Robert Jordan - The Fires of Heaven

"It isn't how fast we can make it," Rand said quietly, "but how fast you can, if you dismount some of your men and use their horses for spares. I want to let Meilan and Cairhien know that help is on the way. But whoever goes will have to be sure he can keep his mouth shut if the Shaido take him. I do not intend to let Couladin know any more than he can learn on his own." Estean went whiter in the face than the Cairhienin.

Meresin and Daricain were on their knees together, each seizing one of Rand's hands to kiss. He let them, with as much patience as he could find; one bit of Moiraine's advice that had the ring of common sense was not to offend people's customs, however strange or even repulsive, unless you absolutely had to, and even then think twice.

"We will go, my Lord Dragon," Meresin said breathlessly. "Thank you, my Lord Dragon. Thank you. Under the Light, I vow I will die before revealing a word to any but my father or the High Lord Meilan."

"Grace favor you, my Lord Dragon," the other added. "Grace favor you, and the Light illumine you forever. I am your man to the death." Rand let Meresin say that he also was Rand's man before taking his hands back firmly and telling them to stand. He did not like the way they were looking at him. Edorion had called them like hounds, but men should not look at anyone as if they were dogs gazing at a master.

Edorion drew a deep breath, puffing his pink cheeks, and let it out slowly. "I suppose if I made it out in one piece, I can make it back in. My Lord Dragon, forgive me if I offend, but would you care to wager, say, a thousand gold crowns, that you can really come in seven days?"

Rand stared at him. The man was as bad as Mat. "I don't have a hundred crowns silver, much less a thousand in —"

Sulin broke in. "He has it, Tairen," she said firmly. "He will meet your wager, if you make it ten thousand by weight."

Edorion laughed. "Done, Aiel. And worth every copper if I lose. Come to think, I'll not live to collect if I win. Come, Meresin, Daricain." It sounded as if he were summoning dogs to heel. "We ride."

Rand waited until the three had made their bows and were halfway back to the horses before rounding on the white-haired Maiden. "What do you mean, I have a thousand gold crowns? I've never seen a thousand crowns, much less ten thousand."

The Maidens exchanged glances as if he were demented; so did Rhuarc and Mangin. "A fifth of the treasure that was in the Stone of Tear belongs to those who took the Stone, and will be claimed when they can carry it away." Sulin spoke as to a child, instructing it in the simple facts of everyday life. "As chief and battle leader there, one tenth of that fifth is yours. Tear submitted to you as chief by right of triumph, so one tenth of Tear is yours as well. And you have said we can take the fifth in these lands — a… tax, you called it." She fumbled the word; the Aiel did not have taxes. "The tenth part of that is yours also, as Car'a'carn."

Rand shook his head. In all of his talks with Aviendha, he had never thought to ask whether the fifth applied to him; he was not Aiel, Car'a'carn or no, and it had not seemed anything to do with him. Well, it might not be a tax, but he could use it as kings did taxes. Unfortunately, he had only the vaguest idea how that was. He would have to ask Moiraine; that was one thing she had missed in her lectures. Perhaps she thought it so obvious that he should know.

Elayne would have known what taxes were used for; it had certainly been more fun taking advice from her than from Moiraine. He wished he knew where she was. Still in Tanchico, probably; Egwene told him little more than a constant string of well-wishings. He wished he could sit Elayne down and make her explain those two letters. Maiden of the Spear or Daughter-Heir of Andor, women were strange. Except maybe Min. She had laughed at him, but she had never made him think she was speaking some strange language. She would not laugh, now. If he ever saw her again, she would run a hundred miles to get away from the Dragon Reborn.

Edorion dismounted all his men, taking one of their horses and stringing the others together by their reins, along with Estean's. No doubt he was saving his own for the final sprint through the Shaido. Merisin and Daricain did the same with their men. Though it meant that the Cairhienin had only two spare mounts apiece, no one seemed to think they should have any of the Tairen horses. They clattered off together westward at a trot, with a Jindo escort.

Carefully not looking at anyone, Estean started to drift toward the soldiers standing uneasily in a circle of Aiel at the foot of the bridge. Mangin caught his red-striped sleeve. "You can tell us conditions inside Cairhien, wetlander." The lumpy-faced man looked ready to faint.

"I am certain he will answer any questions you ask," Rand said sharply, emphasizing the final word.

"They will only be asked," Rhuarc said, taking the Tairen's other arm. He and Mangin seemed to be holding the much shorter man up between them. "Warning the city's defenders is well and good, Rand al'Thor," Rhuarc went on, "but we should send scouts. Running, they can reach Cairhien as soon as those men on horses, and meet us coming back with word of how Couladin has disposed the Shaido."

Rand could feel the Maiden's eyes on him, but he looked straight at Rhuarc. "Thunder Walkers?" he suggested.

"Sha'mad Conde," Rhuarc agreed. He and Mangin turned Estean — they were holding him up — and started toward the other soldiers.

"Ask!" Rand called after them. "He is your ally, and my liege man." He had no idea whether Estean was that last or not — it was another thing to ask Moiraine; or even how much of an ally he really was — his father, the High Lord Torean, had plotted against Rand enough — but he would allow nothing close to Couladin's ways.

Rhuarc turned his head and nodded.

"You tend your people well, Rand al'Thor." Sulin's voice was flat as a planed plank.

"I try," he told her. He was not about to rise to the bait. Whoever went to scout the Shaido, some would not return, and that was that. "I think I will have something to eat now. And get some sleep." It could not be much more than two hours to midnight, and sunrise still came early this time of year. The Maidens followed him, watching the shadows warily as if they expected attack, handtalk flickering among them. But then, Aiel always seemed to expect attack.

The streets of Eianrod ran straight and met at right angles, where necessary slicing through hills that were otherwise neatly terraced with stone. The slate-roofed stone buildings had an angular look, as if they were all vertical lines. Eianrod had not fallen to Couladin; no people had been there when the Shaido swept through. A good many of the houses were only charred beams and hollow ruined shells, however, including most of the wide three-story marble buildings with balconies that Moiraine said had belonged to merchants. Broken furniture and clothes littered the streets, along with shattered dishes and shards of glass from windows, single boots and tools and toys.

The burning had come at different times — Rand could tell that much himself, from the weathering of blackened timbers and how much smell of char lingered where — but Lan had been able to chart the flow of battles by which the town had been taken and retaken. By different Houses contending for the Sun Throne, most likely, though from the look of the streets, the last to hold Eianrod had been brigands. A good many of the bands roaming Cairhien held allegiance to no one, and to nothing except gold.

It was to one of the merchants' houses that Rand went, on the largest of the town's two squares, three square stories of gray marble with heavy balconies and wide steps with thick angular stone side-rails overlooking a silent fountain with a dusty round basin. A chance to sleep in a bed again had been too good to pass up, and he had hopes that Aviendha would choose to remain in a tent; whether his or with the Wise Ones, he did not care, so long as he did not have to try going to sleep while listening to her breathe a few paces away. Recently he had begun imagining he could hear her heart beat even when he had not taken hold of saidin. But if she did not stay away, he had taken precautions.