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  "Would you like cool mint tea?" Janya said, and it was Nynaeve’s turn to blink. "I do think tea is comforting. It smooths conversation, I always find." Not waiting for an answer, the bird-like Brown sister began filling mismatched cups from a blue-striped teapot on the sideboard. A rock stood in place of one of the sideboard’s legs. Aes Sedai might have more room, but their furnishings were just as battered. "Delana and I decided our notes could wait for another time. We will just talk, instead. Honey? I prefer it without, myself. All that sweetness ruins the flavor. Young women always want their honey. Such wonderful things, you’ve been doing. You and Elayne." A loud throat-clearing made her look at Delana questioningly. After a moment Janya said, "Ah. Yes."

  Delana had pulled one of the chairs from the table into the middle of the bare floor. One cane-bottomed chair. From the moment Janya mentioned conversation Nynaeve had known that that was not at all what was going to happen. Delana motioned to the chair, and Nynaeve took a seat on the very edge of it, accepted a cup on a chipped saucer from Janya with a murmured "Thank you, Aes Sedai." She did not have long to wait.

  "Tell us about Rand al’Thor," Janya said. She appeared ready to say more, but Delana cleared her throat again; Janya blinked and fell silent, sipping her tea. They stood to either side of Nynaeve’s chair. Delana glanced at her, then sighed and channeled the third cup to herself. It floated across the room. Delana fixed on her again in that way that seemed to bore holes in your head, Janya apparently lost in thought and maybe not seeing her at all.

  "I’ve told you everything I know," Nynaeve sighed. "Well, told Aes Sedai, anyway." She had, too. Nothing she knew could harm him — not any more than knowing what he was, anyway — and it might help if she could make the sisters see him as a man. Not a man who could channel; just a man. Not an easy task with the Dragon Reborn. "I don’t know any more."

  "Don’t sulk," Delana snapped. "And don’t fidget."

  Nynaeve set her cup back in the saucer and wiped her wrist on her skirt.

  "Child," Janya said, her tone all compassion, "I know you think you’ve told all you know, but Delana… I cannot think you would hold back on purpose — "

  "Why would she not?" Delana barked. "Born in the same village. Watched him grow up. Her loyalties may be more to him than to the White Tower." That razor gaze descended on Nynaeve again. "Tell us something you haven’t told before. I’ve heard all your stories, girl, so I will know."

  "Try, child. I’m sure you don’t want to make Delana angry with you. Why —" Janya cut off at another throat-clearing.

  Nynaeve hoped they thought her teacup rattling meant she was rattled as well. Dragged here terrified — no, not terrified, but worried at least — over how angry they might be, and now this. Being around Aes Sedai taught you to listen carefully. You still might not catch what they really meant, but you had a better chance than if you listened with half an ear, the way most people usually did. Neither one had really said they thought she was keeping anything back. They just intended to frighten her on the chance that they might shake something else loose. She was not afraid of them. Well, not much. She was furious.

  "When he was a boy," she said carefully, "he would accept his punishment without any argument if he thought he deserved it, but if he didn’t think so, he fought every step of the way."

  Delana snorted. "You’ve told that to everyone who would listen. Something else. Quickly!"

  "You can lead him, or convince him, but he won’t be pushed. He digs in his heels if he thinks you’re — "

  "And that." Hands on broad hips, Delana bent down until her head was level with Nynaeve’s. Nynaeve almost wished she had Nicola staring at her again. "Something you’ve not told every cook and laundress in Salidar."

  "Do try, child," Janya said, and for a wonder left it at that.

  They dug away, Janya prompting sympathetically, Delana boring without mercy, and Nynaeve brought up every scrap she could remember. It earned her no respite; every scrap had been told so many times before she could identify them by taste. As Delana kindly pointed out. Well, not so kindly. By the time Nynaeve managed to take a sip of her tea, it tasted stale, and the sweetness almost curled her tongue. Janya apparently really did believe young women liked lots of honey. The morning passed slowly. Very slowly.

  "This is taking us nowhere," Delana said at last, glaring at Nynaeve as if it were all her fault.

  "May I go then?" Nynaeve asked wearily. Every drop of sweat that drenched her seemed to have been squeezed out. She felt limp. She also wanted to slap both those cool Aes Sedai faces.

  Delana and Janya exchanged glances. The Gray shrugged and walked over to the sideboard for another cup of tea. "Of course you may," Janya said. "I know this must have been difficult for you, but we really do need to know Rand al’Thor better than he knows himself if we are to decide what’s best. Otherwise, everything could turn to catastrophe. Oh, my, yes. You’ve done very well, child. But then, I never expected any less of you. Anyone who can make the discoveries you’ve made, with your handicap… why, I expect nothing less than excellence from you. And to think…"

  It took quite a while for her to run down and let Nynaeve stagger outside. Stagger she did, on wobbly knees. Everybody was talking about her. Of course they were. She should have listened to Elayne and begun leaving all the so-called discoveries to her. Moghedien was right. Sooner or later they were going to start probing for how she did it. So they had to decide what was best, to avoid catastrophe. No clue there to what they intended toward Rand.

  A glance at the sun, almost overhead, told her she was already late for her appointment with Theodrin. At least she had a good excuse this time.

  Theodrin’s house — hers and two dozen other women’s — lay beyond the Little Tower. Nynaeve slowed as she came abreast of the onetime inn. The gaggle of Warders out front near Gareth Bryne were evidence the meeting still went on. A residue of anger enabled her to see the ward, a close flat dome mostly of Fire and Air with touches of Water, shimmering to her eyes over the entire building, the knot holding it in tantalizing fashion. Touching that knot would be as good as offering her hide to a tannery; there were plenty of Aes Sedai in the crowded street. Now and then some of the Warders moved back and forth through the shimmer, invisible to them, as one group broke up and another formed. The same ward Elayne had failed to penetrate. A shield against eavesdropping. With the Power.

  Theodrin’s house stood a hundred paces or so farther up the street, but Nynaeve turned into the yard beside a thatch-roofed house just two beyond the former inn. A rickety wooden fence enclosed the tiny plot of withered weeds behind the house, but it had a gate, hanging on one hinge that was nearly all rust. It squealed murderously when she shifted the gate. She looked around hastily — no one at any of the windows; no one in the street could see her — gathered her skirts and darted through into the narrow alleyway that eventually ran by the room she shared with Elayne.

  For a moment she hesitated, wiping sweaty palms on her dress, remembering what Birgitte had said. She knew she was a coward at heart, much as she hated the fact. Once she had thought herself brave enough. Not a hero, like Birgitte, but brave enough. The world had taught her better. Just thinking of what the sisters would do if they caught her — made her want to turn around and run to Theodrin. The chance was vanishingly small that she could actually find a window on the very room where the Sitters were. Impossibly small.

  Trying to work some moisture back into her mouth — how could her mouth be so dry when the rest of her was so damp? — she crept closer. One day she wanted to know what it was like to be brave, like Birgitte or Elayne, instead of a coward.

  The ward did not tingle when she stepped through. It did not feel like anything at all. She had known it would not. Touching it could do no harm, but she flattened herself against the rough stone wall. Bits of creeper clinging to its cracks brushed her face.

  Slowly she edged along to the nearest casement window — and nearly turned around and left right th
en. It was shut tight, all the glass gone, replaced by oiled cloth that might let in light but certainly did not allow her to see anything. Or hear anything; at least, if there was anybody on the other side, no noise escaped. Taking a deep breath, she inched to the next window. One pane had been replaced here too, but the remainder showed a battered once-ornate table covered with papers and inkpots, a few chairs, and an otherwise empty room.

  Muttering a curse she had heard from Elayne — the girl had a surprising stock of such tucked away — she felt her way along the rough stone. The third window was swung out. She pressed her nose close. And jerked back. She had not really believed she would find anything, but Tarna was in there. Not with Sitters, but Sheriam and Myrelle and the rest of that lot. If her heart had not been pounding so hard, she would have heard the murmur of their voices before she looked.

  Kneeling down, she moved as close to the casement as she could without being seen by those inside. The bottom of the window rubbed against her head.

  "… sure that is the message you wish me to carry back?" That steely voice had to be Tarna’s. "You request more time to consider? What is there to consider?"

  "The Hall —" Sheriam began.

  "The Hall," the Tower envoy scoffed. "Do not believe me blind to where power lies. That so-called Hall thinks what you six tell them to think."

  "The Hall, it has asked for more time," Beonin said firmly. "Who can say what decision they will reach?"

  "Elaida will have to wait to hear their decision," Morvrin said in a fair imitation of Tarna’s icy tone. "Can she not wait a small time to see the White Tower whole once more?"

  Tarna’s reply was even colder, though. "I will carry your… the Hall’s… message to the Amyrlin. We shall see what she thinks of it." A door opened and closed with a sharp bang.

  Nynaeve could have screamed with frustration. Now she knew the answer, but not the question. If only Janya and Delana had released her a little sooner. Well, it was better than nothing. Better than "We will return and obey Elaida." There was no point staying here, waiting for someone to look out and see her.

  She started to ease away, and Myrelle said, "Perhaps we should just send a message. Perhaps we should simply summon her." Frowning, Nynaeve held her place. Her who?

  "The forms must be met," Morvrin said gruffly. "The proper ceremonies must be followed."

  Beonin spoke on her heels in firm tones. "We must meet every letter of the law. The smallest slip, it will be used against us."

  "And if we have made a mistake?" Carlinya sounded heated for perhaps the first time in her life. "How long are we to wait? How long dare we wait?"

  "As long as need be," Morvrin said.

  "As long as we must." That from Beonin. "I have not waited this long for the biddable child just to abandon all our plans now."

  For some reason that produced a silence, although Nynaeve did hear someone murmur "biddable" again as if examining the word. What child? A novice or Accepted? It made no sense. Sisters never waited on novices or Accepted.

  "We have gone too far to turn back, Carlinya," Sheriam said finally. "Either we bring her here and make sure she does as she should, or we leave everything to the Hall and hope they do not lead us all to disaster." From her tone, she considered that last a hope for fools.

  "One slip," Carlinya said coldly, even more coldly than usual, "and we will all end with our heads on pikes."

  "But who will put them there?" Anaiya asked thoughtfully. "Elaida, the Hall, or Rand al’Thor?"

  Silence stretched, the skirts rustled, and the door opened and closed once more.

  Nynaeve risked a peek. The room was empty. She made a vexed sound. That they intended to wait was small consolation; the final answer could still be anything. Anaiya’s comment showed they were still as wary of Rand as of Elaida. Maybe more. Elaida was not gathering men who could channel. And who was the "biddable child"? No, that was unimportant. They could have fifty schemes weaving she knew nothing about.

  The ward winked out, and Nynaeve jumped. It was past time to be gone from here. Scrambling to her feet, she began dusting her knees vigorously as she stepped away from the wall. One step was all she took. She stopped, bent over with her hands frozen over the dirty spots on her dress, staring at Theodrin.

  The apple-cheeked Domani woman met her gaze, not saying a word.

  Hastily Nynaeve considered and rejected the fool claim that she had been searching for something she dropped. Instead she straightened and walked slowly by the other woman as if there was nothing to explain. Theodrin fell in beside her silently, hands folded at her waist. Nynaeve considered her options. She could hit Theodrin over the head and run. She could get back on her knees and plead. Both notions had a good deal wrong with them to her way of thinking, but she could not pull up anything in between.

  "Have you been keeping calm?" Theodrin asked, looking straight ahead.

  Nynaeve gave a start. That had been the other woman’s instruction to her after yesterday’s attempt to break down her block. Keep calm, very calm; think only quiet composed thoughts. "Of course," she laughed weakly. "What could there be to upset me?"

  ‘That is good," Theodrin said serenely. "Today I mean to try something a little more… direct."

  Nynaeve glanced at her. No questions? No accusations? The way this day had been going she could not believe she was getting off so lightly.

  Neither saw the woman watching them from a second-story window.

  Chapter 13

  (Snakey Square)

  Under the Dust

  Wondering whether to undo her braid, Nynaeve glowered out from under a frayed red-striped towel at her dress and shift, hanging over chairbacks and dripping on the clean-swept floorboards. Another raveled towel, striped green and white and considerably larger, served her as a substitute garment. "Now we know shock doesn’t work," she growled at Theodrin, and winced. Her jaw hurt, and her cheek still stung. Theodrin had quick reflexes and a strong arm. "I could channel now, but for a moment there, saidar was the furthest thing from my mind." In that drenched moment of gasping for breath, when thought had fled and instinct had taken over.

  "Well, channel your things dry," Theodrin muttered.

  It made Nynaeve’s jaw feel better, watching Theodrin peer into a broken triangle of mirror and finger her eye. The flesh looked a little puffy already, and Nynaeve suspected that left alone the bruise would be spectacular. Her own arm was not so weak. A bruise was the least Theodrin deserved!

  Perhaps the Domani thought the same, because she sighed, "I won’t try that again. But one way or another, I will teach you to surrender to saidar without first being angry enough to bite it."

  Frowning at the soaked garments, Nynaeve considered a moment. She had never done anything like this before. The prohibition against doing chores with the Power was strong, and with good reason. Saidar was seductive. The more you channeled, the more you wanted to channel, and the more you wanted to channel, the greater the risk that eventually you would draw too much and still or kill yourself. The sweetness of the True Source filled her easily now. Theodrin’s bucket of water had seen to that, if the rest of the morning had not. A simple weave of Water drew all the moisture from her clothes to fall on the floor in a puddle that quickly spread to join what the bucket had put there.

  "I am not very good at surrendering," she said. Unless there was no point in fighting, anyway. Only a fool went on where there was no chance at all. She could not breathe under water, she could not fly by flapping her arms — and she could not channel except when angry.

  Theodrin shifted her frown from the puddle to Nynaeve and planted fists on slim hips. "I am well aware of that," she said in a too level tone. "By all I’ve been taught, you should not be able to channel at all. I was taught you must be calm to channel, cool and serene inside, open and utterly yielding." The glow of saidar surrounded her, and flows of Water gathered the puddle into a ball sitting incongruously on the floor. "You must surrender before you can guide. But you, Nynae
ve… however hard you try to surrender — and I’ve seen you try — you hang on with your fingernails unless you’re furious enough to forget to." Flows of Air lifted the wobbling ball. For a moment, Nynaeve thought the other woman meant to toss it at her, but the watery sphere floated across the room and out one of the open windows. It made a great splash falling, and a cat screamed in startled fury. Perhaps the prohibition did not apply when you reached Theodrin’s level.

  "Why not leave it at that?" Nynaeve tried to sound bright, but she thought she failed. She wanted to channel whenever she pleased. But as the old saying went, "If wishes were wings, pigs would fly."

  "No use wasting — "

  "Leave that," Theodrin said as Nynaeve started to use the weave of water on her hair. "Let go of saidar and allow it to dry naturally. And put on your clothes."

  Nynaeve’s eyes narrowed. "You don’t have another surprise waiting, do you?"

  "No. Now start preparing your mind. You are a flower bud feeling the warmth of the Source, ready to open to that warmth. Saidar is the river, you the bank. The river is more powerful than the bank, yet the bank contains and guides it. Empty your mind except for the bud. There is nothing in your thoughts but the bud. You are the bud…"

  Pulling her shift over her head, Nynaeve sighed as Theodrin’s voice droned on hypnotically. Novice exercises. If those worked with her, she would have been channeling whenever she wanted long ago. She should stop this and see to what she really could do, such as convincing Elayne to go to Caemlyn. But she wanted Theodrin to be successful, even if it entailed ten buckets of water. Accepted did not walk out; Accepted did not defy. She hated being told what she could not do even worse than being told what she must.

  Hours passed, with them now seated facing one another across a table that looked to have come out of a ramshackle farmhouse, hours of repeating drills that the novices were probably doing right that moment. The flower bud, and the riverbank. The summer breeze, and the babbling brook. Nynaeve tried to be a dandelion seed floating on the wind, the earth drinking in spring rain, a root inching its way through the soil. All without result, or at least the result Theodrin wanted. She even suggested Nynaeve imagine herself in a lover’s arms, which turned out a disaster, since it made her think of Lan, and how dare he vanish like this! But every time frustration sparked anger like a hot coal in dry grass and put saidar in her grasp, Theodrin made her release it and start again, soothing, calming. The way the woman remained fixed on what she wanted was maddening. Nynaeve thought she could teach mules how to be stubborn. She never got frustrated; she had serenity down to an art. Nynaeve wanted to upend a bucket of cold water over her head and see how she liked it. Then again, considering the ache in her jaw, maybe that was not such a good idea.