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"She was too eager", Siuan said "She was probably longing toand weaves of movement" She trailed off, partly because she was annoyed at herself This day had gone poorly enough without her griping at Bryne "How many did we lose?" Not a much better topic, but she needed to know "Do we have reports yet?"

"Nearly one in two of the soldiers", Bryne said softly

Worse than she’d suspected "And the Aes Sedai?"

"We have soh a nu lost Warders"

That was more of a disaster A hundred and twenty Aes Sedai dead in atime to recover from that

"I’m sorry, Siuan", Bryne said

"Bah", Siuan said, "uts anyway They resented hed when I was cast down, and then made a servant ofher shoulder He could feel that she was hurt, despite her words There were good woood sisters

"She’s out there", Siuan said stubbornly "Egill surprise us, Bryne You watch"

"If I’, it won’t be runted "Fool ht", he said soleill surprise us I’m also a fool"

"Bryne"

"I a? They wanted to occupy us until this other force could gather The Trollocs pulled back into those hills A defensiveto set up an a back corpses and preparing to wait If I’d attacked them earlier, this could have been avoided I was too careful"

"A man who thinks all day about the catch hetime when the sky is clear"

"A clever proverb, Siuan", he said "But there’s a saying ah the Tireless ‘If you do not learn from your losses, you will be ruled by them’ I can’t see how I let this happen I’ve trained better than this, prepared better than this! It’s not just a nore, Siuan The Pattern itself is at stake"

He rubbed his forehead In the di sun, he looked older, his face wrinkled, his hands frail It was as if this battle had stolen decades fro forward

Siuan found herself at a loss for words

They sat in silence