Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan

  “Tell no one,” Egwene said softly. “And no notes or hints, either.” That should cover everything. “Keep Chesa company till I get back. I don’t want her worried.”

  Siuan gave a reluctant nod. Her mouth almost looked sullen. Egwene suspected she had been wise to add “notes” and “hints.” Leaving the onetime Amyrlin Seat looking like a sulky girl, she climbed smoothly into Bela’s saddle.

  She had to walk the stout mare, at first, because of the frozen ruts in the camp’s streets. And because everyone would wonder if they saw Siuan riding Bela at anything faster than a walk. She tried to ride like Siuan, swaying uncertainly, clinging to the saddle’s tall pommel with one hand and sometimes both. It made her feel as if she were about to fall off, too. Bela twisted her head around to look at her. She knew who was on her back, and she knew Egwene rode better than this. Egwene continued to imitate Siuan and tried not to think about where the sun stood. All the way out of the camp, beyond the rows of wagons, until the first trees hid her from tents and wagons.

  Then she bent over the pommel to press her face into Bela’s mane. “You carried me away from the Two Rivers,” she whispered. “Can you run as fast now?” Straightening, she dug in her heels.

  Bela could not gallop like Daishar, but her sturdy legs churned through the snow. She had been a carthorse, once, not a racer or warhorse, but she gave what she had, stretching out her neck as bravely as Daishar ever could. Bela raced, and the sun slid lower as if the sky had suddenly become greased. Egwene lay low in the saddle and urged the mare on. A race with the sun that Egwene knew she could not win. But even if she could not beat the sun, there was still time. She thumped her heels in time with Bela’s hooves, and Bela ran.

  Twilight rolled over them, and then darkness, before Egwene saw the moon glinting on the water of the Erinin. Still time. It was almost the spot where she had sat Daishar with Gareth, watching the riverships slide toward Tar Valon. Reining Bela in, she listened.

  Stillness. And then a muffled curse. The quiet grunts and scrapes of men dragging a heavy burden across the snow and trying for silence. She turned Bela through the trees toward the sounds. Shadows stirred, and she heard the soft whisper of steel sliding from scabbards.

  Then a man muttered, not far enough under his breath, “I know that pony. It’s one of the sisters. The one they say used to be Amyrlin. She doesn’t look it to me. No older’n the one they say’s Amyrlin now.”

  “Bela is not a pony,” Egwene said crisply. “Take me to Bode Cauthon.”

  A dozen men coalesced out of the night shadows among the trees, surrounding her and Bela. They all seemed to think she was Siuan, but that was all right. To them, Aes Sedai was Aes Sedai, and they guided her to where Bode was sitting a horse not much taller than Bela and holding a dark cloak around her. Her dress was dark, too. White would have stood out, tonight.

  Bode recognized Bela, too, and reached out to scratch the mare’s ear fondly when Egwene rode up beside her.

  “You’re staying ashore,” Egwene said quietly. “You can go back with me when it’s done.”

  Bode jerked her hand back as if stung at the sound of Egwene’s voice. “Why?” she said, not quite a demand. She had learned that much, at least. “I can do this. Leane Sedai explained to me, and I can do it.”

  “I know you can. But not as well as I can. Not yet.” That seemed too much like a criticism that the other woman had not earned. “I am the Amyrlin Seat, Bode. Some decisions, only I can make. And some things, I shouldn’t ask a novice to do when I can do them better.” Perhaps that was not a great deal milder, but she could not explain about Larine and Nicola, or the price the White Tower demanded of all its daughters. The Amyrlin could not explain the one to a novice, and a novice was not ready to learn about the other.

  Even in the night, the set of Bode’s shoulders said she did not understand, but she had learned not to argue with Aes Sedai, too. Just as she had learned that Egwene was Aes Sedai. The rest, she would learn eventually. The Tower could take all the time it needed to teach her.

  Dismounting, Egwene handed Bela’s reins to one of the sol­diers and raised her skirts to tramp through the snow toward the labored sounds of dragging. It was a large rowboat, being pushed and pulled across the snow like a sled. A bulky sled that had to be maneuvered between trees, though with fewer curses once the men doing the pushing and pulling realized that she was following them closely. Most men guarded their tongues around Aes Sedai, and if they could not see her face between the darkness and her cowl, who else would be down here by the river? If they knew she was not the same woman intended at first to accompany them, who questioned Aes Sedai?

  They eased the boat into the river, careful of splashes, and six men scrambled aboard to set oars in rag-padded oarlocks. The men were barefoot, to avoid the noise of a boot scraping on the hullplanks. Smaller boats plied these waters, but tonight, they had to master the currents. One of the men on the bank gave her a hand to steady herself climbing in, and she settled on a seat in the bow, holding her cloak close. The boat slid way from the bank, silent except for the faint swirl of the oars in the water.

  Egwene looked ahead, south toward Tar Valon. The white walls gleamed in the light of a fat, waning moon, and lamp-lit windows gave the city a muted glow, almost as if the island was embracing saidar. The White Tower stood out even in the darkness, windows alight, the great mass shining beneath the moon. Something flashed across the moon, and her breath caught. For an instant, she thought it had been a Draghkar, an evil sight on this of all nights. Only a bat, she decided. Spring might be near enough for bats to be venturing out. Pulling her cloak tighter, she peered toward the city drawing nearer. Nearer.

  As the tall wall of Northharbor loomed in front of the boat, the oarsmen backed water so the bow just missed kissing the wall beside the harbor entrance. Egwene almost put out a hand to fend off from the pale stone before the boat could bump into the wall. That thump would surely have been heard by the soldiers on guard. The oars made only a small gurgling noise as they swept back, though, and the boat stopped where she could have touched the massive iron chain across the harbor, its huge links giving off their own faint gleam from the grease coating them.

  There was no need for touching, though. No need for waiting, either. Embracing saidar, she was barely aware of the thrill of life filling her before she had the weaves in place. Earth, Fire and Air surrounding the chain; Earth and Fire touching it. The black iron flashed to white across the whole width of the harbor mouth.

  She had just time to realize that someone had embraced the Source not far away, above her on the wall, then something struck the boat, struck her, and she was aware of cold water enveloping her, filling her nose, her mouth. Darkness.

  Egwene felt hardness beneath her. She heard women’s voices. Excited voices.

  “Do you know who this is?”

  “Well, well. We certainly got better than we bargained for to­night.”

  Something was pressed to her mouth, and warmth trickled in, tasting faintly of mint. She swallowed convulsively, suddenly aware of how cold she was, shivering. Her eyes flickered open. And fastened on the face of the woman holding her head and the cup. Lanterns held by soldiers crowding around gave light enough for her to make out the face clearly. An ageless face. She was inside Northharbor.

  “That’s it, girl,” the Aes Sedai said encouragingly. “Drink it all down. A strong dose, for now.”

  Egwene tried to push the cup away, tried to embrace saidar, but she could feel herself sliding back down into darkness. They had been waiting for her. She had been betrayed. But by whom?

  EPILOGUE

  An Answer

  Rand stared out of the window at the steady rain falling out of a gray sky. Another storm down out of the Spine of the World. The Dragonwall. He thought spring must be coming soon. Spring always came, eventually. Earlier here in Tear than back home, it should be, though there seemed little sign of it. Lightning forked silver-blue across the sky, and long mome
nts passed before the peal of thunder. Distant lightning. The wounds in his side ached. Light, the herons branded into his palms ached, after all this time.

  Sometimes, pain is all that lets you know you’re alive. Lews Therin whispered, but Rand ignored the voice in his head.

  The door creaked open behind him, and he looked over his shoulder at the man who came into the sitting room. Bashere was wearing a short, gray silk coat, a rich shimmering coat, and he had the baton of the Marshal-General of Saldaea, an ivory rod tipped with a golden wolf’s head, tucked behind his belt next to his scab-barded sword. His turned-down boots had been waxed till they shone. Rand tried not to let his relief show. They had been gone long enough.

  “Well?” he said.

  “The Seanchan are amenable,” Bashere replied. “Crazy as loons, but amenable. They require a meeting with you in person, though. The Marshal-General of Saldaea isn’t the Dragon Reborn.”

  “With this Lady Suroth?”

  Bashere shook his head. “Apparently a member of their royal family has arrived. Suroth wants you to meet someone called the Daughter of the Nine Moons.”

  Thunder rolled again for distant lightning.

  We rode on the winds of the rising storm,

  We ran to the sounds of the thunder.

  We danced among the lightning bolts,

  and tore the world asunder.

  - Anonymous fragment of a poem believed

  written near the end of the previous Age,

  known by some as the Third Age.

  Sometimes attributed to the Dragon

  Reborn.

  The End of the Tenth Book of

  The Wheel of Time

  GLOSSARY

  A Note on Dates in This Glossary. The Toman Calendar (devised by Toma dur Ahmid) was adopted approximately two centuries after the death of the last male Aes Sedai, recording years After the Breaking of the World (AB). So many records were destroyed in the Trolloc Wars that at their end there was argument about the exact year under the old system. A new calen­dar, proposed by Tiam of Gazar, celebrated freedom from the Trolloc threat and recorded each year as a Free Year (FY). The Gazaran Calendar gained wide acceptance within twenty years after the Wars’ end. Artur Hawkwing attempted to establish a new calendar based on the founding of his empire (FF, From the Founding), but only historians now refer to it. After the death and destruction of the War of the Hundred Years, a third calendar was devised by Uren din Jubai Soaring Gull, a scholar of the Sea Folk, and promulgated by the Panarch Farede of Tarabon. The Farede Calendar, dat­ing from the arbitrarily decided end of the War of the Hundred Years and recording years of the New Era (NE), is currently in use.

  Arad Doman: A nation on the Aryth Ocean, currently racked by civil war and by wars against those who have declared for the Dragon Reborn. Its capital is Bandar Eban. In Arad Doman, the ruler (king or queen) is elected by a council of the heads of merchant guilds (the Council of Merchants), who are almost always women He or she must be from the noble class, not the merchant, and is elected for life Legally the king or queen has absolute authority, except that he or she can be deposed by three-quarter vote of the Council The current ruler is King Alsalam Saeed Almadar, Lord of Almadar, High Seat of House Almadar His present whereabouts are much shrouded in mystery

  armsmen: Soldiers who owe allegiance or fealty to a particular lord or lady Asha’man: (1) In the Old Tongue, “Guardian” or “Guardians,” but the word always meant a guardian of justice and truth (2) The name given, both collectively and as a rank, to the men who have come to the Black Tower, near Caemlyn in Andor, in order to learn to channel Their train­ing concentrates largely on the ways in which the One Power can be used as a weapon, and in another departure from the usages of the White Tower, once they learn to seize saidin, the male half of the Power, they are required to perform all chores and labors with the Power When newly enrolled, a man is termed a Soldier, he wears a plain black coat with a high collar, in the Andoran fashion Being raised to Dedi­cated brings the right to wear a silver pin, called the Sword, on the col­lar of his coat Promotion to Asha’man brings the right to wear a Dragon pin, in gold and red enamel, on the collar opposite the Sword Although many women, including wives, flee when they learn that their men actually can channel, a fair number of men at the Black Tower are married, and they use a version of the Warder bond to create a link with their wives This same bond, altered to compel obedience, has recently been used to bond captured Aes Sedai as well.

  Balwer, Sebban: Formerly secretary to Pedron Niall (the Lord Captain Commander of the Children of the Light) in public, and secretly Niall’s spymaster After Niall’s death, Balwer aided the escape of Morgase (once Queen of Andor) from the Seanchan in Amador for his own reasons, and now is employed as secretary to Perrin t’Bashere Aybara and Faile m Bashere t’Aybara Perrin is beginning to suspect that there is more to Balwer than at first appeared Band of the Red Hand: see Shen an Calhar Blood, the: Term used by the Seanchan to designate the nobility There are degrees of nobility The High Blood shave the sides of their heads and paint multiple fingernails - the higher the rank, the more nails painted - but a member of the lesser Blood, the low Blood, may have only the nails of the little fingers painted One can be raised to the Blood as well as born to it, and this is frequently a reward for outstand­ing accomplishment or service to the Empire.

  calendar: There are 10 days to the week, 28 days to the month, and 13 months to the year Several feastdays are not part of any month, these include Sunday (the longest day of the year), the Feast of Thanksgiving (once every four years at the spring equinox), and the Feast of All Souls Salvation, also called All Souls Day (once every ten years at the autumn equinox) While the months have names - Taisham, Jumara, Saban, Aine, Adar, Saven, Amadame, Tammaz, Maigdhal, Choren, Shaldme, Nesan, and Danu - these are seldom used except in official documents and by officials For most people, using the seasons is good enough.

  Captain-General: (1) The military rank of the leader of the Queen’s Guard, in Andor This position is currently held by Lady Birgitte Trahelion (2) The title given to the head of the Green Ajah, though known only to members of the Green This position is currently held by Adelorna Bas-tine in the Tower, and Myrelle Berengan among the rebel Aes Sedai contingent under Egwene al’Vere.

  Cha Faile: (1) In the Old Tongue, “the Falcon’s Talon ‘ (2) Name taken by the young Cairhiemn and Tairens, attempted followers of jt’e’toh, who have sworn fealty to Fade m Bashere t’Aybara In secret, they act as her personal scouts and spies Since her capture by the Shaido, they con­tinue their activities under the guidance of Sebban Balwer.

  Children of the Light: Society of strict ascetic beliefs, owing allegiance to no nation and dedicated to the defeat of the Dark One and the destruc­tion of all Darkfnends Founded during the War of the Hundred Years by Lothair Mantelar to proselytize against an increase in Darkfnends, they evolved during the war into a completely military society They are extremely rigid m their beliefs, and certain that only they know the truth and the right They consider Aes Sedai and any who support them to be Darkfnends Known disparagingly as Whitecloaks, they were for­merly headquartered in Amador, Amadicia, but were forced out when the Seanchan conquered the city Their sign is a golden sunburst on a field of white See also Questioners.

  Companions, the: The elite military formation of Illian, currently com­manded by First Captain Demetre Marcohn The Companions provide a bodyguard for the King of Illian and guard key points around the nation Additionally, the Companions have traditionally been used in battle to assault the enemy’s strongest positions, to exploit weaknesses, and, if necessary, to cover the retreat of the King Unlike most other such elite formations, foreigners (excepting Tairens, Altarans and Murandians) are not only welcome, they can rise even to the highest rank, as can commoners, which also is unusual The uniform of the Com­panions consists of a green coat, a breastplate worked with the Nine Bees of Illian, and a conical helmet with a faceguard of steel bars The First Captain wears fou
r rings of golden braid on the cuffs of his coat, and three thin golden plumes on his helmet The Second Captain wears three rings of golden braid on each cuff, and three golden plumes tipped with green Lieutenants wear two yellow rings on their cuffs, and two thin green plumes, under-lieutenants one yellow ring and a single green plume Bannermen are designated by two broken rings of yellow on the cuffs and a single yellow plume, squadmen by a single broken ring of yellow.

  Consolidation, the: When the armies sent by Artur Hawkwing under his son Luthair landed in Seanchan, they discovered a shifting quilt of nations often at war with one another, where Aes Sedai often reigned Without any equivalent of the White Tower, Aes Sedai worked for their own individual goals, using the Power Forming small groups, they schemed against one another constantly In large part it was this con­stant scheming for personal advantage and the resulting wars among the myriad nations that allowed the armies from east of the Aryth Ocean to begin the conquest of an entire continent, and for their descendants to complete it This conquest, during which the descen­dants of the original armies became Seanchan as much as they con­quered Seanchan, took more than nine hundred years and is called the Consolidation.

  Corenne: In the Old Tongue, “the Return “ The name given by the Sean­chan both to the fleet of thousands of ships and to the hundreds of thou­sands of soldiers, craftsmen and others carried by those ships, who will come behind the Forerunners to reclaim the lands stolen from Artur Hawkwing’s descendants See also Hailene.