Sweat dampened Jak Leonin's face despite the cold. That was dangerous, he knew; sweat could freeze in a Malkieri spring. He took the kerchief from under his coat where he was keeping it warm and mopped his face. His face once again safely dry, he replaced the kerchief and returned to work. Hoeing in ground that still felt winter was never easy, but the weeds had to go if they were to plant cabbages. A horn sounded to the north; the nearby border fort signaling that trollocs were coming. There was no hesitation as he dropped the hoe and ran to the house. He had been through this far too many times for any uncertainty to remain. He was past his eighteenth nameday, had been training with a sword for ten years, and he was plenty experienced to face trollocs, but he still did not wear the hadori and that meant he would protect his mother and sister.
As he ran to the house, his father ran the other way. Noal Leonin did wear the hadori, and he would band together with the neighbors to herd the trollocs toward the soldiers. Jak had seldom seen trollocs get as far as the house, and that had only been a few stragglers, but trolloc raids still filled him with exhilaration. Running across fields he had already emptied of weeds, he reached the house quickly. His mother and sister had been through this before, too; they knew what to do. Wordlessly, his mother opened the door to let him in, then bolted it shut behind him. Ellen handed him his bow and a bristling quiver, and he climbed up the stairs to the roof.
A trolloc horn sounded, indicating that they had spotted someone. Based on where it was, that would be the farmers. The spotted party would be running towards the anvil now, with the farmers who hadn't been spotted setting traps to bloody and slow the trollocs along the way. If the trollocs caught up to the bait, there would be losses. An hour passed and Jak waited. No stragglers this time; they must have a myrddraal. Finally, the soldiers sounded their horn. That meant the trollocs and soldiers had met. It would be over soon. Jak sighed in relief when the horn sounded again, signaling victory. He still had to wait for his father to return before he could climb down, but it wouldn't be long now.
Jak was just starting to worry when he spotted someone coming through the trees. It was two someones, actually, and bearing a litter. Jak didn't think. In a flash he was on the ground and running toward the litter; he must have jumped off the roof. Not even a minute passed before he reached them. His father was in that litter. It was soldiers who carried him, and he looked to be in bad shape. There was only one small cut on his arm that Jak could see, but there had to be some other, worse, injury elsewhere. Jak didn't want to think of what it meant if that scratch was the reason his father's face was covered in sweat. The soldiers made him think of it anyway.
"Had a myrddraal, they did," said the front soldier. "A good chunk of them were linked to it. Your father's a hero, Jak." Almost no one survived being a hero when a myrddraal was involved.
"A hero," Jak responded numbly. He fell in beside the litter without another word. He should have wanted to charge into the Blight and kill all of the trollocs and myrddraal. He should have at least wanted to cry, but for some reason he was just numb. The ko'di sprang up unbidden, and thought fled just as emotion had. The soldiers tried to joke with him, to snap him out of it, and he responded automatically. The soldiers went quiet as Noal started mumbling. The mumblings were too quiet to understand, but there was no comfort the soldiers could offer now. Noal was having fever dreams.
They reached the house, and Jak's mother opened the door. Her face was white as a sheet, and horror was clear in her eyes. Ellen was weeping openly. His mother cleared the table hurriedly, and the soldiers set Noal down on it. "I'm sorry for your loss," one of the soldiers said. "Noal was a good man, and taking a myrddraal with him… We sent for a Wise Woman to make him as comfortable as possible. She should be here soon. I'm afraid there's nothing more we can do." With that, the soldiers awkwardly shuffled out the door.
"Well, I suppose I should get a kettle boiling in case the Wise Woman needs it," said Jak's mother, breaking the silence. "Ellen, make yourself useful and fetch some water from the well. I'm sure your father would tell you to stop sulking. He died fighting, and did better than most would if he managed to take down a myrddraal. There's no shame in that kind of death. Get moving now." His mother was looking a lot better now that she was giving orders, and so did Ellen, for that matter. Even Jak was cheered slightly by the sight of it. He sat up straighter as he watched his mother and sister leave the room.
"Always liked Uncle Bukama," Noal's voice had gained strength, and his mumblings were audible now. "Everyone liked Bukama. He was a good soldier, and he had an uncanny luck about him." Jak's great uncle had joined the Malkieri army. He had been well known as a soldier, but his father never talked much about him. He had died in a trolloc raid.
"Why is he doing this? Why won't he trust his friends? Those two soldiers…. Why would Bukama kill them? He said they were Darkfriends, but they always seemed nice. Doesn't he see that we're trying to help him?" Bukama killing other soldiers? Jak had never heard of this. "The ground! The ground is shaking! Dad, what's going on? Cadsuane Sedai is here! She'll set everything right; she's an Aes Sedai. The ground stopped shaking! Cadsuane Sedai must have done something. Dad, is Uncle Bukama going to be gentled?" By the time Jak's father quieted, Jak was horror stricken for reasons that had nothing to do with his father dying. Great Uncle Bukama had been a man who could channel? Light, but this couldn't be true. It had to have been just a fever dream.
Now Jak needed his father to live. If Noal would just live through this, Jak could ask him and confirm that Bukama had died at the hands of trollocs. The idea that there had been a man who could channel in his family was too much to deal with. If Jak could just imagine Noal getting better, maybe he would. That was irrational, but at this point Jak didn't care. He squeezed his father's hand. He imagined the poison receding, Noal's heartbeat getting stronger. He imagined he could hear his father's heartbeat, instead of just feeling it through his hand. His fantasy was every bit as vivid as reality. It was more vivid! It seemed like he could see every detail of the world around him. He felt cold, and at the same time he was on fire. His fantasy collapsed, and with it went ko'di. He hadn't realized he had assumed it. Light, but he was tired; he felt like he had run a hundred leagues! He collapsed, head on his father's chest. Was Noal's breathing more regular than it had been?
Jak was wakened by a knock on the door. He got up and opened it just as his mother and Ellen entered the room. It was Merien, the village Wise Woman. "Thank you for coming, Wise Woman," Jak said, inclining his head slightly. "My father…"
"I'll see what I can do, Jak, but you know I can't make any promises with this type of injury." Merien walked over to the table and felt Noal's head for a fever. She seemed puzzled, and put her head against his chest to listen to his heartbeat and breathing. Even more confused, she started looking him over for any signs of injury.
"The myrddraal cut him here, Wise Woman," Jak said, grabbing the cut arm. Then he was even more confused than Merien; the cut was gone.
"What foolishness is this?" Merien demanded. "This man isn't even hurt. There isn't a thing wrong with him!"
"I swear, Wise Woman, the soldiers brought him in on a litter. He had a cut on his arm and he was having fever dreams. The soldiers saw him fight the myrddraal!"
"Well, either you're mistaken or the Light chose to give you a miracle. Your father's just a little tired. He'll be back on his feet in a few hours. Now if you'll excuse me, I have patients who actually need my help."
The door closed to complete silence. No one seemed to know how to deal with the sudden knowledge that a miracle had occurred. After a few minutes, Ellen started laughing. She was joined by her mother, and Jak started laughing as well. There was nothing else to do now that the impossible had happened. "Well," his mother said, "He'll be wanting to be in his own bed when he wakes up. Ellen, Jak, why don't you pick him up and move him there, and I'll start fixing dinner. There's some beef we've been saving for a special occasion, and I'd say this qualifies."
As Jak and Ellen carried their father to his room, Ellen tried to start a conversation. "I can't believe Dad killed a myrddraal. That makes him a Dreadbane now! Great Uncle Bukama was a Dreadbane too; I heard some soldiers talking about it in the village once. Maybe you'll be like them, Jak. Maybe you could become a soldier and kill myrddraal."
"Someone has to take care of the farm, Ellen. I'm the only son Dad has, and I'm going to carry on his legacy." Inwardly, he cringed. Maybe you'll be like Great Uncle Bukama. That had to have been just a fever dream. As they set their father down in his bed, Jak pulled up a chair. "I think I'll sit here and wait for him to wake up. He'll want someone to explain what happened, after all."
"For not wanting to be a soldier, Jak, you sure do laze about like one," Ellen retorted. "If you had your way you'd sit around all day while I did all the chores. Why-" Jak was saved from his sister's tirade as their mother called for Ellen to help with supper. "Coming mother!" Ellen shouted in reply. She shot Jak a glare and dashed up the stairs without another word.
Jak sat in the chair and felt his eyes try to close almost immediately. No, he thought. I need to stay awake until dad wakes up. He focused on his breath, and tried to convince himself that if he fell asleep he would stop breathing. Maybe the fear would keep him awake. They said the look of the eyeless is fear, and Jak couldn't imagine anyone falling asleep near a myrddraal. How had Noal survived that cut? He should have died, with no Aes Sedai nearby to heal him.
Jak looked around at the gruesome scene. He was near the blightborder, and the groans of the dying drew him. He didn't wear the hadori, so his job was to find those who could be saved. He had been given instruction on which wounds were too severe; he was to mark people with those wounds as dead and move on. He found another victim of the myrddraal, another tiny scratch that left the poor man sweating and convulsing. He drew an x on the man's cheek with another man's blood and whispered "May the last embrace of the Mother welcome you home." He moved on, another tear joining the many that dripped down his cheeks.
Everywhere around him people were screaming, and he could only help some of them. It was unfair; an Aes Sedai could have helped them. The One Power was a powerful tool, and only a few fools who spent their time meddling in Daes Dae'mar were allowed to wield it. Any man who used it went mad and died, but women stayed away from the places where men were injured. The Dark One hadn't just tainted Saidin; he had ended an age when no one died of sickness or injury.
He felt a stabbing pain as something sharp broke his skin. It barely cut him at all, but the metal was colder than ice could ever be and hotter than the sun all at once. It felt as though it stabbed into every part of him, and deeply. He summoned ko'di and turned around. He felt weak and fell to his knees before the myrddraal. It just stood there, laughing at him, knowing its prey was dead. Jak drew his dagger and lunged at it, a fit of rage ripping ko'di to shreds. He leapt out of his chair and was caught by his startled father.
"Well, now," Noal said. "There's no need to get violent. It was funny after all. I had just woken up in my bed, fully dressed, to find you here no doubt waiting to explain why. It would have been a noble sentiment if it hadn't been your snoring that woke me up!"
"I guess I must have dozed off," Jak said sheepishly. "I've had a bit of a stressful day wondering if you would survive. You were injured by a myrddraal."
"A myrddraal now? Well that's something. I suppose I should thank the Aes Sedai who saved me. Where is she?"
"There was no Aes Sedai, Dad. You just recovered on your own. The Wise Woman thought we were pulling a prank on her. Mother said she was cooking up that beef tonight, in honor of you now being a Dreadbane. Should we go see if it's done?"
"I suppose so," Noal responded. "I feel like my stomach is trying to eat through my middle, and talk of beef just gave it extra motivation." As the two headed upstairs, Jak thought about how he could bring up Uncle Bukama. He eventually decided that he would ask the next day, after his father had had some rest.