Towers of Midnight (The Wheel of Time #13)

Towers of Midnight (The Wheel of Time #13) Page 139

“I will see to that,” Rand said. “I need you to gather your soldiers.”

“I don’t see many of the other lads here…. No, wait. There’s Votabek and Redbord.” He waved to a pair of the toughs Min had noticed earlier. They hesitated, then walked over.

“Durnham?” one of them asked. “What’s this?”

“It’s time for the lawlessness in the city to end,” Durnham said. “We’re going to organize things, clean it up. The Lord Dragon has returned.”

One of them spat to the side. He was a burly man with curly black hair, Domani skin, and a thin mustache. “Burn him. He left us. I—” He cut off as he saw Rand.

“I’m sorry,” Rand said, meeting the man’s eyes. “I failed you. I will not do so again.”

The man glanced at his companion, who shrugged. “Lain’s never going to pay us. Might as well see what we can do here.”

“Naeff,” Rand called, waving the Asha’man forward. He and the Maidens stepped up from where they had been watching. “Make a gateway back to the Stone. I want weapons, armor and uniforms.”

“I’ll do it immediately,” Naeff said. “We’ll have soldiers bring them—”

“No,” Rand said. “Pass the supplies through, into this building here. I’ll clear a place for the gateway inside it. But no soldiers are to come.” Rand raised his eyes, looking at the street. “Bandar Eban has suffered enough beneath the hands of outsiders. Today, she will not know the hand of a conqueror.”

Min stepped back, and watched with wonder. The three soldiers hastened into the building and cleared out the urchins. When Rand saw them, he asked them to be messengers to run errands. They responded. Everyone responded to Rand, when they took time to look at him.

Perhaps another might have thought it some form of Compulsion, but Min saw their faces change, saw hope return as a glimmer in their eyes. They saw something about Rand they could trust. Something, at least, they hoped they could trust.

The three soldiers sent a few of the messenger boys and girls to fetch other former soldiers. Naeff made his gateway. In minutes, the original three soldiers stepped out of the building, wearing silvery breastplates and simple, clean clothing of green. The men had combed their beards and hair and found some water to wash their faces As quickly as that, they stopped looking like beggars and became soldiers. A bit smelly, but soldiers nonetheless.

The woman Min had noted earlier—the one she was certain could learn to channel—came over to speak with Rand. After a bit, she nodded, and soon had gathered women and men to fill buckets from the well. Min frowned at that until they started wiping clean the faces and hands of those who approached.

People began to gather around. Some curious, others hostile, still others merely caught in the flow. The woman and her team began sorting through them and setting them to work. Some to seek out the wounded or sickly, others to take up swords and uniforms. Another woman began interrogating the urchins, discovering where their parents were, if they had any.

Min sat down on the box that Rand had been sitting on. Within the hour, he had a group of soldiers five hundred strong, led by Captain Durnham and his two lieutenants. Many of those five hundred kept glancing down at their clean clothing and silvery breastplates as if amazed.

Rand spoke with many of them, apologizing directly. As he was speaking to one woman, the crowd behind began to shuffle and move. Rand turned to see an aged man approaching, his skin broken by terrible lesions. The crowd kept its distance.

“Naeff,” Rand called.

“My Lord?”

“Bring the Aes Sedai through,” Rand said. “There are people who require Healing.” The woman who had gotten people to fill water buckets led the old man to one side.

“My Lord,” Captain Durnham said, marching up. Min blinked. The man had found a razor somewhere and shaved off his beard, revealing a strong chin. He’d left a Domani mustache. Four men followed him as a guard.

“We’re going to need more room, my Lord,” Durnham said. “That building you chose is overflowing, and more and more are coming, filling the street.”

“What do you suggest?” Rand asked.

“The docks,” Durnham replied. “They are held by one of the city merchants. I’ll wager we can find some near-empty warehouses to use. Those once held food but…well, there isn’t any left.”

“And the merchant who holds the place?” Rand asked.

“My Lord,” Captain Durnham said, “nothing you can’t deal with.”

Rand smiled, then waved for Durnham to lead the way. Rand held his hand out to Min.

“Rand,” she said, joining him, “they’ll need food.”

“Yes,” he agreed. He looked southward, toward the nearby docks. “We’ll find it there.”

“Won’t it already have been eaten?”

Rand didn’t reply. They joined the newly formed city guard, walking at the head of a force in green and silver. Behind them trailed a growing throng of hopeful refugees.

The enormous docks of Bandar Eban were some of the most impressive in the world. They lay in a half-moon at the base of the city. Min was surprised to see how many ships were there, most of them Sea Folk vessels.

That’s right, Min thought. Rand had them bring food to the city. But it had spoiled. As Rand had left the city, he’d gotten word that all of the food on those ships had fallen to the Dark One’s touch.

Someone had set up blockades at the base of the roadway. Other roads to the docks looked similarly inhibited. Uniformed soldiers peeked out nervously from behind the barricade as Rand’s force walked up.

“Stop right there!” a voice called. “We don’t—”

Rand lifted his hand, then waved it casually. The barricade—formed of furniture and planks—rumbled, then slid to the side with a grinding of wood. Men cried out from behind, scrambling away.

Rand left the barricade slumped at the side of the road. He stepped forward, and Min could sense peace inside of him. A ragged-looking group of men with cudgels stood in the road, eyes wide. Rand picked one at the front. “Who is it that blocks my people from these docks and seeks to hoard food for himself? I would…speak with this person.”

“My Lord Dragon?”