Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Robert Sanderson

by Unknown

  "Great. Wonderful." Mat let out a relieved sigh. Women were always happy for a chance to educate a boy when he was young; Mat thought they assumed they could educate him out of becoming a man if they tried hard enough. "I'll give you some money. You can go into the city and find an inn."

  "I've been into the city," Setalle said. "Every inn in the place seems packed to the walls already."

  "I'll find a place for you," Mat promised. "Just keep Olver safe. When the time comes, and I have someone to make gateways, I'll have them send you to Illian so you can find your husband."

  "A deal," Setalle said. She hesitated, glancing northward. "The . . . others are gone, then?"

  "Yes." Good riddance.

  She nodded, looking regretful. Maybe she had not been ordering his men about for lunch because she had been offended at seeing them relax. Maybe she had been looking for something to busy herself at.

  "I'm sorry," Mat said. "About whatever happened to you."

  "The past is gone," she replied. "And I need to leave it be. I should never have even asked to see the item you wear. These last few weeks have made me forget myself."

  Mat nodded, parting with her, then went searching for Olver. And after

  that, he really should get around to changing his coat. And burn him, he was going to shave, too. The men looking for him could bloody kill him if they wanted. A slit throat would be better than this itching.

  Elayne strolled through the palace's Sunrise Garden. This smaller garden had always been a favored location of her mother's, set atop the roof of the palace's eastern wing. It was rimmed by an oval of white stonework, with a larger, curved wall at the back.

  Elayne had a full view of the city below. In earlier years, she had liked the lower gardens precisely because they were a retreat. It was in those gardens that she had first met Rand. She pressed a hand to her belly. Though she felt enormous, the pregnancy was only just beginning to show. Unfortunately, she'd had to commission an entirely new set of gowns. She would probably have to do so again in the coming months. What a bother.

  Elayne continued to walk the roof garden. Pink jumpups and white morningstars bloomed in planters. The blossoms weren't nearly as large as they should have been, and already they were wilting. The gardeners complained that nothing helped. Outside the city, grass and weeds were dying in swaths, and the patchwork quilt of fields and crops looked depressingly brown.

  It is coming, Elayne thought. She continued on her way, walking a path made of springy grass, manicured and kept short. The gardeners' efforts weren't without some results. The grass here was mostly green, and the air smelled of the roses that wove their way up the sides of the wall. Those had brown spots on them, but they had bloomed.

  A tinkling stream ran through the middle of the garden, lined in carefully placed river stones. That stream ran only when she visited; water had to be carried up to the cistern.

  Elayne paused at another vantage point. A Queen couldn't choose seclusion the way a Daughter-Heir could. Birgitte walked up beside her. She folded her arms across her red-coated chest, eyeing Elayne.

  "What?" Elayne asked.

  "You're in full view," Birgitte said. "Anyone down there with a bow and a good eye could throw the nation right back into a Succession war."

  Elayne rolled her eyes. "I'm safe, Birgitte. Nothing will happen to me."

  "Oh, well, I apologize," Birgitte said flatly. "The Forsaken are loose and angry with you, the Black Ajah are undoubtedly furious that you've captured their agents, and you've humiliated various nobles who tried to seize the throne from you. Obviously you're in no danger whatsoever. I'll run along and take lunch, then."

  "You might as well," Elayne snapped. "Because I am safe. Min had a iewing. My babes will be born healthy. Min is never wrong, Birgitte."

  "Min said your babies would be strong and healthy," Birgitte said. Not that you would be healthy when they arrived." "How else would they come?"

  "I've seen people knocked in the head so hard that they're never the ame, girl," Birgitte said. "Some live for years, but never speak another vord and have to be fed broth and live with a bedpan. You could lose an irm or two and still bear healthy children. And what about the people iround you? Give you no thought to the danger you could cause them?"

  "I feel bad for Vandene and Sareitha," Elayne said. "And for those men vho died to rescue me. Don't dare imply that I feel no responsibility for :hem! But a queen must be willing to accept the burden of letting others die n her name. We discussed this, Birgitte. We decided that there was no way [ could have known that Chesmal and the others would arrive as they did."

  "We decided" Birgitte said through clenched teeth, "that there was no use arguing any further. But I want you to keep in mind that any number of things could still go wrong."

  "They won't," Elayne said, looking out over the city. "My children will be safe, and that means I will be, too. We have until their birth."

  Birgitte let out an exasperated sigh. "Foolish, stubborn . . . ." She trailed off as one of the nearby Guardswomen waved to get her attention. Two of the Kin stepped onto the roof. Elayne had asked them to come meet with her.

  Birgitte took up a position beside one of the short cherry trees, her arms folded. The two Kinswomen wore unadorned dresses, Sumeko in yellow, Alise in blue. Alise was the shorter of the two, with gray streaking her brown hair, and she was weaker in the Power, so she hadn't slowed in aging as much as Sumeko.

  Both women had grown more firm of step lately. No further Kinswomen had disappeared or been murdered; Careane had been behind the killings all along. A member of the Black, hiding among them. Light, but thinking of it made Elayne's skin crawl

  "Your Majesty," Alise said, curtsying. She spoke with a calm, smooth voice and a faint Taraboner accent.

  "Your Majesty," Sumeko said as well, mimicking her companion's curtsy. The two were deferential more so to Elayne than they were to other Aes Sedai these days. Nynaeve had given the Kin in general a backbone in regards to the Aes Sedai and the White Tower, though Alise hadn't ever struck Elayne as needing it.

  During the siege, Elayne had started to regard the Kinswomen's attitudes with annoyance. Recently, however, she'd been wondering. They had been extremely useful to her. How high would their newfound boldness lead them?

  Elayne nodded to each of the Kin in turn, then gestured toward a trio of chairs that had been placed in the shade of the drooping cherry trees. The three seated themselves, the stream winding its contrived way past them to the left. There was mint tea. The other two took a cup each, but were careful to add generous amounts of honey. Tea tasted terrible these days without it.

  "How are the Kin?" Elayne asked.

  The two women glanced at each other. Blast. Elayne was being too formal with them. They knew something was up.

  "We are well, Your Majesty," Alise said. "The fear seems to be leaving most of the women. At least, those who had enough sense to feel it in the first place. I suppose those who didn't were the ones who went off on their own and found themselves dead."

  "It is good not to have to spend so much time Healing, either," Sumeko noted. "It was becoming very fatiguing. So many wounded, day after day." She grimaced.

  Alise was made of stouter material. She sipped her tea, face mild. Not calm and frozen, like an Aes Sedai. Thoughtful and warm, yet reserved. That was an advantage these women had that the Aes Sedai did not they could be regarded without as much suspicion, as they were not tied directly to the White Tower. But they didn't have its authority, eithet.

  "You can sense that I have something to ask of you," Elayne said, meeting Alises eyes.

  "We can?" Sumeko asked, sounding surprised. Perhaps Elayne had given her too much credit.

  Alise nodded in a matronly way. "You've asked much of us while we've been here, Your Majesty. No more than I felt you had a right to ask. So far."

  "I have tried to welcome you in Caemlyn," Elayne said. "As I realize you can never return home, not while the Seanchan rule
Ebou Dar."

  "That is true," Alise agreed. "But one can hardly call Ebou Dar our home. It was merely a place where we found ourselves. Less a home, more a necessity. Many of us rotated in and out of the city anyway, to avoid notice."

  "Have you considered where you will stay now?"

  "We're going to Tar Valon," Sumeko said quickly. "Nynaeve Sedai said " "I'm certain there will be a place for some of you there," Elayne interjected. "Those who wish to become Aes Sedai. Egwene will be eager to

  give a second chance to any Kin who wish to try again for the shawl. But what of the rest of you?"

  "We spoke of this," Alise said carefully, eyes narrowing. "We will become associated with the Tower, a place for Aes Sedai to retire."

  "Surely you will not move to Tar Valon, though. What good would the Kin be as a place to retire from Aes Sedai politics if they are so near the

  White Tower?"

  "We had assumed we would remain here," Alise said.

  "That was my assumption as well," Elayne said carefully. "But assumptions are weak. I wish to give you promises instead. After all, if you were to remain in Caemlyn, I see no reason to not offer you support directly from the Crown."

  "At what cost?" Alise asked. Sumeko was watching with a confused frown.

  "Not much of one," Elayne said. "Really, not a cost at all. An occasional favor, as you have done the Crown in the past."

  The garden fell still. Faint calls from the city below rose up into the air, and the branches shivered in the wind, dropping a few brown leaves between Elayne and the Kin.

  "That sounds dangerous," Alise said, taking a sip of her tea. "Surely you're not suggesting that we set up a rival White Tower here, in Caemlyn."

  "Nothing of the sort," Elayne said quickly. "I am Aes Sedai myself, after all. And Egwene has spoken of letting the Kin continue as they have before, so long as they accept her authority."

  "Em not certain we want to 'continue as we have before,' " Alise said. "The White Tower left us to live our lives in terror that we would be discovered. But all the while, they were using us. The more we consider that, the less . . . amused that makes us."

  "Speak for yourself, Alise," Sumeko said. "/ intend to be tested and return to the Tower. I will join the Yellow, mark my words."

  "Perhaps, but they won't have me," Alise said. "Em too weak in the Power. I won't accept some halfway measure, forced to scrape and bow every time a sister comes along and wants me to wash her clothing. But I won't stop channeling, either. I won't give it up. Egwene Sedai has spoken of letting the Kin continue, but if we do, would be we be able to work the One Power openly?"

  "I assume you would be able to," Elayne said. "Much of this was Egwene's idea. She certainly wouldn't send Aes Sedai to you to retire if they were to be forbidden to channel. No, the days of women outside the Tower

  channeling in secret have passed. The Windfinders, the Aiel Wise Ones, have proven that times must change."

  "Perhaps," Alise said. "But giving our services to the Crown of Andor is a very different matter."

  "We would make certain not to compete with the Tower's interests," Elayne said. "And you would accept the Aymrlin's authority. So what is the problem? Aes Sedai provide service to monarchs across the land."

  Alise sipped her tea. "Your offer has merit. But it depends on the nature of the favors required by the Crown of Andor."

  "I would only ask two things of you," Elayne said. "Traveling and Healing. You need not enter our conflicts, you need not be part of our politics. Simply agree to Heal my people who are sick, and to assign a group of women each day to create gateways when the crown wishes."

  "That still sounds an awful lot like your own White Tower," Alise said. Sumeko was frowning.

  "No, no," Elayne said. "The White Tower means authority, politics. You would be something else entirely. Imagine a place in Caemlyn where any person can come to receive Healing, free of charge. Imagine a city free of disease. Imagine a world where food can travel instantly to those who need it."

  "And a queen who can send troops wherever she needs," Alise said. "Whose soldiers can fight one day, then be free of wounds the next. A queen who can earn a tidy profit by charging merchants for access to her gateways." She took a sip of her tea.

  "Yes," Elayne admitted. Though she wasn't certain how she was going to convince Egwene to let her do that part of it.

  "We will want half," Alise said. "Half of anything you charge for Traveling or Healing."

  "Healing is free," Elayne said firmly. "For anyone who comes, regardless of station. People are treated in order of the severity of their ailment, not in order of their rank."

  "I could agree to this," Alise said.

  Sumeko turned to her, eyes wide. "You cannot speak for us. You yourself threw in my face the Knitting Circle having dissolved, now that we have left Ebou Dar. Besides, by the Rule "

  "I speak only for myself, Sumeko," Alise said. "And those who would join me. The Kin as we knew them are no more. We were dominated by our need to remain secret, and that is gone now."

  Sumeko grew silent.

  "You mean to join the Aes Sedai, my friend," Alise said, laying a hand on her arm. "But they will not have me, nor will I have them. I need something else, and others will as well."

  "But to tie yourselves to the Crown of Andor. . . ."

  "We tie ourselves to the White Tower," Alise said. "But live in Caemlyn. Both have their benefits. We aren't strong enough to stand on our own. ndor is as good a place as any. It has the favor of the White Tower, and :he favor of the Dragon Reborn. Mostly, it is here, and so are we."

  "You can reorganize," Elayne said, growing excited. "The Rule can be crafted anew. You can decide to let Kin marry now, if you wish. I think :hat would be for the best."

  "Why?" Alise asked.

  "Because it will tie them down," Elayne explained. "That will make them less of a threat to the White Tower. It will help differentiate you. It is something that few women in the White Tower do, and it gives you something to make the Kin more attractive as an option."

  Alise nodded, thoughtful; Sumeko seemed to be coming around. Elayne was sorry to admit that she wouldn't miss the woman when she left. Elayne intended to push them to restructure how they chose leaders. It would be much more convenient if she could work with one like Alise, as apposed to whomever happened to be the oldest among them.

  "I still worry about the Amyrlin," Alise said. "Aes Sedai do not charge for services. What will she say if we start doing so?"

  "I will speak with Egwene," Elayne repeated. "I'm certain I can convince her that the Kin, and Andor, are no threat to her."

  Hopefully. There was a chance for something incredible in the Kin, a chance for Andor to have constant and inexpensive access to gateways. That would put her on nearly equal ground with the Seanchan.

  She spoke with the women for a time longer, making certain they felt she was giving them due attention. Eventually, she dismissed them, but found herself lingering in the garden, standing between two planters holding bluebells, their clusters of tiny, vaselike blossoms drooping and wiggling in the breeze. She tried not to look at the planter beside them, which was empty. The bluebells there had flowered in the color of blood, and had actually bled something red when cut. The gardeners had pulled them out.

  The Seanchan would come for Andor eventually. By then, Rand's armies would likely be weakened and broken from the fighting, their leader possibly dead. Again, it made her heart twist to consider that, but she couldn't shy away from the truth.

  Andor would be a prize to the Seanchan. The mines and rich lands of her realm would tempt them, as would the proximity to Tar Valon. Beyond

  that, she suspected that those who claimed to be Artur Hawkwing's successors would never be satisfied until they held all that had once belonged to their ancestor.

  Elayne looked out over her nation. Her nation. Full of those who trusted in her to protect and defend them. Many who had supported her claim to the throne had ha
d little faith in her. But she was their best option, their only option. She would show them the wisdom of their choice.

  Securing the Kin would be one step. Sooner or later, the Seanchan would be able to Travel. All they needed to do was capture one woman who knew the weaves, and soon each and every damane with the requisite strength would be able to create the portals. Elayne needed access to them as well.

  What she didn't have, however, were channelers to use in battle. She knew she couldn't ask this of the Kin. They'd never agree to it, nor would Egwene. Nor would Elayne herself. Forcing a woman to use the Power as a weapon would make her no better than the Seanchan themselves.

  Unfortunately, Elayne knew full well the destruction women using the One Power could cause. She'd been bound in a wagon while Birgitte led the attack on the Black Ajah who had kidnapped her here in Caemlyn, but she'd seen its aftermath. Hundreds dead, hundreds more wounded, dozens burned away. Smoking, twisted corpses.

  She needed something. An edge against the Seanchan. Something to balance their channelers in combat. The only thing she could think of was the Black Tower. It was on Andor's soil. She'd told them that she considered them part of her nation, but so far she'd gone no further than sending inspection parties.

  What would happen to them if Rand died? Dared she try to claim them? Dared she wait for someone else to?

  CHAPTER 18

  The Strength of This Place

  Perrin ran through the darkness. Trails of watery mist brushed his face and condensed in his beard. His mind was foggy, distant. Where was he going? What was he doing? Why was he running? He roared and charged, ripping through the veiled darkness and burst-rig into open air. He took a deep breath and landed on the top of a steep till covered with short, patchy grass, with a ring of trees at its base. The sky rumbled and churned with clouds, like a boiling pot of tar.

  He was in the wolf dream. His body slumbered in the real world, on his hilltop, with Faile. He smiled, breathing deeply. His problems had not liminished. In fact, with the Whitecloak ultimatum, they seemed magni-led. But all was well with Faile. That simple fact changed so much. With her at his side, he could do anything.