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The two snug rooms were neatly furnished, the bed ned at the table, where a blue vase in the exact center held a sreat one for neatness Morgase illing to wager that within the wardrobe in the bedchaed just so with every other, and the same for pots in the cupboard beside the fireplace in the other room

Six painted ivory miniatures in small wooden stands made a line on the mantelpiece How Lini could have afforded thease had ever been able to iine; she could not ask such a question, of course In pairs, they showed three young women and the sa down the portrait of herself at fourteen, a slender filly of a girl, she could not believe that she had ever looked so innocent She had worn that ivory silk dress the day she had gone to the White Tower, never drea the vain hope that she ht become Aes Sedai

Absent on her left hand She had not earned that, precisely; wo But short of her sixteenth nameday she had returned to contest the Rose Crown in the name of House Trakand, and when she won the throne nearly two years later, the ring had been presented to her By tradition, the DaughterHeir of Andor always trained in the Tower, and in recognition of Andor’s long support of the Toas given the ring whether or not she could channel She had only been the heir to House Trakand in the Tower, but they gave it to her anyway once the Rose Croas on her head

Replacing her own portrait, she took down her mother’s, taken at perhaps two years older Lini had been nurse to three generations of Trakand woase could re beahdin who should have had the Lion Throne But a fever had carried her away, and a young girl had found herself High Seat of House Trakand, in the le for the throne with nothan her House retainers and the House bard I won the Lion Throne I will not give it up, and I will not see a man take it For a thousand years a queen has ruled Andor, and I will not let that end now!

"Meddling in forgotten reflexes Morgase had the miniature hidden behind her back before she knew it With a rueful shake of her head she put the portrait back on its stand "I aer, Lini Youwhere Iabout it"

"My neck is scrawny and old," Lini said, setting a net bag of carrots and turnips on the table She looked frail in her neat gray dress, her white hair drawn back in a bun from a narrow face with skin like thin parchht, her voice clear and steady, and her dark eyes as sharp as ever "If you want to give it to hangnarled old branch dulls the blade that severs a sapling’"

Morgase sighed Lini would never change She would not curtsy if the entire court atching "You do grow tougher as you grow older I ah for your neck"

"You’ve not been to seeyou need to work out in your mind When you were in the nursery -- and later -- you always used to come to me when you couldn’t work matters out Shall I make a pot of tea?"

"Soiven how you speak to hest lady in Andor if she said half what you do"

Lini gave her a level look "You have not darkenedAnd I talk as I always have; I’ase put a hand to her head in confusion She did visit Lini every week She could remember She could not remember Gaebril had filled her hours so co other than him "No, I do not want tea I do not knohy I came You cannot help h somehow she made it a delicate sound "Your trouble is with Gaebril, isn’t it? Only now you’re ashaed you in your cradle, tended you when you were sick and heaving your stomach up, and told you what you needed to know aboutwith ase’s eyes widened "You know? But how?"

"Oh, child," Lini said sadly, "everyone knows, though no one’s had the courage to tell you I ht have, if you hadn’t stayed away, but it is hardly so to you with, now is it? It is the kind of thing a woman won’t believe until she finds out for herself"

"What are you talking about?" Morgase demanded "It was your duty to coht, I am the last to know, and now it may be too late to stop it!"

"Too late?" Lini said incredulously "Why should it be too late? You bundle Gaebril out of the Palace, out of Andor, and Alteima and the others with hiase could not speak "Alteima," she said finally, "and the others?"

Lini stared at her, then shook her head in disgust "I am an old fool; my wits are dryrooted Well, you kno ’When the honey’s out of the coentler and at the saase that her pony had broken a leg and had to be put down "Gaebril spends hts with you, but Alteima has nearly as much of his time He spreads himself thin with the other six Five have roo, he sneaks in and out for some reason all swathed in a cloak, even in this heat Perhaps she has a husband I’irl, but truth is truth ’Better to face the bear than run froed, and if Lini had not hurriedly pulled a chair from the table to shove under her, she would have sat down on the floor Alteiossiped took on a new i two of his pet cats at play And six others! Rage boiled up in her, a rage that had been lacking when she only thought he was after her throne That she had considered coldly, clearly; as clearly as she could consider anything recently That was a danger that had to be looked at with cold reason But this! The man had ensconced his jades in her palace He had made her just another of his trulls She wanted his head She wanted hiht help her, she wanted his t