New Spring: The Novel

It was not the appearance of just any sisters that made Moiraine's stomach feel hollow. She recognized the faces framed by the hoods of their cloaks. Meilyn Arganya, with her silver-gray hair and thrusting chin, was one of the most respected women in the Tower. It was said that no one had a bad word for Meilyn. By herself, she would not have given Moiraine a moment's pause. The other, however, was Elaida a'Roihan. Light, what was she doing here? Elaida had become advisor to the Queen of Andor nearly three years ago. She did return to the Tower for occasional visits, to confer with the Amyrlin on events in Andor, but Siuan and Moiraine always learned of her arrival very quickly, to their regret.

They offered curtsies as soon as the sisters came near, and Siuan burst out with, 'We have permission to be here.' Even Meilyn might become upset if she began to berate them only to learn she had no cause. Elaida would be furious; she absolutely hated looking foolish. 'The Amyrlin Seat ordered us-'

'We know about that,' Meilyn cut in mildly. 'The way word is spreading, I suspect the cats in Seleisin know by now.' From her tone, you could not say whether she agreed with Tamra's decision. Meilyn's smooth face never showed any hint of emotion. Her startling blue eyes held serenity as a cup held water. With a dark-gloved hand she carefully adjusted one of her divided skirts, so slashed with white that it seemed white trimmed with blue. She was one of the relatively few Whites to have a Warder; wrapped up in questions of rationality and philosophy, the greater number saw no need. Moiraine wished she would dismount. Meilyn's dappled gelding was tall, and she herself was as tall as most men. Most Cairhienin men, at least. Looking up at her in the saddle threatened to give Moiraine an ache in her neck.

'You are surprised to see me?' Elaida said, looking down from her fine-ankled bay mare. Her brocaded dress was not a muted red or a faint red, but a bright hue, as though she were screaming her Ajah to the world. Her cloak, lined with black fur, was exactly the same shade. A color fit for a Tinker's wagon, Moiraine thought. Elaida was smiling, yet that failed to lessen the severity of her face. She might have been beautiful except for that. Everything about her was severe. 'I reached Tar Valon just before the Aiel, and I've been busy since, but never fear, I will call on both of you.'

Moiraine had been sure her heart could sink no further, but she had been mistaken. It was very hard not to groan in despair.

Meilyn sighed. 'You pay these girls too much mind, Elaida. They'll get above themselves if they start thinking they're your pets. They may already.'

Moiraine exchanged shocked glances with Siuan. Pets? Goats staked out for lions, perhaps, but never pets.

Since gaining the shawl, Elaida had never deferred to anyone other than the Amyrlin Seat or a Sitter that Moiraine had seen, yet she bowed her head and murmured, 'As you say, Meilyn. But it seems possible they might test before the end of the year. I expect them to, and I expect them to pass easily. I'll accept nothing less from either.' Even that lacked her usual intensity. Normally, Elaida seemed as stiff-necked as a bull. Normally, she browbeat everyone who crossed her path.

The White sister gave a slight shrug, as though the matter was not important enough to say more. 'Do you children have everything you need? Good. Some of you children came very poorly prepared, I must say. How many names do you have left to take here?'

'About fifty, Meilyn Sedai,' Siuan told her. 'Maybe a few more.'

Meilyn glanced up at the sun, its fall toward the western horizon well begun. The dark clouds that threatened snow were moving south, leaving behind clear sky. 'In that case, write quickly. You must be back in the Tower before dark, you know.'

'Are all the camps like this?' Moiraine asked. 'I would think that men fighting a war would have their minds on that, not on?' She trailed off, her face heating.

'? spawning like silverpike,' Siuan whispered under her breath. Moiraine only just heard, but the words deepened her blush. Why ever had she asked such a question in the first place?

'Cairhienin,' Meilyn breathed. She sounded very nearly? amused! But she went on in a serious tone. 'When a man believes he may die, he wants to leave something of himself behind. When a woman believes her man may die, she wants that part of him desperately. The result is a great many babies born during wars. It's illogical, given the hardship that comes if the man does die, or the woman, but the human heart is seldom logical.'

Which explained a great deal, and left Moiraine feeling that her face might burn off. There were things one did in public and talked about, and things that were done in private and definitely not talked about. She struggled to regain control of herself, performing mental exercises for seeking calm. She was the river, contained by the bank; she was the bank, containing the river. She was a flower bud, opening to the sun. It did not help that Elaida was studying her and Siuan like a sculptor hefting hammer and chisel, deciding which piece of stone to remove next in order to bring out the form she wanted.

'Yes, yes, Andro,' Meilyn said suddenly. 'We will go in a moment.' She had not even looked back at her Warder, yet he nodded as though she had responded to something he had said. Lean and no taller than his Aes Sedai, he appeared youthful. Until you noticed his eyes.

Moiraine found herself gaping, embarrassment forgotten, and not because of Andro's unblinking gaze. A sister and her bonded Warder could sense each other's emotions and physical condition, and each knew exactly where the other was, if they were close enough, and at least a direction if they were far apart, but this seemed on the order of reading minds. Some said that full sisters could do that. There were a number of things that you were not taught until you had attained the shawl, after all. Such as the weave for bonding a Warder.

Meilyn looked straight into her eyes. 'No,' she said softly, 'I can't read his thoughts.' Moiraine's scalp prickled as though her hair were trying to stand on end. It must be true, since Meilyn had said it, yet? 'When you've had a Warder long enough, you will know what he is thinking, and he will know what you are. A matter of interpretation.' Elaida sniffed, though quietly. Alone among the Ajahs, the Red refused to bond Warders. Most Reds seemed to dislike men altogether.

'Logically,' Meilyn said, her serene gaze going to the other sister, 'Reds have greater need of Warders than any except Greens, perhaps greater even than Greens. But no matter. The Ajahs choose as they will.' She lifted her fringed reins. 'Are you coming, Elaida? We must reach as many of the children as possible. Some are certain to lose their heads and remain too long without a reminder. Remember, children; before dark.'

Moiraine expected some sort of eruption from Elaida, or at least a flash of anger in her eyes. That comment about Warders came very close to violating the codes of courtesy and privacy that governed sisters' lives, all the rules of what an Aes Sedai could say to or ask of another and what not. They were not laws, but rather customs stronger than law, and every Accepted had to memorize them. Surprisingly, Elaida merely turned her bay to follow.

Watching the two sisters leave the camp trailed by Andro, Siuan heaved a relieved sigh. 'I was afraid she'd stay to supervise us.'

'Yes,' Moiraine said. There was no need to say which woman Siuan meant. It would have been right in Elaida's character. Nothing they did could escape her demands for absolute perfection. 'But why did she not?'

Siuan had no answer for that, and in any event, there was no time to discuss it. With Moiraine's and her meal clearly finished, the women had taken their places in line again. And after Meilyn and Elaida's visit, they no longer seemed so certain that the two were Aes Sedai. A level look and a firm voice failed to squelch argument, now. Siuan took to shouting when necessary, which it frequently was, and running her hands through her hair in frustration. Three times Moiraine had to threaten to cease taking down any names at all before a woman carrying a child that was obviously too old would leave the line. She might have been tempted had one of them resembled Susa, but they were well fed and plainly no poorer than anyone else, just greedy.

To cap it off, with above a dozen women still in front of the table, Steler appeared, helmet on his head and leading his mount. The other soldiers were not far behind, two of them holding the reins of Arrow and Siuan's animal. 'Time to go,' Steler said in that gravelly voice. 'I left it as long as I could, but leave it any longer, and we'll be hard-pressed to make the Tower by sunset.'

'Here now,' one of the women protested. 'They've got to take our names!' Angry mutters rose from the rest.

'Look at the sun, man,' Siuan said, sounding harassed. She looked it, as well, with hair sticking up from the constant raking of her fingers. 'We have plenty of time.'