Lord of Chaos (109 page)

“Well, it was no mistake,” Egwene said. Nisao’s turn? Well, she was not going to ask now; Nynaeve was not happy about it, and Egwene wanted this to be as happy an occasion as it could. Dragging the chair from behind the table, she saw two plump patchwork cushions on the seat and smiled. Chesa. “We are going to sit here and talk, and then I will help you find the two best dresses in Salidar. Tell me about these discoveries of yours. Anaiya mentioned them, and Sheriam, but I could not make them hold still long enough to give me any details.”

Almost as one, the pair paused in the act of sitting and exchanged glances. Unaccountably, they seemed reluctant to talk of anything but Nynaeve’s Healing Siuan and Leane—Nynaeve repeated three times rather anxiously that Healing Logain had been an accident—and Elayne’s work with
ter’angreal.
Those were remarkable feats, especially Nynaeve’s, but there was only so much they could say, and there were only so many times Egwene could tell them how marvelous what they had done was and how much she envied them. Trying to demonstrate did not last long; Egwene had no real feel for Healing, especially not this complicated tapestry Nynaeve wove without thought, and though she had an affinity for metals and very good strength in both Fire and Earth, Elayne lost her almost immediately. Of course they wanted to know what life was like among the Aiel. From the startled blinks and shocked laughs, abruptly cut off, she was not sure they believed everything she told them, and she certainly did not tell everything. The Aiel led naturally into Rand. Both women stared all through her rendition of his meeting with the Aes Sedai. They agreed that he was wading waters deeper than he knew and needed someone to guide him before he stepped into a hole. Elayne thought Min might help with that, once the embassy reached Caemlyn—this was the first Egwene knew
Min was with him, or had been in Salidar—though in truth, Elayne seemed rather halfhearted. And she muttered something truly peculiar, as if it were a truth she did not like hearing.

“Min is a better woman than I am.” For some reason, that got a sympathetic look from Nynaeve. “I wish
I
were there,” Elayne went on in a stronger voice. “To guide him, I mean.” She looked from Egwene to Nynaeve, red touching her cheeks. “Well, that, too.” Nynaeve and Egwene began laughing so hard they nearly fell out of their chairs, and Elayne joined in almost immediately.

“There’s one good thing to tell, Elayne,” Egwene said breathlessly, still trying to recover. Then she realized exactly what she was going to say, and why. Light, what a mire she had stepped into, and while laughing! “I’m sorry about your mother, Elayne. You don’t know how I wished I could offer my condolences before this.” Elayne looked confused, as well she might. “The point is, Rand means to give you the Lion Throne
and
the Sun Throne.” To her surprise, Elayne sat up very straight.

“He does, does he?” she said in a cool flat voice. “He intends to give them to me.” Her chin rose slightly. “I have some claim to the Sun Throne, and if I choose to make it, I will do so in my own right. As for the Lion Throne, Rand al’Thor has no right—none!—to
give
me what is mine already.”

“I’m sure he didn’t mean it that way,” Egwene protested.
Did he?
“He loves you, Elayne. I know he does.”

“If only it were that simple,” Elayne muttered, whatever that was supposed to mean.

Nynaeve sniffed. “Men always say they didn’t mean it that way. You would think they spoke a different language.”

“When I put my hands on him again,” Elayne said firmly, “I will teach him to speak the right language.
Give
me!”

It was all Egwene could do not to laugh again. The next time Elayne laid hands on Rand she would be too busy hunting a secluded spot to teach him anything. This was very like old times. “Now you’re Aes Sedai, you can go to him any time you want. Nobody can stop you.” A quick look passed between the pair.

“The Hall isn’t letting anyone just pick up and leave,” Nynaeve said. “And even if she could, we found something I think is more important.”

Elayne nodded vigorously. “I think so, too. I’ll admit, the first thought I had when I heard you announced Amyrlin was that now maybe Nynaeve and I could go find it. Well, the second; the first was a sort of stunned joy.”

Egwene blinked in confusion. “You found something. But now you need to find it.” Leaning forward in their chairs, they answered eagerly and almost on top of one another.

“We found it,” Elayne said, “but only in
Tel’aran’rhiod
.”

“We used need,” Nynaeve added. “We certainly needed
something
.”

“It’s a bowl,” Elayne continued, “a
ter’angreal
, and I think it might be strong enough to change the weather.”

“Only, the bowl is somewhere in Ebou Dar, in an awful, tangled warren of streets with no signs or anything to help. The Hall sent a letter to Merilille, but she’ll never find it.”

“Especially since she is supposed to be busy convincing Queen Tylin that the
real
White Tower is here.”

“We told them it needed a man in the channeling.” Nynaeve sighed. “Of course, that was before Logain, though I don’t think they would trust him.”

“It doesn’t really need a man,” Elayne said. “We just wanted to make them believe they
needed
Rand. I don’t know how many women it does need; maybe a full circle of thirteen.”

“Elayne says it’s very powerful, Egwene. It could make the weather right again. I’d welcome that just to get my weather sense straight again.”

“The bowl
can
make it right, Egwene.” Elayne exchanged happy looks with Nynaeve. “All you have to do is send us to Ebou Dar.”

The flood receded, and Egwene leaned back in her chair. “I will do what I can. Maybe there’ll be no objection, now that you’re Aes Sedai.” She had the feeling there would be, though. Raising them had seemed such a bold stroke, but she was beginning to believe it was not quite so simple.

“What you can?” Elayne said incredulously. “You are the Amyrlin Seat, Egwene. You give a command, and Aes Sedai jump.” She flashed a quick grin. “Say ‘jump,’ and I’ll prove it.”

Grimacing, Egwene shifted on the cushions. “I’m the Amyrlin, but. . . . Elayne, Sheriam doesn’t have to think very hard to recall a novice named Egwene, staring goggle-eyed at everything and being sent to rake the New Garden walks for eating apples after bedtime. She means to lead me by the hand, or maybe push me by the scruff of my neck. Romanda and Lelaine both wanted to be Amyrlin, and they see that novice too. They intend to show me where to put my feet as much as Sheriam does.”

Nynaeve frowned worriedly, but Elayne was pure indignation. “You can’t let them get away with trying to . . . to
bully
you. You are the
Amyrlin.
The Amyrlin tells the Hall what to do, not the other way around. You have to stand up and make them
see
the Amyrlin Seat.”

Egwene’s laugh had a touch of bitterness. Had it only been last night that she was so defiant about being bullied? “That will take a little time, Elayne. You see, I finally understood why they chose me. Part is for Rand, I think. Maybe they believe he’ll be more amenable if he sees me wearing the stole. The other part is
because
they remember that novice. A woman—no; a girl!—who’s so used to doing as she’s told that there will be no trouble making her do as they want.” She fingered the striped stole around her neck. “Well, whatever their reasons, they chose me Amyrlin, and since they did, I mean to
be
Amyrlin, but I have to be careful, at first anyway. Maybe Siuan made the Hall jump every time she frowned”—she wondered whether that had ever been true—“but if I try that, I might just be the first Amyrlin ever deposed the day after she was raised.”

Elayne looked dumbfounded, but Nynaeve nodded slowly. Perhaps being Wisdom and dealing with the Women’s Circle back home had given her more insight into how the Amyrlin Seat and the Hall of the Tower actually worked together than all of Elayne’s training to be Queen.

“Elayne, once word spreads and rulers know about me, I can begin making the Hall realize they chose an Amyrlin, not a puppet, but until then, they really could take this stole away as fast as they gave it. I mean, if I’m not really Amyrlin, then it isn’t hard to push me aside. There might be a few mutters, but I have no doubt they could smooth those over fast enough. If anyone outside Salidar ever heard somebody named Egwene al’Vere was raised Amyrlin, it would just be one of those peculiar rumors that grow up around Aes Sedai.”

“What are you going to do?” Elayne asked quietly. “You are not going to accept it meekly.” That made Egwene smile wholeheartedly. It was not a question, but a firm statement of fact.

“No, I am not.” She had listened to a number of Moiraine’s lectures to Rand about the Game of Houses. Back then, she had thought the Game absurd, and worse than underhanded. Now she hoped she could remember everything she had heard. The Aiel always said, “Use the weapons you have.”

“It may help that they’re trying to fit me for three different leashes. I can pretend to be pulled by one or another, depending on which is closest to what I want to do. Once in a while I can just do what I want, the way I did raising you two, but not very often yet.” Squaring her shoulders, she met their gazes levelly. “I would like to say I raised you because you deserved it, but the truth is, I did it because you’re my friends, and because I
hope as full sisters you can help me. I certainly don’t know who else I can trust except you two. I will send you to Ebou Dar as soon as I can, but before and after, you are who I can discuss things with. I know you will tell me the truth. That trip to Ebou Dar may not take as long as you might think. You two have made all sorts of discoveries, so I hear, but if I can puzzle a few things out, I may have one of my own.”

“That will be wonderful,” Elayne said, but she sounded almost absentminded.

The silence was very peculiar, and Egwene did not understand at all. Elayne looked at Nynaeve, then they both looked at Nynaeve’s slim silver bracelet. Nynaeve shifted her gaze to Egwene, wide-eyed, and quickly put it on the floor.

“I have a confession,” she said in a near whisper. Her voice never rose, but words spilled out in a rush. “I captured Moghedien.” Without raising her eyes, she lifted her wrist with the bracelet. “This is an
a’dam.
We’re holding her prisoner, and nobody knows. Except Siuan and Leane and Birgitte. And now you.”

“We had to,” Elayne said, leaning forward urgently. “They’d have executed her, Egwene. I know she deserves it, but her head is full of knowledge, things we hardly dream of. That’s where all of our
discoveries
came from. Except Nynaeve’s Healing Siuan and Leane and Logain, and my
ter’angreal.
They would have killed her without waiting to learn anything!”

Questions whirled through Egwene’s head dizzyingly. They had captured one of the Forsaken? How? Elayne had made an
a’dam
? Egwene shivered, barely able to look at the thing. It looked nothing like the
a’dam
she knew far too well. Even with that, how had they managed to keep one of the Forsaken hidden among so many Aes Sedai? One of the Forsaken, prisoner. Not tried and executed. As suspicious as Rand had become, if he ever discovered that, he would never trust Elayne again.

“Bring her here,” she managed to say hollowly. Nynaeve bounced out of her chair and ran. The noises of celebration, laughter and music and song, swelled for a moment before the door banged shut behind her. Egwene rubbed her temples. One of the Forsaken. “That is quite a secret to keep.”

Elayne’s cheeks colored. Why under the Light . . . ? Of course.

“Elayne, I have no intention of asking about . . . anybody I’m not supposed to know about.”

The golden-haired woman actually jumped. “I . . . I may be able to talk. Later. Tomorrow. Maybe. Egwene, you have to promise me you won’t say anything—not to anybody!—unless I say so. No matter what you . . . what you see.”

“If that’s what you want.” Egwene did not understand why the other woman was so agitated. Not really. Elayne had a secret that Egwene shared, only Egwene had found out by accident, and ever since they had both been pretending it was still Elayne’s secret alone. She had met with Birgitte, the hero out of legend, in
Tel’aran’rhiod
; maybe she still did. Wait, that was what Nynaeve had said. Birgitte knew about Moghedien. Did she mean the woman waiting in
Tel’aran’rhiod
for the Horn of Valere to call her back?
Nynaeve
knew the secret that Elayne had refused to admit to Egwene even when she was caught out? No. This was not going to turn into a round of accusations and denials.