The Gathering Storm

"But only after you feel the world can care for itself. I won't agree to it before then, Siuan. You've given your life to something. I'll see that you survive through it; I hope that once you're done, you'll be willing to give your life to something else instead."

She reined in her shock. She wouldn't let a fool man make her speechless. "Well," she forced herself to say. "I see you have some sense after all. We shall see if I agree to this 'demand' of yours or not. I will think on it."

Bryne chuckled as she turned around to regard the pavilion, waiting for Egwene's reappearance. He could sense the truth from inside her, just as she could sense it from him. Light! Now she knew why Greens married their Warders so often. Feeling his affection for her while she felt the same for him made her giddy.

He was a fool of a man. And she no less a fool of a woman. She shook her head ruefully, but she did let herself lean back against him softly as they waited, and he replaced his hand on her shoulder. Soft, not forceful. Willing to wait. He did understand her.

Egwene stood before a group of smooth faces that were far too good at hiding their anxiety. By custom, she had ordered Kwamesa to weave the ward against eavesdropping, as the sharp-nosed Gray was the youngest among the Sitters in the large tent. It looked almost empty with so few places taken. A dozen women, two from each Ajah—there would have been three of each, but the Ajahs had all sent one Sitter with the envoy to the Black Tower. The Grays had already replaced Delana with Naorisa Cambral.

Twelve Sitters, along with Egwene and one other. Egwene did not look at Sheriam, who sat in her place to the side. Sheriam had seemed troubled as she entered. Did she realize what Egwene knew? She couldn't. If she had, she'd never have come to the meeting.

Still, knowing she was there—and knowing what she was—made

Egwene nervous. In the chaos of the Seanchan attack, Siuan hadn't been able to watch Sheriam. Why did the Keeper wear a bandage on her left hand? Egwene didn't believe her excuse of an accident while riding, her little finger getting caught in her reins. Why had she refused Healing? Blast Siuan! Instead of watching Sheriam, she'd come to kidnap Egwene!

The Hall grew still, the women waiting to see what Egwene's response would be to her "freedom." Romanda, gray-streaked hair up in a bun, sat primly in a yellow dress. She oozed satisfaction, while Lelaine— on the opposite side of the room—sulked while trying to act pleased at Egwene's return. After what Egwene had been through in the White Tower, this squabbling felt ridiculously petty.

Egwene took a deep breath, then embraced the Source. It felt so good! No bitter forkroot to squeeze her power to a trickle, no need to reach through other women to lend her strength. No need for a sa'angreal. Sweet though the fluted wand's power had been, being strong in and of herself was even more satisfying.

Several of the women frowned at the action, and not a few of them embraced the Source themselves, as if by reflex, looking about as if for danger.

"There will be no need for that," Egwene said to the women. "Not yet. Please release the Source."

They were hesitant, but—ostensibly—they accepted her as Amyrlin. One by one their power winked away. Egwene did not release it herself.

"I am very glad to see that you returned safely, Mother," Lelaine said. She skirted the Three Oaths by adding the word "safely."

"Thank you," Egwene said calmly.

"You said that there were important revelations to make," Varilin added. "Is this regarding the Seanchan attack?"

Egwene reached to the pouch on her skirt and pulled its contents free. A smooth white rod with the numeral three inscribed on it in the script of the Age of Legends, near the base. There were several gasps.

Egwene wove Spirit into the Rod, then spoke in a clear voice. "I vow that I will speak no word that is not true." She felt the oath fall over her like a physical thing, her skin growing tighter, prickling. It was easy to ignore; the pain was nothing compared with what she had been through. "I vow that I will make no weapon for one man to kill another. I vow that I will never use the One Power as a weapon except against Darkfriends and Shadowspawn, or in the last extreme of defending my life or that of my Warder or of another sister."

The Hall was silent. Egwene released her weave. Her skin felt so odd! As if someone had pinched the excess up at the base of her neck and along her spine, yanking it and binding it in place.

"Let it no longer be thought that I can avoid keeping the Three Oaths," Egwene announced. "Let it no longer be breathed that I am not fully Aes Sedai." None of them said anything about her not having taken the test to gain the shawl. She would see to that another day. "And now that you've seen me use the Oath Rod and know that I cannot lie, I will tell you something. During my time in the White Tower, a sister came to me and confided that she was Black Ajah."

The women's eyes bulged, and several gasped quietly.

"Yes," Egwene said. "I know we don't like to speak of them, but can any of us honestly claim that the Black Ajah does not exist? Can you hold to the oaths while saying that you've never considered the possibility— even the likelihood—of there being Darkfriends among us?"

Nobody dared to. The tent felt hot despite the early hour. Stuffy. None of them sweated, of course—they knew the age-old trick of avoiding that.

"Yes," Egwene said, "It is shameful, but it is a truth that we—as the leaders of our people—must admit. Not in public; but among ourselves there is no avoiding it. I have seen firsthand what distrust and quiet politicking can do to a people. I will not see the same disease infect us here. We are of different Ajahs, but we are single in purpose. We need to know that we can trust one another implicitly, because there is very little else in this world that can be trusted."

Egwene looked down at the Oath Rod, which she'd fetched early in the morning from Saerin. She rubbed her thumb on it. / wish you'd been able to find this when you visited, Verin, she thought. Perhaps it wouldn't have saved you, but I would have liked to try, I could use your aid.

Egwene looked up. "I am not a Darkfriend," she announced to the room. "And you know it cannot be a lie."

The Sitters looked perplexed. Well, they would soon see the point.

"It is time for us to prove ourselves," Egwene said. "Some clever women in the White Tower hit upon this idea, and I intend to expand it. We will each in turn use the Oath Rod to release ourselves from the Three Oaths, then reswear them in turn. Once we are all bound, we will be able to promise that we are not servants of—"

Sheriam embraced the Source. Egwene had been anticipating that. She slammed a shield between Sheriam and the Source, causing the woman to gasp. Berana cried out in shock, and several other women embraced the Source, looking this way and that.

Egwene turned and met Sheriam's eyes. The woman's face was nearly as red as her hair, and she was breathing in and out quickly. Like a captured rabbit, its leg in a snare, eyes wide with fright. She clutched her bandaged hand.