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Bashere laughed "We’ll also ets As soon as we seize a few members of the merchant council, the rest will send assassins after us for certain!"

Rhuarc laughed as if he thought that a grand joke The Aiel sense of humor was its own sort of oddity "We will keep you alive, Davram Bashere If we do not, ill stuff you and set you on that horse of yours, and you will hed loudly at this, and the Maidens by the doors began another round of handtalk

Bashere chuckled, though he didn’t seem to understand the humor either "You sure this is what you want to do?" he asked Rand

Rand nodded "Divide soroups as Rhuarc decides"

"And what of Ituralde?" Bashere asked, looking back at theonce he realizes we’ve invaded his homeland"

Rand tapped the map softly for a moment "I will deal with him personally," he finally said

CHAPTER 8

Clean Shirts

Adock out the sun, temperamental and sullen Perhaps the others--here in the camp just outside of Tar Valon--hadn’t noticed the persistent clouds, but Siuan had No sailor would h to iuous You could set out and never see a drop of rain or a hint of stormwinds Or, with barely a moment’s notice, you could find yourself in the middle of a squall It was deceitful, that blanket of clouds

Most ports charged a daily fee to each vessel moored in their harbors, but on days of storm--when no fisher could make a catch--the fee would be halved, or spared entirely On a day like this, however, when there were glooe a full day’s rent And so the fisher had toto recoup the dock fees Most days like this didn’t turn stormy Most days like this were safe

But if a storm did come on a day like this, it tended to be very bad Many of thefrom a dock-master’s sky That’s why some fishers had another name for clouds like those They called them a lionfish’s veil And it had been days since the sky had offered anything different Siuan shivered, pulling her shawl close It was a bad sign

She doubted o out this day

"Siuan?" Lelaine asked, voice tinged with annoyance "Do hurry up And I don’t want to hear any more superstitious nonsense about the sky Honestly" The tall Aes Sedai turned away and continued along the walk

Superstitious? Siuan thought indignantly A thousand generations of-wisdoood sense! But she said nothing, and hurried after Lelaine Around her, the cawene continued its daily activities, as steady as a clock’s gears If there was one thing Aes Sedai were good at, it was creating order Tents were arranged in clusters, by Ajah, as if to imitate the White Tower’s layout There were few men, and most of those who passed--soldiers on errands fro for horses--were quick to be about their duties They were far outnuone so far as to embroider the pattern of the Flame of Tar Valon on their skirts or bodices

One of the only oddities about the village--if one ignored the fact that there were tents instead of rooms and wooden ays instead of tiled hallways--was the number of novices There were hundreds and hundreds In fact, the number had to be over a thousand now, many more than the Tower had held in recent memory Once the Aes Sedai were reunited, novices’ quarters that hadn’t been used in decades would have to be reopened They ht even need the second kitchen

These novices bustled around in fanore them Some did this out of habit; who paid attention to novices? But others did so out of displeasure By their estirandrandmothers--shouldn’t have been entered into the novice book But what could be done? Egwene al’Vere, the Amyrlin Seat, had declared that it should happen

Siuan could still sense shock in soas to have been carefully controlled What had gone wrong? When had the A delight frowene’s continued captivity in the White Tower That was a lionfish’s veil indeed Potential for great success, but also for great disaster She hurried after Lelaine

"What is the status of the negotiations?" Lelaine asked, not bothering to look at Siuan

You could go to one of the sessions yourself and find out, Siuan thought But Lelaine wanted to be seen supervising, not taking an active hand And asking Siuan, in the open, was also a calculated wene’s confidants and still carried so been As Siuan said to Lelaine weren’t i them, however, increased the woo well, Lelaine," Siuan said "Elaida’s enant any ti the Blue Ajah I doubt they have any real authority froreeroup of novices They bobbed into curtsies In a shrewd decision, Lelaine had begun talking very acceptingly of the new novices

Roas gone, Roun to imply that once reconciliation was achieved, this "foolishness" with the aged novices would have to be dealt with swiftly However, wene’s wisdo the new novices, and not a feould be raised to Accepted thetacit acceptance of these wowene

Siuan eyed the retreating family of novices They had curtsied to Lelaine almost as quickly and as deferentially as they would have to the A clear that, after ainst Roe proble-willed and decisive They had been friends once, though their relationship had changed drastically with Siuan’s changed position

Yes, she ht say she liked Lelaine But she didn’t trust the woman, and she particularly didn’t want to see her as Amyrlin In another era, Lelaine would have done well in the position But this world needed Egwene, and--friendship or not--Siuan couldn’t afford to let this wohtful A action to prevent Egwene’s return

"Well," Lelaine said, "we shall have to discuss the negotiations in the Hall The Amyrlin wants them to continue, so we certainly can’t let them stop Yet there must be a way to make them effective The Amyrlin’s desires must be seen to, wouldn’t you say?"

"Undoubtedly," Siuan replied flatly