A Memory of Light

tiredly. “It is not fitting to take joy in death.”
    “Of course, my Lord Captain Commander.” Golever continued grinning.
    Galad looked across the bloody pandemonium of the western slope of the Heights. The Light send Cauthon could make some sense of this battle, for Galad certainly could not.
    “Lord Captain Commander!” a frightened voice cried.
    Galad spun about, hand on his sword. It was Alhanra, one of his scouts.
    “What is it, Child Alhanra?” Galad asked as the spindly man ran up. No horses. They were on an incline, and the animals would not have reacted well to the lightning. Better to trust one’s own feet.
    “You need to see this, my Lord,” Alhanra said, panting. “It’s . . . It’s your brother
    “Gawyn?” Impossible. No, he thought. Not impossible. He would be with Egwene, fighting on their front. Galad ran after Alhanra, Golever and the others falling in around him.
    Gawyn’s body lay ashen-faced in a gap between two rocks on the top of the Heights. Nearby a horse was munching on grass, a trail of blood streaming down its side. By the looks of it, not the horse’s blood. Galad knelt down beside the younger man’s corpse. Gawyn had not died easily. But what of Egwene?
    “Peace, brother,” Galad said, resting a hand on the body. “May the Light—”
    “Galad . . .” Gawyn whispered, his eyes fluttering open.
    “Gawyn?” Galad asked, shocked. Gawyn had a nasty gut wound. He wore some strange rings. There was blood everywhere. His hand, chest . . . his entire body. . . .
    How could the man still be alive?
    The Warder bond ’ he realized. “We need to carry you to a Healer! One of the Aes Sedai.” He reached into the hollow, scooping up Gawyn.
    “Galad ... I failed.” Gawyn stared at the sky, eyes blank.
    “You did well.”
    “No. I failed. I should have ... I should have stayed with her. I killed Hammar. Did you know that? I killed him. Light. I should have picked a side . . .”
    Galad cradled his brother and began running along the slope toward the Aes Sedai. He tried to shelter Gawyn amid the attacks of channelers. After only a few moments, an explosion of earth ripped up among the Children, flinging them aside, tumbling Galad to the ground. He dropped Gawyn as he collapsed to the earth beside him.
    Gawyn trembled, eyes staring distantly.
    Galad crawled over and tried to pick him up again, but Gawyn grabbed his arm, meeting his eyes. “I did love her, Galad. Tell her.”
    “If you are truly bonded, then she knows.”
    “This will hurt her,” Gawyn said through pale lips. “And at the end of it, I failed. To kill him.”
    “Him?”
    “Demandred,” Gawyn whispered. “I tried to kill him, but I wasn’t good enough. I’ve never . . . been quite good . . . enough . . ”
    Galad found himself in a very cold place. He had seen men die, he had lost friends. This hurt more. Light, but it did. He had loved his brother, loved him deeply—and Gawyn, unlike Elayne, had returned the sentiment.
    “I will bring you to safety, Gawyn,” Galad said, picking him up, shocked to find tears in his eyes. “I will not be left without a brother.”
    Gawyn coughed. “You won’t be. You have another brother, Galad. One you do not know. A son of. . . Tigraine . . . who went into the Waste . . . Son of a Maiden. Born on Dragonmount. . . .”
    Oh, Light.
    “Don’t hate him, Galad,” Gawyn whispered. “I always hated him, but I stopped. I . . . stopped . . .”
    Gawyn’s eyes stopped moving.
    Galad felt for a pulse, then sat back, looking down at his dead brother. The bandage Gawyn had made for himself at his side seeped blood onto the dry ground below, which hungrily soaked it up.
    Golever moved up to him, helping Alhanra, whose blackened face and burned clothing smelled of smoke from the lightning strike. “Take the wounded to safety, Golever,” Galad said, standing. He reached up and felt the medallion at his neck. “Take all of the men and go.”
    “And you, Lord Captain Commander?” Golever asked.
    “I will do what needs to be done,” Galad said, cold inside. Cold as winter steel. “I will bring Light to the Shadow. I will bring justice to the Forsaken.”

    Gawyn’s thread of life vanished.
    Egwene lurched to a stop on the battlefield. Something severed within her. It was as if a knife suddenly tore into her and scooped out the piece of Gawyn inside, leaving only emptiness.
    She screamed, falling to her knees. No. No, it couldn’t be. She could feel him, just