The Yellow Sister

Talanee felt uncomfortable, and she knew why. She had argued with her Warder. It was difficult to argue with someone whose moods and emotions were clear to you; difficult not to give their arguments credit, or fold to their pleas when you knew how much frustration – and fear! – lay behind them. He only wanted her best, he argued for her safety...

She had been quite firm with him. It had been necessary.

But she had argued with him. With Sarnon. Her compliant and competent Sarnon, who seldom before had spoken as much as a word's objection to anything she chose to do.

Now, he had paced and cast his eyes about the room as if searching for something to hurl at a wall! Really. She had never seen him so wound up.

He was not with her, but stood guard with some other Warders and a sister at the entrance to the Yellow quarters.

Talanee had retreated to the depths of those quarters, to a seldom-used room which served as sick quarters for a variety of small animals, many brought in by servants or Novices or Accepted, or even by Aes Sedai. They were there to be treated by those Yellows who deigned to nurture animals – and to serve as practice for those Accepted deemed suitable for more advanced training in the fine art of Healing.

With her was a freckled Accepted named Savie – a girl with a potential in the One Power that outstripped even Talanee's own, and an avid interest in the Healing art. Savie had sought refuge natural as day was bright in the Yellow quarters when troubles stirred in the Tower, and had for some reason been admitted instead of sent back to the Accepted's halls. Perhaps she had snuck in through the servants' back corridors. No matter. She had had a lesson scheduled with Talanee, and Talanee would not deny her that, trouble in the Tower or not, argument with Sarnon or not.

Savie, aglow with saidar, cradled a sick kitten in her arms, but Talanee's concentration kept drifting. Sarnon was tense as a drawn bow.

Instead of watching the weaves Savie practiced, Talanee stared at nothing. She enjoyed to teach. She did. Especially with students like Savie, who showed such aptitude for Healing. But it was difficult to focus on anything else, with that mind-sore of a Warder riding in the back of her head.

The girl struck without warning. Talanee dimly caught a change in the flows, and she turned to Savie. Savie who now watched Talanee as if she was a wolverine in a too-flimsy net.

"Forgive me, Aes – Aes Sedai," breathed Savie, and licked her lips.

Talanee frowned. Had the girl made some mistake? The kitten had eased itself from her arms and now prowled quite unconcerned towards the bird cages. It seemed in fine health. Talanee reached for the Source – reached, and felt her eyes go as wild as Savie's.

She slapped the suddenly grinning girl as hard as she could. Savie squeaked and tumbled to the floor, but of course she was schooled enough to maintain a weave despite it.

"Remove this Shield from me at once," Talanee ordered coolly . She set her hands to her hips and stared down at the Accepted, who scrambled backward, but wore a gleeful smile. "At once, child. The impudence to use it on a sister. You shall be scrubbing pots until your grandchildren's fingers wrinkle, you may rest assured."

Savie managed to her feet. She swiped her sleeve over her face, and straightened. Her nerve was a thing of trembling hands, but it was with some sort of nerve that she faced Talanee, and her voice only shook a little. "I'm sorry, Talanee Sedai. Sorry it's you. It's not personal. And –"

"The Shield, girl. If this is an Accepted prank, it is in very poor order indeed, and I shall recommend to the Mistress of Novices that you be birched." All very coolly delivered, very to-the-point. Talanee was proud of herself. She very much wanted to howl and slap the girl again. Perhaps whack her over the head with a slipper. Once. Or twice. How dared she?

And Talanee had thought the girl showed promise. Promise!

Flows of Air snaked tight around her and the air shot out of her lungs with an indignant wheeze.

"I'd have preferred if it had been Rinette Sedai, or one of the other hags." Savie's voice was steadier by the word. "But it really wasn't up to me. Neither was the method. I'd – I'd have been more creative. But they said the window, so the window it is."

A terrible image began to form in Talanee's mind. The window? An impossible image. The window?

Talanee had discovered her ability to channel when she fell off a roof, four stories straight to the cobbles, and barely a scratch. But since then anything much higher than a horse made her pulse race. She stayed away from windows out of habit, so carefully that she doubted even her Warder knew. Oh, she could master her fear if she had to, but she had never defeated it.

Did the girl intend to toss her out a window?

She could already see it for her inner eye: the ground rushing up. The ground rushing up to meet her, and her powerless to stop it. Even had she been able to channel, she couldn't have stopped it. The ground rushing up. Buildings, roof tiles, courtyard, cobbles and gravel, bigger and bigger, faster and faster and – not even with the Power was she able to fly.

And she had never figured out how she had survived that first fall, long ago.

Savie gave an odd little wave, a half-hearted farewell, and the flows around Talanee began dragging her backward. Towards the window. Talanee would have wailed, only her lungs burned empty and she couldn't make a sound. She thought a rib might have snapped, but that was secondary. Her feet, unbound, scraped over the carpets and she could feel the window come closer, closer behind her.

She focused, with an effort, on Savie's face. Why? By the Light, why?

The girl looked a compromise between joyous fascination and stark terror. Like a new Novice, sickly from intimidation of Aes Sedai and the Tower, but too hungry for saidar and knowledge to look aside even for a moment.

"I think if it had been Rinette, I'd have tried to drain the blood from her," giggled the girl. "They said it's possible. They even showed me how, on a puppy, you know the one –"

Talanee hardly heard. The lack of air began to make her light-headed. Black and white swirled and danced in front of her eyes, and to hold to focus was to catch butterflies in her hands. The window, the window, cried a panic in the back of her head, but the spreading fog silenced it.

When she collapsed to the floor it took her three breaths to realise that she was free.

She blinked her eyes open and raised them. They felt as heavy as the rest of her. Trembling, leaden, but – oh, but sweet saidar was there when she reached for it and the relief when it flooded her near made her weep.

Savie sprawled face-down on the floor with Sarnon seated astride her. He lifted the girl almost gently by the shoulders. Gently, but he did not just let the girl drop again; he little short of shoved her onto the floor. Then he sprang to his feet and made a thorough search of the entire apartment. He hardly spared Talanee a glance. He knew that she was hale – aside from that fractured rib. It was the apartment that concerned him. The animals in their cages were causing a racket, now, and Sarnon scowled at them. They made it difficult to hear if anyone was in hiding.

Talanee drew herself up to sit on her knees and smoothed her silk skirts over her folded legs with a mechanical motion. She rightened her necklaces, straightened the bejewelled diadem that held her greying black hair out of her face. She forced the pain of the broken rib aside. She would ask someone to Heal it, but she must not show weakness before her Warder. Warders were a skittish lot, and needed no superfluous trifles to fret over. They could be impossible for weeks if they knew you had as much as a sprained ankle.

Sarnon finished his round and returned to the Accepted. Light, how he was agitated. He stalked instead of walked, and raised the girl's head by the hair to study her face. Apparently he didn't trust the white dress and its seven-coloured banded hem alone.

"A bloody Accepted," he growled finally.

"Be careful with her, Sarnon," Talanee admonished.

"She's dead. I broke her neck." He let the girl's face thud back to the floor and began to stalk around the room again.

Talanee did not tighten her hands in her skirts. She rested them palm-down and at ease on her thighs. He had snapped Savie's neck, had he? He had no cause to go about snapping necks as it suited him. Once his blood cooled, she would have to speak harshly to him.

"A flaming bloody Accepted."

"Sarnon," Talanee warned, her patience about to run dry, "must I remind you to keep a civil tongue?"

He paused and turned to study her. Study her. She suppressed the urge to squirm, the urge to mask the bond and hide from that scrutiny. She just sat, calm, her breathing slow and regular. Each breath twang that rib, but to breathe was vital and pain irrelevant. She could ignore it. But she could not ignore his gaze, like fingers that poked her every flaw, prodded to test whether she would hold or break. Burn it, but her Warder knew her too well as it was.

"You look like a swan at ease, Talanee Sedai," he said finally. "But your insides are churning."

The ground, rushing up to meet her.

Panic stirred. Sarnon cocked his head as if listening, and he touched his sword hilt. So her insides churned? His were a thunderstorm, and she couldn't tell if it was a storm about to break out or a storm already raging. But his outer agitation had subsided, his natural grace returned, and he stood ready to kill or die at her word.

Or without her word, as it suited him. Breaking Accepted necks. Really.

Well, the girl had been about to –

Talanee halted that thought. He couldn't see the flows. He hadn't known what –

No, but he could read her mind, even from a distance, and his trained eye could have read Savie's aggressive posture as easily. So had he overreacted?

Perhaps not, she admitted to herself.

She would still have to speak to him. He could have hit the girl on the head –

And risked to be caught in saidar if his blow had gone the slightest awry? In which case, he would have been unable to save either her or himself. Fortunate enough that he had managed to reach Savie before she took notice of him. She must have been distracted by –

Well, that had been the girl's weakness, Talanee reminded herself. She had always had a single-tracked mind, found it difficult to do more than one thing at a time.

When she failed to answer his statement, he strode to check the door.

Perhaps her insides did churn; an Accepted had tried to kill her. Why? For the love of the Light and all things illuminated, why?

"Do sit down, Sarnon," she snapped at him. "I can't think with you streaking about like a hissing tomcat."

His look was reproachful. Reproach? Against her? "Talanee, an Accepted –"

Light, yes, an Accepted. But why?

"Sit down," Talanee repeated, more firmly.

Sarnon thumped to his knees and sat much like Talanee herself, facing her. "It's the Black Ajah," he said. He rested his sword on his open hands across his knees, one hand beneath the hilt and one beneath the blade.

Talanee ignored his remark. He didn't know what he spoke of. Someone wanted her dead. But why? Someone had recently murdered Yna and Paeva, Lorin and Issay. To quiet them, most likely. Most likely to quiet her. But why?

"I spoke to Contair, the Warder of Evain Sedai. He claimed that Evain Sedai and he have hunted the Blacks for years."

"Warders, unlike sisters, can lie. Even sisters can utter falsities they believe true. You mustn't be so gullible. There… is no Black Ajah." And an Accepted could never have been part of any Ajah, no matter how Black it was.

"The remnant. Rill. He raved of the Blacks –"

"Warders can lie," Talanee cut in. Was he wilfully trying her patience? She'd thought she had him better trained than that.

"Think, Talanee!" he growled. "The four Yellows intended to speak to the Amyrlin. They asked you along. You declined. All you told me was that it concerned 'some foolishness', but I know you. It must have been –"

"You have no need to fret over the business of other Aes Sedai, Sarnon. No –"

"Think, Talanee! Evain Sedai, too. And Rill himself, silenced. And now this – this Accepted."

"What could possibly," Talanee whispered, "an Accepted have to do with anything?"

Sarnon's eyes were cold. "She'd be expendable, for one."

"Granted," Talanee agreed after a moment. Even one with such talent for Healing as Savie was no match for a full sister… at least, not for a full sister with a Warder. She raised a hand to stall Sarnon, and he closed his opened mouth. "I'll take your advice, Gaidin, and think. Why an Accepted? She'd be able to lie about her reasons. She'd be able to slip through corridors in the Tower unremarked, even where a sister would stand out. She'd never be suspected, and if accused, she would be able to prove no link to any presumed Black Ajah. Lastly, in the case of Savie… I am among the strongest now-living Aes Sedai, and Savie is – was – one of the few who might hope to hold me without help." She finished at a whisper. Her lips were dry. She did not lick them.

"I shouldn't have broken her neck," Sarnon muttered, regret a stain upon his bond.

Regret! So he did retain some sense! Talanee was glad. She had chosen him for his sensible manner.

"Now we can't get any answers out of her."

So therefore his regret..? Perhaps he did not retain much sense, after all. She took him in where he sat; still as a statue, tense as a drawn bow, a leopard ready to spring. Sense? If the Dark One and five Forsaken popped out of the air to threaten her, he would spring, and all sense be burned.

Perhaps Warders lost their common sense on becoming Warders. But was it a part of the bond, or just a natural reaction for a man who found himself feeling a woman's pain and knowing that her death would destroy him? She would have to investigate the matter further. Perhaps the bond could be altered to… no. No, of course not. It was for the best. What use would a Warder be if he was willing to compromise the safety of his Aes Sedai?

Seen in that light, Sarnon's lack of sense was… sensible.

Should she perhaps thank her Warder for saving her?

No. He was merely carrying out his duties. He needed no thanks. That she still lived was his thanks, and enough of it. She spoiled him as it was.

Her leopard sat and watched her, awaited her instruction.

"We only have one real clue in this matter," Talanee said.

"Evain Sedai."

"Correct." Talanee stood – and of course, he was on his feet before her. She brushed her skirts straight. Her rib gave a twinge that almost made her gasp, and Sarnon took a step towards her, held out a hand… She waved him back. He subsided, stood and watched her, his sword again in both hands, one on the hilt, one on the blade.

Talanee composed herself. The rib could wait. The first Yellow sister she saw – the first Yellow sister she could trust – oh, but surely she could trust all her sisters? Irritably she set the matter aside. "I will go immediately and find Evain. She should be in the Blue quarters. You will hurry down –"

Sarnon stared at her, his expression so incredulous that she lost track of what she had been about to say.

She began a frown and opened her mouth to correct him. But before she could speak, he threw down his sword with a clang as metal struck stone, seized her shoulders so hard that it hurt – it hurt! – and met her eyes. His gaze was steady, but his hiss of a voice trembled. "Burn you, woman. Let me stay beside you and do my job."

Talanee gaped at him.

"Just this once."

She closed her mouth. Really, it was beneath her to gape. Even if Sarnon's fingers would leave bruises on her shoulders, and even if the emotions in the back of her mind stung like a ball of barbed steel wire, twined so tightly she could hardly separate the individual strands. This time, he had truly wound himself up. Anger, fear, concern, unyielding will, and stony mental preparation for the worst, whatever that might be. He had really wound himself up. "Sarnon –"

"Tell me to go, and I'll go. We both know it. But please, Talanee. It's the bloody Black Ajah, and I don't – I don't want you out of my sight."

The steel wire turned to soft silk, and began to unravel. Quickly. Without thinking, Talanee set a hand to his cheek. The gesture surprised them both – she jerked her hand back and brushed some dust from her skirts. She hated dust. He released her, looked at his hands as if he couldn't quite believe what he had been doing. He had the sense to look ashamed.

"Pick up your sword," she instructed him in a shaky attempt at her usual brisk tones.

He bent, took the sword, held it as before across his thighs, in both hands.

"You will –"

There she flinched. She reached to loosen his left hand from around the blade, and opened the palm to study the bloody gash; he had forgotten himself and clenched too tightly.

He blinked in surprise, but a swift weave of Healing and the gashes were gone. He thanked her with a bow of his head.

"I was about to say, Sarnon… That you may come with me, if you feel that you must."

"We both know that I must," Sarnon said softly. The silk emotions in his bond began to rewind, strand by strand hardening to wire and assuming its place with a sort of forced deliberateness. "I thank you, Talanee."

She looked at him, properly, likely for the first time in years. He was always there. He was always dependable, easily guided, and though he might wind himself up now and then, he always heeded her and calmed down quickly. She supposed she had begun to take him for granted. She had begun to forget how he was an individual, not just her subservient shadow.

And naturally. He had seen as much of her work as she had, as many remnant Warders who either wasted away or perished in some rash bid for vengeance, and he was no fool: he knew, perhaps better than most Warders, the price men such as he paid for failure.

It was not a price he was eager to pay.

She should keep that in mind. For his sake.

Author's Note:

Here comes the continuation to "Warders".

These characters have been circling my head all this time, since last summer when "Warders" appeared. I can't get them out. There are side stories and prologues and epilogues for each of them, but the main story line, like a chunk in the middle, consists of "Warders", and directly following it, "Aes Sedai".

I can't promising any speedy updates for this one... they'll be posted as I finish them. I have about 65% of the writing done beforehand, but I also have university studies to attend and exams to pass.

So until I do update, please take the time to review. Ask me questions or post theories or thoughts. The best way to get me thinking about these characters again and writing more is to give me a little shove. And that shove is the review button below.

That, and it makes me happy to know what people think.