Spiriting Away

[Natalie Grey]

Nythadri & Elly

“The warders are all strung tight as bows,” Elly said. She blew smoke, watched it float over the night-shrouded city far below. Her leather-braced arms rested on the balustrade of delicate white stone. “Even the servants are stepping lightly.”

A ward protected them. Not that anyone was likely to be listening from the shadows of Nythadri’s rooms, but the gnaw of agitation was clenched tight in her gut, and the precaution offered some flimsy shell of control. She leaned back against the stone, turned away from the view, arms folded. Wind ruffled the hair from the back of her neck, pleasant under any other circumstances. Her eyes narrowed sightlessly on the heavy gold drapes of the balcony’s entryway.

“Did you find who you were looking for in Arad Doman?” the warder added.

“No,” she answered, glancing over at the woman. She hadn’t said that she was, but Elly just laughed a little and let the subject drop. Amusement drifted through the bond, and some staunch sense of solidarity that Nythadri did not really understand. She ignored both feelings.

In the small space they had to breathe she considered again what Daryen had said. Or, more aptly, why he had said it. But she had more questions than she could possibly fathom answers to, and her chest constricted with the knowledge that she had to act sooner rather than later. She was going to have to make a choice of priorities before she had all the facts. “Why would the Hall turn on Kaydrienne now? Because of the treaty?” If no Aes Sedai had been at the ceremony then it could not be the catalyst that tipped the hand into action tonight. Daryen had not been remotely worried. Only that grievous sense of unease wasn’t shifting, and she was certain there was something she was missing. “Light, Elly, I need to know who’s leading it,” she muttered. A hand ran over her face, pressed back through her hair; perilously close to spilling all that foolish frustration into view. She felt more than saw Elly shift in discomfort.

“Daryen spoke with me while I was in Bandar Eban. He said I ought to return to the Tower. That my sisters may need my help. But he was strange before he said it, tuned out like he was listening to something else. I have no idea how old he is, El.” She added the last in vague warning, unsure if she was really convinced herself that she was suspecting some remnant of saidin’s taint. Madness could not have created the kind of empire Daryen did. Only nothing much seemed certain these days.

Elly weathered, but a frown plucked her brow. “Aes Sedai, politics mean very little to me. I don’t know what to say to you.” She sighed a little, then straightened, leather creaking. She leaned close. Nythadri tried her best to contain her vexed disappointment at the woman’s honest bluntness. “I spent my life on the Blightborder. The men who raised me didn’t know much about what to do with a little girl, though light knows they tried.” She grinned suddenly. Fiercely. “But living all that time so close to danger, you learn to trust the gut. If it feels wrong it’s wrong. If you’re worried, Nythadri, there’s a reason. Trust it.”

Nythadri gave a light smirk, softened a little at the effort and the earnest way the words were spoken. She knew little so far about the woman’s past; there had been no time for exchanging even the most basic facts of each other's lives. But Elly had been thrust into the centre of this with about as much warning as Nythadri, and with far less aptitude for the game. Her soldier’s perspective simplified everything at least. She’d rather have had poignant insight, but that plaintive steadfastness had its merits too. Trust her intuition. A simple thing to say, but to what end?

It seemed Talin had been aware of deepening currents of unrest, but the Yellow had also known about Arikan by then – that could not have been too short an acquaintance. Months, maybe. Nythadri had not been attentive to her movements once she’d been raised to the shawl; she’d had no reason. But neither of them had been Aes Sedai long. Blood and ashes she wished she’d had the opportunity to interrogate the woman before she’d left the fort in Illian. Better wish for flying fish though. She had to work with what she had.

The dreadlord’s new dedication to revenge was suspect in itself, but coupled with the Tower’s sudden realigning of power, it felt more like movements on a board than incidental catastrophes. Daryen’s warning had not just been odd, it had been chilling.

“What if there are bigger things at play?” she said eventually. The meaning hung between them. Elly’s face darkened.

“Then trusting a… trusting him is even more foolish.” The distrust boiled suddenly between them, overspilled. Elly pushed herself off the stone, pacing the short flagstones. This time it was Nythadri who weathered. She watched the gaidar move like a caged animal. Her fingers tightened like she needed the physical outlet. But right now there were no enemies with faces. “She’s not at all what he said,” she continued. A snarl twisted her lips, but she swallowed it down. Her expression filled instead with entreaty. She was talking about Elsae, clearly.

“I know.”

“Nythadri.”

“My sisters are spiriting our aspirants from the Tower, just in case things turn bloody. If the Hall means to oust Kaydrienne they will have Fate Dark to contend with first – and she’s the strongest woman in the Tower. No one is like to forget what happened the last time an Amyrlin was deposed. Things might get difficult here.” She spoke levelly. Glad at least to grasp the focus. It solved something, at least; whatever happened next, they could not simply leave Elsae here. Friendship meant that much, whatever the difference a shawl was supposed to make. “I’m sure the other Ajahs must be making their own arrangements, but Elsae has no declared aspirancy. Light but she’s dragging her heels worse than even I did. I can offer her protection. We can get her out of the Tower before any of this starts.”

“So we yank her from the fire only to drown her instead?”

“Blood and Ashes, I don’t intend kidnap. She’ll have the choice, Elly. We’ll give her the choice. Everyone deserves that.”

Elly prickled. Resentment flooded between them, stronger than Nythadri might have predicted. The issue of choice was a delicate matter considering the origins of their bond, but she’d thought it a conflict resolved in truce. She accepted the decisions Elly made; that the vows meant something even if they had been forced at almost literal sword-point. Elly’s jaw flexed. The old argument haunted, but all she said was; “That’s what the letter was for. Securing somewhere to take her. We’re not going straight back to Illian, then.”

For a moment Nythadri only blinked, aghast; brutally offended with Eleanore’s doubt. Had she really expected otherwise? It cut a little deep. She thought back to rain-drenched grass and the resolute way Elly had knelt to fate’s hand. Nythadri had hardly hesitated, even though it had sat nauseous in her stomach at the time. She considered for the first time what Elly might have assumed of her capabilities. How this wound might fester the trust between them if she was not careful. “Of course not.”

Her pale stare was unblinking. Elly looked away first.

“Give me a chance to catch up. You explain practically nothing,” she snapped.

“Light, Elly. Light. Okay, that’s fair,” Nythadri admitted. She pushed away from her perch. Drew closer. Honesty didn't cost, but the lessons must be learnt quickly, and Nythadri feared she was too slow. Contrition was offered through their connection, and she meant it. “I don’t know how much Elsae knows. She was the Accepted a darkfriend tried to take in the city; do you remember that? I suspect she may have seen Arikan in dreams since then, given what he said. How long must he have hunted? The Tower has protected her, but it cannot do so forever. I don’t know why he wants her; not for the reasons he said, I’m sure. But for now we will play this game as we must.”

She met the appeal head on, hooked the gaidar lightly by her arm. The muscles were corded tight. Something twisted in the bond, though Nythadri was not sure what it was; it flashed and was gone. Elly deflated. Her dark gaze angled down, still full of glower. In that quiet moment Nythadri practically felt the woman grapple with her; to try to read the sensations that passed between them. It almost made her smile, but for the dire circumstances.

“You’re still thinking about what the king said to you. That gut feeling.”

“I cannot be in all places at once,” Nythadri agreed. “Though tonight I fear I need to be.”

The warder placed her calloused fingers over Nythadri’s, where they still rested on the crook of her arm. She squeezed light, then let go. Lithe steps took her into the darkened room beyond. The last words she threw back over her shoulder. No difficult formality this time. “It feels wrong to leave you here, if things are as bad as you say. But write me another letter, Aes Sedai. I’ll take Elsae to Hana’s and wait for you there. Keep her as safe as if she were you.”