Winter's Heart

The silk-clad gai'shain hunched her shoulders and favored the mounted woman with a groveling smile. "A truly powerful woman, to have a queen swear fealty, Seva

"Enough, Una," Therava said firmly. The hand on Galina's shoulder tightened visibly. "You know I hate it when you natter."

The gai'shain flinched as if struck, and her mouth snapped shut. Practically writhing, she smiled up at Therava, fawning even more wretchedly than she had for Seva

Faile's eyes followed the mounted woman, too, over the edge other mug. In a way, it was like seeing Logain, or Mazrim Taim. Seva

The flamboyantly garbed woman walked her mount slowly along the line of kneeling women, her steady green eyes almost as cold as Therava's. The sound of snow crunching beneath the black's hooves suddenly seemed loud. "Which of you is the maid?" An odd question. Maighdin hesitated, tight-jawed, before raising a hand from beneath her blanket. Seva

Faile considered holding back, but one way or another, Seva

How anyone could be unaware of that angering gaze, Faile did not understand, yet Seva

Faile gave a start and almost dropped the clay mug. She pushed it toward the gai'shain, trying to make out that that was what she had been doing all along. It was empty anyway. The scarred fellow calmly began filling it up again from his water bag of tea. Heal? Surely she could not mean . . .

"Very well," Therava said, giving the gai'shain woman a shove that staggered her. "Do it quickly, little Lina. I know you do not want to disappoint me."

Galina caught herself from falling, but only to struggle on toward the prisoners. She sank above her knees in places, her robes dragging in the snow, but she was intent on reaching her goal. Wide-eyed fear and revulsion mingled on her round face with . . . could it be, eagerness? All in all, it was a sickening combination.

Seva

"A fifth sept," Therava replied flatly. For her, also, wind and snow might as well not have existed. "Five, while seventy-eight remain scattered on the wind. Well that you remember your pledge to reunite the Shaido, Seva

Not lightning bolts, now. Seva

An important exchange, at least to Faile. She knew tension tight as a harpstring when she saw it, and mutual hatred. A weakness that might be exploited, if she could puzzle out how. And it seemed the Shaido were not all here after all. Though more than enough seemed to be, judging by the unending river of them passing by. Galina reached her then, and anything else fled from her mind.

Smoothing her face to a ragged semblance of composure, Galina clutched Faile's head in both hands without speaking a word. Faile might have gasped; she could not be sure. The world seemed to fly by as she jerked halfway to her feet. Hours streaked by, or heartbeats crawled. The white-clad woman stepped back, and Faile collapsed on her face atop the brown blanket to lie panting against the rough wool. Her feet no longer hurt, but Healing always brought its own hunger, and she had eaten nothing since yesterday's breakfast. She could have wolfed down plates of anything that even looked like food. She no longer felt tired, but her muscles were water instead of pudding. Pushing herself up with arms that wanted to fold under her weight, she unsteadily gathered the gray-striped blanket again. She felt stu

Galina was wasting no time. A dazed Alliandre was just attempting to rise from flat on her face, her striped covering blanket sliding to the ground u

Faile attended to her tea, and furious thought. The gold on Galina's finger was a Great Serpent ring. She might have thought it a strange present from whoever gave the woman her other jewels if not for the Healing. Galina was Aes Sedai. She must be. But what was an Aes Sedai doing here, in gai'shain robes? Not to mention apparently ready to lick Seva

Standing over a limp Arrela, the last in the line, Galina panted slightly from the effort of Healing so many so quickly, and gazed at Therava as though hopeful for a word of praise. Without so much as a look at her, the two Wise Ones started toward the river of Shaido, their heads together, talking. After a moment, the Aes Sedai scowled and lifted her robes, hurrying after them as quickly as she could. She glanced back more than once, though. Faile had the feeling that she did so even after the falling snow put a curtain between them.