising a hand. The Tower could be weakened enough to fall."

"Think you so?" Niall said drily. He laced his fingers across his middle and kept his voice mild. Questioners--the Hand despised that name, but even he used it--Questioners never saw anything not shoved under their noses. "Even the Tower can hardly com e out openly for this false Dragon al'Thor. What if he turns, as Logain did? But a rebel group? They could support him, and the White Tower's skirts are clean whatever happens." He was sure that was the way of it. If not, there would be ways to use any real split to further weaken the Tower, but he believed he was right. "In any case, what the world sees, matters. I will not let them see merely a struggle between the Children and the Tower." Not until the world saw the Tower for what it was, a sink of Darkfriends meddling with forces mankind was not meant to touch, the force that had caused the Breaking of the World. "This struggle is the world against the false Dragon al'Thor."

"Then if I am not going to Altara, my Lord Captain Commander, what are my orders?"

Niall let his head fall back with a sigh. He felt tired suddenly. He felt all of his years and more. "Oh, you will be going to Altara, Carridin."

Rand al'Thor's name and face had been known to him since shortly after the supposed invasion from across the sea at Falme, an Aes Sedai plot that had cost the Children a thousand men and begun the spread of the Dragonsworn and chaos across Tarabon and Ara d Doman. He had known what al'Thor was and believed he could use him as a goad to force the nations to unite. Once bound together, behind his leadership, they could have disposed of al'Thor and been ready for the Trolloc hordes. He had sent emissaries to every ruler of every land to point out the danger. But al'Thor moved faster than he could believe even now. He had meant to let a rabid lion roam the streets long enough to frighten everyone, but the lion had become a giant that moved like lightning.

Yet all was not lost; he had to keep reminding himself. More than a thousand years ago Guaire Amalasan had named himself the Dragon Reborn, a false Dragon who could channel. Amalasan had conquered more land than al'Thor now held, before a young king nam ed Artur Tanreall Paendrag took the field against him and began his own climb to empire. Niall did not consider himself another Artur Hawkwing, but he was what the world had. He would not give up while he lived.

Already he had begun to counter al'Thor's growing strength. Beside emissaries to rulers, he had sent men to Tarabon and Arad Doman. A few men skilled at finding the right ears to whisper in that all their troubles could be laid at the feet of the Dragon sworn, those fools and Darkfriends who followed had declared for al'Thor. And at the feet of the White Tower. Plenty of rumors already came out of Tarabon of Aes Sedai involved in the fighting, rumors to ready men's ears to hear the truth. Now was time to launch the next part of his new plan, to show the fencesitters which side to climb down on. Time. He had so little time. Yet he could not help smiling. There were those, now dead, who had once said, 'When Niall smiles, he is going for the throat.'

"Altara and Murandy," he told Carridin, "are about to be tormented by a plague of Dragonsworn."

* * *

The chamber had the appearance of a palace sitting room--vaulted ceiling of worked plaster, finely woven carpets on the white-tiled floor, elaborately carved paneling for the walls--though it was far from any palace. Indeed, it was far from anywhere, in any way that most humans would understand. Mesaana's russet silk dress rustled as she moved around a lapis inlaid table, amusing herself with the placement of ivory dominos in an complex tower, each level larger than the one below. She prided herself on doing this purely with a knowledge of stresses and leverage; not a thread of the Power. She had the tower to nine levels.

In truth, more than amusing herself, she was avoiding conversation with her companion. Semirhage sat doing needlework in a highbacked chair covered in red tapestry, long slender fingers deftly making minuscule stitches to form a labyrinthine pattern of t iny flowers. It was always a surprise that the woman liked something so...ordinary. Her black dress was a sharp contrast against the chair. Not even Demandred dared suggest to Semirhage's face that she wore black so often because Lanfear wore white.

For the thousandth time Mesaana tried to analyze why she felt uncomfortable around the other woman. Some condemned what they saw as idle daydreaming, but she often found insights in it. Not so with Semirhage. Mesaana knew her own strengths and weakness es, with the One Power and elsewhere. She matched well with Semirhage on most points, and where she did not, she had other strengths to lay against weakness in Semirhage. It was not that. Semirhage took delight in cruelty, a pure pleasure in giving ang uish, but that surely was not the problem. Mesaana could be cruel where necessary, and she did not care what Semirhage did to others. There had to be a reason, but she could not find it.

Irritably she placed another domino, and the tower collapsed with a clatter, spilling ivory tiles onto the floor. With a click of her tongue, she turned from the table, folding her arms beneath her breasts. "Where is Demandred? Seventeen day since he we nt to Shayol Ghul, but he waits until now to inform us of a message, then does not appear." She had been to the Pit of Doom twice in that time herself, made that nerve-wracking walk with the stone fangs brushing her hair. To find nothing except a strang e too-tall Myrddraal that would not speak. The Bore had been there, certainly, but the Great Lord had not answered. She did not remain long either time. She had thought herself beyond fear, at least the sort a Halfman's gaze brought, but twice the Myrd draal's silent eyeless stare had sent her away with quickening steps that only tight self-control kept from becoming a run. Had channeling there not been a sure way to die, she would have destroyed the Halfman, or Traveled from the Pit itself. "Where is he?"

Semirhage raised her eyes from her stitchery, unblinking dark eyes in a smooth dark face, then put aside the needlework and stood gracefully. "He will come when he comes," she said calmly. She was always calm, just as she was always graceful. "If you d o not want to wait, then go."

Unconsciously Mesaana raised herself a little on her toes, but she still had to look up. Semirhage stood taller than most men, though so perfectly proportioned that you did not realize it until she stood over you, looking down. "Go? I will go. And he c an--."

There was no warning, of course. There never was, when a man channeled. A bright vertical line appeared in the air, then widened as the gateway turned sideways to open long enough for Demandred to step through, giving them each a small bow. He was all in dark gray today, with a little pale lace at his neck. He adapted easily to the fashions and fabrics of this Age.

His hawknosed profile was handsome enough, though not quite the sort to make every woman's heart beat faster. In a way, 'almost' and 'not quite' had been the story of Demandred's life. He had had the misfortune to be born one day after Lews Therin Telam on, who would become the Dragon, while Barid Bel Medar, as he was then, spent years almost matching Lews Therin's accomplishments, not quite matching Lews Therin's fame. Without Lews Therin, he would have been the most acclaimed man of the Age. Had he b een appointed to lead instead of a man he considered his intellectual inferior, an overcautious fool who too often managed to scrape up luck, would he stand here today? Now that was idle speculation, though she had had it before. No, the important point there was that Demandred despised the Dragon, and now that the Dragon had been Reborn, he had transferred that despite whole.

"Why--?"

Demandred raised a hand. "Let us wait until we are all here, Mesaana, and I will not have to repeat myself."

She felt the first spinning of saidar a moment before the glowing line appeared and became a gateway. Graendal stepped out, for once unaccompanied by servants half-clad if that, and let the opening vanish as quickly as Demandred had. She was a fleshy wo man with elaborately curled red-gold hair. Somewhere she had actually managed to find streith for her highnecked gown. Highnecked, but mirroring her mood, the fabric was transparent mist. At times Mesaana wondered whether Graendal really took note of a nything beyond her sensual pleasures.

"I wondered whether you would be here," the new arrival said lightly. "You three have been so secretive." She gave a gay, slightly foolish laugh. No, it would be a dire mistake to take Graendal at surface value. Most who had taken for her for a fool w ere long since dead, victims of the woman they disregarded.

"Is Sammael coming?" he asked.

Graendal waved a beringed hand dismissively. "Oh, he doesn't trust you. I don't think the man trusts himself anymore." The streith darkened; a concealing fog. "He's marshalling his armies in Illian, moaning over not having shocklances to arm them. Wh en he isn't doing that, he's searching for an angreal or sa'angreal he can lay his hands on. Something of decent strength, of course."

Their eyes all went to Mesaana, of course, and she drew a deep breath. Any of them would have given--well, almost anything, for a suitable angreal or sa'angreal. Each was stronger than any of these half-trained children who called themselves Aes Sedai t oday, but enough half-trained children linked together could crush them all. Except, of course, that they no longer knew how, and no longer had the means in any case. Men were needed to take a link beyond thirteen, more than one to go beyond twenty-seve n. In truth, those girls--the oldest seemed girls to her; she had lived over three hundred years, quite aside from her time sealed in the Bore, and had only been considered just into her middle years--those girls were no real danger, but that did not les sen the desire of anyone here for angreal, or better yet the more powerful sa'angreal. With those remnants from their own time, they could channel amounts of the Power that would have burned them to ash without. Any of them would risk much for one of th ose prizes. But not everything. Not with no real need. That lack did not still the desire, though.

Automatically Mesaana dropped into a lecturing tone. "The White Tower now has guards and wards on their strongrooms, inside and out, plus they count everything four times each day. The Great Hold in the Stone of Tear is also warded, a nasty thing that w ould have held me fast had I tried to pass through or untie it. I don't think it can be untied except by whoever wove it, and until then it is a trap for any other woman who can channel."

"A dusty jumble of useless rubbish, so I've heard," Demandred said dismissively. "The Tairens gathered anything with even a rumored connection to the Power."

Mesaana suspected he had more than hearsay to go on. She also suspected there was a trap for men woven around the Great Hold, too, or Demandred would have had his sa'angreal and launched himself at Rand al'Thor long since. "No doubt there are some in Ca irhien and Rhuidean, but even if you do not walk right into al'Thor, both are full of women who can channel."

"Ignorant girls." Graendal sniffed.

"If a kitchen girl puts a knife in your back," Semirhage said coolly, "are you less dead than if you fall in a sha'je duel at Qal?"

Mesaana nodded. "That leaves whatever might lie buried in ancient ruins or forgotten in an attic. If you want to count on finding something by chance, do so. I will not. Unless someone knows the location of a stasis box?" There was a certain dryness to that last. The stasis boxes should have survived the Breaking of the World, but that upheaval had likely as not left them on the bottom of an ocean or buried beneath mountains. Little remained of the world they had known beyond a few names and legend s.

Graendal's smile was all sweetness. "I always thought you should be a teacher. Oh. I am sorry. I forgot."

Mesaana's face darkened. Her road to the Great Lord began when she was denied a place in the Collam Dam all those years ago. Unsuited for research, they had told her, but she could still teach. Well, she had taught, until she found how to teach them al l!

"I am still waiting to hear what the Great Lord said," Semirhage murmured.

"Yes. Are we to kill al'Thor?" Mesaana realized she was gripping her skirt with both hands and let go. Strange. She never let anyone get under her skin. "If all goes well, in two months, three at most, he will be where I can safely reach him, and hel pless."

"Where you can safely reach him?" Graendal arched an eyebrow quizzically. "Where have you made your lair? No matter. Bare as it is, it's as good a plan as I've heard lately."

Still Demandred kept silent, stood there studying them. No, not Graendal. Semirhage and her. And when he did speak, half to himself, it was to they two. "When I think where you two have placed yourselves, I wonder. How much has the Great Lord known, for how long? How much of what has happened has been at his design all along?" There was no answer to that. Finally, he said, "You want to know what the Great Lord told me? Very well. But it stays here, held close. Since Sammael chose to stay away, he learns nothing. Nor do the others, whether alive or dead. The first part of the Great Lord's message was simple. Let the Lord of Chaos rule. His words, exact." The corners of his mouth twitched, as close to a smile as Mesaana had ever seen from him. Then he told them the rest.

Mesaana found herself shivering and did not know whether from excitement or fear. It could work; it could hand them everything. But it required luck, and gambling made her uncomfortable. Demandred was the gambler. He was right about one thing; Lews Th erin had made his own luck as a mint made coin. In her opinion it seemed that so far Rand al'Thor did the same.

Unless.... Unless the Great Lord had a plan beyond the one he had revealed. And that frightened her more than any other possibility.

* * *

The gilt-framed mirror reflected the room, the disturbingly patterned mosaics on the walls, the gilded furnishings and fine carpets, the other mirrors and the tapestries. A palace room without a window--or a door. The mirror reflected a woman striding u p and down in a dark blood-red gown, her beautiful face a combination of rage and disbelief. Still, disbelief. It reflected his own face, too, and that interested him far more than the woman. He could not resist touching his nose and mouth and cheeks f or the hundredth time to make sure they were real. Not young, but younger than the face he had worn on first waking from the long sleep, with all its endless nightmares. An ordinary face, and he had always hated being ordinary. He recognized the sound in his throat as a budding laugh, a giggle, and stifled it. He was not mad. Despite everything, he was not that.

A name had been given to him during this second, far more horrific sleep, before he woke to this face and body. Osan'gar. A name given by a voice he knew and dared not disobey. His old name, given in scorn and adopted in pride, was gone forever. The v oice of his master had spoken and made it so. The woman was Aran'gar; who she had been, was no more.

Interesting choices, those names. Osan'gar and aran'gar were the left and right-hand daggers in a form of dueling that enjoyed a brief popularity early in that long building from the day the Bore had been made to the actual beginning of the War of the Po wer. His memories were spotty--too much had been lost in the long sleep, and the short--but he remembered that. The popularity had been brief because almost inevitably both duelists died. The daggers' blades were coated with slow poison.

Something blurred in the mirror, and he turned, not too quickly. He had to remember who he was, and make sure others remembered. There still was no door, but a Myrddraal shared the room with them. Neither thing was strange in this place, but the Myrddr aal stood taller than any Osan'gar had ever seen before.

He took his time, letting the Halfman wait to be acknowledged, and before he could open his mouth, Aran'gar spat, "Why has this been done to me? Why have I been put into this body? Why?" The last was almost a shriek.

Osan'gar would have thought the Myrddraal's bloodless lips twitched in a smile, except that was impossible, here or anywhere. Even Trollocs had a sense of humor, if a vile and violent one, but not Myrddraal. "You were both given the best that could be t aken in the Borderlands." Its voice was a viper rustling in dry grass. "It is a fine body, strong and healthy. And better than the alternative."

Both things were true. It was a fine body, suitable for a daien dancer in the old days, sleekly lush, with a green-eyed ivory oval of a face to match, framed by glossy black hair. And anything bettered the alternative.

Perhaps Aran'gar did not see it that way. Rage mottled that beautiful face. She was going to do something reckless. Osan'gar knew it; there had always been a problem in that regard. Lanfear seemed cautious by contrast. He reached for saidin. Channel ing here could be dangerous, but less than allowing her to do something truly stupid. He reached for saidin--and found nothing. He had not been shielded; he would have felt it, and known how to work around or break it, given time, if it was not too stro ng. This was as if he had been severed. Shock petrified him where he stood.

Not so for Aran'gar. Perhaps she had made the same discovery, but it affected her differently. With a screech like a cat she launched herself at the Myrddraal, fingernails clawed.

A futile attack, of course. The Myrddraal did not even shift its stance. Casually it caught her by the throat, raised her straight-armed till her feet left the floor. The screech became a gurgle, and she grabbed the Halfman's wrist with both hands. Wi th her dangling in its grasp, it turned that eyeless stare to Osan'gar. "You have not been severed, but you will not channel until you are told you may. And you will never strike at me. I am Shaidar Haran."

Osan'gar tried to swallow, but his mouth was dust. Surely the creature had nothing to do with whatever had been done to him. Myrddraal had powers of a sort, but not that. Yet it knew. He had never liked Halfmen. He had helped make the Trollocs, blend ing human and animal stock--he was proud of that, of the skill involved, the difficulty--but these occasional throwback offspring made him uneasy at the best of times.

Shaidar Haran turned its attention back to the woman twitching in its fist. Her face was beginning to go purple, and her feet kicked feebly. "You will adapt. The body bends to the soul, but the mind bends to the body. You are adapting already. Soon i t will be as if you had never had any other. Or you may refuse. Then another will take your place, and you will be given to...my brothers, blocked as you are." Those thin lips twitched again. "They miss their sport in the Borderlands."

"She cannot speak," Osan'gar said. "You're killing her! Don't you know who we are? Put her down, Halfman! Obey me!" The thing had to obey one of the Chosen.

But the Myrddraal impassively studied Aran'gar's darkening face for a long moment more before letting her feet touch the carpet and loosening its grip. "I obey the Great Lord. No other." She hung on, wavering, coughing and gulping air. Had it taken it s hand away, she would have fallen. "Will you submit to the will of the Great Lord?" Not a demand, just a perfunctory question in that rasping voice.

"I--I will," she managed hoarsely, and Shaidar Haran let her go.

She swayed, massaging her throat, and Osan'gar moved to help her, but she threatened him with a glare and a fist before he touched her. He backed away with raised hands. That was one enmity he did not need. But it was a fine body, and a fine joke. He had always prided himself on his sense of humor, but this was rich.

"Do you not feel gratitude?" the Myrddraal said. "You were dead, and are alive. Think of Rahvin, whose soul is beyond saving, beyond time. You have a chance to serve the Great Lord again, and absolve yourselves of your errors."

Osan'gar hastened to assure it that he was grateful, that he wanted nothing more than to serve and gain absolution. Rahvin dead? What had happened? No matter; one fewer of the Chosen meant one more chance for true power when the Great Lord was free. It abraded, humbling himself before something that could be said to be as much his creation as the Trollocs, but he remembered death too clearly. He would grovel before a worm to avoid that again. Aran'gar was no less quick, he noted, for all the anger in her eyes. Clearly, she remembered too.

"Then it is time for you to go into the world once more in the service of the Great Lord," Shaidar Haran said. "None but I and the Great Lord know you live. If you succeed, you will live forever and be raised above all others. If you fail.... But you will not fail, will you?" It did smile then. It was like seeing death smile.

[End of Chapter 1]

super thks gil!!

In questo caso... non penso proprio che farò la traduzione. Sono ancora impegnata con la lista delle Aes Sedai.

Fenomenale Gil

grazie Gil! e grazie a chiunque traduca!

Ma non per fare il rompi scatole della situazione (leggi il tipo odiosissimo della pubblicità del Duplo, quello del labbiale dentale), ma non sarebbe più carino allegare un file txt invece di fare due post giganteschi?

E' solo la mia idea non ammazzatemi

mi pare un'ottima idea!