“They do,” Perrin said. “And I’ve a mind to trust them. Why would they lie?”
Galad raised an eyebrow. “Insanity?”
Perrin nodded at that. This Perrin Aybara was an interesting man. Others often responded with anger when Galad said what he thought, but he was coming to realize that he didn’t need to hold himself back with Perrin. This man responded well to honesty. If he was a Darkfriend or Shadowspawn, he was a very odd sort.
The horizon was starting to grow brighter. Light, had night already passed? Bodies littered the ground, most of them Trollocs. The stench was of burned flesh and fur, nauseating as it mixed with that of blood and mud. Galad felt exhausted.
He’d allowed an Aes Sedai to Heal him. “Once you’ve committed your reserves, there’s no use holding back your scouts,” Gareth Bryne was fond of saying. If he was going to let Aes Sedai save his men, then he might as well accept their Healing. Once, accepting Aes Sedai Healing hadn’t bothered him nearly so much.
“Perhaps,” Perrin said. “Perhaps the Asha’man are mad, and the taint isn’t cleansed. But they’ve served me well, and I figure they’ve earned the right to be trusted until they show me otherwise. You and your men might well owe your lives to Grady and Neald.”
“And they have my thanks,” Galad said, stepping over the hulking body of a Trolloc with a bear’s snout. “Though few of my men will express that emotion. They aren’t certain what to think of your intervention here, Aybara.”
“Still think I set them up somehow?”
“Perhaps,” Galad said. “Either you are a Darkfriend of unsurpassed cunning, or you really did as you said—coming to save my men despite your treatment at our hands. In that case, you are a man of honor. Letting us die would have made your life much easier, I believe.”
“No,” Perrin said. “Every sword is needed at the Last Battle, Galad.
Every one.”
Galad grunted, kneeling beside a soldier with a red cloak and turning him over. It wasn’t a red cloak; it was a white one soaked in blood. Ranun Sinah would not see the Last Battle. Galad closed the young man’s eyes, breathing a prayer to the Light in his name.
“So what now for you and yours?” Perrin asked.
“We continue on,” Galad said, rising. “North, to my estates in Andor to prepare.”
“You could—” Perrin froze. Then he turned, trotting across the battlefield.
Galad hurried after him. Perrin reached a heap of Trollocs, then began pushing bodies aside. Galad heard a very faint sound. Moaning. He helped move a dead hawk-headed beast, its too-human eyes staring lifelessly.
Beneath it, a young man looked up, blinking. It was Jerum Nus, one of the Children.
“Oh, Light,” the young man croaked. “It hurts. I thought I was dead. Dead…”
His side was cut open. Perrin knelt hastily, lifting the boy’s head, giving him a drink of water as Galad took a bandage from the bag he carried and used it to wrap the wound. That cut was bad. The unfortunate youth would die for certain. He—
No, Galad realized. We have Aes Sedai. It was hard to get used to thinking that way.
Jerum was crying with joy, holding to Perrin’s arm. The boy looked delusional. He didn’t seem to care one bit about those golden eyes.
“Drink, son,” Perrin said, voice soothing. Kindly. “It’s all right. We found you. You’re going to be fine.”
“It seemed like I yelled for hours,” the youth said. “But I was so weak, and they were on top of me. How…how did you find me?”
“I have good ears,” Perrin said. He nodded to Galad, and together they lifted the youth, Perrin beneath the arms, Galad taking the legs. They carefully carried him across the battlefield. The youth continued mumbling, consciousness slipping.
At the side of the battlefield, the Aes Sedai and Aiel Wise Ones were Healing the wounded. As Galad and Perrin arrived, a light-haired Wise One—a woman who looked not a day older than Galad, but spoke with the authority of an aged matron—hustled over. She began chastising them for moving the lad as she reached out to touch his head.
“Do you give permission, Galad Damodred?” she asked. “This one is too far gone to speak for himself.”
Galad had insisted that each Child be given the choice to refuse Healing, regardless of the nature of their wound. The Aes Sedai and Wise Ones hadn’t liked it, but Perrin had repeated the order. They seemed to listen to him. Odd. Galad had rarely met Aes Sedai who would listen to the orders, or even opinions, of a man.
“Yes,” Galad said. “Heal him.”
The Wise One turned to her work. Most Children had refused Healing, though some had changed their minds once Galad himself accepted it. The youth’s breathing steadied, his wound closing. The Wise One didn’t Heal him completely—only far enough that he’d survive the day. When she opened her eyes, she looked haggard, even more tired than Galad felt.
The channelers had fought all night, followed by performing Healings. Galad and Perrin moved back onto the field. They weren’t the only ones searching for wounded, of course. Perrin himself could have gone back to camp to rest. But he hadn’t.
“I can offer you another option,” Perrin said as they walked. “As opposed to staying here, in Ghealdan, weeks from your destination. I could have you in Andor tonight.”
“My men would not trust this Traveling.”
“They’d go if you ordered them,” Perrin said. “You’ve said that you’ll fight alongside Aes Sedai. Well, I don’t see anything different between that and this. Come with me.”
“You’d let us join you, then?”
Perrin nodded. “I’d need an oath from you, though.”
“What manner of oath?”
“I’ll be frank with you, Galad. I don’t think we have much time left. A few weeks, maybe. Well, I fancy we’ll need you, but Rand won’t like the idea of Whitecloaks in the battle lines unsupervised. So, I want you to swear you’ll accept me as your commander until the battle is through.”
Galad hesitated. Dawn was close now; in fact, it might have arrived, behind those clouds. “Do you realize what an audacious suggestion you make? The Lord Captain Commander of the Children of the Light obeying the orders of any man would be remarkable. But to you, a man I just recently saw judged a killer? A man most of the Children are convinced is a Darkfriend?”
Perrin turned to him. “You come with me now, and I’ll get you to the Last Battle. Without me, who knows what will happen?”
“You said every sword was needed,” Galad replied. “You’d leave us?”
“Yes. If I don’t have that oath, I will. Rand may come back for you himself, though. In me, you know what you’re getting. I’ll be fair to you. All I’ll ask is that your men stay in line, then fight where they’re told when the battle comes. Rand…well, you can say no to me. You’ll find it much harder to say it to him. And I doubt you’ll like the result half as much, either, once you end up saying yes.”
Galad frowned. “You’re an oddly compelling man, Perrin Aybara.”
“We have a bargain?” Perrin held out a hand.
Galad took it. It wasn’t the threat that did it; it was remembering Perrin’s voice when he’d found Jerum wounded. That compassion. No Darkfriend could feign that.
“You have my oath,” Galad said. “To accept you as my military commander until the end of the Last Battle.” He suddenly felt weaker than he had before, and he released a breath, then sat on a nearby rock.
“And you have my oath,” Perrin said. “I’ll see your men cared for like the others. Sit here and rest a spell; I’ll search that patch over there. The weakness will pass soon.”
“Weakness?”
Perrin nodded. “I know what it’s like to be caught up in the needs of a ta’veren. Light, but I do.” He eyed Galad. “You ever wonder why we ended up here, in this same place?”
“My men and I assumed it was because the Light had placed you before us,” Galad said. “So we could punish you.”
Perrin shook his head. “That’s not it at all. Truth is, Galad, I apparently needed you. And that’s why you ended up here.” With that, he headed off.
Alliandre carefully folded the bandage, then passed it to a waiting gai’shain. His fingers were thick and callused, his face hidden beneath the hood of his robe. She thought it might be Niagen, the Brotherless that Lacile had been taking after. That still irked Faile, but Alliandre couldn’t fathom why. An Aiel man would probably match Lacile well.
Alliandre began rolling another bandage. She sat with other women in a small clearing near the battlefield, surrounded by scraggly scatterhead and stands of leatherleaf. The cool air was quiet save for the nearby groans of the wounded.
She cut another length of cloth in the morning light. The cloth had been a shirt. Now it was bandages. Not a great loss; it hadn’t been a very good shirt, by the looks of it.
“The battle is through?” Berelain said softly. She and Faile worked nearby, sitting on stools across from one another as they cut.
“Yes, it appears that it is,” Faile replied.
Both fell silent. Alliandre raised an eyebrow, but did not say anything. Something was going on between those two. Why suddenly start pretending they were the greatest of friends? The act seemed to fool many of the men in camp, but Alliandre could see the truth in the way their lips tightened when they saw one another. It had lessened after Faile had saved Berelain’s life, but not vanished entirely.
“You were right about him,” Berelain said.
“You sound surprised.”
“I am not often wrong when it comes to men.”
“My husband is not like other men. It—” Faile cut off. She looked toward Alliandre, eyes narrowing.
Bloody ashes, Alliandre thought. She’d sat too far away, which made her strain, turning to eavesdrop. That was suspicious.
The two of them fell silent again, and Alliandre held up a hand, as if inspecting her nails. Yes, she thought. Ignore me. I don’t matter, I’m just a woman in over her head and struggling to keep up. Faile and Berelain didn’t think that, of course, any more than the Two Rivers men had ever thought Perrin had been unfaithful. If you sat them down and asked them—really made them think about it—they’d come to the conclusion that something else must have happened.
But things like superstition and bias ran deeper than mere thoughts. What the other two thought about Alliandre and what they instinctively felt were different. Besides, Alliandre really was a woman who was in over her head and struggling to keep up.
Best to know what your strengths were.
Alliandre turned back to cutting bandages. Faile and Berelain had insisted on staying to help; Alliandre couldn’t go. Not with the two of them acting so bloody fascinating lately. Besides, she didn’t mind the work. Compared to their captivity by the Aiel, this was really quite pleasant. Unfortunately, the two didn’t go back to their conversation. In fact, Berelain rose, looking frustrated, and walked toward the other side of the clearing.