As usual all speech in italics is in the Old Tongue

Chapter XLVIII - Cadsuane is Halping

A couple of days after her visit to Taric Taija came awake with a jolt. Something had just triggered her wards, shadowspawn, somewhere in the Hold! She embraced saidar as she rolled out of bed, but before she could give any warning the sound of horns and the clashing of gongs rose up. Some bloody use her wards were then. She always was better at wrecking them than putting them up.

With practiced speed Taija pulled on her boots. Her nightgown would have to do for modesty. Nynaeve could be scandalised at her later. A few seconds later she was running out into the corridor.

There was nothing outside her room except armed Dedicated running to face the enemy, many of them having just grabbed their spears without bothering to don any clothes at all.

Taija followed them, jogging rapidly up stairs carved from stone to get out to the open rock above the canyon in which the hold nestled. She could already feel saidar being channeled and hear the crash of explosions. More explosions than could just be accounted for with that amount of saidar she thought. Presumably Rand had already joined the battle.

Taija wasn't sure how he found her, but as she emerged into the open air Aleksi was suddenly by her side, seeming to appear out of nowhere. It must be all the training he did with Lan and now the Dedicated. She spared him a nod as she scanned the darkness, looking for enemies. Unfortunately none were to be seen, just the sound of battle around her.

Taija hated night fighting. What she wouldn't give for some night vision goggles right now, but the times when she could have those were sadly long gone.

That was presumably why the shadowspawn attacked when they did. The darkness would drastically reduce the effectiveness of the numerous channelers in the Hold. More fool them, there was no good reason to be fighting in the dark if she didn't want to.

With a thought Taija spun fire, air and spirit into an inverted web high in the sky. Force of habit from the War made her offset it some distance from her own position. Then she tied off the web and added a complex knot of spirit to it. Job done she mentally started counting down.

"Aleksi, in just under twenty seconds we're going to have plenty of light. Don't look directly at the sky and find somewhere where you're not exposed." Given the way things seemed to work in this time, she'd be surprised if there were any enemy channelers, but it was still good to teach him proper precautions.

Taija followed her own instructions, hunkering down behind a protrusion of rock. A few seconds later night turned to day as her web triggered. A second sun hanging in the sky. The shadowspawn would be easy meat for her, Rand and the others now.

A moment later lightning came crashing down on the ground directly beneath her light. What the fuck?! Inverted saidar? Saidin? Either way someone just tried to kill her. Had the madness taken Rand? No, that was ridiculous, it must be a darkfriend or one of the Forsaken. Regardless she was glad that she was careful.

Taija spun her own webs, inverted air, fire and water taking advantage of the effect of her unseen opponent's channeling on the sky to make it easier to bring a storm of lightning down onto a group of trollocs she could see moving below her.

This time she sensed saidar flashing out, monstrously strong, and had to draw hard on the Power to deflect a gigantic fireball whirling towards a clump of Dedicated. This was bad. Given the strength on display, the Forsaken must be making a play. The question was which one?

Taija spun a series of inverted blossoms of fire around the point the fireball had come from. If they weren't skilled enough to invert their webs in combat she'd make them pay for it. Even as she spun her instincts screamed a warning and she sliced something, saidin, that was thrown in her direction. Fuck, two of them.

Taija grabbed Aleksi's arm to get him moving and sprinted away from her hiding place. Towards the chaos of the fighting. At the same time she cut her own web above the hold, plunging everyone back into darkness. No point making it easier for the Forsaken. She shouldn't have assumed the only channelers would be on her side. Stupid!

Still, what were the Forsaken doing there? If they knew where they were then they must have realised there was enough firepower here to beat them.

The bestial muzzle of a trolloc loomed ahead of her, dimly visible in the moonlight and Taija incinerated it with a thought. She could see flashes of fire off to her right, but couldn't feel anyone channeling. It was probably Rand, she needed to help him. If the Forsaken were getting directly involved then he must be the real target.

Lightning and fire flashed back and forth through the darkness as Taija ran towards where she thought Rand was. Shapes loomed out of the shadows, some were Dedicated giving her curt nods as she passed. Others were shadowspawn, she burned those to ashes without slowing.

It didn't take Taija long to get there, but she found Rand under attack by not only trollocs and myrddraal, but also the Power. Edram was holding the shadowspawn off with an expertly wielded sword, but Taija could could see Rand was being beaten down as thick webs of saidar came flying from the darkness bombarding him and the area around him. They all vanished or were deflected, but they were getting closer. Judging by the amount of the Power being thrown at him there were at least two of the forsaken engaging him, or possibly one with an angreal. The male Forsaken seemed to have been striking at targets of opportunity rather than Rand.

Taija didn't hesitate. Inverted webs of lightning and fire sprang up around her and flew towards the source of the saidar. A huge swath of the desert outside the hold erupted into blinding light. She wasn't holding back. If she could catch them by surprise before they realised she'd joined Rand…

It didn't work. She must have missed. The webs coming her way doubled. Two women? With angreals? Perhaps. Immediately she was on the back foot, franticly cutting and deflecting webs. Rand seemed to be disoriented, was he struggling with not being able to see the webs? Taija was suddenly taking on most of the burden.

Her mind worked blindingly fast, she could ignore that fireball, it was off target. Those webs would create lightning, slice them now! An unexpected inverted web nearly got through her defences before she cut it.

Taija put up anti-traveling wards wherever she stayed for a good reason, but right now she was cursing them. She was fairly sure the Forsaken were outside the wards and she couldn't Travel through them. Nor could she Travel around inside them because she needed to stay with Rand for his protection. She hated standing there in a slugging match. It didn't play to her strengths and particularly not when she was severely overmatched in raw strength.

Aleksi had focused on the encroaching shadowspawn, along with Edram, both holding them back with sword and staff, and small fireballs in Aleksi's case.

Where were the wise ones? Moiraine and Cadsuane? Even the girls? There were enough channelers in Cold Rocks Hold that even three or four of the forsaken should have been relatively easy to beat back. The forsaken must have known that too, their attacks were intensifying.

Then a third set of webs joined them. Saidin based on the feel as Taija tried to defend against them. She couldn't handle it, it was too much.

Edram was there, wielding his sword expertly, slicing through any shadowspawn foolish enough to get within reach, but that was all he was doing. Was it because of her?

Taija wasn't even totally sure where all of the forsaken were, but they'd zeroed in on her and Rand. Shed had to switch total defence, splitting her flows too many ways to cut, block and deflect. A fireball guttered out, a blade of air dispeled into a gust of cool wind, earth rumbled and then subsided under her feet. She couldn't keep it up. She was going to make a mistake sooner or later. If Rand didn't first.

A fireball slipped through and detonated near Taija sending her tumbling into a heap. She ignored the pain that shot through her, it was irrelevant in the face of survival. She needed to hold them off until the others could get onto the battle.

Taija sliced a web here, deflected air and fire there, wielding the Power like a scalpel, splitting her flows all the way to her limit. As she channeled she tried to clamber back to her feet and nearly screamed at the pain it sent through her leg. She'd need to fight from the ground then. Fine. But she was losing. She sliced saidar before it could turn into a blossom of fire between her and Rand.

There was a pause in the fighting with the shadowspawn and Edram glanced back at the two of them. She was going to die. This was ridiculous. She needed him.

"Edram!" Taija screamed. "For fuck's sake I know you can channel! Stop fucking hiding it you rock-brained idiot and use the Power before you get us all killed."

He froze for a second, shock on his face and then suddenly the assault on her slackened, something disrupting many of the webs before they could reach her. Taija was struggling to focus on anything other than her own desperate channeling through the pain in her leg, but she saw lightning striking in the distance. Thank the Light he'd listened. He seemed to have slotted very neatly into her defences too, filling in her gaps without having to discuss it. He must have been very good.

The exchange went on for a few more moments as Edram and Aleksi retreated towards Taija and Rand. Then, suddenly, the attacks with the Power stopped. The forsaken must have fled. Taija supposed they would have been working to a deadline to avoid getting trapped between all of the channelers at Cold Rocks Hold.

To her side Rand collapsed to one knee, he must have been exhausted and Edram moved to stand beside him. Awkwardly not looking at her. Taija realised she was panting for breath through teeth gritted from pain. She tried to stand again and then sank back to the ground with a whimper. Was her leg broken? It felt like it. She wasn't going to look. Still she was alive and so were Rand and Aleksi. That was what mattered. The shadowspawn seemed to be gone too. Maybe it would be ok to pass out now?

Taija released saidar with a sigh of relief and twisted to ask Aleksi to help her find Nynaeve. Or Moiraine she supposed. Then Edram shouted, panic in his voice. "Rand!"

Taija tried to whirl and nearly screamed from the pain, but she managed to turn far enough to see a sinuous black shape moving with blinding speed, already upon Rand, its sword descending. Even as she embraced saidar ignoring the distraction of her pain and began to spin she knew she was too late. Flows sprang into being between her and the myrddraal air, water and spirit feeling achingly slow when suddenly Edram was there, throwing himself forward, taking a strike from the myddraal's black blade across his chest as he did so.

The myrddraal died, killed by Taija's web before the two of them hit the floor, but it was too late for Edram. It was a deep wound, blood already welling fast from it.

Taija blanched as Edram landed and rolled off the corpse. Why was he looking over to her? Why was he smiling?

"It's funny," he croaked. "Who would have thought I'd die saving the Dragon?" He flopped back onto the ground.

More of this false dragon idiocy! It wasn't at all funny. "No one else is dying here today!" She needed to find Nynaeve, or Moiraine. Rand needed his teacher and she didn't care what the man did as a false dragon, with the way people of this time treated male channelers she could hardly blame someone for becoming one. More importantly he was clearly a loyal comrade, whatever his past.

Stifling the agony in her leg Taija put as much urgency into her voice as she could. "Aleksi, Rand we need Nynaeve or Moiraine now! You can Travel as long as you stay within the wards, find them! Go! Now!"

========

Cadsuane had a couple of days of freedom from working on the taint since Taija had gone and got herself injured in the attack. While healing could deal with injuries almost miraculously well, one still needed time to recover afterwards and Nynaeve had seemed decidedly unlike an apprentice when she had informed Taija she would be spending the next two days in bed. The girl really could be quite forceful, of course that attitude would have been dealt with if she had been properly trained.

Speaking of Taija, the woman's look of unimpressed disappointment at Cadusane's lack of knowledge of the taint just kept on rolling through her head. Her poorly concealed distaste at Cadsuane's achievements was even worse. What more could she do? It was not like she had just abandoned the poor men after their gentling, she was not a cruel woman. She had done everything she could to help them! Far more than most aes sedai would have.

Cadsuane scowled to herself. She should not let Taija get to her, but in this case she could not help it. She had prided herself on her status as the best, most experienced aes sedai when it came dealing with male channelers, but Taija was sadly and painfully right, she knew little about the taint itself. So she was reduced to a mere dogsbody, holding painfully complex weaves in place to allow Taija to do the real work. She felt useless, something she certainly was not used to.

Still, personal knowledge was not the only way in which she could be useful. An idea had come to her and the more she thought about it, the better she liked it. She might not know so much about the taint itself, but she knew someone who did. Someone who knew as much as anyone alive. The only question was how to get her in front of Taija.

In the end she decided she would do what she always did. Face the problem head on.

That was why a day later Cadsuane was riding into Tar Valon, having Traveled to a suitably discrete location nearby. She did not believe what had been said about Elaida being a darkfriend, but it was undeniable that the Tower had split and something was going on, so she would need to be careful. As such, she rode with her hood up, stored her horse in the city and entered the Tower through one of the less well-known back entrances at night. The guards would not know who she was, only that she was aes sedai and would likely respect her order to keep silent, at least for long enough for her to be out of the Tower again before any questions were asked.

Cadsuane quickly made her way through the darkened corridors. There was something off about the atmosphere here, she spent as little time as she could in the Tower, but there was an oppressive feel to the place that she did not remember from her previous visits.

The time of night meant that she was able to make her way through the halls unnoticed, wending her way up to the area of the Tower claimed by the Red Ajah. It was there that she went to one particular set of rooms. She hoped that she had remembered correctly, it really had been some years since she was there.

Still, she knocked without hesitating. Waited a few seconds and then knocked again, harder. After a moment she heard the sound of movement from inside and grumbling. A little longer and a bleary eyed, elderly aes sedai opened the door looking ready to launch into a diatribe.

"Cadsuane! What are you doing here? Bothering me at this time of night too?" She stepped aside. "Come in, come in, I do not suppose I will be getting any more sleep tonight regardless. I had thought you were dead you know." Despite her ageless face her hair was snow white. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" Her tone suggested it might not be all that much of a pleasure.

"It has been a while Savriti, how are you?" When Savriti just raised her eyebrows Cadsuane continued without a hint of embarrassment. "I need your expertise. You know more about the taint than anyone I know of and something has come up where that expertise would be invaluable." The woman was almost a brown, despite the red shawl that hung by the door. "I suspect that you would also learn a lot from it."

"Of course you want something." Savriti grumbled and did not even offer to make tea. Rude. "Why else would you be here to see me. After midnight no less. I suppose you want me to go haring off with you into the night too?" She did not wait for Cadsuane's response. "Well I will not. It is late, I am old and I want my sleep. Come back in the morning and I will see what I can do, but I am not leaving the Tower even if it is for the Dragon Reborn himself."

Cadsuane scowled at her, but Savriti simply looked back at her, completely unruffled. This was the problem with truly useful people, they were much harder to intimidate. For a brief moment she considered simply shielding her and dragging her out. She had little doubt that she would be able to. But no, that would be counter-productive. Savriti would hardly be inclined to help if she did that and regardless the woman was her friend. Fine, she would just have to explain things to her.

"What if I said it was for the Dragon Reborn?" She kept her tone mild.

Savriti gasped, "what have you got yourself involved in now Cadsuane? Have you not heard Elaida's proclamation, that only the Tower itself may deal with him? Do you know what you risk? He may be mad already!"

"Pah." Cadsuane dismissed that instantly. "I do not give a fig for Elaida's proclamation. I am aes sedai not a child and he needs to be handled with care. He is not mad yet, I can tell you that much."

"You mean you have spent time with him?"

Cadsuane nodded, "yes. I have been advising him. The reason I want you is…" She really hated having to reveal information unnecessarily. "… there is someone who thinks she may be able to find a way to deal with the taint. Not by gentling the poor men, but directly. To save the Dragon Reborn and other men who can channel!"

Savriti stared at her for a second. "You say the Dragon Reborn is not mad. I am now wondering whether you are. The taint cannot be 'dealt with'. The greatest minds of the Age of Legends tried their best. 3,000 years of effort have not seen one iota of progress. The taint is here to stay."

This was aggravating, she had already revealed too much and now it seemed she would need to reveal some of Taija's secrets too. "I thought the same as you until recently, but as I said, there is someone who thinks they can do it. Taija, an aes sedai from…"

Savriti cut her off. "Taija?! You are now associating with her, calling… that woman aes sedai? You really have gone mad! She is a darkfriend, of the worst kind and no aes sedai. Elaida has had a proclamation issued, there can be no doubt!"

Cadsuane blanched, briefly losing her composure. "A darkfriend? Elaida? Light what has that idiot woman done?!" She quickly brought her anger under control. "I can assure you that Taija is not a darkfriend. She is also aes sedai. She likely has more of a claim than you or I do." Oh it galled her to admit that.

Savriti was clearly unconvinced. "I do not know what kind of schemes you are playing with Cadsuane, or how you have been able to convince yourself of these things, but you are playing a dangerous game." She gestured at the door. "I want you to leave. Out of respect for our friendship I will not sound the alarm if you leave immediately."

Cadsuane sighed to herself, it seemed that open communication had not worked and she would have to return to Plan B. She rose to her feet. "Very well, I am sorry you said that Savriti. I am also sorry about this."

She embraced saidar and struck, slamming a shield into place on Savriti, binding and gagging her with air at the same time. She really had not wanted to do that. The look of both outrage and fear in Savriti's eyes made her feel all the worse for it.

She could not just walk out of the Tower dragging a shielded aes sedai behind her of course. If only Moiraine or Taija or even one of the girls had been willing to teach her the trick of inverting weaves... Still, no point crying over spilt milk, she supposed she had not done much to endear herself to any of them.

She would just have to try to conceal what she had done as much as she could. A weave of tied off air barred the door. It would take a sister to get through that and it would be a while before enough concern was raised to get a sister to try to break into another's rooms. Then she opened the doors to one of Savriti's cupboards. She would weave the gateway in there. If she closed the doors behind her then, even if someone did have the Talent for sensing residues, they might not see what was left of her gateway before it was too faded.

As Cadsuane wove her gateway, she pondered what she had heard. The news about Elaida's proclamations had truly shaken her. Where she had dismissed the tales of the new Amyrlin being a darkfriend before, she now had to give them a great deal more credence. It was undeniable, the woman was either a darkfriend or the biggest fool to sit in the Amyrlin seat in centuries.