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She was certain what that meant, at least, or thought she was. It means I'm off hunting the Black Ajah, and I do not know what my dreams mean or how to make the fool ter'angreal do what it should, and I'm frightened, and. . . . And homesick. For an instant she thought how good it would be to have her mother send her up to bed knowing everything would be better in the morning. Only mother can't solve my problems for me anymore, and father can't promise to chase away monsters and make me believe it. I have to do it myself now.
How far in the past all that was, now. She did not want it back, not really, but it had been a warm time, and it seemed so long ago. It would be wonderful just to see them again, to hear their voices. When I wear this ring on the finger I choose by right.
She had finally let Nynaeve and Elayne each try sleeping one night with the stone ring—surprised at how reluctant she had been to let it out of her own hands—and they had awakened to speak of what was surely Tel'aran'rhiod, but neither had seen more than a glimpse of the Heart of the Stone, nothing that was of any use.
The thick column of smoke now lay abreast of the Blue Crane. Perhaps five or six miles from the river, she thought. The other was only a smudge on the horizon. It could almost have been a cloud, but she was sure it was not. Small thickets grew tight along the riverbank in some places, and between them the grass came right down to the water except where an undercut bank had fallen in.
Elayne came on deck and joined her at the rail, the wind whipping her dark cloak as well. She wore sturdy wool, too. That had been one argument Nynaeve won. Their clothes. Egwene had maintained that Aes Sedai always wore the best, even when they traveled—she had been thinking of the silks she wore in Tel'aran'rhiod—but Nynaeve pointed out that even with as much gold as the Amyrlin had left in the back of her wardrobe, and it was a fat purse, they still had no idea how much things would cost downriver. The servants said Mat had been right about the civil war in Cairhien, and what it had done to prices. To Egwene's surprise, Elayne had pointed out that Brown sisters wore wool more often than silk. Elayne had been so eager to be away from the kitchen, Egwene thought, she would have worn rags.
I wonder how Mat is doing? No doubt trying to dice with the captain for whatever ship he's traveling on.
'Terrible,' Elayne murmured. 'It is so terrible.'
'What is?' Egwene said absently. I hope he isn't showing that paper we gave him around too freely.
Elayne gave her a startled look, and then a frown. 'That!' She gestured toward the distant smoke. 'How can you ignore it?'
'I can ignore it because I do not want to think of what the people are going through, because I cannot do anything about it, and because we have to reach Tear. Because what we're hunting is in Tear.' She was surprised at her own vehemence. I can't do anything about it. And the Black Ajah is in Tear.
The more she thought of it, the more certain she became that they would have to find a way into the Heart of the Stone. Perhaps no one but the High Lords of Tear were allowed into it, but she was becoming convinced that the key to springing the Black Ajah's trap and thwarting them lay in the Heart of the Stone.
'I know all of that, Egwene, but it does not stop me feeling for the Cairhienin.'
'I have heard lectures about the wars Andor fought with Cairhien,' Egwene said dryly. 'Bennae Sedai says you and Cairhien have fought more often than any two nations except Tear and Illian.'
The other woman gave her a sidelong look. Elayne had never gotten used to Egwene's refusal to admit she was Andoran herself. At least, lines on maps said the Two Rivers was part of Andor, and Elayne believed the maps.
'We have fought wars against them, Egwene, but since the damage they suffered in the Aiel War, Andor has sold them nearly as much grain as Tear has. The trade has stopped, now. With every Cairhienin House fighting every other for the Sun Throne, who would buy the grain, or see it distributed to the people? If the fighting is as bad as what we've seen on the banks. . . . Well. You cannot feed a people for twenty years and feel nothing for them when they must be starving.'
'A Gray Man,' Egwene said, and Elayne jumped, trying to look in every direction at once. The glow of saidar surrounded her.
'Where?'
Egwene took a slower look around the decks, but to make sure no one was close enough to overhear. Captain Ellisor still stood in the stern, by the shirtless man holding the long tiller. Another sailor was up in the very bow, scanning the waters ahead for signs of submerged mudbanks, and two more padded about the deck, now and again adjusting a rope to the sails. The rest of the crew were all below. One of the pair stopped to check the lashings on the rowboat tied upside down on the deck; she waited for him to go on before speaking.
'Fool!' she muttered softly. 'Me, Elayne, not you, so don't glower at me like that.' She continued in a whisper. 'A Gray Man is after Mat, Elayne. That must be what that dream meant, but I never saw it. I am a fool!'
The glow around Elayne vanished. 'Do not be so hard on yourself,' she whispered back. 'Perhaps it does mean that, but I did not see it, and neither did Nynaeve.' She paused; red-gold curls swung as she shook her head. 'But it doesn't make sense, Egwene. Why would a Gray Man be after Mat? There is nothing in my letter to my mother that could harm us in the slightest.'
'I do not know why.' Egwene frowned. 'There has to be a reason. I am sure that is what that dream means.'
'Even if you are right, Egwene, there is nothing you can do about it.'
'I know that,' Egwene said bitterly. She did not even know whether he was ahead of them or behind. Ahead, she suspected; Mat would have left without any delay. 'Either way,' she muttered to herself, 'it does no good. I finally know what one of my dreams means, and it doesn't help a hemstitch worth!'
'But if you know one meaning,' Elayne told her, 'perhaps now you will know others. If we sit down and talk them over, perhaps—'
The Blue Crane gave a shuddering lurch, throwing Elayne to the deck and Egwene on top of her. When Egwene struggled to her feet, the shoreline no longer slid by. The vessel had halted, with the bow raised and the deck canted to one side. The sails flapped noisily in the wind.
Chin Ellisor pushed himself to his feet and ran for the bow, leaving the tillerman to rise on his own. 'You blind worm of a farmer!' he roared toward the man in the bow, who was clinging to the rail to keep from falling the rest of the way over. 'You dirt-grubbing get of a goat! Haven't you been on the river long enough yet to recognize how the water ruffles over a mudflat?' He seized the man on the rail by the shoulders and pulled him back onto the deck, but only to shove him out of the way so he could peer down over the bow himself. 'If you've put a hole in my hull, I will use your guts for caulking!'
The other crewmen were clambering to their feet, now, and more came scrambling up from below. They all ran to cluster around the captain.
Nynaeve appeared at the head of the ladder that led down to the passenger cabins, still straightening her skirts. With a sharp tug at her braid, she frowned at the knot of men in the bow, then strode to Egwene and Elayne. 'He ran us onto something, did he? After all his talk of knowing the river as well as he knows his wife. The woman probably never receives as much as a smile from him.' She jerked the thick braid again and went forward, pushing her way through the sailors to reach the captain. They were all intent on the water below.
There was no point in joining her. He will have us off faster if he's left to it. Nynaeve was probably telling him how to do the work. Elayne seemed to feel the same way, from the rueful shake of the head she gave as she watched the captain and crewmen all turn their attention respectfully from whatever was under the bow to Nynaeve.
A ripple of agitation ran through the men, and grew stronger. For a moment the captain's hands could be seen, waving in protest over the other men's heads, and then Nynaeve was striding away from them—they made way, bowing now�
��with Ellisor hurrying beside her and mopping his round face with a large red handkerchief. His anxious voice became audible as they drew near.
'. . . a good fifteen miles to the next village on the Andor side, Aes Sedai, and at least five or six miles downriver on the Cairhien side! Andoran soldiers hold it, it is true, but they do not hold the miles from here to there!' He wiped at his face as if he were dripping sweat.
'A sunken ship,' Nynaeve told the the other two women. 'The work of river brigands, the captain thinks. He means to try backing off it with the sweeps, but he does not seem to think that will work.'
'We were running fast when we hit, Aes Sedai. I wanted to make good speed for you.' Ellisor rubbed even harder at his face. He was afraid the Aes Sedai would blame him, Egwene realized. 'We are stuck hard. But I do not think we are taking water, Aes Sedai. There is no need to worry. Another ship will be along. Two sets of sweeps will surely get us free. There is no need for you to be put ashore, Aes Sedai. I do swear it, by the Light.'
'You were thinking of leaving the ship?' Egwene asked. 'Do you think that is wise?'
'Of course, it's—!' Nynaeve stopped and frowned at her. Egwene returned the frown with a level stare. Nynaeve went on in a calmer tone, if still a tight one. 'The captain says it may be an hour before another ship comes along. One with enough sweeps to make a difference. Or a day. Or two, maybe. I do not think we can afford to waste a day or two waiting. We can be in this village—what did you call it, Captain? Jurene?—we can walk to Jurene in two hours or less. If Captain Ellisor frees his vessel as quickly as he hopes, we can reboard then. He says he will stop to see if we are there. If he does not get free, though, we can take ship from Jurene. We may even find a vessel waiting. The captain says traders do stop there, because of the Andoran soldiers.' She drew a deep breath, but her voice grew tighter. 'Have I explained my reasoning fully enough? Do you need more?'
'It is clear to me,' Elayne put in quickly before Egwene could speak. 'And it sounds a good idea. You think it is a good idea, too, don't you, Egwene?'
Egwene gave a grudging nod. 'I suppose it is.'
'But, Aes Sedai,' Ellisor protested, 'at least go to the Andor bank. The war, Aes Sedai. Brigands, and every sort of ruffian, and the soldiers not much better. The very wreck under our bow shows the sort of men they are.'
'We have not seen a living soul on the Cairhien side,' Nynaeve said, 'and in any case, we are far from defenseless, Captain. And I will not walk fifteen miles when I can walk six.'
'Of course, Aes Sedai.' Ellisor really was sweating, now. 'I did not mean to suggest. . . . Of course you are not defenseless, Aes Sedai. I did not mean to suggest it.' He wiped his face furiously, but it still glistened.
Nynaeve opened her mouth, glanced at Egwene, and seemed to change what she had intended to say. 'I am going below for my things,' she told the air halfway between Egwene and Elayne, then turned on Ellisor. 'Captain, make your rowboat ready.' He bowed and scurried away even before she turned for the hatch, and was shouting for men to put the boat over the side before she was below.
'If one of you says ‘up,' ' Elayne murmured, 'the other says ‘down.' If you do not stop it, we may not reach Tear.'
'We will reach Tear,' Egwene said. 'And sooner once Nynaeve realizes she is not the Wisdom any longer. We are all'—she did not say Accepted; there were two many men hurrying about—'on the same level, now.' Elayne sighed.
In short order the rowboat had ferried them ashore, and they were standing on the bank with walking staffs in hand, their belongings in bundles on their backs, and hung about them in pouches and scripts. Rolling grassland and scattered copses surrounded them, though the hills were forested a few miles in from the river. The sweeps on the Blue Crane were cutting up froth, but failing to budge the vessel. Egwene turned and started south without another glance. And before Nynaeve could take the lead.
When the others caught up to her, Elayne gave her a reproving look. Nynaeve walked staring straight ahead. Elayne told Nynaeve what Egwene had said about Mat and a Gray Man, but the older woman listened in silence and only said, 'He'll have to look after himself,' without pausing in her stride. After a time, the Daughter-Heir gave up trying to make the other two talk, and they all walked in silence.
Clumps of trees close along the riverbank soon hid the Blue Crane, thick growths of wateroak and willow. They did not go through the copses, small as they were, for anything at all might be hiding in the shadows under their branches. A few low bushes grew scattered between the thickets here close to the river, but they were too sparse to hide a child much less a brigand, and they were widely spaced.
'If we do see brigands,' Egwene announced, 'I am going to defend myself. There is no Amyrlin looking over our shoulders here.'
Nynaeve's mouth thinned. 'If need be,' she told the air in front of her, 'we can frighten off any brigands the way we did those Whitecloaks. If we can find no other way.'
'I wish you would not talk of brigands,' Elayne said. 'I would like to reach this village without—'
A figure in brown and gray rose from behind a bush standing by itself almost in front of them.
CHAPTER
38
Maidens of the Spear
Egwene embraced saidar before the scream was well out of her mouth, and she saw the glow around Elayne, too. For an instant she wondered if Ellisor had heard their screams and would send help; the Blue Crane could not be more than a mile upriver. Then she was dismissing the need for help, already weaving flows of Air and Fire into lightning. She could almost still hear their yelling.
Nynaeve was simply standing there with her arms crossed beneath her breasts and a firm expression on her face, but Egwene was not sure whether that was because she was not angry enough to touch the True Source, or because she had already seen what Egwene was just now seeing. The person facing them was a woman no older than Egwene herself, if somewhat taller.
She did not let go of saidar. Men were sometimes silly enough to think a woman was harmless merely because she was a woman; Egwene had no such illusions. In a corner of her mind she noted that Elayne was no longer surrounded by the glow. The Daughter-Heir must still harbor foolish notions. She was never a Seanchan prisoner.
Egwene did not think many men would be stupid enough to think the woman in front of them was not dangerous, even though her hands were empty and she wore no visible weapon. Blue-green eyes and reddish hair cut short except for a narrow tail that hung to her shoulders; soft, laced knee-boots and close-fitting coat and breeches all in the shades of earth and rock. Such coloring and clothing had been described to her once; this woman was Aiel.
Looking at her, Egwene felt a sudden odd affinity for the woman. She could not understand it. She looks like Rand's cousin, that's why. Yet even that feeling—almost of kinship—could not stifle her curiosity. What under the Light are Aiel doing here? They never leave the Waste; not since the Aiel War. She had heard all of her life how deadly Aiel were—these Maidens of the Spear no less than the members of the male warrior societies—but she felt no particular fear and, indeed, some irritation at having been afraid. With saidar feeding the One Power into her, she had no need to fear anyone. Except maybe a fully trained sister, she admitted. But certainly not one woman, even if she is Aiel.
'My name is Aviendha,' the Aiel woman said, 'of the Nine Valleys sept of the Taardad Aiel.' Her face was as flat and expressionless as her voice. 'I am Far Dareis Mai, a Maiden of the Spear.' She paused a moment, studying them. 'You have not the look in your faces, but we saw the rings. In your lands, you have women much like our Wise Ones, the women called Aes Sedai. Are you women of the White Tower, or not?'
For a moment Egwene did feel unease. We? She looked around them carefully, but saw no one behind any bush within twenty paces.
If there were others, they had to be in the next thicket,
more than two hundred paces ahead, or in the last one, twice that distance behind. Too far to threaten. Unless they have bows. But they would have to be good with them. Back home, in the competitions at Bel Tine and Sunday, only the best bowmen shot at any distance much beyond two hundred paces.
But she still felt better knowing she could hurl a lightning bolt at anyone who tried such a shot.
'We are women of the White Tower,' Nynaeve said calmly. She was very obvious in not looking around for other Aiel. Even Elayne was peering about. 'Whether you would consider any of us wise is another matter,' Nynaeve went on. 'What do you want of us?'
Aviendha smiled. She was really quite lovely, Egwene realized; the grim expression had masked it. 'You talk as the Wise Ones do. To the point, and small suffering of fools.' Her smile faded, but her voice remained calm. 'One of us lies gravely hurt, perhaps dying. The Wise Ones often heal those who would surely die without them, and I have heard Aes Sedai can do more. Will you aid her?'
Egwene almost shook her head in confusion. A friend of hers is dying? She sounds as if she is asking if we'll lend her a cup of barley flour!
'I will help her if I can,' Nynaeve said slowly. 'I cannot make promises, Aviendha. She may die despite anything I can do.'
'Death comes for us all,' the Aiel said. 'We can only choose how to face it when it comes. I will take you to her.'
Two women in Aiel garb stood up no more than ten paces away, one out of a little fold in the ground that Egwene would not have supposed could hide a dog, and the other in grass that reached only halfway to her knees. They lowered their black veils as they stood—that gave her another jolt; she was sure Elayne had told her the Aiel only hid their faces when they might have to do killing—and settled the cloth that had wrapped their heads about their shoulders. One had the same reddish hair as Aviendha, with gray eyes, the other dark blue eyes and hair like fire. Neither was any older than Egwene or Elayne, and both looked ready to use the short spears in their hands.

The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan / Fantasy have rating

The woman with fiery hair handed Aviendha weapons; a long, heavy-bladed knife to belt at her waist, and a bristling quiver for the other side; a dark, curved bow that had the dull shine of horn, in a case to fasten on her back; and four short spears with long points to grip in her left hand along with a small, round hide buckler. Aviendha wore them as naturally as a woman in Emond's Field would wear a scarf, just as her companions did. 'Come,' she said, and started for the thicket they had already passed.
Egwene finally released saidar. She suspected all three of the Aiel could stab her with those spears before she could do anything about it, if that was what they wanted, but though they were wary, she did not think they would. And what if Nynaeve can't Heal their friend? I wish she would ask before she makes these decisions that involve all of us!
As they headed for the trees, the Aiel scanned the land around them as if they expected the empty landscape to hold enemies as adept at hiding as themselves. Aviendha strode ahead, and Nynaeve kept up with her.
'I am Elayne of House Trakand,' Egwene's friend said as if making conversation, 'Daughter-Heir to Morgase, Queen of Andor.'
Egwene stumbled. Light, is she mad? I know Andor fought them in the Aiel War. It might be twenty years, but they say Aiel have long memories.
But the flame-haired Aiel closest to her only said, 'I am Bain, of the Black Rock sept of the Shaarad Aiel.'
'I am Chiad,' the shorter, blonder woman on her other side said, 'of the Stones River sept of the Goshien Aiel.'
Bain and Chiad glanced at Egwene; their expressions did not change, but she had the feeling they thought she was showing bad manners.
'I am Egwene al'Vere,' she told them. They seemed to expect more, so she added, 'Daughter of Marin al'Vere, of Emond's Field, in the Two Rivers.' That seemed to satisfy them, in a way, but she would have bet they understood it no more than she did all these septs and clans. It must mean families, in some way.
'You are first-sisters?' Bain seemed to be taking in all three of them.
Egwene thought they must mean sisters as it was used for Aes Sedai, and said 'Yes,' just as Elayne said 'No.'
Chiad and Bain exchanged a very quick look that suggested they were talking to women who might not be completely whole in their minds.
'First-sister,' Elayne told Egwene as if she were lecturing, 'means women who have the same mother. Second-sister means their mothers are sisters.' She turned her words to the Aiel. 'We neither of us know a great deal of your people. I ask you to excuse our ignorance. I sometimes think of Egwene as a first-sister, but we are not blood kin.'
'Then why do you not speak the words before your Wise Ones?' Chiad asked. 'Bain and I became first-sisters.'
Egwene blinked. 'How can you become first-sisters? Either you have the same mother, or you do not. I do not mean to offend. Most of what I know about the Maidens of the Spear comes from the little Elayne has told me. I know you fight in battle and don't care for men, but no more than that.' Elayne nodded; the way she had described the Maidens to Egwene had sounded much like a cross between female Warders and the Red Ajah.
That look flashed back across the Aiel's faces, as if they were not certain how much sense Egwene and Elayne had.
'We do not care for men?' Chiad murmured as if puzzled.
Bain knotted her brow in thought. 'What you say comes near truth, yet misses it completely. When we wed the spear, we pledge to be bound to no man or child. Some do give up the spear, for a man or a child'—her expression said she herself did not understand this—'but once given up, the spear cannot be taken back.'
'Or if she is chosen to go to Rhuidean,' Chiad put in. 'A Wise One cannot be wedded to the spear.'
Bain looked at her as if she had announced the sky was blue, or that rain fell from clouds. The glance she gave Egwene and Elayne said perhaps they did not know these things. 'Yes, that is true. Though some try to struggle against it.'
'Yes, they do.' Chiad sounded as though she and Bain were sharing something between them.
'But I have gone far from the trail of my explanation,' Bain went on. 'The Maidens do not dance the spears with one another even when our clans do, but the Shaarad Aiel and the Goshien Aiel have held blood feud between them over four hundred years, so Chiad and I felt our wedding pledge was not enough. We went to speak the words before the Wise Ones of our clans—she risking her life in my hold, and I in hers—to bond us as first-sisters. As is proper for first-sisters who are Maidens, we guard each other's backs, and neither will let a man come to her without the other. I would not say we do not care for men.' Chiad nodded, with just the hint of a smile. 'Have I made the truth clear to you, Egwene?'
'Yes,' Egwene said faintly. She glanced at Elayne and saw the bewilderment in her blue eyes she knew must be in her own. Not Red Ajah. Green, maybe. A cross between Warders and Green Ajah, and I do not understand another thing out of that. 'The truth is quite clear to me, now, Bain. Thank you.'
'If the two of you feel you are first-sisters,' Chiad said, 'you should go to your Wise Ones and speak the words. But you are Wise Ones, though young. I do not know how it would be done in that case.'
Egwene did not know whether to laugh or blush. She kept having an image of her and Elayne sharing the same man. No, that is only for first-sisters who are Maidens of the Spear. Isn't it? Elayne did have spots of color in her cheeks, and Egwene was sure she was thinking of Rand. But we do not share him, Elayne. We can neither of us have him.
Elayne cleared her throat. 'I do not think there is a need for that, Chiad. Egwene and I already guard each other's backs.'
'How can that be?' Chiad asked slowly. 'You are not wedded to the spear. And you are Wise Ones. Who would lift a hand against a Wise One? This confuses me. What need have you for guarding of backs?'
Egwene was spared having to come up with an answer by their arrival at the copse. There were two more Aiel under the trees, deep into the thicket, but next to the river. Jolien, of the Salt Flat sept of the Nakai Aiel, a blue-eyed woman with red-gold hair nearly the color of Elayne's, was watching over Dailin, of Aviendha's sept and clan. Sweat matted Dailin's hair, making it a darker red, and she only opened her gray eyes once, when they first came near, then closed them again. Her coat and shirt lay beside her, and red stained the bandages wrapped around her middle.
'She took a sword,' Aviendha said. 'Some of those fools that the oath-breaking treekillers call soldiers thought we were another handful of the bandits who infest this land. We had to kill them to convince them otherwise, but Dailin. . . . Can you heal her, Aes Sedai?'
Nynaeve went to her knees beside the injured woman and lifted the bandages enough to peer under them. She winced at what she saw. 'Have you moved her since she was hurt? There is scabbing, but it has been broken.'
'She wanted to die near water,' Aviendha said. She glanced once at the river, then quickly away again. Egwene thought she might have shivered, too.
'Fools!' Nynaeve began rummaging in her pouch of herbs. 'You could have killed her moving her with an injury like that. She wanted to die near water!' she said disgustedly. 'Just because you carry weapons like men doesn't mean you have to think like them.' She pulled a deep wooden cup out of the bag and pushed it at Chiad. 'Fill that. I need water to mix these so she can drink them.'
Chiad and Bain stepped to the river's edge and returned together. Their faces never changed, but Egwene thought they had almost expected the river to reach up and grab them.
'If we had not brought her here to the . . . river, Aes Sedai,' Aviendha said, 'we would never have found you, and she would have died anyway.'
Nynaeve snorted and began sifting powdered herbs into the cup of water, muttering to herself. 'Corenroot helps make blood, and dogwort for knitting flesh, and healall, of course, and. . . .' Her mutters trailed off into w
hispers too low to hear. Aviendha was frowning at her.
'The Wise Ones use herbs, Aes Sedai, but I had not heard that Aes Sedai used them.'
'I use what I use!' Nynaeve snapped and went back to sorting through her powders and whispering to herself.
'She truly does sound like a Wise One,' Chiad told Bain softly, and the other woman gave a tight nod.
Dailin was the only Aiel without her weapons in hand, and they all looked ready to use them in a heartbeat. Nynaeve surely isn't soothing anyone, Egwene thought. Get them talking about something. Anything. Nobody feels like fighting if they're talking of something peaceful.
'Do not be offended,' she said carefully, 'but I notice you are all uneasy about the river. It does not grow violent unless there is a storm. You could swim in it if you wanted, though the current is strong away from the banks.' Elayne shook her head.
The Aiel looked blank; Aviendha said, 'I saw a man—a Shienaran—do this swimming . . . once.'
'I don't understand,' Egwene said. 'I know there isn't much water in the Waste, but you said you were ‘Stones River sept,' Jolien. Surely you have swum in the Stones River?' Elayne looked at her as if she were mad.
'Swim,' Jolien said awkwardly. 'It means . . . to get in the water? All that water? With nothing to hold on to.' She shuddered. 'Aes Sedai, before I crossed the Dragonwall, I had never seen flowing water I could not step across. The Stones River. . . . Some claim it had water in it once, but that is only boasting. There are only the stones. The oldest records of the Wise Ones and the clan chief say there was never anything but stones since the first day our sept broke off from the High Plain sept and claimed that land. Swim!' She gripped her spears as if to fight the very word. Chiad and Bain moved a pace further from the riverbank.
Egwene sighed. And colored when she met Elayne's eye. Well, I am not a Daughter-Heir, to know all these things. I will learn them, though. As she looked around at the Aiel women, she realized that far from soothing them, she had put them even more on edge. If they try anything, I will hold them with Air. She had no idea whether she could seize four people at once, but she opened herself to saidar, wove the flows in Air and held them ready. The Power pulsed in her with eagerness to be used. No glow surrounded Elayne, and she wondered why. Elayne looked right at her and shook her head.
'I would never harm an Aes Sedai,' Aviendha said abruptly. 'I would have you know that. Whether Dailin lives or dies, it makes no difference in that. I would never use this'—she lifted one short spear a trifle—'against any woman. And you are Aes Sedai.' Egwene had the sudden feeling that the woman was trying to soothe them.
'I knew that,' Elayne said, as if talking to Aviendha, but her eyes told Egwene the words were for her. 'No one knows much of your people, but I was taught that Aiel never harm women unless they are—what did you call it?—wedded to the spear.'
Bain seemed to think Elayne was failing to see truth clearly again. 'That is not exactly the way of it, Elayne. If a woman not wedded came at me with weapons, I would drub her until she knew better of it. A man. . . . A man might think a woman of your lands was wedded if she bore weapons; I do not know. Men can be strange.'
'Of course,' Elayne said. 'But so long as we do not attack you with weapons, you will not try to harm us.' All four Aiel looked shocked, and she gave Egwene a quick significant look.
Egwene held on to saidar anyway. Just because Elayne had been taught something did not mean it was true, even if the Aiel said the same thing. And saidar felt . . . good in her.
Nynaeve lifted up Dailin's head and began pouring her mixture into the woman's mouth. 'Drink,' she said firmly. 'I know it tastes bad, but drink it all.' Dailin swallowed, choked, and swallowed again.
'Not even then, Aes Sedai,' Aviendha told Elayne. She kept her eyes on Dailin and Nynaeve, though. 'It is said that once, before the Breaking of the World, we served the Aes Sedai, though no story says how. We failed in that service. Perhaps that is the sin that sent us to the Three-fold Land; I do not know. No one knows what the sin was, except maybe the Wise Ones, or the clan chiefs, and they do not say. It is said if we fail the Aes Sedai again, they will destroy us.'
'Drink it all,' Nynaeve muttered. 'Swords! Swords and muscles and no brains!'
'We are not going to destroy you,' Elayne said firmly, and Aviendha nodded.
'As you say, Aes Sedai. But the old stories are all clear on one point. We must never fight Aes Sedai. If you bring your lightnings and your balefire against me, I will dance with them, but I will not harm you.'
'Stabbing people,' Nynaeve growled. She lowered Dailin's head, and laid a hand on the woman's brow. Dailin's eyes had closed again. 'Stabbing women!' Aviendha shifted her feet and frowned again, and she was not alone among the Aiel.
'Balefire,' Egwene said. 'Aviendha, what is balefire?'
The Aiel woman turned her frown on her. 'Do you not know, Aes Sedai? In the old stories, Aes Sedai wielded it. The stories make it a fearsome thing, but I know no more. It is said we have forgotten much that we once knew.'
'Perhaps the White Tower has forgotten much, too,' Egwene said. I knew of it in that . . . dream, or whatever it was. It was as real as Tel'aran'rhiod. I'd gamble with Mat on that.
'No right!' Nynaeve snapped. 'No one has a right to tear bodies so! It is not right!'
'Is she angry?' Aviendha asked uneasily. Chiad and Bain and Jolien exchanged worried looks.
'It is all right,' Elayne said.
'It is better than all right,' Egwene added. 'She is getting angry, and it is much better than all right.'
The glow of saidar surrounded Nynaeve suddenly—Egwene leaned forward, trying to see, and so did Elayne—and Dailin started up with a scream, eyes wide open. In an instant, Nynaeve was easing her back down, and the glow faded. Dailin's eyes slid shut, and she lay there panting.
I saw it, Egwene thought. I . . . think I did. She was not sure she had even been able to make out all the many flows, much less the way Nynaeve had woven them together. What Nynaeve had done in those few seconds had seemed like weaving four carpets at once while blindfolded.
Nynaeve used the bloody bandages to wipe Dailin's stomach, smearing away bright red new blood and black crusts of dried old. There was no wound, no scar, only healthy skin considerably paler than Dailin's face.
With a grimace, Nynaeve took the bloody cloths, stood up, and threw them into the river. 'Wash the rest of that off of her,' she said, 'and put some clothes back on her. She's cold. And be ready to feed her. She will be hungry.' She knelt by the water to wash her hands.
CHAPTER
39
Threads in the Pattern
Jolien put an unsteady hand to where the wound had been in Dailin's middle; when she touched smooth skin, she gasped as if she had not believed her own eyes.
Nynaeve straightened, drying her hands on her cloak. Egwene had to admit that good wool did better for a towel than silk or velvet. 'I said wash her and get some clothes on her,' Nynaeve snapped.
'Yes, Wise One,' Jolien said quickly, and she, Chiad, and Bain all leaped to obey.
A short laugh burst from Aviendha, a laugh almost at the edge of tears. 'I have heard that a Wise One in the Jagged Spire sept is said to be able to do this, and one in the Four Holes sept, but I always thought it was boasting.' She drew a deep breath, regaining her composure. 'Aes Sedai, I owe you a debt. My water is yours, and the shade of my septhold will welcome you. Dailin is my second-sister.' She saw Nynaeve's uncomprehending look and added, 'She is my mother's sister's daughter. Close blood, Aes Sedai. I owe a blood debt.'
'If I have any blood to spill,' Nynaeve said dryly, 'I will spill it myself. If you wish to repay me, tell me if there is a ship at Jurene. The next village south of here?'
'The village where the soldiers fly the Whi
te Lion banner?' Aviendha said. 'There was a ship there when I scouted yesterday. The old stories mention ships, but it was strange to see one.'
'The Light send it is still there.' Nynaeve began putting away her folded papers of powdered herbs. 'I have done what I can for the girl, Aviendha, and we must go on. All that she needs now is food and rest. And try not to let people stick swords in her.'
'What comes, comes, Aes Sedai,' the Aiel woman replied.
'Aviendha,' Egwene said, 'feeling as you do about rivers, how do you cross them? I am sure there is at least one river nearly as big as the Erinin between here and the Waste.'
'The Alguenya,' Elayne said. 'Unless you went around it.'
'You have many rivers, but some have things called bridges where we had need to cross, and others we could wade. For the rest, Jolien remembered that wood floats.' She slapped the trunk of a tall whitewood. 'These are big, but they float as well as a branch. We found dead ones and made ourselves a . . . ship . . . a little ship, of two or three lashed together to cross the big river.' She said it matter-of-factly.
Egwene stared in wonder. If she were as afraid of something as the Aiel obviously were of rivers, could she make herself face it the way they did? She did not think so. What about the Black Ajah, a small voice asked. Have you stopped being afraid of them? That is different, she told it. There's no bravery in that. I either hunt them, or else I sit like a rabbit waiting for a hawk. She quoted the old saying to herself. 'It is better to be the hammer than the nail.'
'We had best be on our way,' Nynaeve said.
'In a moment,' Elayne told her. 'Aviendha, why have you come all this way and put up with such hardship?'
Aviendha shook her head disgustedly. 'We have not come far at all; we were among the last to set out. The Wise Ones nipped at me like wild dogs circling a calf, saying I had other duties.' Suddenly she grinned, gesturing to the other Aiel. 'These stayed back to taunt me in my misery, so they said, but I do not think the Wise Ones would have let me go if they had not been there to companion me.'

The woman with fiery hair handed Aviendha weapons; a long, heavy-bladed knife to belt at her waist, and a bristling quiver for the other side; a dark, curved bow that had the dull shine of horn, in a case to fasten on her back; and four short spears with long points to grip in her left hand along with a small, round hide buckler. Aviendha wore them as naturally as a woman in Emond's Field would wear a scarf, just as her companions did. 'Come,' she said, and started for the thicket they had already passed.
Egwene finally released saidar. She suspected all three of the Aiel could stab her with those spears before she could do anything about it, if that was what they wanted, but though they were wary, she did not think they would. And what if Nynaeve can't Heal their friend? I wish she would ask before she makes these decisions that involve all of us!
As they headed for the trees, the Aiel scanned the land around them as if they expected the empty landscape to hold enemies as adept at hiding as themselves. Aviendha strode ahead, and Nynaeve kept up with her.
'I am Elayne of House Trakand,' Egwene's friend said as if making conversation, 'Daughter-Heir to Morgase, Queen of Andor.'
Egwene stumbled. Light, is she mad? I know Andor fought them in the Aiel War. It might be twenty years, but they say Aiel have long memories.
But the flame-haired Aiel closest to her only said, 'I am Bain, of the Black Rock sept of the Shaarad Aiel.'
'I am Chiad,' the shorter, blonder woman on her other side said, 'of the Stones River sept of the Goshien Aiel.'
Bain and Chiad glanced at Egwene; their expressions did not change, but she had the feeling they thought she was showing bad manners.
'I am Egwene al'Vere,' she told them. They seemed to expect more, so she added, 'Daughter of Marin al'Vere, of Emond's Field, in the Two Rivers.' That seemed to satisfy them, in a way, but she would have bet they understood it no more than she did all these septs and clans. It must mean families, in some way.
'You are first-sisters?' Bain seemed to be taking in all three of them.
Egwene thought they must mean sisters as it was used for Aes Sedai, and said 'Yes,' just as Elayne said 'No.'
Chiad and Bain exchanged a very quick look that suggested they were talking to women who might not be completely whole in their minds.
'First-sister,' Elayne told Egwene as if she were lecturing, 'means women who have the same mother. Second-sister means their mothers are sisters.' She turned her words to the Aiel. 'We neither of us know a great deal of your people. I ask you to excuse our ignorance. I sometimes think of Egwene as a first-sister, but we are not blood kin.'
'Then why do you not speak the words before your Wise Ones?' Chiad asked. 'Bain and I became first-sisters.'
Egwene blinked. 'How can you become first-sisters? Either you have the same mother, or you do not. I do not mean to offend. Most of what I know about the Maidens of the Spear comes from the little Elayne has told me. I know you fight in battle and don't care for men, but no more than that.' Elayne nodded; the way she had described the Maidens to Egwene had sounded much like a cross between female Warders and the Red Ajah.
That look flashed back across the Aiel's faces, as if they were not certain how much sense Egwene and Elayne had.
'We do not care for men?' Chiad murmured as if puzzled.
Bain knotted her brow in thought. 'What you say comes near truth, yet misses it completely. When we wed the spear, we pledge to be bound to no man or child. Some do give up the spear, for a man or a child'—her expression said she herself did not understand this—'but once given up, the spear cannot be taken back.'
'Or if she is chosen to go to Rhuidean,' Chiad put in. 'A Wise One cannot be wedded to the spear.'
Bain looked at her as if she had announced the sky was blue, or that rain fell from clouds. The glance she gave Egwene and Elayne said perhaps they did not know these things. 'Yes, that is true. Though some try to struggle against it.'
'Yes, they do.' Chiad sounded as though she and Bain were sharing something between them.
'But I have gone far from the trail of my explanation,' Bain went on. 'The Maidens do not dance the spears with one another even when our clans do, but the Shaarad Aiel and the Goshien Aiel have held blood feud between them over four hundred years, so Chiad and I felt our wedding pledge was not enough. We went to speak the words before the Wise Ones of our clans—she risking her life in my hold, and I in hers—to bond us as first-sisters. As is proper for first-sisters who are Maidens, we guard each other's backs, and neither will let a man come to her without the other. I would not say we do not care for men.' Chiad nodded, with just the hint of a smile. 'Have I made the truth clear to you, Egwene?'
'Yes,' Egwene said faintly. She glanced at Elayne and saw the bewilderment in her blue eyes she knew must be in her own. Not Red Ajah. Green, maybe. A cross between Warders and Green Ajah, and I do not understand another thing out of that. 'The truth is quite clear to me, now, Bain. Thank you.'
'If the two of you feel you are first-sisters,' Chiad said, 'you should go to your Wise Ones and speak the words. But you are Wise Ones, though young. I do not know how it would be done in that case.'
Egwene did not know whether to laugh or blush. She kept having an image of her and Elayne sharing the same man. No, that is only for first-sisters who are Maidens of the Spear. Isn't it? Elayne did have spots of color in her cheeks, and Egwene was sure she was thinking of Rand. But we do not share him, Elayne. We can neither of us have him.
Elayne cleared her throat. 'I do not think there is a need for that, Chiad. Egwene and I already guard each other's backs.'
'How can that be?' Chiad asked slowly. 'You are not wedded to the spear. And you are Wise Ones. Who would lift a hand against a Wise One? This confuses me. What need have you for guarding of backs?'
Egwene was spared having to come up with an answer by their arrival at the copse. There were two more Aiel under the trees, deep into the thicket, but next to the river. Jolien, of the Salt Flat sept of the Nakai Aiel, a blue-eyed woman with red-gold hair nearly the color of Elayne's, was watching over Dailin, of Aviendha's sept and clan. Sweat matted Dailin's hair, making it a darker red, and she only opened her gray eyes once, when they first came near, then closed them again. Her coat and shirt lay beside her, and red stained the bandages wrapped around her middle.
'She took a sword,' Aviendha said. 'Some of those fools that the oath-breaking treekillers call soldiers thought we were another handful of the bandits who infest this land. We had to kill them to convince them otherwise, but Dailin. . . . Can you heal her, Aes Sedai?'
Nynaeve went to her knees beside the injured woman and lifted the bandages enough to peer under them. She winced at what she saw. 'Have you moved her since she was hurt? There is scabbing, but it has been broken.'
'She wanted to die near water,' Aviendha said. She glanced once at the river, then quickly away again. Egwene thought she might have shivered, too.
'Fools!' Nynaeve began rummaging in her pouch of herbs. 'You could have killed her moving her with an injury like that. She wanted to die near water!' she said disgustedly. 'Just because you carry weapons like men doesn't mean you have to think like them.' She pulled a deep wooden cup out of the bag and pushed it at Chiad. 'Fill that. I need water to mix these so she can drink them.'
Chiad and Bain stepped to the river's edge and returned together. Their faces never changed, but Egwene thought they had almost expected the river to reach up and grab them.
'If we had not brought her here to the . . . river, Aes Sedai,' Aviendha said, 'we would never have found you, and she would have died anyway.'
Nynaeve snorted and began sifting powdered herbs into the cup of water, muttering to herself. 'Corenroot helps make blood, and dogwort for knitting flesh, and healall, of course, and. . . .' Her mutters trailed off into w
hispers too low to hear. Aviendha was frowning at her.
'The Wise Ones use herbs, Aes Sedai, but I had not heard that Aes Sedai used them.'
'I use what I use!' Nynaeve snapped and went back to sorting through her powders and whispering to herself.
'She truly does sound like a Wise One,' Chiad told Bain softly, and the other woman gave a tight nod.
Dailin was the only Aiel without her weapons in hand, and they all looked ready to use them in a heartbeat. Nynaeve surely isn't soothing anyone, Egwene thought. Get them talking about something. Anything. Nobody feels like fighting if they're talking of something peaceful.
'Do not be offended,' she said carefully, 'but I notice you are all uneasy about the river. It does not grow violent unless there is a storm. You could swim in it if you wanted, though the current is strong away from the banks.' Elayne shook her head.
The Aiel looked blank; Aviendha said, 'I saw a man—a Shienaran—do this swimming . . . once.'
'I don't understand,' Egwene said. 'I know there isn't much water in the Waste, but you said you were ‘Stones River sept,' Jolien. Surely you have swum in the Stones River?' Elayne looked at her as if she were mad.
'Swim,' Jolien said awkwardly. 'It means . . . to get in the water? All that water? With nothing to hold on to.' She shuddered. 'Aes Sedai, before I crossed the Dragonwall, I had never seen flowing water I could not step across. The Stones River. . . . Some claim it had water in it once, but that is only boasting. There are only the stones. The oldest records of the Wise Ones and the clan chief say there was never anything but stones since the first day our sept broke off from the High Plain sept and claimed that land. Swim!' She gripped her spears as if to fight the very word. Chiad and Bain moved a pace further from the riverbank.
Egwene sighed. And colored when she met Elayne's eye. Well, I am not a Daughter-Heir, to know all these things. I will learn them, though. As she looked around at the Aiel women, she realized that far from soothing them, she had put them even more on edge. If they try anything, I will hold them with Air. She had no idea whether she could seize four people at once, but she opened herself to saidar, wove the flows in Air and held them ready. The Power pulsed in her with eagerness to be used. No glow surrounded Elayne, and she wondered why. Elayne looked right at her and shook her head.
'I would never harm an Aes Sedai,' Aviendha said abruptly. 'I would have you know that. Whether Dailin lives or dies, it makes no difference in that. I would never use this'—she lifted one short spear a trifle—'against any woman. And you are Aes Sedai.' Egwene had the sudden feeling that the woman was trying to soothe them.
'I knew that,' Elayne said, as if talking to Aviendha, but her eyes told Egwene the words were for her. 'No one knows much of your people, but I was taught that Aiel never harm women unless they are—what did you call it?—wedded to the spear.'
Bain seemed to think Elayne was failing to see truth clearly again. 'That is not exactly the way of it, Elayne. If a woman not wedded came at me with weapons, I would drub her until she knew better of it. A man. . . . A man might think a woman of your lands was wedded if she bore weapons; I do not know. Men can be strange.'
'Of course,' Elayne said. 'But so long as we do not attack you with weapons, you will not try to harm us.' All four Aiel looked shocked, and she gave Egwene a quick significant look.
Egwene held on to saidar anyway. Just because Elayne had been taught something did not mean it was true, even if the Aiel said the same thing. And saidar felt . . . good in her.
Nynaeve lifted up Dailin's head and began pouring her mixture into the woman's mouth. 'Drink,' she said firmly. 'I know it tastes bad, but drink it all.' Dailin swallowed, choked, and swallowed again.
'Not even then, Aes Sedai,' Aviendha told Elayne. She kept her eyes on Dailin and Nynaeve, though. 'It is said that once, before the Breaking of the World, we served the Aes Sedai, though no story says how. We failed in that service. Perhaps that is the sin that sent us to the Three-fold Land; I do not know. No one knows what the sin was, except maybe the Wise Ones, or the clan chiefs, and they do not say. It is said if we fail the Aes Sedai again, they will destroy us.'
'Drink it all,' Nynaeve muttered. 'Swords! Swords and muscles and no brains!'
'We are not going to destroy you,' Elayne said firmly, and Aviendha nodded.
'As you say, Aes Sedai. But the old stories are all clear on one point. We must never fight Aes Sedai. If you bring your lightnings and your balefire against me, I will dance with them, but I will not harm you.'
'Stabbing people,' Nynaeve growled. She lowered Dailin's head, and laid a hand on the woman's brow. Dailin's eyes had closed again. 'Stabbing women!' Aviendha shifted her feet and frowned again, and she was not alone among the Aiel.
'Balefire,' Egwene said. 'Aviendha, what is balefire?'
The Aiel woman turned her frown on her. 'Do you not know, Aes Sedai? In the old stories, Aes Sedai wielded it. The stories make it a fearsome thing, but I know no more. It is said we have forgotten much that we once knew.'
'Perhaps the White Tower has forgotten much, too,' Egwene said. I knew of it in that . . . dream, or whatever it was. It was as real as Tel'aran'rhiod. I'd gamble with Mat on that.
'No right!' Nynaeve snapped. 'No one has a right to tear bodies so! It is not right!'
'Is she angry?' Aviendha asked uneasily. Chiad and Bain and Jolien exchanged worried looks.
'It is all right,' Elayne said.
'It is better than all right,' Egwene added. 'She is getting angry, and it is much better than all right.'
The glow of saidar surrounded Nynaeve suddenly—Egwene leaned forward, trying to see, and so did Elayne—and Dailin started up with a scream, eyes wide open. In an instant, Nynaeve was easing her back down, and the glow faded. Dailin's eyes slid shut, and she lay there panting.
I saw it, Egwene thought. I . . . think I did. She was not sure she had even been able to make out all the many flows, much less the way Nynaeve had woven them together. What Nynaeve had done in those few seconds had seemed like weaving four carpets at once while blindfolded.
Nynaeve used the bloody bandages to wipe Dailin's stomach, smearing away bright red new blood and black crusts of dried old. There was no wound, no scar, only healthy skin considerably paler than Dailin's face.
With a grimace, Nynaeve took the bloody cloths, stood up, and threw them into the river. 'Wash the rest of that off of her,' she said, 'and put some clothes back on her. She's cold. And be ready to feed her. She will be hungry.' She knelt by the water to wash her hands.
CHAPTER
39
Threads in the Pattern
Jolien put an unsteady hand to where the wound had been in Dailin's middle; when she touched smooth skin, she gasped as if she had not believed her own eyes.
Nynaeve straightened, drying her hands on her cloak. Egwene had to admit that good wool did better for a towel than silk or velvet. 'I said wash her and get some clothes on her,' Nynaeve snapped.
'Yes, Wise One,' Jolien said quickly, and she, Chiad, and Bain all leaped to obey.
A short laugh burst from Aviendha, a laugh almost at the edge of tears. 'I have heard that a Wise One in the Jagged Spire sept is said to be able to do this, and one in the Four Holes sept, but I always thought it was boasting.' She drew a deep breath, regaining her composure. 'Aes Sedai, I owe you a debt. My water is yours, and the shade of my septhold will welcome you. Dailin is my second-sister.' She saw Nynaeve's uncomprehending look and added, 'She is my mother's sister's daughter. Close blood, Aes Sedai. I owe a blood debt.'
'If I have any blood to spill,' Nynaeve said dryly, 'I will spill it myself. If you wish to repay me, tell me if there is a ship at Jurene. The next village south of here?'
'The village where the soldiers fly the Whi
te Lion banner?' Aviendha said. 'There was a ship there when I scouted yesterday. The old stories mention ships, but it was strange to see one.'
'The Light send it is still there.' Nynaeve began putting away her folded papers of powdered herbs. 'I have done what I can for the girl, Aviendha, and we must go on. All that she needs now is food and rest. And try not to let people stick swords in her.'
'What comes, comes, Aes Sedai,' the Aiel woman replied.
'Aviendha,' Egwene said, 'feeling as you do about rivers, how do you cross them? I am sure there is at least one river nearly as big as the Erinin between here and the Waste.'
'The Alguenya,' Elayne said. 'Unless you went around it.'
'You have many rivers, but some have things called bridges where we had need to cross, and others we could wade. For the rest, Jolien remembered that wood floats.' She slapped the trunk of a tall whitewood. 'These are big, but they float as well as a branch. We found dead ones and made ourselves a . . . ship . . . a little ship, of two or three lashed together to cross the big river.' She said it matter-of-factly.
Egwene stared in wonder. If she were as afraid of something as the Aiel obviously were of rivers, could she make herself face it the way they did? She did not think so. What about the Black Ajah, a small voice asked. Have you stopped being afraid of them? That is different, she told it. There's no bravery in that. I either hunt them, or else I sit like a rabbit waiting for a hawk. She quoted the old saying to herself. 'It is better to be the hammer than the nail.'
'We had best be on our way,' Nynaeve said.
'In a moment,' Elayne told her. 'Aviendha, why have you come all this way and put up with such hardship?'
Aviendha shook her head disgustedly. 'We have not come far at all; we were among the last to set out. The Wise Ones nipped at me like wild dogs circling a calf, saying I had other duties.' Suddenly she grinned, gesturing to the other Aiel. 'These stayed back to taunt me in my misery, so they said, but I do not think the Wise Ones would have let me go if they had not been there to companion me.'

The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan / Fantasy have rating