The Gathering Storm - Robert Jordan

"Siuan!" a voice called. "Siuan Sanche!"

She turned. Gawyn, riding a black gelding, approached. Another horse trotted behind him—a shaggy brown mare. "Bela!" Siuan exclaimed.

"Is she suitable?" Gawyn said, sounding slightly out of breath. "Bela was once Egwene's horse, I recall, and the stablemaster said she was the most placid he had."

"She'll do just fine," Siuan said, turning back to Bryne. "You said you had two requirements?"

"I'll tell you the second at a later time." Bryne still sounded a little breathless.

"That's rather ambiguous." Siuan folded her arms. "I don't like giving an open promise."

"Well, you'll have to do it anyway," Bryne said, meeting her eyes.

"Fine, but it had better not be indecent, Gareth Bryne."

He frowned.

"What?"

"It's odd," he said, smiling. "I can sense your emotions now. For instance I could tell. . . ." He cut off, and she could sense him growing just faintly embarrassed.

He can tell that I half want him to demand something indecent of me! Siuan realized, aghast. Bloody ashes! She felt herself blushing. This was going to be very inconvenient. "Oh, for the Blessed Light. ... I agree to your terms, you lout. Get moving! We have to go."

He nodded. "Let me prepare my captains to take charge in case the fight spills out of the city. I'll bring a guard of my best hundred with us. That should be small enough to get in, assuming this gate really is passable."

"It will be," she said. "Go!"

He actually saluted her, his face straight, but she could sense his inward grin—and he likely knew it. Insufferable man! She turned to Gawyn, who sat his gelding, looking confused.

"What's happening?" Gawyn asked.

"We don't have to go in alone." Siuan took a deep breath, then steeled herself as she climbed up into Bela's saddle. Horses couldn't be trusted, not even Bela, though she was better than most. "That means our chances of surviving long enough to take Egwene just improved. Which is fortunate, since after what we're about to do, she'll undoubtedly want the privilege of killing us personally."

Adelorna Bastine ran through the hallways of the White Tower. For once, she rued the enhanced senses that holding the Power offered. Scents seemed more crisp to her, but all she could smell were burning wood and dying flesh. Colors were more vibrant, and all she could see were the ashen scars of broken stone where lashes or balls of flame had fallen. Sounds were more crisp, but all she heard were screams, curses, and the raucous calls of those horrible beasts in the air.

She scrambled down a darkened hallway, her breath coming in gasps, until she reached an intersection. She pulled to a stop, putting a hand to her breast. She had to find resistance. Light, they couldn't all have fallen, could they? A pocket of Greens had stood with her and fought. She had seen Josaine die as a weave of Earth had destroyed the wall beside her and had seen Marthera captured with some kind of metal leash around her neck. Adelorna didn't know where her Warders were. One was wounded. Another lived. The last . . . the last she didn't want to think about. Light send that she could at least reach the wounded Talric soon.

She pulled herself to her feet, wiping blood from her forehead where a chip of stone had grazed her. There were just so many of the invaders, with their strange helmets and women used as weapons. And they were so skilled with those deadly weaves! Adelorna felt ashamed. The Battle Ajah indeed! The Greens with her had stood only minutes before being defeated.

Breathing heavily, she continued down the hallway. She stayed away from the outer edge of the Tower, where the invaders were most likely to be found. Had she lost the ones who had been chasing her? Where was she? The twenty-second level? She'd lost count of the stairwells she'd fled through.

She froze; she sensed channeling coming from her right. That could mean invaders, or it could mean sisters. She hesitated, but gritted her teeth. She was the Captain-General of the Green Ajah! She couldn't just run and hide.

Torchlight sprang from the hallway in question, light accompanied by ominous shadows of men with strange armor. A squad of invaders burst around the corner, and they had a pair of women with them, the ones connected by a leash. Adelorna yelped despite herself, dashing away as fast as her feet could carry her. She felt a shield push at her, but she held to saidar too firmly, and it didn't get into place before she rounded a corner. She continued to flee, gasping, dazed.

She rounded another corner and nearly stumbled out of a rift in the side of the Tower. She teetered on the exposed ledge, looking out upon a sky filled with terrible monsters and lines of fire. She stumbled back with a cry, turning away from the hole. There was rubble to her right. She scrambled over the rocks. The hallway continued there! She had to—

A shield shoved between her and the Source, this time locking into place. She gasped, stumbling to the ground. She wouldn't be caught! She couldn't be caught! Not that!

She tried to continue forward, but a flow of Air tightened around her ankle and dragged her back across the broken-tiled floor. No! She was pulled directly up to the squad of soldiers, now accompanied by two sets of women connected by the leashes. In each pair there was a woman wearing a gray dress and another in red and blue, with the lightning-bolt pattern.

Another woman approached, wearing the red and blue. She held something silvery in her hands. Adelorna screamed in denial, pushing at the shield. The third woman calmly knelt and snapped a silver collar on Adelorna's neck.

This wasn't happening. It couldn't be happening.

"Ah, very nice," the third woman said in a slow drawl. "My name is Gregana, and you shall be Sivi. Sivi will be a good damane. I can see it. I have waited long for this moment, Sivi."

"No," Adelorna whispered.

"Yes." Gregana smiled deeply.

Then, shockingly, the collar undipped from Adelorna's neck and fell to the floor. Gregana looked stunned for a moment before she was consumed in a blast of fire.

Adelorna's eyes opened wide, and she shied away from the sudden heat. A corpse in a blackened red and blue dress crumbled to the ground before her, smoking and reeking of burned flesh. It was then that Adelorna became aware of an extremely powerful source of channeling coming from behind.

The invaders screamed, the women in gray weaving shields. That proved to be the wrong choice, as both women's leashes unlocked, twisting lines of Air unclasping them with dexterous speed. Just a heartbeat after that, one of the women in red and blue disappeared in a flash of lightning while the other was set upon by tongues of flame, like striking serpents. She screamed as she died, and a soldier shouted. It must have been the command to fall back, for the soldiers fled, leaving two frightened women who had been unleashed by the tongues of Air.

Adelorna turned hesitantly. A woman in white stood atop the rubble a short distance away, a massive halo of power surrounding her, her arm outstretched toward the fleeing soldiers, her eyes intense. The woman stood like vengeance itself, the power of saidar like a storm around her. The very air seemed alight, and her brown hair blew from the wind of the open gap in the wall beside them. Egwene al'Vere.

"Quickly," Egwene said. A group of novices scrambled over the rubble and came to Adelorna's side, helping her to her feet. She stood, amazed. She was free! Several other novices hurried to grab the two unleashed women in gray—who, oddly, just kept kneeling in the hallway. They could channel; Adelorna could feel it. Why didn't they strike back? Instead, they seemed to be weeping.

"Put them with the others," Egwene said, striding over the rubble and glancing out the broken hallway gap. "I want—" Egwene froze, then raised her hands.

Suddenly, more weaves sprang up around Egwene. Light! Was that Vora's sa'angreal she carried in her hand, the white fluted wand? Where had Egwene gotten that? Blasts of lighting flew from Egwene's open hand, flashing through the opening in the wall, and something screeched and fell outside. Adelorna stepped up to Egwene, embracing the Source, feeling a fool for having been captured. Egwene struck again, and another of those flying monsters fell.

"What if they're carrying captives?" Adelorna asked, watching one of the beasts fall amid Egwene's flames.

"Then those captives are better dead," Egwene said, turning to her. "Trust me. I know this." She turned to the others. "Back from the hole, everyone. Those blasts may have drawn attention.

"Shanal and Clara, watch this hole from a safe distance. Run to us if any to'raken land here. Do not attack them."

Two girls nodded, taking up positions by the rubble. The other novices hurried away, chivvying the two strange invader women along with them. Egwene marched down the hallway behind them, like a general at the battle lines. And perhaps she was. Adelorna hastened to join her. "Well," she said. "You have done nicely to organize, Egwene, though it's good that an Aes—"

Egwene froze. Those eyes were so calm, so in control. "I am in command until this threat passes. You will call me Mother. Give me penance later if you must, but for now my authority must be unquestioned. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Mother," Adelorna found herself saying, shocked.

"Good. Where are your Warders?"

"One wounded," Adelorna said. "One safe, with the other. One dead."

"Light, woman, and you're still standing?"

Adelorna straightened her back. "What other choice do I have?"

Egwene nodded. Why did her look of respect make Adelorna swell with pride?

"Well, I'm glad to have you," Egwene said, resuming her walk. "We've only rescued six other Aes Sedai, none of them Green, and we're having trouble keeping the Seanchan bottled at the eastern stairwells. I'll have one of the novices show you how to unlock the bracelets; but don't take any risks. Generally, it's easier—and much safer—to kill the damane. How familiar are you with the Tower's angreal storerooms?"

"Very," Adelorna said.

"Excellent," Egwene said, absently weaving as complex a weave as Adelorna had ever seen. A line of light broke the air, then rotated around itself, creating a hole into blackness. "Lucain, run and tell the others to hold. I'll be bringing more angreal soon."

A brunette novice bobbed her head and rushed away. Adelorna was still staring at that hole. "Traveling," she said flatly. "You really have rediscovered it. I thought the reports wishful rumors."

Egwene looked at her. "I'd have never shown you this, save that I just had a report that Elaida has been spreading knowledge of this weave. Knowledge of Traveling has been compromised. That means the Sean-chan are likely to have it by now, assuming they've taken any women Elaida taught."

"Mother's milk in a cup!"

"Indeed," Egwene said, eyes like ice. "We need to stop them and destroy any to'raken we see, with captives or not. If there's any chance of stopping them from returning to Ebou Dar with someone who can Travel, we must take it."

Adelorna nodded.

"Come," Egwene said. "I need to know what items in this storeroom are angreal." She stepped through the hole.

Adelorna stood, stunned, still thinking over what she'd been told. "You could have run," she said. "You could have fled at any time."