Light, she thought, finishing her record. As if I didn’t have enough to worry about.

Egwene rose to call her maids, but a knock at the door interrupted her. Curious, she walked across the thick rug—wearing only her nightgown—and opened the door enough to see Silviana standing in the antechamber. Square-featured and dressed in red, she had her hair up in its typical bun, and her red Keeper’s stole over her shoulders.

“Mother,” the woman said, her voice tense. “I apologize for waking you.”

“I wasn’t asleep,” Egwene said. “What is it? What has happened?”

“He’s here, Mother. At the White Tower.”

“Who?”

“The Dragon Reborn. He’s asking to see you.”

“Well, this is a pot of fisherman’s stew made only with the heads,” Siuan said as she stalked through a hallway of the White Tower. “How did he get through the city without anyone seeing him?”

High Captain Chubain winced.

As well he should, Siuan thought. The raven-haired man wore the uniform of the Tower Guard, a white tabard over his mail emblazoned with the flame of Tar Valon. He walked with a hand on his sword. There had been some talk that he might be replaced as High Captain now that Bryne was in Tar Valon, but Egwene had followed Siuan’s advice not to do so. Bryne didn’t want to be High Captain, and he would be needed as a field general for the Last Battle.

Bryne was out with his men; finding quarters and food for fifty thousand troops was proving to be near impossible. She’d sent him word, and could feel him getting closer. Stern block of wood though the man was, Siuan felt that his stability would have been nice to have near her right now. The Dragon Reborn? Inside Tar Valon?

“It’s not really that surprising he got so far, Siuan,” Saerin said. The olive-skinned Brown had been with Siuan when they’d seen the captain racing by, pale-faced. Saerin had white at her temples, some measure of age as an Aes Sedai, and had a scar on one cheek, the origin of which Siuan hadn’t been able to pry out of her.

“There are hundreds of refugees pouring into the city each day,” Saerin continued, “and any man with half an inclination to fight is being sent for recruitment into the Tower Guard. It’s no wonder nobody stopped al’Thor.”

Chubain nodded. “He was at the Sunset Gate before anyone questioned him. And then he just…well, he just said he was the Dragon Reborn, and that he wanted to see the Amyrlin. Didn’t yell it out or anything, said it calm as spring rain.”

The hallways of the Tower were busy, though most of the women didn’t seem to know what they were to do, darting this way and that like fish in a net.

Stop that, Siuan thought. He’s come into our seat of power. He’s the one caught in the net.

“What is his game, do you think?” Saerin asked.