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Beldeine’s lips ht as well have spoken the words The rest of rimaced Sunburn or welts or simply the ache of unaccustomed work "We will be rescued," she said finally "The Amyrlin won’t leave us We’ll be rescued, or we’ll -- We will be rescued!" Snatching up the silver cup froulp until it was empty, then thrust it out for more Verin floated the pewter pitcher over and set it down so the young woman could pour for herself

"Or you’ll escape?" Verin said, and Beldeine’s dirty hands jerked, splashing water down the sides of the cup "Really, now You have as much chance of that as you do of rescue You’re surrounded by an army of Aiel And apparently al’Thor can call up a few hundred of those Asha’man whenever he wants, to hunt you down" The other woman shivered at that, and Verin nearly did That little mess should have been stopped as soon as it started "No, I fear you s as they are You are quite alone in this I know they don’t let you speak to the others Quite alone," she sighed Wide eyes stared at her as they ht have at a red adder "There’s no need to make it worse than it must be Let me Heal you"

She barely waited for the other wo to kneel beside her and place hands on Beldeine’s head The young wo herself to , and the Green gasped and quivered The half filled cup dropped fro arm knocked the pitcher onto its side Now she was as ready as she could be

In theHealed, while Beldeine still blinked and tried to come back to herself, Verin opened herself further, opened herself through the carvedflower angreal in her pouch Not a very powerful angreal, but enough, and she needed every bit of the extra Power it gave her for this The flows she began weaving bore no rese Spirit predominated by far, but there was Wind and Water, Fire and Earth, the last of some difficulty for her, and even the skeins of Spirit had to be divided again and again, placed with an intricacy to boggle a weaver of fine carpets Even if a Wise One poked her head into the tent, with the smallest of luck she would not possess the rare Talent needed to realize what Verin was doing There would still be difficulties, perhaps painful difficulties one way and another, but she could live with anything short of true discovery

"What?" Beldeine said drowsily Her head would have lolled except for Verin’s grip, and her eyelids were halfclosed "What are you? What is happening?"

"Nothing that will harht die inside the year, or in ten, as a result of this, but the weave itself would not harh to use on an infant" Of course, that depended on what you did with it

She needed to lay the flows in place thread by thread, but talking seeht rouse suspicion, if her twin guardians were listening Her eyes darted frequently to the dangling doorflaps She wanted so, answers none of the woive freely even if they knew them One of the sue and open the mind as well as any herb ever could, an effect that ca her voice almost to a whisper, she continued "The al’Thor boy seems to think he has supporters of some kind inside the White Tower, Beldeine In secret, of course; they must be" Even a man with his ear pressed to the fabric of the tent should be able to hear only that they were talking "Tellyou know about the a frown that seeh it hardly deserved the word agitation, feeble and uncoordinated "For hi the sisters? It can’t be Except for those of you who How could you, Verin? Why didn’t you fight it?"

Verin tsked vexedly Not for the foolish suggestion that she should have fought a ta’veren The boy seemed so certain Why? She kept her voice low "Do you have no suspicions, Beldeine? Did you hear no rumors before you left Tar Valon? No whispers? No one who hinted at approaching him differently? Tell me"

"No one Who could? No one would I admired Kiruna so" There was a hint of loss in Beldeine’s sleepy voice, and tears leaking froh the dirt Only Verin’s hands kept her sitting upright

Verin continued to lay down the threads of her weaving, eyes flashing from her work to the doorflaps and back She felt a little like sweating herself Sorilea ht bring out one of the sisters fro was a very real possibility "So you were going to deliver hihtly louder tone The quiet had gone on too long She did not want that pair outside reporting that she hispering with the prisoners

"I couldn’t speak out against Galina’s decision She led by the Aain, weakly Her voice was still dreae Her eyelids fluttered "He had to be made to obey! He had to be! Shouldn’t have been treated so harshly Like putting hi? Disastrous was more like it A disaster from the first Now the man looked at any Aes Sedai al him to Tar Valon? A ta’veren like Rand al’Thor actually inside the White Tower? A thought to make a stone tremble However it had turned out, disaster would surely have been too h, for avoiding that

She went on asking questions in a tone that could be heard clearly by anyone listening outside Asking questions she already had answers for, and avoiding those too dangerous to be answered She paid little heed to the words co out of her mouth or to Beldeine’s replies Mainly she concentrated on her weaving

A great s had captured her interest over the years, not all strictly approved of by the Tower Al -- both true wilders, who really had begun teaching the the Source because the spark born in them had quickened on its own; for some sisters, there was no real difference -- nearly every one of those wilders had created at least one trick for herself, and those tricks als A way to listen in on other people’s conversations or a way of