“They can stay,” Elayne said coldly. With the Power in her, her emotions were not bouncing. They were steady in an icy anger. “They are welcome here. You, on the other hand… Elaida tried to have me kidnapped, Duhara. Kidnapped! You can leave.”
“A poor welcome, Elayne, when I came to the palace as soon as I arrived. And after a journey that would be as torturous to describe as it was to endure. Andor has always had good relations with the Tower. The Tower intends to see they remain good. Are you sure you want these wilders to hear everything I have to say to you? Very well. If you insist.” Gliding to one of the carved sideboards, she wrinkled her nose at the silver pitcher holding goat’s milk and poured herself a cup of dark wine before taking a chair across from Elayne. Deni made a move as if to try dragging her out, but Elayne shook her head. The Domani sister ignored the Kinswomen as if they had ceased to exist. “The woman who drugged you has been punished, Elayne. She was flogged in front of her own shop with everyone in her village watching.” Duhara sipped her wine, waiting for Elayne to respond.
She said nothing. She knew very well that Ronde Macura had been flogged for failure rather than for feeding her that vile tea, but saying so would make Duhara wonder how she knew, and that might lead to things that needed to remain hidden.
The silence stretched, and finally the other woman went on. “You must know that the White Tower wants very much for you to mount the Lion Throne. To achieve that end, Elaida has sent me to be your advisor.”
In spite of herself, Elayne laughed. Elaida had sent her an advisor? It was ludicrous! “I have Aes Sedai to advise me when I need advice, Duhara. You must know I oppose Elaida. I wouldn’t accept a pair of stockings from that woman.”
“Your so-called advisors are rebels, child.” Duhara said chidingly, with a heavy dose of distaste on the word “rebels.” She gestured with the silver winecup. “Why do you think you have so many Houses opposing you, so many standing aside? They surely know you don’t really have the backing of the Tower. With me as your advisor, that changes. I might be able to put the crown on your head inside a week. At most, it should take no more than a month or two.”
Elayne met the other woman’s gaze with a level gaze of her own. Her hands wanted to make fists, but she kept them still in her lap. “Even were that so, I’d refuse you. I expect to hear any day that Elaida has been deposed. The White Tower will be whole again, and no one will be able to claim I lack its backing then.”
Duhara studied her wine for a moment, her face a mask of Aes Sedai serenity. “It won’t be entirely smooth going for you,” she said as if Elayne had not spoken. “This is the part I thought you wouldn’t want the wilders to hear. And that guard. Does she think I’m going to attack you? No matter. Once you have the crown firmly on your head, you will have to appoint a regent, because you must return to the Tower then, to complete your training and eventually be tested for the shawl. You need have no fear of being birched as a runaway. Elaida accepts that Siuan Sanche ordered you to leave the Tower. Your pretense of being Aes Sedai is another matter. That, you will pay for with tears.” Sumeko and Alise stirred, and Duhara took notice of them again. “Ah, you didn’t know that Elayne is really only one of the Accepted?”
Elayne rose and stared down at Duhara. Usually, someone seated held the advantage over someone standing, but she made her stare hard and her voice harder. She wanted to slap the woman’s face! “I was raised Aes Sedai by Egwene al’Vere on the day she herself was raised Amyrlin. I chose the Green Ajah and was admitted. Don’t you ever say I’m not Aes Sedai, Duhara. Burn me if I’ll stand still for it!”
Duhara’s mouth pinched down till her lips seemed a gash. “Think, and you will see the reality of your situation,” she said finally. “Think hard, Elayne. A blind woman could see how much you need me, and the White Tower’s blessing. We will talk again later. Have someone show me to my rooms. I am more than ready for my bed.”
“You’ll have to find a room at an inn, Duhara. Every bed in the palace already has three or four people sleeping in it.” If dozens of beds had been free, she would not have offered Duhara one. Turning her back, she walked to the fireplace and stood warming her hands. The gilded pendulum clock on the scroll-carved marble mantel chimed three times. Perhaps as many hours remained till sunrise. “Deni, have someone escort Duhara to the gates.”
“You won’t fend me off so easily, child. No one fends off the White Tower easily. Think, and you’ll see I’m your only hope.” Silk whisked against silk as she left the room, and the door clicked shut behind her. It seemed very possible Duhara would cause trouble trying to make herself needed, but one problem at a time.
“Did she put doubts in your minds?” Elayne said, turning from the fire.
“None,” Sumeko replied. “Vandene and the other two accept you as Aes Sedai, so you must be.” Conviction was strong in her voice, but then, she had reason to want to believe. If Elayne were a liar, her dreams of returning to the Tower, of joining the Yellow Ajah, died.
“But this Duhara believes she was speaking the truth.” Alise spread her hands. “I’m not saying I doubt you. I don’t. But the woman believes.”
Elayne sighed. “The situation is… complicated.” That was like saying water was moist. “I am Aes Sedai, but Duhara doesn’t believe. She can’t, because that would be admitting Egwene al’Vere truly is the Amyrlin Seat, and Duhara won’t do that until Elaida has been brought down.” She hoped Duhara would believe then. Accept, at least. The Tower had to be made whole. “Sumeko, you will order the Kinswomen to stay in groups? Always?” The stout woman muttered that she would. Unlike Reanne, Sumeko had no flair for leadership, or liking for it, either. A pity no older Kinswoman had appeared to take the burden from her. “Alise, you’ll make sure they obey?” Alise’s agreement was firm and quick. She would have been the perfect candidate if the Kin did not determine their rankings by age. “Then we’ve done what we can. It’s long past time you were in your beds.”
“Long past time for you, too,” Alise said as she stood. “I could send for Melfane.”
“No need to rob her of sleep, too.” Elayne said hastily. And firmly. Melfane was short and stout, a merry woman with a ready laugh, and unlike her aunt in other ways, as well. Merry or not, the midwife was a tyrant who would not be pleased to learn that she was awake. “I’ll sleep when I can.’’
Once they left, she released saidar and took up a book from several on the second sideboard, yet another history of Andor, but she could not concentrate. Bereft of the Power, she felt grumpy. Burn her, she was so weary that her eyes felt grainy. She knew that if she lay down, though, she would stare at the ceiling till the sun rose. In any case, she had stared at the page for only minutes when Deni appeared again.
“Master Norry is here, my Lady, with that Hark fellow. Said he’d heard you were up and wondered if you could spare him a few minutes.’’
He had heard she was up? If he was having her watched… ! The import broke through her grumpiness. Hark. He had not brought Hark since that first visit, ten days ago. No, eleven days, now. Ebullience replaced peevishness. Telling Deni to send them in. she followed the woman as far as the anteroom, where a patterned carpet covered most of the red-and-white floor tiles. Here, too, only a pair of stand-lamps were lit, giving off a dim, wavering light and a scent of roses.
Master Norry looked more than ever a white-crested wading bird with his long, spindly shanks, and tufts of hair sticking up behind his ears, but for once, he almost seemed excited. He was actually rubbing his hands together. He was not carrying his leather folder tonight; even in the dim light, the ink stains on his crimson tabard showed. One had turned the tuft of the White Lion’s tail black. He offered a stiff bow, and the nondescript Hark imitated him awkwardly, then knuckled his forehead for good measure. He was wearing a darker brown than he had previously, but the same belt and buckle. “Forgive the hour, my Lady,” Norry began in that dry voice.
“How did you know I was awake?” she demanded, em
otions bouncing again.
Norry blinked, startled by the question. “One of the cooks mentioned sending up warm goat’s milk for you when I went to get some for myself, my Lady. I find warm goat’s milk very soothing when I can’t sleep. But she mentioned wine, too, so I assumed you had visitors and might still be awake.”
Elayne sniffed. She still wanted to snap at someone. Keeping that out of her voice required an effort. “I suppose you’ve success to report, Master Hark?”
“I followed him like you said, my Lady, and he’s been to the same house three nights, counting this one. It’s on Full Moon Street in the New City, it is. Only place he ever goes except taverns and common rooms. He drinks some, he does. Dices a lot, too.” The man hesitated, dry-washing his hands nervously. “I can go now. right, my Lady? You’ll take off whatever it was you put on me?”
“According to the tax rolls.” Norry said, “the house is owned by the Lady Shiaine Avarhin. my Lady. She seems to be the last of the House.”
“What else can you tell me about the place, Master Hark? Who else lives there besides this Lady Shiaine?”
Hark rubbed his nose uneasily. “Well, I don’t know as they lives there, my Lady, but there’s two Aes Sedai there tonight. I saw one of them letting Mellar out while the other was coming in. and the one who was coming in said, ‘A pity there are only two of us, Falion, the way Lady Shiaine works us.’ Only, she said Lady like she didn’t mean it, she did. Funny. She was carrying a stray cat, a thing scrawny as she was.” He bobbed a sudden, nervous bow. “Begging your pardon, my Lady. Didn’t mean no offence, speaking of an Aes Sedai that way, but it took me a minute to realize she was Aes Sedai, it did. There was good light from the entry hall, there was, but she was so thin and plain, with a wide nose, that nobody would take her for Aes Sedai without some study.”
Elayne laid a hand on his arm. Excitement bubbled in her voice, and she let it. “What were their accents?”
“Their accents, my Lady? Well, the one with the cat. she’s from right here in Caemlyn I’d say. The other… Well, she didn’t say above two sentences, but I’d say she was Kandori. Called the other Marillin, if that helps, my Lady.”
Laughing, Elayne capered a few steps. She knew who had set Mellar on her now, and it was worse than she had feared. Marillin Gemalphin and Falion Bhoda, two Black sisters who had fled the Tower after doing murder. That had been to facilitate theft, but it was the murders that would see them stilled and beheaded. It had been to find them, and the others with them, that she. Egwene and Nynaeve had been sent out of the Tower. The Black Ajah had planted Mellar next to her, to spy most likely, but still a chilling thought. Worse than she had feared, and yet, finding the two now was like completing the circle.
Hark was staring at her with his mouth hanging open, she realized. Master Norry was studiously examining the lion’s stained tail. She stopped dancing and folded her hands. Fool men! “Where is Mellar now?”
“In his rooms, I believe,” Norry said.
“My Lady, you’ll take it off now?” Hark said. “And I can go? I did what you asked.”
“First you have to lead us to this house,” she said, darting past him to the twinned doors. “Then we’ll talk.” Putting her head out into the corridor, she found Deni and seven more Guardswomen lined up on either side of the doors. “Deni, send someone to fetch the Lady Birgitte as fast as possible, and someone else to wake the Aes Sedai and ask them to come, too, with their Warders and prepared to take a ride. Then you go and wake however many Guardswomen you think you need to arrest Mellar. You needn’t be too gentle about it. The charges are murder and being a Darkfriend. Lock him in one of the basement storerooms with a strong guard.” The stocky woman smiled broadly and began giving orders as Elayne went back inside.
Hark was wringing his hands and shifting from one foot to the other anxiously. “My Lady, what do you mean we’ll talk? You promised to take this thing off me if I followed the man. you did. And I did, so you have to keep your word.”
“I never said I’d remove the Finder, Master Hark. I said you’d be exiled to Baerlon instead of hanging, but wouldn’t you rather remain in Caemlyn?”
The man widened his eyes, trying to look sincere. And failing. He even smiled. “Oh, no, my Lady. I’ve been dreaming about the fresh country air in Baerlon, I has. I’ll wager there’s never a worry about getting rotten meat in your stew there. Here, you got to sniff careful before you eat anything. I’m looking forward to it, I am.”
Elayne put on the stern face her mother had always worn passing judgment. “You’d be out of Baerlon two minutes behind the Guardsmen who escorted you there. And then you’d hang for breaking your exile. Much better for you to remain in Caemlyn and take on a new line of work. Master Norry, could you use a man with Hark’s talents?”
“I could, my Lady,” Norry replied without even a pause for thought. A satisfied smile touched his thin lips, and Elayne realized what she had done. She had given him a tool to encroach on Mistress Harfor’s ground. But there was no undoing it, now.
“The work won’t be so remunerative as your former ‘trade,’ Master Hark, but you won’t hang for it.”
“Not so what, my Lady?” Hark said, scratching his head.
“It won’t pay so well. What do you say? Baerlon, where you’ll surely cut a purse or bolt, and hang for either one, or Caemlyn, where you’ll have steady work and no fear of the hangman. Unless you take up cutting purses again.”
Hark swayed on his feet, scrubbing the back of his hand across his mouth. “I needs a drink, I does,” he muttered hoarsely. Very likely he believed the Finder would allow her to know if he cut a purse. If so, she had no intention of disabusing him.
Master Norry scowled at the man, but when he opened his mouth. she said, “There’s wine in the small sitting room. Let him have one cup, then join me in the large sitting room.”
The large sitting room was dark when she walked in. but she channeled to light the mirrored stand-lamps against the dark-paneled walls, and the kindling of the fires neatly laid on the facing hearths. Then she took a seat in one of the low-backed chairs around the scroll-edged table and released saidar again. Since her experiment at holding the Power all day, she had not held it longer than necessary. Her mood swung from joyful excitement to morose worry and back. On the one hand, she was done with having to put up with Mellar, and soon she would have her hands on two Black sisters. Questioning them might lead to the rest, or at least reveal their plans. And if not, this Shiaine would have her own secrets. Anyone who was “working” two Dark-friend sisters would have secrets worth knowing. On the other hand, what would Duhara do to try forcing her acceptance as an advisor? Duhara would try to meddle somehow, but she could not see how. Burn her. she did not need any more difficulties between her and the throne. With a little luck, tonight would not only snare two Black sisters. it might uncover a third, a murderer ten times over. Back and forth she went, from Falion and Marillin to Duhara, even after Master Norry and Hark joined her.
Hark, a silver cup in his hand, tried to take a seat at the table, but Master Norry tapped him on the shoulder and jerked his head toward a corner. Sullenly, Hark went where he was directed. He must have begun drinking as soon as the cup was filled, because he emptied it in one long pull then stood turning it over in his hands and staring at it. Suddenly he gave a start and directed an ingratiating grin at her. Whatever he saw on her face made him flinch. Scuttling to the long table against the wall, he set the cup down with exaggerated care, then scuttled back to his corner.
Birgitte was the first to arrive, the bond filled with weary discontent. “A ride?” she said, and when Elayne explained, she began raising objections. Well, some of it was objections; the rest was just insults.
“What hare-brained, crack-pated scheme are you talking about, Birgitte?” Vandene said as she entered the room. She wore a riding dress that hung loose on her. One of her sister’s, it would have fit her perfectly while Adeleas was alive, but the white-haired w
oman had lost weight. Her Jaem, wiry and gnarled, took one look at Hark and placed himself where he could watch the man. Hark ventured a smile, but it faded when Jaem’s expression remained hard as iron. The Warder’s graying hair was thin, but there was nothing soft about him.
“She intends to try capturing two Black sisters tonight,” Birgitte replied, shooting a hard look at Elayne.
“Two Black sisters?” Sareitha exclaimed walking through the door. She gathered her dark cloak around her as though the words had given a chill. “Who?” Her Warder Ned. a tall, broad-shouldered young man with yellow hair, eyed Hark and touched his sword hilt. He chose a spot where he could watch the man, too. Hark shifted his feet. He might have been thinking of trying to run.
“Falion Bhoda and Marillin Gemalphin,” Elayne said. Sareitha’s mouth hardened.
“What about Falion and Marillin?” Careane asked as she glided into the room. Her Warders were disparate men. a tall, gangly Tairen, a blade-slender Saldaean, and a broad-shouldered Cairhienin. They exchanged glances, and Tavan, the Cairhienin, leaned against the wall watching Hark while Cieryl and Venr stood in the doorway. Hark’s mouth took on a sickly twist.
There was nothing for it but to explain again from the beginning. Which Elayne did with a rising impatience that had nothing to do with her shifting moods. The longer this took, the more chance that Falion and Marillin might be gone by the time she reached the house on Full Moon Street. She wanted them. She intended to have them! She should have made Birgitte wait until everyone had gathered.
“A good plan, I think,” Vandene said when she finished. “Yes, it will do nicely.” Others were not so agreeable.
Knife of Dreams twot-11 Page 81