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The woman was grimly lovely, her face preserved against the ravages of time, ageless and serene. She faced the girl before her with cool detachment that did not quite fail to conceal her carefully reigned in anger.
"You have dared to stop us from continuing, Accepted?" the question was delivered in an arch, ironic voice that emphasized the last word and said that she was stopped only because she deigned to be so.
"No, Aes Sedai," the younger woman said with forced, strained meekness, "I just wanted to warn you. The man that can channel is no longer here. He been gone for a month and more."
The Aes Sedai's brow became stormy, and the Accepted hastened to add, "But he'll be back, I'm sure of it! His wife is still here."
"And you truly believe that the woman is Lanfear?" the Red Sister's mouth twisted about the vile name contemptuously.
"I have to. I just know it," Egwene al'Vere said flatly, "Her strength is extraordinary and--"
"So you have said in your letter," the Red interrupted, glancing about the clearing in which the sixteen travelling Aes Sedai had paused, so near to their destination, when the Accepted had come to halt and 'warn' them. "There is more to Forsaken than strength in the Power, Accepted," she continued in a patronizing tone that made Egwene secretly long to slap some sense into the woman. Did she not know that incredible danger lurked ahead of them?! "You have much to learn."
I may have much to learn, Egwene thought bitterly, But you have even more to.
"Yes, Aes Sedai," she said outwardly, years of obedience training coming to the surface, "I just mean that you should be careful"
"Of course, Egwene al'Vere," the woman smiled once more, with false gentleness, "I am always careful."
I'll bet you are, you stupid bitch, Egwene thought under a nod and a smile.
"And the man," the Aes Sedai contemplated sourly, glancing once behind her to her grim and silent Red companions for unconscious reassurance against the thought of a man channelling. "You truly believe that he is...," again she grimaced in extreme distaste, "... the Dragon?"
"I have no doubt of it," Egwene said flatly, with complete a knowing that gave even the Red pause.
"Indeed, child. These are strange times, when the Dark One stirs in his prison. Tarmon Gaidon approaches, and perhaps, just perhaps, you may correct."
"Yes, Aes Sedai," Egwene said placidly, over a grimace.
"You've done well to alert us in any case, child. Any such man is a scar upon the world. In the meantime, we will go to this woman, who calls herself Lanfear, and question her about her husband."
***
Marin watched in half amusement, half horror, as Lanfear leaned back in her chair, silently directing the One Power to weave the strands of silver-white wool into the big fluffy blanket which was forming. Lanfear had not known how to knit, and Marin, once she had discovered it, had swiftly taken it upon herself to teach the woman. She may not like the fact that Lanfear was Forsaken, but the woman had married a Two River's man, which was what Rand al'Thor was, no matter who he'd been in another life. It was up to Two River's women to teach her what she needed to know. Lanfear had taken the attempts of the innkeeper's wife with distant and faintly contemptuous amusement, but Marin, though annoyed, was a most determined woman and had kept up her efforts. Lanfear, somewhat curious at the novelty of village life despite herself, had eventually consented to learn how to knit. Marin had been overcome with the indignity of it when Lanfear had begun to knit with the Power. Marin, watching as the white wool knit itself into a shimmering cloth, recalled the exchange...
"It's much more efficient, Marin," Lanfear said as she experimentally held up the beginnings of the blanket with weaves of Air, using a second weaving to knit the strands of wool.
"This is intended to be a learning experience for you," Marin said, exasperated, "You are supposed to take in the purpose of it through the very fingers. It's very... untraditional when you do it like this."
Uncharacteristically, she found herself floundering for words, but even though she could not full explain herself to the woman, Marin felt sure that there was something fundamentally wrong with Lanfear's method. Though, as the woman had said, it was much more efficient. Still ...
"I'm not interested in tradition," Lanfear had replied serenely, "I' m interested in making this work for me."
And that's exactly what she had done.
"You're quite unmanageable, Lanfear," Marin said presently, in exasperation, and then marvelled once more for a moment at the casual ease with which she'd pronounced the woman's damned name.
The Forsaken arched a cool ebony brow at the Emond's Fielder, before baring her perfect teeth a small grin. "My mother used to say that as well. She never had much luck making me do anything," the woman laughed under her breath.
"I believe it," Marin said, eyeing the blanket as it further constructed itself. She had to admit that it was quite fascinated, watching the fabric come together like that. She and Lanfear were sitting in the living room of the Winespring, before the fire in large soft chairs. Lanfear smiled again and said,
"This place, this Two Rivers of yours, has a most curious effect. It is isolated from the world, almost completely, and so it retains a strange sense of lost time, of no time. One grows quite complacent and strange here."
"We'd hardly call ourselves complacent," Marin said sternly, "But we do like our privacy. Enjoy your time here."
Lanfear nodded, barely listening by then, concentrating once more upon her knitting. Without warning she paused, tilting her head to the side and scowled, narrowing her eyes. The blanket dropped to the floor, and Marin scowled herself, snatching it up and beginning to snap out a question when Lanfear stood up and disappeared. Marin blinked in surprise, and drew back into her chair a moment later when the door opened seemingly by itself, and then closed again.
***
The Red Sisters approached with confidence and caution. Lanfear, wrapped in invisibility, trailed along behind them, her weaves and Power-aura inverted from their eyes. She sneered at them privately, her perfect red lips curling up into a rosebud. They could detect nothing of her, and it was pathetic. They were children, these so-called Aes Sedai, their weavings as inept as - well, as inept as Lanfear's own first attempt at knitting had been, when Marin had begun to teach her. It was a fitting analogy, seeing as the weave, like needles to yarn, was integral to manipulating the Source. They were but fifteen metres away from the back entrance to the Winespring then, and Lanfear, pausing in her stride, struck.
***
The Red Sister leading the party turned about sharply, eyes widening as a curtain of brilliant fire swept towards her and her Sisters. The brilliance of that fire overwhelmed her, shutter through the air and crackling in her bones, curling and crisping her hair. She screamed in agony, horror overwhelming her completely, but even so she reached for the Source, feeling herself a part of the Flower, that exercise learnt as a young novice and never forgotten. The Power came as she surrendered herself to it, and it burst through her, dousing the flames and letting her walk through them, burns covering her face, singing her gown, and twisting her soul into agony. Her Sisters had likewise doused the flames about themselves, and now they joined together to search for the Source of the attack. It was saidar that had created those flames, she could feel it, which meant that it was almost certainly the woman who called herself Lanfear, who thought herself one of the Forsaken.
Small silver spears materialized in the air, spinning towards them like daggers, piercing two who could not divert the missiles quickly enough. The remaining fourteen sisters, however, quickly joined together in two linked groups.
***
Lanfear narrowed her eyes as she felt the tendrils of Power reaching out to locate her. Quickly, she smashed them apart, unravelling the weaves skillfully. And then, with another quick weave of her own, she aimed a lance of Power at the mind of the lead Red sister. The woman fell to her knees, gibbering in horror, eyes wide in shock, saliva dripping from her lips. Lanfear relished the feeling of her spear melting the woman's mind into sludge. Never again would this one channel. The Power was still available to her, but she now possessed roughly the intellect of a single celled organism. Not enough to even feel the glimmer of a thought of summoning saidar. Spinning quickly back to the others, Lanfear once more channelled. The next woman fell, screaming and dying.
***
A Red Sister called Lillian wove quickly, concealing her weaves in a manner that she had discovered as a novice, never to reveal to another, lest the ability be forbidden to her use, and she should need it some day. Now, that day had finally come. In a moment, she had located the woman who called herself Lanfear.
***
Lanfear felt the faintest tingle of a probe, grown close to her location. One of them had located her. Quickly, she formed a gate to move herself away from her old position, but she held too many flows at the moment to hide the presence of the Gate as well, and in a moment, the one who had located her linked with her Sisters and narrowed in upon the Chosen. Lanfear felt the faint stirring of panic. Even enough of the half-trained Tower children could... and then it came, in the instant before she could Travel away. A wall, an invisible barrier, a hard, cold, clear deterrent. She was shielded. And with it, she lost her weaves, become fully visible to all, a cold but shockingly beautiful woman, a lush flower with bewitching dark eyes. A woman who, though more powerful than any one of the women before her, could not face down their collective might.
"Forsaken," the Red Sister, Lillian, hissed at her, the Aes Sedai's disbelief of some ten minutes earlier transformed into complete belief and absolute loathing.
Lanfear stood tall and eyed them contemptuously. If she was caught, she was caught, but she would never cower.
"Chosen," she announced coldly, her eyes proud.
"You will not call yourself so when you are taken to the Tower. You will be tried for what you have done to our Sisters, as well as countless crimes against humanity," Lillian spoke almost as coldly, and proudly.
"Your laws mean nothing to me. They are meaningless products of this barbarian Age. As are you," Lanfear's voice was final, and she turned stiffly to re-enter the Winespring Inn. Lillian ground her teeth at the woman's insolence, and one of her fellow Reds moved to stop to Forsaken, but Lillian gestured her still, taking control of the remaining members of the party in that moment. Without a word, they accepting it in likewise fashion.
"Leave her be," Lillian said, smiling coldly, "It is but the pride of the one who refuses to accept that she is already defeated. We will keep her here, as our own, and wait for her husband. And we will take both the Forsaken Lanfear and the Dragon Reborn back to the White Tower as our prize. Now, see to them," she gestured to her fallen sisters, walking past them herself without a word, into the Inn after Lanfear.
***
"What is it?" Marin asked, seeing immediately the stiff set of Lanfear's body.
"We are now captives of the Red Ajah," Lanfear smiled slightly as Marin blanched. "I would consider your entire town thus, in fact."
"Egwene," Marin said softly. "Egwene said that she should contact the Reds about Rand."
"It seems that she has done so," Lanfear said with hidden cold rage.
"Yes," Marin said. "It does seem so." There was sad disappointment in her voice.
Lillian Sedai swept into the room then, turned to Marin and said, "Consider your village under restrictions. When the Dragon returns we will capture him and leave. Until then, the Forsaken Lanfear will not be leaving this Inn, and you yourself are suspected of harbouring the Shadow, woman. Should you be proven innocent by the time of our departure, you shall be left in peace. If not, it is our duty to take you, and any accomplices you have, to be tried as Darkfriends."
The woman left the Mayor's wife no chance to retort, to say anything, before she swept out of the room.
"My name was very similar to yours, once, Marin, before I was called Lanfear," the Forsaken said to the other woman, without warning or apparent cause, "You did not know that, of course."
"No, I didn't," the angry woman said with a furrowed brow.
"Now you do," Lanfear sneered in the direction of Lillian's exit, and walked away, speaking quietly as she went. "I shall be in my room."
All the while, the shielding of the unseen Aes Sedai followed her, preventing her escape, whilst the knit blanket lay forgotten on the living room floor.
***
On the other side of town, Egwene wondered just when it would be safe to go back to the Winespring. Wondered if, having betrayed the presence of the Dragon and a Forsaken, she would ever be safe again.
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