Aybara met his gaze with those unnatural eyes of his. “It’s about a pair of Children of the Light I killed two years back. Now every time I turn around, it seems that there is a group of you snapping at my heels.”

It wasn’t often that a murderer was so open about what he had done. Galad heard the rasp of a sword being drawn behind him, and raised a hand. “Child Bornhald! You will control yourself!”

“Two Children of the Light, Shadowspawn?” Bornhald spat. “And what of my father?”

“I had nothing to do with his death, Bornhald,” Aybara said. “Geofram was killed by the Seanchan, unfortunately. For a Whitecloak, he seemed like a reasonable man, though he was planning to hang me.”

“He was to hang you for the murders you just confessed to,” Galad said calmly, shooting a glance at Bornhald. The man snapped his sword back in its sheath, but his face was red.

“They weren’t murders,” Aybara said. “They attacked me. I fought back.”

“That is not what I have heard,” Galad said. What game was this man playing? “I have sworn testimony that you were hiding underneath a cleft in the rock. When the men asked you to come out, you jumped out screaming and attacked them without provocation.”

“Oh, there was provocation,” Aybara said. “Your Whitecloaks killed a friend of mine.”

“The woman who was with you?” Galad asked. “From what I hear, she escaped safely.” He’d been shocked when Bornhald had mentioned that name. Egwene al’Vere. Another woman who seemed to prefer dangerous company.

“Not her,” Perrin said. “A friend named Hopper. And after him, a companion of his. They were wolves.”

The man was condemning himself further! “You make friends of wolves, known to be creatures of the Shadow?”

“Wolves aren’t of the Shadow,” Aybara said. “They hate Shadowspawn as much as any man I’ve known.”

“And how do you know this?”

Aybara said nothing further. There was more there. Byar said this man seemed able to command wolves, run with them, like a wolf himself. That testimony was part of what had persuaded Galad that battle was the only recourse. It seemed that Byar’s words had not been exaggeration.

But there was no need, yet, to dwell on that. Aybara had admitted to murder. “I don’t accept the killing of wolves as something to exonerate you,” Galad said. “Many hunters slay wolves who attack their flocks or threaten their lives. The Children did nothing wrong. Your attack on them, therefore, was unprovoked murder.”

“There was far more to it than that,” Aybara said. “But I doubt I’ll convince you of that.”

“I cannot be convinced of something that isn’t true,” Galad said.

“And you won’t leave me alone, either,” Aybara said.

“We are at an impasse, then,” Galad said. “You have confessed to crimes that I, as a servant of justice, must see righted. I cannot walk away. You see why I felt further parley was useless?”

“What if I were willing to stand trial?” Perrin asked.