Robert Jordan - The Dragon Reborn

"I'm glad you decided to join us, farmboy," Zarine said sarcastically. "Moiraine would not say anything till you came. She just looks at us as if she is deciding which of us is going to die. I — "

"Be quiet," Moiraine told her sharply. "One of the Forsaken is in Tear. The High Lord Samon is Be'lal." Perrin shivered.

Loial squeezed his eyes shut and groaned. "I could have remained in the stedding. I would probably have been very happy, married, whoever my mother chose. She is a fine woman, my mother, and she would not give me to a bad wife." His ears seemed to have hidden themselves completely in his shaggy hair.

"You can go back to Stedding Shangtai," Moiraine said. "Leave now, if you wish. I will not stop you."

Loial opened one eye. "I can go?"

"If you wish," she said.

"Oh." He opened the other eye, and scratched his cheek with blunt fingers the size of sausages. "I suppose… I suppose… if I have a choice… that I will stay with all of you. I have taken a great many notes, but not nearly enough to complete my book, and I would not like to leave Perrin, and Rand — "

Moiraine cut him off in a cold voice. "Good, Loial. I am glad that you are staying. I will be glad to use any knowledge you have. But until this is done, I have no time to listen to your complaints!"

"I suppose," Zarine said in an unsteady voice, "that there is no chance of me leaving?" She looked at Moiraine, and shivered. "I thought not. Blacksmith, if I live through this, I will make you pay."

Perrin stared at her. Me! The fool woman thinks it my fault? Did I ask her to come? He opened his mouth, saw the look in Moiraine's eyes, and closed it again quickly. After a moment he said, "Is he after Rand? To stop him, or kill him?"

"I think not," she said quietly. Her voice was like cold steel. "I fear he means to let Rand enter the Heart of the Stone and take Callandor, then take it away from him. I fear he means to kill the Dragon Reborn with the very weapon that is meant to herald him."

"Do we run again?" Zarine said. "Like Illian? I never thought to run, but I never thought to find the Forsaken when I took the Hunter's oath."

"This time," Moiraine said, "we do not run. We dare not run. Worlds and time rest on Rand, on the Dragon Reborn. This time, we fight."

Perrin took a chair uneasily. "Moiraine, you are saying a lot of things right out that you told us we must not even think about. You do have this room warded against listening, don't you?" When she shook her head, he gripped the edge of the table hard enough to make the dark oak creak.

"I do not speak of a Myrddraal, Perrin. No one knows the strength of the Forsaken, except that Ishamael and Lanfear were the strongest, but the weakest of them could sense any warding I might set from a mile or more away. And rip all of us to shreds in seconds. Possibly without stirring from where he stood."

"You're saying he can tie you in knots," Perrin muttered. "Light! What are we supposed to do? How can we do anything?"

"Even the Forsaken cannot stand up to balefire," she said. He wondered if that was what she had used on the Darkhounds; it still made him uneasy, what he had seen, and what she had said then. "I have learned things in the last year, Perrin. I am… more dangerous than when I came to Emond's Field. If I can come close enough to Be'lal, I can destroy him. But if he sees me first, he can destroy us all, long before I have a chance." She turned her attention to Loial. "What can you tell me of Be'lal?"

Perrin blinked in confusion. Loial?

"Why are you asking him?" Zarine burst out angrily. "First you tell the blacksmith you mean us to fight one of the Forsaken! — who can kill us all before we can even think! — and now you ask Loial about him?" Loial murmured urgently, that name she used — "Faile! Faile!" — but she did not even slow. "I thought Aes Sedai knew everything. Light, at least I am smart enough not to say I will fight someone unless I know everything I can of him! You…" She trailed off under Moiraine's stare, muttering.

"Ogier," the Aes Sedai said coolly, "have long memories, girl. It has been well over a hundred generations since the Breaking for humans, but less than thirty for Ogier. We still learn things from their stories that we did not know. Now tell me, Loial. What do you know of Be'lal. And briefly, for once. I want your long memory, not your long wind."

Loial cleared his throat, a sound much like firewood tumbling down a chute. "Be'lal." His ears flickered out of his hair like hummingbird wings, then snapped down again. "I do not know what can be in the stories about him you do not already know. He is not much mentioned, except in the razing of the Hall of the Servants just before Lews Therin Kinslayer and the Hundred Companions sealed him up with the Dark One. Jalanda son of Aried son of Coiam wrote that he was called the Envious, that he forsook the Light because he envied Lews Therin, and that he envied Ishamael and Lanfear, too. In A Study of the War of the Shadow, Moilin daughter of Hamada daughter of Juendan called Be'lal the Netweaver, but I do not know why. She mentioned him playing a game of stones with Lews Therin and winning, and that he always boasted of it." He glanced at Moiraine and rumbled, "I am trying to be brief. I do not know anything important about him. Several writers say Be'lal and Sammael were both leaders in the fight against the Dark One before they forsook the Light, and both were masters of the sword. That is truly all I know. He may be mentioned in other books, other stories, but I have not read them. Be'lal is just not spoken of very often. I am sorry I could not tell you anything useful."

"Perhaps you have," Moiraine told him. "I did not know of the name, the Netweaver. Or that he envied the Dragon as well as his companions in the Shadow. That strengthens my belief that he wants Callandor. That must be the reason he has chosen to make himself a High Lord of Tear. And the Netweaver — a name for a schemer, a patient and cunning planner. You have done well, Loial." For a moment the Ogier's wide mouth curved up in a pleased smile, but then it curved down again.

"I will not pretend I am not afraid," Zarine said suddenly. "Only a fool would not be afraid of the Forsaken. But I swore I would be one of you, and I will. That is all that I wanted to say."

Perrin shook his head. She must be crazy. I could wish I were not one of this party. I could wish I were back home working Master Luhhan's forge. Aloud, he said, "If he is inside the Stone, if he is waiting there for Rand, we must go inside to reach him. How do we do that? Everyone keeps saying no one enters the Stone without the permission of the High Lords, and looking at it, I don't see any way but through the gates."

"You do not go in," Lan said. "Moiraine and I will be the only ones to enter. The more who go, the harder it will be. Whatever way in I find, I cannot believe it will be easy even for only two."

"Gaidin," Moiraine began in a firm voice, but the Warder cut her off with one just as firm.

"We go together, Moiraine. I will not stand aside this time." After a moment she nodded. Perrin thought he saw Lan relax. "The rest of you had better get some sleep," the Warder went on. "I have to be out studying the Stone." He paused. "There is a thing that your news drove out of my head, Moiraine. A small thing, and I cannot see what it might mean. There are Aiel in Tear."

"Aiel!" Loial exclaimed. "Impossible! The entire city would be in a panic if one Aiel came through the gates."

"I did not say they were walking the streets, Ogier. The rooftops and chimneys of the city make as good hiding as the Waste. I saw no less than three, though apparently no one else in Tear has seen any of them. And if I saw three, you can be sure there are many times that I did not see."