She was not the only Sitter taking her time to answer Lelaine's call. Delana was there, of course, slumped on her bench and rubbing the side of her nose, her watery blue eyes pensive. Once, Romanda had considered her levelheaded. Unsuitable for a chair, but levelheaded. At least she had not allowed Halima to follow her into the Hall and continue her harangue. Or rather, at least Halima had chosen not to. No one who had heard the woman shouting at Delana possessed any doubts who gave the orders there. Lelaine herself was already on her bench, just below the Amyrlin's, a slender, hard-eyed woman in blue-slashed silk who rationed her smiles tightly. Which made it doubly odd that now and then she glanced toward the seven-colored stole and gave a small smile. That smile made Romanda uneasy, and few things could do that. Moria, in blue wool embroidered with silver, was striding up and down in front of the blue-covered platforms. Was her frown because she knew why Lelaine had called the Hall and disapproved, or because she was worried over not knowing?

"I saw Myrelle walking with Llyw," Malind said, hitching up her green-fringed shawl as Romanda entered the pavilion, "and I don't think I've ever seen a sister looking so harassed." Despite the sympathy in her tone, her eyes sparkled and her full lips quirked with amusement. "How did you ever talk her into bonding him? I was there when someone suggested it to her, and I vow, she turned pale. The man could almost pass for an Ogier."

"I expressed myself forcefully on duty." Faiselle, stocky and square-faced, was forceful in everything; in truth, a hammer of a woman. She mocked every tale of seductive Domani. "I pointed out that Llyw had been becoming more and more dangerous to himself and others since Kairen died, and I told her it couldn't be allowed to continue. I made her see that as the only sister ever to save two other Warders in the same circumstances, she was the only choice to try doing it again. I'll admit I had to twist her arm a little, but she eventually saw the right of the matter."

"How under the Light could you twist Myrelle's arm?" Malind leaned forward eagerly.

Romanda passed them by. How could anyone have twisted Myrelle's arm? No. No gossip.

Janya was on her bench for the Brown, squinting in thought. At least, she was squinting, but the woman always seemed to be thinking of something else even when she was talking to you. Maybe her eyes were bad. The rest of the benches still stood empty, though. Romanda wished she had been more leisurely. She would much rather have been the last to arrive than one of the first.

After a moment's hesitation, she approached Lelaine. "Would you care to give an idea of why you called the Hall?"

Lelaine smiled down at her, an amused smile, yet unpleasant even so. "You might as well wait until we have enough Sitters to proceed. I don't care to repeat myself. I will tell you this much. It will be dramatic." Her eyes drifted to the striped stole, and Romanda felt a chill.

She did not let it show, however, merely taking her bench across from Lelaine. She could not help glancing uneasily at the stole herself. Was this some move to unseat Egwene? It seemed unlikely the other woman could say anything that would convince her to stand for the greater consensus. Or many of the other Sitters, since that would throw them back to the struggle between her and Lelaine for control and weaken their position against Elaida. Yet Lelaine's air of confidence was unnerving. She schooled her features to calmness and waited. There was nothing else to do.

Kwamesa all but darted into the pavilion, her sharp-nosed face chagrined at not being first to arrive, and joined Delana. Salita appeared, dark and cool-eyed in yellow-slashed green embroidered with yellow scrollwork on the bosom, and suddenly there was a rush. Lyrelle glided in, graceful and elegant in brocaded blue silk, to take her place with the Blues, then Saroiya and Aledrin with their heads together, the blocky Domani seeming almost slender alongside the stout Taraboner. As they took their places on the White benches, fox-faced Samalin joined Faiselle and Malind, and tiny Escaralde scurried in. She scurried! The woman was from Far Madding, too. She should know better how to behave.

"Varilin is in Darein, I believe,'' Romanda said as Escaralde climbed up beside Janya, "but even if some others arrive later, we have more than eleven. Are you content to begin, Lelaine, or do you wish to wait?"

"I am content to begin."

"Do you wish a formal sitting?"

Lelaine smiled again. She was being very free with those this morning. They did nothing to warm her face. "That won't be necessary, Romanda." She rearranged her skirts slightly. "But I ask that what is said here be Sealed to the Hall for the time being." A murmur rose from the growing crowd of sisters standing behind the benches and those outside the pavilion. Even some of the Sitters showed surprise. If the sitting was not formal, what need could there be to restrict knowledge of what was said so closely?

Romanda nodded as though it were the most reasonable request in the world, though. "Let all depart who do not hold a chair. Aledrin, will you make us private?"

Despite dark yellow hair of a silky texture and large, liquid brown eyes, the Taraboner White fell short of pretty, but she had a good head on her shoulders, which was far more important. Standing, she seemed uncertain whether she should speak the formal words, and finally contented herself with weaving the ward against eavesdropping around the pavilion and holding it. The murmuring faded as sisters and Warders passed through that ward, until the last was gone and silence fell. They stood in ranks shoulder-to-shoulder on the walkway watching, however, the Warders all crowded to the rear so everyone could see.

Adjusting her shawl, Lelaine stood. "A Green sister was brought to me when she came asking for Egwene." The Green Sitters stirred, exchanging glances, no doubt wondering why the sister was not brought to them instead. Lelaine affected not to notice. "Not for the Amyrlin Seat, for Egwene al'Vere. She has a proposal that meets some of our needs, though she was reluctant to say very much of it to me. Moria, will you bring her so she can present her proposal to the Hall?" She resumed her seat.

Moria left the pavilion still frowning, and the crowd outside opened enough to let her through. Romanda could see sisters trying to question her, but she ignored them, disappearing across the street and into the Blue Ajah quarters. Romanda had a dozen questions she would have liked to ask in the interval, but informal session or not, questions would have been improper at this point. The Sitters did not wait in silence, however. At every Ajah except the Blue, women stepped down so they could come together and speak in low voices. Except the Blue and the Yellow. Salita climbed down and walked over to Romanda's platform, but Romanda raised a hand slightly as soon as she opened her mouth.

"What is there to discuss until we know what the proposal is, Salita?"

The Tairen Sitter's round face was as unreadable as a stone, but after a moment she nodded and resumed her seat. She was not unintelligent; far from it. Just unsuitable.

At last Moria returned leading a tall woman in dark green, her dark hair pulled back severely from a stern ivory face and held by a silver comb, and everyone climbed back to their benches. Three men with swords at their hips trailed after her through the watching sisters and into the pavilion. Unusual, that. Very unusual when matters had been Sealed to the Hall. Romanda paid them little mind at first, though. She had had no real interest in Warders since her last had died, a good many years earlier. But someone among the Greens gasped, and Aledrin squeaked. She actually squeaked! And she was staring at the Warders. That had to be what they were, and not only because they were heeling the Green. There was no mistaking a Warder's deadly grace.

Romanda took a longer look, and nearly gasped herself. They were disparate men, alike only in the way a leopard was like a lion, but one, a pretty, sun-dark boy with his hair in belled braids, garbed all in black, wore a pair of pins on the tall collar of his coat. A silver sword, and a sinuous, maned creature in red and gold. She had heard enough descriptions to know she was looking at an Asha'man. An Asha'man who had been bonded, apparently. Gathering her skirts, Malind jumped down and rushed out into the crowd of sisters. Surely she was not frightene

d. Although Romanda admitted to a hint of unease herself, if only to herself.

"You are not one of us," Janya said, speaking up where she should not as always. She leaned forward, squinting at the new-come sister. "Should I take it you have not come here to join us?"

The Green's mouth twisted in obvious distaste. "You take it correctly," she said in a strong Taraboner accent. "My name is Merise Haindehl, and me, I will stand with no sister who wishes to contend against other sisters while the world hangs in the balance. Our enemy, it is the Shadow, not women who wear the shawl as we do." Mutters rose in the pavilion, some angry, some, Romanda thought, shamed.

"If you disapprove of what we do," Janya went on, as if she had a right to speak before Romanda, "why do you bring us any sort of proposal?"

"Because the Dragon Reborn, he asked Cadsuane, and Cadsuane, she asked me," Merise replied. The Dragon Reborn? The tension in the Hall was suddenly palpable, but the woman continued as if she were senseless to it. "Properly, it is not my proposal. Jahar, speak to them."

The sun-dark youth stepped forward, and as he passed her, Merise reached up to pat him on the shoulder encouragingly. Romanda's respect for her rose. To bond an Asha'man was accomplishment enough. To pat one as you might a hunting hound took a level of courage and self-confidence she herself was unsure she possessed.

The boy strode to the center of the pavilion staring at the bench where the Amyrlin's stole lay, then turned about slowly, running his gaze over the Sitters with an air of challenge. It came to Romanda that he was unafraid, too. An Aes Sedai held his bond, he was alone and surrounded by sisters, yet if there was a scrap of fear in him, he had it under complete control.

"Where is Egwene al'Vere?" he demanded. "I was ordered to lay the offer before her."

"Manners, Jahar," Merise murmured, and his face colored.

"The Mother is unavailable at the moment," Romanda said smoothly. "You can tell us, and we will tell her as soon as we can. This offer comes from the Dragon Reborn?" And Cadsuane. But learning what that woman was doing in company with the Dragon Reborn was secondary.

Instead of answering, he snarled and spun to face Merise. "A man just tried to listen in," he said. "Or maybe it was that Forsaken who killed Eben."

"He is right." Aledrin's voice was unsteady. "At least, something touched my warding, and it wasn't saidar."

"He's channeling?" someone said incredulously. A flurry broke out of Sitters shifting on the benches, and the light of the Power enveloped several.

Abruptly, Delana stood. "I need a breath of fresh air," she said, glowering at Jahar as though she wanted to rip his throat out.

"There's no need to be uneasy," Romanda said, though she was not sure herself, but Delana, wrapped in her shawl, hurried from the pavilion.

Malind passed her coming in, as did Nacelle, a tall slender Malkieri, one of the handful remaining in the Tower. A good many had died in the years after Malkier fell to the Shadow, letting themselves be pulled into schemes to avenge their native land, and replacements had been few and far between since. Nacelle was not particularly intelligent, but then, Greens did not need intelligence, only courage.

"This session has been Sealed to the Hall, Malind," Romanda said sharply.

"Nacelle needs only moments," Malind replied, rubbing her hands together. Irritatingly, she did not even bother to look at Romanda, keeping her eyes on the other Green. "This is her first chance to test a new weave. Go ahead, Nacelle. Try it."

The glow of saidar appeared around the slim Green. Shocking! The woman neither asked permission nor told them what weave she intended, although tight strictures held on what uses of the Power were allowed in the Hall. Channeling all of the Five Powers, she wove around the Asha'man something that seemed akin to the weave for detecting residues, a thing Romanda had small facility for. Nacelle's blue eyes widened. "He is channeling," she breathed. "Or at least holding saidin."

Romanda's eyebrows climbed. Even Lelaine gasped. Finding a man who could channel was always a matter of reading the residues of what he had done, then arduously narrowing the suspects down to the true culprit. Or rather, it had been. This was truly wondrous. Or would have been before men who could channel started wearing black coats and strutting around openly. Still, it negated one advantage those men had always had over Aes Sedai. The Asha'man seemed not to care. His lip curled in what might have been a sneer.

"Can you tell what he is channeling?" she asked, and disappointingly, Nacelle shook her head.

"I thought I'd be able to, but no. On the other hand. . . . You there, Asha'man. Extend a flow toward one of the Sitters. Nothing dangerous, mind, and do not touch her.''

Merise glowered at her, fists planted on her hips. Maybe Nacelle failed to realize he was one of her Warders. She certainly gestured at him in peremptory fashion. A stubborn cast to his eyes, Jahar opened his mouth.

"Do it, Jahar," Merise said. "He is mine, Nacelle, but I will let you give him an order. This once." Nacelle looked shocked. Apparently she had failed to realize.

For the Asha'man's part, that stubborn look remained, yet he must have obeyed because Nacelle clapped her hands delightedly and laughed.

"Saroiya," she said excitedly. "You extended a flow toward Saroiya. The Domani White. Am I right?"

Saroiya's coppery skin paled, and gathering her white-fringed shawl around her, she hastily slid back on her bench as far as she could. For that matter, Aledrin edged away on her own bench.

"Tell her," Merise said. "Jahar, he can be stubborn, but he is the good boy for all that."

"The Domani White," Jahar agreed reluctantly. Saroiya swayed as if she were going to fall over, and he glanced at her contemptuously. "It was only Spirit, and it's gone now." Saroiya's face darkened, but whether from anger or embarrassment there was no telling.

"A remarkable discovery," Lelaine said, "and I'm sure that Merise will allow you to test further, Nacelle, but the Hall has business to conclude. I'm certain you agree, Romanda."

Romanda barely managed to stop herself from glaring. Lelaine overstepped herself too often. "If your demonstration is at an end." she said, "you may withdraw, Nacelle." The Malkieri Green was reluctant to go, perhaps because she could tell from Merise's expression that there would be no further testing—really, you would think a Green of all people would be careful with any man who might be another sister's Warder—yet she had no choice, of course. "What proposal does the Dragon Reborn have for us, boy?" Romanda asked once Nacelle was on the other side of the warding.

"This," he said, facing her proudly. "Any sister who is faithful to Egwene al'Vere may bond an Asha'man, to a total of forty-seven. You cannot ask for the Dragon Reborn, nor any man who wears the dragon, but any Soldier or Dedicated you ask cannot refuse."

Romanda felt as if all the breath had been squeezed from her lungs.

"You will agree this meets our needs?" Lelaine said calmly. The woman must have known the gist of it from the start, burn her.

"I do," Romanda replied. With forty-seven men who could channel, surely they could expand their circles as far as they would go. Perhaps even a circle that included all of them. If there were limits, they would need to be worked out.

Faiselle popped to her feet, as if this were a formal sitting. "This must be debated. I call for a formal session."

"I see no need for that," Romanda told her without rising. "This is much better than . . . what we previously agreed on." There was no point in saying too much in front of the boy. Or Merise. What was her connection to the Dragon Reborn? Could she be one of the sisters said to have sworn oaths to him?

Saroiya was on her feet before the last word left Romanda's mouth. "There is still the question of covenants, to be sure we are in control. We still have not agreed on those."

"I should think the Warder bond will make any other covenants moot," Lyrelle said dryly.

Faiselle rose hurriedly, and she and Saroiya spoke atop each other. "The taint—" They stopped, staring at each other suspiciously.

/>

"Saidin is clean," Jahar said, though no one had addressed him. Merise really should teach the boy how to behave if she was going to bring him before the Hall.

"Clean?" Saroiya said derisively.

"It has been tainted for more than three thousand years," Faiselle put in sharply. "How can be it clean?"

"Order!" Romanda snapped, trying to regain control. "Order!" She stared at Saroiya and Faiselle until they resumed their seats, then turned her attention to Merise. "Can I assume that you have linked with him?" The Green simply nodded once. She really did not like her present company, and did not want to say a word more than necessary. "Can you say that saidin is free of the taint?"

The woman did not hesitate. "I can. I took time to be convinced. The male half of the Power, it is more alien than you can imagine. Not the inexorable yet gentle power of saidar, but rather a raging sea of fire and ice whipped by a tempest. Yet I am convinced. It is clean."

Romanda let out a long breath. A marvel to balance some of the horrors. "We are not formal, but I call the question. Who stands to accept this offer?" She was on her feet as soon as she finished, but no faster than Lelaine, and Janya beat both of them. In moments, everyone was on her feet save Saroiya and Faiselle. Outside the warding, heads turned as sisters doubtless began discussing what might have just been voted on. "The lesser consensus standing, the offer to bond forty-seven Asha'man is accepted." Saroiya's shoulders slumped, and Faiselle exhaled heavily.

She called for the greater consensus in the name of unity, but it did not surprise her when the pair remained firmly on their benches. After all, they had fought approaching the Asha'man at every turn, struggled despite law and custom to impede it even after it had been decided on. In any event, it was done, and without need of even a temporary alliance. Bonding would last a lifetime, of course, yet it was better than any sort of alliance. That implied too much equality.