Snow: The Prologue to Winter's Heart (The Wheel of Time 8.50)

Logain had been listening without taking part, arms folded across his chest. His face was unreadable, a mask "Do you worry about the butcher's yard, Canler?" he said now.

The Andoran grimaced, then shrugged. "I reckon we're all headed there, soon or late, Logain. Don't see we have much choice, but I don't have to grin about it."

"As long as you're there on the day," Logain said quietly. He addressed. the man called Can1er, but several of the others nodded.

Looking past the men, Logain considered Toveine and Gabrelle, Toveine tried to look as if she had not been eavesdropping, and remembering names fiercely, "Go inside out of the cold," he told them. "Have some tea to warm you. I'll be back as soon as I can. Don't touch my papers." Gathering up the other men with a gesture, he led them off in the direction Kajima had come from.

Toveine gritted her teeth in frustration. At least she would not have to follow him to the training grounds, past the so-called Traitor's Tree, where heads hung like diseased fruit from the bare branches, and watch men studying howtodestroy with the Power, but she had hoped for another day to herself, free to wander about and see what she could learn, She had heard men speak of Taim's "palace" before, and today she had hoped to find it and perhaps catch a glimpse of the man whose name was as black as Logain's. Instead, she meekly followed the other woman through the red door. There was no use in fighting it,

Inside, she looked around the front room while Gabrelle hung her cloak on a peg. Despite the exterior, she had expected something grander for Logain, A low fire burned in a rough stone fireplace, A long narrow table and ladder-backed chairs stood en bare floorboards, A desk, only slightly more elaborate than the other furnishings, caught her eye. Stacks of lidded letterboxes littered the desktop, and leather folders full of long sheets of paper. Her fingers itched, but she knew that even if she sat at the desk, she would not be able to lay a finger on anything more than the pen or glass ink bottle.

With a sigh, she followed Gabrelle into the kitchen, where an iron stove gave too much heat and dirty breakfast dishes sat on a low cabinet beneath the window, Gabrelle filled a teakettle and put it on the stove, then took a green-glazed teapot and a weoden canister from another cabinet. Toveine draped her cloak over a chair and sat down at the square table. She did not want tea urdess it came with the breakfast she had missed, but she knew she was going to drink it.

The silly Brown nattered on as she carried out her domestic tasks like a contented farmwife. "I've learned a good deal already. Logain is the only full Asha'man to live here in this village. The others all live in Taim's 'palace.' They have servants, but Logain hired the wife of a man in training to cook and clean for him. She'll be here soon, and she thinks he put the sun in the sky, so we best be done talking anything important by then. He found your lapdesk,"

Toveine felt as though an icy hand had seized her throat, She tried to hide it, but Gabrelle was looking straight at her.

"He burned it, Toveine. After reading the contents. He seemed to think he had done us a favor."

The hand eased, and Toveine could breathe again. "Elaida's order was among my papers." She cleared her throat to rid herself of hoarseness. Elaida's order to gentle every man found here and then hang them on the spot, without the trial in Tar Valon required by Tower law, "She imposed harsh conditions, and these men would have reacted harshly, if they knew." In spite of the heat from the stove, she shivered. That single paper could have gotten them all stilled and hanged, "Why would he do us favors?"

"I don't know why, Toveine, He isn't a villain, no more than most men. It could be as simple as that." Gabrelle set a plate of crusted rolls and another with white cheese on the table. "Or it could be that this bond is like the Warder bond in more ways than we know. Maybe he just did not want to experience the two of us being executed." Toveine's stomach rumbled, but she picked up a roll as if she did nor care for more than a nibble.

"I suspect 'harsh' was a mild choice," Gabrelle went on, spooning tea into the teapot. "I saw you flinch, Of course, they went to a great deal of trouble to bring us here. Fifty-one sisters in their midst, and even with the bond, they must fear we'll And some way around their orders, some loophole they missed. The obvious answer is, if we were dead, the Tower would be roused to fury. With us alive and captive, even Elaida will move cautiously." She laughed, quietly amused. "Your face, Toveine. Did you think I've spent all my time thinking about tangling my fingers in Logain's hair.'"

Toveine closed her mouth and put down the untouched roll. It was cold, anyway, and felt hard. Always a mistake to assume Browns were unworldly, absorbed in their books and studies to the exclusion of everything else. "What else have you seen?"

Still gripping the spoon, Gabrelle sat across the table from her and leaned forward intently, "Their wall may be strong when it's done, but this place is full of fractures. There is Mazrim Taim's faction, and Logain's faction, though I am uncertain either thinks of them so. Perhaps other factions, too, and certainly men who don't know there are factions. Fifty-one sisters should be able to make fry something of that, even with the bond. The second question is, what do we make of it?"

"The second questions Toveine demanded, but the other woman merely waited. "If we manage to break those fissures open," she said finally, "we scatter ten or 6 or a hundred bands across the world, each more dangerous than any army ever seen. Catching them all might take a lifetime and rip the world apart like a new Breaking, and that with Tarmon Gai'don on its way. That is, if this fellow al'Thor really is the Dragon Reborn," Gabrelle opened her mouth, but Toveine waved away whatever she was going to say. That he was, very likely. It hardly mattered, here and now. "But if we don't..., Put down the rebellion and gather those sisters back to the Tower, call back every retired sister, and I don't know whether all of us together could destroy this place. I suspect half the Tower would die in the attempt, either way. Whar is the first question?"

Gabrelle leaned back in her chair, her face suddenly weary. "Yes, not an easy decision. And they bring in more men every day. Fifteen or twenty since we've been here, I believe."

"I won't be trifled with, Gabrelle! What is the erst question?" The Brown's gaze sharpened, stared at her for a long moment.

"Soon, the shock will wear off," she said finally. "What comes then? The authority Elaida gave you is Anished, the expedition is finished. The first quesrion is, are we fifty-one sisters united, or do we revert to being Browns and Reds, Yellows and Greens and Grays? And poor Ayako, who must be regretting that the Whites insisted on having a sister included. Lemai and Desandre stand highest among us." Gabrelle waved the spoon in admonishment. "The only chance we have of holding together is if you and I publicly submit to Desandre's authority. We mustl That will start it, at any rare. I hope. If we can only bring a few others, to begin with, it will be a start."

Toveine drew a deep breath and pretended to stare at nothing, as if considering, Submitting to a sister who stood higher than she was no hardship, in itself. The Ajahs had always kept secrets, and sometimes schemed a little against one another, but the open dissension in the Tower now appalled her. Besides, she had learned how to be humble before Mistress Doweel, She wondered how the woman enjoyed poverty, and working on a farm for a taskmistress even harsher rhan herself.

"I can bring myself to it," she said finally. "We should have a plan of action to present to Desandre and Lemai, if we mean to convince them," She already had one partly formed, if not for presentation to anyone. "Oh, the water is boiling, Gabrelle."

Suddenly smiling, the foolish woman rose and hurried to the stove. Browns always were better reading books than people, come to think of it, Before Lopin and Taim and the rest were destroyed, they would help Toveine Gazal bring down Elaida.

The great city of Cairhien was a hulking mass inside massive walls, crowding the River Alguenya. The sky was clear and cloudless, but a cold wind blew and the sun shone on roofs covered with snow, glinted on icicles that showed no sign of melting. The Alguenya was not Frozen, but small, jagged ice Roes fram farther upriver spun in the currents, now and then banging against the hulls of ships waiting their turns at the docks. Trade slowed for winter and wars, and the Dragon Reborn, but it never really stopped, nor until nations died. Despite the cold, wagons and carts and people flowed along streets that razored the terraced hills of the city. The City, it was called here.

In front of the square-towered Sun Palace, a crowd jammed together around the long entry ramp and stared up, merchants wrapped in fine woolens and nobles in velvets rubbing shoulders with grimy-faced laborers and dirtier refugees. No one cared who stood. next to him, and even the cutpurses forgot to follow their trade. Men and women departed, often shaking their heads, but others took their places, sometimes hoisting a child to get a better view of the Palace's ruined wing, where workmen were

clearing away the rubble of the third story. Throughout the rest of Cairhien, craftsmen's hammers and creaking axles filled the air, together with the cries of shopkeepers, the complaints of buyers, the murmurs of merchants, The crowd before the Sun Palace was silent.

A mile from the Palace, Rand stood at a window in the grandly named Academy of Cairhien, peering through the frosted panes at the stone-paved stableyard below. There had been schools cal1ed Academies in Artur Hawkwing's time and before, centers of learning filled with scholars from every corner of the known wcrld. The conceit made no difference; they could have called it the Barn, so long as it did what he wanted, Mere important concerns Riled his thoughts. Had he made a mistake, returning to Cairhien so soon? But he had been forced to flee too quickly, so it would be known in the right quarters that he actually had fled. Too quickly ro prepare everything. There were questions he needed to ask, and tasks that could not be put oE And Min wanted more of Master Fel's books. He could hear her muttering to herself as she rummaged through the shelves where they had been stored after Fel's death, With the bounty for books and manuscripts it did not yet possess, the Academy's library was fast outgrowing the rooms that could be spared in Lord Barthanes' former palace. Alanna sat in the back of his head, sulking it seemed; she would know he was in the City. This near, she would be able to walk straight to him, but he would know if she tried. Blessedly, Lews Therin was silent for the moment. Of late, the man seemed madder than ever.

He rubbed a spot clear on a windowpane with his coatsleeve. Stout dark gray wool, good enough for a man with a little money and few airs, it was not a garment anyone would expect to see on the Dragon Reborn. The golden-maned Dragon's head on the back of his hand glittered metallically; it presented no danger here. His boot touched the leather scrip sitting below the window as he leaned forward to look out,

In the stableyard, the paving stones had been swept clear of snow, and a large wagon stood surrounded by buckets like mushrooms in a clearing. Half a dozen men in heavy coats and scarves and caps seemed to be working on the wagon's odd cargo, mechanical devices crowded around a fat metal cylinder that took up more than half the wagon bed. Even stranger, the wagon shafts were missing. One of the men was moving split firewood from a large wheelbarrow into the side of a metal box fastened below one end of the big cylinder. The open door in the box glowed with the red of fire inside, and smoke rose from a tall narrow chimney. Another fellow danced around the wagon, bearded, capless and bald-headed, gesturing and apparently shouting orders that did not seem to make the others move any faster, Their breath made faint white plumes. It was almost warm inside; the Academy had large furnaces in the cellars and an extensive system of vents. The half-healed, never healing wounds in his side were hot.

He could not make out Min's curses - he was sure they were curses - but her tone was enough to say they would not be leaving yet unless he dragged her away. There were one or two items he might ask about still. "What are people saying? About the Palace?"

"What you might expect," Lord Dobraine answered behind him with level patience, as he had answered all the other questions. Even when he admitted a lack of knowledge, his tone had not changed. "Some say the Forsaken attacked you, or that Aes Sedai did. Those who think you swore fealty to the Amyrlin Seat h.vor the Forsaken. Either way, there is considerable debate on whether you are dead or kidnapped or fled. Most believe you live, wherever you are, or say they do. Some, a good many I fear, think...." His voice faded to silence.