As usual all speech in italics is in the Old Tongue
Chapter CXXXVI - Miracles Live On
Taija spent the next day skip-Traveling southwards, alternating who was spinning the gateways across the group. The land was hilly, scarred in places with what seemed to be a disproportionate number of dormant volcanoes. Was that because of mad men running free? Or tribal warfare between channelers? She had idea and if she was honest with herself, she wasn't that interested right then. She wanted to get to Paral and find out the truth.
At the end of the day Taija spun a gateway back to the Westlands. Not to the Hall, she couldn't be bothered to spend too long walking back under the anti-Traveling wards and she was too distracted to deal with the admin that awaited her there, but it was easy enough to find an inn in Illian. Their accent was ridiculous, but it was a big city and the whole group could anonymously stay there in reasonable comfort. After all, why sleep in a tent when they didn't have to.
Early the next morning Taija was straight back to where they'd stopped the night before and continuing to Travel southwards. It was relatively slow going, although nothing like as bad as walking. Sometimes they could cover 20 kilometres in a single step. Other times it was far smaller distances, it all depended on the scenery. If only she had more information about the geography of the southern part of Artalisia she might have been able to work something out with blindly jumping. As it was, Taija didn't want to end up in the sea.
It was getting towards the afternoon when things changed. The first thing that Taija realised was that they must have been incredibly lucky. Blindly heading south, looking for a city in a continent, even when they had the general direction, was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. The second thing was that the city must be controlling a lot of territory around themselves. She couldn't even smell the sea.
In front of her the grassy hills, with trees dotted around them, that she'd been moving through for the last few jumps came to an abrupt halt, to be replaced by what almost seemed to be desert. Nothing was growing beyond a few sad looking shrubs. Taija might have thought it was natural, or maybe the result of mad channelers, but for the signs in the ground. There was one in front of her and she could see them off to each side. Perhaps every hundred metres or so going away into the distance.
The board in front of her had a prominent skull and crossbones on it, and it was clearly printed not painted, with writing below it. Writing in her language.
'Entry forbidden to non-citizens. By decree of the Chief Secretary, all intruders will be terminated with extreme prejudice.'
That was… More than ominous. Taija's heart sank a little further. When she thought about what the soldiers from Paral had apparently done to the village, the threat seemed plausible. It wasn't going to stop her, obviously. But she was going to have to be at least a bit more careful. Also, it just didn't fit with how things should be if this was actually Paral and not some twisted imitation. After a moment Taija turned to her companions.
"I think there are going to be some… obstacles now." She glanced out across the packed dirt ahead of her. "Be very careful where you put your feet and keep a web of air in front and above you. Imagine someone might be shooting exploding arrows at you."
They all looked a bit confused, but it was Egwene that spoke up. "Why do we need to watch where we put our feet?"
"Land mines."
"Aren't all mines on land? Were there underwater mines in the Age of Legends?"
Taija sighed, so much for directly translating words. "Just watch."
She spun a web into the ground, earth and spirit, sending a gentle, invisible wave of the Power through it. She could feel there were lumps of metal in several places. One of those would do. Taija carefully spun air and earth, dragged up a clump of dirt and compressed it so that it would stay together and then dropped it on a mine.
The fountain of dirt thrown into the air and the loud boom of the explosion made her point for her.
"So these are…" how to say it? "Explosive traps in the ground. If you step on them then they'll explode under your feet, but technology not the Power."
Other than Jaer, the rest of Taija's companions took an instinctive step back from the sign.
She glanced back at them in irritation before continuing. "They're not that dangerous, you can use a web for finding metal in the ground to work out where they are, but you just can't step on them. That's how I found the one I set off." She hesitated and considered for a second. "Actually, thinking about it, they might be cleverer than that. They might use plastic, um, non metallic ones. Or possibly ones detonated by sensors so you don't actually need to step on them." Even Jaer was starting to look a bit uncomfortable and Taija could have sworn everyone else was standing closer to her than before she'd started explaining.
"Don't worry," she tried to give them a reassuring smile. "Mines are more of an inconvenience than a real threat once you know where they are." They didn't seem reassured and after a moment Taija huff to herself. This was ridiculous. "Fine, just keep close, don't step on any undisturbed ground and you'll be fine."
She opened a gateway to the top of a hill in her sightline, then spun earth and fire through it ripping a swathe of the ground in front of it apart. A couple of explosions went off in the mess. Then Taija stepped through, followed reluctantly by her group.
She could see a lot further from the top of the hill, but it just seemed to be more dead ground. Had they been using defoliants or something? Or maybe it was just a natural desert. Taija shrugged to herself, it wasn't particularly important. Her eyes scanned the sky, ingrained habits from the War of Power returning quickly. In the distance she spotted a black dot, seemingly unmoving. For a moment Taija considered swatting it out of the sky, she thought she could just about mange at that range, but then she reconsidered. This might be Paral. She didn't really think she was going to like what she found, not after the long series of disappointments since she'd found herself in this time, but she still didn't want to provoke conflict with whatever people were calling themselves Paralans if she didn't have to. Instead Taija waved cheerfully at it, while being ready to spin a barrier of air should it shoot anything at her.
It took a couple more gateways for anything to change. The land seemed to move from desert to grassland, which at least improved the view, although it was still bare of features such as trees or buildings. One more gateway took her to another hilltop and then things looked stranger. The ground was dotted with craters. Artillery? Judging by the grass growing in them them they'd been there for a while and it wasn't like some of the battlefields she'd seen that looked more like a moonscape. Rather, this area seemed to have been bombarded intermittently and over a long period of time. Decades maybe or even centuries? Did that mean it was safe now? Probably not.
Taija turned back to her companions once again. "I think we're getting closer, but it looks like they might use artillery to get rid of anyone who's a danger to the city. They're almost certainly watching us now." Seeing their looks of confusion she huffed in frustration, it was getting a little annoying having to translate everything into terms they could understand when she just wanted to think about what she might be heading towards. Not for the first time Taija cursed their ancestors for regressing so far. "Like catapults or ballistas that can throw exploding rocks a very long way, further than the eye can see. Make sure you keep barriers of air above and around you, just in case."
Before she'd finished her explanation she was already spinning another gateway.
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Egwene listened with horror to Taija's casual words. Where was the caution that she'd always told them to show? Before she could protest Taija had already spun another gateway and stepped through it, looking behind her impatiently for the rest of them to follow. With a sigh Egwene stepped after her. A moment later the gateway closed. Taija was just staring ahead of herself, they must have gone over twenty miles with this gateway, moving between two hilltops. Before Egwene could even finish spinning her barriers of air Taija was moving again, spinning another gateway.
Egwene was more than a bit worried about Taija actually. She'd practically ignored all of their questions. She just seeming to be utterly focused on reaching this Paral at any cost. It was very unlike her and she'd refused to explain why she was so worked up about the place. Egwene certainly hadn't heard of it before, but she had to think it must have been something to do with the Age of Legends for Taija to go off like this. It was worrying though, Taija was an incredible woman and Egwene owed her more than her life, but she had her flaws and one of them was allowing herself to get distracted. With the right stimulus she seemed to lose all of her common sense.
With her lips turned down Egwene went to follow through the gateway. These Paralans might have bested her before, but now she was ready for them. Whatever Taija needed to help her deal with Paral, Egwene would be there behind her.
She stepped through the gateway after the others. Just before it closed she glanced behind her, to the last hilltop they'd been on, only to see it disappear into a cloud of fire and smoke. Was that the 'artillery' that Taija had mentioned?
"Taija, you…" Egwene trailed off as she followed Taija's gaze. In the distance there was a grey smudge. Taija spun one of her inverted webs and the air turned to a haze in front of her. Probably something to magnify the view. Egwene was about to copy her, when she remembered Taija's warning, so first she spun air in a barrier above and around them. Her web joining with the others'. Then she spun her own magnifying web.
The view in front her seemed to shoot forward, resolving into towering walls formed of a smooth grey stone. Given the distance it was hard to tell how high they were, but then as her eyes moved across them, between the poles protruding up from the top, something to hold banners perhaps, she saw tiny figures moving around. Based on the size of those people, the walls must have been over 50 spans high!
One of the poles suddenly flared with light from its end, then another. Egwene looked over to Taija who seemed to be frowning to herself. After a moment Taija gave her head a shake and looked up.
"I'm going to Travel to the walls and then down into the city. Once we're there we'll try to blend in. I nee… want to know what's going on before I make any decisions. I want you all to watch my back, people might attack us with little warning, barriers of air should keep us safe, but remember to guard behind, above and to the sides. Let me do any talking, just keep quiet unless we're attacked."
That sounded like a stupid plan. Egwene opened her mouth to say so, more diplomatically of course, but then Taija looked up.
"Cover your ears and be ready to follow me."
By then they'd all learnt that if Taija said to cover your ears you did it immediately. A moment later the world dissolved into an earsplitting roar as fire surrounded them, blocked by their barriers of air. Taija was already spinning a gateway and gesturing them through.
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As the shells exploded above and around Taija, she stepped through her gateway onto the walls. Concrete, not something she'd seen in a while and ugly as sin, none of the artistry that she'd expect from her time's architecture. At least not pre-War. Hopefully the gunners would think they'd hit her and her friends with that barrage, although that aws probably too much to hope for. Either way, she'd picked a bit of wall that looked relatively unoccupied and she quickly spun a second gateway down into what looked like housing sprawling away from the walls.
All of them emerged in the shadow of a block of flats, perhaps ten storeys tall, constructed out of dull concrete. They looked like the sort of housing that was put together at speed for refugees from the north after the opening days of the War, although Taija doubted any of those buildings would have survived for three millennia. Thankfully there was no one around to see them emerge.
In the brief time that Taija was on the walls she'd seen towers looming together in what was probably the centre of the city, but quite some way from the walls. If this really was Paral she couldn't imagine that these concrete blocks were how everyone lived, only the poorest of her time would have lived somewhere like that and only during and after the Collapse. She also saw vaguely familiar spiraling structures off to one side that she suspected might be vertical farms. She'd seen something similar in the past, although certainly not in Paral, but it had been more of a gimmick, something the Kemali regional government had done to show they could rather than something practical. Behind it all lay the sea, tiny boats moving across it.
Taija didn't want to go straight to the centre, that felt like immediate discovery would be inevitable and she didn't want that. She wanted the chance to see what was going on in 'Paral' for at least a little while before she spoke to any authorities. Or had them shooting at her. She hadn't really expected anything else, but the artillery reinforced the sick feeling in her stomach that said that even if this actually was Paral she was still probably going to be shot at. That being said, Taija was still looking around wide eyed. Lots of things were wrong, but there were so many things that were recognisably a legacy of her times.
"Stay here, keep quiet and stay hidden. I'll be right back." Taija whispered the words to the others and then headed for a passage under the apartment block, spinning a web over herself so that her appearance rippled and transformed into that of a middle aged man, looking like a southerner and in the high-vis jacket of a maintenance worker from her time. Hopefully it wouldn't look completely out of place here.
After carefully looking out from the passage Taija emerged onto what seemed to be a main road. Parked cars lined it, others whipped past on a three lane road. She didn't recognise any of the models, not that she have expected to. There seemed to be far more cars than there would have been in her time, but she saw buses too and people walking along the pavements. They weren't dressed how she'd expect. Taija could see that their clothes were synthetic fabrics, like she might have had in her time and certainly cut more like she'd expect to see in Paral. However, the styles were wrong as were the colours. They also just looked a bit drab and cheap. They wouldn't fool anyone if they'd tried to fit in in her Paral, but they wouldn't look so wildly wrong that they couldn't claim to be from some obscure village with no sense of fashion. She wasn't sure if this was just a poor area of the city, or if it was what most of it was like, but she was distinctly unimpressed by the buildings lining the road, they looked like the worst, dullest apartment blocks of her time.
Once Taija felt she'd seen a few of the local citizens she waited until there was a gap in the foot traffic, just a single woman in a cheap looking suit walking along. As she got close Taija give one final glance around then grabbed her with air, pulling her into the passage with no warning before she ducked back into it after her.
A minute later Taija was back with her fellow aes sedai, the terrified woman floating beside her, her eyes bulging as they flicked between them all. Taija couldn't help but feel bad. She needed information about this city and she couldn't get it without speaking to someone, but the last thing she wanted was to bring the authorities down on her. These people clearly had proper communications, so she couldn't rely on out running any alerts.
"I'm terribly sorry for doing this to you, I'm not from Paral and needed to speak to somebody, I promise not to hurt you." Taija spun a web against sound around the whole group and removed the air blocking the woman from calling for help. "You can speak now, but no one will hear if you try to call out."
Her breathing was rapid, almost hyperventilating. "Y y you can channel? How did you get in here?! You have to let me go! I can't be around you. I don't want to be exiled!"
"It's alright," Taija tried to make her voice as reassuring as possible. "No one is getting exiled, just answer a few questions and we'll be gone. No one will ever know."
"N n no. If I help a channeler they'll find me. You need to leave the city, this isn't the place for you. The Watchers will find us and if you're lucky they'll kill you, otherwise they'll send us all to the Wastelands. Please! Leave me alone!" That was more than ominous. This is going to be horrible, Taija just knew it.
"There's nothing to be worried about. Please, what are the Watchers?"
Unfortunately the woman clammed up, refusing to answer any more questions, just occasionally struggling against his invisible bonds. It was worrying though, that wasn't the reaction that Taija had wanted. Eventually she gave up on questioning the woman and silenced her again.
"Alright, this isn't getting us anywhere. I want to try to explore the city a bit and work out exactly what's going on. I'm going to disguise us so that we can fit in. Remember, they almost certainly speak the Old Tongue here, so don't speak the Common Tongue. In fact, try not to speak at all, you'll just sound wrong."
After the others nodded Taija rifled through the woman's pockets with more than a hint of guilt. Her wallet had an ID card along with a number of what Tiaja hoped were payment cards and bank notes in it. There was also a picture of a man and a child. She took that out and slipped it into the woman's blouse, but she was keeping the wallet. Taija also took what was almost certainly her phone.
"I'm sorry for this, but if I get the chance I'll pay you back. I'm going to leave you now, but I can't have you following us. Don't worry, this won't hurt you at all," the woman started to thrash against the web of air holding her in place. "It should just last a few hours then you'll be free."
Taija moved her against the wall and tied off the air holding her in place so that the web would dissolve in a few hours, then did the same with a web of illusion to hide her and a web against sound. Hopefully by the time she was free things would be resolved one way or another. Whatever happened, Taija wasn't really willing to leave her like that for longer, especially after she'd just robbed her.
Job done Taija spun a web to block the woman's vision of her and her group and then spun disguises over them. Taija took on the woman's appearance, hopefully she could pass as her well enough to use her ID if she needed to. The other aes sedai Taija dressed up in clothes similar to those she'd seen people walking past in.
Job done, it was time to move. This seemed to be a residential district, hopefully a good place to start their infiltration, but not a great one to actually get much information. They needed to get somewhere with more going on.
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Egwene followed Taija, trying to resist the urge to look around wide eyed. Horseless carts sped past at incredible speeds, somehow not careening out of control. She'd have assumed they were ter'angreal of some sort, but there were so many and she could remember Taija rambling on about 'cars' before. The buildings on each side of the incredibly smooth road towered above them, as high as all but the greatest domes and towers of Caemlyn. They were relatively unadorned, but the fine construction and large glass windows, along with their sheer size, all spoke of great wealth. The people of Paral walked past the little group, of aes sedai, not sparing them a second glance. That was just how Egwene wanted it to stay, so she did her best to act casually and not to stare at the wondrous sights. Was this what Taija's life had been like during the Age of Legends? Surrounded by such incredible feats of achievement? Even the ordinary people's clothes seemed to be of the finest quality, albeit lacking in much adornment.
Taija seemed to know where she was going, although Egwene had no idea how, and walked down the street with determined purpose. Seemingly refusing to be distracted by anything around her. They followed what must have been a main thoroughfare for a good ten minutes.
Then suddenly Taija turned a corner and started to descend some stairs. A sign above them spelt out a word in the Old Tongue that Egwene didn't recognise. Underpath perhaps? Was there a cellar in the road? An actual land mine? It was distinctly odd, but Egwene knew her duty and after a moment's hesitation she followed Taija down the completely even stairs, resisting the urge to ask her where they were going.
The stairs opened up into some kind of underground hall, all smooth stone and metal with a rumbling sound echoing through it. Crowds of Paralans hurried through it, passing between barriers that opened and closed without any visible mechanism, while Taija moved over to some kind of window in the wall. Was this all some huge ter'angreal? Was it dangerous?
Egwene was sure she heard Taija muttering to herself, but it was hard to tell over the sound of all the people and the rumbling. They ended up standing awkwardly around their leader as she poked at the window. Egwene tried not to stare too obviously as images flickered across it, responding to Taija's touch.
She could feel Taija's frustration growing as she prodded the screen and a few Paralans had started to wait behind them, forming a queue. She could sense growing irritation from them and smiled awkwardly at one before looking back at Taija when he didn't react. Was that a curse word from Taija? She hoped none of the Paralans had heard.
Then Egwene's heart leapt into her mouth. A man came over to Taija, dressed entirely in black, hard eyes surveying them from a finely defined face, everything about his body language shouting confidence and power. He glanced the other aes sedai over and dismissed them, his attention on Taija. Egwene couldn't help but notice the way that the Paralans left a space around him, although she wasn't sure why. From what she'd heard it was very unlikely he could channel and his clothing didn't look particularly fine or impressive. Was it something to do with the metal items on his belt? She really wasn't sure.
"Is there a problem citizen?" The man addressed Taija politely. However, while Egwene struggled to follow the tone through his strange accent, she felt more like he was saying that there were about to be problems rather than making an honest enquiry.
The machine beeped and Taija smiled at him, giving him a little bow and replying with uncharacteristic smoothness. "Oh thank you for your concern, but I was just being clumsy. Silly me. Everything's working now."
The man's brow furrowed slightly, but he took a step back, still watching as Taija stepped away from the window and handed little pieces of a strange, smooth material to each of them before waving her own at them. "Come along then ladies, gentlemen, sorry about the delay, just clumsy of me!"
She headed for the barriers and ostentatiously placed the strange item on a red circle between two of them. A moment later the barrier swung open for her to walk through. Jahar was the quickest on the uptake, following her and placing his own card on the circle. Egwene and the rest quickly hurried after them.
On the other side was what must have been the source of the rumbling. Egwene nearly balked as Taija stepped unhesitatingly onto a rattling, moving staircase, descending further into the depths of the ground. What was this place? Another miracle of the Age of Legends? A horror that they were forced to live with? She forced herself to suppress her fear and stepped forward. It must be some kind of machine, not an unknown ter'angreal and if Taija wasn't scared of it then she wouldn't be either. As the moving stairs started to carry her down, she glanced behind her to see the man in black watching them, holding some kind of cube to his mouth.
Then she gasped as her attention was dragged to the walls. What she'd thought were just glass windows had sprung to life, showing moving images and writing. All in the Old Tongue. A dignified older man with a short, white goatee stood with his arms crossed watching over them, replicated on every sheet of glass down the path of the moving stairs. It was almost too fast for her to read in the Old Tongue, but the words 'Chief Secretary Labrane is with you' flashed up above the man. Then the images changed, because images was all they could be, even though they were so clear and vibrantly colourful that it was hard to believe. A man in black, like the one at the top of the moving stairs stared out, his eyes seeming to be focused right on her. Words flashed up again too. 'Beware the enemy within, report all treason.' A second later the image was gone again, to be replaced once more, this time by a happy family entering one of the horseless carts, no cars. 'Unity, prosperity, freedom, protect Paral.'
Then they reached the bottom of the moving staircase and Egwene nearly lost her footing stepping off it after Taija. Thankfully, she'd spent enough time running, sparring and training that she kept her balance. Jaer of course had no trouble, the man might as well be a cat. Jahar and Faeve weren't so lucky, stumbling and nearly falling.
Taija shot them a look of irritation, but didn't break her stride, turning right through a hole in the wall and leading them into a long, cellar-like chamber. Was this where the mine was? Egwene found herself standing on a raised platform amidst a crowd of Paralans, none of whom gave any of the aes sedai a second look. Most seemed to be entirely focused on odd squares in their hands or just staring into the distance.
Jahar started to ask Taija something and she shot him such a look that he instantly subsided into silence.
They stood that way in awkward silence for a couple of minutes while Egwene tried to surreptitiously decode the images on the walls. What in the Light was a sky garden? Did they have flying plants in the Age of Legends?
Her study of her surroundings was brought to an end by a rumbling sound. A wind quickly picked up although she couldn't see what could possibly have caused it and the rumbling turned into a rising shriek. An ethereal howl that sounded like nothing she'd ever heard before, a sound that tore painfully at her ears and had her looking around frantically for its source, bemused at the way Taija and the Paralans seemed so unconcerned.
Then, with a roar, something came blasting into the chamber, shrieking its way along the platform on which they stood. Egwene screamed as it appeared, almost jumping in the air and then did her best to act as if she'd done nothing as a number of the Paralans turned to stare at her. It was made of metal, in bright colours and light glowed from within it. As she tried to calm herself Egwene realised it must be some kind of machine. Another of these horseless carts, but far more terrifying, far larger and far louder. There were people in it too, was this how Taija had moved around during the Age of Legends? It was horrendous! The noise, the crowds, everything!
With a final squeal the machine drew to a halt and openings slid apart across it, disgorging hordes of Paralans. Taija didn't hesitate, stepping straight into it and after a moment's hesitation Egwene followed her. She was pretty sure she wasn't going to enjoy this.
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Rand listened to the aspirant's breathless report, his face totally blank. Inside he was screaming. How?! Why?! It was his fault for sending his father away. He'd thought by ignoring him he could keep him safe, how could he have been so stupid?!
We are doomed to see our families die. I'm a monster, you'll become a monster. Light, why?!
Even Lews Therin seemed to have reverted to desperate moans. Fury bubbled inside Rand. At whoever had done this and also at himself for having allowed it to happen. He didn't allow it to show on his face. It wasn't the aspirant's fault, he needed to remember that and he could see the man was terrified.
"You will take me there, now." He shrugged Min's hand off his arm, then regretted it immediately. She was his rock, she was trying to comfort him, not stop him from doing what he needed to do. "I'm sorry Min, I'm just… in shock," he looked into her sorrow-filled eyes. "I need to go. I need to see this and I need to find who did it and made them suffer."
You idiot boy. It's a trap. It's an obvious trap, send someone else. Send a force of aes sedai. Do not go yourself.
Rand shook his head. He wasn't going to listen to Lews Therin.
"I'm I'm so sorry Rand." Min looked up at him with tear filled eyes and her lips thinned. "I'm coming with you." No jokes from Min, not now, he could see the pain in her eyes, he wanted her there with him, needed her. But… Lews Therin had a point.
"No Min, not this time. I'll come straight back, but it's too dangerous, it might be a trap. You need to stay here."
That made her eyes widen. "If it's a trap then what sort of block headed stupidity is it for you to go?"
Rand didn't respond for a second, but when he did there was death in his eyes. "Whoever it was will think I'll rush there with one or two people with me. I'm going to take a whole team and we'll be ready. If it really is a trap then they're not going to enjoy the results, they'll find I'm more dangerous than they think."
You're still a fool boy. You think whoever it is will not have thought of that? What if they have a sa'angreal? You will be placing your neck straight in the noose.
No, if the Forsaken had a sa'angreal they'd have used it by now. He wouldn't allow them to do this to him, he would go to his father and he would bury him himself. Then he'd make them regret every oath they'd sworn to the Dark One.
At least you have the sense to leave the girl where it's safe.
Yes, that was key. "You'll be safe here Min, I'll make sure of it." He turned to one of the maidens. "Send for Fedwin, Setora and Nalil. They are to guard Min with their lives." Caemlyn was not a soft target and it was easy to reinforce. The Forsaken were cowards, the addition of those three Hall aes sedai gave a force that would make any of them back off. She would be safe in Caemlyn while he triggered the Forsaken's trap and allowed himself to mourn the father he'd left behind.