To his relief, Rhuarc came trotting back from the head of the Jindo. “We are there,” the Aielman announced with a smile. “Cold Rocks Hold.”
Frowning, Rand looked around. A mile ahead stook a tight cluster of tall, sheer-sided buttes, or perhaps one huge butte broken by fissures. To his left the land ran off in patches of tough grass and leafless spiny plants, scattered thorny brushes and low trees, across arid hills and jagged gullies, past huge, rough stone columns to jagged mountains in the distance. To the right the land was the same, except the cracked yellowish clay lay flatter, the mountains closer. It could have been any piece of the Waste he had seen since leaving Chaendaer.
“Where?” he said.
Rhuarc glanced at Aviendha, who was looking at Rand as though he had lost his wits. “Come. Let your own eyes show you Cold Rocks.” Dropping his shoufa to his shoulders, the clan chief turned and loped bareheaded toward the fissured rock wall ahead.
The Shaido had already halted, milling about and beginning to set up their tents. Heirn and the Jindo fell in with Rhuarc at a trot with their pack mules, uncovering their heads and shouting wordlessly, and the Maidens escorting the peddlers cried for the drivers to hasten their teams and follow the Jindo. One of the Wise Ones lifted her skirts to her knees and ran to join Rhuarc - Rand thought it was Amys, from the pale hair; surely Bair could not move that nimbly - but the rest of the Wise Ones' party maintained its original pace.
When he brought Jeade'en up with Rhuarc and Heirn and Amys, a little ahead of the still shouting Jindo, he was surprised to see Couladin running easily alongside, flame-colored hair bare. Aviendha tugged Rand's own shoufa down to his shoulders. “You must enter a hold with your face clear to be seen. I told you that. And make noise. We have been seen long since, and they will know who we are, but it is customary, to show you are not trying to take the hold by surprise.”
| Profile(s) | Character & RPer details | Short summary of the character |
 |
Wise One Apply now! AIM: ... ICQ: ... |
"Is that true, Galina? Is she a wetlander queen?" Another woman rode out from behind the prisoners, her tall black gelding walking softly in the snow. Faile thought she must be Aiel, but she was unsure. It was difficult to say for certain witht he other woman on horseback, but she seemed at least as tall as Faile herself, and few women were exceptamong the Aiel, certainly not with those green eyes in a sun-dark face. And yet... That wide, dark skirt looked like an Aiel woman's at a glance, but it was divided for riding and appeared to be silk, as was her creamy blouse, and the hem revealed red boots in her stirrups. The wide folded kerchief that held back her long golden hair was brocaded red silk, and a thumb-tick circlet of gold and firedrops nestled over it. In contrast to the Wise Ones' worked gold and carved ivory, her ropes of fat pearls and necklaces of emeralds and sapphires and rubies half hid nearly as much bosom as Someryn had on display. The bracelets climbing almost to her elbows differed from those worn by the two Wise Ones in the same way, and Aiel did not wear rings, but gems sparkled on every finger. Instead of a dark shawl, a bright crimson cloak, bordered with golden embroidery and lined with white fur, flared around her in the stiff breeze. She did sit in her saddle with the awkwardness of Aiel on horseback, though. "And a queen's," her tongue tripped unfamiliarly, "liege lady? That means the Queen swore oath to her? A truly powerful woman, then." |
 |
Wise One Apply now! AIM: ... ICQ: ... |
The mass of Wise Ones parted, turning to follow Therava with their eyes as the hawk-faced woman strode toward Galina. Suddenly panting once more, with apprehension, Galina tried to struggle to her feet. Hands bound and muscles watery, she had only reached her feet when Thevara bent over her, necklaces of ivory and gold clattering softly. Seizing a handful of Galina's hair, Thevara forced her head back sharply. Taller than most men, the woman did that even when they were standing, craning Galina's neck painfully to make her look up into the Wise One's face. Thevara was somewhat stronger in the Power than she, which relatively few women were, but that was not what made Galina tremble. Cold deep blue eyes stabbed into her own, held her more tightly that Thevara's rough hand; they seemed to strip her soul naked as easily as the Wise One handled her. She had not begged yet, not when they made her walk all day with hardly a drop of water, not even when their switches made her howl. Thevara's cruel hard face, staring down at her impassively, made her want to beg. |
 |
Wise One Apply now! AIM: ... ICQ: ... |
Something told her they were Wise Ones. There was too much authority about them for anything else; these were women used to giving orders and being obeyed. Beyond that, though, their simple presence caught the eye. The woman pushing the gai'shain along, a stern blue-eyed eagle with a dark gray shawl wrapped around her head, stood a good span in height, as much as most Aielmen, while the other was at least half a hand taller than Perrin! She was not bulky, though, except in one particular. Sandy yellow hair flowed to her waist, held back from her face by a wide dark kerchief, and her brown shawl lay across her shoulders, open enough to show an incredible amount of bosom thrusting half out of her pale blouse. How did she avoid freezing, exposing so much skin in this weather? And all those heavy necklaces of ivory and gold must feel like bands of ice! What we have here is more gai'shain for Sevanna," the incredibly tall woman said in amused tones. She had a strong face that some might call pretty, but alongside the other Wise One, she seemed soft. "Sevanna will not be satisfied until the entire world is gai'shain, Therava. Not that I would object to that myself," she finished with a laugh. |
 |
Wise One Apply now! AIM: ... ICQ: ... |
Tion raised the second lantern and regarded her with unblinking gray eyes. Nearly a head shorter than Someryn, Tion was still taller than Sevanna. And twice as wide. Her round face often appeared placid, but thinking her so was a mistake. "They are right to fear," she said in a stony voice. "I am afraid, and take no shame in it. The Seanchan are many if they are no more than took Amador, and we are few. You have your sept around you, Sevanna, but where is my sept? Your wetlander friend Caddar and his tame Aes Sedai sent us through his holes in the air to die. Where are the rest of the Shaido?" |
 |
Gai'shan Also at Darkfriends Apply now! AIM: ... ICQ: ... |
She had been Aes Sedai fewer than ninety years, her long black hair untouched as yet by gray, but for nearly twenty of those years she had been head of the Red Ajah--called the Highest by the other Red sisters, in private; considered by the other Reds equal to the Amyrlin Seat--and for all but five of the years she had worn the shawl, she had been of the Black Ajah, in truth. Not to the exclusion of her duties as a Red, but superior to them. Her place on the Supreme Council of the Black Ajah was next to that of Alviarin herself, and she was one of only three who knew the name of the woman who led their hooded meetings. She could speak any name in those meetings -- a king's -- and know that name belonged to the dead. It had happened, with a king and with a queen. She had helped to break two Amyrlins, twice helped turn the most powerful woman in the world into a squealing wretch eager to tell all she knew, had helped make it seem that one of those had died in her sleep and had seen the other deposed and stilled. Such things were a duty, like the need to exterminate men with the ability to channel, not actions she took pleasure in beyond that of tasks well done, but she had enjoyed leading the circle that stilled Siuan Sanche. Surely, all those things meant that Galina Casban was herself among the mightiest of the world, among the most powerful. Surely they did. They must. Her legs quavered like springs that had lost their tempering, and she fell heavily, unable to catch herself with arms and elbows tightly bound behind her. The once-white silk shift, the only garmant left to her, tore again as she slid on the loose rocks, scraping her welts. A tree stopped her. Face pressed against the ground, she began to sob. "How?" she moaned in a thick voice. "How can this happen to me?" |
|
Gai'shan Apply now! AIM: ... ICQ: ... |
Hunger gnawed her belly with dull teeth. A very tall, bony man with a white woolen cowl sheltering his face forced something into her mouth, the rim of a large clay mug. His eyes were a startling green, like emeralds, and surrounded by puckered scars. He was kneeling on a large brown woolen blanket with her, and another blanket, striped in gray, was draped around her nakedness. The taste of hot tea thick with honey exploded on her tongue, and she seized the man's sinewy wrist weakly with both hands in case he tried to take the mug away. Her teeth chattered against the mug, but she gulped the steaming syrupy liquid greedily. "Not too fast; you must not spill any," the green-eyed man said meekly. Meekness sounded odd from that fierce face, and in a gravelly voice. "They offended your honor. But you are a werlander, so maybe it does not count with you." |