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Sorilea hissed quietly, ignoring the statue and focusing on the bracelets and collar "This thing is evil"

"Yes," Cadsuane said Rarely would she have called a simple object "evil," but this one was "Nynaeve al’Meara claih I have not been able to press out of the girl how she knows these things, she claims to know that there was only one ed for its disposal in the ocean She also admits, however, that she didn’t see it destroyed personally It may have been used as a pattern by the Seanchan"

"This is unsettling to see," Sorilea said "If one of the Shadowsouled, or even one of the Seanchan, captured hiht protect us all," Bair whispered

"And the people who have these are the same people hom al’Thor wishes to make peace?" Sorilea shook her head "Creation of these abominations alone should warrant a blood feud I heard that there were others like it What of those?"

"Stored elsewhere," Cadsuane said, shutting the lid "Along with the female a’dam we took Some acquaintances ofthe to discover their weakness" They also had Callandor Cadsuane was loath to let it out of her sight, but she felt that the sword still held secrets that could be teased out

"I keep this one here because I intend to find a way to test it on a man," she said "That would be the best way to discover its weaknesses Al’Thor won’t allow any of his Asha’man to be leashed by it, however Not for the shortest ti a spear’s strength by stabbing it into sorees Cadsuane had done after capturing those female a’dam was put one on and practice ways to escape from it She’d done so under carefully controlled circumstances, of course, omen she trusted to help her escape They’d eventually had to do that Cadsuane had been able to discover no way out on her own

But if your ene to you, you had to discover how to counter it Even if thatyourself Al’Thor couldn’t see this When she asked, he si beaten

"We have to do so Cadsuane’s eyes "He has groorse since we last ly acco"

"Then let us discuss," Sorilea said, pulling over a stool "A plan ood of all," Cadsuane agreed "Al’Thor hiin

Rand woke on the floor of a hallway He sat up, listening to the distant sound of water The strea The walls and floor here were stone, not wood No candles or laht, ahtened his red coat, feeling strangely unafraid He recognized this place from somewhere, distant in his memory How had he come here? The recent past was clouded, and see trails of ht fir back into place before the strength of his deter a report from Rhuarc about the capture of the first fewEach Castle, a biography, in the deep, green chair of the room they shared

Rand had been exhausted, as he often was lately He’d gone to lie down He was asleep, then Was this the World of Dreah he had visited it on occasion, he knew very few specifics Egwene and the Aiel dreauardedly

This place felt different from the dream world, and oddly fa that it vanished into shadoalls broken by doors at intervals, the wood dry and cracked Yes

he thought, seizing at atime

He chose one of the doors at random--he knew that it wouldn’t matter which one he picked--and pushed it open There was a rooray stone arches, beyond the red clouds The clouds grew and sprang fro water They were the clouds of an ih they were

He looked more closely, and saw that each new cloud formed the shape of a tormented face, the mouth open in a silent screa upon itself, face distorting, jaorking, cheeks twisting, eyes bulging Then it would split, other faces swelling out of its surface, yelling and seething It was transfixing and horrifying at the saround beyond the courtyard Just that terrible sky

Rand did not want to look toward the left side of the room The fireplace was there The stones that formed floor, hearth and columns arped, as if they had been es of his vision, they seeles and proportions of the roo Just as they had been when he’d co was different this ti about the colors Many of the stones were black, as if they’d been burned, and cracks laced thelowed from within, as if they had cores of molten lava There had once been a table here, hadn’t there? Polished and of fine wood, its ordinary lines a discoles of the stones?

The table was gone, but two chairs sat before the fireplace, high backed and facing the fla in the on stones that burned He felt no heat, either froht and his heart pounded as he approached those chairs He feared what he would find

He rounded them A man sat in the chair on the left Tall and youthful, he had a square face and ancient blue eyes that reflected the hearth-fire, turning his irises almost purple The other chair was e his heart and watching the dancing flames He had seen this man before in visions, not unlike the ones that appeared when he