Chapter XXXIII - The Dragon Reborn
Taija's tiny flows of spirit extended along the great doors, gently probing and exploring. It was soon clear that there were a number of wards spun into them. She wasn't sure what they all did, but she was also sure she didn't want to find out. If her suspicions were correct, Be'lal wanted Rand to go into that room, but not to have anyone else to support him. So presumably something that would incapacitate anyone that wasn't Rand or possibly something aimed at female channelers. She could think of a few ways she might do it and Be'lal probably had more ideas than she did.
Unfortunately for Be'lal Taija didn't intend to go along with his plan.
Eyes half-closed she spun spirit into various minuscule nooks and crannies in the wards. She wasn't going to be at all subtle about this. There was no time, but then he already knew they were there. Well maybe not her personally, but Rand and at least a few others.
Hooks of spirit inserted Taija pulled deeply on saidar, as much as she could take through the angreal, and channeled it down her webs of spirit. Then, for lack of a better word, she flexed the webs.
What had been delicate flows were now iron-hard bands of power and after a brief moment of resistance, whatever wards Be'lal placed over the doors shattered. Taija didn't see his webs of course, but fire engulfed the door and the whole stone shook around her.
Before the dust had settled she was waving the others forward through the now gaping doorway, Rand in the lead. She on the other hand, hung back slightly.
The Heart of the Stone was a huge circular chamber, a multitude of columns towering up to a vaulted ceiling. It was undoubtedly impressive. However, everyone's eyes were drawn to what was floating in the centre of the chamber, a crystal sword hanging suspended in webs of saidar and saidin. Callandor. If Moiraine was right and it was a sa'angreal then it would make Rand unstoppable.
He hesitated at the sight of it, standing unmoving until after a second Egwene gave him a little push. He started towards it, tentative at first, but then visibly gathering himself. The others followed a little behind him. Entranced by the sword as they were, they didn't notice Taija sidling off behind the columns rather than following.
Her suspicions were confirmed when Be'lal stepped out from behind a column on the other side of the room. She immediately knew something was wrong. A faint smirk was visible behind his short, neat, silver beard. He was confident. Far too confident for a man faced with what he must have known was at least five hostile channelers.
Rand stopped dead, "who are you?" He asked, there was a slight tremor in his voice. Taija thought he already knew the answer. She was slowly making her way round the outside of the chamber.
The man's smirk grew, "I am Be'lal, do you not remember me Lews Therin? The good old days, when we sported together, those times when we turned swords from a bloodless bit of fun into a way of warfare? Don't you remember meeting me on the battlefield?" If Taija remembered correctly from what she'd heard about him in the past, he liked the sound of his own voice a bit too much. She was relying on that to some degree.
Rand shrugged, "not really, should I?" Taija allowed herself a small smile at the snarky nonchalance he managed to put into his voice. It certainly wiped the amused smirk off Be'lal's face.
"So be it." He glanced at the others. "I see that you still let your heart rule you and stopped to rescue your women. Still, I will make time for them afterwards, do not worry, I will make sure they are properly looked after. In memory of you." His eyes promised a horrible ending for them. "However, we both know what you are really here for," he gestured grandly at Callandor, "take it. Strike me down. Otherwise I will kill you and your friends."
Taija saw the girls and Moiraine starting to spin webs, ready to strike as soon as they got a sign from Rand, then the light of saidar winked out from around them in quick succession.
Fuck. Her mind came to a grinding halt for a moment.
He must have had an angreal. Taija didn't know exactly how strong Be'lal was, but he wasn't among the strongest of the surviving Forsaken and there was no way he could have shielded all four women just like that while they held the Power. If he had a strong one…
Lan took a stride forward and then stopped abruptly as the air solidified around him and the others. Taija suspected Be'lal had tied off the webs. Even with an angreal, holding four women, all those webs of air and fighting Rand all at the same time would be a strain.
She was still moving, slowly, quietly. She didn't think he'd seen her. If he had there'd be fire in the air.
"Go on Lews Therin, take it, perhaps it will be enough to allow you to survive, to allow you to save your friends. I will give you this chance in memory of the friendship we once had." Be'lal's confident smirk was back, his cold eyes told Taija what he really thought of that friendship.
She was going to have to spend some time teaching the girls how to undo tied off shields if they survived this.
Be'lal didn't seem to be inclined to kill Rand, there was no sign of a battle with the Power going on. They might have been channeling spirit at each other, she couldn't tell, but Be'lal would surely overwhelm Rand if they were.
"I had thought that you might have Taija Kosola with you, I heard she survived." Be'lal looked pleased, "this might have been more of a challenge if she had been here. As it is, if you will not defend yourself, I will kill you." He didn't hesitate after those words, drawing his sword and throwing himself at Rand in one smooth movement.
Rand drew his sword almost as fast, but he was immediately on the back foot, fending off lightning-fast slashes from Be'lal's weapon. However, he quickly recovered. Their swords flashing together meeting again and again, the loud clangs of their impacts ringing out. They were impressively fast. Taija once saw Duram Laddel compete with… him… and it had been an exciting match even for someone like her who wasn't all that interested in sword fighting.
One thing was quickly clear though, Rand was severely outmatched. Taija thought he was pretty good, but he was clearly not a master on the level of Be'lal.
They moved around the chamber as they fought, Rand constantly giving ground to stay alive. Be'lal moving with smooth confidence, never in danger himself. His sword flicking in and out, barely deflected by Rand. It was quickly clear to Taija that Be'lal was deliberately letting Rand retreat, but making sure that his steps were taking him in a closing spiral towards Callandor. Presumably he intended to strike the killing blow a moment after Rand touched the sa'angreal.
By then Taija had maneuvered herself round far enough that she was confident that she wouldn't hit any of the others in the cross fire. She briefly considered just hitting Be'lal with balefire while he was completely unaware. It would be a fittingly simple end for someone who took such pride in his complex schemes.
However, after a moment's thought she dismissed the idea. He had a male angreal and Taija wanted that angreal for Rand. Or she supposed if Rand had a sa'angreal, then she wanted the angreal for Aleksi. Either way, she wanted it and she was prepared to take a risk to get it. Balefire would mean destroying it along with Be'lal.
So Taija paused for a second, spinning an array of webs that taxed her even with her angreal. A moment's wait for the right angle and… There!
Taija completed her webs, hurling saidar away from her. Four webs of razor sharp spirit and fire sliced the webs shielding Moiraine and the girls. They could look after themselves now. At the same time she opened a pair of gateways, sending webs of air through them to hit Be'lal from behind and flung fire straight at his face.
Taija didn't wait to see whether she'd got him or not, she was already opening a gateway to the far side of the chamber and flinging herself through, out of the way of any retaliation.
He survived.
Without thinking Taija spun a complex web of fire and air, tens of explosive darts forming themselves above her and then flying towards Be'lal. Explosions ripped along the floor as they bombarded him, sending red hot shards of rock flying where they weren't sliced or blocked by him. She spun a hammer blow of air from above and swept another web along the ground at foot level, not to pull his feet from under him, this one was a blade.
Both were sliced, but Taija could see he was reeling, staggering backwards, putting everything he had into fending off her flurry of webs. The stone of the floor reached up to envelop his leg before bursting into dust. Wire thin strands of air enveloped him and vanished. She sent fire at him from above, whirling blades of razor sharp air from the side. He was going to crack any second, miss something and then he'd be done.
Then suddenly, Be'lal gasped and Taija franticly pulled back on her webs, bringing her attacks to a sudden halt as a sword appeared through his chest. For a second he groped at it, trying to say something, then he slumped to his knees to reveal Rand standing behind him, the life leaving Be'lal's eyes even as he fell.
It took Taija a second to realise what had happened. That was incredibly stupid of Rand, if she'd attacked Be'lal from behind through a gateway she might have hit Rand without even realising. Still, she couldn't argue with the result. She'd be able to factor some of this into his training later, for the moment it was time to celebrate.
Taija smiled widely and went towards him. "Well done Rand, it looks like…"
Her words were cut off by sudden pain. It hurt! She was flying through the air and she didn't know how she get there and she was screaming. Taija hit the ground curled into a ball around herself trying to stop the pain.
As suddenly as it came the pain vanished, leaving her lying on the ground, still twitching. She didn't think she'd broken anything, but she wasn't totally sure she could stand up right then. She did manage to prop herself up on her elbow to see a bearded man, his normally kindly face twisted with rage, step out of a cloud of darkness. Ishamael.
Taija felt saidar being channeled and webs of fire and air flashed across the chamber towards him. Moiraine and the girls.
He didn't even look at them, webs vanished, cut or blocked, Taija didn't know. Black lightning shot out from him and they collapsed with their own agonised cries.
But he only had eyes for Rand. "I offered you the chance to serve the Great Lord twice Lews Therin and you spurned me. Well this time I will kill you and you can serve the Lord of the Grave in death instead."
"Rand!" Taija shrieked, "Callandor!"
He hesitated for the briefest moment and then dived for the floating sword just as Ishamael spun that black lightning. Taija heard Rand scream with pain for the moment it took for his hand to close on the crystal sword. Then there was only blinding light.
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As soon as his hand touched Callandor the agony vanished and saidin surged through Rand, torrents of it beyond anything he had ever imagined. He teetered on the brink, fighting the deluge with everything he had, clinging on with his fingertips. Barely resisting being swept away. It felt like it took agonisingly slow minutes even if it was probably less than a second, but eventually he brought it under control. Standing on the precipice of a waterfall, feeling the raging flow of saidin hurtle through him, but he had balance for now. The taint washed over him too, oozing waves of it flooding his senses with filth.
Slowly he turned towards Ishamael. "This time I'll kill you once and for all." It felt like more than words, a pronouncement of the way the world would be. With this much Power he knew it would be true.
The Forsaken hesitated and then channeled, seeming to tear a hole in space and diving through it. It was like Taija's gateways, but different.
He was going to end this. A thought and flows of saidin shot out from him, mirroring Ishamael's web.
When he stepped through the gateway he found himself right where he started, in the Heart of the Stone. Except there was no one else there, everything was strange and… a bar of liquid fire streaked through the dim light straight for him.
A thought and he brought Callandor between them saidin hurtling through it, through him. The bar split in two and obliterated columns behind him, bringing them tumbling down.
He heard a curse and copied Ishamael's web, sending a thick bar of blinding light back at him, carving through columns, bringing yet more destruction to the Heart of the Stone.
Ishamael fled and Rand followed.
Traps were thrown in his way. Webs he didn't understand. Trollocs. Barriers. Monsters he'd never seen before. Each he obliterated with Callandor in ways he couldn't fully comprehend until eventually they found themselves back in the Heart of the Stone.
He was a butterfly tossed around in a hurricane of saidin, but with this much of the Power he could do anything.
Rand focused the flows and threw them at Ishamael in a wall of white hot fire that obliterated everything it passed over. Yet somehow the man survived, staggering backwards, clothes smoking and one of his arms hanging at an odd angle.
For the first time Rand saw true fear in his eyes. He raised Callandor spinning a huge web something momentous something he knew would permanently end the man. The web came together, an intricate pattern of doom, but before he could bring it together, Ishamael spun another gateway, fleeing through it. This time Rand felt nothing from Ishamael's channeling, he couldn't follow.
After a moment he channeled, instinctively replicating the gateway he'd made earlier and stepped back into the Stone. There seemed to be a lot more people now, Defenders of the Stone and the strangely clad people who'd been fighting them. They weren't fighting now, but rather standing uneasily eyeing each other under the eyes of a glaring Taija, Moiraine and Nynaeve.
As soon as he stepped out of his gateway every eye in the room snapped to him and the glowing sword in his hands.
For a moment there was silence and then Moiraine's voice rang out, "all hail Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn!"