Arms folded, Sevanna watched the Aes Sedai, the da’tsang, stagger down the mountainside and stop, beside a Maiden squatting on her heels with a switch, to drop the head-shaped stone she had been carrying in her hands. The black hood turned in Sevanna’s direction for a moment, but the da’tsangquickly bent to pick up another large stone and turned to labor back up the fifty paces to where Micara waited with another Maiden. There she dropped that stone, picked up another, and started back down. Da’tsangwere always shamed with useless labor; unless there was great need, the woman would not be allowed to carry even a cup of water, yet toil without purpose would fill her hours till she burst of shame. The sun had a long way to climb yet, and many more days lay ahead.

"I did not think she would condemn herself out of her own mouth," Rhiale said at Sevanna’s shoulder. "Efalin and the others are all but sure she openly admitted killing Desaine."

"She is mine, Sevanna." Therava’s jaw tightened. She might have taken the woman, but da’tsangbelonged to no one. "I intended to dress her in gai’shainrobes of silk," she muttered. "What is the purpose of this, Sevanna? I expected to have to argue against cutting her throat, not this."

Rhiale tossed her head, casting a sidelong glance at Sevanna. "Sevanna intends to break her. We have had long talks of what to do should we capture any Aes Sedai. Sevanna wants a tame Aes Sedai to wear white and serve her. An Aes Sedai in black will do well enough, though."

Sevanna shifted her shawl, irritated by the woman’s tone. Not quite mocking, but all too aware that she wanted somehow to use the Aes Sedai’s channeling as though it were Sevanna’s own. It would be possible. Two gai’shainpassed the three Wise Ones, carrying a large brass-strapped chest between them. Short and pale-faced, husband and wife, they had been Lord and Lady in the treekillers’ lands. The pair bowed their heads more meekly than any Aiel in white ever could have managed; their dark eyes were tight with fear of a harsh word, much less a switch. Wetlanders could be tamed like horses.

"The woman is tamed already," Therava grumbled. "I have looked into her eyes. She is a bird fluttering in the hand and afraid to fly."

"In nine days?" Rhiale said incredulously, and Sevanna shook her head vigorously.

"She is Aes Sedai, Therava. You saw her face go pale with fury when I accused her. You heard her laugh as she spoke of killing Wise Ones." She made a vexed, angry sound. "And you heard her threaten us." The woman had been as slippery as the treekillers, speaking of rewards and letting the threat if no rewards came shout silently. But what else could be expected of Aes Sedai? "It will take long to break her, but this Aes Sedai will beg to obey if it takes a year." Once she did that... Aes Sedai could not lie, of course; she had expected Galina to deny her accusation. Once she swore to obey...

"If you want to make an Aes Sedai obey you," a man’s voice said behind her, "this might help."

Incredulous, Sevanna spun about to find Caddar standing there, and beside him the woman — the Aes Sedai — Maisia, both dressed in dark silk and fine lace as they had been six days ago, each with a bulging sack hanging incongruously from one shoulder by a strap. Caddar held out a smooth white rod about a foot long in one dark hand.

"How did you come here?" she demanded, then compressed her lips in anger. Plainly he had come as he had before; she was just surprised at him appearing here, in the middle of the camp. She snatched the white rod he offered, and as always he stepped back beyond arm’s reach. "Why have you come?" she amended. "What is this?" A little slimmer than her wrist, the rod was smooth except for a few odd, flowing symbols incised on one flat end. It felt not quite like ivory, not quite like glass. Very cool to the touch.

"You might call it an Oath Rod," Caddar said, showing teeth in what was doubtless meant for a smile. "It only came into my hands yesterday, and I immediately thought of you."

Sevanna clamped her hands tight around the rod to keep from hurling it away. Everyone knew what the Aes Sedai’s Oath Rod did. Trying not even to think, much less speak, she thrust it behind her belt and took her hands away.

Rhiale frowned at the rod at Sevanna’s waist, and her eyes rose slowly, coldly, to Sevanna’s face. Therava adjusted her shawl in a clatter of bracelets, and gave a hard, thin smile. There would never be any chance of one of them touching the rod and maybe no chance of any other Wise One doing so either. But there was still Galina Casban. One day she would break.

Raven-eyed Maisia, a little behind Caddar, smiled almost as faintly as Therava. She had seen, and understood. She was observant, for a wetlander.

"Come," Sevanna told Caddar. "We will drink tea in my tent." She certainly would not share water with him. Lifting her skirts, she started up the slope.

To her surprise, Caddar was also observant. "All you need do is have your Aes Sedai" — walking easily beside her on his long legs, he grinned suddenly, toothily, at Rhiale and Therava — "or any woman who can channel hold the rod and speak whatever promises you wish while someone channels a little Spirit into the number. The marks on the end of the rod?" he added, raising his eyebrows insultingly. "You can use it to release her, too but that is more painful. Or so I understand."

Sevanna’s fingers touched the rod lightly. More glass than ivory, and very cool. "It only works on women?" She ducked into the tent ahead of him. The Wise Ones and the leaders of the warrior societies were gone, but the dozen treekiller gai’shainremained, kneeling patiently to one side. No one person had ever kept a dozen gai’shainbefore, and she possessed more. There would have to be a new name for them, though, since they would never put off the white.

"Women who can channel, Sevanna," Caddar said, following her in. The man’s tone was incredibly insolent. His dark eyes shone with open amusement. "You will have to wait until you have al’Thor before I give you what will control him."

Removing the sack from his shoulder, he sat. Not on a cushion near hers, of course. Maisia was not afraid of a blade in her ribs; she lounged on an elbow almost at Sevanna’s side. Sevanna eyed her sideways, then casually undid another lace of her own blouse. She did not recall the woman’s bosom being as round as that. For that matter, her face seemed even more beautiful, as well. Sevanna tried not to grind her teeth.

"Of course," Caddar went on, "if you mean some other man — There is a thing called a binding chair. Binding people who cannot channel is more difficult than binding those who can. Perhaps a binding chair survived the Breaking, but you will have to wait while I find it."

Sevanna touched the rod again, then impatiently ordered one of the gai’shainto bring tea. She could wait. Caddar was a fool. Sooner or later he would give her everything she wanted of him. And now the rod could break Maisia free of him. Surely then the woman would not protect him. For his insults, he would wear black. Sevanna took a small green porcelain cup from the tray the gai’shainheld and gave it to the Aes Sedai with her own hands. "It is flavored with mint, Maisia. You will find it refreshing."

The woman smiled, but those black eyes... Well, what could be done to one Aes Sedai could be done to two. Or more.

"What of the traveling boxes?" Sevanna demanded curtly.

Caddar waved the gai’shainaway and patted the sack beside him. "I brought as many nar’baha— that is what they were called — as many as I could find. Enough to transport all of you by nightfall, if you hurry. And I would, if I were you. Al’Thor means to finish you, it seems. Two clans are coming up from the south, and two more are moving to come down from the north. With their Wise Ones, all ready to channel. Their orders are to stay until every last one of you is dead or a prisoner."