Page 43 (2/2)
"We can still send the ones ant to go," Perrin said "We’ll travel lighter without the, ateway big enough for about twoone second to go throughWell, it would take hours and hours to send them all I don’t know the number, but he claimed it would be days’ worth of work And he said that his estimates were probably too optiateway open an hour, with how tired I aet those nu that Balould be right
"We’ll keepnorth Each day, we’ll have you and Neald ateways and return some of the people to their homes But don’t tire yourselves"
Grady nodded, eyes hollow froue Perhaps it would be best to wait a fewthe process Perrin nodded a dised back down into ca the various sections of the caons sat at the center of the camp, laden with food that--he feared--would run out before he could reach Andor Or should he go around to Cairhien? That here he had last seen Rand, though his visions of the man made it seem he wasn’t in either country He doubted the Queen of Andor would welcome him with open arle banner
Perrin left that proble in Each ring of tents sent representatives to the central food depot to claie of its own meals; Perrin just oversaw the distribution of materials He made out the quarter on the back of a wagon, dealing with each representative in turn
Satisfied with his inspection, Perrin walked down into the cah the Cairhienin tents on the way to his own tents, which ith the Two Rivers ranted, now They had co of his eyes Most people around him didn’t seem to notice those anymore, but he was starkly reminded of the contrast when he ees, for instance, paused in their labors setting up tents They watched hi, "Goldeneyes"
He didn’t much care for the name Aybara was the name of his family, and he bore it proudly He was one of the feho could pass it on Trollocs had seen to that
He shot a glance at a nearby group of the refugees, and they hastily turned back to pounding in tent stakes As they did, Perrin passed a couple of Two Rivers ar They saw him and saluted, fists to hearts To them, Perrin Goldeneyes wasn’t a person to fear, but one to respect, although they did still whisper about that night he’d spent in Berelain’s tent Perrin wished he could escape the shadow of that event The ized by their defeat of the Shaido, but it hadn’t been too long ago that Perrin had felt he wasn’t welco them
Still, for the moment, these two seemed to have set aside that displeasure Instead, they saluted Had they forgotten that Perrin had grown up with them? What of the tiue, or the tiirls he’d ed to steal a kiss fro up the past, not when their allegiance to "Perrin Goldeneyes" had helped rescue Faile Though, as he left the about the battle, just a few days past, and their part of it One of them still smelled like blood; he hadn’t cleaned his boots He probably didn’t even notice the bloodstained mud
Sometimes, Perrin wondered if his senses weren’t actually any better than anyone else’s He took the tinored How could they miss that scent of blood? And the crisp air of the h they were ues from the Two Rivers If other men took the time to close their eyes and pay attention, would they be able to smell what he did? If they opened those eyes and looked closer at the world around them, would men call their eyes "keen" as they did Perrin’s?
No That was just fancy His senses were better; his kinship with the wolves had changed hiht of that kinship in a while-- he’d been too focused on Faile But he’d stopped feeling so self-conscious about his eyes They were part of hie he felt when he foughtthat loss of control It worried him, more and ht, so long ago, fighting Whitecloaks For a time, Perrin hadn’t known if he was a wolf or aone of his recent visits to the wolf dream--he’d tried to kill Hopper In the wolf dream, death was final Perrin had al of it awakened old fears, fears he’d shoved aside Fears relating to a e
He continued down the pathway to his tent,some decisions He’d pursued Faile with deter the wolf dream as he’d avoided all of his responsibilities He’d clai else had mattered But he knew that the truth was much more difficult He’d focused on Faile because he loved her so much, but--in addition--he’d done so because it had been convenient Her rescue had been an excuse to avoid things like his discomfort with leadership and the blurred truce between himself and the wolf inside of his were still wrong The answers ht lie in his dreae in Haste
Siuan froze--basket of dirty laundry on her hip--the moment she walked into the Aes Sedai camp It was her own laundry, this time She’d finally realized that she didn’t need to do both hers and Bryne’s Why not let the novices put in soh of them these days
And every one of them crowded the ay around the pavilion at the center of camp They stood arm-to-arm, a wall of white topped by heads of hair in every natural hue No ordinaryon
Siuan set the wicker laundry basket on a stump, then pulled a towel over it She didn’t trust that sky, although it hadn’t rained more than the occasional drizzle in the past week Don’t trust a dockmaster’s sky Words to live by Even if the consequence only , soiled at that
She hurried across the dirt road and stepped up onto one of the wooden ays The rough boards shifted slightly underfoot and creaked with her footfalls as she hurried towards the pavilion There was talk of replacing the ith so stones
She reached the backs of the gathered wo of the Hall that had drawn this level of attention had revealed that Asha’man had bonded sisters and that the taint itself had been cleansed Light send that there weren’t any surprises of that size waiting! Her nerves were taut enough, dealing with Gareth bloody Bryne Suggesting that she let him teach her how to hold a sword, just in case She’d never thought that swords were much use Besides, who ever heard of an Aes Sedai with a weapon, fighting like a crazed Aiel? Honestly, that h the novices, annoyed that she had to get their attention in order to ave way as soon as they saw a sister passing through them, of course, but they were so distracted that it took work to move the about their duties Where was Tiana? She should have had these girls back to their chores If Rand al’Thor himself bloody appeared in camp, the novices should continue their lessons!
Finally, near the pavilion flaps, she found the wowene’s Keeper, couldn’t enter the Hall without the A outside It was probably better than stewing back in her tent
The fire-haired woman had lost a fair bit of her plumpness over the previous weeks She really needed to co on her Still, she seeained some calm recently, to be less erratic Perhaps whatever had been ailing her had passed She’d always insisted that nothing was