"By my mother's grave," a voice said sharply from behind. "Where did you get that?"

Gawyn spun. The women he'd noticed earlier were standing behind him on the path. Dimana led them, her hair streaked with white, her face wrinkled around the eyes. Wasn't working with the Power supposed to stop those signs of aging?

There were two people with her. One was a plump young woman with black hair, the other a stout woman in her middle years. The second was the one who had spoken; she had wide, innocent-looking eyes. And she seemed horrified.

"What is that, Marille?" Dimana asked.

"That knife," Marille said, pointing at Gawyn's hand. "Marille has seen one like it before!"

"I have seen it before," Dimana corrected. "You are a person and not a thing."

"Yes, Dimana. Much apologies, Dimana. Marille… I will not make the mistake again, Dimana."

Gawyn raised an eyebrow. What was wrong with this person?

"Forgive her, my Lord," Dimana said. "Marille spent a long time as a damane, and is having difficulty adjusting."

"You're Seanchan?" Gawyn said. Of course, I should have noticed the accent.

Marille nodded vigorously. A former damane. Gawyn felt a chill. This woman had been trained to kill with the Power. The third woman remained silent, watching with curious eyes. She didn't look nearly as subservient.

"We should be moving on," Dimana said. "It isn't good for her to see things that remind her of Seanchan. Come, Marille. That is merely a token Lord Trakand won in battle, I suspect."

"No, wait," Gawyn said, holding up a hand. "You recognize this blade?"

Marille looked to Dimana, as if requesting permission to answer. The Kinswoman nodded sufferingly.

"It is a Bloodknife, my Lord," Marille said. "You did not win it in battle, because men do not defeat Bloodknives. They are unstoppable. They only fall when their own blood turns against them."

Gawyn frowned. What nonsense was this? "So this is a Seanchan weapon?"

"Yes, my Lord," Marille said. "Carried by the Bloodknives."

"I thought you said this was a Bloodknife."

"It is, but that is also who carries them. Shrouded in the night, sent by the Empress's will—may she live forever—to strike down her foes and die in her name and glory." Marille lowered her eyes farther. "Marille speaks too much. She is sorry."

"I am sorry," Dimana said, a hint of exasperation in her tone.

"I am sorry," Marille repeated.

"So these… Bloodknives," Gawyn said. "They're Seanchan assassins? He felt a deep chill. Could they have left behind suicide troops to kill Aes Sedai? Yes. It made sense. The murderer wasn't one of the Forsaken.

"Yes, my Lord," Marille said. "I saw one of the knives hanging in the room of my mistress's quarters; it had belonged to her brother, who had borne it with honor until his blood turned against him."

"His family?"

"No, his blood." Marille shrank down farther.

"Tell me of them," Gawyn said urgently.

"Shrouded in the night," Marille said, "sent by the Empress's will—may she live forever—to strike down her foes and die in—"

"Yes, yes," Gawyn said. "You said that already. What methods do they use? How do they hide so well? What do you know of how this assassin will strike?"

Marille shrank down farther at each question, and began to whimper.

"Lord Trakand!" Dimana said. "Contain yourself."

"Marille doesn't know very much," the damane said. "Marille is sorry. Please, punish her for not listening better."

Gawyn pulled back. The Seanchan treated their damane worse than animals. Marille wouldn't have been told anything specific of what these Bloodknives could do. "Where did you get these damane?" Gawyn asked. "Were any Seanchan soldiers captured? I need to speak with one; an officer, preferably."

Dimana pursed her lips. "These were taken in Altara, and only the damane were sent to us."

"Dimana," the other woman said. She didn't have a Seanchan accent. "What of the sul'dam? Kaisea was of the low Blood."

Dimana frowned. "Kaisea is… unreliable."

"Please," Gawyn said. "This could save lives."

"Very well," Dimana said. "Wait here. I will return with her." She took her two charges toward the palace, leaving Gawyn to wait anxiously. A few minutes later, Dimana returned, followed by a tall woman wearing a pale gray dress without belt or embroidery. Her long black hair was woven into a braid, and she seemed determined to remain precisely one step behind Dimana—an action that bothered the Kinswoman, who seemed to be trying to keep an eye on the woman.

They reached Gawyn, and the sul'dam—incredibly—got down on her knees and prostrated herself on the ground, head touching the dirt. There was a smooth elegance to the bowing; for some reason, it made Gawyn feel as if he were being mocked.

"Lord Trakand," Dimana said, "this is Kaisea. Or, at least, that's what she insists that we call her now."

"Kaisea is a good servant," the woman said evenly.

"Stand up," Gawyn said. "What are you doing?"

"Kaisea has been told you are the Queen's brother; you are of the Blood of this realm, and I am a lowly damane."

"Damane? You're a sul'dam."

"No longer," the woman said. "I must be collared, great Lord. Will you see it done? Kaisea is dangerous."

Dimana nodded to the side, indicating they should speak privately. Gawyn withdrew with her farther down the Rose March, leaving Kaisea prostrate on the ground.

"She's a sul'dam?" Gawyn asked. "Or is she a damane?"

"All sul'dam can be trained to channel," Dimana explained. "Elayne thinks that fact will undermine their entire culture once revealed, so she's had us focus on teaching the sul'dam to access their powers. Many refuse to admit that they can see the weaves, but a few have been honest with us. To a woman, they've insisted that they should be made damane."

She nodded back toward Kaisea. "This one is most troubling. We think she's intentionally working to learn the weaves so that she can create an 'accident,' and use our own reasoning against us—if she does something violent with the One Power, she can claim that we were wrong to leave her free."

A woman who could be trained to kill with the One Power, who was not bound by the Three Oaths, and who had a determination to prove that she was dangerous? Gawyn shivered.

"We keep some forkroot in her most days," Dimana said. "I don't tell you this to worry you, but to warn you that what she says and does may not be reliable."

Gawyn nodded. "Thank you."

Dimana led him back, and the sul'dam remained on the ground. "How may Kaisea serve you, great Lord?" Her actions seemed a parody of Marille's subservience. What Gawyn had originally taken for mockery wasn't that at all—instead, it was the imperfect efforts of one who was highborn to imitate the lowly.

"Have you ever seen one of these before?" Gawyn asked casually, taking out the Bloodknife.

Kaisea gasped. "Where did you find that? Who gave it to you?" She cringed almost immediately, as if realizing that she'd stepped out of her assumed role.

"An assassin tried to kill me with it," Gawyn said. "We fought, and he got away."