DISCLAIMER: I own neither Buffy the Vampire Slayer nor the Wheel of Time; they are the property of their respective authors, publishers, and probably a half-dozen other entities woven together in a more complicated weave than the Age Lace. If I could figure that out, I'd be a good IP lawyer. If I were the author, I'd be making you pay to read this. Unfortunately, looking around my rather Spartan apartment, I think it's safe to say that I'm neither, or my credit card bills wouldn't look as depressing as they do. Don't sic the Trollocs on me.

SPOILERS/BACKGROUND: All Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel through Season 4 (no secondary sources, however); all main books of the Wheel of Time through Knife of Dreams. Of course, the WoT-verse is sufficiently complex that I'd be hard pressed to get everything right.

CHAPTER 8:

MUST BE TUESDAY

Dawn was beginning to break above the brown, snowless mountains to the east when Buffy awoke, Faith's hand gently on her shoulder. She had slept curled up in a pile of the softest ter'angreal she could find, wriggling down into them until she had hollowed out a pocket in the back of the wagon that roughly conformed to the shape of her body and then laying her bedroll on top of it. The tent was forgotten. Willow had apparently had them pack it more for show than anything else. The rocky horses Willow had conjured were slower than normal horses, but she was sure they were making better time than they would have had they found a way to buy Maglor Egan's team from him along with the wagon. Willow's horses didn't need to stop to eat, drink, or rest, nor were they idly distracted. For as long as they could hold this pace, Buffy was content to sleep in the wagon bed. She and Faith had planned on taking turns sleeping, anyway. Finding a time for Willow to sleep was going to be the harder problem, but her friend had assured them that, unless something really unexpected came up, like an attack or a canyon or something, the horses would keep on marching day and night.

She had been in the dreamworld again, of course, but at least this time she apparently had manage to emerge unmolested. She had awoken in the dream version of the wagon, quickly slipped through the strange shadowy mesentery of the dreamworld to her long-vanished bedroom in Sunnydale, and slept the night away. Or at least most of it.

"How you feeling?" Faith asked.

Buffy flexed and stretched. "Little sore. Could be a lot worse. Better than stopping."

Faith nodded. "All right. Willow says brunch around noonish. I should be up before then. Give me the usual four. Let her sleep through."

Buffy put a hand on Faith's shoulder. "Wait. Not yet. We need to talk."

Faith looked Buffy in the eye for a long moment, then nodded. "Yeah. We do. Ugh. Let's get it over with."

The two Slayers clambered and crawled over the piles of junk in the wagon to the front. Buffy slipped past Faith and out onto the wagon tongue; Faith just formed herself a seat at the front of the cargo area.

"We alone?" Buffy asked Willow.

"Best I can tell," Willow answered.

"Good enough. Willow, we need to stop and think about this. Or, rather, keep moving, but double up on the 'think about this.'"

"I know what you're going to say, Buffy. I rushed into that." There was no doubt of what "that" was.

"OK, so consider that out of the way. Actually, no, I need to say it. You really, really rushed into that. And you dragged us with you."

"You heard the woman. The only library in this world that might have what we're looking for is in that city. Where else were you planning on going?"

"We could have gone to the city but not have you sign up for Heaven only knows what."

"Then we wouldn't have gotten into the library," Willow observed. "Not without breaking in, and do you really want to try sneaking into a fortress under siege, with hundreds of women on both sides that can do what the Wise Ones could? Oh, and guards. Humans. With weapons. Hard to fight without killing them."

"We could have waited until we got to Tar Valon and maybe learned a little bit more before you committed yourself like that."

Willow shook her head. "I don't know. We'd have been strangers coming in on the siege. And the Wise Ones seemed to trust Egwene."

"Well, at least you've recovered enough to call her Egwene instead of Egwene Sedai or Mother," Buffy noted. Willow had picked a heck of a time to revert to her wallflower self, though Buffy admitted that the woman had had one of the strongest presences she'd ever seen. Maybe the strongest.

"You were calling her 'Mother' yourself," Willow replied.

"That was different."

"Hm." She sighed and shrugged lightly. "Look, I don't know, she was just so—I don't know. Strong, I guess. And that dreamworld freaked me out with my clothes and everything changing or downright vanishing. I don't know how you guys do it, but she was really ... strong. And I trusted her. I think I would in person, too."

"I don't know how we do it, either," Buffy answered, "but that's just part of the problem. We don't know enough."

"Then I suppose it's good that we're going to someplace that's apparently all about learning," Willow grated back, a touch of irritation creeping into her voice. "We got all the answers we were ever going to get from the Wise Ones, and we can't go back there now, anyway. So it's either go to Tar Valon or suddenly decide to go somewhere else. With all the Aes Sedai's stuff, too," she said, nodding pointedly at the collection in the back of the wagon. "I believe the Wise Ones when they said they didn't know where the Car'a'carn, their chief of chiefs, is. So unless he magically appears somewhere, Tar Valon is Option A and Option Z. The only question is how we get there. At least this way, we can say we have a reason to go there."

There was a brief silence, then Faith added. "There's more, though, isn't there?"

Willow shrugged. "You heard what Egwene said about me. I could be dead before we get out of here if I don't learn to control this other power they use."

"Do you even know if you can use it?" Buffy asked.

Willow sighed. "Not a hundred percent, but it does look that way. At least, I was starting to see it when the Wise Ones use it. It's kind of like an aura surrounds them when they're getting ready to do something with it, and I can see—I don't know, strands, flows, ribbons—of the power they're forming into their effects when they do. I couldn't do it at first, but it came on quick. As in, in just the time we were there. And sometimes I almost felt I could feel what they were doing and copy it, but it just kind of slipped past me. Plus after Egwene gave that warning, I kind of backed off. Would hate to burn myself out on the first try. But yeah. I think she was telling the truth about that, too. And none of the Wise Ones said anything different about girls dying if they didn't learn to control it."

"And yet none of them were exactly offering to help you control it, either."

"I don't think signing on as their apprentice would have been any easier than signing with Tar Valon, if they'd even let me."

"Got that right," Faith grumbled sullenly. Buffy gave her a sharp look. Whose side are you on here?

"And they probably wouldn't have," Willow continued.

"OK, so Tar Valon, but think about it. We're carrying a wagonload of magic stuff of some kind or another, and at least to any stranger, we look like three girls. She basically painted a target on our backs."

Willow nodded. "I know."

"So maybe start thinking that she's not just looking out for us."

Willow turned a suddenly icy glare on Buffy. "I know, but we can still be looking out for us. And we can't do this alone, anyway. We're going to have to trust someone at some point. I think you trusted the Wise Ones. The Wise Ones trust Egwene. What more do we have to go on?"

"I understand the Wise Ones a little, and the Aiel, I think," Buffy countered. "Doesn't necessarily mean I trust them. And you yourself heard the way she talked. She wasn't being straight up with us. Not even close."

Willow nodded again. "I know that, too. But I still think Tar Valon is our best option, at least until others open up."

"Just be careful, Red," Faith spoke up. "People like that, places like that—I don't think they're going to just let you go if you decide you want out in a couple of weeks. Maybe, but my gut tells me not. Fishermen don't generally let fish out of nets."

Buffy nodded. She'd gotten the same impression. Something about Egwene, the way she talked about commitments and expectations about working one's way up the ladder—which apparently could take decades, which they didn't even have if they wanted them, with some kind of Last Battle imminent in this world, the novice book, the whole feel of it was a lot like Faith had said. Fishermen casting nets, and Willow just swimming in and letting herself be caught.

As if reading her thoughts, Willow let her grin broaden. "Then we'll just have to make sure that we're not the fish we think they are. The joke's on the fisherman if they go for a bass and catch a hammerhead."

Buffy heaved a few long breaths. The Amyrlin—Egwene—had not been completely forthright with them, but she hadn't really been dishonest, either. Had she really been so, she never would have admitted so casually that she was being held a prisoner in her own palace. Or at least the palace she claimed as her own. Likewise, it was almost a certainty that they would never be so well-protected as they were now with the blades Egwene had let them take from the Rhuidean collection. The Aiel would never have let them near those otherwise, and they'd be out here with nothing but those spears and horn-bows, both of which clearly paled in comparison to the heron-marked blades from Rhuidean, forged by this Power of which the Aiel and Egwene had spoken. And Willow was right about them needing to get to Tar Valon, unless this Car'a'carn reappeared from whatever hermitage he had found Likewise, if they decided to go off and do their own thing now, the Aes Sedai would have every reason to hunt them down and find them, and that was almost certainly to go poorly for them, whatever resistance she and Faith had to this Power they wielded. They'd certainly not be likely to gain access to the Tower library, at the very least. Also, at the end of the day, while she might have disapproved of their methods, the Aes Sedai at least appeared to be on the side of the good guys here, though in their own way and on their own terms. They wanted to stop things like people's shadows trying to kill them.

Of course, they were also squaring off against one another right now, and before their own fortress. That did raise some questions as to just which side which Aes Sedai were on, but for better or for worse, Willow had committed them to Egwene's side, at least for the foreseeable future. Buffy was actually OK with that, just based on her meeting with Egwene. There was a certain aura that winners had, regardless of the causes for which they fought or the hardships they faced, that Egwene had projected like a sun. She was almost as confident as Egwene herself had been that, when the smoke cleared, Tar Valon would be in Egwene's hands, for better or for worse. So at the very least, she was fairly confident they had signed onto the winning side, even with its leader in the hands of the enemy.

"I guess we're kind of stuck," she conceded, doing her best to contain her sullenness. "I just don't like the fact that you've really limited our options." She hated having her freedom of choice constrained.

Willow was silent for a moment, then asked, "ever read of Xiang Yu?"

"Um, read?"

Willow shrugged, but grinned. "Chinese general. He ordered his soldiers across a river into enemy territory, then burned the ships they used to cross. The point was that the only way they were going home was forward, so there was no sense in even being able to think about going back. Forced them to focus on winning and not split their attention."

Buffy was silent. It was a good move. She might have done the same in his place. But this was different. Largely because she was the soldier, not the general, in this scenario, she admitted.

"Yeah, but there's a difference," Faith noted.

"Hm?"

"That guy had an army behind him. We've got one in front of us."

Willow grinned. "I kinda like the army I've got behind me, actually."

"Aw, you say the sweetest things."

"But really ... were we going anywhere but Tar Valon?"

Buffy shrugged. "Probably not, but ..."

"No! No buts. No second-guessing."

Buffy fixed a keen eye on Willow. The little redhead always surprised her; you could never tell if you were talking to the wallflower or the warrior. Well, you could, but only after she said something. "All right, Wills, you know we've got your back. We're not just going to send you into that place by yourself. Just insert cliches about biting more than you can chew here."

Willow held her gaze. "I'm going to do whatever I have to to get in that library."

Buffy held Willow's eyes a moment longer than shrugged. "Guess there's not much I can say to that. Just don't fall asleep at the switch."

Willow grinned. "No, I plan on getting in the back before I fall asleep."

Buffy shook her head resignedly. "Yeah, you're looking a bit beat. Get some sleep. Both of you. I can fend off the sand for a while."

Faith wasted no time in taking Buffy up on that, turning and clambering back towards the rear of the wagon. Willow waited just a moment longer, studying Buffy's features for a moment, before following. Buffy wasn't sure if Willow had seen anything there, but Willow's look had been long and searching, and Buffy guessed that she hadn't been able to hide her most obvious thought from the redhead, at least. This isn't over.

Willow and Faith rustled around for a while in the back; Buffy heard some scattered mutters about who took whose spot and who was less comfortable, before silence. It was impossible to tell if they were both actually asleep from this angle, but at least there was no movement. She folded the Aiel cloak the Wise Ones had given her about her head: it was airy and almost gauzy algode, just thick enough to keep out the sun and blowing sand while letting in the warm desert breeze. It was the only shade she'd be getting today until it was her turn to go back in the wagon. There were no trees as far as she could see, and not even any rocks capable of offering shade for miles in any direction. Not that the horses would have stopped at any such spots even had there been any. They seemed to know their way with an implacable purpose. Either that or Willow had just set them on autopilot and pointed them westward. Possibly both.

Buffy woke Faith at as close to ten as she could estimate, then Willow at noon. Faith's stay in the dreamworld had apparently been unremarkable that night, too; she had returned to Angel's empty basement in the Hyperion and slept like a babe. Once Willow was awake, they shared a quick breakfast of a few dried fruits and a few swigs from their waterskins. Willow assured them that water wouldn't be a problem, but somehow none of them could force themselves to be so openly incautious. Even Willow.

The horses plodded onward. Few words passed between them. There was little to say, and the dry heat of the desert during daylight made talking for any length of time uncomfortable anyway. The sun dipped low on the horizon and then vanished, and the temperature began to drop. In the darkening gloom, they saw their first signs of life they had seen in a while: a series of campfires almost to the horizon.

"Do we go?" Faith asked.

Buffy shrugged. "Would probably look suspicious if we don't. Or at least if we're too obvious about trying to go around them."

"Keep your distance, Chewie, but don't look like you're trying to keep your distance," Faith advised sagely. Willow and Buffy shot her a pair of scalding looks, in such perfect unison that she broke out laughing.

The camp was miles away, but the distance closed quickly. As they drew closer, Buffy could see that it was in fact an Aiel camp. There were probably about forty all told, of all ages. She could see one boy who couldn't have been older than six. There was something a little different about them, though. They hid it well, but as the trio drew still closer, Buffy could see something of a haggard look on the faces before her, something she hadn't seen on any of the Rhuidean Aiel.

A tall man with a shock of red-golden hair just beginning to grey at the temples stepped forward to greet them as they approached. A small handful of Aiel fighters accompanied him. If he was at all taken aback by their otherwordly horses, he gave no sign, though some of the others with him did. "Ho," he said.

Buffy half hoped that Willow would keep the horses right on walking, despite the fact that it was clearly a bad idea. Willow apparently agreed with the latter part. The horses stopped, for the first time since they had started moving.

"You're don't look like peddlers," the man mused. "Or Aes Sedai," he added a moment later, though he was less certain of himself in saying that, despite looking at Willow's hand and seeing no ring there.

Willow shook her head. "We bought this wagon from a peddler at Rhuidean. We've been given permission for a one-way trip to the Dragonwall."

The man's eyes narrowed. "By whom, may I ask?"

"Alsera."

The man's posture relaxed. "Of the Salt Flat Nakai, I believe." He sighed. "Hurac, of the Green Salts Shaido," he introduced himself. "I suppose I speak as war-chief among us, though I have no dragons to show."

Willow, Buffy, and Faith looked at each other in puzzlement. Faith shrugged. It would have been useless to hope that they'd have learned of all the Aiel customs in three days. The gist of the man's meaning was plain enough to Buffy, anyway. The man was in charge of the group, but that didn't necessarily meant that he ranked highly among the Green Salts Shaido overall. The rest, they could work out later.

"I'm Willow," Willow introduced herself in turn. "This is Buffy, and this is Faith."

Hurac nodded. "We have no water or shade to share, wetlanders," he said. "But I suppose we can make room at our fires. It would perhaps do us some good," he said. Buffy had no idea what he was talking about. He was offering to do them a favor, though not much of one, but acted like he'd be doing himself a favor by doing so. She shared a look with Willow.

Willow turned, addressing Hurac uncertainly. "We have our own water and shade," she said. "But your fires would be welcome."

Hurac nodded towards a fire at the western edge of the camp. "Set your camp there," he suggested. "On the edge of ours. We break camp for Rhuidean before dawn."

"We'll be up early, too," Willow said. They moved their wagon to the spot Hurac had indicated. They passed more of the camp than they didn't in doing so. What Buffy saw confirmed what she had sensed on their approach. For whatever reason, these Shaido were downright dejected, at least by Aiel standards. There had been a few Shaido at Rhuidean, and they had had the same feel about them, but it had been less pronounced there. The Aiel gave them measuring looks as they passed, but disinterested ones as well. Apathetic, despite the sight that the three of them must have made, with their earthen horses and wagon loaded with magical goods from Rhuidean itself.

Two tents faced the western watchfire, spaced closely together, so there was still a great deal of room on the far side. Willow stationed the wagon as far opposite the Aiel tents as she could, so that the back of the wagon faced the fire and the front, including the horses, was shielded from the firelight and pointed westward, in the direction they would head in the morning. Two Aiel were at the fire, one tending it, the other holding a spit over it, roasting a pair of chickens. Hurac came to join them a moment later. None of the others seemed to care. Buffy caught one or two looks of disdain from other Aiel who passed through her field of vision, and another one or two of idle curiosity, but most of the rest seemed caught up in their own world somehow. Not what she'd expected to find at all.

"Is there ... is there a Wise One here, by any chance?" Willow asked.

Hurac chuckled mirthlessly. "Would that there were. We could use a dose of wisdom."

"We could have used a few a long, long while ago," the Aiel roasting the chickens added somberly. He was shorter than most Aiel, with rusty hair a shade darker than Hurac's and green eyes, probably no older than Faith.

Hurac looked about to put the young man in his place, but then apparently decided it wasn't worth it, and shrugged. "Waking from a dream can be painful," he said. "Especially when it's a nightmare one has brought on oneself."

"Isn't it better to wake up from a nightmare than be stuck in it?" Faith asked.

Hurac gave another chuckle that didn't reach his eyes. "It may be," he said. "It may be. Tell me, wetlanders, do you know if any of the Shaido Wise Ones or sept chiefs have yet returned to Rhuidean?"

Buffy thought for a moment, then remembered. "Caithryn of the ... um ..."

"Moshien Shaido," Hurac finished for her. He leaned back on his hands and looked up at the stars. "Any others?"

Buffy, Willow, and Faith looked at each other and shrugged. Hurac read the gesture well enough.

"Only one," he said. "And not of the Green Salts. And yet more than I half-feared we would find. Perhaps I will sleep a little easier tonight. At the very least, I can know that I'll sleep easier tomorrow."

"You guys been on the road a while?" Faith asked. "Not that there's a road here, exactly, but ..."

Hurac grimaced. "Less than some, but more than distance can make a journey long."

Very Zen, but very true, Buffy admitted.

They talked a little while longer before Hurac excused himself to go deal with something else to do with running the camp. Buffy took the excuse to grab Faith and see to setting up their own tent; she hadn't been completely keen on stopping, but since they were stopped, they might as well sleep on the ground instead of amid piles of junk. Willow stayed behind, talking to the other two Shaido at the fire. They seemed to give her a little more respect than Buffy or Faith, though it was hard to say how. Perhaps they just sensed something about her, whatever it had been that had made Hurac do a double-take to ascertain that she really wasn't an Aes Sedai. That didn't necessarily mean they were talking freely, however. There was obviously a difference between those who actually wore the ring and those who merely had the potential. Also, Willow, for all her nature-loving ways, couldn't set up a tent to save her life.

Buffy took first watch, while Faith went to sleep. Whatever else had happened to cripple the Aiel's morale, they at least hadn't given up on the military discipline that seemed part of their culture from the cradle onward. At least six of the forty-odd people in the camp were on watch besides her.

Several hours passed uneventfully. The Shaido on watch occasionally made nods of acknowledgment in her direction, some casual, some oddly grudging for a people to whom she had never done anything, but as a whole said nothing to her. She was only a few minutes from waking Faith when a cloaked figure appeared out of the night from the north, walking slowly but clearly towards her. Her eyes narrowed. There weren't tents that way; the travelers had set their tent at the western tail of the Shaido camp. There was nothing but empty desert to the north. Someone who had gone on patrol, perhaps? There were two other Shaido in sight; none seemed to be taking any notice of the newcomer.

It wasn't until the man got within a mere few strides of Buffy that her Slayer-sense began to tingle. When it did, however, it began to build startlingly rapidly. She narrowed her eyes and began to seriously concentrate on the black-cloaked figure. Her hand was moving towards the hilt of her sword like it had a mind of its own, and her heartbeat quickened a hair. There was something unseen surrounding the new arrival, almost like an invisible fog, if that were possible. Invisible to the naked eye, at least. It began to part when she fixed her gaze on it and began to really make an effort to see what was in front of her, however.

The fog parted like a gauzy veil. Buffy's Slayer-senses blared suddenly in the silence of her mind like a tornado siren.

The creature drew its cloak apart. It wasn't a cloak. Broad, webbed, batlike wings surrounded a figure too thin to be human even were its face less than monstrous. Grotesque red lips framed a mouth with thin, pale fangs spaced far apart on mottled gums. And from those lips issued a low, soft croon.

Buffy's mind reeled. For all the hideousness of the creature, the song was soft. Sweet. Comforting, in an odd way. Her muscles relaxed, though she held her grip on her sword. A small part of her mind screamed that this was not normal. Her Slayer-senses still rang in her head, but they were an alarm sounding in an empty building. She took a slow step forward towards the soft, dreamlike music of the creature's voice. Come, it seemed to say, though there were no words in it that she could consciously recognize. Lay down your cares, your troubles, your fears. You've carried them so long on your small shoulders. Let others take up the blade. You have been made to suffer too long. Let your suffering end. Let it ...

"Buffy!" a frightened voice squeaked nearby. An image floated to the surface of Buffy's mind. A young face with a dimpled smile, and eyes tempered by both hope and pain. A loose wave of red hair. A friend. Willow. Willow shouting a warning. The same warning I'm trying to shout at myself as this thing's mouth is getting really close to my personal space!

She forced herself to take a step backward. The creature's song faltered for a fraction of a second, but didn't stop.

A wave of sand plowed into both Buffy and the creature from the side, sending them sprawling.

That stopped the song.

It was like someone had reconnected the power in Buffy's brain. The lights came on again. She surged to her feet again, her sword clearing its scabbard as soon as she had the balance to pull it free without dropping it. Shouts of alarm went up among the Aiel sentries several tents away. Now they notice! She rasped inwardly.

The creature had rolled at an angle away from Buffy, getting the fire between the two of them. There wasn't enough time to circle around the fire before it could get airborne.

So Buffy jumped straight through the fire and threw a flying side kick at the back of its head just as it cleared the ground.

It had already risen too far for her to hit its head, but she connected with the small of its back. It flapped awkwardly for a few more yards, trying to get some more air under it, but flopped ungracefully to the sand moments later. Buffy, somewhat off balance after a long leap into an object on its way up, was thrown sprawling as well. She kept her grip on her weapon, and scrambled back to her feet to finish the job ...

... when out of the corner of her eye, during the scramble to her feet, she was turned sideways just enough to see the second creature that had come from the other side of their own tent, and whose lips were only inches from Willow's. The redheaded Wiccan's eyes were closed, and her breathing shallow and intense, as if waiting for a lover's touch.

White panic stabbed her heart. "Willow!" she screamed, and hurled the katana like a throwing knife. It spun end over end across the fire and fifty feet of open sand. The hilt connected with the creature's throat with a soft squish. Buffy cursed and grabbed a hot stone from the edge of the fire pit, ignoring the pain in her hand as she got ready to launch a follow-up volley; she had hoped to take the thing's head off with that strike, but hadn't had enough time to time the spin of the throw so that it would strike with the blade.

A moment later, however, she realized that she had probably burned her hand for no reason, and dropped the burning stone with a pained hiss as biology reasserted itself. Her strike hadn't taken the thing's head off, but it had caught it in the windpipe. The creature's song choked off. A terrible alertness suddenly returned to Willow's eyes.

A wall of sand erupted between Willow and the creature as it reached for her, and sparks of copper and violet energy erupted along every exposed inch of her skin. Buffy swung back to her own bat-creature, which had managed to get off the ground in the distraction and was flying away from Buffy and the camp as quickly as possible to gain room and altitude, so she never saw what exactly Willow did next, though the sound of it reminded her of a Rice Krispies commercial. The first Aiel sentries had arrived by now as well. The first to arrive had only a pair of those short spears, and he launched it like a javelin at the retreating creature; the man's throw was accurate, and almost had enough range to catch the creature, but it had gotten too much of a head start. The second Aiel, however, was a Shaido Maiden with a horn bow and an arrow already drawn. She stopped just long enough to nock, draw, and let fly. There was enough moonlight to see the arrow make contact with the skin on the underside of the creature's right wing. The creature gave a high-pitched shriek and lost altitude, though it managed to keep enough air under itself to avoid plummeting to the earth.

"Buffy!" Faith's voice rang out. Nice of you to join us, sister! Buffy grated, though she knew that the sleep of the World of Dreams was preternaturally deep, especially for a Slayer. She didn't turn to answer Faith's greeting yet. The creature's drop had brought it within what Buffy thought was the range of her own attack, and she stepped forward, one, two, wham! Her third step turned into a savage kick at the rock, about twice the size of a softball, that until recently had been part of the rim of the Aiel bonfire. The flame-roasted stone flew away from her foot as though flung from a sling. Or a small catapult. She missed—it would have been a miracle to hit at that range, given that she didn't exactly practice kickball with rocks as a hobby—but the rock sailed only a few feet in front of the bat-creature's eyes, and so startled it that it swung awkwardly of course, heading west instead of northwest.

That meant that instead of heading directly away from them, it had given them an angle. Buffy took off, the sand flying up behind her footfalls. Faith came into view from her left, converging on where their best chance to head the thing off would be before it could correct its course again. It was only then that Buffy realized that she didn't have her sword, or anything else to throw, really. She cast a quick look at Faith, and saw that Faith had just grabbed her sword when she'd awoken, too. She had nothing she could use to hit at range. No more handy rocks of the right size asserted themselves, either. Another few strides would get them as close as they were going to get to the creature, but unless they found something to throw, they weren't going to be able to hit it. The thing was beginning to get its flight under control again, had stopped losing altitude, and was even starting to glide a little higher again, even with the wounded wing.

Buffy reached the point that was as close as they were going to get to an intercept point. She cast her eyes around frantically. Faith was only strides behind her. There were three large boulders, none of which she could have hefted that far even if they were no larger than what was showing of them above the sand, a patch of cactus in the shade at the lee of one of those boulders, and Faith. Nothing that could really be thrown. She hissed a curse.

"B, catch!" Faith shouted. Buffy turned and threw her hands up on instinct at seeing the dark, solid object headed her way. Her hands closed around the scabbard of Faith's sword, the blade still sheathed within. Faith was still running at full speed and was quite clearly on a collision course with Buffy despite being only two strides away.

"Faith, what th ..." Buffy shouted furiously, stepping to one side and throwing her free hand up to slow the younger Slayer down.

Faith grabbed that hand as if she known what Buffy would do all along.

"Faith what are you oh shiiiiiiaaaaaat!" Buffy screamed as her sister in arms locked her hand around Buffy's wrist, and spun her once, twice—her feet swung free of the ground at this point—and on the third time sent her soaring into the sky, transferring all the forward momentum of her charge and the angular momentum of her swing into one mighty heave.

I'm gonna kill her! Buffy thought as she flew through the crisp desert night. Then she realized that she was coming up on the bat-creature, and coming up fast.

OK, but while I'm here, I'll kill you, too.

Faith hadn't managed to throw her far enough to actually hit the thing herself. She had, however, gotten her within throwing range. Buffy wrenched the blade free of its scabbard and spun and twisted in the air, throwing herself earthward to give the blade extra momentum skyward.

This time, she didn't strike with only the hilt. She had just enough time to see a patch of moonlit sky open up between the creature's head and chest before, with a soft but heavy whump and a rush of air leaving her lungs, she landed in her sister Slayer's arms, knocking both of them to the turf. Faith's body cushioned most of Buffy's fall, but her head was against Faith's chest, and stars danced across her vision as her skull bounced off Faith's solar plexus.

She rolled over, stiffly. All right, she thought, maybe Faith didn't cushion quite so much of that fall. Her breath was still coming in dry rasps, and the bitter aridness of the desert air wasn't helping. The stars weren't fading quickly from her vision, either. She could hear Faith gasping for air nearby, too. Buffy guessed that her skull was probably even harder than Faith's chest, and of course, Buffy had at least been the one landing on top. Except Faith deserved it for trying that stunt. Granted, it worked, and now that she thought about it, she wished she'd thought of it herself, but that wasn't the point. The point was ow, my head.

The soft swish of cloth announced Willow's approach. None of the Aiel made enough noise when moving that Buffy would have heard them over the labored breathing of herself and Faith at that moment. That she could hear even that much was a testament to her Slayer hearing. And the fact that Willow was running, which tended to get at least a little noisy in a long dress, even a simple one like the Aiel had given her.

"Hey," she greeted them, breathlessly. Don't expect sympathy from me, Buffy thought. You didn't just get hammer-thrown at Batman's mutant cousin.

"'sup, Red," Faith managed hoarsely. Buffy could hear her trying to smile. Didn't sound like it was working too well, but as well as could be expected, probably.

There was the sound of something striking something, a cutting sound of some kind, and Buffy felt something hard being pressed into her hands. Half a hiari gourd. They had kept a few of them, though most had gone to the Aiel and Maglor Egan as goodwill gifts; they wouldn't have lasted the whole journey even if they'd had room to put them all in the wagon. Seemed like as good a time as any to break one out, Buffy admitted.

She sat up. Her vision was clearing at last, and she began digging into the watermelon-like flesh of the gourd with a vengeance, just grabbing out chunks of it with her fingers, and stuffing them in her face, spitting out the seeds. She could hear Faith next to her doing likewise. She turned to see Willow wiping the blade of Buffy's sword with a soft cloth; she had used it to cut the gourd.

"Stay here," Willow said. "I'll go get Faith's sword back." She got up and headed off in the direction of the corpse.

"Hey, hold up!" Buffy said, forcing at least some measure of authority into her voice. "There might have been more than two."

Willow shook her head. "Pretty sure not. And every Aiel older than ten is out looking."

"Careful on the whole witchly scrying thing with these things, Wills," Buffy said. "Didn't tingle my Slayer-senses until they were right on top of me. Either they can cloak themselves, or someone else can do it for them."

"You kidding me?" Faith groaned.

"Not really," Buffy admitted glumly.

"I'll be careful," Willow promised, and headed off.

Buffy waited until Willow was a little ways off, then turned and fixed a frigid glare on Faith. "OK, what the heck was that?"

"There wasn't anything else around to throw."

"That doesn't mean I was available!"

"Think we shoulda just let it go?"

"Not exactly Plan A."

"Then what was Plan A?"

"I don't know. But getting hammer-thrown up to where I get in trouble with air traffic control wasn't it."

"Oh, whatever, B. Not like we had time for a strategy session. Plus you can't tell me that you didn't get at least a little rush out of that."

Buffy lay back and munched some more hiari gourd. She heard Faith shifting nearby, and suddenly felt something close to her, near her ear. She turned to see Faith laying back in the opposite direction, so their heads were right next to each other, though Faith's looked upside down. Faith finished her own mouthful of hiari and grinned at her, apparently seeing all the answer she needed in Buffy's eyes. I've got to work on my poker face, Buffy snarled inwardly.

Nevertheless, she admitted, "maybe just a little. Doesn't mean it's healthy."

"Gotta get your kicks where you can, B. Staying healthy ain't a part of this job, case you haven't figured that out yet."

"I've died twice, you know."

"I know. I'm so jealous."

"What?"

"I don't think I'm going to look that gorgeous after I've died even once."

Buffy snorted. "You don't even look this gorgeous and you haven't even died once."

"Hmm. I think you must've knocked your head a little harder than I thought on that landing."

Buffy chuckled. It hurt her ribs. She didn't care.

Soft footsteps approached. Buffy forced herself into a sitting position. The Aiel woman with the horn bow who had shot the creature was approaching, as was Hurac.

"Nice shot," Buffy said to the woman.

"Nice throw," the woman replied.

"Heh. Thanks."

"Oh, but I wasn't talking to you," the woman replied lightly.

Faith, who had yet to sit up, chuckled where she lay. Buffy noted that Faith's breaths had a slight hitch to them, too; her lungs apparently weren't at a hundred percent again yet, either.

"So, can I ask what was that thing? Or was that just another evil bubble?"

Hurac and the Maiden looked at one another. Hurac spoke. "I don't know what exactly an ... evil bubble ... is, but those creatures were Draghkar. Some of Sightblinder's most deadly assassins. And apparently even moreso than I'd thought. I had no idea they could walk right past watchful sentries like that. Usually that's the work of Grey Men."

Ugh. Terrific. Something else to look forward to, more than likely, Buffy groaned inwardly.

Then her brain sped up again, and she bit back a resigned curse. "Assassins, you said," she noted. "So this wasn't random."

The Maiden nodded cheerfully. Buffy considered breaking a few of her teeth, but thought better of it. The woman's skill with the bow had kept the Draghkar in range. Plus Buffy was still too sore to be giving serious thought to sudden unnecessary movements. "And they were definitely not after us, wetlanders," she added. "The two of them came from the widest approaches to your tent they could get to give themselves space and stay out of the firelight as long as possible. One from the northwest, one from the southwest."

"Apparently," Hurac added, reaching down to offer Buffy a hand to her feet, "the Shadowsouled want you dead."

Buffy cringed, though she'd already guessed that before she even asked the question, though she didn't know who the Shadowsouled were. It still grated to hear it.

"Oh, give me a break," Willow groaned. She had just returned with Faith's sword and scabbard. "We just got here!"

Buffy let out a resigned sigh. Or maybe it was a groan. "Someone wants to kill us. Must be Tuesday."

Author's Note: Thanks again to everyone who read & reviewed! You all make this even more worthwhile than it would be doing it just for my own amusement. Glad I can keep at least some of you entertained.

Tombadgerlock: Yeah, I keep meaning to pick up the comics, and I'm sure I will at some point. For the moment, though, all I've got is the TV series (and of course the original movie).

jen: I certainly hope I don't let you down.

Ben Breck: Haven't decided some of those things yet, but I think it's fair to assume that there was no WoT written in the Buffyverse.

WraithRune: There might definitely be some wide looks. Then again, lots of people in Randland are more used to seeing things that Earth people would consider—abnormal. Especially in places like Tar Valon and the Borderlands.

Baalsfire, Joe, Bobbocky, Davide, Jivalour: Thanks!

Coming Soon: Chapter 9, "Learning Experiences." Buffy and Faith still have to contend with the dangers—and the opportunities—of being stuck in the dreamworld every time they go to sleep. Some dangers are more unexpected than others.