Robert Jordan - The Fires of Heaven

He stalked past her and her sudden smile. Not relief. Pleasure. Pleasure that she would have the chance to die. He should have left her wrapped up in saidin , left her to be dealt with somehow when he came back from Caemlyn. Slamming the door open, he strode out onto the quay — and stopped.

Enaila headed a line of Maidens, each with three spears in her hands, a line leading back from the dockmaster's door, vanishing into the nearest of the gates to the city. Some of the Aielmen on the dockside eyed them curiously, but it was obviously something between Far Dareis Mai and the Car'a'carn , and no business of any other society. Amys and three or four other Wise Ones who had once been Maidens were watching more closely. Most of the non-Aiel had gone, except for a few men nervously righting overturned grain carts and trying to look elsewhere. Enaila stepped toward Rand, then halted and smiled as Sulin came out. Not relief. Pleasure. Smiles of pleasure running back down that long line of Maidens. Smiles on those Wise Ones, too, and a sharp nod for him from Amys as if he had put an end to some idiotic behavior.

"I thought maybe they were going to go in one at a time and kiss you out of your miseries," Mat said.

Rand frowned at him, standing there leaning on his spear and grinning, wide-brimmed hat tipped back on his head. "How can you be so cheerful?" The smell of seared flesh still hung in the air, and the moans of burned men and women being cared for by Wise Ones.

"Because I'm alive," Mat snarled. "What do you want me to do, cry?" He shrugged uncomfortably. "Amys says Egwene really will be all right in a few days." He did look around then, but as though he did not want to see what he saw. "Burn me, if we're going to do this thing, let's do it. Dovie'andi se tovya sagain ."

"What?"

"I said, it's time to roll the dice. Did Sulin stop up your ears?"

"Time to roll the dice," Rand agreed. The flames had died inside the glassy chimney of Air, but the white smoke still rose as though flames yet consumed the ter'angreal. Moiraine . He should have… Done was done. The Maidens were crowding down around Sulin, as many as would fit onto the quay. Done was done, and he had to live with it. Death would be a release from what he had to live with. "Let's do it."

Five hundred of the Maidens behind Sulin accompanied Rand back to the Royal Palace, where Bael waited in the great court inside the front gates with Thunder Walkers and Black Eyes and Water Seekers and men from every other society, their numbers filling the courtyard and crowding back into the palace through every door down to the smallest servants' way. Some watched from lower windows, waiting their turn to come out. The surrounding stone balconies were empty. In the entire courtyard only one man waited who was not Aiel; Tairens and Cairhienin — especially Cairhienin — stayed clear when Aiel gathered. The exception stood above Bael on the wide gray steps leading into the place. Pevin, with the crimson banner hanging limply from its staff, and no more expression surrounded by Aiel than at any other time.

Aviendha, behind Rand's saddle, clung tightly to him, breasts pressed against his back, until the very moment he dismounted. There had been an exchange between her and some of the Wise Ones back at the docks that he did not think he had been supposed to hear.

"Go with the Light," Amys had said, touching Aviendha's face. "And guard him closely. You know how much depends on him."

"Much depends on you both," Bair told Aviendha, almost at the same time that Melaine said irritably, "It would be easier if you had succeeded by now."

Sorilea snorted. "Even Maidens knew how to handle men in my day."

"She has been more successful than you know, "Amys told them. Aviendha shook her head; the roses-and-thorns ivory bracelet slid down her arm as she raised a hand to forestall the other woman, but Amys went on over her half-formed protests. "I have waited for her to tell us, but since she will not —" She saw him then, standing only ten fret away, with Jeade'en's reins in his hand, and cut oft sharply. Aviendha turned to see what Amys was staring at; when her eyes found him, bright crimson suffused her face, then drained away so suddenly that even her sun-dark cheeks looked pale. The four Wise Ones fixed him with flat, unreadable gazes.

Asmodean and Mat came up behind him, leading their horses. "Do women learn that look in the cradle?" Mat muttered "Do their mothers teach them? I'd say the mighty Car'a'carn will get his ears singed if he stays around here much longer."

Shaking his head, Rand reached up as Aviendha swung a leg over to slide down, and lifted her from the dapple's back. For a moment he held her by the waist, looking down into her clear blue-green eyes. She did not look away, and her expression never changed, but her hands tightened slowly on his forearms. What success was she supposed to have? He had thought she was set to spy on him for the Wise Ones, but if she ever asked a question about things he held back from the Wise Ones, it was in open anger at him for keeping secrets from them. Never slyly, never trying to ferret something out. Bludgeon, maybe, but never ferret. He had considered the possibility that she was like one of Colavaere's young women, but only for the brief moment it took to think of the notion. Aviendha would never let herself be used in that way. Besides, even if she had, giving him one taste of herself then denying him so much as a kiss afterward, not to mention making him chase her halfway around the world, was no way to go about it. If she was more than casual about being naked in front of him, Aiel customs were different. If his distress at it satisfied her, likely it was because she thought it was a great joke to play on him. So what was she supposed to be successful at? Plots all around him. Was everyone scheming? He could see his face in her eyes. Who had given her that silver necklace?

"I like canoodling as much as the next man," Mat said, "but don't you think there are a few too many people watching?"

Rand released Aviendha's waist and stepped back, but no more quickly than she. She bent her head, fussing with her skirt, muttering about how riding had disarrayed it, but not before he saw her cheeks redden. Well, he had not meant to embarrass her.

Scowling around the courtyard, he said, "I told you I don't know how many I can take, Bael." With the Maidens spilling back through the gates onto the ramp, there was barely room to move in the courtyard. Five hundred from each society meant six thousand Aiel; the hallways inside must be packed.

The towering Aiel chief shrugged. Like every other Aiel there, he had his shoufa wrapped around his head, ready to veil. No crimson headband, though it seemed at least half the others wore the black-and-white disc on their foreheads. "Every spear that can follow you, will. Will the two Aes Sedai come soon?"

"No." It was good that Aviendha kept her promise not to let him touch her again. Lanfear had tried to kill her and Egwene because she did not know which was Aviendha. How had Kadere found out to tell her? No matter. Lan was right. Women found pain — or death — when they came too close to him. "They will not be coming."

"There are stories of… trouble… by the river."

"A great victory, Bael," Rand said wearily. "And much honor earned." But not by me . Pevin came down past Bael to stand behind Rand's shoulder with the banner, his narrow, scarred face absolutely blank. "Does the whole palace know about this, then?" Rand asked.

"I heard," Pevin said. His jaw worked, chewing for more words. Rand had found him a replacement for his patched country coat, good red wool, and the man had had Dragons embroidered on it, one climbing either side of his chest. "That you were going. Somewhere." That seemed to exhaust his store.