A Crown of Swords twot-7 Page 18

  Abruptly he realized that Jonan and Eben still held saidin too. "Release," he said sharply — that was the command Taim used — and he felt the Power vanish from them. Good weapons. So far. Kill them before it's too late, Lews Therin murmured. Rand released the Source deliberately, and reluctantly. He always hated letting go of the life, the enhanced senses. Of the struggle. Inside, though, he was tense, a jumper ready to leap, ready to seize it once more. He always was, now.

  I have to kill them, Lews Therin whispered.

  Shoving the voice back, Rand sent one of the Maidens, Nerilea, a square-faced woman, into the palace and began pacing alongside the wagons, thoughts spinning again, faster than before. He should not have come here. He should have sent Fedwin, with a letter. Spinning. Elayne. Aviendha. Perrin. Faile. Annoura. Berelain. Mat. Light, he should not have come. Elayne and Aviendha. Annoura and Berelain. Faile and Perrin and Mat. Flashes of color, quick motion just out of sight. A madman muttering angrily in the distance.

  Slowly he became aware of the Maidens talking among themselves. About the smell. Implying that it came from the Asha'man. They wanted to be heard, or they would have been using handtalk; there was moonlight enough for that. Moonlight enough to see the color in Eben's face, too, and how Fedwin's jaw was set. Maybe they were not boys any longer, not since Dumai's Wells certainly, but they were still only fifteen or sixteen. Jonan's eyebrows had drawn down so far they seemed to be sitting on his cheeks. At least nobody had seized saidin again. Yet.

  He started to step over to the three men, then raised his voice instead. Let them all hear. "If I can put up with foolishness from Maidens, so can you."

  If anything, the color in Eben's face deepened. Jonan grunted. All three saluted Rand with fist to chest; then they turned to one another. Jonan said something in a low voice, glancing at the Maidens, and Fedwin and Eben laughed. The first time they saw Maidens they had stumbled between wanting to goggle at these exotic creatures they had only read about and wanting to run before the murderous Aiel of the stories killed them. Nothing much frightened them anymore. They needed to relearn fear.

  The Maidens stared at Rand, and began talking with their hands, sometimes laughing softly. Wary of the Asha'man they might be, yet Maidens being Maidens — Aiel being Aiel — risk only made taunts more fun. Somara murmured aloud about Aviendha settling him down, which earned firm nods of approval. Nobody's life was ever this tangled in the stories.

  As soon as Nerilea returned saying that she had found Davram Bashere and Bael, the clan chief leading the Aiel here in Caemlyn, Rand took off his sword belt, and so did Fedwin. Jalani produced a large leather bag for the swords and the Dragon Scepter, holding it as if the swords were poisonous snakes, or perhaps long dead and rotten. Though in truth she would not have held it so gingerly in either case. Putting on a hooded cloak that Corana handed him, Rand held his wrists together behind his back, and Sulin bound them with a cord. Tightly, muttering to herself.

  "This is nonsense. Even wetlanders would call it nonsense."

  He tried not to wince. She was strong, and using every ounce of it. "You have run away from us too often, Rand al'Thor. You have no care for yourself." She considered him a brother of an age with herself, but irresponsible at times. "Far Dareis Mai carries your honor, and you have no care."

  Fedwin glowered while his own wrists were tied, though the Maiden binding him hardly put out much effort. Watching, Jonan and Eben frowned deeply. They disliked this plan as much as Sulin did. And understood it as little. The Dragon Reborn did not have to explain himself, and the Car'a'carn seldom did. No one said anything, though. A weapon did not complain.

  When Sulin stepped around in front of Rand, she took one look at his face, and her breath caught. "They did this to you," she said softly, and reached for her heavy-bladed belt knife. A foot or more of steel, it was almost a short-sword, though none but a fool would say that to an Aiel.

  "Pull up the hood," Rand told her roughly. "The whole point of this is that no one recognize me before I reach Bael and Bashere." She hesitated, peering into his eyes. "I said, pull it up," he growled. Sulin could kill most men with her bare hands, but her fingers were gentle settling the hood around his face.

  With a laugh Jalani snatched the hood down over his eyes. "Now you can be sure no one will know you, Rand al'Thor. You must trust us to guide your feet." Several Maidens laughed.

  Stiffening, he barely stopped short of seizing saidin. Barely. Lews Therin snarled and gibbered. Rand forced himself to breathe normally. It was not total darkness. He could see moonlight below the edge of the hood. Even so, he stumbled when Sulin and Enaila took his arms and led him forward.

  "I thought you were old enough to walk better than that," Enaila murmured in mock surprise. Sulin's hand moved. It took him a moment to realize she was stroking his arm.

  All he could see was what lay just before him, the moonlit flagstones of the stableyard, then stone steps, floors of marble by lamplight, sometimes with a long runner of carpet. He strained his eyes at the movement of shadows, felt for the telltale presence of saidin, or worse, the prickling that announced a woman holding saidar. Blind like this, he might not know he was under attack until too late. He could hear the whisper of a few servants' feet as they hurried on nighttime chores, but no one challenged five Maidens apparently escorting two hooded prisoners. With Bael and Bashere living in the palace and policing Caemlyn with their men, doubtless stranger sights had been seen in these corridors. It was like walking a maze. But then he had been in one maze or another since leaving Emond's Field, even when he had thought that he walked a clear path.

  Would I know a clear path if I saw one? he wondered. Or have I been at this so long I'd think it was a trap?

  There are no clear paths. Only pitfalls and tripwires and darkness. Lews Therin's snarl sounded sweaty, desperate. The way Rand felt.

  When Sulin finally led them into a room and shut the door, Rand tossed his head violently to throw back the hood — and stared. Bael and Davram he had expected, but not Davram's wife, Deira, nor Melaine, nor Dorindha.

  "I see you, Car'a'carn." Bael, the tallest man Rand had ever seen, sat cross-legged on the green-and-white floor tiles in his cadin'sor, an air about him even at ease that said he was ready to move in a heartbeat. The clan chief of the Goshien Aiel was not young — no clan chief was — and there was gray in his dark reddish hair, but anyone who thought him soft with age was in for a sad surprise. "May you always find water and shade. I stand with the Car'a'carn, and my spears stand with me."

  "Water and shade may be all very well," Davram Bashere said, hooking a leg over the gilded arm of his chair, "but myself I would settle for chilled wine." Little taller than Enaila, he had his short blue coat undone, and sweat glistened on his dark face. Despite his apparent indolence, he looked even harder than Bael, with his fierce tilted eyes, and his eagle's beak of a nose above thick gray-streaked mustaches. "I offer congratulations on your escape, and your victory. But why do you come disguised as a prisoner?"

  "I prefer to know whether he is bringing Aes Sedai down on us," Deira put in. A large woman gowned in gold-worked green silk, Faile's mother stood as tall as any Maiden there except Somara, long black hair slashed with white at the temples, her nose only a little less bold than her husband's. Truth, she could give him lessons in looking fierce, and she was very like her daughter in one respect. Her loyalty was to her husband, not Rand. "You've taken Aes Sedai prisoner! Are we now to expect the entire White Tower to descend upon our heads?"

  "If they do," Melaine said sharply, adjusting her shawl, "they will be dealt with as they deserve." Sun-haired, green-eyed and beautiful, no more than a handful of years older than Rand by her face, she was a Wise One, and married to Bael. Whatever had caused the Wise Ones to change their view of Aes Sedai, Melaine, Amys and Bair had changed the most.

  "What I wish to know," the third woman said, "is what you will do about Colavaere Saighan." While Deira and Melaine had presence, great presence, Dorin
dha outshone both, though it was difficult to see how exactly. The roof-mistress of Smoke Springs Hold was a solid, motherly woman, much nearer handsome than pretty, with creases at the corners of her blue eyes and as much white in her pale red hair as Bael had gray, yet of the three women, any eye with a brain behind it would have said she held sway. "Melaine says that Bair considers Colavaere Saighan of little importance," Dorindha went on, "but Wise Ones can be as blind as any man when it comes to seeing the battle ahead and missing the scorpion underfoot." A smile for Melaine robbed the words of their sting; Melaine's answering smile certainly said she took none. "A roofmistress's work is finding those scorpions before anyone is stung." She also was Bael's wife, a fact that still disconcerted Rand, for all it had been her choice and Melaine's. Perhaps partly because it had been theirs; among Aiel, a man had little say if his wife chose a sister-wife. It was not a common arrangement even among them.

  "Colavaere has taken up farming," Rand growled. They blinked at him, wondering whether that was a joke. "The Sun Throne is empty again, and waiting for Elayne." He had considered weaving a ward against listeners, but a ward could be detected by anyone searching, man or woman, and its presence would announce that something interesting was being said. Well, everything said here would be known from the Dragonwall to the sea soon enough.

  Fedwin was already rubbing his wrists, while Jalani sheathed her knife. No one looked at them twice; all eyes were on Rand. Frowning at Nerilea, he waggled his bound hands until Sulin sliced the cords. "I didn't realize this was to be a family gathering." Nerilea looked a trifle abashed, maybe, but no one else did.

  "After you marry," Davram murmured with a smile, "you will learn you must choose very carefully what to keep from your wife." Deira glanced down at him, pursing her lips.

  "Wives are a great comfort," Bael laughed, "if a man does not tell them too much." Smiling, Dorindha ran her fingers into his hair — and gripped for a moment as though she meant to tug his head off. Bael grunted, but not for Dorindha's fingers alone. Melaine wiped her small belt knife on her heavy skirt and sheathed it. The two women grinned at one another over his head while he rubbed at his shoulder, where a small spot of blood stained his cadin'sor. Deira nodded thoughtfully; it seemed she had just gotten an idea.

  "What woman could I hate enough to marry her to the Dragon Reborn?" Rand said coldly. That caused a silence solid enough to touch.

  He tried to take rein on his anger. He should have expected this. Melaine was not just a Wise One, she was a dreamwalker, as were Amys and Bair. Among other things, they could talk to one another in their dreams, and to others; a useful skill, though they had only used it for him once. It was Wise Ones' business. No wonder at all that Melaine was abreast of everything that had happened. No wonder that she told Dorindha everything, Wise Ones' business or no; the two women were best friends and sisters rolled into one. Once Melaine let Bael know of the kidnapping, of course he had told Bashere; expecting Bashere to keep that from his wife was like expecting him to keep it secret that their house was on fire. Inch by inch he drew the anger in, forced it down.

  "Has Elayne arrived?" He tried to make his voice casual, and missed. No matter. There were reasons everyone knew for him to be anxious. Andor might not be as unquiet as Cairhien, but Elayne on the throne was the fastest way to settle both lands. Maybe the only way.

  "Not yet." Bashere shrugged. "But tales have come north of Aes Sedai with an army somewhere in Murandy, or maybe Altara. That could be young Mat and his Band of the Red Hand, with the Daughter-Heir and the sisters who fled the Tower when Siuan Sanche was deposed."

  Rand rubbed his wrists where the cords had chafed. All that "captive" rigmarole had been on the chance Elayne was here already. Elayne, and Aviendha. So he could come and go without them learning of it till he was gone. Maybe he would have found a way to peek at them. Maybe… He was a fool, and no maybe about that.

  "Do you mean those sisters to swear oath to you, too?" Deira's tone was icy as her face. She did not like him; as she saw it, her husband had set off down a road that likely would end with his head on a pike over a gate in Tar Valon, and Rand had put his feet on that road. "The White Tower will not hold still for your coercing Aes Sedai."

  Rand made her a small bow, and burn her if she took it for mocking. Deira ni Ghaline t'Bashere never gave him a title, never even used his name; she could as well have been talking to a footman, and not a very intelligent or trustworthy one. "Should they choose to swear, I'll accept their oaths. I doubt many are exactly eager to return to Tar Valon. If they choose otherwise, they can go their own way, so long as they don't put themselves against me."

  "The White Tower has put itself against you," Bael said, leaning forward with his fists on his knees. His blue eyes made Deira's voice seem warm. "An enemy who comes once, will come again. Unless they are stopped. My spears will follow wherever the Car'a'carn leads." Melaine nodded, of course; she very likely wanted every last Aes Sedai shielded and kneeling under guard if not bound hand and foot. But Dorindha nodded as well, and Sulin, and Bashere knuckled his mustaches thoughtfully. Rand did not know whether to laugh or weep.

  "Don't you think I've enough on my plate without a war against the White Tower? Elaida grabbed my throat and was slapped down." The ground erupting in fire and torn flesh. Ravens and vultures gorging. How many dead? Slapped down. "If she has sense enough to stop there, I will too." So long as they did not ask him to trust. The chest. He was shaking his head, half-aware of Lews Therin suddenly moaning about the dark and the thirst. He could ignore, he had to ignore, but not forget, or trust.

  Leaving Bael and Bashere arguing over whether Elaida did have sense enough to stop, now that she had begun, he moved to a map-covered table against the wall, beneath a tapestry of some battle where the White Lion of Andor stood prominent. Apparently Bael and Bashere used this room for their planning. A little rooting around found the map he needed, a large roll displaying all of Andor from the Mountains of Mist to the River Erinin, and parts of the lands to the south as well, Ghealdan and Altara and Murandy.

  "The women held captive in the treekillers' lands are allowed to cause no trouble, so why should any others?" Melaine said, apparently in answer to something he had not heard. She sounded angry.

  "We will do what we must, Deira t'Bashere," Dorindha said calmly; she was seldom anything but. "Hold to your courage, and we will arrive where we must go."

  "When you leap from a cliff," Deira replied, "it is too late for anything but holding to your courage. And hoping there's a haywain at the bottom to land in." Her husband chuckled as though she was making a joke. She did not sound it.

  Spreading the map out and weighting the corners with ink jars and sand bottles, Rand measured off distances with his fingers. Mat was not moving very fast if rumor placed him in Altara or Murandy. He took pride in how fast the Band could march. Maybe the Aes Sedai were slowing him, with servants and wagons. Maybe there were more sisters than he had thought. Rand realized his hands were clenched into fists and made them straighten. He needed Elayne. To take the throne here and in Cairhien; that was why he needed her. Just that. Aviendha… He did not need her, not at all, and she had made it clear she had no need for him. She was safe, away from him. He could keep them both safe by keeping them as far from him as possible. Light, if he could only look at them. He needed Mat, though, with Perrin being stubborn. He was not sure how Mat had suddenly become expert on everything to do with battle, but even Bashere respected Mat's opinions. About war, anyway.

  "They treated him as da'tsang," Sulin growled, and some of the other Maidens growled wordlessly in echo.

  "We know," Melaine said grimly. "They have no honor."

  "Will he truly hold back after what you describe?" Deira demanded in disbelieving tones.

  The map did not extend far enough south to show Illian — no map on the table showed any part of that country — but Rand's hand drifted down across Murandy, and he could imagine the Doirlon Hills, not far inside Illian's b
orders, with a line of hillforts no invading army could afford to ignore. And some two hundred and fifty miles to the east, across the Plains of Maredo, an army such as had not been seen since the nations gathered before Tar Valon in the Aiel War, maybe not since Artur Hawkwing's day. Tairen, Cairhienin, Aiel, all poised to smash into Illian. If Perrin would not lead, then Mat must. Only there was not enough time. There was never enough time.

  "Burn my eyes," Davram muttered. "You never mentioned that, Melaine. Lady Caraline and Lord Toram camped right outside the city, and High Lord Darlin as well? They didn't come together by chance, now right at this time, they did not. That's a pit of vipers to have on your doorstep, whoever you are."

  "Let the algai'd'siswai dance," Bael replied. "Dead vipers bite no one."

  Sammael had always been at his best defending. That was Lews Therin's memory, from the War of the Shadow. With two men inside one skull, maybe it was to be expected that memories would drift between them. Had Lews Therin suddenly found himself recalling herding sheep, or cutting firewood, or feeding the chickens? Rand could hear him faintly, raging to kill, to destroy; thoughts of the Forsaken almost always drove Lews Therin over the brink.

  "Deira t'Bashere speaks truly," Bael said. "We must stay on the path we have begun until our enemies are destroyed, or we are."

  "That was not how I meant it," Deira said dryly. "But you are right. We have no choice, now. Until our enemies are destroyed, or we are."

  Death, destruction and madness floated in Rand's head as he studied the map. Sammael would be at those forts soon after the army struck, Sammael with the strength of a Forsaken and the knowledge of the Age of Legends. Lord Brend, he called himself, one of the Council of Nine, and Lord Brend they called him who refused to admit the Forsaken were loose, but Rand knew him. With Lews Therin's memory, he knew Sammael's face, knew him to the bone.