Towers of Midnight

55 The One Left Behind

Aloud boom shook the hallways, making the entire structure rumble. Mat stumbled, leaning against the wall for support as smoke and chips of rock sprayed out of the opening behind them.

He ducked his head around and looked down the hallway as Thom and Noal ran onward, Thom clutching Moiraine. Noal had tossed his torch aside and gotten out a drum to try to soothe the Aelfinn. That had not worked, and so Mat had turned to the exploding cylinders and nightflowers.

Light, but the cylinders were deadly! He saw corpses of Aelfinn lying scattered through the hallway, their glistening skin ripped and torn, evil-looking smoke steaming from their blood. Others slid out of doorways and alcoves, pushing through the smoke. They walked on two legs, but they seemed to slither as they walked, waving back and forth through the hallway, their hissing growing angrier and angrier.

Heart pounding, Mat charged after Mat and Noal. “They still following?” Noal called.

“What do you think?” Mat said, catching up to the other two. “Light, but those snakes are fast!”

Mat and the other two burst into another room, identical to all of the others. Vaguely off-scale square walls, steam rising from the corners, black triangle-pattern floor tiles. There was no triangular opening at the center to get them out. Blood and bloody ashes.

Mat glanced at the three ways out, holding his ashandarei in sweaty hands. They could not do the same trick as before, bouncing back and forth between the same two rooms. Not with the Aelfinn behind them. He needed to invoke his luck. He prepared to spin, and—

“We have to keep moving!” Noal yelled. He had stopped by the doorway, dancing from one toe to the next in anxiety. “Mat! If those snakes catch us…”

Mat could hear them behind, hissing. Like the rush of a river. He picked a direction and ran.

“Throw another cylinder!” Thom said.

“That was the last one!” Mat said. “And we’ve only got three night-flowers.” His pack was feeling light.

“Music doesn’t work on them,” Noal said, throwing aside his drum. “They’re too angry.”

Mat cursed and lit a nightflower with a striker, then tossed it over his shoulder. The three of them barreled into another room, then continued on directly through the doorway on the other side.

“I don’t know what way to go, lad,” Thom said. He sounded so winded! “We’re lost.”

“I’ve been picking directions at random!” Mat said.

“Only you can’t go backward,” Thom said. “That’s probably the direction the luck wants us to go!”

The nightflower boomed, the explosion echoing through the corridors. It was not nearly as great as that of the cylinders. Mat risked a glance over his shoulder, seeing smoke and sparks fly through the tunnel. The fire slowed the Aelfinn, but soon the more daring members of the band slithered through the smoke.

“Maybe we can negotiate!” Thom panted.

“They look too angry!” Noal said.

“Mat,” Thom said, “you mentioned that they knew about your eye. They answered a question about it.”

“They told me I’d bloody give up half the light of the world,” Mat said, skull still throbbing. “I didn’t want to know, but they told me anyway.”

“What else did they say?” Thom asked. “Anything that can be a clue? How did you get out last time?”

“They threw me out,” Mat said.

He and the others burst into another room—no doorway—then dashed out the left-hand exit. What Thom had said before was correct. They probably needed to double back. But they could not, not with that nest of vipers following so closely!

“They threw me out of the doorframe in the Aelfinn realm,” Mat said, feeling winded. “It leads to the basement of the Stone of Tear.”

“Then maybe we can find that!” Thom said. “Your luck, Mat. Have it take us to the Aelfinn realm.”

It might work. “All right,” he said, closing his eye and spinning about.

Mat pointed in a direction and opened his eye. He was pointing directly toward the gang of Aelfinn, weaving up the corridor toward them.

“Bloody ashes!” Mat cursed, turning and running away from them, picking another corridor at random.

Thom joined him, but was looking very wearied. Mat could take Moiraine from him for a while, but Thom would be so tired he would not be able to fight. The Aelfinn were going to run them ragged, as they had Birgitte centuries ago.

In the next room, Thom stumbled to a halt, drooping, though he still held Moiraine. Like all of the chambers, this one had four ways out. But the only way that mattered was one directly toward the Aelfinn. The one they couldn’t take.

“There’s no winning this game,” Thom said, panting. “Even if we cheat, there’s no winning.”

“Thom…” Mat said urgently. He handed Thom his ashandarei, then picked up Moiraine. She was so light. A good thing, too, otherwise Thom would never have lasted as long as he had.

Noal glanced at them, then down the corridor. The Aelfinn would be on them in moments. Noal met Mat’s eye. “Give me your pack. I need those nightflowers.”

“But—”

“No arguing!” Noal said. He dashed over and snagged one of the nightflowers. It had a very short fuse. He lit it and tossed it into the corridor. The Aelfinn were close enough that Mat could hear them scream and hiss as they saw the firework.

The boom came, sparks spurting out of the corridor and lighting the dark room. Where sparks came close to one of the rising columns of steam, that steam shied back, dancing away from the flames. The air smelled strongly of smoke and sulphur. Light, his socket was throbbing again.

“Now, Mat,” Noal said, Mat’s ears still ringing from the blast, “give me the pack.”

“What are you doing?” Mat said warily as Noal took the pack, then fished out the last nightflower.

“You can see it, Mat,” Noal said. “We need more time. You have to get far enough ahead of those vipers that you can double back a few times, let your luck work you out of this.”

Noal nodded to one of the corridors, “These corridors are narrow. Good choke points. A man could stand there and only have to fight one or two at a time. He’d last maybe a few minutes.”

“Noal!” Thom said, wheezing, standing with his hands on his knees near Mat’s ashandarei leaning against the wall. “You can’t do this.”

“Yes I can,” Noal said. He stepped up to the corridor, beyond which the Aelfinn gathered. “Thom, you’re in no shape to fight. Mat, you’re the one whose luck can find the way out. Neither of you can stay. But I can.”

“There will be no coming back for you,” Mat said grimly. “As soon as we double back, this flaming place will take us somewhere else.”

Noal met his eye, that weathered face determined. “I know. A price, Mat. We knew this place would demand a price. Well, I’ve seen a lot of things, done a lot of things. I’ve been used, Mat, one too many times. This is as good a place as any to meet the end.”

Mat stood up, lifting Moiraine, then nodded in respect to Noal. “Come on, Thom.”

“But—”

“Come on!” Mat barked, dashing to one of the other doorways. Thom hesitated, then cursed and joined him, carrying Mat’s torch in one hand and his ashandarei in the other. Noal stepped into the corridor behind, hefting his shortsword. Shapes moved in the smoke beyond him.

“Mat,” Noal called, glancing over his shoulder.

Mat waved Thom on, but hesitated, looking back.

“If you ever meet a Malkieri,” Noal said, “you tell him Jain Farstrider died clean.”

“I will, Jain,” Mat said. “May the light hold you.”

Noal turned back to face the Aelfinn and Mat left him. There was another boom as a nightflower went off. Then Mat heard Noal’s voice echo down the corridor as he screamed a battlecry. It was not in any tongue Mat had ever heard.

He and Thom entered another chamber. Thom was weeping, but Mat held his tears. Noal would die with honor. Once, Mat would have thought that kind of thinking foolish—what good was honor if you were dead? But he had too many memories of soldiers, had spent too much time with men who fought and bled for that honor, to discredit such notions now.

He closed his eye and spun, Moiraine’s weight almost unbalancing him. He picked a direction and found himself pointing back the way they had come. He charged down the corridor, Thom following.

When they reached the end of the corridor, it did not open into the room where they had left Noal. This room was round and was filled with yellow columns, made in the shape of enormous vines twisting around one another with an open cylinder of space at the center. Coiled lamp stands held globes of white that gave the room a soft light, and the floor was tiled in the pattern of white and yellow strips, spiraling out from the center. It smelled pungently of dry snakeskin.

Matrim Cauthon, you’re no hero, he thought, glancing over his shoulder. That man you left behind, he’s the hero. Light illumine you, Noal.

“Now what?” Thom asked. He seemed to have recovered some of his strength, so Mat handed back Moiraine and took his spear. There were only two doorways in this room, the one behind and one directly across the chamber. But Mat spun with his eye closed anyway. The luck pointed them to the doorway opposite the one they had entered.

They took it. The windows in this hallway looked out at the jungle, and they were now down in the thick of it. Mat occasionally spotted those three spires. The place where they had been moments ago, the place where Noal bled.

“This is where you got your answers, isn’t it?” Thom asked.

Mat nodded.

“You think I could get some of those myself?” Thom asked. “Three questions. Any answers you like…”

“You don’t want them,” Mat said, tugging down the brim of his hat. “Trust me, you don’t. They aren’t answers. They’re threats. Promises. We—”

Thom stopped beside him. In Thom’s arms, Moiraine was beginning to stir. She let out a soft groan, eyes still closed. But that was not what made Mat freeze.

He could see another circular yellow room up ahead. Sitting in the middle of that room was a redstone doorway. Or what was left of it.

Mat cursed, running forward. The floor was strewn with chunks of red rock rubble. Mat groaned, dropping his spear and taking a few of the chunks, holding them up. The doorway had been shattered by something, a blow of awesome force.

Near the entrance to the room, Thom sank down, holding the stirring Moiraine. He looked exhausted. Neither of them had a pack anymore; Mat had given his to Noal, and Thom had left his behind. And this room was a dead end, with no other doorways.

“Burn this place!” Mat shouted, ripping off his hat, staring up into the expansive, endless darkness above. “Burn you all, snakes and foxes! Dark One take the lot of you. You have my eye, you have Noal. That’s enough of a price for you! That’s too much of a price! Isn’t the life of Jain bloody Farstrider enough to appease you, you monsters!”

His words rang and vanished, with no reply. The old gleeman squeezed his eyes shut, holding Moiraine. He looked beaten, ground down to nothing. His hands were red and blistered from pulling her free, his coat sleeves burned.

Mat looked about, desperate. He tried spinning about with eye closed pointing. When he opened his eye, he was pointing at the center of the room. The broken doorway.

It was then that he felt hope start to die inside of him.

“It was a good try, lad,” Thom said. “We did well. Better than we should have expected.”

“I won’t give up,” Mat said, trying to defy the crushing sense inside of him. “We’ll… we’ll retrace our steps, find a way back to the place between the Aelfinn and Eelfinn. The bargain said they had to leave that portal open. We’ll take it and get out of here, Thom. I’ll be burned if I’m going to die in here. You still owe me a couple of mugs.”

Thom opened his eyes and smiled, but did not stand up. He shook his head, those drooping mustaches wagging, and looked down at Moiraine.

Her eyes fluttered open. “Thom,” she whispered, smiling. “I thought I heard your voice.”

Light, but her voice took Mat back. To other times. Ages ago.

She glanced at him. “And Mat. Dear Matrim. I knew you would come for me. Both of you. I wish you hadn’t, but I knew you would…”

“Rest, Moiraine,” Thom said softly. “We’ll be out of here in two strums of a harp.”

Mat looked at her, lying there, helpless. “Burn me. I’m not going to let it end like this!”

“They’re coming, lad,” Thom said. “I can hear them.”

Mat turned to look through the opening. He could see what Thom had heard. The Aelfinn crept through the corridor, sinuous and deadly. They smiled, and he could see fanglike incisors at the forefront of those smiles. They could have been human, save for those fangs. And those eyes. Those unnatural, slitted eyes. They moved sleekly. Terrible, eager.

“No,” Mat whispered. “There has to be a way.” Think, he told himself. Mat, you fool. There has to be a way out. How did you escape the last time? Noal had asked. That was no help.

Thom, looking desperate, unhooked his harp from his back. He began to play it. Mat recognized the tune, “Sweet Whispers of Tomorrow.” A mournful sound, played for the fallen dead. It was beautiful.

Remarkably, the music did seem to soothe the Aelfinn. They slowed, the ones at the front beginning to sway to the beat of the melody as they walked. They knew. Thom played for his own funeral.

“I don’t know how I got out last time,” Mat whispered. “I was unconscious. I woke up being hanged. Rand cut me down.”

He raised a hand to his scar. His original Aelfinn answers revealed nothing. He knew about the Daughter of the Nine Moons, he knew about giving up half the light of the world. He knew about Rhuidean. It all made sense. No holes. No questions.

Except…

What did the Eelfinn give you?

“If I had my way,” Mat whispered, staring at the oncoming Aelfinn, “I would want those holes filled.”

The Aelfinn slithered forward, wearing those cloths of yellow wrapping their bodies. Thom’s music spun in the air, echoing. The creatures approached with steady, slow steps. They knew they had their prey now.

The two Aelfinn at the front carried swords of gleaming bronze, dripping red. Poor Noal.

Thom began to sing. “Oh, how long were the days of a man. When he strode upon a broken land.”

Mat listened, memories blossoming in his mind. Thom’s voice carried him to days long ago. Days in his own memories, days of the memories of others. Days when he had died, days when he had lived, days when he had fought and when he had won.

“I want those holes filled…” Mat whispered to himself. “That’s what I said. The Eelfinn obliged, giving me memories that were not my own.”

Moiraine’s eyes had closed again, but she smiled as she listened to Thom’s music. Mat had thought Thom was playing for the Aelfinn, but now he wondered if he was playing for Moiraine. A last, melancholy song for a failed rescue.

“He sailed as far as a man could steer,” Thom sang, voice sonorous, beautiful. “And he never wished to lose his fear.”

“I want those holes filled,” Mat repeated, “so they gave me memories. That was my first boon.”

“For the fear of man is a thing untold. It keeps him safe, and it proves him bold!”

“I asked something else, not knowing it,” Mat said. “I said I wanted to be free of Aes Sedai and the Power. They gave me the medallion for that. Another gift.”

“Don’t let fear make you cease to strive, for that fear it proves you remain alive!”

“And… and I asked for one more thing. I said I wanted to be away from them and back to Rhuidean. The Eelfinn gave me everything I asked for. The memories to fill my holes. The medallion to keep me free from the Power…”

And what? They sent him back to Rhuidean to hang. But hanging was a price, not an answer to his demands.

“I will walk this broken road,” Thom sang, voice growing louder, “and I will carry a heavy load!”

“They did give me something else,” Mat whispered, looking down at the ashandarei in his hands as the Aelfinn began to hiss more loudly.

Thus is our treaty written; thus is agreement made.

It was carved on the weapon. The blade had two ravens, the shaft inscribed with words in the Old Tongue.

Thought is the arrow of time; memory never fades.

Why had they given to him? He had never questioned it. But he had not asked for a weapon.

What was asked is given. The price is paid.

No, I didn’t ask for a weapon. I asked for a way out.

And they gave me this.

“So come at me with your awful lies,” Thom bellowed the final line of the song. “I’m a man of truth, and I’ll meet your eyes!”

Mat spun the ashandarei and thrust it into the wall. The point sank into the not-stone. Light sprayed out around it, spilling free like blood gushing from a split vein. Mat screamed, ramming it in farther. Powerful waves of light erupted from the wall.

He drew the ashandarei down at an angle, making a slit. He pulled the weapon up the other side, cutting out a large inverse triangle of light. The light seemed to thrum as it washed across him. The Aelfinn had reached the doorway by Thom, but they hissed, shying back from the powerful radiance.

Mat finished by drawing a wavy line down the middle of the triangle. He could barely see, the light was so bright. The section of the wall in front of him fell away, revealing a glowing white passage that seemed to be cut out of steel.

“Well I’ll…” Thom whispered, standing up.

The Aelfinn screamed with high-pitched anger. They entered the room, arms raised to shield their eyes, wicked swords gripped in opposing hands.

“Get her out!” Mat bellowed, spinning to face the creatures. He lifted the ashandarei, using the butt end to smash the face of the first Aelfinn. “Go!”

Thom grabbed Moiraine, then spared a glance at Mat.

“Go!” Mat repeated, smashing the arm of another Aelfinn.

Thom leaped into the doorway and vanished. Mat smiled, spinning among the Aelfinn with his ashandarei, laying into legs, arms, heads. There were a lot of them, but they seemed dazed by the light, frenzied to get to him. As he tripped the first few, the others stumbled. The creatures became a squirming mass of sinuous arms and legs, hissing and spitting in anger, several of those in back trying to crawl over the pile to reach him.

Mat stepped back and tipped his hat to the creatures. “Looks like the game can be won after all,” he said. “Tell the foxes I’m mighty pleased with this key they gave me. Also, you can all go rot in a flaming pit of fire and ashes, you unwashed lumps on a pig’s backside. Have a grand bloody day.”

He held his hat and leaped through the opening.

All flashed white.