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Mat turned back to the attackers, spinning his spear, trying to force the wounded, they didn’t care how dangerous Mat was They just kept co at him from every side Bloody ashes! He twisted just in ti flashed in the night, reflecting soure behind Mat sluround Another flash, and one of the ones in front of Mat fell Suddenly, a figure on a white horse rushed past, and another knife flashed in the air, dropping a thirdthe cloak

"Get on your horse!" Thorn’s voice called back "I’ out of knives!"

Mat swept out with his spear, dropping two ers, then dashed forward and leaped into his saddle, trusting Thorn to cover his retreat Indeed, he heard a few cries of pain fro sound on the road announced the imminent approach of horses Mat pulled hih the black ers

"Mat, you fool!" Talmanes shouted froainst the night

Mat sht Delarn as the led weakly, but there was a slick wet patch at his side Mat held thethe reins in the darkness and controlling Pips with a quick twist of the knees He didn’t know horseback battle commands himself, but those blasted alloped past, and Mat turned Pips to follow, steadying Delarn with one hand and carrying his spear in the other Tal down the corridor of madness toward the inn at the end

"Co on The Aes Sedai are just ahead They’ll fix you up"

Delarn whispered so back

Mat leaned forward "What was that?"

"and toss the dice until we fly," Delarn whispered "To dance with Jak o’ the Shadows"

"Great," Mat hts ahead, and he could see they were co fro village where the people’s brains hadn’t turned inside out

But no Those bursts of light were fa in the upper-story s of the inn

"Well," Talmanes noted from his left, "looks like the Aes Sedai still live That’s soures clustered around the front of the inn, fighting in the darkness, their forms periodically lit from above by the flashes in the s

"Round to the back," Thorn suggested

"Go," Mat said to theures Tal-manes, Thorn and Harnan followed close on Pips’ hooves Mat blessed his luck that they didn’t hit a hole or rut in the ground as they crossed the softer earth co around behind the inn The horses could easily have tripped and broken a leg, throwing all of them into disaster

The back of the inn was silent, and Mat reined in Tho his earlier co the side of the building to see that they weren’t followed

"Harnan!" Mat said, thrusting his spear toward the stables "Get the women’s horses out and ready theo without those if we have to Light willing, on’t have to ride far, just a e and away from this insanity"

Harnan saluted in the darkness, then dish to deter to jump out at him from the darkness, then spoke to Delarn, still held in front of him "You still conscious?"

Delarn nodded weakly "Yes, Mat But I’ve taken a gut wound I____"

"We’ll get the Aes Sedai," Mat said "All you need to do is sit right here Stay in the saddle, all right?"

Delarn nodded again Mat hesitated at the weakness in the man’s motions, but Delarn took Pips’ reins, and see his ashandarei at the ready

"Mat," Delarn said fro back forto leave aon the battlefield is one thing, but to die out there, in that darknessWell, I wasn’t going to let it happen Tal on it," the Cairhienin said froing there A few strikes of flint and steel later, and a slow lit the backyard of the inn Talht , Mat," he said

Mat nodded By the lanternlight, he could see that Delarn was in bad shape Not just the gut wound, but scrapes across the face, rips in his uniform, one eye swollen shut

Mat whipped out a handkerchief and pressed it against the gut wound, standing beside Pips and reaching up to the ht How’d the wound happen? They don’t use weapons"

"One got runt "He used it well enough once he had it"

Talmanes had opened the back door of the inn He looked to Mat and nodded The way inside was clear

"We’ll be back soon," Mat prorip, he crossed the short distance to the door and nodded to Talmanes and Thorn The three of them ducked inside

The door led to the kitchens Mat scanned the dark roo at several luht revealed a pair of kitchen boys, barely ten years old, dead on the ground, their necks twisted Mat glanced away, steeling hiht! Only lads, and now dead by this insanity