Winter's Heart

encourage the rest, so they all carry tales to her hoping to curry favor. The first time you try to escape, they will switch the soles of your feet until you cannot walk, and tie you twisted up like a blacksmith's puzzle to carry on a cart until you can. The second time will be worse, and the third worse again. There is a fellow here who used to be a Whitecloak. He tried to escape nine times. A hard man, but the last time they brought him back, he was begging and crying before they even began stripping him for punishment.'

Alliandre did not take the harangue well. She puffed up indignantly, and Maighdin growled, 'Was that what happened to you? Whether Aes Sedai or Accepted, you are a disgrace to the Tower!'

'Be silent when your betters speak, wilder!' Galina snapped.

Light, if this went any further, they would be screaming at one another next. 'If you mean to help us escape, then say so,' Faile told the silk-clad Aes Sedai. She did not really doubt that about the woman. Just everything else. 'If not, what do you want with us?'

Ahead of them a wagon loomed out of the snow, leaning where one of the sleds had come loose. Directed by a Shaido with the arms and shoulders of a blacksmith, gai'shain were rigging a lever to hoist the wagon enough for the sled to be lashed back in place. Faile and the others kept silent as they passed.

'Is this really your liege lady, Alliandre?' Galina demanded once they were out of earshot of the men around the wagon. Her face was still flushed with anger, her tone slicing. 'Who is she that you would swear to her?'

'You can ask me,' Faile said coldly. Burn Aes Sedai and their bloody secrecy! Sometimes she thought an Aes Sedai would not tell you the sky was blue unless she saw advantage in it. 'I am the Lady Faile t'Aybara, and that's as much as you need to know. Do you mean to help us?'

Galina stumbled to one knee, peering at Faile so hard that she began to wonder whether she had made a mistake. A moment later, she knew she had.

Regaining her feet, the Aes Sedai smiled unpleasantly. She no longer seemed angry. In fact, she looked as pleased as Therava had, and worse, in much the same way. 't'Aybara,' she mused. 'You are Saldaean. There is a young man, Perrin Aybara. Your husband? Yes, I see I've hit the target. That would explain Alliandre's oath, certainly. Sevanna has grandiose plans for a man whose name is linked to your husband. Rand al'Thor. If she knew she had you in her hands… Oh, never fear she will learn from me.' Her gaze hardened, and suddenly she seemed a leopard in truth. A starving leopard. 'Not if you all do as I tell you. I will even help you get away.'

'What do you want of us?' Faile said, more insistently than she felt. Light, she had been angry at Alliandre for drawing attention to them by naming herself, and now she had done the same. Or worse. And I thought I was concealing myself by hiding my father's name, she thought bitterly.

'Nothing too trying,' Galina replied. 'You marked Therava, of course? Of course, you did. Everyone notices Therava. She keeps something in her tent, a smooth white rod about a foot long. It is in a red chest with brass banding that is never locked. Bring it to me, and I will take you with me when I go.'

'A small thing to do, it seems,' Alliandre said doubtfully. 'But if so, why do you not take it yourself?'

'Because I have you to fetch it for me!' Realizing she had shouted, Galina huddled in on herself, and her cowl swung as she searched for eavesdroppers among the snow-veiled throng. No one seemed to be so much as glancing their way, but her voice dropped to a feral hiss. 'If you do not, I will leave you here until you are gray and wrinkled. And Sevanna will hear of Perrin Aybara.'

'It may take time,' Faile said desperately. 'We won't be free to just sneak into Therava's tent whenever we want.' Light, the last thing in the world she wanted was to go anywhere near Therava's tent. But Galina had said she would help them. Vile she might be, but Aes Sedai could not lie.

'You have all the time you need,' Galina replied. 'The rest of your life, Lady Faile t'Aybara, if you are not careful. Do not fail me.' She gave Faile a last hard stare, then turned to labor away into the snow, holding her arms as if trying to hide her jeweled belt behind her wide sleeves.

Faile struggled onward in silence. Neither of her companions had anything to say, either. There did not seem to be anything to say. Alliandre appeared sunk in thought, hands in her sleeves, peering straight ahead as if seeing something beyond the blizzard. Maighdin had gone back to gripping her golden collar in a tight fist. They were caught in three snares, not one, and any of the three might kill. Rescue suddenly seemed very attractive. Somehow, though, Faile intended to find her way out of this trap. Pulling her hand away from her own collar, she fought through the snowstorm, planning.

Chapter 5: Flags

He ran across the snow-covered plain, nose into the wind, hunting for a scent, for that one precious scent. The falling snow no longer melted on his chilled fur, but cold could not deter him. The pads of his paws were numb, yet his burning legs worked furiously, carrying him on, faster and faster, till the land blurred in his eyes. He had to find her.

Suddenly a great grizzled gray wolf, ragged-eared and scarred from many fights, settled down out of the sky to race the sun beside him. Another great gray wolf, but not so large as himself. His teeth would tear the throats of those who had taken her. His jaws would crush their bones!

Your she is not here, Hopper sent to him, but you are here too strongly, and too long from your body. You must go back, Young Bull, or you will die.

I must find her. Even his thoughts seemed to pant. He did not think of himself as Perrin Aybara. He was Young Bull. Once, he had found the falcon here, and he could again. He had to find her. Beside that need, death was nothing.

In a flash of gray the other wolf lunged against his side, and though Young Bull was the larger, he was tired, and he fell heavily. Scrambling to his feet in the snow, he snarled and launched himself at Hopper's throat. Nothing mattered more than the falcon.

The scarred wolf flew into the air like a bird, and Young Bull went sprawling. Hopper lighted on the snow behind him.

Hear me, cub! Hopper thought at him fiercely. 'Your mind is twisted with fear! She is not here, and you will die if you remain longer, find her in the waking world. You can only find her there. Go back, and find her!

Perrin's eyes snapped open. He was bone tired and his middle felt hollow, but hunger was a shadow beside the hollowness in his chest. He was all hollow, and distanced even from himself, as if he were another person watching Perrin Aybara suffer. Above him, a blue-and-gold-striped tent roof rippled in the wind. The interior of the tent was dim and shadowed, but sunlight made the bright canvas glow softly. And yesterday had not been a nightmare any more than Hopper was. Light, he had tried to kill Hopper. In the Wolf Dream, death was… final. The air was warm, but he shivered. He was lying on a feather mattress, in a large bed with heavy cornerposts thickly carved and gilded. Through the scent of charcoal burning in the braziers he smelled musky perfume, and the woman wearing it. No one else was present.

Without raising his head from the pillow, he said, 'Have they found her yet, Berelain?' His head felt too heavy to lift.

One of her camp chairs squeaked faintly as she shifted. He had been here before often, with Faile, to discuss plans. The tent was big enough to house a family, and Berelain's elaborate furnishings would not have looked out of place in a palace, all intricate carving and gilt, though everything, tables and chairs and the bed itself, was held together with pegs. They could be disassembled for storage on a cart, but the pegs did not make for true sturdiness.

Under the perfume, Berelain smelled of surprise that he knew she was there, yet her voice was composed. 'No. Your scouts haven't returned yet, and mine… When they didn't return by nightfall, I sent a full company. They found my men dead in an ambush, killed before they had gone more than five or six miles.

I ordered Lord Gallenne to keep a tight watch around the camps. Arganda has a strong guard mounted, too, but he sent patrols out. Against my advice. The man's a fool. He thinks no one can find Alliandre but him. I am not sure he believes anyone else is really trying. Certainly not the Aiel.'

Perrin's hands tightened on the soft wool blankets covering him. Gaul would not be caught by surprise, or Jondyn, not even by Aiel. They were still hunting, and that meant Faile was alive. They would have been back long