Nightmares
A/N: Chapter 7. Please note that this is likely to be depressing, as I have just finished watching a very sad movie, and that has made me depressed, and my moods usually affect my writing. So yeah. Depressing.
Disclaimer: If I owned it don't you think I would be running around yelling 'Lan is mine!' at the top of my lungs?
Egwene:
Mat was shaking her by the shoulders, and Egwene reached out to hit him over the head.
"Ow!" He yelped.
"What do you want, Mat?" Egwene asked, groggily.
"Get up." He said, "We're moving on." Egwene sighed and hauled herself to her feet. She saw Nynaeve getting up and pulling a small vial from her belt pouch. She got the top off and swallowed a few drops of the contents. Egwene was not bothered. She had seen Nynaeve do this before, usually in the mornings, so it wasn't anything new. She saw Moiraine looking at Nynaeve curiously, though. Nynaeve glared back.
Egwene walked over to where the Wisdom stood. "Nynaeve," she said, trying to make it sound casual, "Why do you hate Moiraine Sedai so much?" Nynaeve spun around to face her and gave her braid a yank.
"Mind your own business," she glowered at Egwene. Egwene raised her hands defensively and moved over to the horses. Nynaeve was obviously in a bad mood.
xxx
Nynaeve:
After the Machin Shin Nynaeve felt exhausted. Lan was leading them through the frozen lands, but she hardly saw a thing. Lamprent would be furious, she thought to herself. She made herself sit up straight and pay attention. She hadn't gone through seven years of training to revert to the dazed inattentiveness of a first level child at the first cold day. She had to pay attention.
They were close to Fal Dara, but Moiraine called a stop anyway. She knew that they were tired, Nynaeve had to give her that. They dismounted and Lan took the reigns of the horses, and began to move over to Ru'n.
Nynaeve almost smiled. He obviously hadn't had the chance to meet Ru'n before. She stayed a short distance away. She wanted to watch this. Lan reached over to grab her horse's reigns, and Ru'n went from docile and seemingly indifferent to fierce in a matter of seconds. She bared her teeth and made to bite at the Warder. Lan jerked his hand out of the way just in time.
He went for Ru'n's bridle this time, and Ru'n moved quickly to the side, and pawed the ground in a warning. Her eyes were rolling, and she was still baring her teeth. Lan opened his mouth and than closed it. He seemed to be grinding his teeth. Obviously he was too proud to ask her for help. Well that suited Nynaeve just fine.
Lan paused for a while, carefully looking the horse over. The, without warning, he lunged for her mane. He managed to catch a handful, but whatever internal triumph he may have been feeling was short lived. Ru'n jerked to the left, and brought her hoof down on Lan's foot. Lan blinked. Moiraine gasped and ran to his side, and Nynaeve moved over to her horse. She made sure that Lan could see her before reaching out to stroke Ru'n's nose. The horse whickered and nuzzled her, back to docile.
"Oh no!" Nynaeve said, in a very unconvincing performance of shock. "Did bad Ru'n hurt you?" She turned to the horse and wiggled her finger at it. Egwene chocked back laughter. Lan ground his teeth some more.
"Ru'n," Nynaeve said firmly, "Lan is a friend." She took Lan's hand, and touched it to the horse's side with hers right next to it. Then she took them off.
"You con touch her now," She said to Lan. Lan warily stretched out his hand and touched the horse. It whickered and nuzzled him in much the same way as it had just done Nynaeve. Lan ground his teeth even more, if that was possible.
"Good Ru'n!" Nynaeve said, then, turning to Lan she said, "You really shouldn't sneak up on strange horses, you know. You never know what they might do." Then she turned and walked away. Moiraine took Lan's head in her hands and healed him, all the while muttering to herself.
The next morning Nynaeve was still looking very pleased with herself. She smiled as she patted her horse, and almost grinned outright as she watched the Warder treading warily around Ru'n.
"There's really no need to be scared of her, you know." She said. "She wont hurt you again." Lan said nothing.
They were on their mounts again after a quick breakfast, and moving toward Fal Dara. When they arrived outside the city, she saw the looks of stunned amazement on the faces of the Edmond's Fielders. She herself felt no such amazement. She had been here several times before. As they approached she noted Lan shake his hood off, and Moiraine do the same.
"Hoods," she said, almost absently.
"What?" Perrin asked. Perrin. She knew what the yellow eyes meant. Oh Light, Perrin.
"Hoods." She repeated. "It's against the law here in Shinear to have your hood up inside a city's walls. To late she realised what she'd done, and began cursing herself. Lan and Moiraine gave starts, and stare at her. Blood and bloody flaming bloody ashes!
"How…" Moiraine began, but was cut off by Mats joking, "Are they all so good looking?"
"A Halfman cannot hide with his face exposed," was Lan's flat answer, but was still looking at Nynaeve oddly. She continued to curse.
As they made their way through the city there were cries of "Dai Shan!" and "The Golden Crane!" Nynaeve gave a bitter smile. The stories of al'Lan Mandragoran, crownless king of the Malkieri had filled her childhood. As they arrived, footmen leaped out to take their horses.
"Be careful of that one," Nynaeve heard Lan say to one, jabbing his finger in the direction of Ru'n. "It bites."
She smiled properly now, absently stroking her horse's soft muzzle. "Be good." She warned it. It gave a snort. She smiled again.
A man in armour came forward and bowed to Moiraine and Loial, and then to Lan. He spoke a few words to them, and then turned to show them the way, ignoring the rest of them. 'It feels good to be ignored for a change. The grovelling gets dull after a while', she fondly remembered Jame's words. How well they expressed her feelings.
Moiraine:
Ingtar showed them to Angelmar's study, and then left them. After they had entered Angelmar greeted them all formally. Suddenly his eyes fell upon Nynaeve. His eyebrows raised, and Moiraine could have sworn she saw the Wisdom shake her head slightly. Odd. Maybe she was seeing things.
xxx
Nynaeve:
She did not say a word throughout Angelmar's story of Malkier's fall. She had heard it told better, and besides, her mind was on other things.
Lan:
They were leaving at sun up the next morning, and everyone else had retires already to get a good night's sleep before the long journey into the Blight. He was taking a walk, although he wasn't sure were to. He was just walking, partially lost in thought, and partially alert.
When he and Moiraine had come back to where the Edmond's Fielders were waiting with Angelmar, the children had been giving him strange looks. He found out later from one of the servants that Angelmar had told the story of the fall. He wasn't sure how he felt. Nynaeve already knew. He wasn't sure where that had come from either. How did she know?
Suddenly he saw Moiraine moving down the hall ahead of him. She was walking slowly and silently. In other words, she was sneaking. He moved up close to her.
"And what are you doing up at this hour, Aes Sedai?" Moiraine whirled around, and he was reminded of the firs few says they had spent together (A/N: New Spring!) and how she had acted then.
"Nynaeve went outside to the city to take a walk. I decided to use this opportunity to do something I've wanted to do for a long time." She responded cryptically. Lan nodded.
"And what exactly is it that you will be doing? And how does it involve the Wisdom?" He added as an afterthought.
"You'll see," Moiraine replied, and continued walking. Lan followed her. They were approaching the door of the room in which Nynaeve was staying.
"Why are we here?" He asked Moiraine.
"Like I said. You'll see." They entered the door. All was quiet. The bed in the middle of the room was empty. Moiraine had been right. As usual. Moiraine crossed the room to where Nynaeve had left her pack lying on the floor, and picked it up, carrying it over to the bed. There she set it down.
"Moiraine," Lan began, but his bondholder cut him off.
"Lan, I know what you're going to say. But haven't you noticed some odd things about her?" Lan nodded reluctantly. "And haven't you wished you knew the answers to a few questions about her?" He nodded again. She smiled triumphantly.
"Then let's begin." She opened the pack and took out a collection of papers. The first was a letter. It read:
Nynaeve-
You may just be right. I am going to get someone to look into that. I hope you're safe. May the Light be with you.
-Z.
Moiraine frowned. "That doesn't tell us very much."
The next paper was a drawing. The artists name at the bottom was 'Elnore Mawell'. The picture was two girls, about five or six. One was blonde with big blue eyes, and appeared to be the elder of the two. The other was quite obviously Nynaeve. They sat next to each other, and were in a forest. It seemed to be a picnic (A/N Do they have picnics in WoT? ) as they were sitting on a blanket. They were both reading a big book. A dog sat in frount of them, its head resting on its paws. They looked so happy; they were laughing as they read.
Moiraine frowned. "Now who is that? This appears to be raising more questions than it is answering. But she went on anyway.
The next item was another letter. This one was so worn and old that the writing was illegible. Moiraine sighed and tossed it aside. That was all the papers. She dipped her hand inside the pack again, and brought out a small tin.
It was painted with flowers and hearts and was the sort of thing you would expect to see in the hands of a little child. Moiraine carefully opened the box. There were two things inside. One was a lock of honey blonde hair, the colour of cornfields. The next definitely caught Lan's attention.
A hadori. "Well." Moiraine said. "Well well well. Now that is interesting." She carefully set it aside, and pulled another object out of the pack. It was another drawing, but this one was definitely more recent. The drawing was of a tall man with blue eyes and light brown hair, wearing formal wear with his arm around the waist of a small woman. The woman was Nynaeve. This, however, was not what caused Lan's eyes to widen. That was caused by what Nynaeve was wearing. She was dressed in a Domani style dress, which clung to her every curve, and was only barely opaque. It was deep red, and had a low cut neckline. Her hair, rather than being in its usual braid, was loose and cascading down her shoulders in wave after wave of soft dark beauty.
Moiraine made a chocking noise. "Well, that certainly isn't her usual wear. She turned to picture over. On the back was scrawled:
Nynaeve- A memento of Arad Doman, and a reminder that too much wine is not good of some people! Love Ruan xxx
Moiraine's eyebrows arched. "Very interesting." Ruan? Lan thought, who is he He blinked. Why did he care?
Moiraine carefully put the things she had removed back into the pack, and returned it to its spot on the floor. "It's getting late and she'll be back soon." She said by way of explanation. Lan nodded curtly, and they left the room.
Moiraine had been right. This evening had definitely created more questions than it had answers.
Longest chapter yet! Does little victory dance I really liked the name Ru'n, so I made it Nynaeve's horse! It means 'beloved' in Celtic (or Gaelic, I'm not sure which!).
