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Mat glanced at Thorn, who shrugged "It never hurts to listen," Thorn said

"I don’t know," Mat said, eyeing Barlden "Not unless you think it could hurt to end up surrounded by crazy, homicidal mountainfolk"

"We leave, then?"

Mat shook his head slowly "No Burn old Come on, let’s see what he has to say"

"It started severalbeside theThey were in a neat--yet si rooreen, al The ht tea made from dried sweetberries Mat hadn’t chosen to drink any, and he had ainst the wall near the street door His spear rested beside him

Barlden’s as a short, brown-haired woy, with aa bowl of honey for the tea, then hesitated as she saw Mat leaning by the wall She eyed the spear, then put the bowl on the table and retreated

"What happened?" Mat asked, glancing at Thorn, who had also declined a seat The old gleeman stood with arms crossed beside the door from the kitchens He nodded to Mat; the wo at the door He’d make a motion if he heard so we did, or just a cruel curse by the Dark One himself," the mayor said "It was a normal day, early this year, just before the Feast of Abra really special about it that I can reh the snows hadn’t come yet A lot of us went about our nor of it

"The oddities were small, you see A broken door here, a rip in soht A few of the wo, and they realized that they couldn’t re They could re, safe and coetting into bed Those who could reone to sleep early, before sunset For the rest of us, the late evening was just a blur"

He fell silent Mat glanced at Thorn, who did not respond Mat could see in those blue eyes of his that he was ht if he putshis arood bloody hat

"I was in the pastures that night," theoldAnd thennothing A fuzzing I awoke the nextin my own bed, next to my wife We felt tired, as if we hadn’t slept well" He stopped, then htue, and they fade But I can ree Old man Garken, dead at my feet Killed as if by a wild beast"

Barlden stood next to ain the eastern wall, opposite Mat, staring out "But I went to see Garken the next day, and he was fine We finished fixing the fence It wasn’t until I got back to town that I heard the chattering The shared nightathered, talking it through, and then it happened again The sun set, and when it rose I woke up in bed again, tired, htmares"

He shivered, then walked over to the table and poured hiht," thein a spoonful of honey

"You don’t know?" Mat deht You--"

"We don’t knohat happens," theup sharply "And have no care to know"

"But--"

"We have no need to know, outlander," the mayor said harshly "We want to live our lives as best we can Many of us turn in early, lying down before sunset There are no holes in our o to bed, ake up in that sae to the house, but nothing that can’t be fixed Others prefer to visit a tavern and drink to the setting of the sun There’s a blessing in that, I suppose Drink all you want, and you never have to worry about getting home You alake safe and sound in bed"

"You can’t avoid this entirely," Tho is different"

"We don’t" Barlden took a drink of tea "We have the rules Rules that you ignored No fires lit after sunset--we can’t have a blaze starting in the night, without anyone to fight it And we forbid outsiders inside the town after sunset We learned that lesson quickly The first people trapped here after nightfall were relatives of Sammrie the cooper We found blood on the walls of his ho But his sister and her faiven thehtmares we do"

"So just leave," Mat said "Leave this bloody place and go somewhere else!"

"We’ve tried," the mayor said "We alake up back here, notheir lives We buried the bodies They woke up the nextin their beds"

The room fell silent

"Blood and bloody ashes," Mat whispered He felt chilled

"You survived the night," the ain "I assu that bloodstain We were curious to see where you’d wake up Most of the rooms in the inns are permanently taken by travelers who are now, for better or worse, part of our village We aren’t able to choose where soets a new occupant, and fro

"Anyhen I heard you talking to one another about what you’d seen, I realized that you ht too vividly Anyone whojoins us siest you et Hinderstap"

"We have Aes Sedai with us," Thorn said "Theyto help you We could tell the White Tower, have them send--"

"No!" Barlden said sharply "Our lives aren’t so bad, now that we kno to deal with our situation We don’t want Aes Sedai eyes on us" He turned away "We nearly turned your group away flat We do that, sometimes, if we sense that the travelers won’t obey our rules But you had Aes Sedai with you They ask questions, they get curious We worried that if we turned you away, they’d get suspicious and force entrance"