A Crown of Swords twot-7 Page 12

  "It's not good news," Perrin protested, "but you make it sound a death sentence. Once Rand shows himself, the rumors are done."

  Rand scrubbed a hand through his hair. "If that was so, Sorilea wouldn't look like she had swallowed a lizard." For that matter, Nandera and Sulin looked as though their lizards were still alive on the way down. "What haven't you told me yet, Sorilea?"

  The leather-faced woman gave him a thin, approving smile. "You see beyond what is said. Good." Her tone stayed flat as worked stone, though. "You return with Aes Sedai. Some will believe that means you did bend knee. Whatever you say or do, they will believe you wear an Aes Sedai halter. And that is before it is known you were a prisoner. Secrets find crevices a flea could not slip through, and a secret known by so many has wings."

  Perrin eyed Dobraine and Nurelle, watching with their men, and swallowed queasily. How many of those who followed Rand did so because he had the weight of the Aiel massed behind him? Not all, certainly, but for every man who had chosen because Rand was the Dragon Reborn, five or even ten had come because the Light shone brightest on the strongest ranks. If the Aiel broke away, or splintered…

  He did not want to think about that possibility. Defending the Two Rivers had stretched his abilities as far as they would go, maybe farther. Ta'veren or not, he had no illusions he was one of those men who ended up in the histories; that was for Rand. Village-sized problems were his limit. Yet he could not help himself. His mind churned. What to do if the worst came? Lists ran up in his head: who would remain loyal and who might try to slip away. The first list was sufficiently short and the second sufficiently long to dry his throat. Too many people still schemed for advantage as if they had never heard of the Prophecies of the Dragon or the Last Battle. He suspected some still would the day after Tarmon Gai'don began. The worst of it was, most would not be Darkfriends, just people looking out for their own interests first. Loial's ears hung limp; he saw it, too.

  No sooner did Sorilea finish speaking to Rand than her eyes whipped to one side in a glare to bore holes in iron. "You were told to remain in the wagon." Bera and Kiruna came to an abrupt halt, and Alanna nearly stumbled into them. "You were told not to touch the One Power without permission, but you listened to what was said here. You will learn that I mean what I say."

  Despite Sorilea's auguring stare, the three held their ground, Bera and Kiruna with icy dignity, Alanna with smoldering defiance. Loial's huge eyes rolled toward them, then toward the Wise One; if his ears had been limp before, now they wilted completely, and his long eyebrows dropped to his cheeks. Poring uneasily over his mental lists, Perrin wondered absently how far the Aes Sedai intended to push. Eavesdropping with the Power! They might find a reaction from the Wise Ones worse than Sorilea's bark. From Rand, too.

  Not this time, however. Rand seemed unaware of them. He looked right through Sorilea. Or maybe listened to something nobody else could hear again. "What of the wetlanders?" he said finally. "Colavaere has been crowned queen, hasn't she?" It was not really a question.

  Sorilea nodded, thumb tapping the hilt of her belt knife, but her attention never left the Aes Sedai. Who was chosen king or queen among the wetlanders was of small concern to Aiel, especially among the treekilling Cairhienin.

  An icicle stabbed into Perrin's chest. That Colavaere of House Saighan wanted the Sun Throne was no secret; she had schemed for it from the day Galldrian Riatin was assassinated, before Rand had even declared himself the Dragon Reborn, and kept scheming after it became public knowledge that Rand meant the throne for Elayne. Few knew she was a cold-blooded murderer, however. And Faile was in the city. At least she was not alone. Bain and Chiad would be close to her. They were Maidens and her friends, maybe almost what the Aiel called near-sisters; they would not let her be harmed. The icicle would not go away, though. Colavaere hated Rand, and by extension anyone close to Rand. Such as, perhaps, the wife of a man who was Rand's friend. No. Bain and Chiad would keep her safe.

  "This is a delicate situation." Moving closer to Rand, remarkably, Kiruna ignored Sorilea. For such a scrawny woman, the Wise One had eyes like hammers. "Whatever you do can have serious repercussions. I —"

  "What has Colavaere said about me?" Rand asked Sorilea in a too-casual tone. "Has she harmed Berelain?" Berelain, the First of Mayene, was who Rand had left in charge of Cairhien. Why did he not ask about Faile?

  "Berelain sur Paendrag is well," Sorilea murmured, without stopping her study of the Aes Sedai. Outwardly Kiruna stayed calm despite being interrupted and ignored, but the gaze she fixed on Rand could have frozen a forge-fire solid with the bellows pumping. For the rest, Sorilea gestured to Feraighin.

  The red-haired woman gave a start and cleared her throat; plainly she had not expected to be allowed a word. She put dignity back on like a hastily donned garment. "Colavaere Saighan says you have gone to Caemlyn, Car'a'carn, or maybe to Tear, but wherever you have gone, all must remember that you are the Dragon Reborn and must be obeyed." Feraighin sniffed; the Dragon Reborn was no part of Aiel prophecies, only the Car'a'carn. "She says you will return and confirm her on the throne. She speaks often to the chiefs, encouraging them to move the spears south. In obedience to you, she says. She does not see the Wise Ones, and hears only the wind when we speak." This time her sniff was a fair approximation of Sorilea's. No one told the clan chiefs what to do, but angering the Wise Ones was a bad way to start convincing the chiefs of anything.

  It made sense to Perrin, though, to the part of him that could think of anything besides Faile. Colavaere probably had never paid enough attention to the "savages" to realize the Wise Ones did more than dispense herbs, but she would want every last Aiel out of Cairhien. The question was, given the circumstances, had any of the chiefs listened to her? But the question Rand asked was not the obvious.

  "What else has happened in the city? Anything you've heard, Feraighin. Maybe something that might only seem important to a wetlander."

  She tossed her red mane contemptuously. "Wetlanders are like sandflies, Car'a'carn; who can know what they find important? Strange things sometimes happen in the city, so I have heard, as they do among the tents. People sometimes see things that cannot be, only for a time, what cannot be, is. Men, women, children have died." Perrin's skin prickled: he knew she meant what Rand called "bubbles of evil," rising from the Dark One's prison like froth in a fetid swamp, drifting along the Pattern till they burst. Perrin had been caught in one once; he never wanted to see another… "If you mean what the wetlanders do," she went on, "who has time to watch sandflies? Unless they bite. That minds me of one thing. I do not understand it, but perhaps you do. These sandflies will bite sooner or later."

  "What sandflies? Wetlanders? What are you talking about?"

  Feraighin was not as good as Sorilea at that level look, yet no Wise One that Perrin had seen appreciated others' impatience. Not even the chief of chiefs'. Thrusting her chin up, she gathered her shawl and answered. "Three days ago the treekillers Caraline Damodred and Toram Riatin approached the city. They issued a proclamation that Colavaere Saighan is a usurper, but they sit in their camp south of the city and do nothing except send a few people into the city now and then. Away from their camp, a hundred of them will run from one algai'd'siswai, or even a gai'shain. The man called Darlin Sisnera and other Tairens arrived by ship below the city yesterday and joined them. They have been feasting and drinking ever since, as if celebrating something. Treekiller soldiers gather in the city at Colavaere Saighan's command, yet they watch our tents more than they do the other wetlanders' or the city itself. They watch, and do nothing. Perhaps you know the why of all this, Car'a'carn, but I do not, nor does Bair or Megana, or anyone else in the tents."

  Lady Caraline and Lord Toram led the Cairhienin who refused to accept that Rand and the Aiel had conquered Cairhien, just as High Lord Darlin led their counterparts in Tear. Neither revolt amounted to much; Caraline and Toram had been sitting in the foothills of the Spine of the World for months, making threats a
nd claims, and Darlin the same down in Haddon Mirk. But not any longer, it seemed. Perrin found himself running a thumb lightly along the edge of his axe. The Aiel were in danger of slipping away, and Rand's enemies were coming together in one place. All it needed now was for the Forsaken to appear. And Sevanna with her Shaido. That would put the cream on the honeycake. Yet none of it was any more important than whether somebody saw a nightmare walking. Faile had to be safe; she just had to be.

  "Better watching than fighting," Rand murmured thoughtfully, listening to something unseen again.

  Perrin agreed with Rand wholeheartedly — just about anything was better than fighting — but Aiel did not see it that way, not when it came to enemies. From Rhuarc to Sorilea, Feraighin to Nandera and Sulin, they stared as though Rand had said sand was better to drink than water.

  Feraighin drew herself up practically on tiptoe. She was not particularly tall for an Aiel woman, not quite to Rand's shoulder, but she appeared to be trying to put herself nose-to-nose. "There are few more than ten thousand in that wetlander camp," she said reprovingly, "and fewer in the city. They can be dealt with easily. Even Indirian remembers that you commanded no wetlander killed except in self-defense, but they will make trouble left to themselves. It does not help that there are Aes Sedai in the city. Who can know what they —"

  "Aes Sedai?" The words came out cold, Rand's knuckles white on the Dragon Scepter. "How many?" At the smell of him the skin between Perrin's shoulders crawled; suddenly he could feel the Aes Sedai prisoners watching, and Bera and Kiruna and the rest.

  Sorilea lost all interest in Kiruna. Her hands planted themselves on her hips and her mouth narrowed. "Why did you not tell me this?"

  "You gave me no chance, Sorilea," Feraighin protested a touch breathily, shoulders hunching. Blue eyes swung to Rand, and her voice firmed. "There may be as many as ten or more, Car'a'carn. We avoid them, of course, especially since…" Back to Sorilea and breathiness. "You did not want to hear about the wetlanders, Sorilea. Only our own tents. You said so." To Rand, her back straightening. "Most of them stay beneath the roof of Arilyn Dhulaine, Car'a'carn, and seldom leave it." To Sorilea, hunching. "Sorilea, you know I would have told you everything. You cut me short." As she realized how many were watching, and how many beginning to smile, among the Wise Ones anyway, Feraighin's eyes grew wild, and her cheeks reddened. Her head swung between Rand and Sorilea, and her mouth worked but no sound came out. Some of the Wise Ones began laughing behind their hands; Edarra did not bother with a hand. Rhuarc threw back his head and roared.

  Perrin certainly did not feel like laughing. An Aiel could find something funny in having a sword stuck through him. Aes Sedai on top of everything else. Light! He cut straight through to what was important. "Feraighin? My wife, Faile, is she well?"

  She gave him a half-distracted stare, then visibly pulled together the tatters of her poise. "I think Faile Aybara is well, Sei'cair," she said with cool composure. Or almost. She tried to sneak glances at Sorilea from the corner of her eye. Sorilea was not amused, or anything close to it; arms folded, she gave Feraighin a perusal that made the one she had given Kiruna seem mild.

  Amys put a hand on Sorilea's arm. "She is not at fault," the younger woman murmured, too softly to reach any ears but the leathery Wise One's and Perrin's. Sorilea hesitated, then nodded; the flaying glare faded to her usual cantankerousness. Amys was the only one Perrin had seen able to do that, the only one Sorilea did not trample down when she got in her way. Well, she did not trample Rhuarc, but with him it was more a boulder ignoring a thunderstorm; Amys could make it stop raining.

  Perrin wanted more of Feraighin — she thought Faile was well? — but before he could open his mouth, Kiruna bulled in with her usual tact.

  "Now, listen to me carefully," she told Rand, gesturing emphatically under his nose. "I called the situation delicate. It is not. The situation is complex beyond your imagining, so fragile a breath could shatter it. Bera and I will accompany you to the city. Yes, yes, Alanna; and you, as well." She waved away the slender Aes Sedai impatiently. Perrin thought she was trying that looming trick. She did seem to be peering down her nose at Rand, though tall as she was, he stood head and shoulders taller. "You must let yourself be guided by us. One wrong move, one wrong word, and you may deliver to Cairhien the same disaster you gave Tarabon and Arad Doman. Worse, you can do incalculable damage to matters about which you know almost nothing."

  Perrin winced. The whole speech could not have been better designed to inflame Rand. But Rand simply listened till she was done, then turned to Sorilea. "Take the Aes Sedai to the tents. All of them, for now. Make sure everyone knows they're Aes Sedai. Let it be seen that they hop when you say toad. Since you hop when the Car'a'carn says it, that should convince everybody I'm not wearing an Aes Sedai leash."

  Kiruna's face, grew bright red; she smelled of outrage and indignation so strongly that Perrin's nose itched. Bera tried to calm her, without much success, while shooting you-ignorant-young-lout looks at Rand, and Alanna bit her lip in an effort not to smile. Going by the odors drifting from Sorilea and the others, Alanna had no reason to be pleased.

  Sorilea gave Rand a slash of smile. "Perhaps, Car'a'carn," she said dryly. Perrin doubted that she hopped for anyone. "Perhaps it will." She did not sound convinced.

  With another shake of his head, Rand stalked off with Min, shadowed by the Maidens and issuing orders as to who was to go with him and who with the Wise Ones. Rhuarc began ordering the siswai'aman. Alanna followed Rand with her eyes. Perrin wished he knew what was going on there. Sorilea and the others watched Rand, too, and they smelled anything but gentle.

  Feraighin was standing alone, he realized. Now was his chance. But when he tried to catch her up, Sorilea and Amys and the rest of the "council" surrounded her, neatly shouldering him away. They moved some distance before they began showering her with questions, the sharp looks directed at Kiruna and the other two sisters leaving no doubt they would tolerate no further eavesdropping. Kiruna appeared to be considering it, glowering till it seemed a wonder her dark hair was not standing on end. Bera was speaking to her firmly, and without trying Perrin heard "sensible" and "patience," "cautious" and "foolish." Which applied to whom was not evident.

  "There will be fighting when we reach the city." Aram sounded eager.

  "Of course not," Loial said stoutly. His ears twitched, and he peered uncomfortably at his axe. "There won't be, will there, Perrin?"

  Perrin shook his head. He did not know. If only the other Wise Ones would leave Feraighin alone, just for a few moments. What did they have to talk about that was so important?

  "Women," Gaul muttered, "are stranger than drunken wetlanders."

  "What?" Perrin said absently. What would happen should he simply push through the circle of Wise Ones?

  As if she had read his mind Edarra gave him a pointed frown. So did some of the others; sometimes it did seem women could read men's minds. Well…

  "I said women are strange, Perrin Aybara. Chiad told me she would not lay a bridal wreath at my feet; she actually told me." The Aielman sounded scandalized. "She said she would take me for a lover, her and Bain, but no more." Another time that would have shocked Perrin, though he had heard it before; Aiel were incredibly… free… about such things. "As if I am not good enough for a husband." Gaul snorted angrily. "I do not like Bain, but I would marry her to make Chiad happy. If Chiad will not make a bridal wreath, she should stop trying to entice me. If I cannot catch her interest well enough for her to marry me, she should let me go."

  Perrin frowned at him. The green-eyed Aielman was taller than Rand, nearly a head taller than he. "What are you talking about?"

  "Chiad, of course. Have you not been listening? She avoids me, but every time I see her, she pauses long enough to make sure I have seen her. I do not know how you wetlanders do it, but with us, that is one of the ways a woman uses. When you least expect her, she is in your eyes, then gone. I did not even know she was with the Maid
ens until this morning."

  "You mean she's here?" Perrin whispered. That icicle was back, now a blade, hollowing him out. "And Bain? Here, too?"

  Gaul shrugged. "One is seldom far from the other. But it is Chiad's interest I want, not Bain's."

  "Burn their bloody interest!" Perrin shouted. The Wise Ones turned to look at him. In fact, people all over the hillside did. Kiruna and Bera were staring, faces entirely too thoughtful. With an effort he managed to lower his voice. He could do nothing about the intensity, though. "They were supposed to be protecting her! She's in the city, in the Royal Palace, with Colavaere — with Colavaere! — and they were supposed to be protecting her."

  Scratching his head, Gaul looked at Loial. "Is this wetlander humor? Faile Aybara is out of short skirts."

  "I know she's not a child!" Perrin drew a deep breath. It was very hard keeping a level tone with his belly full of acid. "Loial, will you explain to this… to Gaul, that our women don't run around with spears, that Colavaere wouldn't offer to fight Faile, she'd just order somebody to cut her throat or throw her off a wall or…" The images were too much. He was going to empty his stomach in a moment.

  Loial patted him awkwardly on the shoulder. "Perrin, I know you're worried. I know how I'd feel if I thought anything happened to Erith." The tufts on his ears quivered. He was a fine one to talk; he would run as hard as he could to avoid his mother and the young Ogier woman she had chosen for him. "Ah. Well. Perrin, Faile is waiting for you, safe and sound. I know it. And you know she can care for herself. Why, she could care for herself and you and me, and Gaul, as well." His booming laugh sounded forced, and it quickly faded to grave seriousness. "Perrin… Perrin, you know you can't always be there to protect Faile, however much you want to. You are ta'veren; the Pattern spun you out for a purpose, and it will use you for that purpose."