Towers of Midnight (81 page)

Bair cut in. "They'd still be apprentice Wise Ones, Egwene al'Vere. Children who need to complete their training. And that is assuming we agree to this plan; something about it unsettles my stomach, like too much food after a day of fasting."

"If we let the Aes Sedai set hooks into our apprentices," Melaine said, "they will not soon be pulled free."

"Do you want them to be?" Egwene said. "Do you see what you have in me, Melaine? An Amyrlin Seat who was trained by the Aiel? What sacrifice would it be worth to your people to have more like me? Aes Sedai who understand ji'e'toh and the Three-fold Land, who respect Wise Ones rather than seeing them as rivals or wilders?"

The three Aiel settled back at that, looking at one another, troubled.

"And what of you, Shielyn?" Egwene said. "What would it be worth to your people to have an Amyrlin Seat who, having trained with you, regards you as friends and who respects your ways?"

"That could be valuable," Shielyn admitted. "Assuming the women you send to us have a better temperament than those whom we have seen so far. I have yet to meet an Aes Sedai who could not benefit from a few days hanging from the high mast."

"That is because you insisted on getting Aes Sedai," Egwene said, "who are set in their ways. If we were to send you Accepted instead, they would be much more pliable."

"Instead?" Shielyn said immediately. "This is not the bargain we were discussing."

"It could be," Egwene replied. "If we allow Sea Folk channelers to return to you instead of requiring that they stay in the Tower, you will no longer have such a strong need of the Aes Sedai teachers."

"This must be a different agreement." Shielyn shook her head. "And it will not be a bargain to make lightly. Aes Sedai are serpents, like those rings you wear."

"What if I offer to include the dream ter'angreal you were loaned?" Egwene asked.

Shielyn glanced at her hand where, in the real world, she would be holding the small plate that
 
with a channeled bit of Spirit-
 
let a woman enter Tel'aran'rhiod. Egwene hadn't given them the ter'angreal that let one enter without needing to channel, of course. Those were more versatile, and therefore more powerful. Best to keep those a secret.

"In Tel'aran'rhiod" Egwene said, leaning forward, "you can go anywhere. You can meet those who are distant without needing to Travel there, can learn what is hidden, and can confer in secret."

"This is a dangerous thing you suggest, Egwene al'Vere," Amys said sternly. "To let them loose would be like letting a group of wetlander children run wild in the Three-fold Land."

"You cannot keep this place for yourself, Amys," Egwene said.

"We are not so selfish," the Wise One said. "It is their safety I speak of."

"Then perhaps," Egwene said, "it would be best if the Sea Folk sent some of their apprentices to train with you Wise Ones
 
and perhaps you could send some back."

"To live on ships?" Melaine said, aghast.

"What better way to conquer your fears of the water?"

"We aren't afraid of it," Amys snapped. "We respect it. You wetlanders . . ." She always spoke of ships as one spoke of a caged lion.

"Regardless." Egwene turned back to the Sea Folk. "The ter'angreal could be yours, should we have a bargain."

"You already gave these to us," Shielyn said.

"They were lent to you, Shielyn, as was made very clear by the women who delivered them."

"And you would give them to us permanently?" Shielyn asked. "With none of this nonsense about all ter'angreal belonging to the White Tower?"

"It is important that there be a rule to prevent ter'angreal from being kept by those who discover them," Egwene said. "That way, we can remove a potentially dangerous item from a foolish merchant or farmer. But I would be willing to make a formal exception for the Windfinders and Wise Ones."

"So the glass pillars . . ." Amys said. "I have wondered if the Aes Sedai would ever try to lay claim to them."

"I doubt that would happen," Egwene said. "But I also suspect that it would ease Aiel minds if we were to proclaim it officially, that those ter'angreal
 
and others you possess
 
belong to you, and that sisters cannot claim them."

That gave the Wise Ones serious thought.

"I still find this agreement odd," Bair said. "Aiel, training in the White Tower, but not becoming Aes Sedai? It is not the way things have been."

"The world is changing, Bair," Egwene said softly. "Back in Emond's Field, there was a patch of fine, cultivated Emond's Glory flowers near a brook. My father liked to walk there, and loved their beauty. But then when the new bridge was built, people began traipsing across the patch to get to it.

"My father tried for years to keep them off the patch. Small fences, signs. Nothing worked. And then he thought to build a neat path of river stones through the patch, cultivating the flowers to the sides. After that, people stopped walking on them.

"When change comes, you can scream and try to force things to stay the same. But you'll usually end up getting trampled. However, if you can direct the changes, they can serve you. Just as the Power serves us, but only after we surrender to it."

Egwene looked at each woman in turn. "Our three groups should have begun working together long ago. The Last Battle is upon us, and the Dragon Reborn threatens to free the Dark One. If that weren't enough, we have another common foe
 
one who would see Aes Sedai, Windfinders and Wise Ones alike destroyed."

"The Seanchan," Melaine said.

Renaile, sitting at the back of the Windfinders, let out a soft hiss at the

word. Her clothing changed, and she was wearing armor, holding a sword. It was gone in a moment.

"Yes," Egwene said. "Together, we can be strong enough to fight them. Apart . . ."

"We must consider this bargain," Shielyn said. Egwene noticed a wind blowing through the room, likely created by one of the Sea Folk by accident. "We will meet again and perhaps make a promise. If we make it, the terms will be this: We will send you two apprentices a year, and you will send two to us."

"Not your weakest," Egwene said. "I want your most promising."

"And you will send the same?" Shielyn said.

"Yes," Egwene said. Two was a start. They would probably wish to move to larger numbers once the plan was proven effective. But she would not push for that at the start.

"And us?" Amys said. "We are part of this 'bargain' as you put it?"

"Two Accepted," Egwene said, "in return for two apprentices. They train for a period of no less than six months, but no more than two years. Once our women are among you, they are to be considered your apprentices, and must follow your rules." She hesitated. "At the end of their training, all apprentices and Accepted must return to their people for at least one year. After that, if yours decide they want to be Aes Sedai, they can return to be considered. The same goes for women among us, should they decide to join with you instead."

Bair nodded thoughtfully. "Perhaps there will be women like yourself who, seeing our ways, will know them superior. It is still a shame we lost you."

"My place was elsewhere," Egwene said.

"Will you accept this between us as well?" Shielyn said to the Wise Ones. "Should we agree to this bargain, two for two, in a similar manner?"

"If the bargain is agreed to," Bair said, looking to the other Wise Ones, "we will make it with you as well. But we must speak with the other Wise Ones about it."

"And what of the ter'angreal?" Shielyn said, turning back to Egwene.

"Yours," Egwene said. "In exchange, you will release us from our promise to send sisters to train you, and we will let any Sea Folk currently among us return to their people. All of this is subject to the approval of your people, and I will have to bring this before the Hall of the Tower."

Of course, as Amyrlin, her decrees were law. If the Hall balked, however, those laws could end up being ignored. In this, she would need to get

their support
 
and she wanted to, particularly considering her stance that the Hall should work together with her more and meet in secret less.

She was reasonably certain she could get approval for this proposal, however. The Aes Sedai wouldn't like giving up ter'angreal, but they also did not like the bargain that had been made with the Sea Folk over the Bowl of the Winds. To be rid of that, they would give almost anything.

"I knew you would try to end the sisters training us," Shielyn said, sounding self-satisfied.

"Which would you rather have?" Egwene asked. "Women who are among our weakest members, and who see their service as a punishment? Or instead, your own Sea Folk, who have learned the best we can offer and return happily to share?" Egwene had been half-tempted to simply send Sea Folk Aes Sedai to them to fulfill the bargain anyway; it seemed a proper twisting of the situation.

Hopefully, however, this new bargain would supplant the old one. She had a feeling she'd lose the Sea Folk sisters anyway, at least the ones who longed to be back with their people. The world was changing, and now that the Windfinders were no longer a secret, the old ways need not be maintained.

"We will discuss," Shielyn said. She nodded to the others, and they vanished from the room. They certainly did learn quickly.

"This dance is a dangerous one, Egwene al'Vere," Amys said, standing and adjusting her shawl. "There was a time when the Aiel would have taken pride to have served the Aes Sedai. That time has passed."

"The women you thought you would find are nothing more than a dream, Amys," Egwene said. "Real life is often more disappointing than dreams, but at least when you find honor in the real world, you know it to be more than a fancy."

The Wise One nodded. "We will likely agree to this bargain. We have need to learn what the Aes Sedai can teach."

"We will pick our strongest women," Bair added. "Those who will not be corrupted by wetlander softness." There was no condemnation in those words. Calling wetlanders soft was not an insult, in Bait's mind.

Amys nodded. "This work you do is a good one so long as you do not presume to tie us in steel bands."

No, Amys, Egwene thought. / will not tie you in bands of steel. I'll use lace instead.

"Now," Bair said. "You still have need of us this day? You indicated a battle ... ?"

"Yes," Egwene said. "Or so I hope." No word had come. That meant Nynaeve and Siuan hadn't discovered anyone listening. Had her ploy failed?

The Wise Ones nodded to her, then walked to the side, conferring quietly. Egwene trailed over to the Aes Sedai.

Yukiri stood. "I don't like this, Mother," Yukiri said, speaking softly and eyeing the Wise Ones. "I don't think the Hall will agree to this. Many are adamant that all objects of the One Power should belong to us."

"The Hall will see reason," Egwene said. "We've already returned the Bowl of Winds to the Sea Folk, and now that Elayne has rediscovered the method of crafting ter'angreal, it is only a matter of time before there are so many we cannot keep track of them all."

"But Elayne is an Aes Sedai, Mother," Seaine said, rising, face troubled. "Surely you can keep her in line."

"Perhaps," Egwene said, speaking softly. "But doesn't it strike you odd that
 
after all of these years
 
so many Talents are returning, so many discoveries being made? My Dreaming, Elayne's ter'angreal, Foretelling. Rare Talents seem in abundance. An Age is ending, and the world is changing. I doubt that Elayne's Talent will remain unique. What if one of the Wise Ones or Sea Folk manifest it?"

The other three sat quietly, troubled.

"It still isn't right to give up, Mother," Yukiri finally said. "With effort, we could bring the Wise Ones and Windfinders under control."

"And the Asha'man?" Egwene said softly, unable to keep a hint of discomfort out of her voice. "Will we insist that all angreal and sa'angreal created for men belong to us, though we cannot use them? What if there are Asha'man who learn to create objects of Power? Will we force them to give up everything they create to us? Could we enforce that?"

"I . . ." Yukiri said.

Leane shook her head. "She's right, Yukiri. Light, but she is."

"The world as it was cannot be ours any longer," Egwene said softly, not wanting the Wise Ones to overhear. "Was it ever? The Black Tower bonds Aes Sedai, the Aiel no longer revere us, the Windfinders have hidden their best channelers from us for centuries and are becoming increasingly belligerent. If we try to hold too tightly to all of this, we will either become tyrants or fools, depending upon how successful we are. I accept neither title.

"We will lead them, Yukiri. We must become a source that women look to, all women. We achieve that by not holding too tightly, by bringing their channelers to train with us and by sending our most talented Accepted to become experts in the things they are best at."

"And if they are saying the same thing right now?" Leane asked softly, looking over at the Wise Ones, who were speaking in hushed tones on the far side of the room. "If they try to play us as we play them?"