Logain stood in the middle of a field of glass, hands clasped behind his back. The battle raged across the Heights. The Sharans appeared to be falling back from the onslaught of Cauthon’s armies, and his scouts had just reported that the Shadow was being hit hard all across the Field of Merrilor.
“I guess they probably won’t need you,” Gabrelle said to him as his scouts retreated. “So you were right.”
The bond sent dissatisfaction and even disappointment. “I need to look to the future of the Black Tower,” Logain said.
“You aren’t looking to its future,” she said, soft, almost threatening. “You’re looking to make certain you are a power in these lands, Logain. You cannot hide your emotions from me.”
Logain shoved down his anger. He would not be subject to their power again. He would not. First the White Tower, then M’Hael and his men.
Days of torture. Weeks.
I will be stronger than any other, he thought. That was the only way out, wasn’t it?
I will be feared.
Light. He’d resisted their attempts to corrupt him, turn him to the Shadow… but he couldn’t help wondering if they had broken something else inside of him. Something profound. He leveled his gaze, looking across the field of crystal.
Another rumble came beneath, and some of the crystals shattered. This entire area was going to collapse soon. And with it, the scepter…
Power.
“I’m warning you, mainlander,” a calm voice said nearby. “I have a message to deliver. If I need see your arm broken to deliver it, I will see it done.”
That’s a Seanchan accent, Logain thought, turning with a frown. A Seanchan woman, accompanied by a large Illianer, was arguing with one of his guards. The woman knew how to make her voice carry without shouting. There was a self-possession to her that Logain found curious.
He walked over, and the Seanchan woman looked up at him. “You have the look of authority about you,” she called to him. “You are the one called Logain?”
He nodded.
“The Amyrlin sends you her last words,” the Seanchan woman called. “You must deliver the seals up to the White Tower to be broken. The sign is the coming of light! She says it will be known when it arrives.”
Logain raised an eyebrow. He nodded to the woman, mostly to put her off, then walked back the other way.
“You don’t intend to do it,” Gabrelle said. “You fool. Those seals belong to—”
“To me,” Logain said.
“Logain,” Gabrelle said softly. “I know you have been hurt. But this is not a time for games.”
“Why not? Has the White Tower’s treatment of me been anything other than a great long game?”
“Logain.” She touched him on the arm.
Light burn that bond! He wished he’d never forced her to it. Tied to her as he was, he could sense her sincerity. How much easier his life would be if he could continue to regard all Aes Sedai with suspicion.
Sincerity. Would that be his downfall? “Lord Logain!” Desautel called from nearby. The Asha’man Dedicated was as big as a blacksmith. “Lord Logain, I think I’ve found it!”
Logain broke eye contact with Gabrelle, looking toward Desautel. The Asha’man stood beside a large crystal. “It’s here,” Desautel said, wiping the crystal as Logain approached. “See?”
Logain knelt, weaving a globe of light. Yes… there, within the crystal. It looked like a hand, made from a slightly different type of crystal, sparkling in his light. That hand held a golden scepter, the top vaguely cup-shaped.
Logain gathered the One Power, smiling broadly. He let saidin flow from him into the crystal, using a weave to shatter it as he would a stone.
The ground trembled. The crystal, whatever it was, resisted. The harder he pushed, the more violent the shaking became.
“Logain…” Gabrelle said.
“Stand back,” Logain said. “I think I’ll need to try balefire.”