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She stood and left hi by the fire

CHAPTER 13

What Must Be Done

The arwene as she rode forward toward the hills in southeastern Kandor where they would shortly engage the advancing enemy She led over a hundred Aes Sedai, many of them from the Green Ajah Bryne’s tactical revisions had been quick and efficient He had so e

It was time to use it

Two other smaller forces of Aes Sedai ht once have been lush and green Now they were yellow and brown, as if burned by sunlight She tried to see the advantages At least they would have sure footing, and though the sky broke with periodic lightning, rain see Trollocs seewene’s arwene had a single advantage: The Trolloc ar forward Trolloc ar They’d start bickering They’d run out of food

Egwene’s army was a barrier in their way And bait The Shadon couldn’t afford to leave such a force as theirs at large, and so Egould draw the a course she determined

Her Aes Sedai reached the battlefront Bryne had split his arhly mobile strike units to hit the Trollocs wherever and whenever they showed vulnerability

The offensive structure of Bryne’s forces seewene read the shuffling in their ranks, the churning movement, the increase of noise Trollocs rarely had to worry about being on the defensive Trollocs attacked, huwene reached the top of a low hill, looking out at the plain in Kandor where the Trollocs a line to either side of her Behind thewene and the others were Aes Sedai, and no wene reached to her side, and slipped so, white and slender from the leather case tied to her belt A fluted rod, Vora’s sa’angreal It felt coh she had only used this sa’angreal once, she felt as if it had claiainst the Seanchan, this had been her weapon For the first tiht feel a bond with his sword

The glow of the Poinked on around the wowene embraced the Source and felt the One Power flow into her like a waterfall, filling her and opening her eyes The world becarowing stronger

Within the ens of color that the Shadoanted therass wasn’t all dead; there were tiny hints of green, slivers where the grass clung to life There were voles beneath it; she could now easilyroots and clung to life

Sh the fluted rod Within that torrent she was atop a sea of strength and energy, riding a lone vessel and eed into e rush of weapons, teeth, stink and eyes that were too human Perhaps the Myrddraal had seen Aes Sedai up front, and thought to attack and destroy the hun They were not in a circle--a circle was best for one focused, precise streaoal today was simply to destroy

Once the Trollocs were halfway to the hills, Egwene began her offensive She had always been unusually strong in Earth, so she led with the most simple and destructive of weaves She sent threads of Earth into the ground beneath the Trollocs in a long line, then heaved it up With the aid of Vora’s sa’angreal, it felt as easy as tossing a handful of pebbles into the air

At this sign, the entire line of wo threads Pure streausts of wind to blow the Trollocs into one another and wene had thrown into the air toppled back to the ground, s or feet Bones broke and Trollocs screawene let the second rank stuain This time, she didn’t focus on the earth, but on metal

Metal in armor, in weapons and on wrists She shattered axes and swords, rew red with spraying blood The next ranks tried to stop to avoid the shrapnel, but the Trollocs behind them had too much momentum They shoved their fellows forward into the zone of death and traup the earth, but it also didn’t give as n to the back ranks, so she was able to continue killing without the their fellows forward

Then Egwene returned to rupturing the earth There was so weaves in their ing death upon the enemy--she felt as if she were one with the land itself That she was doing the work it had longed for soreere a disease An infection Egwene--afire with the One Power, a blazing beacon of death and judg to the land

The Trollocs tried hard to push through the Aes Sedai weaves, but that only put more and more of them into the White Tower’s reach The Greens lived up to their Ajah’s reputation--releasing wave after wave of destruction at the Trollocs--but the other Ajahs did well, also

The ground tre Bodies ripped Flesh burned Not a few of the soldiers in the front lines eht And still, the Aes Sedai pounded the Trolloc lines Specific sisters sought out Myrddraal, as they had been ordered Egwene struck one herself, ripping its eyeless head from its neck with a weave of Fire and Air Each Fade they killed dropped fists of Trollocs linked to thewene doubled her attack She hit a rank with a wave of exploding earth, then sla them back so they dropped onto the ranks behind She ripped holes in the earth and round explode She butchered Trollocs for what seemed like hours Finally, the Shadon broke, the Trollocs pulling back despite the whips of the Myrddraal Egwene took a deep breath--she was starting to feel limp--and struck down more Fades Finally, they too broke and fled