The Green Sister blinked in surprise; then her features hardened and she opened her mouth angrily.
"Do not change the subject, boy, answer my question! Do you know how long it has been since your capture?"
The Green waited expectantly, a slight frown on her face. Jed stopped eating and frowned thoughtfully. He did not, he realised. It could have been days, maybe even a week since his capture, although since he had been Healed it was impossible to tell from his hunger roughly how long.
He really did want to know how long it had been, how much closer to Tar Valon the group was, and especially he wanted to know which route they had taken. Suddenly he had an idea. Something must have shown on his face because the Green's features immediately became guarded and she took on a wary stance. No doubt she was holding the Power, waiting for him to try something. Since three of the Reds were holding his shield he could not be certain. His arms were alight with goose bumps.
"I will answer any question you ask of me Al'sieta Sedai, if you will but answer a question of mine in return," Jed said.
"I know you cannot lie, so I will have your oath that you will answer a question of mine if I answer one of yours. If you will not give me your oath, well then, this will be a very quiet journey. No doubt you have many questions; only the Red Ajah cares less than nothing for men of my kind."
He waited, watching the Green Sister silently while he finished his meal and placed the empty bowl and spoon on the grass. While she contemplated his offer, Jed carefully examined the camp and its occupants. The moon was up and there were few clouds drifting across the sky. He could not see any stars. The trees around him were oak and the horses and cart were tethered at the edge of the clearing. Beyond them was the road, just visible through the trees. Alaria was sitting on the other side of the fire to Jed, deep in conversation with Katerine and another of the women. Salarme, the Red who had Healed him, was asleep to his left, no doubt weary from Healing Jed. Namelle was huddled among the roots of one of the gnarled oaks, as far from the other Aes Sedai as she could get while still in the camp. The last three were sitting in a line ten paces from him with their legs crossed and their eyes trained on him. All had the ageless face and two had grey hair, a sign of great age among their kind. Those two were probably over a hundred and fifty years old.
The Green stirred and his attention was back on her. She looked up from her deliberation and met his eyes, not without a little fear in them.
"I accept your terms and I swear under the Light and by my hope of salvation and rebirth that if it does not concern ways to escape us I will answer a question of yours if you will answer one of mine." She grimaced slightly and suddenly glared at him.
"There," she said, "does that satisfy you?"
Jed sighed gratefully. He had not really believed she would do it. She really must be new to the shawl if she was willing to swear an oath to him. He shook his head slightly and smiled. She was still naive to the ways of the world.
"Yes, thank you. Now, about that name?" he said.
"Not so fast," she said quickly. "I get the first question, remember?"
Jed cursed under his breath.
"So you do, Al'sieta Sedai. Ask your question."
She smiled, and opened her mouth to speak when Jed suddenly interrupted her.
"I do not know how long it has been since the night of my capture. I remember awakening to find myself in a cart and Alaria giving Katerine permission to beat me as punishment for severing Namelle from saidar."
Jed stopped and smirked at the look of outrage on the Green Sister's face.
"You asked, Al'sieta Sedai, and I answered."
"Now, your name is...?" he trailed off, waiting.
The Green sniffed loudly, drawing the attention of the three holding Jed's shield.
"Rashelle Damroden, but to you I am Rashelle Sedai." She glared at him in a 'you-will-call-me-Sedai' way and Jed found himself smiling.
"Rashelle. A beautiful name. A beautiful woman," he said, looking at her.
Rashelle Sedai blushed and glared at him again.
"Your question, Rashelle Sedai," he said, sneering slightly. He could not stand those who claimed a title they had no right to.
"How long have you been fleeing the Red Ajah, she asked him. "They will not tell me," she said, gesturing to the women sitting around the fire.
Jed sat quietly for a minute, wondering whether he should tell her how long he had been running from this group of Reds instead of all of them. She asked you how long you had been running from the Ajah, not this particular group. Jed sighed. He could not reveal that, not yet.
"I have been fleeing them," he pointed at the Reds, "for about six months. They found me after I stopped a Trolloc Raid on a town in northern Basharande. I have travelled since I found out what I am. I stopped in the town to buy supplies and rest for a few days. As you could probably understand, I try to stay away from people as much as possible."
Rashelle Sedai grimaced and averted her eyes from his at that. He smiled grimly and looked away, at the surrounding forest. He was considering his next question when something flickered at the edge of his vision, drawing his gaze to the sky above. Against the deep purple of the night sky through a gap in the clouds Jed thought he saw a blacker shape moving out of sight above them.
"What is it?" Rashelle asked, following his gaze.
Jed frowned for a moment, staring at the sky, and then said "Nothing. Probably nothing." He hoped he was seeing things, but grimaced. Actually maybe it would be better if he hadn't been seeing things. He hadn't gone mad yet and he didn't intend to start now, especially when he could not channel.
"It is my turn, I believe," he said, turning back to the Al'sieta Sedai.
"Very well," she sniffed, shifting to get more comfortable.
He opened his mouth to ask her what would happen to him after he was...well, after it happened, when he realised that what he really wanted to know was where they were in relation to where they'd been when he was captured.
"Where are we?" he asked.
She considered him for a moment, eyes narrowed.
"We have almost reached the border with Elsalam. In fact, we'll be crossing the border in just under a week, maybe eight or nine days from now." She sat back and Jed groaned.
Brilliant, he thought. Jed felt both relief and despair at the thought. On the one hand they were still many hundreds of leagues from Tar Valon, but on the other there were still over two months of morning and evening beatings waiting for him unless he managed to either convince them to stop or escape before then.
Rashelle yawned behind her hand and blinked sleepily.
"I suppose that is enough questions for today. I will need to rest to be prepared for Katerine tomorrow," he said, jabbing a finger in the spiteful woman's direction before standing and stretching his legs.
Rashelle looked up at him a moment, then asked, "Why do you call us Al'sieta Sedai?" in a curiously mild voice.
Alaria and the others stopped talking and looked over at him. Jed considered them for a moment before answering.
"Because you are 'Servants of the Tower', you put the Tower before the world and the people you claim to serve."
"How dare you!" one the Reds hissed at him, her face as red as her shawl with anger. Alaria was looking at him as though he had suddenly sprouted horns like a Trolloc and the rest were glaring at him and most likely full to the point of pain with saidar. He shifted uneasily under their glares but stood tall. "We are the reason the world has not fallen apart by now," she spat at him.
"And you are?" he said, looking at her.
She stiffened at his cold tone but answered, "Rhemala Aes Sedai, of the Red Ajah". She tossed her hair over her shoulder and started at him proudly.
He snorted and looked pointedly at her shawl. "Thank you so much for pointing that out to me, Red! I am sure I would never have been able to work that out for myself."
She opened her mouth to retort but Alaria held up a hand to forestall her. Rhemala settled for a stubborn glare.
"As Rhemala so kindly asked, I dare because I was born in the Land between the Two Rivers, in Aemon's Field."
Before he could see more than their outraged features melt into shock, Jed firmly turned his backs on them and lay down under a tree at the edge of the clearing. Before he fell asleep he heard their muttered whispers and the eyes of Namelle staring at him from her huddled spot under the oak.
Fgfgfgfgg hffgbbg
Jed walked around the campsite, examining the smouldering remains of the cook fire, the wagon at the edge of the clearing and the occasional flashes of blankets as they blinked in and out of existence. The trees swayed in a non-existent wind, their leaves rustling. Jed sighed, and turned towards the road.
In a flash he was there, looking back through the trees at the campsite. He turned and began running. Within a matter of days the party would reach the border. He did not yet know which route the Al'sieta Sedai had taken but there should be a village or at least a town on the edge of the country. The scenery around him sped to a blur racing behind him as Jed ran. There; suddenly a town appeared before him and he stopped, not even out of breath. This place, whatever it was, allowed Jed to do things he could never do when he was awake. He did not know whether it was a Talent or madness but he used it as he would a horse or a map.
Jed smiled as he looked on the town. It was Jaroncen, the border town between Basharande and Elsalam. That must mean that the party escorting him to Tar Valon was taking the great Border Road that spanned the entire length of the borderlands, from World's End to the Niamh Pass in the Spine of the World. If he was right then the Reds were planning on taking him along the Border Road until they reached the river Erinin and then by ship down to Tar Valon. He would have to make his escape either along the Border Road or somewhere along the Erinin. As long as they were on land he had a better chance of escaping alive but they could still follow him more easily than on the water. If he managed to escape along the river then he would have to swim to shore and would be exhausted if they found him.
Jed caught sight of someone moving further down the street. It was a woman; she looked to be in her middle years and was dressed extravagantly in a beautiful green dress. She saw him and smiled, making her way to him down the street. Just as she opened her mouth, probably to greet him, she vanished. Jed had noticed other people here before but he had never seen them up close. He did not believe he could have imagined that woman and he had certainly never met her before which meant that wherever this place was it was not a figment of his imagination. Jed shrugged and turned to leave, making his way back to the clearing and his body. He supposed he could leave this place from wherever he happened to be but did not want to take the risk of not making it back to his body in the waking world so preferred to step out of this world where he stepped in. Jed had noticed before that whenever he spent all night in this world he was always tired when he woke up and that whenever he hurt himself here, the injury was there when he woke. Foolishly, years ago he had decided to explore the Aiel Waste while asleep and had gone to the entrance of the Jangai Pass, as far as he'd ever gone in the waking world to entering the Waste. From the Jangai he'd run into the waste within a matter of minutes and travelled east in the direction of the fabled Cliffs of Dawn and the land of Shara. He had stopped somewhere in the middle of the waste when he thought he saw a figure in the distance wearing a brown dress. The next thing he knew something had smacked him in the side of the head and he'd fled back to his body in Hai Caemlyn with a voice yelling after him 'do not enter this place, boy!' He still did not know whether that woman had meant for him to stay out of the waste or to stay out of this world.
Jed chuckled as he stopped in the clearing. He looked at the cart and noticed again the absence of the horses. He had seen other animals here, bears, wolves, foxes and predators but he had never seen any domesticated creatures, none at all. He was just about to step out of this world when he felt it. Even here he could feel the shield between himself and saidin but now there was something else. His shoulders itched and he felt uncomfortable, like something was watching him. Jed turned and gasped, a sword appearing in his hands and his clothes replaced by armour. A woman was standing before him, with startling red hair and green eyes that pierced him. She was tall, as tall as him, wearing a brown and grey dress with a shawl across her shoulders. Suddenly Jed realised he recognised her; this was the Aiel woman who had given him that black eye and sent him running for his body ten years ago! She looked as shocked as he when she saw his face.
"You!" she shouted, taking a step toward him. "Where am I, wetlander? Where have you brought me?" She was speaking in the Old Tongue. Jed jumped back a step in surprise, then, angry at his own cowardice and her for sneaking up on him, 'Come to think of it,' he thought, 'and the black eye!' Jed stepped forward and glared right back at her.
"Me?" he shouted. "What about you sneaking up on me like a thief and scaring me like that? And what do you mean by saying I brought you here?"
The Aiel woman looked startled for a moment. The she stepped back and looked at him again, eyeing him up and down like he was a sheep at the market. Her eyes widened slightly, and then narrowed. "Ten years" she muttered to herself, "ten years and he hasn't aged a day."
Jed heard, and gulped silently. If this was a place where others could go then he could probably enter because of his ability to channel, and that meant that she could probably channel as well. Jed didn't know what the Aiel did with those who could channel, and Jed had no doubt there were men among them who could touch saidin but from all the stories he'd heard of Aiel fierceness she would probably kill him in an instant, right here. Jed wondered for a brief moment whether his dying here would kill his body or whether it would simply remain an empty shell until the Al'sieta Sedai attempted to wake him.
When Jed had first learned he could channel he had been in despair, but resolved to learn to control saidin and avoid madness for as long as he could rather than go to the Tower and it's treacherous witches. Five hundred years may have passed since the end of the Trolloc Wars but the people of the Land between Two Rivers remembered well the Betrayal of Manetheren. None of the new nations that had risen in the last half-millennium trusted those who called themselves Aes Sedai as the Ten Nations once did. Now the Ten Nations and its compact had shattered, and Tar Valon was one of the last Ogier-built cities in the world, and definitely now the most beautiful since Manetheren had been destroyed.
"There have never been more than three or four among us who can enter the World of Dreams without aid, wetlander, but the last time a man was found who could was over a thousand years ago." The Aiel's voice brought Jed out of his thoughts. World of Dreams? That must be the name for this place then. He had to admit, it did seem to fit since he could only come here when he was sleeping.
Jed looked at her before answering. "World of Dreams? Who are you, and why are you here? I never expected to see you again after the black eye you gave me."
The Aiel woman laughed, as if he'd told a great joke. He didn't think it was very funny.
"You entered the Three-fold Land without permission, wetlander, and you were neither bard nor trader," she said with a frown, but her pressed lips betrayed her amusement. "Now, why have you brought me here?" she asked.
"I did not!" Jed insisted, before he could hold his tongue.
"Of course you did, otherwise I would not be here." She looked at him curiously. "Do you believe I would come to this place of my own will..." she trailed off, frowning in thought.
"What were you thinking of before I appeared, wetlander?" she asked quickly, looking at him intently.
Jed thought back, rummaging through his earlier thoughts. Then he gave a start, his eyes widening. The Aiel woman noticed this and nodded to herself. "You were thinking of me, were you not?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes," he said wonderingly. How could his thinking of her bring him here?
The woman groaned when he answered, and started muttering to herself, too quietly for him to understand more than a few words. 'Foolish' and 'wetlander' seemed to come up more than once.
"Um, not that I mean to be rude, but who...?" he gestured to her. She glared at him, then calmed before answering.
"I am Sarendhra of the Haido Sept of the Shaarad Aiel. I am a Wise One for my people and also a Dreamwalker," she stated, looking at him expectantly. What did she want now...'Oh'.
"My name is Jedwyn of Aemon's Field in the Land between Two Rivers." He hoped that would be enough. "Wise One; is that something like a village Wisdom?" he asked. "And what is a Dreamwalker?"
"You do not know?" she asked in surprise. She looked at him curiously for a moment. "The Servants of All, they do not gather people with Talents to them for training?"
"Hardly," Jed laughed. "If a woman wants to be a Servant she has to go to the Tower, and they never go looking for women who cannot channel the One Power. As for me, I am a man, and any man who shows unusual talents is taken to the Tower to be severed, whether he can channel the Power or not." Jed paused. "You mentioned you were a, what was it...dreamwalker? Is that what this place is then; a dream?"
Sarendhra spoke, "I was hunting nightmares near the Jangai Pass when I recalled the time I chased a male wetlander dreamwalker from the Three-fold Land. The next I knew I was standing here and you were laughing with your back turned to me."
"Oh, I was thinking of you at the same moment you thought of me. This place is truly strange indeed," Jed replied, looking around him with new respect in his eyes.
"Wetlanders," she muttered. "It seems that you and I are bound to each other, Jedwyn of the Two Rivers and Aemon's..." her eyes widened. "You are of Manetheren!" she whispered in awe.
"Yes, I suppose I am," he said, frowning, "though there has not been a Manetheren for over five hundred years now. What does it matter to you?" he asked.
Sarendhra sat down on the grass, looking up at him with an eyebrow raised. Jed rolled his eyes and muttered about women being the same wherever he went as he also sat. "Well," he asked.
"Of all the wetlands, the people of Manetheren and their descendants and those who gave us water before we found the Three-fold Land have our respect. We do not know who gave us water in the upheaval, or the Breaking as it is known here, but we will find them one day." She looked happy at the thought.
"Stories of the bravery of Manetheren had come to us during the war. We had already suffered an attack by the shadowmen and their creatures at the time but we are not wetlanders, defending our own Holds before our people. Those traders and bards who come through the Three-Fold-Land believe we drove the armies of the shadow back into the Blighted Lands. We didn't. We left none alive to flee back to their wastes in the north," Sarendhra said proudly, lifting her chin and staring at him like a queen. "When we heard of the shadow's attack on the wetlands we came together to discuss our next course of action but we do not believe in helping those who cannot help themselves. It was only later, after the fall of...Aridhol..." she stumbled over that name, "that we heard of Manetheren and its armies victories across the wetlands. We came to respect your people though we did not know them. When our Wise Ones heard of Sightblinder's armies gathering for a direct attack on Manetheren while your armies were elsewhere we decided to send the spears though these Waygates of yours along with the Ogier garrisons. Three clans, the Taardad, the Shaarad and the Tomanelle would have come to your aid after armies from other wetlander nations had reached you, but by the time we reached the Jangai pass word arrived from stedding Shangtai that you had fallen and that Manetheren was gone." She paused for breath and suddenly a cup of...something, appeared in her hands. Jed gave a start when it appeared and Sarendhra drank with a smile in her eyes.
"Tell me, Jedwyn, because we do not know, why the remaining nations of the so-called Compact of the Ten Nations didn't send reinforcements to aid you?" she asked curiously.
Jed snorted angrily, and then said, "The so-called Servants of All diverted the armies sent by Manetheren's allies, telling them that Tar Valon was sending reinforcements and their armies were needed elsewhere."
Sarendhra frowned. "But no reinforcements arrived. Was the Servants army too late to aid you?"
"No," he said. "There was no army coming to aid my ancestors. " Sarendhra's eyebrows shot up in surprise and she opened her mouth to speak but Jed forestalled her.
"The Amyrlin Seat at the time was jealous of Manetheren's Queen because she was a more powerful channeller, she was both Aes Sedai and queen to the most powerful and respected nation in the westlands and because everybody loved her. She was known as the Rose of the Sun by my ancestors and many others." Jed paused, glowering angrily around the campsite, imagining the Al'sieta Sedai all around him in the real world right now, thinking themselves so smart and so above the rest of humanity.
"The clan chiefs and my fellow Wise Ones must hear of this." She stopped and looked at him carefully for a moment. "I feel I can trust you, Jedwyn. We, the Aiel, served the Aes Sedai once, before the upheaval, and we failed them in that service. If we fail them again we believe they will destroy us. That is what we have believed, have known, since we came to the Three-fold Land."
Jed snorted. "Before the Breaking the Aes Sedai would not have killed you for any mistakes you might have made, but I would be surprised if the Al'sieta Sedai of the Tower even remember that you apparently once served them. They are not who they once were."
Sarendhra sat quietly for a few minutes. Jed looked around wondering again at how he was supposed to escape the Al'sieta Sedai here along the road or at the river.
"You must come to me at Bent Valley Hold, Jedwyn," she said. "The other dreamwalkers will listen to me, but others among us may question what you have told me and the clan chiefs, stubborn as they are, will need you to confirm that the Aes Sedai are not what they once were." She paused, thinking. "And you will need training," she finished, nodding to herself thoughtfully.
"Training," Jed asked in surprise, "for what?"
Sarendhra smiled at him, and then laughed, slapping her hands against her thighs in amusement.
"I am going to train you as a dreamwalker, Jedwyn," she said, still beaming with humour.
"And this is amusing...?" he said.
"Yes, because no man has ever been trained for this before and no man can become a Wise One. It will be interesting to see what the others think of this," she said. Jed had no idea what he being taught how to control this place had to do with being a Wise One but then, Aiel were said to have a very strange sense of humour.
"Wait, you said that I have to come to you." Jed thought on his current predicament and decided that now might not be the best time for him to tell her that he was being transported to Tar Valon to be severed. "Can you not simply teach me at night, here while we are sleeping?" he asked.
"No," Sarendhra said firmly, all humour gone from her eyes. "It would be dangerous, not only for me but for you as well, especially since our bodies are so far apart. I cannot wake you if you become trapped in some way here if your body is not near mine in the waking world." Jed nodded in understanding.
"Then I will come to you," he said. "It may take me a while but I will find a way."
"Where are you now?" she asked.
"In the borderlands, in Basharande and I have almost reached the border with Elsalam."
"Good," she said. "I will pass your description to Torrel, clan chief of the Shaarad with instructions that you be given escort to Bent Valley Hold when you reach Niamh Pass."
"Very well," Jed said, "but will you also send someone to the Jangai Pass? I may come that way if I am unable to leave the group before we reach the river Erinin." Jed prayed to the Creator that he was able to leave the 'group' before they reached Tar Valon.
Sarendhra nodded and was about to speak again when Jed suddenly felt a pulling inside him.
"Wait!" Sarendhra shouted. "Do not go yet, we have more to discuss!"
Then she stopped speaking. Jed thought she felt it at the same time he did, a slick, oily feeling, as if he had just stepped into the blight. Then Sarendhra and the World of Dreams vanished.
Fdgh vth nf gfhfghfgh
Jed woke to the sound of screaming and light blazing everywhere. He looked up in a daze and saw Rashelle standing over him, throwing fireballs into the surrounding trees and Namelle shaking him roughly and looking wide-eyed around them. Suddenly there was a flash of light followed by an enormous crash of noise and something burst into flames high above the campsite.
Jed jumped up and instinctively reached for the Source. He ran straight into the shield and cursed, looking wildly around him. The Al'sieta Sedai were in a circle around him, the two keeping his shield in place staring into the trees while keeping one eye on him and the rest throwing fireballs into the forest and setting trees alight. Illuminated in the trees around them, dozens of large misshapen shadows roared and swarmed towards them. Jed cursed and looked around for his sword. A hand clutching his heron-mark blade was thrust into his chest. He grabbed for the sword and looked up in time to meet Namelle's eyes. He nodded to her but she only looked at him, fear and pain and loss painted across her features. Another crash brought Jed back to his senses and he looked up in time to see Rashelle throw a fireball straight into the face of a great, bearlike trolloc. It collapsed bellowing to the ground and lay there thrashing for a moment before the flames consumed the flesh of its head. The smell of burning flesh and wood was everywhere, lightning flashing down from the sky and the Al'sieta Sedai fighting with grim determination. Suddenly a black shape snaked its way into the clearing, smoothly dodging a fireball thrown by one of the Reds and hurled itself at her. Its cowl slipped and Jed caught a glimpse of its pale, maggot-like skin a moment before he threw himself between the myrdraal and its intended pray. His power-wrought sword left its sheath and met the black, Thakan'dar blade of the halfman in a flash of blue light.