The common room, with its ill-patched plaster ceiling and cold stone fireplaces near collapsing, was the same beehive it had been when she first entered. No one gave her more than a glance now, and she gave them less. A small crowd awaited her and Elayne.
Thom and Juilin, on a rough bench against the flaking plaster wall, had their heads together with Uno, who was squatting in front of them, long sword hilt rising over his shoulder. Areina and Nicola, both staring amazed at everything and trying not to show it, occupied another bench with Marigan, who was watching Birgitte attempt to amuse Jan and Seve by awkwardly juggling three of Thom's colored wooden balls. Kneeling behind the boys, Min was tickling them, whispering in their ears, but they only clung to each other, silently staring with those too-big eyes.
Only two others in the entire room were not scurrying about. Two of Myrelle's three Warders happened to be leaning against the wall in conversation a few paces beyond the benches, just this side of the door back to the kitchen corridor. Croi Makin, a yellow-haired young splinter of stone from Andor with a fine profile, and Avar Hachami, hawk-nosed and square-chinned with a thick gray-streaked mustache like down-curved horns. No one would call Hachami handsome even before his dark-eyed stare made them swallow. They were not looking at Uno or Thom or anyone else, of course. It was only happenstance that they alone had nothing to do and had chosen just that spot to do it. Of course.
Birgitte dropped one of the balls when she saw Nynaeve and Elayne. "What did you tell them?" she asked quietly, barely glancing at the silver arrow in Elayne's hand. The quiver hung at her belt; but her bow was propped against the wall.
Moving closer, Nynaeve carefully did not look toward Makin and Hachami. Just as carefully she lowered her voice and was sparing with emphasis. "We told them everything they asked for."
Elayne touched Birgitte's arm. "They know you are a good friend who has helped us. You are welcome to stay here, just the same as Areina and Nicola and Marigan."
Only when some of Birgitte's tension melted did Nynaeve realize how much had been there. The blue-eyed woman scooped up the fallen yellow ball, and smoothly tossed all three back to Thom, who snagged them with one hand and made them vanish in a single motion. She wore the faintest of relieved grins.
"I can't tell you how glad I am to see the pair of you," Min said for at least the fourth or fifth time. Her hair was longer than it had been, though still a dark cap around her head, and she looked different in some other way that Nynaeve could not put a finger on. Surprisingly, freshly embroidered flowers climbed the lapels of her coat; she had always worn quite plain clothes before. "A friendly face is rare around here." Her eyes flickered just a fraction toward the two Warders. "We have to settle down alone and have a long talk. I can't wait to hear what you've been up to since you left Tar Valon." Or to tell what she had been up to as well, else Nynaeve missed her guess.
"I would like very much to talk to you, too," Elayne said, quite seriously. Min looked at her, then sighed and nodded, not as eager as a moment before.
Thom and Juilin and Uno came up behind Birgitte and Min, their faces set in that way men took on when they meant to say things they thought a woman might not like to hear. Before they could open their mouths, though, a curly-haired woman in an Accepted's dress pushed between Juilin and Uno, glowering at them, and planted herself in front of Nynaeve.
Faolain's dress, with its seven bands of color at the hem for the Ajahs, was not quite as white as it should have been, and her dark face wore a scowl. "I am surprised to see you here, wilder. I thought you had gone running back to your village, and our fine Daughter-Heir to her mother."
"Are you still souring milk for a hobby, Faolain?" Elayne asked.
Nynaeve kept her face pleasant. Just barely. Twice in the Tower Faolain had been set to teach her something. To put her in her place, was her own opinion. Even when teacher and pupil were both Accepted, the teacher had the status of Aes Sedai so long as the lesson lasted, and Faolain took full advantage. The curly-haired woman had spent eight years as a novice and five more as Accepted; she was not best pleased that Nynaeve had never had to be a novice at all, or that Elayne had worn pure white for less than a year. Two lessons from Faolain, and two trips to Sheriam's study for Nynaeve, for stubbornness, temper, a list as long as her arm. She made her voice light. "I heard Siuan and Leane have been badly treated by someone. I think Sheriam means to make an example to end it once and for all." She kept her eyes steady on the other woman's, and Faolain's widened in alarm.
"I've done nothing since Sheriam —" Faolain's mouth snapped shut, and her face colored heavily. Min hid her mouth behind her hand, and Faolain jerked her head around, studying the other women, from Birgitte to Marigan. She motioned brusquely to Nicola and Areina. "You two will do, I suppose. Come with me. Now. No dawdling." They rose slowly, Areina staring warily and Nicola with fingers fretting at the waist of her dress.
Elayne stepped between them and Faolain before Nynaeve could, chin high and eyes imperious blue ice. "What do you want with them?"
"I am obeying Sheriam Sedai's orders," Faolain replied. "I myself think they are too old for first testing, but I obey orders. A sister accompanies Lord Bryne's recruiting parties, testing women even as old as Nynaeve." Her sudden smile could have come from a viper. "Shall I inform Sheriam Sedai that you disapprove, Elayne? Shall I tell her you won't let your retainers be tested?" Elayne's chin came down somewhat during that, but of course she could not simply back down. She needed a diversion.
Nynaeve touched Faolain's shoulder. "Have they found many?"
In spite of herself, the woman's head turned, and when she glanced back, Elayne was soothing Areina and Nicola, explaining that they would not be hurt, or forced into anything. Nynaeve would not have gone so far. When Aes Sedai found someone with the spark born in her like Elayne or Egwene, someone who would channel eventually whether she wanted to or not, they were quite open about bundling her into training whatever her wishes. They seemed more lenient about those who could be trained but would never touch saidar without it, and about wilders, those who had survived the one-in-four chance of teaching themselves, usually without knowing what they had done and often blocked in some way, as Nynaeve was. Supposedly they could choose to come or stay. Nynaeve had chosen to enter the Tower, but she suspected that if she had not, she still would have gone, perhaps even tied hand and foot. Aes Sedai gave women who had the smallest chance of joining them as much choice as a lamb on a feastday.
"Three," Faolain said after a moment. "All that effort, and they've found three. One a wilder." She truly did not like wilders. "I do not know why they are so eager to find new novices. The novices we have can't be raised Accepted until we regain the Tower. It is all Siuan Sanche's fault, her and Leane." A muscle in her cheek twitched, as if she realized that remark might be thought to harass the former Amyrlin and Keeper, and she seized Areina and Nicola each by an arm. "Come along. I obey orders, and if you're to be tested, you'll be tested, waste of time or no waste of time."
"A nasty woman," Min murmured, squinting after Faolain as she hurried the other across the common room. "You'd think, if there was any justice, she would have an unpleasant future ahead of her."
Nynaeve wanted to ask what Min had seen in her viewing of the curly-haired Accepted — there were a hundred questions she wanted to ask her — but Thom and the other two men planted themselves firmly in front of her and Elayne, Juilin and Uno to either side so among the three they could see in every direction. Birgitte was leading Jaril and Seve to their mother, keeping her out of it. Min knew what the men were up to, too, by the rueful look she gave them; she seemed about to say something, but in the end she only shrugged and joined Birgitte.
By Thom's face, he could have been about to comment on the weather, or ask what was for supper. Nothing important. "This place is full of dangerous fools and dreamers. They think they can depose Elaida. That's why Gareth Bryne is here. To raise an army for them."
Juilin's grin almost sp
lit his dark face in two. "Not fools. Madwomen. And madmen. I don't care if Elaida was there the day Logain was born. They're mad to think they can pull down an Amyrlin sitting in the White Tower from here. We could reach Cairhien in a month, maybe."
"Ragan and a few of the others already have horses marked out for borrowing." Uno was grinning, too; it looked incredibly incongruous with that glaring red eye on his patch. "The guards are set to watch for people coming in, not going out. We can lose them in the forest. It'll be dark soon. They'll never find us." The women's donning their Great Serpent rings back by the river had had a remarkable effect on his language. Though he did seem to make up for it when he thought they could not hear.
Nynaeve looked at Elayne, who shook her head slightly. Elayne would put up with anything to be Aes Sedai. And herself? Small chance that they could influence these Aes Sedai to support Rand if they had decided to try controlling him instead. Make that no chance; she might as well be realistic. And yet… And yet there was Healing. She would learn nothing of it in Cairhien, but here… Not ten paces from her, Therva Maresis, a slender Yellow with a long nose, was methodically ticking off points on a parchment with her pen. A baldheaded Warder with a black beard stood conferring with Nisao Dachen near the door, head and shoulders above her despite being no taller than average, while Dagdara Finchey, as wide as any man in the room and taller than most, addressed a group of novices in front of one of the unlit fireplaces, briskly sending them off one by one on errands. Nisao and Dagdara were Yellow Ajah, too; it was said that Dagdara, her graying hair marking considerable age on an Aes Sedai, knew more of Healing than any two others. It was not as if Nynaeve would be able to do anything useful if she did go to Rand. Just watch him go mad. If she could progress with Healing, maybe she could find a way to hold that madness off. There was too much that Aes Sedai were willing to call hopeless and let go at that to suit her.
All of that flashed through her head in the time it took to look at Elayne and turn back to the men. "We will be staying here. Uno, if you and the others want to go to Rand, you are free to, as far as I'm concerned. I fear I no longer have money to help you." The gold the Aes Sedai had taken was needed just as they said, but she could not help wincing at the few silvers left in her purse. These men had followed her — and Elayne, of course — for all the wrong reasons, but that did not lessen her responsibility for them. Their loyalties were to Rand; they had no reason to enter a struggle for the White Tower. With a glance at the gilded coffer, she added reluctantly, "But I do have some things you can sell along the way."
"You must go too, Thom," Elayne said. "And you, Juilin. There's no point in remaining. We have no need of you now, but Rand will." She tried to press her casket of jewels into Thom's hands, but he refused to take it.
The three men exchanged looks in that irritating way they had, Uno going so far as to roll his eye. Nynaeve thought she heard Juilin mutter something under his breath about having said they would be stubborn.
"Perhaps in a few days," Thom said.
"A few days," Juilin agreed.
Uno nodded. "I could do with a little rest if I'm going to be running from Warders halfway to Cairhien."
Nynaeve gave them her flattest stare and deliberately tugged her braid. Elayne had her chin as high as it had ever been, her blue eyes haughty enough to chip ice. Thom and the others surely knew the signs by now; their nonsense was not going to be allowed. "If you think you are still following Rand al'Thor's orders to look after us —" Elayne began in frosty tones at the same time that Nynaeve said heatedly, "You promised to do as you were told, and I mean to see —"
"Nothing like that," Thom broke in, brushing back a strand of Elayne's hair with a gnarled finger. "Nothing at all like. Can't an old man with a limp want a little rest?"
"To tell the truth," Juilin said, "I am just staying because Thom owes me money. Dice."
"Do you expect us to steal twenty horses from Warders like falling out of bed?" Uno growled. He seemed to have forgotten just offering to do exactly that.
Elayne stared, at a loss for words, and Nynaeve was having difficulty finding them herself. How far they had fallen. Not so much as a shifted foot in the three of them. The trouble was that she was torn. She had determined to send them away. She had, and not because she didn't want them around watching her curtsy and scrape right and left. Not at all. Yet with almost nothing in Salidar as she had expected, she had to admit, however reluctantly, that it would be… comforting… to know she and Elayne had more than Birgitte to depend on. Not that she would take up the offer of escape, of course — if that was what it should be called — not under any circumstances. Their presence would just be… comforting. Certainly not that she would let them know that. She would not have to, since they were going, whatever they thought. Rand could find use for them, very probably, and they would only get in the way here. Except…
The unpainted door opened, and Siuan stalked out, followed by Leane. They stared at each other coldly before Leane sniffed and glided away, startlingly sinuous as she vanished around Croi and Avar into the corridor that led to the kitchens. Nynaeve frowned slightly. In the midst of all that iciness there had been one instant, a brief flicker she almost missed with it right in front of her…
Siuan swung toward her, then abruptly stopped short, her face going blank. Someone else had joined the small gathering.
Gareth Bryne, dented breastplate buckled over his plain buff-colored coat and steel-backed gauntlets tucked behind his sword belt, radiated command. Mostly gray hair and a bluff face gave him the appearance of a man who had seen everything, endured everything; a man who could endure anything.
Elayne smiled, nodding graciously. A far cry from her astonished stares, coming into Salidar, when she had first recognized him at the length of the street. "I will not say it is entirely good to see you, Lord Gareth. I have heard of some difficulty between Mother and you, but I am sure it can be mended. You know Mother is hasty sometimes. She will come 'round, and ask you back to your proper place in Caemlyn, you may be certain of it."
"Done is done, Elayne." Ignoring her astonishment — Nynaeve doubted anyone who knew Elayne's rank had ever been so curt to her — he turned to Uno. "Have you thought on what I said? Shienarans are the finest heavy cavalry in the world, and I have lads who are just right for proper training."
Uno frowned, his one eye sliding to Elayne and Nynaeve. Slowly, he nodded. "I've nothing better to do. I'll ask the others."
Bryne clapped him on the shoulder. "Well enough. And you, Thom Merrilin." Thom had half turned away at the other man's approach, knuckling his mustaches and staring at the floor as if to obscure his face. Now he met Bryne's level stare with one of his own. "I once knew a fellow with a name much like yours," Bryne said. "A skilled player of a certain game."
"I once knew a fellow who looked much like you," Thom replied. "He tried hard to put me in chains. I think he'd have cut my head off if he ever laid hands on me."
"A long time ago, that would be? Men do strange things for women sometimes." Bryne glanced at Siuan and shook his head. "Will you join me for a game of stones, Master Merrilin? I sometimes find myself wishing for a man who knows the game well, the way it's played in lofty circles."
Thom's bushy white eyebrows drew down almost as far as Uno's had, but he never took his eyes from Bryne. "I might play a game or two," he said finally, "once I know the stakes. As long as you understand I don't intend to spend the rest of my life playing stones with you. I don't like staying too long in one place anymore. My feet itch, sometimes."
"So long as they don't itch in the middle of a crucial game," Bryne told him dryly. "The two of you come with me. And don't expect much sleep. Around here, everything needs doing yesterday, except what should have been done last week." Pausing, he looked at Siuan again. "My shirts came back only half clean today." With that he was leading Thom and Uno off. Siuan glared at his back, then shifted her frown to Min, and Min grimaced and darted off the way Leane had gone.
"A good thing he has no need for a thief-catcher," Juilin said, eyeing Siuan sideways, and plainly uncomfortable. He had not gotten over the shock of learning her name; Nynaeve was not sure he had taken in about her being stilled, and no longer the Amyrlin Seat. He certainly shifted his feet for her. "This way I can sit and talk. I've seen a lot of fellows who look like they might unwind over a mug of ale."
"He practically ignored me," Elayne said incredulously. "I don't care what the trouble is between him and Mother, he has no right… Well, I will tend to Lord Gareth Bryne later. I have to talk to Min, Nynaeve."
Nynaeve started to follow as Elayne hurried toward that hall to the kitchens — Min would give straight answers — but Siuan caught her arm in an iron grip.
The Siuan Sanche who had meekly ducked her head before those Aes Sedai was gone. No one here wore the shawl. Her voice never rose; it did not need to. She fixed Juilin with a stare that had him almost jumping out of his skin. "You watch what questions you ask, thief-catcher, or you'll gut yourself for market." Those cold blue eyes shifted to Birgitte and Marigan. Marigan's mouth twisted as if she tasted something bad, and even Birgitte blinked. "You two find an Accepted named Theodrin and ask her about somewhere to sleep tonight. Those children look as if they should be in bed already. Well? Move your feet!" Before they had stirred a step — and Birgitte was moving as quickly as Marigan, maybe quicker — she rounded on Nynaeve. "You I have questions for. You were told to cooperate, and I suggest you do if you know what's good for you."
The Fires of Heaven twot-5 Page 86
