"Elayne is alive," Birgitte cut in. Alive, and in trouble. "She's our concern, now, but we'll need a lot more swords to rescue her." And more than swords. "Somebody collar that man!" Two Guardswomen seized Hark's coat before he could slip away into the darkness. Apparently he had no wish to stay near where Aes Sedai had died. Neither did she. "Gather the . . . the extra horses and follow me," she said, swinging into Arrow's saddle. "And ride like fire!" She suited her words, digging her heels into the rangy gray gelding's flanks without waiting.
It was a wild gallop through dark, twisting streets where people were just beginning to appear. She reined Arrow around the few carts and wagons out this early, but men and women had to leap from her path, often shaking fists and shouting curses. She only urged the gelding for more speed, her cloak flapping behind. Before she reached the Mondel Gate, Elayne was moving. She had been uncertain at first, but there could be no mistaking it now. Elayne was moving northeast at about walking
speed. The bond said she was too wobbly to walk far, maybe to walk at all, but a wagon would make the same pace. The sky was turning gray. How long before she could gather what was needed? In the Inner City, the street spiraled inward, rising past towers glittering in a hundred colors toward the golden domes and pale spires of the Royal Palace, atop the highest of Caemlyn's hills. As she galloped around the rim of the Queen's Plaza, soldiers stared at her. They were being fed from black kettles atop pushbarrows, cooks ladling some sort of brown stew onto tin plates, and every man she could see wore his breastplate and had his helmet hanging from his sword hilt. Good. Every moment saved was a moment toward saving Elayne.
Two lines of Guardswomen were practicing the sword in the Queen's Stableyard when she galloped in, but the lath blades stopped rattling when she flung herself out of the saddle, let Arrow's reins drop and ran toward the colonnade. "Hadora, run tell the Windfinders to meet me in the Map Room right away!" she shouted without slowing. "All of them! Sanetre, you do the same for Captain Guybon! And have another horse saddled for me!" Arrow was played out for today. She was past the columns by that time, but she did not look back to see whether they were obeying. They would be.
She raced through tapestry-hung hallways and up sweeping marble stairs, got lost and shouted curses as she retraced her steps at a run. Liveried serving men and women gaped as they dodged out of her way. At last she reached the lion-carved doors of the Map Room, where she paused only long enough to tell the two burly Guardsmen on duty to admit the Windfinders as soon as they appeared, then went in. Guybon was already there, in his burnished breastplate with the three golden knots on his shoulder, and Dyelin, delicately holding her blue silk skirts up as she moved, the pair of them frowning at the huge mosaic map, where well over a dozen red discs marked the city's northern wall. Never before had there been so many assaults at once, not even ten, but Birgitte spared the discs barely a glance.
"Guybon, I need every horse and halberd you can muster," she said, unpinning her cloak and tossing it down on her long writing table. "The crossbowmen and archers will have to handle anything that crops up by themselves for a few hours. Elayne's been captured by Darkfriend Aes Sedai, and they're trying to carry her out of the city." Some of the clerks and messengers began murmuring, but Mistress Anford silenced them with a sharp order to see to their work. Birgitte eyed the colorful map in the floor, measuring distances. Elayne seemed to be moving toward the Sunrise Gate and the road to the River Erinin, but even if they used one of the smaller gates, they had gone too far to be aiming at anything but the eastern wall. "They'll probably have her through the gates by the time we're ready to move. We're going to Travel to just this side of the ridge east of the city." And take what was going to happen out of the streets, away from people's homes. It would be better out in the open in any case. In that tangle of streets, with horsemen and halberdmen jammed together, there would be too many people to get in the way, too much chance of accidents.
Guybon nodded, already issuing terse orders that brown-clad clerks copied down hastily for him to sign and pass to young messengers in red-and-white who went running as soon as the paper was in hand. The boys' faces were frightened. Birgitte had no time for her own fear. Elayne felt none, and she was a prisoner. Sadness, yes, but no fear.
"We certainly need to rescue Elayne," Dyelin said calmly, "but she'll hardly thank you if you give Arymilla Caemlyn by doing it. Not counting the men in the towers and holding the gates, almost half the trained soldiers and armsmen in the city are on the northern wall. If you strip away the rest, one more attack will gain a stretch of the wall. Crossbows and bows alone won't stop them. Once they have that, Arymilla's forces will pour into the city, enough to overwhelm what you propose to leave. You will have neatly reversed our positions, and worsened yours. Arymilla will have Caemlyn, and Elayne will be outside without enough armsmen to get back in. Unless these Darkfriends have somehow smuggled an army inside Caemlyn, a few hundred men will do as well as thousands."
Birgitte scowled at her. She had never been able to like Dyelin. She did not know why, exactly, but Dyelin had just made her bristle at first sight. She was fairly certain the other woman felt the same about her. She could never say "up" without Dyelin saying "down."
"You care about putting Elayne on the throne, Dyelin. I care about keeping her alive to mount that throne. Or not, so long as she's alive. I owe her my life, and I won't let hers trickle away in Darkfriend hands."
Dyelin sniffed and went back to studying the red discs as if she could see the soldiers fighting. her frown deepening the lines at the corners of her eyes.
Birgitte clasped her hands behind her back and forced herself to stand still. She wanted to pace with impatience. Elayne was still trundling toward the Sunrise Gate. "There's something you need to know, Guybon. We'll be facing at least two Aes Sedai, likely more, and they may have a weapon, a ter'angreal that makes balefire. Have you ever heard of that?"
"Never. It sounds dangerous, though."
"Oh, it is. Dangerous enough that it's prohibited for Aes Sedai. In the War of the Shadow, even Darkfriends stopped using it." She barked a bitter laugh. All she knew of balefire now was what Elayne had told her. It had come from her in the first place, yet that only made matters worse. Would all of her memories go? She did not think she had lost any recently, but how would she know if she had? She could remember bits of the founding of the White Tower, pieces of what she and Gaidal had done to help it be founded, but nothing before that. All of her earlier memories were yesterday's smoke.
"Well, at least we'll have Aes Sedai of our own," Guybon said, signing another order.
"They're all dead, except for Elayne," she told him flatly. There was no way to gild that. Dyelin gasped, her face growing pale. One of the clerks clasped her hands to her mouth, and another knocked over his ink jar. The ink fanned across the tabletop in a black stream and began dripping onto the floor. Rather than reprimanding the man, Mistress Anford steadied herself with a hand on another clerk's writing table. "I hope to make up for that," Birgitte went on, "but I can't promise anything except that we're going to lose men today. Maybe a lot of men."
Guybon straightened. His expression was thoughtful, his hazel eyes steady. "That will make for an interesting day," he said finally. "But we'll get the Daughter-Heir back, whatever the cost." A solid man, Charlz Guybon, and brave. He had demonstrated that often enough on the walls. Too good looking for her taste, of course.
Birgitte realized she had begun pacing back and forth across the mosaic and stopped. She knew nothing of being a general, whatever Elayne thought, but she knew that showing nerves could infect others with them. Elayne was alive. That was all that was important. Alive and moving farther away by the minute.
The left-hand door opened, and one of the burly Guardsmen announced that Julanya Fote and Keraille Surtovni had returned. Guybon hesitated, looking to her, but when she said nothing, he told the man to admit them.
They were very different women, in appearance at least, though each carried a wooden walking staff. Julanya was plump and pretty, with touches of white in her dark hair, while Keraille was short and slim, with tilted green eyes and fiery red curls. Birgitte wondered whether those were their real names. These Kinswomen changed names as easily as other women changed stockings. They wore plain woolens suitable for country peddlers, which each had been in the past, and each was a keen observer, skilled at taking care of herself. They could talk their way out of most situations, but their simple belt knives were not the only blades they carried and they could surprise a strong man with what they could do with those walking staffs. Both offered curtsies. Julanya's skirts and cloak were damp and splashed with mud around the hem.
"Ellorien, Luan and Abelle began breaking camp early this morning, my Lady," she said. "I only stayed long enough to make sure of their direction—north—before coming to report."
"The same is true with Aemlyn, Arathelle and Pelivar, my Lady," Keraille added. "They're coming for Caemlyn."
Birgitte did not need to examine the large map spread out on the table with its markers. Depending on how muddy the roads were, how much rain they had to contend with, they could reach the city by that afternoon. "You've done well, both of you. Go find yourselves hot baths. Do you think they've had a change of heart?" she asked Dyelin once the two women had left.
"No," the woman replied without hesitation, then sighed and shook her head. "I fear the most likely thing is that Ellorien has convinced the others to support her for the Lion Throne. They may be thinking to defeat Arymilla and take over the siege. They have half again her numbers, and double ours." She let that hang. There was no need to say the rest. Even using Kinswomen to shift men, they would be hard pressed to hold the wall against that many.
"First we get Elayne back, then we can worry about that lot," Birgitte said. Where were those bloody Windfinders?
No sooner did she have the thought than they were padding into the room behind Chanelle, a riotous rainbow of silks. Except for Renaile, last in line in her linens, yet a red blouse, green trousers and a deep yellow sash made her bright enough, though even Rainyn, a round-cheeked young woman with just half a dozen golden medallions dangling onto her cheek, made Renaile's honor chain look bare. Renaile's face wore an expression of stoic endurance.
"I do not appreciate being threatened!" Chanelle said angrily, sniffing the golden scent box on its golden chain around her neck. Her dark cheeks were flushed. "That Guardswoman said if we did not run, she would kick—! Never mind what she said, exactly. It was a threat, and I will not be—!"
"Elayne has been captured by Darkfriend Aes Sedai," Birgitte cut in. "I need you to make a gateway for the men who are going to rescue her." A murmur rose among the other Windfinders. Chanelle gestured sharply, but only Renaile fell silent. The others just lowered their voices to whispers, to her obvious displeasure. By the medallions crowding their h
onor chains, several of them matched Chanelle's rank.
"Why did you summon all of us for one gateway?' she demanded. "I keep the bargain, you can see. I brought everyone as you ordered. But why do you need more than one?"