The Truth of a Viewing

The Truth of a Viewing

The papers scattered on Siuan Sanche's desk held little real interest for her, but she persevered. Others handled the day-to-day routine of the White Tower, of course, to leave the Amyrlin Seat free for important decisions, but her habit had always been to check one or two things at random each day, with no notice beforehand, and she would not break it now. She would not let herself be distracted by worries. Everything was sailing along according to plan. Shifting her striped stole, she dipped her pen carefully in the ink and ticked off another corrected total.

Today she was examining lists of kitchen purchases, and the mason's report on an addition to the library. The sheer number of petty peculations people thought they could slip by always amazed her. So did the number that escaped notice by the women who oversaw these matters. For instance, Laras seemed to think watching accounts was beneath her since her title had been changed officially from simple chief cook to Mistress of the Kitchens. Danelle, on the other hand, the young Brown sister who was supposed to be watching Master Jovarin, the mason, was most likely letting herself be distracted by the books the fellow kept finding for her. That was the only way to explain her failure to question the number of workmen Jovarin claimed to have hired, with the first shipments of stone from Kandor just arriving at North harbor. He could rebuild the entire library with that many men. Danelle was simply too dreamy, even for a Brown. Perhaps a little time on a farm working penance would wake her. Laras would be more difficult to discipline; she was not Aes Sedai, so her authority with undercooks and scullions and potboys could be swamped all too easily. But perhaps she, too, could be sent for a "rest" in the country. That would...

With a snort of disgust Siuan threw her pen down, grimacing at the blot it made on a page of neatly totaled columns. "Wasting my time deciding whether to send Laras out to pull weeds," she muttered. "The woman is too fat to bend over far enough!"

It was not Laras's weight that had her temper jumping, and she knew it; the woman was no heavier now than she had always been, or so it seemed, and it never interfered with her running the kitchens. There was no news. That was what had her flapping like a fisher-bird whose catch had been stolen. One message from Moiraine that the al'Thor boy had Callandor, then nothing in the weeks since, although rumors in the streets were already beginning to get his name right. Still nothing.

Lifting the hinged lid of the ornately carved blackwood box where she kept her most secret papers, she rummaged inside. A small warding woven around the box ensured no hand but hers could safely open it.

The first paper she pulled out was a report that the novice who had seen Min's arrival had vanished from the farm she had been sent to, and the woman who owned the farm, too. Hardly unheard of for a novice to ran away, but the farmer leaving too was troublesome. Sahra would have to be found, certainly - she had not progressed far enough in her training to be let loose - but there was no real reason to keep the report in the box. It mentioned neither Min's name nor the reason the girl had been sent to hoe cabbages, but she put it back anyway. These were days to take care that might seem unreasonable at another time.

A description of a gathering in Ghealdan to listen to this man who called himself the Prophet of the Lord Dragon. Masema, it seemed his name was. Odd. That was a Shienaran name. Nearly ten thousand people had come to listen to him speak from a hillside, proclaiming the return of the Dragon, a speech followed by a battle with soldiers trying to disperse them. Aside from the fact that the soldiers apparently got the worst of it, the interesting thing was that this Masema knew Rand al'Thor's name. That definitely went back into the box.

A report that nothing had yet been found of Mazrim Taim. No reason for that to be in there. Another on worsening conditions in Arad Doman and Tarabon. Ships vanishing along the Aryth Ocean coast. Rumors of Tairen incursions into Cairhien. She was getting into the habit of putting everything in this box; none of that needed to be kept secret. Two sisters had vanished from Illian, and another in Caemlyn. She shivered, wondering where the Forsaken were. Too many of her agents had gone silent. There were lionfish out there, and she was swimming in darkness. There it was. The silk-thin slip of paper crackled as she unrolled it.

The sling has been used. The shepherd holds the sword.

The Hall of the Tower had voted as she had expected, unanimously and with no need for arm-twisting, much less invoking her authority. If a man had drawn Callandor, he must be the Dragon Reborn, and that man had to be guided by the White Tower. Three Sitters for three different Ajahs ha 23223c213x d proposed holding all plans close in the Hall before she even suggested it; the surprise had been that one was Elaida, but then the Reds would surely want the tightest hawsers possible kept on a man who could channel. The sole problem had been to stop a delegation from being sent to Tear to take him in hand, and that had not really been difficult, not when she was able to say that her news came from an Aes Sedai who had already managed to put herself close to the man.

But what was he doing now? Why had Moiraine not sent further word? Impatience hung so thick in the Hall now that she almost expected the air to sparkle. She kept a tight hold oh her anger. Burn the woman! Why hasn't she sent word?

The door crashed open, and she straightened furiously as more than a dozen women strode into her study, led by Elaida. All wore their shawls, most red-fringed, but cool-faced Alviarin, a White, was at Elaida's side, and Joline Maza, a slender Green, and plump Shemerin of the Yellow came close behind with Danelle, her big blue eyes not dreamy at all. In fact, at least one woman from every Ajah except the Blue. Some looked nervous, but most wore grim determination, and Elaida's dark eyes held stern confidence, even triumph.

"What is the meaning of this?" Siuan snapped, slapping the blackwood box shut with a sharp crack. She bounced to her feet and strode around the desk. First Moiraine and now this! "If this is about Tairen matters, Elaida, you know better than to bring others into it. And you know better than to walk in here as if this were your mother's kitchen! Make your apologies and leave before I make you wish you were an ignorant novice again!"

Her cold rage should have sent them scurrying, but though a few shifted uneasily, none made a move toward the door. Little Danelle actually smirked at her. And Elaida calmly reached out and pulled the striped stole from Siuan's shoulders. "You will not need this any longer," she said. "You were never fit for it, Siuan."

Shock turned Siuan's tongue to stone. This was madness. This was impossible. In a rage she reached for saidar - and suffered her second shock. A barrier lay between her and the True Source, like a wall of thick glass. She stared at Elaida in disbelief.

As if to mock her, the radiance of saidar sprang up around Elaida. She stood helpless as the Red sister wove flows of Air around her from shoulders to waist, crushing her arms to her side. She could barely breathe. "You must be mad!" she rasped. "All of you! I'll have your hides for this! Release me!" No one answered; they almost seemed to ignore her.

Alviarin ruffled through the papers on the table, quickly yet unhurriedly. Joline and Danelle and others began tilting up the books on the reading stands, shaking them to see if anything fell out from between the pages. The White sister gave a small hiss of vexation at not finding what she sought on the table, then flipped open the lid of the blackwood box. Instantly the box flared in a ball of flame.

Alviarin leaped back with a cry, shaking a hand where blisters were already forming. "Warded," she muttered, as close to open anger as a White ever came. "So small that I never felt it until too late." Nothing remained of the box and its contents but a heap of gray ash atop a square charred into the tabletop.

Elaida's face showed no disappointment. "I promise you, Siuan, that you will tell me every word that burned, who it was meant for, and to what purpose."

"You must be taken by the Dragon!" Siuan snapped. "I will have your hide for this, Elaida. All of your hides! You will be lucky if the Hall of the Tower doesn't vote to still all of you!"

Elaida's tiny smile did not touch her eyes, "The Hall convened not an hour ago - enough Sisters to meet our laws - and by unanimous vote, as required, you are no longer Amyrlin. It is done, and we are here to see it enforced."

Siuan's stomach turned to ice, and a small voice in the back of her head shrieked, What do they know? Light, how much do they know? Fool! Blind, fool woman! She kept her face smooth, though. This was not the first hard corner she had ever been in. A fifteen-year-old girl with nothing but her bait knife, hauled into an alley by four hard-eyed louts with their bellies full of cheap wine - that had been harder to escape than this. So she told herself.

"Enough to meet the laws?" she sneered. "A bare minimum, heavy with your friends and those you can influence or bully." That Elaida had been able to convince even a relatively small number of Sitters was enough to dry her throat, but she would not let it show. "When the full Hall meets, with all the Sitters, you'll learn your mistake. Too late! There has never been a rebellion inside the Tower; a thousand years from now they'll be using your fate to teach novices what happens to rebels." Tendrils of doubt crept onto some of those faces; it seemed Elaida did not have as tight a grip on her conspirators as she thought. "It's time to stop trying to hack a hole in the hull, and start bailing. Even you can still mitigate your offense, Elaida."

Elaida waited with chill calm until she was done. Then her full-armed slap exploded across Siuan's face; she staggered, silver-black flecks dancing in her vision.

"You are finished," Elaida said. "Did you think I - we - would allow you to destroy the Tower? Bring her!"

Siuan stumbled as two of the Reds pushed her forward. Barely keeping her feet, she glared at them, but went as they directed. Who did she need to get word to? Whatever charges had been brought, she could counter them, given time. Even charges involving Rand; they could not fasten more than rumors to her, and she had played the Great Game too long to be beaten by rumors. Unless they had Min; Min could clothe rumors in truth. She ground her teeth. Burn my soul, I'll use this lot for fish bait!

In the antechamber, she stumbled again, but not from pushing, this time. She had half-hoped that Leane had been away from her post, but the Keeper stood as Siuan did, arms stiffly at her sides, mouth working soundlessly, furiously, around a gag of Air. She had certainly sensed Leane being bound and never realized it; in the Tower, there was always the feel of women channeling.

Yet it was not the sight of Leane that made her miss her step, but the tall, slender gray-haired man stretched on the floor with a knife rising from his back. Alric had been her Warder for close to twenty years, never complaining when her path kept them in the Tower, never muttering when being the Amyrlin's Warder sent him hundreds of leagues from her, a thing none of the Gaidin liked.

She cleared her throat, but her voice was still husky when she spoke. "I'll have your hide salted and stretched in the sun for this, Elaida. I swear it!"

"Consider your own hide, Siuan," Elaida said, moving closer to stare her in the eyes. "There is more to this than has been revealed so far. I know it. And you are going to tell me every last scrap of it. Every - last - scrap." The sudden quiet of her voice was more frightening than all her hard stares had been. "I promise it, Siuan. Take her below!"

Clutching bolts of blue silk, Min strolled in through the North Gate near midday, her simper all ready for the guards with the Flame of Tar Valon on their chests, the girlish swirl of her green skirts that Elmindreda would give. She had actually begun before she realized there were no guards. The heavy iron-strapped door of the star-shaped guardhouse stood open; the guardhouse itself looked empty. It was impossible. No gate to the Tower grounds was ever unguarded. Halfway to the huge bone-white shaft of the Tower itself, a plume of smoke was rising above the trees. It seemed to be near the quarters for the young men who studied under the Warders. Maybe the fire had pulled the guards away.

Still feeling a little uneasy, she started down the unpaved path through the wooded part of the grounds, shifting the bolts of silk. She did not really want another dress, but how could she refuse when Laras pressed a purse of silver into her hands and told her to use it for this silk the stout woman had seen; she claimed it was just the color to set off "Elmindreda's" complexion. Whether or not she wanted her complexion set off was less important than keeping Laras's goodwill.

A rattle of swords reached her ears through the trees. The Warders must have their students practicing harder than usual.

It was all very irritating. Laras and her beauty hints, Gawyn and his jokes, Galad paying her compliments and never realizing what his face and smile did to a woman's pulse. Was this how Rand wanted her? Would he actually see her, if she wore dresses and simpered at him like a brainless chit?

He has no right to expect it, she thought furiously. It was all his fault. She would not be there now, wearing a fool dress and smiling like an idiot, if not for him. I wear coat and breeches, and that is that! Maybe I'll wear a dress once in a while - maybe! - but not to make some man look at me! I wager he's staring at some Tairen woman with half her bosom exposed right this minute. I can wear a dress like that. Let's see what he thinks when he sees me in this blue silk. I'll have a neckline down to - What was she thinking? The man had robbed her of her wits! The Amyrlin Seat was keeping her here, useless, and Rand al'Thor was addling her brain! Burn him! Burn him for doing this to me!

The clash of swords came again from the distance, and she stopped as a horde of young men burst out of the trees ahead of her carrying spears and bared blades, Gawyn at their head. She recognized others from among those who had come to study with the Warders. Shouts rose somewhere else in the grounds, a roar of angry men.

"Gawyn! What is happening?"

He whirled at the sound of her voice. Worry and fear filled his blue eyes, and his face was a mask of determination not to give in to them. "Min. What are you doing? Get out of the grounds, Min. It is dangerous." A handful of the young men ran on, but most waited impatiently for him. It seemed to her that most of the Warders' students were there.

"Tell me what's happening, Gawyn!"

"The Amyrlin was deposed this morning. Leave, Min!"

The bolts of silk fell from her hands. "Deposed? It can't be! How? Why? In the name of the Light, why?"

"Gawyn!" one of the young men called, and others took it up, brandishing their weapons. "Gawyn! The White Boar! Gawyn!"

"I have no time," he told her urgently. "There's fighting everywhere. They say Hammar is trying to break Siuan Sanche free. I have to go to the Tower, Min. Leave! Please!"

He turned and set out at a run toward the Tower. The others followed, bristling with upraised weapons, some still shouting, "Gawyn! The White Boar! Gawyn! Forward the Younglings!"

Min stared after them. "You did not say what side you are on, Gawyn," she whispered.

The sounds of fighting were louder, clearer now that she was paying attention, and the shouts and yells, the clash of steel on steel, seemed to come from every direction. The clamor made her skin crawl and her knees shake; this could not be happening, not here. Gawyn was right. It would be much the safer thing, much the smarter, to leave the Tower grounds immediately. Only there was no telling when or if she would be allowed back, and she could not think of much good she could do outside.

"What good can I do inside?" she asked herself fiercely.

But she did not turn back toward the gate. Leaving the silk where it lay, she hurried into the trees, looking for a place to hide. She did not think anyone would spit "Elmindreda" like a goose - shivering, she wished she had not thought of it that way - but there was no use in taking foolish chances. Sooner or later the fighting had to die down, and by that time she needed to decide what to do next.

In the pitch blackness of the cell, Siuan opened her eyes, stirred, winced, and was still. Was it morning yet outside? The questioning had gone on for a long time. She tried to forget pain in the luxury of knowing she was still breathing. The rough stone beneath her scraped her welts and bruises, though, those on her back. Sweat stung all of them - she felt a solid mass of pain from knees to shoulders - and made her shiver in the cold air, besides. They could have left me my shift, at least. The air smelled of old dust and dried mold, of age. One of the deep cells. No one had been confined down here since Artur Hawkwing's time. Not since Bonwhin.

She grimaced into the dark; there was no forgetting. Clamping her teeth, she pushed up to a sitting position on the stone floor and felt around her for a wall to lean against. The stone blocks of the wall were cool against her back. Small things, she told herself. Think of small things. Heat. Cold. I wonder when they'll bring me some water. If they will.

She could not help feeling for her Great Serpent ring. It was no longer on her finger. Not that she expected it; she thought she remembered when they had ripped it off. Things had grown hazy after a time. Thankfully, blessedly hazy. But she remembered telling them everything, eventually. Almost everything. The triumph of holding back a scrap here, a bit there. In between howling answers, eager to answer if only they would stop, even for a little while, if only...

She wrapped her arms around herself to stop her shudders; it did not work very well. I will remain calm. I am not dead. I must remember that above everything else. I am not dead.

"Mother?" Leane's unsteady voice came out of the darkness. "Are you awake, Mother?"

"I'm awake," Siuan sighed. She had hoped they had released Leane, put her out of the city. Guilt stabbed her at feeling a bit of comfort from the presence of the other woman sharing her cell. "I am sorry I got you into this, daugh -" No. She had no right to call her that, now. "I am sorry, Leane."

There was a long moment of silence. "Are you... all right, Mother?"

"Siuan, Leane. Just Siuan." Despite herself she tried to embrace saidar. There was nothing there. Not for her. Only the emptiness inside. Never again. A lifetime of purpose, and now she was rudderless, adrift on a sea far darker than this cell. She scrubbed a tear from her cheek, angry at letting it fall. "I am not the Amyrlin Seat anymore, Leane." Some of the anger crept into her voice. "I suppose Elaida will be raised in my place. If she hasn't been already. I swear, one day I will feed that woman to the silverpike!"

Leane's only answer was a long, despairing breath.

The grate of a key in the rusty iron lock brought Siuan's head up; no one had thought to oil the works before throwing Leane and her in, and the corroded parts did not want to turn. Grimly she forced herself to her feet. "Up, Leane. Get up." After a moment she heard the other woman complying, and muttering to herself between soft moans.

In a slightly louder voice, Leane said, "What good will it do?"

"At least they won't find us huddling on the floor and weeping." She tried to make her voice firm. "We can fight, Leane. As long as we are alive, we can fight." Oh, Light, they stilled me! They stilled me!

Forcing her mind to blankness, she clenched her fists, and tried to dig her toes into the uneven stone floor. She wished the noise in her throat did not sound so much like a whimper.

Min set her bundles on the floor and tossed back her cloak so she could use both hands on the key. Twice as long as her hand, it was as rusty as the lock, just like the other keys on the big iron ring. The air was cold and damp, as though summer did not reach this far down.

"Hurry, child," Laras muttered, holding the lantern for Min, peering both ways down the otherwise dark stone hall. It was hard to believe that the woman, with all her chins, had ever been a beauty, but Min surely thought her beautiful now.

Fighting the key, she shook her head. She had encountered Laras while sneaking back to her room for the plain gray riding dress she now wore, and for a few other things. Actually, she had found the massive woman looking for her, in a tizzy of worry about "Elmindreda," exclaiming over how lucky Min was to be safe and proposing to all but lock her in her room until the trouble was past to keep her so. She was still not sure how Laras had wormed her intentions out of her, and she still could not get over her shock when the woman reluctantly announced she would help. A venturesome lass after her own heart indeed. Well, I hope she can - how did she put it? - keep me out of the pickling kettle. The bloody key would not turn; she threw all of her weight into trying to twist it.

In truth, she was grateful to Laras in more ways than one. It was doubtful she could have readied everything by herself, or even found some of it, surely not this quickly. Besides which.... Besides which, when she ran into Laras, she had already begun telling herself she was a fool even to think of doing this, that she should be on a horse and off for Tear while she had the chance, before someone decided to add her head to those decorating the front of the Tower. Running away, she suspected, would have been the sort of thing she would never have been able to forget. That alone had made her grateful enough not to object in the slightest when Laras added some pretty dresses to what she herself had already packed. The rouges and powders could always be "lost" somewhere. Why won't this bloody key turn? Maybe Laras can -

The key shifted suddenly, twisted with a snap so loud that Min feared something had broken. But when she pushed at the rough wooden door, it opened. Snatching up the bundles, she stepped into the bare stone cell - and stopped in confusion.

The lantern light revealed two women clad only in dark bruises and red welts, shielding their eyes from the sudden light, but for a moment Min was not sure they were the right two. One was tall and coppery-skinned, the other shorter, sturdier, more fair. The faces looked right - almost right - and untouched by whatever had been done to them, so she should have been certain. But the agelessness that marked Aes Sedai seemed to have melted away; she would have had no hesitation at all in thinking these women were just six or seven years older than herself at most, and not Aes Sedai at all. Her face heated with embarrassment at the thought. She saw no images, no auras, around either; there were always images and auras around Aes Sedai. Stop that, she told herself.

"Where -?" one of the two began wonderingly, then paused to clear her throat. "How did you get those keys?" It was Siuan Sanche's voice.

"It is her." Laras sounded disbelieving. She poked Min with a thick finger. "Hurry, child! I am too old and slow to be having adventures."

Min gave her a startled look; the woman had insisted on coming; she would not be left out, she had said. Min wanted to ask Siuan why the pair of them suddenly looked so much younger, but there was no time for frivolous questions. I'm too bloody used to being Elmindreda!

Thrusting one of her bundles at each of the naked women, she spoke rapidly. "Clothes. Dress as quickly as you can. I don't know how much time we have. I let the guard think I'd trade a few kisses for a chance to repay you for a grudge, and while he was distracted, Laras came up behind him and cracked him over the head with a rolling pin. I do not know how long he'll sleep." She leaned back through the door to peer worriedly down the hall toward the guardroom. "We had best hurry."

Siuan had already undone her bundle and begun to put on the clothes it contained. Except for a linen shift, they were all plain woolens in shades of brown, suitable for farm women come to the White Tower to consult the Aes Sedai, though the skirts divided for riding were a little unusual. Laras had done most of the needlework; Min had mostly just stuck herself. Leane was also covering her nakedness, but she seemed more interested in the short-bladed knife hanging from her belt than in the clothes themselves.

Three plainly dressed women had a chance, at least, of leaving the Tower without attracting notice. A number of petitioners and people seeking help had been caught inside the Tower by the fighting; three more creeping out of hiding should be hustled into the street at worst. So long as they were not recognized. The other women's faces might help, too. No one was likely to take a pair of young - young-seeming, at least - women for the Amyrlin Seat and the Keeper of the Chronicles. Former Amyrlin and former Keeper, she reminded herself.

"Only one guard?" Siuan said, wincing as she tugged on thick stockings. "Strange. They'd guard a cutpurse better than that." Eyeing Laras, she pushed her feet into the sturdy shoes. "It is good to see some do not believe the charges against me. Whatever they are."

The stout woman frowned and lowered her chins, giving herself a fourth. "I am loyal to the Tower," she said sternly. "Such matters are not for me. I am only a cook. This foolish girl has had me remembering too much of being a foolish girl myself. I think - Seeing you - It is time for me to remember I am not a willowy girl any longer." She pushed the lantern into Min's hands.

Min caught her stout arm as she turned to go. "Laras, you won't give us away? Not now, after all you have done."

The woman's wide face split in a smile, half-reminiscent, half-rueful. "Oh, Elmindreda, you do remind me of me when I was your age. Foolish doings, and near to getting myself hanged, sometimes. I will not betray you, child, but I must live here. When Second is rung, I will send a girl with wine for the guard. If he has not wakened or been discovered by then, that will give you more than an hour." Turning to the other two women, she suddenly wore the hard scowl Min had seen directed at undercooks and the like. "You use that hour well, hear! They mean to stick you in the scullery, I understand, so they can haul you out for examples. I'd not care one way or the other - such matters are for Aes Sedai, not cooks; one Amyrlin is the same as another, to me - but if you get this child caught, you can expect me to be striping your hides from sunup to sundown whenever you're not head-down in greasy pots or cleaning slop jars! You will wish they had cut off your heads before I am done. And don't think they'll believe I helped. Everyone knows I keep to my kitchens. You mark me, and jump!" The smile popped back onto her face, and she pinched Min's cheek. "You hurry them along, child. Oh, I am going to miss dressing you. Such a pretty child." With a last vigorous pinch, she waddled out of the cell at a near trot.

Min rubbed her cheek irritably; she hated it when Laras did that. The woman was as strong as a horse. Near to hanging? What kind of "lively girl" had Laras been?

Gingerly pulling her dress over her head, Leane sniffed loudly. "To think she could speak to you in that manner, Mother!" Her face popped out at the top, scowling. "I am surprised she helped at all if she feels that way."

"But she did help," Min told her. "Remember that. And I think she'll keep her word not to give us away. I am sure of it." Leane sniffed again.

Siuan swung her cloak around her shoulders. "It makes a difference, Leane, that I have no more claim to that title. It makes a difference when tomorrow you and I might be two of her scullery girls." Leane clasped her hands to keep them from shaking and would not look at her. Siuan went on calmly, if in a dry tone. "I also suspect Laras will keep her word about... other things... so even if you don't care whether Elaida hangs us up like a pair of netted sharks for the world to see, I suggest you move yourself. Myself, I hated greasy pots when I was a girl, and I don't doubt I still would."

Leane sullenly began doing up the laces of the country dress.

Siuan turned her attention to Min. "You may not be so eager to help us when I tell you we've both been... stilled." Her voice did not shake, but it was stiff with the effort of saying the word, and her eyes looked pained, and lost. It was a shock to realize her calm was all on the surface. "Any one of the Accepted could tie the pair of us into a running sheepsfoot, Min. Most of the novices could."

"I know," Min said, careful to keep her tone clear of the smallest hint of sympathy. Sympathy now might break what self-control the other women had left, and she needed them in control of themselves. "It was announced at every square in the city, and posted wherever they could nail up a notice. But you are still alive." Leane gave a bitter laugh, which she ignored. "We had best go. That guard might wake, or somebody check on him."

"Lead, Min," Siuan said. "We are in your hands." After a moment Leane gave a short nod and hurriedly donned her cloak.

In the guardroom at the end of the dark hall, the lone guard lay stretched out, facedown on the dusty floor. The helmet that would have saved him a sore head sat on the rough plank table beside the single lantern that provided the room's light. He seemed to be breathing all right. Min did not spare him more than a glance, though she hoped he was not badly hurt; he had not tried to press the advantage of her offer.

She hurried Siuan and Leane through the far door, all thick planks and wide iron straps, up the narrow, stone stairs. They had to keep moving. Passing for petitioners would not save them from questioning if they were seen coming from the cells.

They saw no more guards, nor anyone else, as they climbed out of the bowels of the Tower, but Min still found herself holding her breath until they reached the small door that let into the Tower proper. Cracking it just enough to poke her head through, she peeked both ways down the corridor.

Gilded lamp stands stood against frieze-banded walls of white marble. To the right two women moved swiftly out of sight without looking back. The sureness of their steps marked them Aes Sedai even if she could not see their faces; in the Tower, even a queen walked hesitantly. In the other direction half a dozen men stalked away, just as clearly Warders, with their wolfish grace and cloaks that faded into the surroundings.

She waited until the Warders were gone, too, before slipping through the doorway. "It's clear. Come on. Keep your hoods up and your heads down. Act a little frightened." For her part, it was no pretense. From the silent way the two women followed her, she did not think they needed to pretend either.

The halls of the Tower were seldom full, yet now they seemed empty. Occasionally someone appeared for a moment ahead of them, or down a side corridor, but whether Aes Sedai or Warder or servant, all were hurrying, too intent on their own affairs to notice anyone else. The Tower was silent, too.

Then they passed a crossing hallway where dark blotches of dried blood flecked the pale green floor tiles. Two larger patches stretched off in long smears, as if bodies had been dragged away.

Siuan stopped, staring. "What has happened?" she demanded. "Tell me, Min!" Leane gripped the hilt of her belt knife and peered around as if expecting an attack.

"Fighting," Min said reluctantly. She had hoped the two women would be out of the Tower grounds, even out of the city, before learning of this. She herded them around the dark stains, prodded them on when they tried to look back. "It began yesterday, right after you were taken, and did not stop until maybe two hours ago. Not completely."

"You mean the Gaidin?" Leane exclaimed. "Warders, fighting each other?"

"Warders, the guardsmen, everyone. It started when some men who came claiming to be masons - two or three hundred of them - tried to seize the Tower itself right after your arrest was announced."

Siuan scowled. "Danelle! I should have realized there was more to it than not paying attention." Her face twisted more, until Min thought she might begin crying. "Artur Hawkwing could not do it, but we did it ourselves." Edge of tears or not, her voice was fierce. "The Light help us, we have broken the Tower." Her long sigh seemed to empty her of breath, and anger, too. "I suppose," she said sadly after a moment, "I should be glad that some of the Tower supported me, but I almost wish they had not." Min tried to keep her face expressionless, but those sharp blue eyes seemed to interpret every flicker of an eyelash. "Or did they support me, Min?"

"Some did." She had no intention of telling her how few, not yet. But she had to prevent Siuan thinking she still had partisans inside the Tower. "Elaida didn't wait to find out if the Blue Ajah would stand for you or not. There isn't a Blue sister still in the Tower, not alive, I know that."

"Sheriam?" Leane asked anxiously. "Anaiya?"

"I don't know. There are not many Greens left, either. Not in the Tower. The other Ajahs split, one way and another. Most of the Reds are still here. As far as I know, everybody who opposed Elaida has either fled or else they are dead. Siuan..." It seemed odd, calling her that - Leane muttered angrily under her breath - but calling her Mother would only be a mockery, now. "Siuan, the charges posted against you claim you and Leane arranged Mazrim Taim's escape. Logain got away during the fighting, and they've blamed that on you, too. They don't quite name you Darkfriends - I suppose that would be too close to Black Ajah - but they do not miss by much. I think everyone is meant to understand, though."

"They won't even admit the truth," Siuan said softly, "that they mean to do exactly what they pulled me down for."

"Darkfriends?" Leane murmured in bewilderment. "They named us...?"

"Why would they not?" Siuan breathed. "What would they not dare, when they dared so much?"

They hunched their shoulders in their cloaks and let Min lead them as she would. She just wished their faces did not look so hopeless.

As they drew nearer an outside door, she began to breathe more easily. She had horses hidden in a wooded part of the grounds, not far from one of the western gates. There was still the question of how easy it would be to actually ride out, but once they reached the horses she would feel the next thing to free. Surely the gate guards would not stop three women leaving. She kept telling herself that.

The door she sought appeared ahead - a small, plain-paneled door, letting onto a path not much used, just opposite where this hall met the broad corridor that ran all the way around the Tower - and Elaida's face caught her eye, sweeping down the outer corridor toward her.

Min's knees thudded onto the floor tiles, and she huddled, head down and face hidden by her hood, heart trying to pound through her ribs. A petitioner, that's all I am. Just a simple woman, with nothing to do with what's happened. Oh, Light, please! She raised her head just enough to peek under the edge of her hood, half-expecting to see a gloating Elaida staring down at her.

Elaida swept by without a glance in Min's direction, the broad, striped stole of the Amyrlin Seat around her shoulders. Alviarin followed, wearing the stole of the Keeper of the Chronicles, white for her Ajah. A dozen or more Aes Sedai passed at Alviarin's heels, mostly Reds, though Min saw two yellow-fringed shawls, a green one and a brown. Six Warders flanked the procession, hands on hilts and eyes wary. Those eyes swept across the three kneeling women and dismissed them.

They were all three kneeling, Min realized, and realized, too, that she had almost expected Siuan and Leane to launch themselves at Elaida's throat. Both women had lifted their heads just enough to watch the procession make its way on down the corridor.

"Very few women have been stilled," Siuan said, as if to herself, "and none have survived long, but it is said that one way to survive is to find something you want as much as you wanted to channel." That lost look was gone from her eyes. "At first I thought I wanted to gut Elaida and hang her in the sun to dry. Now I know I want nothing - nothing! - so much as the day I can tell that leech of a woman that she'll live a long life showing others what happens to anyone who claims I am a Darkfriend!"

"And Alviarin," Leane said in a tight voice. "And Alviarin!"

"I was afraid they'd sense me," Siuan went on, "but there is nothing for them to sense, now. An advantage to having been... stilled, it seems." Leane jerked her head angrily, and Siuan said, "We must use whatever advantages we can find. And be glad for them." The last sounded as if she were trying to convince herself.

The final Warder disappeared around the distant curve, and Min swallowed the lump in her throat. "We can talk of advantages later," she croaked, and stopped to swallow again. "Let us just go to the horses. That has to have been the worst."

Indeed, as they hurried out of the Tower into the noonday sun, it seemed the worst must have passed. A column of smoke rising toward a cloudless sky in the east of the Tower grounds was the only sign of old trouble. Groups of men moved in the distance, but none gave a second glance to the three women as they scurried past the library, which was built like towering waves frozen in stone. A footpath led deeper into the grounds and westward, into a wood of oaks and evergreens that could have stood far from any city. Min's steps lightened when she found the three saddled horses still tied where she and Laras had left them, in a small clearing surrounded by leatherleaf and paperbark.

Siuan went immediately to a stout, shaggy mare two hands shorter than the others. "A suitable mount for my present circumstances. And she looks more placid than the other two; I was never a good rider." She stroked the mare's nose, and the mare nuzzled into her palm. "What is her name, Min? Do you know?"

"Bela. She belongs to -"

"Her horse." Gawyn stepped from behind a wide-trunked paperbark, one hand on the long hilt of his sword. The blood streaking his face made exactly the pattern Min had seen in her viewing, her first day back in Tar Valon. "I knew you must be up to something, Min, when I saw her horse." His red-gold hair was matted with blood, his blue eyes half-dazed, but he walked toward them smoothly, a tall man with a catlike grace. A cat stalking mice.

"Gawyn," Min began, "we -"

His sword was out of its scabbard, flicking back Siuan's hood, sharp edge laid against the side of her throat, all faster than Min could follow. Siuan's breath caught audibly, and she was still, looking up at him, outwardly as serene as though she yet wore the stole.

"Don't, Gawyn!" Min gasped. "You must not!" She took a step toward him, but he flung up his free hand without looking at her, and she stopped. He was as tight as coiled steel, ready to burst out in any direction. She noticed Leane had shifted her cloak to hide one hand and prayed the woman was not fool enough to draw her belt knife.

Gawyn studied Siuan's face, then slowly nodded. "It is you. I was not sure, but it is. This... disguise cannot -" He did not appear to move, but a sudden widening of Siuan's eyes spoke of a keen edge pressing harder. "Where are my sister and Egwene? What have you done with them?" Most frightening to Min, with that blood-masked face and half-glazed eyes, with his body tensed almost to quivering and his hand upflung as if he had forgotten it, he never raised his voice or put any emotion into it. He only sounded tired, more tired than she had ever heard anyone sound in her life.

Siuan's voice was nearly as neutral. "The last I heard from them, they were safe and well. I cannot say where they are, now. Would you rather they were here, in the middle of this feeding frenzy?"

"No Aes Sedai word games," he said softly. "Tell me where they were, straight out, so I know you speak the truth."

"Illian," Siuan said without hesitation. "In the city itself. They are studying with an Aes Sedai named Mara Tomanes, They should still be there."

"Not Tear," he murmured. For a moment he appeared to think that over. Abruptly, he said, "They say you are a Darkfriend. Black Ajah, that would be, would it not?"

"If you really believe that," Siuan said calmly, "then strike off my head."

Min almost screamed as his knuckles whitened on his sword hilt. Slowly she reached out and rested her fingers against his outstretched wrist, careful not to make him think she meant to do anything more than touch. It was like resting her fingers on rock. "Gawyn, you know me. You can't think I would help the Black Ajah." His eyes never wavered from Siuan's face, never blinked. "Gawyn, Elayne supports her and everything she's done. Your own sister, Gawyn." His flesh was still stone. "Egwene believes in her, too, Gawyn." His wrist trembled under her fingers. "I swear it, Gawyn. Egwene believes."

His eyes flickered to her, then back to Siuan. "Why shouldn't I drag you back by the scruff of your neck? Give me a reason."

Siuan met his stare with a good deal more calm than Min felt. "You could do it, and I suppose my struggles wouldn't give you much more trouble than a kitten's. Yesterday, I was one of the most powerful women in the world. Perhaps the most powerful. Kings and queens would come if I summoned them, even if they hated the Tower and all it stood for. Today, I'm afraid that I may have nothing to eat tonight, and that I'll have to sleep under a bush. In the space of one day I've been reduced from the most powerful woman in the world to one hoping to find a farm where I might earn my keep in the fields. Whatever you think I have done, isn't that a fitting punishment?"

"Perhaps," he said after a moment. Min took a deep breath of relief as he resheathed his sword in a flowing motion. "But that is not why I will let you go. Elaida might take your head yet, and I cannot allow that. I want what you know to be there, if I need it."

"Gawyn," Min said, "come with us." A Warder-trained swordsman might be useful in the days to come. "That way you'd have her ready to hand to answer your questions." Siuan's gaze flickered to her, not really leaving Gawyn's face and not exactly indignant; she pressed on anyway. "Gawyn, Egwene and Elayne believe in her. Can't you believe, too?"

"Do not ask more than I can give," he said quietly. "I will take you to the nearest gate. You would never get out without me. That's all I can do, Min, and it is more than I should. Your arrest has been ordered; did you know that?" His eyes swung back to Siuan. "If anything happens to them," he said in that expressionless voice, "to Egwene or my sister, I will find you, wherever you hide, and I will make sure the same happens to you." Abruptly he stalked a dozen paces away and stood with his arms folded, head down as if he could not bear to look at them any longer.

Siuan half-raised a hand to her throat; a tiny line of red on the fair skin marked where his blade had rested. "I've been too long with the Power," she said, a trifle unsteadily. "I had forgotten what it is like to face someone who can pick you up and snap you like a thread." She peered at Leane then, as if seeing her for the first time, and touched her own face as though unsure what it looked like. "From what I have read it is supposed to take longer to fade, but perhaps Elaida's rough treatment had something to do with it. A disguise, he called it, and it may serve for one." She clambered awkwardly onto Bela's back, handling the reins as if the shaggy mare were a spirited stallion. "Another advantage, it seems, to being... I have to learn to say it without flinching. I have been stilled." She said the words slowly and deliberately, then nodded. "There. If Leane is any guide, I've lost a good fifteen years, maybe more. I've known women who would pay any price for that. A third advantage." She glanced at Gawyn. He still had his back turned, but she lowered her voice anyway. "Along with a certain loosening of the tongue, shall we say? I had not thought of Mara in years. A friend of my girlhood."

"Will you age like the rest of us, now?" Min asked as she climbed into her saddle. Better than commenting on the lie. Better just to remember that she could lie now. Leane mounted the third mare with smooth skill and walked her in a circle, testing her step; she had surely been on a horse before.

Siuan shook her head. "I really don't know. No stilled woman has ever lived long enough to find out. I intend to."

"Do you mean to go," Gawyn asked harshly, "or sit there talking?" Without waiting for an answer, he strode off through the trees.

They heeled their mares after him, Siuan pulling her hood well forward to hide her face. Disguise or no, it seemed she was taking no chances. Leane was already shrouded as deeply in hers as she could be. After a moment, Min imitated them. Elaida wanted her arrested? That had to mean that she knew "Elmindreda" was Min. How long had the woman known? How long had Min been walking around thinking herself hidden while Elaida watched and smirked at her for a fool? It was a shivery thought.

As they caught up to Gawyn at a graveled path, twenty or more young men appeared, striding toward them, some perhaps a few years older than he, others little more than boys. Min suspected some of those last did not have to shave yet, at least not regularly. All carried swords at their belts or on their backs, though, and three or four had breastplates. More than one sported a bloody bandage, and most wore clothes spotted with blood. Each had the same unblinking stare as Gawyn. At the sight of him they stopped, clapping right fists to chests. Without slowing, Gawyn acknowledged the salute with a nod, and the young men fell in behind the women's horses.

"The students?" Siuan murmured. "They also took part in the fighting?"

Min nodded, keeping her face expressionless. "They call themselves the Younglings."

"A fitting name." Siuan sighed.

"Some are no more than children," Leane muttered.

Min was not about to tell them that Warders from the Blue and Green Ajahs had planned to free them before they were stilled, and might have succeeded if Gawyn had not roused the students, "children" too, and led them into the Tower to stop it. The fighting had been among the deadliest, student against teacher and no mercy, no quarter.

The tall, bronze-studded Alindrelle Gates stood open, but guarded heavily. Some guards wore the Flame of Tar Valon on their chests; others had workmen's coats, and mismatched breastplates and helmets. Guardsmen and fellows who had come disguised as masons. Both sorts looked hard and resourceful, used to their weapons, but they kept apart, eyeing each other distrustfully. A grizzled officer stood out from the Tower guardsmen with his arms folded and watched Gawyn and the others approach.

"Writing materials!" Gawyn snapped. "Quickly!"

"Well, you must be these Younglings I've heard of," the grizzled man said. "A fine bunch of bloody young cockerels, but I've had orders to let no one leave the Tower grounds. Signed by the Amyrlin Seat herself. Who do you think you are to countermand that?"

Gawyn raised his head slowly. "I am Gawyn Trakand of Andor," he said softly. "And I mean to see these women leave, or you dead." The other Younglings moved up behind him, spreading out to face the guards with hands on swords, unblinking, perhaps not caring that they were outnumbered.

The grizzled man shifted uneasily, and one of the others muttered, "He's the one they say killed Hammar and Coulin."

After a moment, the officer jerked his head toward the guardhouse, and one of the guardsmen ran inside, returning with a lapdesk, a small red stick of sealing wax burning in a brass holder at one corner. Gawyn let the man hold the desk while he scribbled furiously.

"This will let you past the bridge guards," he said, letting a pool of red wax drip beneath his signature. He pressed his signet ring into it firmly.

"You killed Coulin?" Siuan said in a cold tone fitting her former office. "And Hammar?"

Min's heart sank. Be quiet, Siuan! Remember who you are now, and be quiet!

Gawyn spun to face the three women, his eyes like blue fire. "Yes," he grated. "They were my friends, and I respected them, but they sided with... with Siuan Sanche, and I had to -" Abruptly he shoved the paper he had sealed into Min's hand. "Go! Go, before I change my mind!" He slapped her mare, then darted to slap the other two as Min's horse leaped through the open gates. "Go!"

Min let her horse cross the great plaza surrounding the Tower grounds at a quick trot, Siuan and Leane right behind her. The plaza was empty, and so were the streets beyond. The ring of their horses' hooves on the paving stones echoed hollowly. Whoever had not already fled the city was hiding.

She studied Gawyn's paper as they rode. The blob of red wax bore the imprint of a charging boar. "This just says we have permission to leave. We could use it to board a ship as well as at the bridges." It seemed smart to be going a way no one knew, not even Gawyn. She did not really think he would change his mind, but he was brittle, ready to shatter at the wrong blow.

"That might be a good idea," Leane said. "I always thought Galad was the more dangerous of those two, but I am no longer sure. Hammar, and Coulin..." She shivered. "A ship would take us farther, faster than these horses can."

Siuan shook her head. "Most of the Aes Sedai who fled will have crossed the bridges, for sure. That is the quickest way out of the city if someone might be chasing you, quicker than waiting while a ship's crew casts off. I must stay close to Tar Valon if I'm to gather them in."

"They won't follow you," Leane said in a monotone freighted with meaning. "You have no right to the stole any longer. Not even to the shawl or the ring."

"I may no longer wear the stole," Siuan replied just as flatly, "but I still know how to ready a crew for a storm. And since I cannot wear the stole, I must see they choose the right woman in my place. I'll not let Elaida get away with calling herself the Amyrlin. It has to be someone strong in the Power, someone who sees things the right way."

"Then you mean to go on aiding this... this Dragon!" Leane snapped.

"What else would you have me do? Curl up and die?"

Leane shuddered as if she had been struck in the face, and they rode in silence for a time. All of those fabulous buildings around them, like wind-sculpted cliffs and waves and great flights of birds, loomed frighteningly with no people in the streets save themselves, and one lone fellow who came darting around a corner up ahead, scuttling from doorway to doorway as if scouting their way for them. He did not lessen the emptiness, only emphasized it.

"What else can we do?" Leane said eventually. She rode slumped in her saddle now like a sack of grain. "I feel so - empty. Empty."

"Find something to fill it up," Siuan told her firmly. "Anything. Cook for the hungry, tend the sick, find a husband and raise a houseful of children. Me, I mean to see Elaida does not get away with this. I could almost forgive her, if she truly believed I had endangered the Tower. Almost, I could. Almost. But she has been filled with envy since the day I was raised Amyrlin instead of her. That drives her as much as anything else, and for that I mean to pull her down. That is what fills me, Leane. That, and the fact that Rand al'Thor must not fall into her hands."

"Perhaps that will be enough." The coppery-skinned woman sounded doubtful, but she straightened. The contrast between her obvious experience and Siuan's precarious seat on the shorter mare made her look as if she must be the leader. "But how can we even begin? We have three horses, the clothes on our backs, and whatever Min has in her purse. Hardly enough to challenge the Tower."

"I am glad you did not decide on a husband and home. We will find other -" Siuan grimaced. "We will find Aes Sedai who fled, find what we need. We may have more than you think, Leane. Min, what does that pass Gawyn gave us say? Does it mention three women? What? Quickly, girl."

Min glared at her back. Siuan had been peering at the darting man ahead, a large, dark-haired fellow, dressed well but plainly in somber browns. The woman sounded as if she were still Amyrlin. Well, I wanted her to find her backbone, didn't I?

Siuan turned to stare at her with those sharp blue eyes; somehow they seemed no less intimidating than before. " 'The bearers are authorized to depart Tar Valon on my authority,' " Min quoted hastily from memory. " 'Who impedes them will answer to me.' Signed -"

"I know his name," Siuan snapped. "Follow me." She heeled Bela's flanks, nearly losing her seat when the shaggy mare lumbered to a slow gallop. She hung on, though, bouncing awkwardly and drumming her heels for more speed.

Min exchanged one startled look with Leane, and they were both galloping after her. The man looked back at the sound of running hooves and began to run himself, but Siuan cut Bela in front of him; he bounced off the mare with a grunt. Min reached them just in time to hear Siuan say, "I did not think to meet you here, Logain."

Min gaped. It was him. Those despairing eyes and that once handsome face framed by dark hair curling to his broad shoulders were unmistakable. Just who they needed to find. A man the Tower wanted very likely as much as Siuan.

Logain slumped to his knees as though his fatigued legs would not hold him any longer. "I cannot harm anyone now," he said tiredly, staring at the paving stones beneath Bela's hooves. "I just wanted to get away, to die somewhere in peace. If you only knew what it was like to have lost..." Leane sawed her reins angrily as he trailed off; he began again without noticing. "The bridges are all guarded. They will let no one across. They did not know me, but they would not let me cross. I have tried them all." Abruptly he laughed, wearily, but as if it were very funny indeed. "I have tried them all."

"I think," Min said carefully, "we should be going. He probably wants to avoid those who must be looking for him." Siuan shot her a look that almost made her rein her horse back, all icy eyes and hard chin. It would not have been dreadful if the woman had retained a little of the uncertainty she displayed previously.

Raising his head, the big man looked from one of them to the next, a slow frown forming. "You are not Aes Sedai. Who are you? What do you want of me?"

"I am the woman who can take you out of Tar Valon," Siuan told him. "And perhaps give you a chance to strike back at the Red Ajah. You would like a chance to get back at those who captured you, wouldn't you?"

A shudder passed through him. "What must I do?" he said slowly.

"Follow me," she replied. "Follow me, and remember that I am the only one in the entire world who will give you your chance of revenge."

From his knees he studied them with his head tilted, examining each face, then pushed himself to his feet, his eyes fixed on Siuan. "I am your man," he said simply.

Leane's face looked as incredulous as Min felt. What use under the Light could Siuan possibly have for a man of doubtful sanity who had once falsely proclaimed himself the Dragon Reborn? At the least he might turn on them to steal one of their horses! Eyeing the height of him, the breadth of his shoulders, Min thought they had better keep their belt knives handy. Suddenly, for a moment, that flaring halo of gold and blue shone about his head, speaking of glory to come as surely as it had the first time she had seen it. She shivered. Viewings. Images.

She glanced over her shoulder toward the Tower, the thick white shaft dominating the city, whole and straight, yet broken as surely as if it lay in ruins. For a moment she let herself think of the images she had glimpsed, just for a moment, flickering around Gawyn's head. Gawyn kneeling at Egwene's feet with his head bowed, and Gawyn breaking Egwene's neck, first one then the other, as if either could be the future.

The things she saw were very rarely as clear in meaning as those two, and she had never before seen that fluttering back and forth, as though not even the viewing could tell which would be the true future. Worse, she had a feeling near to certainty that it was what she had done this day that had turned Gawyn toward those two possibilities.

Despite the sun, she shivered again. What's done is done. She glanced at the two Aes Sedai - former Aes Sedai - both now studying Logain as though he were a trained hound, ferocious, possibly dangerous, but useful. Siuan and Leane turned their horses toward the river, Logain striding between. Min followed more slowly. Light, I hope it was worth it.