Read Microsoft Word - Document1 for Free Online Page A

searching for her—those
    Suroth knew of, at least. Tuon’s own Seekers were not among the known, yet they must
    be hunting twice as hard as any others. Unless they had been taken into her confidence.
    But in seventeen days, all that had been uncovered was that ridiculous story of Tuon
    extorting jewelry from goldsmiths, and that was known to every common soldier.
    Perhaps….
    The arched door to the anteroom began to open slowly, and Suroth snapped her right eye
    shut to protect her night vision against the light of the outer room. As soon as the gap was
    wide enough, a pale-haired woman in the diaphanous robes of a da’covale slipped into
    the bedchamber and softly closed the door behind her, plunging the room into pitch
    blackness. Until Suroth opened her eye again, and made out a shadowy form creeping
    toward her bed. And another shadow, huge, suddenly looming in a corner of the room as
    Almandaragal rose noiselessly to his feet. The lopar could cross the room and snap the
    fool woman’s neck in a heartbeat, but Suroth still gripped the hilt of her dagger. It was
    wise to have a second line of defense even when the first seemed impregnable. A pace
    short of the bed, the da’covale stopped. Her anxious breathing sounded loud in the
    silence.
    “Working up your courage, Liandrin?” Suroth said harshly. That honey-colored hair,
    worked in thin braids, had been enough to name her.
    With a squeak, the da’covale dropped to her knees and bent to press her face to the
    carpet. She had learned that much, at least. “I would not harm you, High Lady,” she lied.
    “You know I would not.” Her voice was rushed, in a breathy panic. Learning when to
    speak and when not seemed as far beyond her as learning how to speak with proper
    respect. “We are both bound to serve the Great Lord, High Lady. Have I not proven I can
    be useful? I removed Alwhin for you, yes? You said you wished her dead, High Lady,
    and I removed her.”
    Suroth grimaced and sat up in the dark, the sheet sliding down to her lap. It was so easy
    to forget da’covale were there, even this da’covale, and then you let slip things you
    should not have. Alwhin had not been dangerous, merely a nuisance, awkward in her
    place as Suroth’s Voice. She had achieved all she had ever wanted in reaching that, and
    the likelihood of her risking it by so much as the smallest betrayal had been tiny. True,
    had she broken her neck falling down a flight of stairs, Suroth would have felt some
    small relief from an irritant, but poison that left the woman with bulging eyes and a blue
    face was another matter. Even with the search for Tuon, that had brought the Seekers’
    eyes to Suroth’s household. She had been forced to insist on it, for the murder of her
    Voice. That there were Listeners in her household, she accepted; every household had its
    share of Listeners. Seekers did more than listen, though, and they might uncover what
    must remain hidden.
    Masking her anger required surprising effort, and her tone was colder than she wanted. “I
    hope you did not wake me merely to plead again, Liandrin.”
    “No, no!” The fool raised her head and actually looked straight at her! “An officer came
    from General Galgan, High Lady. He is waiting to take you to the general.”
    Suroth’s head throbbed with irritation. The woman delayed delivering a message from
    Galgan and looked her in the eyes? In the dark, to be sure, yet an urge swept over her to
    strangle Liandrin with her bare hands. A second death hard on the heels of the first would
    intensify the Seekers’ interest in her household, if they learned of it, but Elbar could
    dispose of the body easily; he was clever in such tasks.
    Except, she enjoyed owning the former Aes Sedai who once had been so haughty with
    her. Making her a perfect da’covale in every way would be a great pleasure. It was time
    to have the woman collared, however. Already irritating rumors buzzed of an uncollared
    marath’damane among her