Robert Jordan - The Wheel of Time - book 3

PROLOGUE

Fortress of the Light

Pedron Niall’s aged gaze wandered about his private audience

chamber, but dark eyes hazed

with thought saw nothing. Tattered wall hangings, once battle

banners of the enemies of his

youth, faded into dark wood paneling laid over stone walls, thick

even here in the heart of the

Fortress of the Light. The single chair in the room - heavy,

high-backed, and almost a throne -

was as invisible to him as the few scattered tables that

completed the furnishings. Even the

white-cloaked man kneeling with barely restrained eagerness on

the great sunburst set in the

wide planks of the floor had vanished from Niall’s mind for the

moment, though few would have

dismissed him so lightly.

Jaret Byar had been given time to wash before being brought to

Niall, but both his helmet

and his breastplate were dulled from travel and battered from

use. Dark, deep-set eyes shone

with a feverish, urgent light in a face that seemed to have had

every spare scrap of flesh boiled

away. He wore no sword - none was allowed in Niall’s presence -

but he seemed poised on the

edge of violence, like a hound awaiting the loosing of the leash.

Twin fires on long hearths at either end of the room held off the

late winter cold. It was a

plain, soldier’s room, really, everything well made but nothing

extravagant - except for the

sunburst. Furnishings came to the audience chamber of the Lord

Captain Commander of the

Children of the Light with the man who rose to the office; the

flaring sun of coin gold had been

worn smooth by generations of petitioners, replaced and worn

smooth again. Gold enough to buy

any estate in Amadicia, and the patent of nobility to go with it.

For ten years Niall had walked

across that gold and never thought of it twice, any more than he

thought of the sunburst

embroidered across the chest of his white tunic. Gold held little

interest for Pedron Niall.

Eventually his eyes went back to the table next to him, covered

with maps and scattered

letters and reports. Three loosely rolled drawings lay among the

jumble. He took one up

reluctantly. It did not matter which; all depicted the same

scene, though by different hands.

Niall’s skin was as thin as scraped parchment, drawn tight by age

over a body that seemed all

bone and sinew, but there was nothing of frailty about him. No

man held Niall’s office before his

hair was white, nor did any man softer than the stones of the

Dome of Truth. Still, he was

suddenly aware of the tendon-ridged back of the hand holding the

drawing, aware of the need for

haste. Time was growing short. Hit time was growing short. It had

to be enough. He had to make

it enough.

He made himself unroll the thick parchment halfway, just enough

to see the face that

interested him. The chalks were a little smudged from travel in

saddlebags, but the face was

clear. A gray-eyed youth with reddish hair. He looked tall, but

it was hard to say for certain.

Aside from the hair and the eyes, he could have been set down in

any town without exciting

comment.

“ This . . . this boy has proclaimed himself the Dragon Reborn?”

Niall muttered.

The Dragon. The name made him feel the chills of winter and age.

The name borne by Lews

Therin Telamon when he doomed every man who could channel the One

Power, then or ever

after, to insanity and death, himself among them. It was more

than three thousand years since

Aes Sedai pride and the War of the Shadow had brought an end to

the Age of Legends. Three

thousand years, but prophecy and legend helped men remember-the

heart of it, at least, if the

details were gone. Lews Therin Kinslayer. The man who had begun

the Breaking of the World,

when madmen who could tap the power that drove the universe

leveled mountains and sank

ancient lands beneath the seas, when the whole face of the earth

had been changed and all who

survived fled like beasts before a wildfire. It had not ended

until the last male Aes Sedai lay

dead, and a scattered human race could begin trying to rebuild

from the rubble - where even

rubble remained. It was burned into memory by the stories mothers

told children. And prophecy

said the Dragon would be born again.

Niall had not really meant it for a question, but Byar took it

for one. “ Yes, my Lord Captain

Commander, he has. It is a worse madness than any false Dragon

I’ve ever heard of. Thousands

have declared for him already. Tarabon and Arad Doman are in

civil war, as well as at war with

each other. There is fighting all across Almoth Plain and Toman

Head, Taraboner against

Domani against Darkfriends crying for the Dragon - or there was

fighting until winter chilled

most of it. I’ve never seen it spread so quickly, my Lord Captain

Commander. Like throwing a

lantern into a hay barn. The snow may have damped it down, but

come spring, the flames will

burst out hotter than before.”

Niall cut him off with a raised finger. Twice already Niall had

let him tell his story through,

his voice burning with anger and hate. Parts of it Niall knew

from other sources, and in some

areas he knew more than Byar, but each time he heard it, it

goaded him anew. “ Geofram

Bornhald and a thousand of the Children dead. And Aes Sedai did

it. You have no doubts, Child

Byar?”

“ None, my Lord Captain Commander. After a skirmish on the way to

Falme, I saw two of the

Tar Valon witches. They cost us more than fifty dead before we

stuck them full of arrows.”

“ You are sure - sure they were Aes Sedai?”

“ The ground erupted under our feet.” Byar’s voice was firm and

full of belief. He had little

imagination, did Jaret Byar; death was part of a soldier’s life,

however it came. “ Lightnings

struck our ranks out of a clear sky. My Lord Captain Commander,

what else could they have

been?”

Niall nodded grimly. There had been no male Aes Sedai since the

Breaking of the World, but

the women who still claimed that title were bad enough. They

prated of their Three Oaths: to

speak no word that was not true, to make no weapon for one man to

kill another, to use the One

Power as a weapon only against Darkfriends or Shadowspawn. But

now they had showed those

oaths for the lies they were. He had always known no one could

want the power they wielded

except to challenge the Creator, and that meant to serve the Dark

One.

“ And you know nothing of those who took Falme and killed half of

one of my legions?”

“ Lord Captain Bornhald said they called themselves Seanchan, my

Lord Captain

Commander,” Byar said stolidly. “ He said they were Darkfriends.

And his charge broke them, even if they killed him.” His voice

gained intensity. “ There were

many refugees from the city. Everyone I spoke to agreed the

strangers had broken and fled. Lord

Captain Bornhald did that.”

Niall sighed softly. They were almost the same words Byar had

used the first two times about

the army that had seemingly come out of nowhere to take Falme. A

good soldier, Niall thought,

so Geofram Bornhald always said, but not a man to think for

himself.

“ My Lord Captain Commander,” Byar said suddenly, “ Lord Captain

Bornhald did command

me to stand aside from the battle. I was to watch, and report to

you. And tell his son, Lord Dain,

how he died.”

“ Yes, yes,” Niall said impatiently. For a moment he studied

Byar’s hollow-cheeked face,

then added, “ No one doubts your honesty or courage. It is

exactly the sort of thing Geofram

Bornhald would do, facing a battle in which he feared his entire

command might die.” And not

the sort of thing you have imagination enough to think up.

There was nothing more to learn from the man. “ You have done

well, Child Byar. You have

my leave to carry word of Geofram Bornhald’s death to his son.

Dain Bornhald is with Eamon

Valda - near Tar Valon at last report. You may join them.”

“ Thank you, my Lord Captain Commander. Thank you.” Byar rose to

his feet and bowed

deeply. Yet as he straightened, he hesitated. “ My Lord Captain

Commander, we were betrayed.”

Hatred gave his voice a saw-toothed edge.

“ By this one Darkfriend you spoke of, Child Byar?” He could not

keep an edge out of his

own voice. A year’s planning lay in ruins amid the corpses of a

thousand of the Children, and

Byar wanted to talk only of this one man. “ This young blacksmith

you’ve only seen twice, this

Perrin from the Two Rivers?”

“ Yes, my Lord Captain Commander. I do not know how, but I know

he is to blame. I know

it.”

“ I will see what can be done about him, Child Byar.” Byar

opened his mouth again, but Niall

raised a thin hand to forestall him. “ You may leave me now.”

The gaunt-faced man had no

choice but to bow again and leave.

As the door closed behind him, Niall lowered himself into his

high-backed chair. What had

brought on Byar’s hatred of this Perrin? There were far too many

Darkfriends to waste energy on

hating any particular one. Too many Darkfriends, high and low,

hiding behind glib tongues and

open smiles, serving the Dark One. Still, one more name added to

the lists would do no harm.

He shifted on the hard chair, trying to find comfort for his old

bones. Not for the first time he

thought vaguely that perhaps a cushion would not be too much

luxury. And not for the first time,

he pushed the thought away. The world tumbled toward chaos, and

he had no time to give in to

age.

He let all the signs that foretold disaster swirl through his

mind. War gripped Tarabon and

Arad Doman, civil war ripped at Cairhien, and war fever was

rising in Tear and Illian, old

enemies as they were. Perhaps these wars meant nothing in

themselves - men fought wars - but

they usually came one at a time. And aside from the false Dragon

somewhere on Almoth Plain,

another tore at Saldaea, and a third plagued Tear. Three at once.

They must all be false Dragons.

They must be!

A dozen small things besides, some perhaps only baseless rumors,

but taken together with the

rest. . . . Sightings of Aiel reported as far west as Murandy,

and Kandor. Only two or three in

one place, but one or a thousand, Aiel had come out of the Waste

just once in all the years since

the Breaking. Only in the Aiel War had they ever left that

desolate wilderness. The Atha’an

Miere, the Sea Folk, were said to be ignoring trade to seek signs

and portents - of what, exactly,

they did not say - sailing with ships half full or even empty.

Illian had called the Great Hunt of

the Horn for the first time in almost four hundred years, had

sent out the Hunters to seek the

fabled Horn of Valere, which prophecy said would summon dead

heroes from the grave to fight

in Tarmon Gai’don, the Last Battle against the Shadow. Rumor said

the Ogier, always so

reclusive that most common people thought them only legend, had

called meetings between their

far-flung stedding.

Most telling of all, to Niall, the Aes Sedai had apparently come

into the open. It was said

they had sent some of their sisters to Saldaea to confront the

false Dragon Mazrim Taim. Rare as

it was in men, Taim could channel the One Power. That was a thing

to fear and despise in itself,

and few thought a man like that could be defeated except with the

aid of Aes Sedai. Better to

allow Aes Sedai help than to face the inevitable horrors when he

went mad, as such men

inevitably did. But Tar Valon had apparently sent other Aes Sedai

to support the other false

Dragon at Falme. Nothing else fit the facts.

The pattern chilled the marrow in his bones. Chaos multiplied;

what was unheard of,

happening again and again. The whole world seemed to be milling,

stirring near the boil. It was

clear to him. The Last Battle really was coming.

All his plans were destroyed, the plans that would have secured

his name among the Children

of the Light for a hundred generations. But turmoil meant

opportunity, and he had new plans,

with new objectives. If he could keep the strength and will to

carry them out. Light, let me hold

on to life long enough.

A deferential tap on the door brought him out of his dark

thoughts. “ Come!” he snapped.

A servant in coat and breeches of white-and-gold bowed his way

in. Eyes to the floor, he

announced that Jaichim Carridin, Anointed of the Light,

Inquisitor of the Hand of the Light,

came at the command of the Lord Captain Commander. Carridin

appeared on the man’s heels,

not waiting for Niall to speak. Niall gestured the servant to

leave.

Before the door was fully closed again, Carridin dropped to one

knee with a flourish of his

snowy cloak. Behind the sunburst on the cloak’s breast lay the

scarlet shepherd’s crook of the

Hand of the Light, called the Questioners by many, though seldom

to their faces. “ As you have

commanded my presence, my Lord Captain Commander,” he said in a

strong voice, “ so have I

returned from Tarabon.”

Niall examined him for a moment. Carridin was tall, well into his

middle years, with a touch

of gray in his hair, yet fit and hard. His dark, deep-set eyes

had a knowing look about them, as

always. And he did not blink under the silent study of the Lord

Captain Commander. Few men

had consciences so clear or nerves so steady. Carridin knelt

there, waiting as calmly as if it were

an everyday matter to be ordered curtly to leave his command and

return to Amador without

delay, no reasons given. But then, it was said Jaichim Carridin

could outwait a stone.

“ Rise, Child Carridin.” As the other man straightened, Niall

added, “ I have had disturbing

news from Falme.”

Carridin straightened the folds of his cloak as he answered. His

voice rode the edge of

suitable respect, almost as if he spoke to an equal rather than

to the man he had sworn to obey to

the death. “ My Lord Captain Commander refers to the news brought

by Child Jaret Byar, late

second to Lord Captain Bornhald.”

The corner of Niall’s left eye fluttered, an old presage of

anger. Supposedly only three men

knew Byar was in Amador, and none besides Niall knew from where

he came. “ Do not be too

clever, Carridin. Your desire to know everything may one day lead

you into the hands of your

own Questioners.”

Carridin showed no reaction beyond a slight tightening of his

mouth at the name. “ My Lord

Captain Commander, the Hand seeks out truth everywhere, to serve

the Light.”

To serve the Light. Not to serve the Children of the Light. All

the Children served the Light,

but Pedron Niall often wondered if the Questioners really

considered themselves part of the

Children at all. “ And what truth do you have for me about what

occurred in Falme?”

“ Darkfriends, my Lord Captain Commander.”

“ Darkfriends?” Niall’s chuckle held no amusement. “ A few weeks

gone I was receiving

reports from you that Geofram Bornhald was a servant of the Dark

One because he moved

soldiers onto Toman Head against your orders.” His voice became

dangerously soft. “ Do you

now mean me to believe that Bornhald, as a Darkfriend, led a

thousand of the Children to their

deaths fighting other Darkfriends?”

“ Whether or not he was a Darkfriend will never be known,”

Carridin said blandly, “ since he

died before he could be put to the question. The Shadow’s plots

are murky, and often seem mad

to those who walk in the Light. But that those who seized Falme

were Darkfriends,. I have no

doubt. Darkfriends and Aes Sedai, in support of a false Dragon.

It was the One Power that

destroyed Bornhald and his men, of that I am sure, my Lord

Captain Commander, just as it

destroyed the armies that Tarabon and Arad Doman sent against the

Darkfriends in Falme.”

“ And what of the stories that those who took Falme came from

across the Aryth Ocean?”

Carridin shook his head. “ My Lord Captain Commander, the people

are full of rumors. Some

claim they were the armies Artur Hawkwing sent across the ocean a

thousand years ago, come

back to claim the land. Why, some even claim to have seen

Hawkwing himself in Falme. And

half the heroes of legend besides. The west is boiling from

Tarabon to Saldaea, and a hundred

new rumors bubble to the surface every day, each more outrageous

than the last. These so-called

Seanchan were no more than another rabble of Darkfriends gathered

to support a false Dragon,

only this time with open Aes Sedai support.”

“ What proof have you?” Niall made his voice sound as if he

doubted the point. “ You have

prisoners?”

“ No, my Lord Captain Commander. As Child Byar no doubt told you,

Bornhald managed to

hurt them badly enough that they dispersed. And certainly no one

we’ve questioned would admit

to supporting a false Dragon. As for proof . . . it lies in two

parts. If my Lord Captain

Commander will permit me?”

Niall gestured impatiently.

“ The first part is negative. Few ships have tried to cross the

Aryth Ocean, and most never

returned. Those that did, turned back before they ran out of food

and water. Even the Sea Folk

will not cross the Aryth, and they sail wherever there is trade,

even to the lands beyond the Aiel

Waste. My Lord Captain Commander, if there are any lands across

the ocean, they are too far to

reach, the ocean too wide. To carry an army across it would be as

impossible as flying.”

“ Perhaps,” Niall said slowly. “ It is certainly indicative. What

is your second part?”

“ My Lord Captain Commander, many of those we questioned spoke of

monsters fighting for

the Darkfriends, and held to their claims even under the last

degree of the question. What could

they be but Trollocs and other Shadowspawn, in some way brought

down from the Blight?”

Carridin spread his hands as if that were conclusive. “ Most

people think Trollocs are only

travelers’ tales and lies, and most of the rest think they were

all killed in the Trolloc Wars. What

other name would they put to a Trolloc but monster?”

“ Yes. Yes, you may be right, Child Carridin. May be, I say.” He

would not give Carridin the

satisfaction of knowing he agreed. Let him work awhile. “ But

what of him?” He indicated the

rolled drawings. If he knew Carridin, the Inquisitor had copies

in his own chambers. “ How

dangerous is he? Can he channel the One Power?”

The Inquisitor merely shrugged. “ Perhaps he can channel, perhaps

not. Aes Sedai could no

doubt make people believe a cat could channel, if they wanted to.

As to how dangerous he is . . .

. Any false Dragon is dangerous until he is put down, and one

with Tar Valon openly behind him

is ten times dangerous. But he is less dangerous now than he will

be in half a year, unchecked.

The captives I questioned had never seen him, had no idea where

he is now. His forces are

fragmented. I doubt there are more than two hundred gathered in

any one place. The Taraboners

or the Domani, either one, could sweep them away if they weren’t

so busy fighting each other.”

“ Even a false Dragon,” Niall said dryly, “ is not enough to make

them forget four hundred

years of squabbling over possession of Almoth Plain. As if either

of them ever had the strength

to hold it.” Carridin’s face did not change, and Niall wondered

how he could keep so calm. You

will not be calm much longer, Questioner.

“ It is of no import, my Lord Captain Commander. Winter keeps

them all in their camps,

except for scattered skirmishes and raids. When the weather warms

enough for troops to move . .

. . Bornhald took only half his legion to their deaths on Toman

Head. With the other half, I will

hunt this false Dragon to his death. A corpse is not dangerous to

anyone.”

“ And if you face what it seems Bornhald faced? Aes Sedai

channeling the Power to kill?”

“ Their witchery doesn’t protect them from arrows, or a knife in

the dark. They die as quickly

as anyone else.” Carridin smiled. “ I promise you, I will be

successful before summer.”

Niall nodded. The man was confident, now. Sure the dangerous

questions would already

have come, if they were coming. You should have remembered,

Carridin, I was accounted a fine

tactician. “ Why,” he said quietly, “ did you not take your own

forces to Falme? With Darkfriends

on Toman Head, an army of them holding Falme, why did you try to

stop Bornhald?”

Carridin blinked, but his voice remained steady. “ At first they

were only rumors, my Lord

Captain Commander. Rumors so wild, no one could believe. By the

time I learned the truth,

Bornhald had joined battle. He was dead, and the Darkfriends

scattered. Besides, my task was to

bring the Light to Almoth Plain. I could not disobey my orders to

chase after rumors.”

“ Your task?” Niall said, his voice rising as he stood. Carridin

topped him by a head, but the

Inquisitor stepped back. “ Your task? Your task was to seize

Almoth Plain! An empty bucket that

no one holds except by words and claims, and all you had to do

was fill it. The nation of Almoth

would have lived again, ruled by the Children of the Light, with

no need to pay lip service to a

fool of a king. Amadicia and Almoth, a vise gripping Tarabon. In

five years we would have held

sway there as much as here in Amadicia. And you made a dog’s

dinner of it!”

The smile went at last. “ My Lord Captain Commander,” Carridin

protested. “ How could I

foresee what happened? Yet another false Dragon. Tarabon and Arad

Doman finally going to

war after so long merely growling at each other. And Aes Sedai

revealing their true selves after

three thousand years of dissembling! Even with that, though, all

is not lost. I can find and destroy

this false Dragon before his followers unite. And once the

Taraboners and Domani have

weakened themselves, they can be cleared from the plain without -

“

“ No!” Niall snapped. “ Your plans are done with, Carridin.

Perhaps I should hand you over to

your own Questioners right now. The High Inquisitor would not

object. He is gnashing his teeth

to find someone to blame for what happened. He would never put

forward one of his own, but I

doubt he’d quibble if I named you. A few days under the question,

and you would confess to

anything. Name yourself Darkfriend, even. You would go under the

headsman’s axe inside a

week.”

There was sweat beading on Carridin’s forehead. “ My Lord Captain

Commander . . . .” He

stopped to swallow. “ My Lord Captain Commander seems to be

saying there is another way. If

he will but speak it, I am sworn to obey.”

Now, Niall thought. Now to toss the dice. Prickles ran across his

skin, as if he were in battle

and had suddenly realized that every man for a hundred paces

around him was an enemy. Lord

Captain Commanders did not go to the headsman, but more than one

had been known to die

suddenly and unexpectedly, swiftly mourned and swiftly replaced

by men with less dangerous

ideas.

“ Child Carridin,” he said firmly, “ you will make certain that

this false Dragon does not die.

And if any Aes Sedai come to oppose rather than support him, you

will make use of your ‘knives

in the dark.’ “

The Inquisitor’s jaw dropped. Yet he recovered quickly, eyeing

Niall in a speculative

fashion. “ To kill Aes Sedai is a duty, but . . . . To allow a

false Dragon to roam free? That . . .

that would be . . . treason. And blasphemy. “

Niall drew a deep breath. He could sense the unseen knives

waiting in the shadows. But he

was committed, now. “ It is no treason to do what must be done.

And even blasphemy can be

tolerated for a cause.” Those two sentences alone were enough to

kill him. “ Do you know how to

unite people behind you, Child Carridin? The quickest way? No?

Loose a lion - a rabid lion - in

the streets. And when panic grips the people, once it has turned

their bowels to water, calmly tell

them you will deal with it. Then you kill it, and order them to

hang the carcass up where

everyone can see. Before they have time to think, you give

another order, and it will be obeyed.

And if you continue to give orders, they will continue to obey,

for you will be the one who saved

them, and who better to lead?”

Carridin moved his head uncertainly. “ Do you mean to . . . take

it all, my Lord Captain

Commander? Not just Almoth Plain, but Tarabon and Arad Doman as

well?”

“ What I mean is for me to know. It is for you to obey as you are

sworn to do. I expect to hear

of messengers on fast horses leaving for the plain by tonight. I

am certain you know how to word

the orders so no one suspects what they should not. If you must

Robert Jordan - The Wheel of Time - book 3

相关推荐

开通VIP享超值会员特权

作者详情

相关内容

热门标签

举报选择: