Part 2: The Gateway
~~~ Change POV to Moiraine Damondred Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah ~~~
Moiraine was flabbergasted. She knew that the two women beside her were channeling, even though they never studied at the White Tower. She also knew that the Trollocs were bursting into flame. Furthermore, not all of them were because of saidar. She also saw that Rand was fighting with a molten fire sword thing. She wasn't stupid, though Nyneave wished she were. The little incident with the raven earlier that day tipped her off too. It didn't take her long to realize that Rand could channel.
The mere thought of a man channeling chilled her to the marrow, but she must do what she came to do.
It took hours to stop the Trollocs from killing more people, and even longer to drive them out of the village. When they were finally done, Lan was panting, and the wolves were running after the Trollocs, howling. Rand was not sweating at all, and calmly severing the head of a dying Fade with his sword. Perrin was grinning like a moonstruck lamb, his eyes glowing golden in the dark. Mat was climbing down from his perch with an empty quiver. Egwene was trying to soothe Nyneave unsuccessfully, who had a death grip on her braid, and looked like she had half a mind to drag all the Trollocs to the Blight and back by the hair, just for the principle. Tam, although he looked like he had just seen his worst nightmare come true, was cleaning his sword on the edge of his cloak.
Moiraine was re-wrapping her angreal in cloth, and safely tucked it back into her pouch, and thought about what she just saw, and felt. And what she didn't feel. Egwene and Nyneave both were very strong in the Power. Nyneave by herself was stronger than herself even aided by an angreal.
The five young men and women re-grouped at the entrance to the Winespring Inn, and talked in low voices. Curiosity getting the better of her, Moiraine wove an eavesdropping weave, allowing her to hear what they were saying as if they were right next to her. She thought she heard one of them saying something about Lionfish and Siuan Sanche. As soon as she completed the weave, and set it near the small group, Egwene looked up sharply, and the talk broke off. Nyneave looked at Moiraine with contempt. Egwene embraced saidar and wove a shield against eavesdropping. That surprised Moiraine even more. It was one thing to make something catch fire, but another thing entirely to stop someone from overhearing you.
Lan stood beside her.
"The sheepherder is a worth swordsman." He said in a monotone, "if I didn't know that he spent his whole life around sheep, I'd say that he's a blade's-master." Moiraine pondered this.
~~~ Switch POV to Perrin "Goldeneyes" Aybara (future t'Basher)~~~
"Rand, you wool-head, why'd you use that sword of yours? That would attract Moiraine's attention like a school of Lionfish to an unwary swimmer." Egwene berated Rand. They all stared at her, and the color rose in her face. "I've been around Siuan Sanche too long." She grumbled.
She looked up suddenly. Rand was rubbing his arms, and was looking around nervously. Nyneave scowled at Moiraine, who was looking at them intently.
~ The Twisted Ones run like cubs from a shadow. ~ The thought came from an amused Rushing Water, the pack leader. She heeded Young Bull's cry for help when the Twisted Ones and the Neverborn attacked. Perrin turned around, and saw her limping up to him. She was hurt when the Trolloc she killed fell on her.
"So what do we do now?" Mat asked. Nyneave looked at him as if he were being stupid on purpose.
"We go to Barleon, Mat. Or have you forgotten that we must lure the Trollocs away from here?" she said as if explaining to a child that the sky is blue.
"Yes. And I want to meet Min." Rand said vaguely. He shook himself. "But we must decide if we should Travel, or go the normal way, with horses and everything."
"Isn't it obvious that we go the normal way?" Egwene sounded exasperated. "If we Travel, then Moiraine will not only know that you can channel, but also know that you know stuff that she doesn't! If she suspects as much, then she will gentle you for sure. And we can't have a gentled Dragon, can we? I'm going to shield you if that it what it will take from stopping you from making a gateway!" Rand paled by the word. At the end he turned a nasty shade of green, and vomited.
"All right, all right. We go by horse. But if we get attacked on the way by Trollocs, I'm using the Power." He grumbled, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
~~~ Switch POV to Moiraine Damondred Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah ~~~
"He said I was a Treekiller." Moiraine told her Warder "only an Aiel would say that." She pondered this. "But he used a sword. An Aiel would shit off his own hand before touching a sword. He really is a puzzle." Lan was growing tense beside her. She looked up and saw the small group walking towards her. Around them the village people were still trying to put out fires and help the injured.
Nyneave and Egwene broke off from the group, and went to help people. Moiraine had expected them to use herbs and plants, but instead, they Healed them. The people they helped shuddered, and stared at them in confusion, bewildered.
Moiraine saw that also Rand went off to help people. He appeared to be Healing them too, because they shivered too. But, Moiraine noticed, he went to help those with not so serious wounds. He only helped those with twisted ankles and such. She suspected that he wasn't as skilled in Healing as Nyneave and Egwene.
Moiraine turned to Heal other people. Mat and Perrin walked up to Lan, and spoke with him quietly. She couldn't hear what was being said, but she felt a surge of wonder, alarm and urgency pass through the bond they shared. She made a mental note to ask her warder what he was told.
~~~ The next morning ~~~
Everyone was tired. After a long night of tending to the sick, Moiraine felt dead on her feet. Lan was helping her stand in front of a large bonfire, which was burning the last of the remaining Trollocs. He was checking all of the bodies; to see which tribe they were from.
"Lan," she called, and like an obedient dog, her warder came to her "Tell m e what Mat and Perrin told you last night." He hesitated.
"They told me something unbelievable." He said quietly, and slowly. "They told me that they know how the Trollocs got here. Not only am I surprised that two country bumpkins know anything about Trollocs, least of all how they got here, but they also said that the Trollocs came through the Waygate of Manetheren." His face betrayed nothing of his feelings, but through their bond, Moiraine felt expectancy.
What was she to do? Moiraine wondered. Is she to take the five young men and women away from the Two Rivers? Is she to take them to Tar Valon? Should she try to gentle Rand? And Lan was expecting an answer from her. She felt so helpless.
Moiraine took a deep breath. "We will leave this place as soon as possible. If Trollocs can get here through the Ways, then it is past time we left. I don't know what is to be done with the young man who can channel. I am very afraid of what he might do." She composed herself. She mustn't look afraid in front of anyone, lest they think her weak.
She must be strong.
She must do what must be done.
~~~ Switch POV to Matrim "Hornsounder" Cauthon ~~~
Mat didn't feel very well. It might have been because of the fact that he didn't get any sleep the previous night. Or it might have been the fact that Darkfriends, shadowspawn, and the Forsaken will stat chasing them again. Or it might be because he was supposed to find the bloody flaming dagger from Shadar Logoth. But Mat was sure that he wasn't feeling well because of the dice rolling in his head.
Mat groaned. He didn't like the dice in his head. Dice outside his head were wonderful. They were a reliable source of income. But whereas physical dice were welcome to him, those bloody flaming, Light-cursed dice in his head were as welcome as a Tinker in the Aiel Waste.
He stopped by Rand, who was straitening up from Healing Old Cenn Buie.
"I told Lan." Mat said shortly. Rand nodded.
"Did he say if he believed you?" he asked. Mat shook his head.
"Rand, I need to tell you something." Mat hesitated. Rand looked at him expectantly. "The dice are rolling." Mat finished in a rush. Rand looked at him quizzically.
"Dice?" he said slowly. "What dice?" Mat sighed.
"I just meant that I made a gamble," Mat said quickly. He couldn't believe that he was about to tell Rand about those non-existent… things… in his head. "You know… It's time to toss the dice?" he finished hopefully. He was usually good at lying. Rand looked at him suspiciously, but didn't pursue the subject.
~~~ Switch POV to Rand al'Thor, Dragon Reborn, Lord of the Morning, Kinslayer, Bringer of Salvation, and all those other titles. ~~~
Rand couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he felt that Mat was hiding something.
~~~ Switch POV to Perrin "Goldeneyes" Aybara ~~~
As the shadows began to lengthen, the small group huddled together outside the stables of the Winespring Inn. Rushing Water, Long Shadow, and High Wind, who were part of the pack headed by Rushing Water, joined them. The wolves were to join they humans in their journey to Barleon, and then further on, until Shadar Logoth. Perrin couldn't bring himself to ask Rushing Water to accompany them inside the deserted city.
They marched as one up to Moiraine and Lan, who were conversing softly. Perrin caught the last part of their conversation.
"-Tonight. Tomorrow morning at the latest. We cannot risk another skirmish." Lan said with a level tone.
Rand stepped forward from the group and looked contemptuously at Moiraine, and turned to look deliberately at Lan. It must be Aiel blood in him, Perrin thought, which made Rand hate Moiraine, and Ceirheirnin in general.
"Anna'elin, we need your advice." Rand said. Lan and Moiraine stared at him. "Where the fist of Trollocs failed to kill myself and my friends, a few Soulless will not, or perhaps the Forsaken themselves." Rand shook his head. "We must ask you to help us out of this village, and maybe back to the Three Fold Land. You and the Treekiller, but only because she is Aes Sedai." Rand looked at Moiraine with disgust again. Lan obviously was very surprised.
"I noticed that you were fighting with a sword, Aiel." The question was obvious. Rand hung his head. He smelled of nervousness. He was thinking fast, he didn't want to seem too strange. He didn't want Moiraine to know that he was the Dragon Reborn.
"Because I used a sword in the Three Fold Land, my spear-brothers expelled me. Even my first brothers! The Wise Ones said that the only way I could gain some ji is to go out of the Three Fold Land and into the Wetlands and live as a wetlander." Here Rand sighed.
Perrin was impressed. Rand was a wonderful actor.
~~~ Switch POV to Nyneave al'Meara Aes Sedai of the Yellow Ajah ~~~
Nyneave was very angry. Men are such woolheads, she decided. They all think with the hair on their chests. Even if Rand did succeed in fooling her Lan and some Aes Sedai now, they will find out sooner or later that it was all a farce. She noticed that her hand was wrapped tightly around her braid, and she forced her hand open.
She walked up to Lan, and looked him strait in the eye. "You muscle-head wool-brain! I cannot believe that you are bonded to that midget over there that calls herself Aes Sedai!" she shouted at him. He looked quizzically at her. Nyneave reddened and tugged at her braid. Mat cleared his throat and gave her his most winning smile. She tugged at her braid again, and glared at Mat. Nyneave looked back at Lan, and suddenly became very flustered, and decided that the author should stop writing in her point of view, and start another section.
~~~ At request of Nyneave Sedai of the Yellow Ajah, the author switched POV to Moiraine Damondred Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah ~~~
Moiraine felt tired, so tired. She felt as if she could sleep for a week, and not wake up. But she was determined to finish the task the Wheel set for her, and make sure all three of the young men, three Ta'veren even more, from this odd little village, where Trollocs attack dozens of leagues from the Borderlands, and the civilians fight back, and make sure that these three survive to reach Tar Valon, where they could be kept safe and studied. She could not show weakness in front of other people. It could be because she was raised in Cairheirin, but all the same, she would not show herself to be tired in front of her companions.
She will do what must be done.
Lan was beckoning her to the tree line, where the five young men and women stood impatiently, and three wolves. She walked cautiously toward them. Wolves were known to fear Aes Sedai, even attack them.
The strange group was the subject of many of the villager's stares, until it disappeared into the forest.
"We leave for Barleon right now." Rand was decisive. Moiraine felt Lan feel very confused, and lost for a minute through the bond they shared.
"How?" he asked. "We have no horses or provisions for the trip." Moiraine didn't like Rand's smile at all.
"We won't need either the way we are going." He said in a lofty voice.
Nothing could have prepared her for what came next.
A vertical slash appeared in the air in front of the group, and Mat flinched away from it. The silvery line seemed to be rotating in mid-air. Instead of seeing trees in the space bordered by razor-sharp outline, Moiraine saw the city walls of Barleon
~~~ Change POV to Moiraine Damondred Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah ~~~
Moiraine was flabbergasted. She knew that the two women beside her were channeling, even though they never studied at the White Tower. She also knew that the Trollocs were bursting into flame. Furthermore, not all of them were because of saidar. She also saw that Rand was fighting with a molten fire sword thing. She wasn't stupid, though Nyneave wished she were. The little incident with the raven earlier that day tipped her off too. It didn't take her long to realize that Rand could channel.
The mere thought of a man channeling chilled her to the marrow, but she must do what she came to do.
It took hours to stop the Trollocs from killing more people, and even longer to drive them out of the village. When they were finally done, Lan was panting, and the wolves were running after the Trollocs, howling. Rand was not sweating at all, and calmly severing the head of a dying Fade with his sword. Perrin was grinning like a moonstruck lamb, his eyes glowing golden in the dark. Mat was climbing down from his perch with an empty quiver. Egwene was trying to soothe Nyneave unsuccessfully, who had a death grip on her braid, and looked like she had half a mind to drag all the Trollocs to the Blight and back by the hair, just for the principle. Tam, although he looked like he had just seen his worst nightmare come true, was cleaning his sword on the edge of his cloak.
Moiraine was re-wrapping her angreal in cloth, and safely tucked it back into her pouch, and thought about what she just saw, and felt. And what she didn't feel. Egwene and Nyneave both were very strong in the Power. Nyneave by herself was stronger than herself even aided by an angreal.
The five young men and women re-grouped at the entrance to the Winespring Inn, and talked in low voices. Curiosity getting the better of her, Moiraine wove an eavesdropping weave, allowing her to hear what they were saying as if they were right next to her. She thought she heard one of them saying something about Lionfish and Siuan Sanche. As soon as she completed the weave, and set it near the small group, Egwene looked up sharply, and the talk broke off. Nyneave looked at Moiraine with contempt. Egwene embraced saidar and wove a shield against eavesdropping. That surprised Moiraine even more. It was one thing to make something catch fire, but another thing entirely to stop someone from overhearing you.
Lan stood beside her.
"The sheepherder is a worth swordsman." He said in a monotone, "if I didn't know that he spent his whole life around sheep, I'd say that he's a blade's-master." Moiraine pondered this.
~~~ Switch POV to Perrin "Goldeneyes" Aybara (future t'Basher)~~~
"Rand, you wool-head, why'd you use that sword of yours? That would attract Moiraine's attention like a school of Lionfish to an unwary swimmer." Egwene berated Rand. They all stared at her, and the color rose in her face. "I've been around Siuan Sanche too long." She grumbled.
She looked up suddenly. Rand was rubbing his arms, and was looking around nervously. Nyneave scowled at Moiraine, who was looking at them intently.
~ The Twisted Ones run like cubs from a shadow. ~ The thought came from an amused Rushing Water, the pack leader. She heeded Young Bull's cry for help when the Twisted Ones and the Neverborn attacked. Perrin turned around, and saw her limping up to him. She was hurt when the Trolloc she killed fell on her.
"So what do we do now?" Mat asked. Nyneave looked at him as if he were being stupid on purpose.
"We go to Barleon, Mat. Or have you forgotten that we must lure the Trollocs away from here?" she said as if explaining to a child that the sky is blue.
"Yes. And I want to meet Min." Rand said vaguely. He shook himself. "But we must decide if we should Travel, or go the normal way, with horses and everything."
"Isn't it obvious that we go the normal way?" Egwene sounded exasperated. "If we Travel, then Moiraine will not only know that you can channel, but also know that you know stuff that she doesn't! If she suspects as much, then she will gentle you for sure. And we can't have a gentled Dragon, can we? I'm going to shield you if that it what it will take from stopping you from making a gateway!" Rand paled by the word. At the end he turned a nasty shade of green, and vomited.
"All right, all right. We go by horse. But if we get attacked on the way by Trollocs, I'm using the Power." He grumbled, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
~~~ Switch POV to Moiraine Damondred Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah ~~~
"He said I was a Treekiller." Moiraine told her Warder "only an Aiel would say that." She pondered this. "But he used a sword. An Aiel would shit off his own hand before touching a sword. He really is a puzzle." Lan was growing tense beside her. She looked up and saw the small group walking towards her. Around them the village people were still trying to put out fires and help the injured.
Nyneave and Egwene broke off from the group, and went to help people. Moiraine had expected them to use herbs and plants, but instead, they Healed them. The people they helped shuddered, and stared at them in confusion, bewildered.
Moiraine saw that also Rand went off to help people. He appeared to be Healing them too, because they shivered too. But, Moiraine noticed, he went to help those with not so serious wounds. He only helped those with twisted ankles and such. She suspected that he wasn't as skilled in Healing as Nyneave and Egwene.
Moiraine turned to Heal other people. Mat and Perrin walked up to Lan, and spoke with him quietly. She couldn't hear what was being said, but she felt a surge of wonder, alarm and urgency pass through the bond they shared. She made a mental note to ask her warder what he was told.
~~~ The next morning ~~~
Everyone was tired. After a long night of tending to the sick, Moiraine felt dead on her feet. Lan was helping her stand in front of a large bonfire, which was burning the last of the remaining Trollocs. He was checking all of the bodies; to see which tribe they were from.
"Lan," she called, and like an obedient dog, her warder came to her "Tell m e what Mat and Perrin told you last night." He hesitated.
"They told me something unbelievable." He said quietly, and slowly. "They told me that they know how the Trollocs got here. Not only am I surprised that two country bumpkins know anything about Trollocs, least of all how they got here, but they also said that the Trollocs came through the Waygate of Manetheren." His face betrayed nothing of his feelings, but through their bond, Moiraine felt expectancy.
What was she to do? Moiraine wondered. Is she to take the five young men and women away from the Two Rivers? Is she to take them to Tar Valon? Should she try to gentle Rand? And Lan was expecting an answer from her. She felt so helpless.
Moiraine took a deep breath. "We will leave this place as soon as possible. If Trollocs can get here through the Ways, then it is past time we left. I don't know what is to be done with the young man who can channel. I am very afraid of what he might do." She composed herself. She mustn't look afraid in front of anyone, lest they think her weak.
She must be strong.
She must do what must be done.
~~~ Switch POV to Matrim "Hornsounder" Cauthon ~~~
Mat didn't feel very well. It might have been because of the fact that he didn't get any sleep the previous night. Or it might have been the fact that Darkfriends, shadowspawn, and the Forsaken will stat chasing them again. Or it might be because he was supposed to find the bloody flaming dagger from Shadar Logoth. But Mat was sure that he wasn't feeling well because of the dice rolling in his head.
Mat groaned. He didn't like the dice in his head. Dice outside his head were wonderful. They were a reliable source of income. But whereas physical dice were welcome to him, those bloody flaming, Light-cursed dice in his head were as welcome as a Tinker in the Aiel Waste.
He stopped by Rand, who was straitening up from Healing Old Cenn Buie.
"I told Lan." Mat said shortly. Rand nodded.
"Did he say if he believed you?" he asked. Mat shook his head.
"Rand, I need to tell you something." Mat hesitated. Rand looked at him expectantly. "The dice are rolling." Mat finished in a rush. Rand looked at him quizzically.
"Dice?" he said slowly. "What dice?" Mat sighed.
"I just meant that I made a gamble," Mat said quickly. He couldn't believe that he was about to tell Rand about those non-existent… things… in his head. "You know… It's time to toss the dice?" he finished hopefully. He was usually good at lying. Rand looked at him suspiciously, but didn't pursue the subject.
~~~ Switch POV to Rand al'Thor, Dragon Reborn, Lord of the Morning, Kinslayer, Bringer of Salvation, and all those other titles. ~~~
Rand couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he felt that Mat was hiding something.
~~~ Switch POV to Perrin "Goldeneyes" Aybara ~~~
As the shadows began to lengthen, the small group huddled together outside the stables of the Winespring Inn. Rushing Water, Long Shadow, and High Wind, who were part of the pack headed by Rushing Water, joined them. The wolves were to join they humans in their journey to Barleon, and then further on, until Shadar Logoth. Perrin couldn't bring himself to ask Rushing Water to accompany them inside the deserted city.
They marched as one up to Moiraine and Lan, who were conversing softly. Perrin caught the last part of their conversation.
"-Tonight. Tomorrow morning at the latest. We cannot risk another skirmish." Lan said with a level tone.
Rand stepped forward from the group and looked contemptuously at Moiraine, and turned to look deliberately at Lan. It must be Aiel blood in him, Perrin thought, which made Rand hate Moiraine, and Ceirheirnin in general.
"Anna'elin, we need your advice." Rand said. Lan and Moiraine stared at him. "Where the fist of Trollocs failed to kill myself and my friends, a few Soulless will not, or perhaps the Forsaken themselves." Rand shook his head. "We must ask you to help us out of this village, and maybe back to the Three Fold Land. You and the Treekiller, but only because she is Aes Sedai." Rand looked at Moiraine with disgust again. Lan obviously was very surprised.
"I noticed that you were fighting with a sword, Aiel." The question was obvious. Rand hung his head. He smelled of nervousness. He was thinking fast, he didn't want to seem too strange. He didn't want Moiraine to know that he was the Dragon Reborn.
"Because I used a sword in the Three Fold Land, my spear-brothers expelled me. Even my first brothers! The Wise Ones said that the only way I could gain some ji is to go out of the Three Fold Land and into the Wetlands and live as a wetlander." Here Rand sighed.
Perrin was impressed. Rand was a wonderful actor.
~~~ Switch POV to Nyneave al'Meara Aes Sedai of the Yellow Ajah ~~~
Nyneave was very angry. Men are such woolheads, she decided. They all think with the hair on their chests. Even if Rand did succeed in fooling her Lan and some Aes Sedai now, they will find out sooner or later that it was all a farce. She noticed that her hand was wrapped tightly around her braid, and she forced her hand open.
She walked up to Lan, and looked him strait in the eye. "You muscle-head wool-brain! I cannot believe that you are bonded to that midget over there that calls herself Aes Sedai!" she shouted at him. He looked quizzically at her. Nyneave reddened and tugged at her braid. Mat cleared his throat and gave her his most winning smile. She tugged at her braid again, and glared at Mat. Nyneave looked back at Lan, and suddenly became very flustered, and decided that the author should stop writing in her point of view, and start another section.
~~~ At request of Nyneave Sedai of the Yellow Ajah, the author switched POV to Moiraine Damondred Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah ~~~
Moiraine felt tired, so tired. She felt as if she could sleep for a week, and not wake up. But she was determined to finish the task the Wheel set for her, and make sure all three of the young men, three Ta'veren even more, from this odd little village, where Trollocs attack dozens of leagues from the Borderlands, and the civilians fight back, and make sure that these three survive to reach Tar Valon, where they could be kept safe and studied. She could not show weakness in front of other people. It could be because she was raised in Cairheirin, but all the same, she would not show herself to be tired in front of her companions.
She will do what must be done.
Lan was beckoning her to the tree line, where the five young men and women stood impatiently, and three wolves. She walked cautiously toward them. Wolves were known to fear Aes Sedai, even attack them.
The strange group was the subject of many of the villager's stares, until it disappeared into the forest.
"We leave for Barleon right now." Rand was decisive. Moiraine felt Lan feel very confused, and lost for a minute through the bond they shared.
"How?" he asked. "We have no horses or provisions for the trip." Moiraine didn't like Rand's smile at all.
"We won't need either the way we are going." He said in a lofty voice.
Nothing could have prepared her for what came next.
A vertical slash appeared in the air in front of the group, and Mat flinched away from it. The silvery line seemed to be rotating in mid-air. Instead of seeing trees in the space bordered by razor-sharp outline, Moiraine saw the city walls of Barleon