Warrior of the Altaii by Robert Jordan

Author:Robert Jordan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

XVIII

WOMEN’S JUSTICE

Mayra was waiting for me, impatiently, which wasn’t usual for her. She barely waited until I was seated, and Elspeth kneeling off to one side, before she spoke. With the first word, I remembered Bartu’s words about her tongue being a weapon.

“It’s said, Lord Wulfgar, that men think with their manhood instead of their brains. I’m not sure you used even that. You not only risked your life needlessly, you risked the future of the Altaii. You nearly allowed your spirit and will to be made into a pendant for the queens to play with.”

“I know, Mayra,” I said soothingly. Elspeth and Mayra’s acolytes were smirking, but I needed her goodwill at the moment more than I needed to stop some girls from giggling. “And I know that I owe my survival of that attempt to you. I just don’t know how you did it.”

“A simple spell,” she said disparagingly. “Once I knew you meant to go ahead with that foolishness, I took a hair from your shaving and a tunic still wet with your sweat and made a simple bond between us. Then I could tell what happened, but vaguely, as if through a silk screen. I couldn’t do anything about physical dangers, but when they tried spells, then I could give aid. They were powerful, Wulfgar. I have not seen that much power in a long time. Who were they?”

At least the formality was gone. I wasn’t Lord Wulfgar to her anymore. “Sayene was there, and a woman called Ya’shen, and one who looked like somebody’s grandmother. Her name was Betine. I’ve something to ask, Mayra.”

She didn’t hear me. “Ya’shen and Betine as well as Sayene. I wonder how the Twin Thrones managed to get those three together? And Betine is no one’s grandmother, unless it’s a demon of some sort. She’s as evil as Loewin’s breath. Ya’shen is as bad, and I fear Sayene has become the worst of them all. There’s darkness there, darkness and power together, and I don’t know if I can gather enough strength among the Altaii Sisters of Wisdom to defeat them. There aren’t many of us with that much power.” She seemed to become aware of me again. “Your question, Wulfgar?”

Quickly I laid out what Elspeth had told me, and what I had made of her words. “Is it true, Mayra? Is it a true way?”

Mayra looked at Elspeth and shook her head. “The odds are very long, Wulfgar. Even Basrath—” But she took out her bag containing the rune-bones.

Three times presented to the sky, and three times to the earth, the bones were rolled. Mayra sucked her breath over her teeth. Quickly she rolled them again. This time she was clearly surprised. For a moment she waited, as if afraid to see what would be said the third time, but the rune-bones were tossed for the third time. Mayra stared at them as if she wasn’t sure what she saw. Twice she reached out to touch them, and twice drew back.

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