The Aiel were a strange people. After a month of living with them, Rand still did not understand Aiel humour. What was funny about a woman stabbing her husband in the darkness of night, or a man marrying the sister of the woman he loved? Whenever he asked these questions, the Aiel would just look at him pityingly. After the attack by the Maidens of the Spear and the talk with Amys, Rand had been allowed to stay within the camp. When he had attempted to leave for Rhuidean, he was told rather forcibly that he had to stay until Amys saw fit. Amys was a Wise One, an Aiel with great wisdom and power within the communities.
So Rand stayed within the camp, rationing the grain for the horses sparingly, while presenting Aviendha with the water from his cart. When she had looked at him with an unrecognisable expression on her face, he had hastily explained that since the Aiel had taken him in and fed him, perhaps they could use the water. She had taken the water casks, but the next day she had given him a silver buckler, dull and battered but well made and worn in. It fit his arm perfectly and when he had thanked Aviendha she had scoffed.
"I do not want your thanks Wetlander," She had replied harshly. "Now, there is no debt between us." She did not sound too convinced with herself and had stormed away with a dark expression on her face, leaving a confused Rand and chuckling Aiel.
The day after Rand had arrived in the camp, Enaila, Isan and Adelin had come to him wearing robes of white and downcast heads. They had taken his used clothing, his dirty utensils and had fed, watered and brushed his horses without prompting, then they had stood around him, doing anything he asked or even commented on. According the Aviendha, they had been made gai'shain, a type of servant for one year and one day. When Rand had asked how, Aviendha had sighed angrily and glared at him.
"You made them gai'shain." She snapped angrily, her eyes flashing in defiance. "By defeating them in battle and laying a weapon on them without killing them, they are obliged to serve you until there day is up. Maira was spared, as you did not lay a weapon on her,"
"I stabbed Isan though, and wounded Enaila." Rand pointed out. "Doesn't that make this obsolete?"
"Normally it would," Aviendha said, sounding both disgusted and oddly pleased. "However, they have stayed as gai'shain purely for you." She had walked away then, doing whatever it was that she did after she had left Rand bewildered, not that he showed it though.
He was aware of his own status in the camp. While some men regarded him with disgust, the women, Maidens of the Spear, doted on him. Whether it be a Maiden asking if he needed blankets or a drink, or one offering her water with him, every maiden seemed to take pleasure in his company. Amys had explained that since Maidens gave the child to stay with the spear, his retuning was like all the children that had been given up returning to them. Rand didn't mind in some ways, it was comfortable to talk to women who had known his mother, but the Maidens could sometimes be enthusiastic. For instance, when bathing himself in a sweat tent (A tent that is heated up to the point where the body sweats badly so that the person can use it to scrape the dirt from themselves,) Maidens as old as grandmothers or sometimes two years younger than him would enter, undisturbed by his nakedness or theirs. They seemed to take great delight in his blushes and stammers, howling with laughter and making lewd comments. Aviendha seemed to be the only exception; her green-blue eyes would glint as she rounded on him as if it were his fault that he was, 'making a fool of himself'.
Still, life in the Aiel camp was enjoyable. Everyday he would learn the Aiel way of fighting with hands and feet, pitting himself against the other men of the camp. He would surely lose, but when he returned to the Wetlands…the world he had left behind, he would surely best most other people. He learnt the ways of the spear and the buckler (a shield strapped to the wrist), and how to find water in the desert and what animals you shouldn't step on (that being pretty much anything). He read on the history of his homeland, revising what he knew from the book he had bough years ago, and tried in vain to open the other book. He also learnt the ways of the Aiel. The Aiel had a very, very complicated honour system. Rand couldn't make heads or tails of it sometimes; some parts were just so confusing. For instance, it was considered an insult to speak of a lovers or partners mother or father unless they bought the subject up first, it was considered to be reasonable to for a man to have two or three wives. One of the most confusing things Rand didn't understand was the hatred of the sword. Every day, as the sun was setting the air was just right; Rand would practise his sword, going through the motions and the stances. And everyday, no Aiel would approach him or look at him until he had sheathed the sword. Once, he had left it in the cart and had come back to find Enaila about to throw it away. Ever since then, he had worn it on his waist.
"I see you Soldem." Rand greeted a tall lanky Aiel with red hair and grey eyes as he sheathed his sword, just finished his sword practice. The sun had set and there was barely enough light to see.
"I see you Rand." The man replied. He cast a dark glance at the Maidens sitting around the campfire as Rand sat down. "They have been acting like children again. I suggested that they wear bows in the hair."
Rand was slightly confused about the hostility between the Stone Dogs (A Aiel Society) and the Maidens of the Spear (Another Aiel Society). As Soldem spoke, a thin and wiry Maiden shook her buckle at him, which Soldem just stared down stonily.
"I hear that Stone Dogs fight where they should run, and run where they should fight." Aviendha spoke loudly. The Maidens howled and Soldem growled something under his breath. Suddenly a loud neighing from the horses echoed around the fire.
"I think I'll go and check on my horses." Rand said hesitantly, and stood up, heading into the darkness. He knew the camp well enough to wander in the dark. He came to his horses and stroked their flanks as he murmured words of comfort. The horses paid no attention, shuffling backwards as far as they could, pawing the ground with their hooves. They were extremely agitated, and Rand frowned as he turned to look in the darkness.
"What is it?" He asked them. The horses obviously didn't reply, but shuffled even further backwards. For a second, Rand saw two red, glowing lights from the dark, and heard a menacing growl that cast dread and fear into his heart. The horses screamed this time as Rand summoned the void in a flash and had his sword out. From the shadows leapt a large wolf, with glowing embers as eyes. Rand sidestepped, brining his blade up to bear as he dodged the leaping creature, slicing it into two. The wolf dropped to the ground, dead, and Rand heaved a sigh of relief. The horses suddenly broke free of their restraints and bolted away, just as the two parts of the wolf suddenly stared melting. Something slimy and sticky burst from the severed ends of both, and suddenly two wolfs stood where one had.
"Light, burn them!" Rand muttered as he held his blade up, wary.
Suddenly a flash of lightning erupted from the sky, striking one wolf. Several more followed the first, and the sand melted in the heat as one wolf bore the brunt of the attack. The other growled and leapt for Rand again.
"Duck!" Somebody commanded from behind him, and Rand obeyed as the wolf soared past his head. He turned his head to see Melanie, the redheaded Wise One, raise her hand. From it came a bar of white-liquid fire, pure and bright. The fire enveloped the wolf, and for a moment the wolf seemed to fold in on itself before it disappeared. As Melanie strode forward producing another bar of the strange fire to throw at the other wolf, veiled Aiel swarmed over the camp. Rand recognised Seldom and Aviendha as those in front. Rand stood on shaky legs, letting go of the void as Melanie produced a ball of light, casting away the darkness.
"You can channel." Rand said with a dry mouth.
Melanie looked at him if he were a child. "Yes." She said.
"What were they?" Rand asked her as he sheathed his sword.
"I do not know," She said, troubled. "They were unlike anything I had seen before, wolves of darkness."
That particular phrase struck home to Rand and he swallowed. "Darkhounds." He said coarsely.
"Yes, that might be true." Melanie said, thoughtful. Suddenly she raised her hands again just as Rand felt something emerge from behind him. He whirled around as two- dozen Aiel had the person surrounded by spears. Their veils swayed with the wind, the symbol of an Aiel who is ready to kill. When a veil has been donned, enemies of the Aiel know to flee.
"Who are you?" Melanie demanded.
The features of an ordinary- too ordinary, man came into light. His eyes however, burned with an unnatural fury and rage.
"You did not come to Rhuidean as I said." The voice coming from the man was the same dark voice full of power and anger that he heard from another Soulless before.
"Of course not." Rand said, pretending to be undisturbed. Some of the Aiel were feeling much like him, gripping their spears tighter.
"So. You will let the man who killed your father, who killed Janduin, run free."
"If you wish to fight me, then come to me." Rand said angrily, gripping the hilt of his sword.
"No. I have left Rhuidean now. If you still wish to seek me out, I will meet you at the Eye of the World in the Blight."
Suddenly the man gasped, blood pouring from his ears and he crumpled to the ground.
"Once, a party of youth went north. Many Aiel do, seeking a fight with the shadows. Most return, some do not." Amys said heavily from within her tent. "A group of Maidens were ambushed, with one survivor. A…Tinker…" here, the word Tinker was said with loathing. Rand blinked, wondering why the Aiel would hate the folk who refused to do violence. "And his family found the survivor. She lived long enough to warn that the Eye of the World was in danger."
"What is the Eye of the World?" Rand asked.
"I do not know." Amys said, sipping from her cup.
"It's in the Blight, is it?" Rand asked.
"That, I do know. Near the Wetlander nation called Shienar." Amys answered. She was silent for a second. "You will be leaving then." It was not a question.
"Yes. As I once said, this man will hunt me down until I am dead unless I do not meet him." Rand answered.
"May you always find Water and Shade," Amys said. "Perhaps a party of Maidens…"
"I need to move fast, on horseback." Rand said. "And Shienar was involved in the Aiel War and certainly does not have fond memories of Aiel."
"Very well." Amys said, her eyes mysterious and dark.
Rand's horses had been found and his cart packed with supplies by the time morning had come. He said goodbye to Soldem and a few other friends, before climbing his cart.
"You will leave then," Somebody said. Rand turned his head to see Aviendha staring at him with an unreadable expression on her face.
"Yes," He answered shortly.
"And what of Enaila, Isan and Adelin?" She demanded. "They are obliged to serve as gai'shain to you?"
Nearby, the white robed figures of Enaila, Isan and Adelin stood silently.
"Where I am going, I would need spears, not gai'shain." Rand said. "Aiel are also not welcomed into the nation I will pass. Aviendha, Enaila, Isan and Adelin duties are up to you."
Aviendha opened her mouth to protest, but Rand urged his horses forward and they galloped madly, leaving behind the Aiel camp and the furious Aviendha.