“Marath’damane”, Part 4

Wherein an Oath is made under terms of duress…

The mud-splattered child crouched on the ground a short distance away and observed them cautiously.

”She has the ageless face,” the girl exclaimed softly, “but she does not look like any Aes Sedai I have ever seen.”

Bedevir looked up and replied, “Forgive me, but I do not have the pleasure of your acquaintance.”

”Alicia,” said the girl. Her bright green eyes were still reddened from tears, but she spoke solidly.

”Bedevir,” the Warder responded. “She is Egraine Sedai. You will have to forgive me, Alicia. I am afraid we have little in the way of comfort to offer you.”

”More than usual,” the girl shrugged. She looked as if she were used to the hollowness of an empty stomach.

”Well and good,” he nodded, adjusting his bracers. “Now, will you please tell me what my lady and I have stumbled into.”

Alicia divided a long gaze between them before answering hesitantly, “You do not know of the Seanchan?”

”Should we?” Bedevir looked at her sideways. “Egraine Sedai and I don’t often visit towns or villages or larger cities. Any news we receive at all is generally sorely out of date.”

”That woman!” Alicia suddenly snapped, thrusting a mud-encrusted finger at the blond woman with the collar. “Bloody Seanchan sul’dam!”

Egraine jumped at Alicia’s outburst and squeezed her eyes closed.

”Oh ho,” the Warder nodded to himself, wondering if bringing this…Seanchan…along had been such a good idea. He had been hoping for information rather than further complications. Once you landed in a fire, there generally was no way out but through. He immediately decided that Alicia lacked compatibility with their other guest.

”Took my sister away, stupid daughter of a goat!” the dirty girl shouted shrilly, tears streaming from her eyes and over her cheeks. She sprang fiercely to her feet and kicked the prone woman in the side as hard as she possibly could. With a grunt, her victim doubled herself more completely into a ball. Alicia already wound up for a second kick before Bedevir sprang over the fire and lifted her away with his thick arms.

“Let me go! She deserves it!” Alicia immediately began to struggle against him.

”Please hold on,” the Warder begged the girl. “I brought her here because I thought she might need help.”

The muddy girl continued to struggle against him by flailing against his shins with her heels. “You slew five of her friends in that fight and you thought she needed help?!?”

”Something very strange happened when I locked that collar around her throat,” Bedevir explained calmly. “When I picked her up, she would have bit me and kicked me like a feral animal. But, then I locked the collar onto her and I felt her fighting spirit flee. I have never felt anyone fall into despair so quickly. That thing is some form of ter’angreal, I’d wager. I have a duty to make certain it finds its way to the White Tower. At the very least, I have to find out what this woman said as I dropped her.”

Egraine watched them in bewilderment. Bedevir felt something from her not unlike a dawning revelation, as if she verged on becoming inspired. She stared unblinkingly at the blond woman, and at the length of delicately worked silver attached to the collar on her neck.

Alicia finally relaxed enough for Bedevir to let her feet back to the ground. “She would put that collar on your Aes Sedai’s neck without a second thought. She deserves to be staked out in the rain.”

”This woman is a soldier,” Bedevir said. “I know soldiers when I see them. You have to forgive soldiers for following orders. No one deserves to be staked anywhere over fighting for what they believe in. Will you give me your oath that you will not strike out at her again?”

”She bloody well deserves it,” the girl insisted.

”I will not release you until you give me an oath.”

Alicia humphed in annoyance. “I swear on the Light not to kill her now.”

”Not hurt,” Bedevir prompted.

”And I also swear not to hurt her,” the girl droned. “Happy now?”

He carefully let her go and said, “I hold you to your word. If you break it, I will not hesitate to stake you out in the rain.”

Alicia glowered at him, but nodded. She wrapped her arms around herself and started to sit, glaring emerald daggers at the back of the woman lying nearby. For the first time, Bedevir really looked at her. Her patchy clothes hung loosely over skinny arms. Whether she wore the remains of breeches or a dress, he could not tell. Her hair straggled to the lower part of her back in a thatch whose color defied guessing. The grime did not disguise the scars lining her arms and legs. When he saw her flee before, he never thought that her feet might be bare. She shivered and glared at him again.

Bedevir took off his colorshifting cloak, then carefully draped it over her shoulders.

”Wait,” she protested, green eyes wide.

He shook his head. “No, you need it more than I. We have no other clothes to give you.”

(to be continued)