In A Tight Spot, One Might Say

"Perhaps Guydin made this one," Rayel murmured as she ran thin feelers of saidar over the offending shield. She felt a drop of sweat trickle from the side of her forehead down her cheek and neck.

Her subject, whose features were now illuminated by a Power-generated light sphere, gave an almost imperceptible shrug. Rayel took it as a sign that the other woman did not want to chat. That suited Rayel fine, for even if she did want to, she couldn't. Too much was at stake here.

"Hold very…very…still…" she said as she began working her way around her companion's shield. "Light, it seems a lot simpler this time."

"You are holding saidar," the woman said stiffly, her rather angular face stiff with what bordered on fear. She sounded sour and her green eyes flashed with impatience. "That would make it a bit simpler."

"Of course." Right. No talking. Just working. No talking. Rayel pursed her lips and leaned in, frowning in concentration. Hurry, hurry! You have no time! No time to spare!

Almost immediately she found it, the snag in the weave that shielded her subject, the spot where, she assumed, the weave had been tied. "You have it?" the woman said, evidently seeing something suggestive in Rayel's eyes. She didn't answer, too intent upon her goal.

Although the work she was doing was just as complex as it had been the last time, it seemed far easier now. It did seem to work far more quickly than it had when she had been working on her own shield. Perhaps she was getting used to this process of unshielding people. Let us hope I never have another reason to unshield myself, she thought. She licked her lips as she slipped the finest filament of saidar she could hope to handle into a nearly sealed breach in the shield.

"There!" she exclaimed in satisfaction, and watched in alarm as the shield unravelled instantly, becoming a mess of small threads of the Power which quickly lost substance and dissolved into the air. The freed woman gasped loudly as she gained her freedom, and slumped forward, her face grey with relief. "Thank the Lord…"

Rayel had to smile at her. Then she remembered their predicament. "Hurry! We must leave this place. We haven't much time."

The other woman regarded her momentarily, a look of mild concern fast fading, and then nodded firmly. "Yes. Yes, let us leave."

It was only as Rayel reached the door that the oddness of something her companion had said struck her. She pulled up short, the door slightly ajar, and frowned.

"What is it?" the woman said from behind her. Rayel could sense that she was very close. She was also as tall, if not taller, than Guydin. An imposing figure. Statuesque. Unfamiliar…

The freed woman gasped loudly and slumped forward, her face grey with relief. "Thank the Lord…"

The Lord?

"Are we going or not? You yourself said we haven't any time to waste."

Rayel's heart was in her throat. She had to force herself to open the door the rest of the way, and found that it wouldn't move any more. All the time she was remembering each and every rare occasion in the past when she had heard people refer to "the Lord" rather than the Creator. The Lord. The Great Lord.

"You could try stepping out of the way," the woman said dryly. "You cannot open a door if you are blocking its path."

Rayel blinked. "Oh."

Another moment passed in which Rayel tried desperately to make herself move.

"Are you certain you are well?"

The woman sounded puzzled, but there was something else in her voice that raised Rayel's hackles. Some new hint of alertness, something that suggested she had been tipped off on Rayel's thoughts. If Rayel was going to restore the situation she had to act fast.

"Uh, yes…I am sorry. I felt faint for a moment there."

No, no, no! Aes Sedai do not apologise to strangers! Even if that stranger is another Aes Sedai! Fool!

She stepped into the shadowed hallway and moved to the far wall, turning slowly. She tried to make it seem as if she were surveying the length of the hall in either direction, when in actual fact she was overwhelmed by the urge to study the woman whom she had just set free.

That woman stepped out of the room they had both been in, once again shrouded in shadows now that Rayel had let her light sphere dissipate.

"Is everything in order out here, Rayel?"

The woman spoke carefully, deliberately, placing both hands on the front of her dress and smoothing the skirts almost absent-mindedly. There was something disturbing in the calm movement, something that kept Rayel on a razor's edge, planted tensely on the spot.

"The hallway…appears to be clear."

She saw the woman's mouth open, saw something in those green eyes that chilled her, and heard a sound to the left that told her she'd been mistaken after all. Before she had the chance to investigate the sound, she saw the woman opposite her do so, swivelling her gaze to Rayel's left.

"On the contrary," she said, almost so softly Rayel could not hear, "I believe we have company."

Out of the shadows stepped Guydin and her petite cohort, each wearing a mask of stone.