She focused suddenly on Perrin, seeing him completely for the first time, the blackness having faded from his clothing. "You!" she screeched. "You are to blame for this!"
She raised her hands; her eyes almost seemed to glow with hatred. Perrin could smell the emotion in spite of the blowing wind. She released a white-hot bar of light, but Perrin bent it around himself.
The woman started. They always did that. Didn’t they realize that nothing was real here except what you thought to be real? Perrin vanished, appearing behind her, raising his hammer. Then he hesitated. A woman?
She spun about, screaming and ripping the earth beneath him. He jumped up into the sky, and the air around him tried to seize him—but he did what he’d done before, creating a wall of nothingness. There was no air to grab him. Holding his breath, he vanished and appeared back on the ground, summoning banks of earth in front of him to block the balls of fire that hurtled his way.
"I want you dead!" the woman screamed. "You should be dead. My plans were perfect!"
Perrin vanished, leaving behind a statue of himself. He appeared beside the tent, where Gaul watched carefully, spear raised. Perrin put a wall between them and the woman, coloring it to hide them, and made a barrier to block the sound.
"She can’t hear us now", Perrin said.
"You are strong here", Gaul said thoughtfully. "Very strong. Do the Wise Ones know of this?"
"I’m still a pup compared to them", Perrin said.
"Perhaps", Gaul said. "I have not seen them, and they do not speak of this place to men". He shook his head. "Much honor, Perrin Aybara. You have much honor".
"I should have just struck her down", Perrin said as Heartseeker destroyed the statue of him, then stepped up to it, looking confused. She turned about, searching frantically.
"Yes", Gaul agreed. "A warrior who will not strike a Maiden is a warrior who refuses her honor. Of course, the greater honor for you . . "
Would be to take her captive. Could he do it? Perrin took a breath, then sent himself behind her, imagining vines reaching around her to hold her in place. The woman howled curses at him, slicing the vines with unseen blades. She reached her hand toward Perrin, and he shifted to the side.
His feet crunched on bits of frost on the ground that he hadn’t noticed, and she immediately spun on him and released another weave of balefire. Clever, Perrin thought, barely managing to bend the light away. It struck the hillside behind, drilling a hole straight through it.
Heartseeker continued the weave, snarling, hideous face distorted. The weave bent back toward Perrin, and he gritted his teeth, keeping it at bay. She was strong. She pushed hard, but finally, she released it, panting. "How . . . how can you possibly . . ".
Perrin filled her mouth with forkroot. It was difficult to do; changing anything directly about a person was always harder. However, this was much easier than trying to transform her into an animal or the like. She raised a hand to her mouth, eyes adopting a look of panic. She began to spit and hack, then desperately opened a gateway beside her.
Perrin growled, imagining ropes reaching for her, but she destroyed them with a weave of Fire—she must have gotten the forkroot out. She hurled herself through the gateway, and he shifted himself to be right in front of it, preparing to leap through. He froze when he saw her entering the middle of an enormous army of Trollocs and Fades at night. Many faced the gateway, eager.
Perrin stepped back as Heartseeker raised a hand to her mouth, looking aghast and coughing out more forkroot. The gateway closed.
"You should have killed her", Lanfear said.
Perrin turned to find the woman standing nearby, her arms folded. Her hair had changed from silver to dark brown. In fact, her face had changed, too, becoming slightly more like it had been before, when he’d first seen her nearly two years ago.
Perrin said nothing, returning his hammer to its straps.
"This is a weakness, Perrin", Lanfear said. "I found it charming in Lews Therin at one point, but that doesn’t make it any less a weakness. You need to overcome it".
"I will", he snapped. "What was she doing, up there with the balls of light?"
"Invading dreams", Lanfear said. "She was here in the flesh. That affords one certain advantages, particularly when playing with dreams. That hussy. She thinks she knows this place, but it has always been mine. It would have been best if you’d killed her".
"That was Graendal, wasn’t it?" Perrin asked. "Or was it Moghedien?"
"Graendal", Lanfear said. "Though, again, we are not to use that name for her. She’s been renamed Hessalam".
"Hessalam", Perrin said, trying the word out in his mouth. "I don’t know it".
"It means ‘without forgiveness.’ "
"And what is your new name, the one we’re supposed to call you, now?"
That actually pulled a blush out of her. "Never mind", she said. "You are skilled here in Tel’aran’rhiod. Much better than Lews Therin ever was. I always thought I would rule at his side, that only a man who could channel would be worthy of me. But the power you display here . . . I think I may accept it as a substitute".
Perrin grunted. Gaul had moved across the small clearing between the camp tents, spear raised, shoufa covering his face. Perrin waved him off. Not only was Lanfear likely to be much better with the wolf dream than Gaul, but she hadn’t done anything specifically threatening yet.
"If you've been watching me", Perrin said, "you’ll know that I’m married, quite happily".
"So I have seen".
"Then stop looking at me like a flank of beef hung up for display in the market", Perrin growled. "What was Graendal doing here? What does she want?"
"I’m not certain", Lanfear said lightly. "She always has three or four plots going at the same time. Don’t underestimate her, Perrin. She’s not as skilled here as some others, but she is dangerous. She’s a fighter, unlike Moghedien, who will run from you whenever she can".
"I'll keep that in mind", Perrin said, walking up to the place where she’d vanished by gateway. He prodded at the earth where the gateway had cut the ground.
"You could do that, you know", Lanfear said.
He spun on her. "What?"
"Go back and forth into the waking world", she said. "Without requiring the help of one like Lews Therin".
Perrin didn’t like the way she sneered when she said his name. She tried to cover it up, but he smelled hatred on her whenever she mentioned him.
"I can’t channel", Perrin said. "I suppose I could imagine being able to . . ".
"It wouldn’t work", she said. "There are limits to what one can accomplish here, regardless of how strong the mind. The ability to channel is not a thing of the body, but a thing of the soul. There are still ways for one such as you to move back and forth between worlds in the flesh. The one you call Slayer does it".
"He’s not a wolfbrother".
"No", she said. "But he is something similar. I’m honestly not certain another has had his skills before. The Dark One did . . . something to this Slayer when capturing his soul, or his souls. I suspect Semirhage might have been able to tell us more. It’s a pity she’s dead".
Lanfear didn’t smell of pity at all. She glanced at the sky, but was calm, not worried.
"You don’t seem as worried about being spotted as you once were", Perrin noted.
"My former master is . . . occupied. This last week watching you, I’ve rarely felt his eyes on me".
"Week?" Perrin asked, shocked. "But—"
"Time passes oddly here", she said, "and the barriers of time itself are fraying. The closer you are to the Bore, the more time will distort. For those who approach Shayol Ghul in the real world, it will be just as bad. For every day that passes to them, three or four might pass to those more distant".
A week? Light! How much had happened on the outside? Who lived, and who had died, while Perrin hunted? He should wait at the Traveling ground for his portal to open. But, judging by the darkness he’d seen through Graendal’s gateway, it was night. Perrin’s escape portal could be hours away.
"You could make a gateway for me", Perrin said. "A pathway out, then back in. Will you?"
Lanfear considered it, strolling past one of the flickering tents and letting her fingers trail on the canvas as it vanished. "No", she finally said.
"But—"
"You must learn to do this thing for yourself if we are to be together".
"We’re not going to be together", he said flatly.
"You need this power of and for yourself", she said, ignoring what he had said. "You are weak so long as you are trapped only in one of the worlds; being able to come here when you want will give you great power".
"I don’t care about power, Lanfear", he said, watching her as she continued to stroll. She was pretty. Not as pretty as Faile, of course. Beautiful nonetheless.
"Don’t you?" She faced him. "Have you never thought of what you could do with more strength, more power, more authority?"
"That won’t tempt me to—"
"Save lives?" she said. "Prevent children from starving? Stop the weak from being bullied, end wickedness, reward honor? Power to encourage men to be straightforward and honest with one another?"
He shook his head.
"You could do so much good, Perrin Aybara", she said, walking up to him, then touching the side of his face, running her fingers down his beard.
"Tell me how to do what Slayer does", Perrin said, pushing her hand away. "How does he move between worlds?"
"I cannot explain it to you", she said, turning away, "as it is a skill I have never had to learn. I use other methods. Perhaps you can beat it out of him. I would be quick, assuming you wish to stop Graendal".
"Stop her?" Perrin said.
"Didn't you realize?" Lanfear turned back to him. "The dream she was invading was not one of the people from this camp—space and distance matter not to dreams. That dream you saw her invading . . . it belongs to Davram Bashere. Father of your wife".
With that, Lanfear vanished.
CHAPTER 23
At the Edge of Time
Gawyn tugged urgently on Egwene’s shoulder. Why wouldn’t she move? Whoever that man was in the armor made of silver discs, he could sense female channelers. He d picked Leane out of the darkness; he could do the same for Egwene. Light, he probably would, as soon as he took a moment to notice.
I’m going to haul her up onto my shoulder, if she doesn’t move, he thought. Light help me, I’ll do it, no matter how much noise it makes. We’re going to be caught anyway, if we—
The one who called himself Bao moved off, towing Leane—still wrapped in Air—with him. The others followed in a mass, leaving the awful, charred remnants of the other captives behind.