As usual, all speech in italics is in the Old Tongue.
Chapter XVI - New Allies
Consciousness returned slowly to Taija. Bone deep weariness permeated her body, that and pain, and as her mind gradually caught up with where she was the dim light made it hard for her to make much out. However, one thing was clear. She was in a prison cell. The bars in place of a door and pair of guards standing outside made that much clear.
Lying there on a scratchy straw bed it took her a little while to fully remember what had happened. Mierin. Instinctively Traveling back to Caemlyn. A screaming woman.
She was briefly outraged that she was in a cell and then thought of the way she'd left Caemlyn. She might not have looked the way she did in her confrontation with Elaida, but she'd Traveled straight into her old room with her real appearance. It wasn't totally surprising in that light.
While Taija was exhausted and in pain, she could tell she'd been given some medical treatment. Small mercies. Dried blood had been washed off her and there were bandages around her lower ribs and leg. The splint and sling round her arm explained the throbbing pain there too.
Her nice dress was gone, presumably ruined by the battle with Mierin and replaced with a scratchy, brown, woolen dress like she'd worn after Ramshorn. Eugh. There was a jug of water by the bed, but she realised her ankle was chained to the wall. Definitely a prisoner.
A muffled, but urgent, conversation between the guards broke Taija's train of thought and then one ran off, practically sprinting. They must have noticed she was awake.
Taija lay back for a few seconds, thinking. She needed to decide what to do now and she needed to decide fast. It was odd that there was no channeler there, but maybe they'd tied off a shield on her?
Tentatively Taija opened herself to saidar and, to her surprise, it was right there, waiting for her. Her head was pounding, but that just seemed to be tiredness. Why hadn't they shielded her? Surely they must realise that nothing in that room would hold an aes sedai who didn't want to be there.
Nevertheless, she didn't want to still be around when Elaida arrived. Presumably it would be Elaida. She was in no condition for a fight and she had no idea how negatively the woman viewed her. Obviously her feelings wouldn't be positive though.
The question was what to do. Taija reached for the jug, Light she was thirsty! She raised it to her lips and then thought better of it. Embracing saidar, she formed a trickle of it into a web and ran it through the water, checking for poisons or drugs. Only once she'd done that did she drink deeply.
It was clear the Forsaken were active. More, it was clear that they had an unhealthy interest in Rand. Both Ishamael and Mierin. Surely they couldn't believe this Dragon Reborn rubbish too? Had the whole world gone mad?
In the end it didn't matter though. Whatever they wanted Taija was going to do her best to make sure they couldn't have it. The dilemma for her was what was the best way to do that?
She could go to Ingtar and keep following the Horn of Valere. However, given the Forsaken didn't seem to have done anything about it, Taija suspected she was probably right about the Horn being a diversion from more important things. Ingtar seemed to be a competent soldier and it would be safe enough in his hands.
Rand on the other hand was more difficult. He needed help, that much was clear. What was also clear was that Mierin was watching him and if Taija went to him she'd find her. She didn't think that she'd survive another encounter with the woman. Really she should have died this time round.
She should have kept her promise to run…
Still, there was no time to waste on bemoaning the world. She'd survived, that was what mattered. At least it seemed like, while Rand was definitely in danger from Mierin, her weird obsessions meant she probably wasn't going to actually hurt him in the immediate future. Taija turning up again might change that though. She could just imagine Mierin deciding he'd betrayed her for another woman or something equally stupid.
There was also the issue of her physical condition. She'd recover, of course, but without actual healing she was in no condition to fight any serious opponent and neither Rand nor Ingtar would be able to provide the healing she needed.
So that left one more option, other than running away and hiding form the world. The Amyrlin. Her and Moiraine. Maybe all the aes sedai were paranoid lunatics, but while the two of them were weaker than Taija, they weren't insignificant. Just as importantly, Taija could actually be confident the two them weren't darkfriends.
Perhaps there was a deal to be made. Taija needed allies and more power. They needed knowledge. They had common interests and hopefully they could work together, despite limited trust. After all, even Ishamael couldn't take on a circle of 13. Not head to head anyway.
Decision made, Taija's mind turned to the how of it. She thought the Amyrlin would still be on her way back to Tar Valon and if she could intercept her before she got there then her job would be much easier.
She was also in a bit of a hurry to be gone before someone rectified the oversight of leaving her unshielded. Disappearing from the cell was hardly going to improve Elaida's opinion of her, but that ship had already sailed.
With a groan of pain Taija levered herself up from the bed and met the guard's eyes. "Please give me apologies to Elaida sedai, but I have important places to be."
As he took a step towards her she spun an inverted gateway and at the same time fed a web of earth into the shackle around her ankle. With a hiss of dissolving metal the shackle literally fell apart and a moment later she was limping through the gateway onto a skimming platform.
Light! Taija just wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Why did everything hurt? Even standing on the platform as it sped through the blackness was painful. She didn't even know where she was going, not really.
One of those phrases Rand had spouted after too much time talking to Lan sprung to mind and she muttered it out loud. "Death is lighter than a bird, but duty is heavier than a mountain." Taija suspected she got it wrong, but she had the gist of it. It was overly pretentious anyway.
Moving through the blackness between worlds Taija made herself focus on what she was doing. She knew that the Amyrlin had gone down the River Erinin by boat and she could take a guess at roughly how fast a boat would travel. With the memories of maps she'd seen, she could estimate how far down the river she'd need to go. Once she'd found the river it would just be a matter of skip-Traveling down it, opening gateways within her line of sight to go short distances, until she found the right ship.
It sounded simple in her head, but Taija had plenty of time to ponder her aches and pains as her platform silently moved through the space between worlds. She was in no condition for a fight at that point. Battering down a weak aes sedai from this time, perhaps, but any serious opponent would be too much. She really hoped Moiraine and the Amyrlin would be able to help with that, much as she disliked the prospect of one of them touching her with the Power. With the Forsaken free she didn't have two months to recuperate.
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It hadn't been difficult for Taija to find the Erinin. However, once she got there she gradually became more and more worried. As she spent tedious hours, bouncing along the river, Traveling a few kilometres at a time, exhaustion started to really get its claws into her.
It wasn't that the activity was all that challenging in itself. Under normal circumstances Taija could spin small, inverted gateways all day and all she had to do each time was step through and look around. However, her injuries combined with the constant channeling were taking an ever increasing toll on her. Only the iron-hard mental discipline required to safely channel and decades of hard-won skill stopped her from dangerously fumbling a gateway or just outright losing her connection to saidar. It wasn't like she could realistically rest either. She had a thin wool dress and nothing else. No inn was going to give her a room and sleeping out in the open in her condition seemed like a terrible idea.
Taija was also worried that she'd miss the Amyrlin's ship when she did find it. She'd never actually seen the thing and she was hardly a nautical expert.
As time went on and she progressed downriver, that worry started to loom over her, ever greater. Had she missed it? She'd seen a fair few ships, but none of them had looked Amyrlin-esque. Whatever that meant. Surely a ship using oars and sails couldn't get that far that fast?
Fortunately, just as she was starting to think she might have to give up, Taija saw it. Even better it, was blindingly obvious. A huge banner with the white flame of Tar Valon flew from the ship's mast and thick webs of saidar pushed the currents behind it and propelled air into its sails. If that wasn't the Amyrlin's ship then nothing was. The only question was how to get onto it without revealing herself to every one of the 'modern' aes sedai on board.
One more quick hop by gateway and Taija sat by the riverbank, spinning an inverted web of concealment over herself to hide from any sharp eyes on the ship. She studied it, watching it hurtle past, considering the best way to approach it. Repeating the process with a couple more gateways gave her more time to think.
Eventually she decided that the large, decorated cabin at the back must be the Amyrlin's. She could see three shadows inside it, moving around the inside, but not who they were. Still, she was fairly sure that the big rooms at the back of sailing ships were were the most important people stayed.
It wasn't ideal. Jumping straight into an unknown situation was unquestionably risky, but Taija couldn't keep following the ship indefinitely and she really didn't want to have to sleep outside in her current condition.
In the end, she was fairly sure that none of the aes sedai with the Amyrlin were stronger than her and she knew the Amyrlin wasn't a darkfriend. So the worst case was two darkfriends against her and the Amyrlin. Even in her current condition she could deal with those odds. Just in case, she double-checked the webs concealing her ability to channel and that she was holding saidar. She still looked like herself, but for now that would be a good thing.
Once she was satisfied, Taija spun the web for balefire, holding it just short of completion. If things went wrong, she'd strike hard and with no warning. There'd be no time for anyone to bring a circle against her and overwhelm her. Going in hard and fast had worked for her during the War and it would work now.
A brief calculation and Taija was ready, spinning a gateway straight into the moving ship, ignoring the strain she felt at channeling so much in her condition. With a single movement she stepped through the gateway, also ignoring the spike of pain from her ribs and already spinning an inverted ward against eavesdropping around the room.
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The voices in the cabin stopped abruptly with Taija's entrance and Siuan whipped round from her seat. She'd already been holding saidar, but its light exploded around her as she drew far more heavily on it.
She was already forming a web as she turned, but it fell away as she saw who'd just stepped through the gateway.
"Taija, what in the Light happened to you? You look like you've been caught in a net and dragged all the way through the Fingers." Taija vaguely recognised Nynaeve and Egwene sitting stunned where Siuan was facing a moment before.
She dismissed the two young women from her attention after a glance and let the almost formed balefire web dissipate. She wasn't sure she could actually hold it much longer anyway.
Taija focused her eyes on Siuan. "Mierin Eronaile… Lanfear." Her voice caught slightly at the name. Light she hated calling her that, but Siuan probably wouldn't know who Mierin was. "We fought… I lost…"
Concern washed over Siuan's face and then it hardened. "That… That is concerning. Forgive me, but I must take precautions. What did Liandrin say to you before you.. killed her." Even as hard as she seemed, there was a slight hitch in Siuan's voice at the memory of Liandrin's death.
Taija grimaced. "She called me great mistress Lanfear, one of the Chosen." She almost spat the last word.
Siuan nodded, a sharp decisive movement. "Very well. I believe you are who you say, but why are you here?" Here voice became more urgent. "What about the Horn? Rand?"
"Rand is…" Taija had been about to say he was fine, but that probably wasn't the right word. "Mierin didn't want to hurt him. She's… I think she's trying to seduce him," she had to suppress a mad giggle at the idea. Light she needed to rest. "I'm fairly sure she won't hurt him anyway."
Taija's legs took that moment to try to collapse under her and she staggered, having to grab hold of a wooden beam to stay upright. "As for the Horn… I can't imagine Mierin, Lanfear, doesn't know about it and she's done nothing to try to take it. I don't think she's interested."
Siuan looked behind her and barked, "you're meant to be a wisdom aren't you? Help her girl!" With a start Nynaeve jumped from her seat and hurried over to Taija and proceeded to half help, half drag her to a seat, ignoring her muttered protests.
Taija bit her lip at the pain from Nynaeve's none too gentle 'help', but managed not to cry out. When the pain had subsided enough she looked at Siuan and nodded at the two girls. "Are you willing for them to hear this?"
Siuan hesitated and then shrugged. "Given what they have already heard, it is too late to do much about it. I am confident they are not darkfriends, if they were they would already know enough to have pulled us from the water and left us to dry for the Black Ajah." She ignored Egwene's gasp at the mention of the Black Ajah.
Taija was less than happy with the answer. Egwene at least was far too young to be involved in any of this, but they were Siuan or Moiraine's apprentices or novices or whatever they called them and she didn't have the energy to start arguing about child safety.
"Fine. You already know some of the Forsaken are free. I now know at least two of them are for a fact. Hopefully not all twenty of them…" Taija tried to bat off Nynaeve's attempts at examining her injuries.
Siuan cut her off. "Twenty?! There are more?"
"Well there were more than that, but not all of them survived." She smiled humourlessly.
"But every record we have says there were only thirteen imprisoned at Shayol Ghul."
"Well, that's probably a good thing. Hopefully your records aren't wrong. Maybe the rest were killed after I was imprisoned. Or just died of old age after the War. That would be a small mercy." To Taija's relief Nynaeve seemed to have reverted to stunned silence and stopped muttering about woolheaded young women thinking they needed to fight like men while fussing over her injuries. "We can compare notes, if your records of the Forsaken are like your other records of my time then you know basically nothing. Knowing more about them might save your life or let you deal with them more permanently."
Siuan nodded. "Yes I can see the benefit in that."
Taija hesitated, now was the time to make her play, but Light she hated having to behave like this. This time that she found herself stuck in was bad enough without her starting to act like its natives. "That I'll give you for free. I can also teach you and anyone you trust absolutely some of what I know. Things you'll need to deal with the Forsaken when the time comes. But I want something in return." In her current state she didn't feel she had a great bargaining position, she could barely stand! However, hopefully the other woman wouldn't feel that.
Siuan gaze sharpened, Taija could almost feel her shift into negotiation mode. "What makes you think you can teach us? The White Tower is the greatest depository of knowledge in the world and its knowledge had hidden depths. Perhaps there are some minor things you could demonstrate, but there are limits to what you can offer the Tower.
Taija smiled at Siuan, not in a particularly friendly way. Perhaps she was on stronger ground than she thought. "I don't think this will be much of a negotiation." She held up a hand, three fingers outstretched. "Traveling. Inverting webs so that they cannot be seen. Impenetrable barriers." After each she lowered a finger. "There are no doubt more, but those are things I'm very sure you don't know how to do. As for what I want. It's quite simple, Moiraine's angreal. With that I can fight Lanfear, or any of other Forsaken."
Siuan immediately shook her head. "No that is not possible. The Hall would have my head if I let you have that."
Taija shrugged, trying to look nonchalant and ignore the stab of pain from the action. "Very well." She brushed Nynaeve's hands away and slowly stood, hiding her wince, before forming an inverted gateway. "I'll be off then." She paused, letting Siuan get a good look at the hole in the air.
It only took the woman a second to crack. "Wait! You really have got me trussed up in your net like a fat grunter, but I cannot give you Moiraine's angreal. Still, there is a deal to be made." Taija sighed and made as if to step towards the gateway, but stopped when Siuan held up a hand. "I say cannot, not will not. Moiraine has run off to Light only knows where without a word to me, so I do not know where it is. However, I will help you to obtain one when we reach Tar Valon if you will teach me and anyone else I ask. This I swear."
Taija paused to consider for a second. "Alright, but I will only teach you and anyone you trust absolutely." She emphasised the last two words. "I won't risk teaching your Black Ajah."
"Done." At the quick agreement, Taija started to wonder whether she should have bargained harder. A sa'angreal perhaps? Too late now anyway.
"Good, then we have a deal." Taija sat back down with a wince, letting the gateway rotate closed. She couldn't keep going like this, she didn't want any of them to touch her, but paranoia and her dislike for the idea was going to get her killed. "Mierin, Lanfear… has really messed me up. Would you be able to heal me? The pain is… distracting."
Siuan's composure didn't flicker. "My apologies. I do not have much talent in healing, but Leane is more than adequate. Egwene child, fetch Leane and tell her to come immediately. You are not to breath a word of Taija's presence or what we have discussed. Do you understand?"
Egwene hurriedly curtsied and fled the room with a 'yes Mother'.
It only took her a minute to return with a confused Leane who gasped when she saw Taija. Once she'd been given a brief update she quickly put her hand on Taija's forehead, apparently unintimidated by Taija's suspicious gaze. A moment later a storm of saidar, water, air and spirit exploded from her, melding into Taija.
It was like being doused in cold water and Taija couldn't help but shudder violently as the web washed over her. It was crude. Far cruder than anything she was used to, but as she shook off the after effects Taija realised it had worked. She was feeling even weaker than before, but her pains had vanished. Unconsciously she flexed the fingers at the end what had been a broken arm moments before.
"Thank you Leane sedai." Taija nodded to her as she retreated hastily back to Siuan's side. Perhaps she'd been more intimidated than she'd looked. "Right. We need to plan."
"Yes." Siuan glanced around the cabin. "You cannot stay on this boat. It will be impossible to hide your presence and the Forsaken will be looking for you now."
"I'm not so sure. Lanfear certainly will be, if she can tear herself away from Rand." Taija still couldn't believe the woman was pursuing a teenage farmboy. She'd been a professor at the Collam Daan! "The others though, I suspect she might not tell them. We have a certain amount of… history." Taija's mouth twisted. "Knowing her, I think she might not tell anyone she encountered me, especially since she didn't succeed in killing me." She tried and failed to suppress a shudder. "Obviously we can't rely on that though."
"History? I would ask, Siuan looked at Taija's face and hurriedly changed track, but we do not have much time. A question for Later." Siuan paused then continued, all business. "I think there is a solution. You will Travel to Tar Valon ahead of us, take a room there, establish yourself as a noblewoman who wishes to petition the Amyrlin. It is a little known right, but every woman may request an audience with me. Then we can continue to work from there. If you need gold I can provide it."
"That would work, but I'll need the money. The fight with Lanfear has left with me with nothing but the clothes on my back." Taija glanced down at the ugly, brown dress. "Now, how long do we have and what would be the most efficient use of that time?"
Siuan looked at Leane, "we do not have long before people might get suspicious, perhaps an hour at best, and too much channeling might attract attention to us, which we cannot afford at this moment. Perhaps you could start on what you know about the Forsaken, just the basics for now. If it allows us to spot one of them when they are unaware it could be what allows us to defeat them."
"Hmm. Yes. Lanfear was arrogant enough to appear without a disguise. Perhaps the others would be too. It makes sense to limit us to your 13 given the time available. Where should I begin?"
"Perhaps with Lanfear as we know for certain that she is free?"
She was the one Taija least wanted to talk about, but it made sense. "Fine. Fine." Her tone was sharp, but softened into resignation the second time she said it. "Lanfear I've known for well over one hundred years…" As Taija spoke her stomach rumbled loudly.
Leane immediately jumped in. "Healing will have used up much of your body's resources. Egwene child, go and fetch some food immediately. Tell them the Amyrlin and I require refreshments before we continue your lessons."
Egwene looked like she desperately wanted to protest at not being able to stay and listen, but after a hard look from Siuan she curtsied and fled.
"Thank you." Taija gave Leane her first genuine smile since she'd arrived on the ship. "So. Lanfear. Or Mierin Eronaile as she used to be known. Her defining characteristics were obsession and pride. She was obsessed with Lews Therin to the point of madness and she could never stand to be second best in anything, however many other things she might win at. Together those dominated her actions, even her fall to the Shadow. She'll probably be doing her best to seduce Rand, but may well drop any other plans if it gives her the opportunity to get at me. Hopefully he has the sense to put her off without outright rejecting her. In terms of looks… she loves wearing white and silver. She's well above average height, dark haired, utterly beautiful…"
Taija continued with her description before moving onto Ishamael. Thankfully the others in the room politely ignored the unsubtle gaps she left in Mierin's history.
As Taija finished up on Ishamael, Egwene returned struggling with a surprisingly large plate of food which she set down in front of her without meeting her eyes.
In moments Taija was stuffing her face, she hadn't realised she could even be this hungry! "So…" she paused to take another bite of roast chicken, "who else? Mordlam was…"
Siuan interrupted her. "Who? I haven't hear of him? Her?" She looked at Leane who shook her head.
"Alright, perhaps he's dead. What about… Aginor?" Taija realised the chicken leg she'd been munching on was gone and moved on to another.
A slight look of embarrassment actually broke Siuan's composure. "Aginor will not be a problem."
"Excuse me?" Taija gave her a flat look and then ruined the effect by taking a large bite from her the second chicken leg.
"Rand killed him. At the Eye of the World."
"The Eye of the what? For fuck's sake!" Leane looked she wanted to ask Taija what that meant, but she restrained herself. "You're telling me that boy killed one of the Forsaken? Fine, whatever. Are there any other little revelations you have for me?"
Siuan glanced at Leane. "Balthamel was killed too, by the Green Man."
"I assume you've got this 'Green Man' in your cupboard, ready to jump out and surprise me." Taija couldn't help the sarcasm in her tone.
"No, he died killing Balthamel."
"Alright. Well. That's… I suppose two down is good." Taija shivered as she remembered Aginor. There'd been that night when he'd seemed awkward, but almost human, but every time after that… Such dead eyes. Eyes that only came alive when he talked about his work. Then there was the time she'd met Balthamel at a conference, the way he'd spent a whole conversation staring at her chest. They were both bad enough even before they turned to the Shadow.
After a moment Taija sighed and gathered her thoughts. "Alright then Siuan," the woman's eyebrows rose and Taija hurriedly continued, "sedai. Instead of wasting each other's time, why don't you tell me who you think the Forsaken in this time are and we'll see what I can tell you about them." She met Siuan's eyes and took a determined bite of a pleasantly lemony cake.
"Yes, I suppose that does make sense. Well, we have covered Lanfear, Ishamael, Aginor and Balthamel. So who else is there… Rahvin, Mesaana, Graendal, Moghedien," As each name came out Taija's mood dropped further, "Be'lal, Sammael, Asmodean, Demandred and Semirhage."
Taija let out a hiss at the last name. "I'd really hoped she wouldn't be one of them." She considered the list. "So, the bad news is that most of them are the worst, most dangerous of the Forsaken. The good news is that I can tell you a lot about almost all of them. How they like to operate, what they look like, their weaknesses and their strengths."
All four of Taija's audience leaned forward eagerly.
"So, to start with the hard ones, Sammael is a name I've never heard before. It means destroyer of hope, but…" Taija shrugged. "Moghedien on the other hand, I have heard of. That was the nickname given to the Shadow's spy master. However, I don't know whether it was an actual person, just a title or even a myth. A moghedien was a tiny, very venomous spider by the way, but I don't know if you still have them. Anyway, if they were imprisoned with the others then it seems like Moghedien was actually a real person. No doubt they'll be looking to infiltrate your own organisation, so you should take precautions, but then I'd hope you're doing that anyway."
"Now, on to the more useful ones. Let's start with Rahvin. In my time before the War he was a social media infl… uh a minor political figure with some backwards ideas about women. Very popular with certain groups of young men…"
Taija continued on, alternating between munching through far more food than she'd have thought she could stomach and detailing everything she could think of off the top her head about the worst people of her time.
Before she knew it, the plate was empty and Siuan was stopping her. "Thank you, this has been illuminating, but we've already had you here for too long. People will no doubt be asking questions about what is going on in here." Siuan rummaged in her desk and pulled out a bulging purse. "Here, this should give you the money you need to set yourself up in Tar Valon. If you need more when you're there then I will of course arrange for it."
"Thank you Siuan sedai." There was still no way Taija was going to call her mother. "I'll see you in Tar Valon."
Taija stood, struggling a little with how stuffed she felt, but at least not in pain anymore. In lieu of a curtsy, she certainly wasn't adopting that local custom if she didn't have to, she made a small bow in Siuan and Leane's direction before opening an inverted gateway back to the shore. As she stepped through it, she heard Siuan start to berate the two girls about how they were not to breath a word that they had heard.
A few more hops, skimming through the darkness between worlds, brought Taija within sight of Tar Valon. Rather than try to get in that evening, with darkness already falling, she staggered up to an inn in one of the villages just outside the city and paid in gold for a small, dingy room. Regardless of its quality it still had a bed and Taija barely remembered to set her normal wards before she passed out on it, still fully dressed.
