Knife of Dreams

by Robert Jordan

  Tylee shook her head. "You have strange friends, my Lord. In any case, we've found people from Cairhien and Amadicia with bands of Shaido and let them go, though most of the Cairhienin seem too disoriented to know what to do with themselves. The only ones in white we keep are the Aiel. These gai'shain make marvelous da'covale, unlike the rest. Still, I'll agree to letting your friends go free. And your Aes Sedai and Asha'man. Putting an end to this gathering is very important. Tell me where they are, and I can start incorporating you into my plans."

  Perrin rubbed the side of his nose with a finger. It seemed unlikely many of those gai'shain were Shaido, but he was not about to tell her that. Let them have their chance at freedom when their year and a day was up. "It'll have to be my plan, I'm afraid. Sevanna will be a tough nut to crack, but I've worked out how. For one thing, she has maybe a hundred thousand Shaido with her, and she's gathering in more. Not every one is algai'd'siswai, but any adult will pick up a spear if they need to."

  "Sevanna." Tylee gave a pleased smile. "We've heard that name. I would dearly love to present Sevanna of the Jumai Shaido to the Captain-General." Her smile faded. "A hundred thousand is many more than I expected, but not more than I can handle. We've fought these Aiel before, in Amadicia. Eh, Mishima?"

  Riding back to join them, Mishima laughed, but it was a harsh sound, no amusement in it. "That we have, Banner-General. They're fierce fighters, disciplined and crafty, but they can be handled. You surround one of their bands, their septs, with three or four damane and pound them till they give up. It's a nasty business. They have their families with them. But they surrender the sooner for it."

  "I understand you have a dozen or so damane" Perrin said, "but is that enough to face three or four hundred Wise Ones channeling?"

  The Banner-General frowned. "You mentioned that before, Wise Ones channeling. Every band we've caught had its Wise Ones, but not one of them could channel."

  "That's because all the Shaido have are with Sevanna," Perrin replied. "At least three hundred and maybe four. The Wise Ones with me are sure of it."

  Tylee and Mishima exchanged a look, and the Banner-General sighed. Mishima looked glum. "Well," she said, "orders or no orders, that puts an end to finishing this quietly. The Daughter of the Nine Moons will have to be disturbed if I must apologize for it to the Empress, may she live forever. Likely I will." The Daughter of the Nine Moons? Some high-ranking Seanchan, apparently. But how was she supposed to be disturbed by any of this?

  Mishima grimaced, a fearsome sight with all those scars crisscrossing his face. "I read there were four hundred damane on each side at Semalaren, and that was a slaughterhouse. Half the Imperial army on the field dead and better than three out of four among the rebels."

  "Nevertheless, Mishima, we have it to do. Or rather, someone else does. You might escape an apology, but I won't." What under the Light was so upsetting about an apology? The woman smelled ... resigned. "Unfortunately, it will take weeks if not months to gather enough soldiers and damane to prick this boil. I thank you for your offer of help, my Lord. It will be remembered." Tylee held out the banner. "You'll want this back since I can't deliver my side of the bargain, but a piece of advice. The Ever Victorious Army may have other tasks in front of it for the nonce, but we won't let anyone take momentary advantage of the situation to set himself up as a king. We mean to reclaim this land, not divide it into parcels."

  "And we mean to keep our lands," Berelain said fiercely, making her mare lunge across the few paces of dead grass between her and the Seanchan. The mare was eager to lunge, eager to run, away from that wind, and she had trouble reining the animal in. Even her scent was fierce. No patience now. She smelled like a she-wolf defending her injured mate. "I've heard that your Ever Victorious Army is misnamed. I've heard the Dragon Reborn defeated you soundly to the south. Don't you ever think that Perrin Aybara can't do the same.'' Light, and he had been worried over Aram's hotheadedness!

  "I don't want to defeat anybody except the Shaido," Perrin said firmly, fighting off the image that tried to form in his mind. He folded his hands on the pommel of his saddle. Stepper seemed to be settling down, at least. The stallion still gave small shivers now and then, but he had stopped rolling his eyes. "There's a way to do that and still keep everything quiet so you don't need to apologize." If that was important to her, he was ready to use it. "The Daughter of the Nine Moons can rest easy. I told you I had this planned out. Tallanvor told me you have some kind of tea that makes a woman who can channel go wobbly in the knees."

  After a moment, Tylee lowered the banner back to her saddle and sat studying him. "A woman or a man," she drawled at last. "I've heard of several men being caught that way. But just how do you propose feeding it to these four hundred women when they're surrounded by a hundred thousand Aiel?"

  "By feeding it to all of them without letting them know they're drinking it. I'll need as much as I can get, though. Wagonloads, probably. There's no way to heat the water, you see, so it'll be thin tea."

  Tylee laughed softly. "A bold plan, my Lord. I suppose they might have cartloads at the manufactory where the tea's made, but that's a long way from here, in Amadicia almost to Tarabon, and the only way I could get more than a few pounds at once would be to tell someone of higher rank why I wanted it. And there's the end of keeping it quiet all over again."

  "The Asha'man know a thing called Traveling," Perrin told her, "a way to cross hundred of miles in a step. And as for getting the tea, maybe this will help." From his left gauntlet he pulled a folded, grease-stained piece of paper.

  Tylee's eyebrows rose as she read it. Perrin had the short text by heart. THE BEARER OF THIS STANDS UNDER MY PERSONAL PROTECTION, IN THE NAME OF THE EMPRESS, MAY SHE LIVE FOREVER. GIVE HIM WHATEVER AID HE REQUIRES IN SERVICE TO THE EMPIRE AND SPEAK OF IT TO NONE BUT ME. He had no idea who Suroth Sabelle Meldarath was, but if she signed her name to something like that, she had to be important. Maybe she was this Daughter of the Nine Moons.

  Handing the paper to Mishima, the Banner-General stared at Perrin. That sharp, hard scent was back, stronger than ever. "Aes Sedai, Asha'man, Aiel, your eyes, that hammer, now this! Who are you?"

  Mishima whistled through his teeth. "Suroth herself," he murmured.

  "I'm a man who wants his wife back," Perrin said, "and I'll deal with the Dark One to get her." He avoided looking at the sul'dam and damane. He was not far short of making a deal with the Dark One. "Do we have a bargain?"

  Tylee looked at his outstretched hand, then took it. She had a firm grip. A deal with the Dark One. But he would do whatever it took to get Faile free.

  CHAPTER 5 Something. . . Strange

  The drumbeat of rain on the tent roof that had lasted through most of the night faded to something softer as Faile approached Sevanna's chair, a heavily carved and gilded throne placed in the center of the bright, layered carpets that made up the tent's floor, with her eyes carefully lowered, to avoid offense. Spring had arrived in a rush, but the braziers were unlit, and the morning air held a touch of chill. Curtsying deeply, she presented the ropework silver tray. The Aiel woman took the golden goblet of wine and drank without so much as a glance in her direction, but she gave another deep curtsy before backing away and setting the tray down on the brass-bound blue chest that already held a tall-necked silver wine pitcher and three more goblets, then returned to her place with the other eleven gai'shain present, standing between the mirrored stand-lamps along the red silk tent wall. It was a spacious tent, and tall. No low Aiel tent for Sevanna.

  Often it was hard to see her as Aiel at all. This morning, she lounged in a red brocaded silk robe, tied so it gaped nearly to her waist and exposed half her considerable bosom, though she wore enough jeweled necklaces, emeralds and firedrops and opals, ropes of fat pearls, that she came near to being decent. The Aiel did not wear rings, yet Sevanna had at least one be-gemmed ring on every finger. The thick band of gold and firedrops worn over the folded blue silk scarf that held back her waist-long yellow
hair had taken on the aspect of a coronet if not a crown. There was nothing Aiel in that.

  Faile and the others, six women and five men, had been wakened in the night to stand beside Sevanna's bed—a pair of feather mattresses laid one atop the other—in case the woman woke and wanted something. Was any ruler in the world attended by a dozen servants while she slept? She fought the urge to yawn. Many things might earn punishment, but yawning surely would. Gai'shain were supposed to be meek and eager to please, and it seemed that that meant obsequious to the point of groveling. Bain and Chiad, fierce as they were otherwise, seemed to find it easy. Faile did not. In the near month since she was stripped and tied up like a blacksmith's puzzle for hiding a knife, she had been switched nine times for trivial offenses that were serious in Sevanna's eyes. Her last set of welts had not faded completely yet, and she had no intention of earning another set through carelessness.

  She hoped that Sevanna thought her tamed by that night trussed up in the cold. Only Rolan and his braziers had saved her life. She hoped that she was not being tamed. Pretend something too long, and it could become truth. She had been a prisoner less than two months, yet she could no longer recall exactly how many days ago she was captured. At times it seemed she had been in white robes for a year or more. Sometimes the wide belt and collar of flat golden links felt natural. That frightened her. She clung hard to hope. She would escape soon. She had to. Before Perrin caught up and tried to rescue her. Why had he not caught up yet? The Shaido had been camped at Maiden for a long time. now. He would not have abandoned her. Her wolf would be coming to rescue her. She had to escape before he got himself killed in the attempt. Before she was no longer pretending.

  "How long are you going to keep punishing Galina Sedai, Ther-ava?" Sevanna demanded, frowning at the Aes Sedai. Therava was seated cross-legged in front of her on a tasseled blue cushion, straight-backed and stern. "Last night, she made my bath water too hot, and she is so welted, I had to order the soles of her feet beaten. That is not very effective when she must be left able to walk."

  Faile had been avoiding looking at Galina ever since Therava brought her into the tent, but her eyes went to the woman of their own accord at mention of her name. Galina was kneeling erect halfway between the two Aiel women and slightly to one side, mottled brown bruises on her cheeks, her skin damp and slick from the heavy rain she had been walked through to get there, her feet and ankles muddy. She wore only her firedrop-studded golden collar and belt, and seemed more naked than naked. Just a stubble remained of her hair and eyebrows. Every hair from head to toe had been singed from her with the One Power. Faile had heard it described, along with how the Aes Sedai had been hung from her ankles for her first beating. That had been half the talk among the gai'shain for days. Only the handful who recognized her ageless face for what it was still believed that she was Aes Sedai, and some of those had the same doubts that had plagued Faile on finding an Aes Sedai among the gai'shain. After all, she possessed the face, and the ring, but why would an Aes Sedai let Therava treat her so? Faile asked herself that question often without arriving at any answer. She kept telling herself that Aes Sedai often did what they did for reasons no one else could understand, but that was not very satisfying.

  Whatever her reasons for tolerating such abuse, Galina's eyes were wide and frightened now, and fixed on Therava. She was panting so hard that her breasts heaved. She had reason for fear. Anyone passing Therava's tent was likely to hear Galina howling for mercy inside. For more than half a week Faile had gotten glimpses of the Aes Sedai on some errand, hairless and garbed as she was now and running as hard as she could with panic painting her face, and every day Therava added to the bands of welts that striped Galina from her shoulders to the backs of her knees. Whenever one band began to heal, Therava refreshed it. Faile had heard Shaido mutter that Galina was being treated too harshly, but no one was about to interfere with a Wise One.

  Therava, nearly as tall as most Aiel men, adjusted her dark shawl in a rattle of gold and ivory bracelets and regarded Galina like a blue-eyed eagle regarding a mouse. Her necklaces, also gold and ivory, seemed plain compared to Sevanna's opulence, her dark woolen skirts and white algode blouse drab, yet of the two women, Faile feared Therava far more than she did Sevanna. Sevanna might have her punished for a stumble, but Therava could kill her or crush her for a whim. She surely would if Faile attempted escape and failed. "So long as the faintest bruise remains on her face, the rest of her will be bruised as well. I have left the front of her unmarked so she can be punished for other misdeeds." Galina began trembling. Silent tears leaked down her cheeks.

  Faile averted her gaze. It was painful to watch. Even if she managed to get the rod from Therava's tent, could the Aes Sedai still be of help in escape? She gave every sign of being completely broken. That was a harsh thought, but a prisoner needed to be practical above all else. Would Galina betray her to try buying her way out of the beatings? She had threatened to betray her, if Faile failed to obtain the rod. It was Sevanna who would be interested in Perrin Aybara's wife, yet Galina looked desperate enough to try anything. Faile prayed for the woman to find strength to hold out. Of course she was planning an escape on her own, in case Galina could not keep her promise to take them with her when she left, but it would be so much easier, so much safer for everyone, if she could do it. Oh, Light, why had Perrin not caught up yet? No! She had to keep her focus.

  "She is not very impressive like that," Sevanna muttered, frowning into her goblet, now. "Even that ring cannot make her look like an Aes Sedai." She shook her head irritably. For some reason Faile did not understand, it was very important to Sevanna that everyone know that Galina was a sister. She had even taken to giving her the honorific. "Why are you here so early, Therava? I have not even eaten, yet. Will you take some wine?"

  "Water," Therava said firmly. "As for it being early, the sun is almost over the horizon. I broke fast before it rose. You grow as indolent as a wetlander, Sevanna."

  Lusara, a buxom Domani gai'shain, quickly filled a goblet from the silver water pitcher. Sevanna seemed amused by the Wise Ones' insistence on drinking only water, yet she provided it for them. Anything else would have been an insult even she would want to avoid. The copper-skinned Domani had been a merchant, and well into her middle years, but a few white hairs among the black falling below her shoulders had not been enough to save her. She was stunningly beautiful, and Sevanna gathered the rich, the powerful and the beautiful, simply taking them if they were gai'shain to someone else. There were so many gai'shain that few complained at having one taken. Lusara curtsied gracefully and bowed to present her tray to Therava on her cushion, all very proper, but on the way back to her place against the wall, she smiled at Faile. Worse, it was a conspiratorial smile.

  Faile suppressed a sigh. Her last switching had been for a sigh at the wrong moment. Lusara was one of those who had sworn fealty to her in the past two weeks. After Aravine, Faile had tried to choose carefully, but rejecting someone who asked to swear was creating a possible betrayer, so she had far too many adherents, a good number of whom she was unsure of. She was beginning to believe that Lusara was trustworthy, or at least that she would not intentionally betray her, but the woman treated their escape plans like a child's game, without cost if they lost. It seemed she had treated merchanting in the same way, making and losing several fortunes, but Faile would have no chance to start over if they lost. Nor would Alliandre or Maighdin. Or Lusara. Among Sevanna's gai'shain, those who actually attempted escape were kept chained when not serving her or performing tasks.

  Therava took a swallow of water, then set the goblet down on the flowered carpet beside her and fixed Sevanna with a steely gaze. "The Wise Ones believe it is past time for us to move north and east. We can find easily defended valleys in the mountains there, and we can reach them in less than two weeks even slowed as we are by the gai'shain. This place is open on every side, and our raids to find food must go further and further."

  Sevanna's g
reen eyes met that stare without blinking, which Faile doubted she herself could have done. It nettled Sevanna when the other Wise Ones met without her, and frequently she took it out on her gai'shain, but she smiled and took a sip of wine before replying in patient tones, as though explaining to someone not quite bright enough to understand. "Here, there is good soil for planting, and we have their seed to add to our own. Who knows what the soil is like in the mountains? Our raids bring in cattle and sheep and goats, too. Here, there are good pastures. What pasturage do you know of in these mountains, Therava? Here, we have more water than any clan has ever had. Do you know where the water is in the mountains? As to defending ourselves, who will come against us? These wetlanders run from our spears."

  "Not all run," Therava said drily. "Some are even good at dancing the spears. And what if Rand al'Thor sends one of the other clans against us? We would never know until the horns closed in on us." Suddenly she smiled, too, a smile that never reached her eyes. "Some say your plan is to be captured and made gai'shain to Rand al'Thor so you can induce him to marry you. An amusing idea, you agree?"

  Despite herself, Faile flinched. Sevanna's mad intention to marry al'Thor—she had to be mad to think she could!—was what put Faile in danger from Galina. If the Aiel woman did not know that Perrin was linked to al'Thor, Galina could tell her. Would tell her if she could not get her hands on that cursed rod. Sevanna would take no chances on losing her then. She would be chained as certainly as if caught trying to escape.