The Gathering Storm - By Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson Page 0,141

was probably better than stewing back in her tent.

The fire-haired woman had lost a fair bit of her plumpness over the previous weeks. She really needed to commission new dresses; her old ones were beginning to hang on her. Still, she seemed to have regained some calm recently, to be less erratic. Perhaps whatever had been ailing her had passed. She’d always insisted that nothing was wrong in the first place.

“Fish guts,” Siuan grumbled as a novice accidentally elbowed her. Siuan glared at the girl, who wilted and scurried away, her family of novices reluctantly following. Siuan turned back to Sheriam. “So what is it? Did one of the stable boys turn out to be the King of Tear?”

Sheriam raised an eyebrow. “Elaida has Traveling.”

“What?” Siuan asked, glancing into the tent. The seats were filled with Aes Sedai, and lanky Ashmanaille—of the Gray—was addressing them. Why hadn’t this meeting been Sealed to the Flame?

Sheriam nodded. “We found out when Ashmanaille was sent to collect from Kandor.” Tributes were one of the main sources of income for Egwene’s Aes Sedai. For many centuries, each kingdom had sent such donations to Tar Valon. The White Tower no longer relied on that income—it had far better means of sustaining itself, ones that didn’t rely on outside generosity. Still, tributes were never turned away, and many of the Borderland kingdoms still held to the old ways.

Before the White Tower broke, one of Ashmanaille’s duties had been to keep track of these donations and send monthly thanks on behalf of the Amyrlin. The split of the White Tower, and the discovery of Traveling, had made it very easy for Egwene’s Aes Sedai to send a delegation and collect tributes in person. The Kandori chief clerk hadn’t cared which of the two White Tower sides he supported, so long as the tribute was sent, and had been happy to deliver the money to Ashmanaille directly.

The siege of Tar Valon had made it simple to siphon this coin away from tributes that might have gone to Elaida, instead using them to pay Bryne’s soldiers. A very neat twist of fate. But no sea remained calm forever.

“The chief clerk was quite livid,” Ashmanaille said in her no-nonsense voice. “ ‘I already paid your money this month,’ he told me. ‘I gave it to a woman who came not one day gone. The woman bore a letter from the Amyrlin herself, sealed properly, which told me to give the money only to a member of the Red Ajah.’ ”

“This doesn’t say for certain Elaida has Traveling,” Romanda noted from inside the tent. “The Red sister could have gotten to Kandor by other means.”

Ashmanaille shook her head. “They saw a gateway made. The chief clerk discovered an accounting error and sent a scribe out after Elaida’s delegation to give them a few extra coins. The man described what he saw perfectly. The horses were riding through a black hole in the air. It stunned him so deeply that he called for the guard—but by then Elaida’s people were already gone. I interrogated him myself.”

“I dislike trusting the word of one man,” said Moria, sitting near the front of the group.

“The chief clerk described in detail the woman who took the money from him,” Ashmanaille said. “I am confident that it was Nesita. Perhaps we could discover if she is in the Tower? That would give us further proof.”

Others raised objections, but Siuan ceased to listen closely. Perhaps this was a very clever ruse intended to distract them, but they couldn’t take that chance. Light! Was she the only one with a head on her shoulders?

She grabbed the nearest novice, a mousy girl who was probably older than she looked—she’d have to be, since she looked no older than nine. “I need a courier,” Siuan informed her. “Fetch one of the messengers Lord Bryne left at the camp for running news to him. Quickly.”

The girl yelped, dashing away.

“What was that about?” Sheriam asked.

“Saving our lives,” Siuan said, glaring at the crowding novices. “All right!” she growled. “Enough gawking! If your classes are postponed because of this fiasco, then find some work to do. Any novice still standing on this walkway in ten seconds will find herself doing penance until she can’t count straight!”

That initiated a mass exodus of white, the families of women bustling away with hurried steps. In moments, only the small group of Accepted remained, along with Sheriam and Siuan. The Accepted cringed when Siuan glanced at them, but