OH, I DO, SHAI'TAN, Rand said softly. I EMBRACE IT, FOR DEATH IS—AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN—LIGHTER THAN A FEATHER. DEATH ARRIVES IN A HEARTBEAT, NO MORE TANGIBLE THAN A FLICKER OF LIGHT. IT HAS NO WEIGHT, NO SUBSTANCE—
Rand strode forward, speaking louder. DEATH CANNOT KEEP ME AT BAY, AND IT CANNOT RULE ME. IT COMES DOWN TO THIS, FATHER OF LIES. WHEN HAVE YOU INSPIRED A PERSON TO GIVE THEIR LIFE FOR YOU? NOT FOR THE PROMISES YOU GIVE, NOT FOR THE RICHES THEY SEEK OR THE POSITIONS THEY WOULD HOLD, BUT FOR YOU. HAS IT EVER HAPPENED?
The darkness grew still.
BRING MY DEATH, SHAI’TAN, Rand growled, throwing himself into the blackness. FOR I BRING YOURS!
Aviendha dropped to a rocky ledge far above the floor of Thakan’dar. She tried to stand, but her ruined feet and legs couldn’t support her weight. She collapsed on the ledge, the spear of light vanishing from her fingers. Pain climbed up her legs as if they’d been thrust into a fire.
Graendal stumbled back from her, gasping huge breaths, holding her side. Aviendha immediately wove an attack, flames of fire, but Graendal cut them down with her own weaves.
"You!" Graendal spat. "You vermin, you detestable child!" The woman was still strong, though wounded.
Aviendha needed help. Amys, Cadsuane, the others. Desperate, clinging to the One Power despite her agony, she began weaving a gateway back to where she had been. It was near enough that she did not need to know the area well.
Graendal let this weave pass. Blood gushed between the woman’s fingers. While Aviendha worked, Graendal wove a thin trickle of Air and stanched the wound with it. Then she pointed bloody fingers at Aviendha. "Trying to escape?"
The woman began weaving a shield.
Frantic, her strength waning, Aviendha tied off her weave, leaving the gateway open and in place. Please, Amys, see it! she thought as she countered Graendal’s shield.
She barely managed to block it; she was very weak. Graendal had been using borrowed power for their entire fight, while Aviendha had been using her own. Even with her angreal, in her state she was really no match for Graendal.
Graendal pulled herself upright, pain showing in her face. Aviendha spat at the woman's feet, then pulled herself away, leaving a trail of blood behind her.
Nobody came through the gateway. Had she made it to the wrong place?
She reached the rim of the ledge overlooking the battlefield of Thakan’dar below. If she went farther, she’d fall. Better that than becoming another of her pets . . .
Threads of Air wrapped around Aviendha’s legs and jerked her back. She screamed through her clenched teeth, then twisted about; her feet seemed little more than stumps of raw flesh. The pain washed over her, and her vision darkened. She struggled to reach the One Power.
Graendal held her off, but the woman flagged and growled, then slumped down, gasping. The weave stanching her wound was still in place, but the woman’s face grew pale. She seemed almost ready to faint.
The open gateway beside her invited Aviendha, a means of escape—but it might as well have been a mile away. Mind clouding, legs afire with pain, Aviendha slipped her knife from its sheath.
It fell from her trembling fingers. She was too weak to hold it.
CHAPTER 44
Two Craftsmen
Perrin awoke to something rustling. He cracked his eyes open, wary, and found himself in a dark room.
Berelain's palace, he remembered. The sound of the waves had grown softer outside, the calls of gulls silent. Thunder rumbled, distant.
What time was it? It smelled like morning, but it was dark outside still. He had trouble picking out the dark silhouette moving through the room toward him. He tensed until he picked out the scent.
"Chiad?" he asked, sitting up.
The Aiel did not jump, though he was certain from the way she stopped that he’d surprised her. "I should not be here", she whispered. "I push my honor to the very edge of what should be allowed".
"It’s the Last Battle, Chiad", Perrin said. "You are allowed to push some boundaries . . . assuming we haven’t won yet".
"The battle at Merrilor is won, but the greater battle—that at Thakan’dar—still rages".
"I need to return to work", Perrin said. He was in his smallclothes only. He didn’t let that bother him. An Aiel like Chiad wouldn’t blush. He pushed off his blanket.
Unfortunately, the bone-eating weariness inside him had subsided only a little. "Not going to tell me to stay in bed?" he asked, tiredly searching out his shirt and trousers. They were folded with his hammer at the foot of the bed. He had to lean against the mattress as he walked there. "You’re not going to tell me I have no business fighting while tired? Every woman I know seems to think that is one of her primary jobs".
"I have found", Chiad said dryly, "that pointing out stupidity serves only to make men stupider. Besides, I’m gai’shain. It’s not my place".
He looked at her, and though he couldn’t see her blush in the darkness, he could smell her embarrassment. She wasn’t acting much like gai’shain. "Rand should have just released you all from your vows".
"He does not have that power", she said hotly.
"What good is honor if the Dark One wins the Last Battle?" Perrin snapped, pulling up his trousers.
"It is everything", Chiad said softly. "It is worth death, it is worth risking the world itself. If we have no honor, better that we lose".
Well, he supposed there were things he’d say the same thing about. Not wearing silly white robes, of course—but he wouldn’t do some of the things the Whitecloaks had done, even if the world was at stake. He didn’t press her further.
"Why are you here?" he asked, putting on his shirt.
"Gaul", Chiad said. "Is he . . ".
"Oh, Light!" Perrin said. "I should have told you earlier. I’ve scrap iron for a brain lately, Chiad. He was fine when I left him. He’s still in the dream, and time passes more slowly where he is. It has probably only been an hour or so in his time, but I need to return to him".
"In your condition?" she asked, ignoring the fact that she’d said she wouldn’t chivvy him for that.
"No", Perrin said, sitting on the bed. "Last time, I nearly broke my neck. I need one of the Aes Sedai to cure me of my fatigue".
"This thing is dan
