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Chapter 25

(Feilded writing table, Elaida fingered an agedark ivory carving of a strange bird with a beak as long as its body and listened with so on the other side on the table Each a Sitter for her Ajah, they frowned sideways at one another, shifted velvet slippers on the brightly patterned carpet that covered most of the russet floor tiles, twitched at vineworked shawls so the colored fringes danced, and generally looked and sounded like a gaggle of peevish serving girls wishing they had the nerve to go for each others’ throats in front of their lassed casements fitted into the s so that it was hardly possible to see the snoirling outside, though soe Elaida felt quite war in the white marble fireplace Whether these women knew it or not -- well, Duhara knew, certainly, and perhaps the others did -- she was their oldcovered case clock that Cemaile had commissioned ticked away Cemaile’s vanished drealory And firmly in the capable hands of Elaida do Avriny a’Roihan

"No ter’angreal has ever been found that can ‘control’ a wo in a voice cool and precise but al odds with her eagle’s beak of a nose and her sharp, tilted eyes She sat for the White, and was the very model of a White sister, in all but her fierce appearance Her plain, snowy dress seemed stark and cold "Very few have ever been found that perforreal were found, or more than one, improbable as that must be, there could not be sufficient of them to control more than two or three women at most It follows that the reports of these socalled Seanchan are exaggerated wildly If women on ‘leashes’ exist, they cannot channel Plainly not I do not deny these people hold Ebou Dar, and Amador, and perhaps more, but clearly they are but a creation of Rand al’Thor, perhaps to frighten people into flocking to hiic"

"I alad you don’t deny Amador and Ebou Dar at least, Velina," Shevan said drily And she could be very dry indeed As tall as ular face and a long chin, not ied her shawl and solden silk, and her voice took on pointed a what can and can’t be For exaone, everyone ‘knew’ only a shield woven by a sister could stop a wo Then comes a simple herb, forkroot, and anyone at all can feed you a tea that leaves you unable as a stone to channel for hours Useful with unruly wilders or the like, I suppose, but a nasty little surprise for those who think they knew everything, eh? Maybe next, soain"

Elaida’s htened She did not concern herself with ied to rediscover the real in three thousand years, one never would and that was that It was knowledge slipping through her fingers when she wanted it held close that curled Elaida’s tongue In spite of all her efforts, every last initiate in the Tower had learned of forkroot, now No one liked knowing in the least No one liked suddenly being vulnerable to anyone with a knowledge of herbs and a little hot water That knowledge orse than poison, as the Sitters here , dark eyes grew uneasy in her coppery face, and she held herselfskirts so red they seeers tightened on the worked leather folder Elaida had handed her, though the roundfaced Yellow usually carried herself with a frosty elegance Andaya shivered! She actually wrapped her grayfringed shawl around her convulsively

Elaida wondered what they would do if they learned the Asha’ As it was, they were barely able to ed to hold that knowledge to a handful

"I think we ht better concern ourselves e know to be true, yes?" Andaya said firht brown hair, brushed till it glea down her back, and her silverslashed blue dress was cut in the style of Andor, but Tarabon still rested strongly on her tongue Though neither particularly small nor particularly slim, she somehoays reminded Elaida of a sparrow about to hop on a branch A h her reputation had been earned She smiled at the others, not very pleasantly, and that seemed sparrowlike, too Perhaps it was how she held her head "Idle speculation, it wastes precious tis by a thread, andabout supposed logic or chattering over what every fool and novice knows Does anyone have anything useful to say?" For a sparrow, she could put acid on her words Velina’s face went red, and Shevan’s darkened

Rubinde twisted her lips at the Gray Perhaps they were meant to make a smile, but they merely seemed to writhe With ravenblack hair and eyes like sapphires, the Mayener usually looked as if she intended to walk through a stone wall, and planting her fists on her hips now, she seeh two "We’ve dealt e can for the tiht by the snows in Murandy, and we’llthey’ll co penance Tear will be taken care of as soon as we find where the High Lord Darlin has vanished to, and Cairhien once we root Caraline Da places Al’Thor has the crown of Illian for the moment, but that’s in work So, unless you have a sche these socalled ‘Asha’man’ vanish, I have the business of my Ajah to be about"

Andaya drew herself up, her feathers well and truly ruffled For that matter, Duhara’s eyes narrowed; mention of men who could channel always lit fires in her head Shevan clicked her tongue as if at children squabbling -- though she looked pleased to see it -- and Velina frowned, for so, but getting out of hand

"The business of the Ajahs is ihters" Elaida did not raise her voice, but every head swiveled toward her She replaced the ivory carving with the rest of her collection in the large box covered with roses and golden scrolls, carefully adjusted the positions of her writing case and correspondence box so the three lacquered boxes lined up just so on the table, and once their silence was perfect she went on "The business of the Tower is h I trust you will effect my decrees promptly I see too much sloth in the Tower I fear Silviana ht soon" She did not voice any further