Having a husband meant that she did not have to share a bed with another woman, or two, and it gained her a sitting room. It was not large, but it always seemed snug, with a good fireplace and a small table with four chairs. Certainly as much as she and Lan needed. Her hopes for privacy were dashed as soon as they entered the sitting room, though. The First Maid was waiting in the middle of the flowered carpet, as stately as a queen, as neatly turned out as if she had just finished dressing, and not at all pleased. And in one corner of the room was a roughly dressed, lumpy fellow with a horrible wart on his nose and a scrip dangling heavily from his shoulder.
"This man claims he has something you want urgently," Mistress Harfor said once she had made brief courtesies. Very brief, if proper; she did not waste them on anyone except Elayne. She sounded equally disapproving of Nynaeve and the fellow with the wart. "I don't mind telling you, I do not like the looks of him."
Tired as Nynaeve was, embracing the Source was almost beyond her, but she managed it in a flash, spurred by thoughts of assassins and the Light knew what. Lan must have caught some change in her face, because he took a step toward the warty fellow; he did not touch his sword, but suddenly his whole stance seemed as if the blade were already drawn. How he sometimes managed to read her mind when another held his bond, she could not say, but she was pleased. She had managed to match Talaan—in strength, at least!—but she was not sure she could channel enough right then to knock over a chair. "I never," she began.
"Pardon, Mistress," the lumpy fellow muttered hurriedly, tugging his greasy forelock. "Mistress Thane said you wanted to see me right away. Women's Circle business, she said. Something about Cenn Buie."
Nynaeve gave herself a shake, and after a moment remembered to close her mouth. "Yes," she said slowly, staring at the fellow. Seeing anything but that awful wart was difficult, but she was certain she had never laid eyes on him before. Women's Circle business. No man would be allowed a sniff of that. It was secret. She held on to saidar, though. "I… remember, now. Thank you, Mistress Harfor. I'm sure you have all sorts of things to see to."
Rather than take the hint, the First Maid hesitated, frowning at her suspiciously. That frown slid around to the lumpy man, then settled on Lan and vanished. She nodded to herself, as if his presence somehow made the difference! "I will leave you, then. I'm sure Lord Lan can handle this fellow."
Stifling her indignation, Nynaeve barely waited for the door to close before rounding on the lumpy fellow and his wart. "Who are you?" she demanded. "How do you know those names? You're no Two Riv—"
The man… rippled. There was no other word for it. He rippled and stretched taller, and suddenly it was Rand, grimacing and swallowing, in rumpled woolens with those awful heads glittering red-and-gold on the backs of his hands and a leather scrip on his shoulder. Where had he learned that? Who had taught him? She resisted the idea of disguising herself, just for a moment, to show him she could do as much.
"I see you didn't take your own advice," Rand said to Lan, just as if she were not there. "But why do you let her pretend to be Aes Sedai? Even if the real Aes Sedai let her, she can get hurt."
"Because she is Aes Sedai, sheepherder," Lan replied quietly. He did not look at her either! And he still seemed ready to draw his sword in a heartbeat. "As for the other… Sometimes, she is stronger than you. Did you take it?"
Rand looked at her then. To frown disbelievingly. Even when she pointedly adjusted her shawl so the yellow fringe swayed. What he said though, shaking his head slowly, was "No. You're right. Sometimes you're just too weak to do what you should."
"What are you two blathering about?" she said sharply.
"Just things that men talk about," Lan replied.
"You wouldn't understand," Rand said.
She sniffed at that. Gossip and idle chatter, that was what men's talk was, nine times in ten. At best. Wearily, she let go of saidar. Reluctantly. She did not need to protect herself against Rand, certainly, but she would have liked to hold on a little longer, just to touch it, tired or not.
"We know about Cairhien, Rand," she said, sinking gratefully into a chair. Those cursed Sea Folk had worn her out! "Is that why you're here, dressed that way? If you're trying to hide from whoever it was…" He looked tired. Harder than she remembered, but very tired. He remained standing, though. Strangely, he seemed much like Lan, ready to draw a sword he was not wearing. Maybe that attempt to kill him would be enough to make him see sense. "Rand, Egwene can help you."
"I'm not hiding exactly," he said. "At least, just until I kill some men who need killing." Light, he was as matter of fact about it as Alivia! Why did he and Lan keep eyeing one another and pretending they were not? "Anyway, how could Egwene help?" he went on, setting the scrip on the table. It made a soft but solid sound of weight inside. "I suppose she's Aes Sedai, too?" He sounded amused! "Is she here, as well? You three, and two real Aes Sedai. Only two! No. I don't have time for that. I need you to keep something until—"
"Egwene is the Amyrlin Seat, you fool woolhead," she growled. It was nice to be able to interrupt someone else for a change. "Elaida is a usurper. I hope you've had sense enough not to go near her! You wouldn't leave that meeting on your own two legs, I can tell you! There are five real Aes Sedai here, including me, and three hundred more with Egwene and an army, ready to pull Elaida down. Look at yourself! Whatever your brave talk, somebody almost killed you, and you're sneaking around dressed like a stableman! What safer place for you than with Egwene? Even those Asha'man of yours wouldn't dare go against three hundred sisters!" Oh, yes; very nice indeed. He tried to mask his surprise, but he made a poor job of it, staring at her.
"You'd be surprised what my Asha'man would dare," he said dryly after a minute. "I suppose Mat is with Egwene's army?" Putting a hand to his head, he staggered.
Only half a step, but she was out of her chair before he could right himself. Embracing saidar with an effort, she reached up to clasp his head between her hands, and laboriously wove a Delving around him. She had tried finding a better way to find what ailed someone, so far without success. It was enough. No sooner had the weave settled on him than her breath caught. She had known about the wound in his side from Falme, never healing completely, resisting all the Healing she knew, like a pustule of evil in his flesh. Now there was another half-healed wound atop the old, and that pulsed with evil, too. A different sort of evil, somehow, like a mirror of the other, yet just as virulent. And she could not touch either with the Power. She did not really want to—just thinking of it made her skin crawl!—but she tried. And something unseen held her away. Like a ward. A ward she could not see. A ward of saidin?
That made her stop channeling and step back. She clung to the Source; no matter how tired she was, she would have had to force herself to let go. No sister could think of the male half of the Power without at least a touch of fear. He looked down at her calmly, and that made her shiver. He seemed another man entirely from the Rand al'Thor she had watched grow up. She was very glad that Lan was there, hard as that was to admit. Suddenly she realized that he had not relaxed by a whisker. He might chatter with Rand like two men over pipes and ale, but he thought Rand was dangerous. And Rand looked at Lan as if he knew it, and accepted it.
"None of that is important now," Rand said, turning to the scrip on the table. She did not know whether he meant his wounds or where Mat was. From the scrip he produced two statuettes a foot high, a wise-looking, bearded man and an equally wise and serene woman, each in flowing robes and holding aloft a clear crystal sphere. From the way he handled them, they were heavier than they appeared. "I want you to keep these hidden for me until I send for them, Nynaeve." One hand on the figure of the woman, he hesitated. "And for you. I'll need you when I use them. When we use them. After I take care of those men. That has to come first."
"Use them?" she said suspiciously. Why did killing anyone have to come first? That was hardly the important question, though. "For what? Are they ter'angreal?"
&
nbsp; He nodded. "With this, you can touch the greatest sa'angreal ever made for a woman. It's buried on Tremalking, I understand, but that doesn't matter." His hand moved to the figure of the man. "With this one, I can touch its male twin. I was told by… someone… once, that a man and woman using those sa'angreal could challenge the Dark One. They might have to be used for that, one day, but in the meantime, I hope they're enough to cleanse the male half of the Source."
"If it could be done, wouldn't they have done it in the Age of Legends?" Lan said quietly. Quiet the way steel sliding from a scabbard was quiet. "You said once that I could get her hurt." It seemed impossible his voice could grow any harder, but it did. "You could kill her, sheepherder." And his tone made clear that he would not allow that.
Rand met Lan's cold blue stare with one just as cold. "I don't know why they didn't. I don't care why. It has to be tried."
Nynaeve bit her lower lip. She supposed Rand made this a public occasion—shifting from public to private, deciding which was which, made her dizzy sometimes—but she did not care that Lan had spoken out of turn. He was bad that way, in any case, but she liked an outspoken man. She needed to think. Not about her decision. She had made that. About how to implement it. Rand might not like it. Lan certainly would not. Well, men always wanted their own way. Sometimes you just had to teach them they could not always have it.
"I think it is a wonderful idea," she said. That was not exactly a lie. It was wonderful, compared to the alternatives. "But I don't see why I should sit here waiting for your summons like a serving maid. I'll do it, but we all go together."
She had been right. They did not like it one bit.
Chapter 12: A Lily in Winter
Another serving man nearly fell on his nose bowing, and Elayne sighed as she glided past along the Palace corridor. At least, she tried to glide. The Daughter-Heir of Andor, stately and serene. She wanted to run, though her dark blue skirts probably would have tripped her had she tried. She could almost feel the stout man's goggling eyes following her and her companions. A minor irritant, and one that would pass; a grain of sand in her slipper. Rand bloody thinks-he-knows-best-for-everybody al'Thor is itchoak down my back! she thought. If he managed to get away from her this time…!
"Just remember," she said firmly. "He hears nothing about spies, or forkroot, or any of that!" The very last thing she needed was him deciding to "rescue" her. Men did that sort of nonsense; Nynaeve called it "thinking with the hair on their chests." Light, he would probably try to move the Aiel and the Saldaeans back into the city! Into the Palace itself! Bitter as it was to admit, she could not stop him if he did, not short of open war, and even that might not be enough.
"I don't tell him things he doesn't need to know," Min said, frowning at a lanky, wide-eyed serving woman whose curtsy nearly collapsed into a sprawl on the red-brown floor tiles. Eyeing Min sideways, Elayne remembered her own time wearing breeches, and wondered whether she might not try again. They were certainly freer than skirts. Not the heeled boots, though, she decided judiciously. They made Min almost as tall as Aviendha, but even Birgitte swayed in those, and with Min's snug breeches and a coat that barely covered her hips, it looked positively scandalous.
"You lie to him?" Suspicion larded Aviendha's tone. Even the way she adjusted her dark shawl on her shoulders carried disapproval, and she glared past Elayne at Min.
"Of course not," Min replied sharply, glaring right back. "Not unless it's necessary." Aviendha chuckled, then looked startled that she had, and put on a stony face.
What was she to do about them? They had to like one another. They just had to. But the two women had been staring at each other like strange cats in a small room every since they met. Oh, they had agreed to everything—there really had been no choice, not when none of them could guess when they would all have the man at hand again—but she hoped they did not show one another again how skillfully they handled their knives. Very casually, not actually implying any threat, but very open about it, too. On the other hand, Aviendha had been quite impressed with the number of knives Min carried about her person.
A gangly young serving man carrying a tray of tall mantles for the stand lamps bowed as she swept by. Unfortunately, he was staring so hard that he forgot to pay attention to his burden. The crash of glass shattering on the floor tiles filled the corridor.
Elayne sighed again. She did hope everyone became used to the new order of things soon. She was not the object of all that gaping, of course, or Aviendha, or even Min, though she probably drew some. No, it was Caseille and Deni, following close behind, who were making eyes pop and servants stumble. She had eight bodyguards, now, and those two had been standing guard at her door when she woke.
Very likely some of the gaping was just that Elayne had Guardswomen trailing behind her at all, and almost certainly that they were women. No one was used to that, yet. But Birgitte had said she would make them appear ceremonial, and she had. She must have set every seamstress and milliner in the Palace working as soon as she left Elayne's rooms the night before. Each woman wore a bright red hat with a long white plume lying flat along the wide brim, and a wide red sash edged in snowy lace across her chest with rampant White Lions marching up it. Their white-collared crimson coats were silk, and the cut had been altered a little, so they fit better and hung almost to the knee above scarlet breeches with a white stripe up the outsides of the legs. Pale lace hung thickly at their wrists and necks, and their black boots had been waxed till they shone. They looked quite dashing, and even placid-eyed Deni swaggered just a little. Elayne suspected they would be even prouder once the sword belts and scabbards with gold tooling were ready, and the lacquered helmets and breastplates. Birgitte was having breastplates made to fit women, which Elayne suspected had certainly made the Palace armorer's eyes pop!
At the moment, Birgitte was busy interviewing women to round out the twenty for the bodyguard. Elayne could feel her concentrating, with no sign of physical activity, so it must be that, unless she was reading, or playing stones, and she seldom took a moment away from her duties for herself. Elayne hoped she would keep it to just twenty. She hoped Birgitte was busy enough that she did not notice until too late when she masked the bond. To think that she had been so worried about Birgitte sensing what she did not want her to when the solution lay in a simple question to Vandene. The answer had been a rueful reminder how little she actually knew about being Aes Sedai, especially the parts other sisters took for granted. Apparently, every sister who had a Warder knew how, even those who remained celibate.
It was odd how things came about, sometimes. If not for the bodyguards, if not for wondering how she could manage to elude them and Birgitte, she would never have thought to ask, would never have learned the masking in time for this. Not that she planned to elude her guards any time soon, but it was best to be prepared in advance of need. Birgitte certainly was not going to allow her and Aviendha to wander the city alone, day or night, not any longer.
Their arrival at Nynaeve's door put thoughts of Birgitte completely out of her head. Except that she must not mask the bond until the very last instant. Rand was on the other side of that door. Rand who sometimes crowded her thoughts until she wondered whether she was like some fool woman in a story who threw her head over the wall because of a man. She had always thought those stories must have been written by men. Only, Rand sometimes did make her feel witless. At least he did not realize it, thank the Light.
"Wait out here, and admit no one," she commanded the Guardswomen. She could not afford interruptions or attention now. With luck, her bodyguard was new enough that no one would even recognize what their fine uniforms meant. "I will only be a few minutes."
They saluted briskly, an arm across the chest, and took positions on either side of the door, Caseille stone-faced with a hand on her sword hilt, Deni taking her long cudgel in both hands and smiling faintly. Elayne was sure the stocky woman thought Min had brought her here to meet a secret lover. She suspected Caseille mig
ht, as well. They had hardly been as discreet in front of the two women as they might have; no one had mentioned his name, but there had more than enough of "he this" and "he that." At least neither had tried making an excuse to leave so she could report to Birgitte. If they were her bodyguard, then they were her bodyguard, not Birgitte's. Except that they would not keep Birgitte out if she masked the bond too soon.
And she was dithering, she realized. The man she dreamed of every night was on the other side of that door, and she was standing there like a witling. She had waited so long, wanted so much, and now she was almost afraid. She would not let this go wrong. With an effort, she gathered herself.
"Are you ready?" Her voice was not as strong as she could have hoped, but at least it did not tremble. Butterflies the size of foxes fluttered in her stomach. That had not happened in a long time.
"Of course," Aviendha said, but she had to swallow first.
"I'm ready," Min said faintly.
They went in without knocking, hurriedly closing the door behind them.
Nynaeve jumped to her feet, wide-eyed, before they were well into the sitting room, but Elayne barely noticed her or Lan, though the sweet smell of the Warder's pipe filled the room. Rand really was there; it had been hard to believe he would be. That dreadful disguise Min had described was gone, except for the shabby clothing and rough gloves, and he was… beautiful.
He leaped from his chair at the sight of her, too, but before he was completely upright, he staggered and grabbed the table with both hands, gagging and heaving with dry retches. Elayne embraced the Source and took a step toward him, then stopped and made herself let go of the Power. Her ability with Healing was tiny, and anyway, Nynaeve had moved as quickly as she, the shine of saidar suddenly around her, hands raised toward Rand.
He recoiled, waving her away. "It's nothing you can Heal, Nynaeve," he said roughly. "In any case, it seems you win the argument." His face was a rigid mask hiding emotion, but his eyes seemed to Elayne to be drinking her in. And Aviendha as well. She was surprised to feel gladdened by that. She had hoped it would be that way, hoped she could manage for her sister's sake, and now it took no managing at all. Straightening up was a visible effort for him, and pulling his gaze away from her and Aviendha, though he tried to hide both. "It is past time to be gone, Min," he said.
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