Realm of the Lost
Chapter 1
The dirt road stretched long into the distance in both ways. A few trees surrounded it on both sides, but it was relatively clear. The sun, strangely warm for the middle of spring, shone down on it. Even though the road was always in use, it was almost empty in this area. Save for a lone horse trotting at an easy pace heading east.
A man was sitting on the horse, silently observing the road. He was wearing a flat-brimmed hat, slanted downwards to avoid the glare of the sun. A good, silk, green coat rested on his shoulders, and his black breeches were a little snug. A plain black leather eyepatch covered his left eye, the strap disappearing under the hat. He held a long spear across the saddle, with a sword blade in place of the point. The wood was raven-black and glossy, even after five years of use.
He absent-mindedly felt at his wrists, where two of his many throwing knives hidden around his person were. Sometimes he wasn't sure which was more helpful, the ashandarei or the throwing knives. They had both been the reason he wasn't dead far too many times.
"You know, Pips, I really wish Elayne hadn't needed to see me in secret. That way I could've just hopped into a bloody gateway and appear in the bloody Palace courtyard. But no, it's 'top-secret business' so I wasn't allowed to tell anyone about it. Including my wife. And here I am, five days later, still a day from Caemlyn. Bloody queens! Do you have any idea how hard it was to sneak out of Ebou Dar? Actually, it wasn't all that hard, but still, it would've been so much easier to just bloody use a gateway." Mat grumbled.
Pips rolled his eyes, looking up at his rider reproachfully. He'd heard Mat rant about how unfair the situation was the entire trip, and they weren't even there yet.
Fortunately for Pips, Mat caught the eye-rolling and changed subjects immediately. "You're right Pips, I am overreacting. I should man up and get over it." He told the horse. Pips snorted in relief. "Shut up." Mat muttered, shading his eyes. He was surprised at how little civilization he was seeing when he was so close to Caemlyn. He couldn't see a farm or village anywhere. "Where did everybody flaming go?" He muttered. "I thought there were supposed to be people in this country."
Pips snorted again. Mat didn't respond and kept moving the horse forward. From up ahead, he caught sight of a rider trotting in their direction. Mat loosened his wrists, making sure his knives were handy. He watched the approaching rider. The Dark One's imprisonment had made the world an almost immeasurable amount safer, but danger was not gone.
It took a while, a solid fifteen minutes, before he could really make out the rider's features well. It was a woman, in a green dress. Mat couldn't make out many details, but she was close enough for him to catch her bright blue eyes. She reined her horse in a few feet away from him. Mat watched her for a moment. Something about her face seemed off….
"Matrim Cauthon?" She asked in an Andoran accent.
"Who's asking?" He replied, fingering his knife hilt.
"My name is Adine, Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah." The woman said. It hit Mat all of a sudden that he knew why her face was different. It had that ageless look of an Aes Sedai. Of course! How could he be so stupid?
"Aes Sedai, huh?" Mat commented. He was about ready to slip the knife out of his sleeve now. "You know, Aes Sedai never got along well with me. And I don't have a particular liking for them."
"I never liked you either, Cauthon." Adine said, looking at him distastefully.
"I don't remember you." Mat said.
"I tried to not know you." Adine replied.
"Ouch." Mat grinned.
"Elayne sent me. She realized that you hadn't traveled by gateway," she eyed him as if looking at a stupid animal, "and sent me to find you. Lucky that you were close enough to Caemlyn it didn't take long. If you don't mind, I'm making a gateway to Caemlyn soon." She dismounted and led her horse to the side of the road. Mat followed.
"So are you going to make that gateway?" He asked after a moment.
"It requires time for me to get to know the area I'm in before I can make a gateway." Adine said, and suddenly the foxhead medallion against Mat's chest went cold. Unfortunately, by now Mat was so used to it that he barely reacted. "Otherwise we might end up halfway across the world."
"Couldn't you…what's it called…um…" Mat sat there thinking, racking his brain for the right word. "The thing where you float in an empty space..."
"Skimming?" Adine asked.
Mat snapped his fingers and pointed. "Yes! Skimming! That's it. Can't you Skim? It might save us some time."
Adine stood watching him, hands on her hips, frowning. She seemed mad at him for something. "Yes, I suppose that would save time." She turned around, and suddenly a vertical slash of light appeared, widening into a gateway. But on the other side was an empty, gray expanse.
"This thing always creeps me out." Mat muttered, shouldering his ashandarei leading Pips inside. A large wooden square platform appeared in front of him, and he stepped onto it. Adine and her mare followed him, and the gate snapped shut. Mat shivered.
There was no sense of movement, and Mat began to get a few pangs of nervousness. "Could you add railings to this thing?" He asked the Aes Sedai. She glanced at him, then rolled her eyes and went back to staring into the nothingness. "Guess not." Mat grumbled to himself. He tried to stay near the middle of the platform. That darkness really got on your nerves.
He almost sighed with relief when another gateway opened at the edge of the platform. Taking Pips by the reins, he walked off of the platform. The sudden brightness of the sun dazzled him for a moment; he held a hand up to ward of the light. Then he noticed someone walking towards him.
Blinking, he looked around. It was definitely Caemlyn. In fact, Adine had taken them to the courtyard of the palace. He shook his head, tightening his grip on his ashandarei. "Master Cauthon?" Someone said. Mat looked up to saw a servant standing in front of him. Two stablehands were behind him. "The Queen awaits you. These two will take care of your horse." He gestured to the two boys behind him. They really were boys- maybe sixteen years. Mat nodded and handed one of them the reins.
The servant nodded his old, weathered head once and turned around, the palace livery making a small swishing sound. Mat followed him. The man led him through the winding corridors of the palace. Mat sauntered along behind him, ashandarei on his shoulder, observing everything. The place looked about the same as it had four years ago, although with more people in it. Out of boredom, he started trying to price the wall hangings and random items on pedestals throughout the hallways.
He didn't notice that the servant had led him to Elayne's chambers until the man said, "Here we are." Mat looked up with a start. Four women, dressed in the clothes of Elayne's bodyguards, stood in front of the doors. Mat nodded to them and stepped forward. The first one stuck her spear out in front of him, attempting to bar his path.
"Leave your weapon behind." She said, watching with rock-hard dark eyes.
Mat raised an eyebrow at her. "I don't think Elayne will mind if I bring it with me." He said. The guard didn't move. "Look, I'd really rather not part with this. Just ignore it, and everything will turn out fine."
"Put against the wall." The woman said. Her short blonde hair looked like she had cut it herself with a knife. Mat found it slightly distracting.
"I don't think so." Mat answered, gripping the haft a little more tightly.
One of the other guards opened the door, slipping inside. Mat could here murmured words through it for a few moments, and then she came back out. "Let him in." She told the blonde woman. She gave Mat a death stare, which he returned with a flirtatious look, and stepped aside. Mat adjusted his hat and entered the room.
Elayne was sitting on a plush chair facing the door, back straight. Her red hair was done up in an elaborate fashion, topped with the crown. She was wearing a fancy, deep red dress, with a neckline that wasn't very high, but nothing close to what Berelain used to where. Mat was struck by how…mature she looked.
"You look a lot like a bloody queen, Elayne. It's honestly scary." Mat commented. Elayne's regal manner melted and she laughed.
"Mat, even though most times you are insufferable, you certainly are a refreshing change from all these politics. Very blunt and down-to-earth." She said, her blue eyes twinkling.
"So I've been told." He said, looking around for a seat. The only thing left was a cushioned stool. Sighing, he dragged it over and sat down, laying the ashandarei across his knees. "How has your country been running? Smoothly, I hope." He said.
"Indeed. The first year or two was a little rough, rebuilding Caemlyn and the rest of the city, and then there was financial issues, but I got Andor back on stable ground a month or so ago, and so far it's running smoothly." Elayne said, her voice an interesting mix of bored and excited. "What about you? I mean, now that you're running your own empire and all, things have to be pretty different."
Mat sighed. "Tell me about it. No one there calls me Mat anymore, which gets really annoying. They keep calling me Knotai, some stupid name Tuon gave me. It's supposed to mean something important, but it seems ridiculous to me. For the last four years I went to live back in Seandar with Tuon, and she's been up to her eyeballs in trying to fix the country. She requires my help as well, and I got to know the Seanchan people a little too well now. Although they do have a really interesting country."
"A little too well?" Elayne asked.
Mat grimaced. "Some of their customs have grown on me. Most of which I really don't want to share. You'd probably have a heart attack. And then there's the child…."
Right on cue, a little boy ran into the room. "Mama! Egwene won't give me my toys back!" He said in his four-year-old dialect.
Elayne looked down at him, then looked up into the room where the boy had came from. "Egwene, are you hogging all of Gawyn's toys?"
"No mama!" A little girl said. She looked almost exactly like the boy; same face, same hair, same eyes. Mat realized that these were Elayne's children. They looked exactly like her.
Elayne gave Mat an exasperated and apologetic look. "Excuse me, Mat, while I settle this little matter." She stood up and ushered the two little ones into the room and shut the door. A minute or so later, Elayne came back out. She sat back down. "Sorry about that. I have Dyelin taking care of them for now." She eyed him for a moment. "You mentioned a child?"
"Yes I did. You aren't the only with a young child, although for me it's only one. And even better, Tuon's pregnant again." He said. Elayne smiled.
"It's challenging to see you as a father, Mat." She teased.
Mat pulled the hat off his head, grinning slightly. "I still can't believe it every day I see him."
"What's his name?" Elayne asked.
"I don't know how I convinced Tuon, but we named him Abell after my father. He's a wild little boy." Mat said.
"How unlike anyone I know." Elayne said wryly, watching him. Mat snorted.
"So what's this incredibly important business that caused me to ride all the way from Ebou Dar to here?" He asked.
Elayne's face went from cheerful and smiling to dead serious in the blink of an eye. "I need your help Mat." She said. "But in doing so, I have to tell you a secret that no one else must know. As of right now, only three do know. And if this gets out, the entire world might fall apart." Mat wasn't sure he wanted to know now.
"Okay. I'm debating whether or not to say yes….Fine. I won't tell a soul." He said.
Elayne took a deep breath and stared Mat dead in the eye. "Rand is alive."
Mat was fairly certain his jaw was buried in the carpet. There was no way. He must have heard her wrong. "Uh…um…are you…ah…sure about this?" He stammered.
Elayne nodded. "He never died during the Last Battle."
Mat's mouth opened and closed a few times before anything came out. "But we burned his body!" He exclaimed.
"He explained that he had transferred bodies with the other man who was in there with him, and that man was who died with Rand's body. Rand himself lived and has been going around the world, exploring and adventuring. Min has been living with him for a long time, hiding from the Seanchan. I have only seen him three or four times since then." Elayne explained.
Mat was speechless now. "Oh." He squeaked. He swallowed and said, "So…ah…what exactly is the problem here?"
Elayne frowned. "About a month ago, Rand and Min went into the Aiel Waste. All three of us, Aviendha, Min, and I, are bonded to him, so we could tell where is. But all of a sudden, Rand just disappeared. He can't channel anymore, so he didn't Travel anywhere, but he was just gone. There was just enough of him inside my head to know that he still lives, but wherever he is, he is not on this continent. Perhaps not even in this world."
Mat probed his teeth with tongue, a habit of his when he was nervous. "So what happened?"
"Min came back a week ago, when I sent you the letter. She explained that they had been in the Aiel Waste, in the far south, and had been exploring a strange cave-like mountain when something happened. She can't remember what. I already tried to resurface her memories, but something is blocking them, and it's not the One Power." Elayne continued.
"Oh, son of a bloody goat-kissing Trolloc!" Mat cursed. "You mean to tell me that there is another Power out there?"
"I don't know if it's a Power or not, but it's nothing anyone has seen before." Elayne said.
Mat let out a string of curses. When he finally calmed down a bit, he said, "So what does she remember?" He asked.
Elayne looked at him grimly. "That's the problem. Whatever happened in there planted memories inside her head, memories she didn't have before."
"What were they?" Mat asked.
"A forest-like landscape made completely of giant rock spires, many tilted or off-kilter. A tall tower, shining unnaturally in the sunlight, with no entrance. A name, of a place or person we don't know: Anyrvarhd." She looked up at him blank-faced, seeming hesitant to deliver the next piece. "And two twisted redstone doorways, one with upside-down triangles running down the sides, and one with snakes."