Robert Jordan - Wheel Of Time Prequel 02 - (Legends) by New Spring

Author:New Spring
Language: eng
Format: epub

Page 26

'I'll start a fire and hang up blankets so you can dry yourself,' he murmured, still not meeting her gaze.

He was as good as his word, and by the time the other men appeared, she was standing beside a small fire surrounded by blankets dug from his packsaddles and hung from branches. She had no need of the fire for drying, of course, or the privacy. The proper weave of Water had taken every drop from her hair and clothes while she stayed in them. As well he did not see that, though. And she did appreciate the flames' warmth. Anyway, she had to stay inside the blankets long enough for the man to think she had used the fire as he intended. She very definitely held on to saidar .

The other men arrived, full of questions about whether 'she' had followed into the woods. They had known? Men watched for bandits in these times, but they had noticed a lone woman and decided she was following them? It seemed suspicious.

'A Cairhienin, Lan? I suppose you've seen a Cairhienin in her skin, but I never have.' That certainly caught her ear, and with the Power filling her, so did another sound. Steel whispering on leather.

A sword leaving its sheath. Preparing several weaves that would stop the lot of them in their tracks, she made a crack in the blankets to peek out.

To her surprise, the man who had dunked her - Lan? - stood with his back to her blankets. He was the one with sword in hand. The Arafellin, facing him, looked surprised. 'You remember the sight of the Thousand Lakes, Ryne,' Lan said coldly. 'Does a woman need protection from your eyes?'

For a moment, she thought Ryne was going to draw despite the blade already in Lan's hand, but the older man, a much battered, greying fellow though as tall as the others, calmed matters, took the other two a little distance away with talk of some game called 'sevens'. A strange game it seemed to be.

Lan and Ryne sat crosslegged facing one another, their swords sheathed, then without warning drew, each blade flashing towards the other man's throat, stopping just short of flesh. The older man pointed to Ryne, they sheathed swords, and then did it again. For as long as she watched, that was how it went.

Perhaps Ryne had not been as over-confident as he seemed.

Waiting inside the blankets, she tried to recall what she had been taught of Malkier. Not a great deal, except as history. Ryne remembered the Thousand Lakes, so he must be Malkieri, too. There had been something about distressed women. Now that she was with them, she might as well stay until she learned what she could.

When she came out from behind the blankets, she was ready. 'I claim the right of a woman alone,' she told them formally. 'I travel to Chachin, and I ask the shelter of your swords.' She also pressed a fat silver coin into each man's hand.

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