As soon as the guests were settled, Jac al'Seen planted himself in front of the wide stone fireplace, a stocky, square shouldered man with less hair than Master al'Vere, and that just as gray. A clock ticked on the mantel behind his head between two large silver goblets, evidence of his success as a farmer. The babble quieted when he raised a hand, though his cousin Wit, a near twin except for no hair at all, and Flann Lewin, a gnarled, grayheaded beanpole, both shushed their own folk anyway.
“Mistress Mathwin, Lady Faile,” Jac said, bowing awkwardly to each, "You are welcome here, for as long as you wish. I have to caution you, though. You know the trouble we have in the countryside. Best for you if you go straightway to Emond's Field, or Watch Hill, and stay there. They are too big to be troubled. I would advise you to leave the Two Rivers altogether, but I understand the Children of the Light aren't letting anyone cross the Taren. I don't know why, but there it is.
“But there are so many fine stories in the country,” Verin said, blinking mildly. “I would miss them all if I remained in a village.” Without lying once, she managed to give the impression that she had come to the Two Rivers in search of old stories, the same as Moiraine had done, what seemed so long ago. Her Great Serpent ring lay in her belt pouch, though Perrin doubted that any of these people would know what it meant.
Elisa al'Seen smoothed her white apron and smiled gravely at Verin. Though her hair had less gray than her husband's, she looked older than Verin, her lined face motherly. Very likely she thought she was. “It is an honor to have a real scholar under our roof, yet Jac is right,” she said firmly. “You truly are welcome to stay here, but when you leave, you must go immediately to a village. Traveling about isn't safe. The same goes for you, my Lady,” she added to Faile. “Trollocs are not something two women should face with only a handful of men for protection.”
“I will think on it,” Faile said calmly. I thank you for your consideration.“ She sipped her tea, as unconcerned as Verin, who had begun writing in her small book again, only looking up to smile at Elisa and murmur, ”There are so many stories in the countryside. " Faile accepted a butter cookie from a young al'Seen girl, who curtsied and blushed furiously, all the while staring at Faile in wideeyed admiration.
Perrin grinned to himself. In her green riding silks, they all took Faile for nobly born, and he had to admit she carried it off beautifully. When she wanted to. The girl might not have been so admiring had she seen her in one of her tempers, when her tongue could flay the hide off a wagon driver.
Mistress al'Seen turned to her husband, shaking her head; Faile and Verin were not going to be convinced. Jac looked at Tomas. “Can you convince them?”
I go where she tells me," Tomas replied. Sitting there with a teacup in his hand, the Warder still seemed on the point of drawing his sword.
Master al'Seen sighed and shifted his attention. “Perrin, most of us have met you one time or another, down to Emond's Field, We know you, after a fashion. At least, we knew you before you ran off last year. We've heard some troubling things, but I suppose Tam and Abell wouldn't be with you if they were true.”
Flann's wife, Adine, a plump woman with a selfcontented eye, sniffed sharply. “I've heard some things about Tam and Abell, too. And about their boys, running off with Aes Sedai. With Aes Sedai! A dozen of them! You all remember how Emond's Field was burned to the ground. The Light knows what they could have got up to. I heard tell they kidnapped the al'Vere girl.” Flann shook his head resignedly and gave Jac an apologetic look.
“If you believe that,” Wit said wryly, “you'll believe anything. I talked to Marin al'Vere two weeks ago, and she said her girl went off on her own hook. And there was only one Aes Sedai.”
“What are you suggesting, Adine?” Elisa al'Seen put her fists on her hips. “Come out with it.” There was more than a hint of “I dare you” in her voice.
“I didn't say I believed it,” Adine protested stoutly, “just that I heard it. There are questions to be asked. The Children didn't latch on to those three by pulling names out of a cap.”
“If you listen for a change,” Elisa said firmly, “you might hear an answer or two.” Adine set herself to rearranging her skirts, but though she muttered to herself, she held her tongue otherwise.
“Does anyone else have anything to say?” Jac asked with barely concealed impatience. When no one spoke, he went on. “Perrin, no one here believes you a Darkfriend, any more than we believe Tam or Abell is.” He shot Adine a hard look, and Flann put a hand on his wife's shoulder; she kept silent, but her lips writhed with what she did not say. Jac muttered to himself before continuing. “Even so, Perrin, I think we have a right to hear why the Whitecloaks are saying what they are. They accuse you and Mat Cauthon and Rand al'Thor of being Darkfriends. Why?”
Faile opened her mouth angrily, but Perrin waved her to silence. Her obedience surprised him so, he stared at her a moment before speaking. Maybe she was ill. “Whitecloaks don't need much, Master al'Seen. If you don't bow and scrape and walk wide of them, you must be a Darkfriend. If you don't say what they want, think what they want, you must be a Darkfriend. I don't know why they think Rand and Mat are.” That was the simple truth. If the Whitecloaks knew Rand was the Dragon Reborn, that would be enough for them, but there was no way they could know. Mat confused him entirely. It had to be Fain's work. “Myself, I killed some of them.” For a wonder, the gasps that rounded the room did not make him cringe inside, and neither did the thought of what he had done. “They killed a friend of mine and would have killed me. I didn't see my way clear to let them. That's the short of it.”
“I can see where you wouldn't,” Jac said slowly. Even with Trollocs about, Two Rivers people were not used to killing. Some years ago a woman had murdered her husband because she wanted another man to marry her; that was the last time anybody had died of violence in the Two Rivers that Perrin knew. Until the Trollocs.
“The Children of the Light,” Verin said, “are very good at one thing. Making people who have been neighbors all their lives suspicious of each other.” All the farm folk looked at her, some nodding after a moment.
“They have a man with them, I hear,” Perrin said. “Padan Fain. The peddler.”
“I've heard,” Jac said. “I hear he calls himself by some other name nowadays. ”
Perrin nodded. “Ordeith. But Fain or Ordeith, he is a Darkfriend. He admitted as much, admitted to bringing the Trollocs on Winternight last year. And he rides with the Whitecloaks. ”
“That's very easy for you to claim,” Adine Lewin said sharply. “You can name anybody Darkfriend.”
“So who do you believe?” Tomas said. “Those who came a few weeks ago, arrested people you know, and burned their farms? Or a young man who grew up right here?”
“I am no Darkfriend, Master al'Seen,” Perrin said, “but if you want me to go, I will.”
“No,” Elisa said quickly, shooting her husband a meaningful glance. And Adine a freezing one that made her swallow what she had been about to say. “No. You are welcome to stay here as long as you like.” Jac hesitated, then nodded agreement. She came over and looked down at Perrin, resting her hands on his shoulders. “You have our sympathy,” she said softly. “Your father was a good man. Your mother was my friend, and a fine woman. I know she'd want you stay with us, Perrin. The Children seldom come this way, and if they do, the boys on the roof will give us plenty of warning to get you into the attic. You will be safe here.”
She meant it. She actually meant it. And when Perrin looked at Master al'Seen, he nodded again. “Thank you, ” Perrin said, his throat tight. “But I have... things to do. Things I have to take care of.”
She sighed, patting him gently. “Of course. Just you be sure those things don't get you... hurt. Well, at least I can send you off with a full belly.”
There were not enough tables in the house to seat everyone for the midday meal, so bowls of lamb stew were handed out with chunks of crusty bread and admonitions not to drip, and everyone ate where they sat or stood. Before they were done eating, a lanky boy with his wrists sticking out of his sleeves and a bow taller than he was came bounding in. Perrin thought he was Win Lewin, but he could not be sure; boys grew fast at that age. “It's Lord Luc,” the skinny boy exclaimed excitedly. “Lord Luc is coming.”
Chapter 33
(Serpent and Wheel)
A New Weave in the Pattern
The lord himself followed almost on the boy's heels, a tall, broadshouldered man in his middle years, with a hard, angular face and dark reddish hair whitewinged at the temples. There was an arrogant cast to his dark blue eyes, and he certainly looked every inch a nobleman, in a finely cut green coat discreetly embroidered in golden scrolls down the sleeves and gauntlets worked in threadofgold. Goldwork wrapped his sword scabbard, as well, and banded the tops of his polished boots. Somehow he made the simple act of striding in through the doorway grand. Perrin despised him on sight.
All the al'Seens and Lewins rushed in a mass to greet the lord, men, women and children crowding around him with smiles and bows and curtsies, babbling all over one another about the honor of his presence, the great honor of a visit from a Hunter for the Horn. They seemed most excited about that. A lord under the same roof might be exciting, but one of those sworn to search for the legendary Horn of Valere — that was the stuff of stories. Perrin did not think he had ever seen Two Rivers folk fawn over anybody, but these came close.
This Lord Luc took it as clearly no more than his due, perhaps less. And tiresome to put up with, at that. The farm folk did not seem to see, or maybe they just did not recognize that slightly weary expression, the slightly condescending smile. Maybe they simply thought that was how lords behaved. True enough, a good many did, but it irked Perrin to watch these people — his people — put up with it.
As the hubbub began to diminish, Jac and Elisa presented their other guests — all but Tam and Abell, who had already met him — to Lord Luc of Chiendelna, saying that he was advising them in ways to defend themselves against the Trollocs, that he encouraged them to stand up to the Whitecloaks, stand up for themselves. Approving murmurs of agreement came from the rest of the room. If the Two Rivers had been choosing a king, Lord Luc would have had the al'Seens and Lewins behind him entire. He knew it, too. His apparent bored complacency did not last long, though.
At his first glimpse of Verin's smoothcheeked face, Luc stiffened slightly, eyes flickering to her hands so quickly many would not have noticed. He very nearly dropped his embroidered gloves. Plump and plainly dressed, she might have been another farm wife, but clearly he knew an Aes Sedai's ageless face, when he saw one. He was not particularly happy to see one here. The comer of his left eye twitched as he listened to Mistress al'Seen name “Mistress Mathwin” “a sc
