As usual all speech in italics is in the Old Tongue

Chapter XXXII - I Have A Very Particular Set of Skills

After some discussion with Moiraine and the others, they all agreed on a plan. The first step would be sneaking in and freeing the girls. Then they'd move on Callandor.

Stealth would be key to success. Taija knew it wouldn't last forever, but the longer they could keep the defenders, and more importantly Be'lal and the Black Ajah, ignorant of their presence the better.

They all took a couple of hours of rest to prepare themselves and then made their way to the Stone. Moiraine's presence was actually a blessing from the Creator. Taija had thought disabling and replacing some of the Defenders of the Stone would be the best approach, Moiraine convinced her otherwise. Instead they rode on a fine carriage that she somehow obtained. Rand, Aleksi, Lan and Perrin were under inverted webs of illusion making them look like house-guards, Moiraine was playing the role of a Tairen high lady.

Moiraine had assured Taija that the real high lady would not be around to contradict their story and so she'd also altered the appearance of the carriage to match the house colours Moiraine told her it needed.

Moiraine's plan was definitely better than hers, but still, the woman hadn't needed to make a snippy comment about not everything needing to involve hitting someone over the head.

With Moiraine's help, their entrance into the Stone was anti-climactic. The Defenders at the outer gate made a perfunctory check of the carriage, urged on by the High Lady Melassa's impatience and they were through. Taija supposed a noblewoman and a few guards were hardly going to be a threat to a fortress like that.

In no time at all they were disembarking from the carriage and passing off the horses to a simpering stable boy. Moiraine contemptuously ignored him, her nose high in the air as she swept into the Stone, trailed by the rest of them.

Somehow she seemed to know where to go, heading unerringly towards what must have been the Stone's dungeons. Taija noticed that there seemed to be a lot of Defenders of the Stone running around, mostly heading upwards, but more importantly, completely uninterested in bothering a high lady and her guards.

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Mat breathed a sigh of relief as another group of Defenders ran past him without stopping. This day was turning out even worse than he'd expected and he'd known it was going to be a bloody terrible one ever since he'd seen Elayne, Egwene and Nynaeve being dragged into a waiting carriage.

Those flaming dice had been rattling in his head the whole time since he'd overheard Lord Gaebril's conversation in Caemlyn. Only to come to a crashing stop when he finally found the girls, only minutes too late it seemed. They'd been in disguise of course, but he was no fool, unlike them. What in the Light possessed Nynaeve and Egwene to take on the appearance of members of the Women's Circle he didn't know. Still, at least it allowed him to recognise them and Elayne had had enough sense not to go around looking like Queen bloody Morgase.

As soon as the Defenders had passed he continued making his way down towards the cells. Scurrying round corners or behind columns when it looked like he might spotted.

He'd already had to fight a number of Defenders when he blew his way into the Stone and hadn't that been a surprise. Who'd have thought that fireworks could do so much damage, he'd just meant to distract the Defenders. Well it had certainly done that! Then again the Aiel he'd encountered up there were probably doing an even better job of it.

It wasn't long before Mat reached the cells, which seemed suspiciously empty of both guards and prisoners. He quickly started making his way past them, searching for the girls. He needed to find them and then be out of there before the bloody aes sedai caught up with them! Aes sedai were bad enough when they weren't actively looking for you.

Eventually he turned a corner and froze when he saw a woman sitting outside a cell, looking like she was mostly asleep. After a moment he started moving again, but much more slowly and quietly.

He expected to be seen at any moment as he snuck up on the woman, but he had no choice, Light he wished he'd just turned around and gone home. It was what any sensible man would do. He recognised her from when the girls had been captured, another bloody aes sedai.

Yet she stayed dozing, never even looking up as he approached her. In for a penny, in for a crown, when he was in reach he swung his staff, clipping her across the side of her head. The thunk made him wince, he didn't know why she'd taken the girls prisoner. He could certainly think of a few reasons someone might want to and do worse too, but hopefully she'd have no more than a headache when she woke. Not that he planned to be in the same city as her when that happened.

Bending down he rummaged in the aes sedai's belt pouch and pulled out a likely looking key to insert into the cell door. Luckily it turned easily and the door swung open with a long creak which ended with his gasp at what he saw.

Inside Egwene was lying asleep on a bed, while Nynaeve and Elayne faced the door. That wasn't what shocked him though. All three of them looked like they'd been in a common room brawl and came off the worse for it. Their dresses were torn and purple bruises marred their faces and arms. What had those aes sedai done to them?

Nynaeve and Elayne seemed just as stunned to see him and there was a long pause. Then Elayne leapt into his arms giving him a tight hug. "Mat!"

At the same time, Nynaeve spoke sounding shocked, "Matrim Cauthon, what under the Light are you doing here?"

"I came to bloody rescue you," he said. Burn him, he wasn't sure why he'd bothered, of course she'd be like this, she was always like this.

Nynaeve hurriedly nodded flushing slightly. "And I thank you for it Mat," why wasn't she telling him off? Had she been beaten too hard? "There's no time for talking, we need to be moving. I'll wake Egwene."

Mat looked Elayne over, she really didn't look good, "what happened to you, was it that aes sedai, I thought they weren't allowed to hurt people?" Perhaps he should have hit her harder.

"It is fine Mat, I've had worse." He bloody well doubted that. She turned her nose up the way she always did when she was irritated by something. "We were captured by the Black Ajah, do you think they treated us like valued guests?"

The Black Ajah?! Mat winced. Burn him, what was he doing there? "I suppose they wouldn't at that," he laughed nervously. "Blood and bloody ashes, the Black Ajah." A quick shake of his head, "are you alright? They didn't hurt you too much?"

Elayne shook her head, her lovely tresses bouncing with the motion, briefly hiding the bruises on her face. "No, I will be fine, once we are out of the Stone anyway." She put her hand on his arm and smiled prettily at him, "thank you Mat. However, I thought you were in Caemlyn, not that I am ungrateful, but why are you here?"

He groaned internally, this wasn't going to be an easy conversation. Being a princess and all Elayne could get very worked up about certain things and this was something that could get anyone into a snit. "Could we perhaps leave it until we're out of the Stone. We're going to be knee deep in flaming Defenders soon, or worse."

"Yes, Mat's quite right," Nynaeve interjected, again not commenting on his swearing, perhaps that aes sedai had hit her one too many times. "We need to get going before we're caught again or that mad-woman decides to do something insane like blow up the whole Stone to free us."

"Which mad-woman would that be?" Mat span at the sudden, terrifyingly familiar, feminine voice behind him, to see a short, bearded man in the uniform of one of the Defenders of the Stone. He goggled for a second at the incongruous sight before it clicked. It was that bloody mad-woman.

Well he wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of seeing how much he wanted to be anywhere else. "Taija sedai, it is nice that you have finally arrived. You will see that I have already rescued the ladies." He gave her a bow with a flourish. There, not even Nynaeve could accuse him of being rude.

"Ah Mat, what a pleasant surprise. It seems we were barely needed at all." The voice was distinctly odd coming from a man's face. Why were the girls all staring at him instead of her? "Girls, you look terrible. Nynaeve, heal the other two. Moiraine sedai, would you mind healing Nynaeve?"

Moiraine was here too? Of course she bloody was. Mat edged away as he saw Nynaeve lay her hands on Egwene and Elayne, their bruises vanishing quickly. It was bad enough that Elayne was becoming an aes sedai, but at least she could have a laugh. Now he was faced with Moiraine who was the epitome of aes sedainess and Taija who, well he wasn't quite sure what she was, but frankly she terrified him whatever Elayne said about her.

A richly dressed noblewoman swept into the room, Taija standing aside for her. That would be Moiraine then. A second later Nynaeve also looked healthy again. Moiraine moved towards him and he leapt back, he wasn't having any of that, he'd bloody well be fine thank you very much.

"Right, now that that's done, can you fight?" Taija's voice cut through his thoughts and he found himself nodding with the girls. Her voice seemed different to usual, harder, more sure of herself. "Excellent, then we move out. We're going for the Heart of the Stone. We avoid fighting for as long as possible, but once we're discovered we move as fast as we can. Anyone gets in our way, don't hesitate. Knock them out if you can, kill them if you have to. The four of you are now servants, follow behind us and keep your eyes down."

Mat winced, he'd already fought his way in here to rescue the girls and now she wanted him to join them? Not bloody likely! Yet when they started moving he found himself following.

Outside the cell Taija suddenly stopped and turned to the unconscious aes sedai lying on the stone floor. "Black Ajah?" Her voice was cold.

"Yes, Berylla Naron." Egwene answered looking angrily down at the unconscious woman. A moment later Mat heard all three girls gasp and a glance at Moiraine told him even she looked perturbed. It must be some kind of aes sedai thing, the woman was still breathing and he couldn't see that anything had happened.

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Taija had been surprised to find Mat had already freed the girls when she arrived. He clearly had even more hidden depths than she'd thought, she'd have to really try to pin him down for a proper chat at some point. She did still owe him an apology too.

For now though, they all needed to keep moving. It seemed like something else was going on in the Stone. Taija was sure that their stealthy entrance had been helped by whatever was drawing the Defenders of the Stone up towards the upper reaches of the Stone. It couldn't last forever, but the further they could get undetected the better.

They all made their way through the surprisingly wide corridors of the Stone. Many Defenders and servants went by, some giving them odd looks, but it seemed their disguises as guards plus Moiraine's haughty false identity were enough in the current chaos for them to get by.

That came to a crashing end when they entered a large chamber, arches lining alcoves in its sides.

As soon as Taija walked in she felt saidar being channeled from around the room. Then glowing women step out from the shadows all around them. Twelve of them.

Moiraine failed to suppress a wince, her voice tight. "I am shielded." Shields also slammed into place on Nynaeve, Egwene and Elayne. Rand looked like he was about to do something precipitous and Taija grabbed his arm before his did.

She assessed them with a glance. Two circles of six, enough to shield any of them if given the chance, well except her with her angreal.

The aes sedai weren't even looking at her. They had no idea she could even channel. To them she was just another guard, at worst an irritation. Idiots. Nevertheless, they weren't completely stupid, Taija felt the air around her harden into place.

One of the aes sedai, Taija thought it was Falion stepped forward. "So it seems our trap has caught somebody, although I do wonder where the Dragon is hiding himself?" She glanced over Taija and the immobilised men. When she was met with defiant silence she stalked closer. "Perhaps a little pain might loosen your tongues? Yes?"

Taija's willingness to let her monologue ended at the mention of torture. She was already embracing saidar right up to her limits through her angreal. It only took a thought to unleash it.

Fire, spirit and water split three ways and inverted. Three of the aes sedai, including Falion, exploded into torches of flame, their brief shrieks cut off almost instantly.

The moment of distraction was all Taija need, razor sharp webs of spirit and fire lashed out all around her. Air softened to nothing and shields withered away and she was already moving.

A gateway sprang open in front of Taija mid-step and by the time her foot hit the floor she was through it. Two of the black aes sedai were in front of her, turning too slowly to face her. She grabbed them with overpowered webs of air and slammed them into the ceiling hard enough that it probably broke every bone in their bodies.

An aes sedai across the room recovered from her shock long enough to pull her hand back making a throwing gesture. Taija saw the web of fire forming and cut it with barely a thought, at the same time her own web of earth and fire ripped the flagstone under the aes sedai's feet upwards into a storm of razor sharp shards of rock.

Various webs flashed back and forth across the chamber, it seemed the girls and Moiraine had joined in. A bit slow, she'd have to get the girls to work on that.

A pair of blacks were franticly fending off Moiraine and the girls' webs. It was barely a challenge to spin her own sweeping one of them's feet from under her, sending her briefly airborne. Someone, Taija thought it was Moiraine, hit her with a fireball before she hit the ground.

Only five left, Taija could take them single handed even in this confined space. Webs flashed back and forth and she was almost tempted to see how the girls handled it. But no, this was a fight to the death, imagine if one of them got hurt because she was just trying to make it a teaching moment!

Taija spun earth and fire and discs of rock span out of the walls at blinding speed, passing straight through a pair of aes sedai leaving their bisected corpses to collapse.

Then she had to duck, almost instantly spinning a barrier of air around herself as something seemed to shake the whole chamber. Maybe the whole Stone. Rubble fell from the ceiling, huge lumps of rock that could crush a man, and a couple of archways simply crumbled into dust.

She didn't feel any webs, was it Be'lal? Taija was spinning a nasty surprise for him when she saw Rand looking mortified. Ah, he lost control. She ignored the sound of Mat swearing, she wasn't sure what was wrong with milk in a cup, but it wasn't important.

When the dust cleared the remaining three black sisters seemed to have vanished, presumably fleeing for their lives.

Something really needed to be done to help Rand, but Taija didn't know what. She'd told him everything she could about channeling saidin, beyond that he needed a teacher before he accidentally killed himself or someone else.

By the time everyone had pulled themselves together there wasn't much point in pursuing the Black Ajah. Taija suspected that, like most darkfriends when faced with overwhelming force, they'd keep running, but if they didn't then so be it. Now what they all needed to do was move as fast as possible. There was no way that Be'lal was unaware of their presence by then, even with all the chaos going on. Rand had just channeled a large amount of saidin and, even if he hadn't, the whole fortress probably shook.

"Everyone alright? Good." Taija raised her voice, "Be'lal will certainly know we're here now, so no more hiding. Now we move fast for the Heart of the Stone. If anyone tries to slow us down, we remove them." She quickly reached out with the Power and unraveled the webs of illusion disguising them all. "We can't afford mistaken identity now, strike fast and strike hard. If you can avoid killing guards, fine, but don't put yourself at risk. Now let's go, don't slow down!"

Following her own instructions, Taija broke into a fast jog. The kind of loping pace that, after years of practice, she could keep up almost indefinitely. Aleksi and the boys quickly matched her pace, the girls and Moiraine seemed to be struggling more so she slowed herself down slightly. They really shouldn't have been wearing those stupid, heavy dresses.

Jogging through the huge fortress, the corridors seemed oddly empty. A finely dressed man demanded that they stopped and was rewarded with a clip around the head from Aleksi's staff. A couple of times groups of Defenders ran through cross corridors ahead of them without even looking.

The first opposition they met was a squad of twenty Defenders of the Stone forming a block across the corridor, a wall of spears pointing at them. Taija spun faster than anyone else. Fire, air and spirit in a ball flung down the corridor at the Defenders. Then an opaque wall of air, earth and spirit blocking sight and sound, only briefly coming together to hide the blinding flash of light and deafening crash of the explosion for her side.

The Defenders were already disoriented and she Traveled, stepping through a gateway behind them even as Lan, Perrin, Rand, Aleksi and Mat crashed into them. Taija was spinning webs of air, tied to fade after a couple of hours, pinning them to walls. The others rampaged through them cracking skulls with staffs, hafts or hilts. By the time the girls reached them they were all incapacitated. Hopefully they'd live.

A couple more times Taija saw groups of Defenders fighting figures wearing grey-brown coats and breeches. It almost looked like camouflage, which wasn't something she'd seen in this time. Regardless, they didn't interfere with her progress, so she didn't do anything to them.

It wasn't long before Taija saw the great doors that she thought must be the entrance to the Heart of the Stone. The place where Callandor apparently awaited Rand. She reached out with tendrils of spirit as she jogged towards them. Surely there were traps there. Things had been oddly easy so far.

Yes, there was something. Taija stopped and held out a hand to halt the others. "This is almost certainly a trap, just give me a second, I need to focus."