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The Ahtful And she was Amyrlin It was impossible to think of her any other way How could a child so young have learned so quickly? That straight back, that poised expression Being in control wasn’t so much about the power you had, but the power you i with ?" Leane asked "About what they plan to do withnearby on the bench, lit by a lamp on the table beside them Leane hadn’t answered any of the questions her captors put to her, and Tower laas very strict about the questioning of fellow sisters They couldn’t harm her, particularly not with the Power But they could just leave her alone, to rot

"Thank you for coh the lattice of bars to take Egwene’s hand "I believe I owe h her eyes showed a hint of the exhaustion she undoubtedly felt Soas suffering as "penances" for her insubordination Odd, how a novice to be instructed could be beaten but a prisoner to be interrogated could not And despite the pain, Egwene caht

"I will see you free, Leane," Egwene pro her hand "Elaida’s tyranny cannot last I’ go and standing up Egwene took hold of the bars and pulled herself to her feet, cringing ever so slightly at the

"What is it?" Leane asked

Egwene took her hands off of the bars and looked at her palms They see, Leane looked at the bars, and was shocked to see Egwene’s handprints on the iron

"What in the Light--" Leane said, poking at one of the bars It bent beneath her finger like ax on the lip of a candle’s bowl

Suddenly, the stones beneath Leane’s feet shifted, and she felt herself sinking She cried out Globs ofacross her face They weren’t warm, but they were soasped, panicked, stu as her feet sank deeper in the too-slick floor A hand caught hers; she looked up to where Egwene had grabbed her The barsto the sides, then liquefying

"Help!" Egwene screa!"

Leane scra the bars toward Egwene She grasped only wax A luers, and the floor warped around her, sucking her down

And then threads of Air seized her, yanking her free The roo the younger woman backward The two Yellohite-haired Musarin and short Gelarna-- had julow of saidar surrounded the cell ide eyes

Leane righted herself, scras coated with the strange wax, and stumbled back away froht, how she wished she could embrace the source herself! But she was too full of forkroot, not to wene climbed to her feet with a hand fro, all of the had stopped, the bars split, the top halves frozen with drips of steel on their tips, the lower halves bent inward Many had been flattened to the stones by Leane’s escape The floor inside the roo Those stones bore gashes where Leane’s scra, realizing that only seconds had passed What should they do? Scuttle away in fear? Was the rest of the hallway going to ainst one of the bars It resisted Leane took a step forward, and her dress crunched, bits of stone-- likefree She reached down and brushed at her skirt, and felt rough rock coating it instead of wax

"These sorts of events areat the two Yellows "The Dark One is getting stronger The Last Battle approaches What is your Aing Aes Sedai looked deeply disturbed Leane took Egwene’s lead, forcing herself to be cal from her dress

"Yes, well," Musarin said "You shall return to your roolanced at Leane, then at the remains of the cell "We willhave to relocate you"

"And gether arwene "Go This is no longer your business, child We will care for the prisoner"

Egwene gritted her teeth, but then she turned to Leane "Stay strong," she said, and hurried away, heading down the hallway

Exhausted, disturbed by the stone-warping bubble of evil, Egalked with swishing skirts toward the Toing that contained the novices’ quarters What would it take to convince the foolish wo!

The hour was late, and feowene passed several servants bustling at late-night duties, their slippered feet falling softly on the floor tiles These sectors of the Toere populated enough that laht A hundred different polished tiles reflected the flickering flawene as she walked

It was hard to co had turned into a trap that nearly killed Leane If even the ground itself could not be trusted, then what could? Egwene shook her head, too tired, too sore, to think of solutions at the ray to a deep brown She just continued on, into the Toing, counting the doors she passed Hers was the seventh

She froze, frowning at a pair of Brown sisters: Maenadrin--a Saldaean--and Negaine The two had been speaking in hushed whispers, and they frowned at Egwene as she passed them Why would they be in the novices’ quarters?

But wait The novices’ quarters didn’t have brown floor tiles This section should have had nondescript gray tiles And the doors in the hallere spaced far too widely This didn’t look at all like the novices’ quarters! Had she been so tired that she’d walked in co direction?

She retraced her steps, passing the two Brown sisters again She found aand looked out The rectangular white expanse of the Toing extended around her, just as it should She wasn’t lost

Perplexed, she looked back down the hallway Maenadrin had folded her araine, tall and spindly, stalked up to Egwene "What business have you here this tiht, child?" she demanded "Did a sister send for you? You should be back in your rooaine glanced out, frowning She froze, gasping softly She looked back in at the hallway, then back out, as if unable to believe where she was