Youngest Channeler: The Third Arch
by viggen
"The third time is for what will be. The way back will come but once. Be steadfast."
She heard the words spoken through ears detached from her person. The Healing had been a splash of ice that seared through a layer of agony and departed on a wave of exhaustion. The Aes Sedai talked amongst themselves for a time in voices Ghedlyn could have easily intercepted if she were so inclined. But, standing somehow beside herself, she remembered only the deep, unending loneliness of that place from moments ago. The world of gray mist remained all around her, even though she stood in reality before the next silver archway. Had she been walking for an eon? Had the Wheel turned clear around during her time within?
"You must go in again," she was told. Ghedlyn barely registered the statement. She did not recognize who had spoken. "You alone cannot turn away."
The meaning did not reach her. She tottered listlessly. She felt like a husk of a person, barely afoot and devoid of conscious thought. Every muscle ached. The threads of her existence felt like a tattered cloak worn down by an eternity of rain and wind.
She gave an inhaled gasp when someone at her back suddenly pushed her forward. She was marched across the cold rock floor and bodily shoved beneath the silver arch. She thought someone behind her made a strangled sound, but she could not be certain. Maybe the truncated wheeze had been her own. She stumbled into the glowing gray mist and stretched herself out to embrace it in anticipation. That last walk had been so very long. Would things with pointed teeth be waiting to surround her once again? She consigned herself to it.
She blinked.
What had she been doing?
Stunted pine trees capped with wreaths of snow hung heavily in lazy morning light. She, Sildane and Tavis had packed out of camp early ahead of the other Aes Sedai and their many warders; Ghedlyn had made the excuse of wanting inspect some huge, flowing icicles that cascaded down a mountain cliff not far to the north. Most sisters willingly forgave her eccentricity, though Sildane had this once conceived their excuse. She and her friend certainly intended to inspect the ice formation, but that leg of the journey would only last a few minutes. The two women had agreed the night before to steal a march on their sisters. There would be great risk meeting him without a full circle of thirteen, but they could ill afford to miss the chance.
A puff of fog rising with her breath, Ghedlyn pulled her white ermine cloak more tightly closed. New snow sucked every sound down into a chilling, funereal silence. The gift of her small size allowed Ghedlyn to walk easily upon the older crust hidden just beneath the powdered surface. The dead-still morning mist would be perfectly quiet except for the crunch of their horse's hooves. Tavis sometimes clucked to the three mounts he lead in their wake and Sildane once gave a sneeze.
"It was this way," Sildane pointed, raising her hand in the finely tailored crimson traveling cloak. The brassy ringlets of her hair fell midway down her back and framed her slender, gorgeous, not-yet-ageless face. She had insisted on wearing her red-fringed shawl as the badge of her honor for this task.
Ghedlyn went as her friend directed. They would reach the ice flow quickly and then strike off to the west. She knew well that the other Aes Sedai would guess their purpose when they two failed to return. Her own and Sildane's inclusion on this expedition was the same reason they were attempting to steal this march. Given the woman's intelligence, Ghedlyn did not doubt that Korene was anticipating this sort of move and probably had already rousted the camp the instant Sildane showed interest in taking off alone. The other Aes Sedai certainly did not blame Sildane, though no one went on this sort of mission without substantial help. Ghedlyn knew they would have to move quickly if they wanted to keep ahead of the following party.
"We could see it up there when we came down that cut the other night and set up camp," Sildane mentioned. They had not spoken during their preparations to leave in order to avoid waking up too many of the others, but with the camp safely behind them, Sildane relaxed enough to begin some of small talk.
Ghedlyn knew her friend was nervous, though anyone unfamiliar with Sildane would not have seen it through the carefully honed exterior. The open-faced girl from their shared childhood now hid behind years of Tower training. When Sildane spoke, Ghedlyn nodded thoughtfully. The nod of was both sympathetic and not; Ghedlyn never did understand what her dear friend was thinking, but could catch signs of the other woman's distress. Despite years of growing and changing, Ghedlyn had long since concluded that she would never understand what a normal person felt or thought.
The iceflow appeared through a gap in the trees and Ghedlyn paused walking, her jaw gone lax. In the corner of her mind, she felt Tavis grow tense: her warder had come to know that his Aes Sedai's greatest moments of vulnerability appeared when she confronted dazzling forms of nature. She could lose herself forever in such patterns. The frozen falls of ice hung over snow crusted rocks like a moment held fixed in time and about to crash down.
"It's beautiful," Sildane came up beside her and marveled.
"Beautiful, beautiful," Ghedlyn agreed, beginning to calculate how stationary descent paths evolved as water piled up in the ice blockage and changed the topology of the flow. She would have loved to examine the falls for a month, even knowing the ice would eventually melt before she learned everything she might hope.
"It would be nice if we could stay," Sildane adjusted a firedrop encrusted hairpin then gazed off along the escarpment to the west, off into the trees.
"You would go. We cannot stay," Ghedlyn offered, knowing what Sildane had in mind. "The others will be behind us soon."
"Are we right doing this, Ghed?" Sildane asked.
Ghedlyn looked at her friend, following the other woman's gaze to the west. He waited somewhere nearby unaware of the Aes Sedai camped under his nose. The careful hunt brought fourteen sisters into striking distance without his even realizing it. A few women arrived at a time and then gathered together once they knew for certain where their target would be. Whatever became of Ghedlyn and Sildane now, a circle of twelve other Aes Sedai would more than likely end it today. How far? An hour's ride? Two hours' ride? "We must go."
His kindly, round face alert, Tavis brought their horses up. "Aes Sedai," Ghedlyn's warder seemed ungainly with his excess girth. In fact, he seemed like anything but a warder. The only weapon he usually carried was a hunting knife the length of a hand or a short bow good for killing game. His dumpy, clumsy outward form belied his other qualities. Given that Ghedlyn rarely wore her shawl or traveled with typical Aes Sedai extravagance, low-key Tavis had been the ideal choice for a warder.
With a wistful look back at the ice-locked falls, Ghedlyn nodded thanks to her warder and allowed him to help her swing into the saddle of her gray splotched mount Legendre. She would never be graceful astride, but she had improved enough to at least appear dignified.
In the saddle of her brown mare, Kestrel, Sildane lead off silently.
Briefly holding her breath to keep her balance when Legendre kicked into motion against the snow, Ghedlyn followed her friend dutifully. The rise of the cliff to their right formed a sort of shelter along the vale below and diminished the snow drifts enough to afford the horses easy passage. The horses' hooves kicked up glistening white plumes as they stepped high to make headway through the loose pack. They rode quickly along the verge into the tree stand and continued up a shallow hill beyond. Ghedlyn forced herself not to look back at the waterfall, lest she have misgivings. Sildane knew exactly where to go; she had spent days wheedling the information from of the green sister's warder who first came here to scout.
"Not that long of a ride," Sildane said quietly, her brown eyes crinkled slightly in concern. "Through that cut ahead and up a curving slope. Supposedly a log cabin stands on the high ground. He keeps to himself most of the time, going down to Baerlon for supplies every month or so."
"Be careful," Ghedlyn warned, "he may be out, he may be. He might see someone coming if he stands on high ground."
"Do you suppose we should link?" Sildane asked, glancing over at Ghedlyn. "You're strong, but are you that strong?"
In half an answer, Ghedlyn embraced the friendly warmth of saidar and cut free the inverted semi-shield she almost always wore. It had been a very long time since she had gone without the weave and she relished in the sudden heightening of her connection to the source, as if she had just opened a partly blocked river. She and Sildane almost always took the unspoken lie completely for granted.
"By the light of the Creator, Ghed," Sildane gasped, "I had no idea you were that strong now. If you went without that weave, you would be in charge of this whole expedition and not Korene. I've gotten so used to you being about the same level as me..."
"Better that way. Not so complicated," Ghedlyn returned. She drew in saidar nearly to her limit, just to stretch herself out, then released the source altogether. It felt good to fill to her true strength, but she also understood the danger.
The way out will come but once, be steadfast.
"Wait for a moment, Aes Sedai," Tavis had brought his destrier Maximus forward in the unbroken snow and was pacing Legendre's walk. Ghedlyn had not felt the slow increase in his concern.
She reined up and looked to the rotund warder, "What have you seen."
Glancing back at the two of them, Sildane also drew to a halt.
"Your pardon, Aes Sedai, please hold these," Tavis passed his reins to Ghedlyn and vaulted to the ground in one fluid motion. He landed so solidly that he sank to his knees in the white surface. He hitched his cloak up and trudged through the piled drifts over to a nearby pine, half hidden within its bowl of snow. He circled around the tree once and poked his head down to peer into the lip between the snow and lowest branches.
With one shake of his head, Tavis turned and retraced his steps to where the Aes Sedai waited. He lifted himself back into Maximus' saddle and retrieved his reins from Ghedlyn. "A person has been through here," he explained, "a good sized man from the look of it. This fellow is picking his path from shelter to shelter with each tree to help mask his trail."
Ghedlyn and Sildane glanced at each other.
"Suppose he knows," Sildane said.
"Suppose," Ghedlyn repeated carefully and attempted to follow the ripples out into their future.
"It would certainly not change your plans, Aes Sedai," Tavis volunteered. "We must simply proceed with caution."
"If he knows," Sildane thought aloud, "he may be running as we speak. We may not find him again! We should hurry..."
"The snow will make him easy to track," Tavis told the two women. "If he flees it will be possible to follow him."
"He will not run," Ghedlyn said simply. She thought she understood the truth this once. All those years ago, she had looked into those eyes and known. Down to the edge, he would not run. It had been years since she saw him, but his impression had not faded. The Taint in him would not let him run away.
"You think he'll be waiting?" Sildane asked.
"He will not run," she repeated with certainty.
"Whatever you choose," Tavis said, "the others will be following us shortly. We cannot have had much time before they set out after us."
"Sildane," Ghedlyn said, "I follow you Sildane. It has always been your choice. I will be with you when you need. Always."
Sildane nodded, "I do not want him to get away. He won't be gentled."
"If that is what you say, I will follow," Ghedlyn said. "We will do it together."
Taking a deep breath and emitting a puff of fog, Sildane nodded. She hupped Kestrel into motion without another word.
Knowing her friend's choice, Ghedlyn did exactly as she promised: she followed along after. "We will do it," she said, hoping to allay some of Sildane's fear. Her friend had always been there for her, so she could give no less.
They passed through the valley throat and made their way up a curving slope dotted with snow-covered pines. Tavis pointed periodically when he saw other signs of human life--a trail between trees the size a person could leave or disturbed snow where a man might have unsettled it. Sildane kept on diligently, though she sat so stiffly in her saddle that Ghedlyn thought she might at any moment break.
They both perked up when a distant sound like a slamming door echoed down the slope. Tavis solidified into a ball of cold steel in the corner of her mind, ready to strike forth at the drop of a leaf. Sildane had embraced the source and sat in her saddle surrounded by the glow of saidar while Ghedlyn paused at the verge. Other echoes reached them, but no closer than the first.
"Someone cutting wood, perhaps," Tavis ventured.
"He is waiting," Ghedlyn said calmly, "he will not run."
The remainder of the trip up the snow covered slope went much more slowly as they stopping every few yards to make certain the situation had not changed. Ghedlyn suspected Sildane was still trying to nerve herself for the inevitable.
The cabin sat on the hillcrest embraced by trees on its west wall and half-buried beneath the arm of winter. A thread of gray smoke wafted from the chimney in no particular direction with the overall lack of wind. In the cabin yard, surrounded by stacks of stripped pine branches, a man in a tattered cloak swung an axe high over his head and went about the mundane chore of splitting wood. He wore a patchy beard and allowed his uncombed hair to spring from his head in nearly all directions. He glanced up from his task periodically to watch their progress, but gave no signs of alarm, or even care.
Quivering in her saddle, Sildane held enough saidar to be at risk of bursting.
Upon seeing the glint in his blue eyes, Ghedlyn knew immediately that it was him.
"I wondered how long it would take you to find your way up that hill," he hailed, showing no sign of putting aside his axe to greet them.
"Then you're here," Sildane said in response. Ghedlyn was amazed at how well she kept the trembling from her voice.
"Not certain where else I would be. Haven't found anything interesting to do lately," he said, stacking one piece of cut wood atop a larger so that he could bring the axe down on it end-wise. His voice was not melodious, but his arm was plenty strong, "They have you wearing a shawl now, I see. What dinner party are you so dressed up to visit?"
"You know why I'm here," Sildane sauntered Kestrel forward in an effort to get closer to the cottage. Likely she was delaying a dismount to avoid putting weight on shaky legs.
"I can guess," he answered, setting up to split another piece of wood. He brought the axe down with the crack. "And you could not come yourself, so you brought maybe twelve of your closest friends. I knew you would have her in tow. You two never were separable. Did you finally cross that line? What did the girls in the novice apartments call it? Pillow friends?"
Ghedlyn blinked.
"I have to ask you why," Sildane said, her voice trembling ever so faintly.
"So ask already," he kicked aside the neatly split fragments and smirked at her through the sodden beard that nearly covered his mouth. "I may not be patient all day. You know how I am that way..."
"Why did you do it?"
"I felt like it," he answered.
"I don't understand," Sildane said. She fidgeted nervously in the saddle, "I don't understand why."
"What is there to understand?" He asked while he worked. "You wanted to be an Aes Sedai, didn't you? And here you've gone and done it all. You wear that shawl, do you not? Well, I wanted what I wanted too. Not my fault you weren't strong enough to stop me. Is that why you brought her with you now? Being the interesting little mess she always was I don't see why anyone would want anything to do with her. Or do you figure two linked together can stop one now?"
"I was never nasty to you," Sildane went on, "We always were friends. I had feelings even. I... I thought maybe you would be good as a warder."
"As your pudgy friend there undoubtedly knows, there is only one thing a warder cannot possibly be," he chuckled dryly.
"And that would be?"
He smiled and raised his arms to the sky, "Like me, obviously! Why else would you bring twelve of your best friends along on a lovely day like this?" Ghedlyn could see the scars scratched into his face and caught the maniacal glint in his eyes. She felt fear facing him again for the first time.
The way out will come but once, be steadfast.
He had finally put aside his work and devoted his entire focus on his callers. Axe haft held in one hand, he bounced the metal head in the other, "So you came all this way. You came clear from the White Tower and Tar Valon just to ask me why. Is that what I'm to understand?"
Sildane sat Kestrel uncertainly, the horse shifting slightly from foot to foot in the crunching snow. She held saidar at her limit. Ghedlyn did not know if she felt significant enough danger to her person to be able to channel in self defense. The oath restricted them both from simply unleashing themselves.
Panting, Sildane found the strength to respond to his curiosity. She sounded calm, determined, though her eyes flashed with tangible fear, "No, we came all this way to kill you."
"Fortunate for me that you cannot simply turn your powers against another person unless threatened," He observed conversationally, "though I don't know why you have not yet attempted to shield me."
"I wanted to talk to you," Sildane replied, a tear bleeding down her face.
Tavis had raised his short bow. Ghedlyn did not know when he managed to string it, but he was definitely armed with it now.
The ragged man shook his head and smirked, "You touch me, you truly do. I can talk to you shielded, you know. Maybe you're just afraid to come too close to me. How exactly does a man able to channel fit into that oath? Let me remember: 'Never use the one power as a weapon except against Shadowspawn, or in extreme defense of your own life or the life of your warder.' I have not yet raised my hand against you, even as I am. And, I am no dark friend... that you know of. Do you regard shielding as a weapon? I suppose most of the men your Red Ajah drags away are fighting tooth and claw to the last. Do you not shield a man who does not stand against you?"
"You would be brought before the Hall of the Tower, one way or another," Sildane answered. "But we are going to do you a favor. You will not face Gentling. You will not go that far."
"Kind of you," the man said, "most kind indeed."
Ghedlyn blinked several times, "No darkfriend. That we know of?" How he said it bothered her.
"So the strange one can still speak," the man observed. "Do you still draw those diagrams on the ground? Can't be appropriate as an Aes Sedai, can it?"
"Your argument is with me," Sildane warned him, "Ghedlyn is not the target."
"And your argument is with me, or you would not have come all this way," the man quipped as if it were the greatest of jokes. "Or maybe not..."
Ghedlyn's head swung around at the sudden alarm beaming from Tavis.
"Aes Sedai!" he barked. Leaning far forward in his saddle, the rotund warder just managed to bring up his hand in the nick of time to block the zipping crossbow bolt that slammed against his forearm. A bolt meant for Ghedlyn. The metal head sang off the armor he wore just beneath his sleeve.
A blond woman crouched in the snow at the east end of the wintery cabin. She dropped the spent crossbow and retrieved a second already cranked and loaded.
"Watch yourself, Aes Sedai!" Tavis lunged Maximus into place to block the sightline between Ghedlyn and the woman with the loaded crossbows stacked around her in the snow.
Ghedlyn was struck by the similarity between this attack and one other clear in memory. No darkfriend?
"Heh," the ragged man shrugged, "Maybe I won't have my way with you after all."
Tavis vaulted from his saddle with a completely uncommon agility. The bolt hanging forgotten in his sleeve, he drew and fired an arrow from his short bow while still suspended in the air. The woman managed to pull back enough to foil his aim, but was unable to fire a second shot herself while engaged in self defense. Tavis hit the snow at a sprint and rapidly closed distance on this new opponent.
"So we play, do we?" the man said darkly. His smile caused Ghedlyn's hair to prickle as she brought her attention back to him.
Snow exploded upward in a rain of ice and stone. Ghedlyn embraced saidar and spun up a protective weave of Air. She could feel Sildane also weaving, though her whole attention went first and foremost to defending herself. The man was weaving also, she knew, though his saidin was blankness next to what women knew. Legendre squealed in agony beneath her and bucked her off in a shower of flying blood. She landed face-first in the snow, her swirling shell of Air helping to deaden the impact. She did not lay still for long when the sharpened point of something threatened to sever her connection with saidar and forced her to protect herself by weaving Spirit on feel alone. She scrambled up and swallowed her impinging fear. Piles of squirming horse lay on either side of her, but she had no time to think about the gore.
Ghedlyn's speed at channeling turned up weave after weave to fill vulnerabilities she sensed without knowing. Saidin made a strange sort of sense, she thought from a disconnected part of herself. She could almost feel the odd surface of maleness in those invisible curves. She had guessed much about saidin by use of grouping theory and by mapping symmetries in saidar, but this was her first chance to actually experience it in person.
As falling snow gradually cleared, she saw that the man's face was strained and his eyes widened in surprise. He found himself divided between the two Aes Sedai and Ghedlyn's strength was nothing trivial. In a curiously detached notion, Ghedlyn thought she might even be able to overpower him singlehanded. He was by no means weak, but she was something truly uncommon when it came to strong. Saidin might naturally work better in a fight, she thought, but saidar was its natural complement.
The man let free in his struggle with Ghedlyn and directed his extra strength into a single focused attack on Sildane, "You and I forever my girl."
His hand emitted a flurry of spewing black tendrils that cut through Sildane in a bloody burst.
"NO!" Ghedlyn shrieked and brought down a fusillade of booming lightning strokes.
"Heh..." he fended off one or two with a shield of some sort, but Ghedlyn kept on striking until nothing remained but a smoking crater bored straight down through the snow into the ground beneath.
The way out will come but once, be steadfast.
A silver arch stood in the snow against the side of the log cabin, glowing from within.
Heart turning over in dread, Ghedlyn stumbled to her friend's side.
Sildane's eyes were wide and she gasped desperately for breath. Blood and parts littered the ground around Ghedlyn's childhood friend, though whether human or horse, she did not know.
Ghedlyn collapsed to her hands and knees and vomited hard into the snow. She could hear Tavis shouting out--in victory or defeat, she did not know.
Sildane's hand struggled up, trembling, searching. Weak fingers caught the white ermine cloak at Ghedlyn's shoulder. Her friend smiled at her, but could draw no breath to speak.
"Sildane!" Ghedlyn cried, tears on her face and all Aes Sedai control forgotten. She had hold of a skirting, shivering saidar and managed to begin a semblance of Healing. She dug the weave desperately into her friend, mending and mending. If only there were not so much on the ground. She redesigned the weave and tried again, searching for the right combination of pieces to make the structure work. The effect was better, but still not enough.
Sildane was slipping away.
Ghedlyn invented freely, locking structures into a weave that never before existed in a desperate ploy to bind that precious soul into the failing flesh that lay in the snow before her. She could not let Sildane go; anyone else, maybe, but Sildane not at all.
The way out will come but once...
Ghedlyn shrieked in pain. She wove faster, pouring in reserves of strength rarely tapped. Healing had not been her specialty, but she was learning things this day that no woman had ever sought.
Be steadfast...
She could not leave Sildane.
Brown eyes stared upward like dull glass. The crimson cloak her friend had strutted in for a week was hopelessly wrecked, as was the cherished shawl and the finely tailored dress beneath. Each fading heartbeat pumped out oozing red onto frozen white.
Torn to the edge of indecision, Ghedlyn forced saidar away. She wanted to stay and keep trying. She wanted to stay. She could not lose this person.
Spent to uselessness and completely defeated, the black haired woman struggled to her feet. She had walked for months and a day to abandon her dearest friend into the clutches of a sure death.
She staggered the unending distance to the silver arch in broken tears. She had to keep her eyes squeezed shut to prevent herself from buckling under the pressure and turning back.
She did not want to leave Sildane.
The weeping girl collapsed naked to her knees on a cold stone floor. No snow? The frigid winter air from just an instant before had suddenly given way to temperate warmth. The cottage and piercing mountain scene were hidden behind the glowing mist of the ter'angreal archway, which stood implacable and imposing in the middle of the cut stone chamber in the basement of the White Tower. The naked girl curled herself into a tiny ball and wailed her cries off the echoing ceiling overhead. "No more! No more! No more!"
Warm arms came around her and lifted her into a warm lap. "You are safe, my child! You have returned. You're done now! No more arches." Rayanne Sedai smoothed her hair and hugged her tightly against a warm bosom.
"It happened," Ghedlyn gasped, her voice broken from screaming. "...She died! I channeled so hard... but she died!"
"Channeled...?" someone said, but was quickly shushed.
"It was not real, child. It was in the Arch. Not even the strongest woman sees anything she likes in the Arch," Rayanne Sedai whispered. "You came back and that is all that matters. You are here and it is done!"
"Do she be able to stand?" the woman hovering behind Rayanne asked. She wore a brown fringed shawl.
"Come on, now, let's get you up," Rayanne carefully lifted Ghedlyn and helped her place shaking feet on the floor.
Still in tears, Ghedlyn realized more women were in the room than when the test first began. In addition to the sisters Ghedlyn had already seen, several she did not know had appeared along with a woman who wore a seven colored stole. Ghedlyn did not know their faces, nor retained the strength to analyze the situation. The Yellow sister, Allerria, and the White sister, Meilyn, and the dark, gorgeous Green sister she did not know had all been channeling into the Archway ter'angreal when the test began, but she had not seen the Blue sister with pure white hair before. A Red sister had also been shown in with a Gray sister, both of whom Ghedlyn did not recognize. Including the Brown sister who ran the test, the seven Aes Sedai arranged themselves behind the woman who wore the stole--the Amyrlin Seat, Ghedlyn realized. The Amyrlin held a silver chalice, "Come here, child, this trial has concluded."
With Rayanne Sedai's help, Ghedlyn limped forward. She felt so full of aches and pains, as if the test had gone on for a full year.
"You must kneel to her," Rayanne Sedai instructed.
Stiffly, Ghedlyn did as she was told. She doubted she would be able to come back to her feet without aid.
The Amyrlin Seat held the chalice over Ghedlyn's head and carefully began to pour. Water ran through her hair, into her ears, across her face and down her neck and back. "You are washed clean of Ghedlyn Prim from Bandar Eban," the woman in the seven color stole intoned, "You are washed clean of all ties that bind you to this world. You come to us washed clean, in heart and soul. You are Ghedlyn Prim, Accepted of the White Tower. You are sealed to us now."
Once she finished the ceremonial words, the Amyrlin Seat passed the empty chalice to the Brown sister and turned to the other Aes Sedai arrayed around her. "What has happened in this room will stay among those in this room. As all of you no doubt feel, this child cannot be regarded as others are. Her life has been threatened here in the city of Tar Valon by an unknown agency that seems bent on harming the Tower by harming her. Until such a time that she can be safely elevated in the appearance of any other channeling woman, we must mask her among the company of Novices. The fewer people who know the full extent of her ability, the better it will be for the Tower as a whole.
"Rayanne," the Amyrlin Seat addressed Rayanne Sedai directly, "you will hold her serpent ring for her. Ghedlyn will wear the ring the very day Sildane takes the Accepted test, regardless of whether the other girl passes or fails and is sent away."
Rayanne Sedai cringed, "Mother... Ghedlyn... she won't need to take the test again..."
"Of course not!" the Amyrlin returned sharply, "I would not send the hardest woman back into the Arches on a penance."
She turned her attention back to the other seven Aes Sedai, "As women bound to speak no word untrue, I will hear your vows. Speak these words back to me as I speak them: 'Aside from the women in this group and those who stand with us, I shall not give away the nature of Ghedlyn Prim and I shall not speak her true rank nor lead other Aes Sedai to believe her anything more than a Novice until the day she wears the ring. I swear under the Light and in the hope of rebirth!'"
Several of the gathered sisters glanced among themselves, but all seven spoke the words in clear voices. Rayanne Sedai spoke along with them, her voice trembling.
Satisfied with the outcome, the Amyrlin nodded, "If you are the sisters I take you for, you will help make this deception seem a truth."
Ghedlyn did not understand what had happened. She wanted only to rest.
The little black haired girl was fast asleep when Rayanne Sedai carried her from the chamber with the dome-like rock ceiling. Thankfully, she did not dream.
