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Anxiously she glanced at the wo slowness Half the Sea Folk were gone, and the Knitting Circle waited behind the rest with the Shadowrunner fir with resento first If she voiced her suspicions, the Kinswomen surely would run -- mere mention of the Shadowsouled dried their mouths and turned their bowels to water -- while the Windfinders htaway With the else But only a blind fool stood scratching herself while a lion crept up on the herd she had been set to guard She caught one of the Atha’an Miere by a red silk sleeve

"Tell Elayne -- " A face like smooth black stone turned to her; the woman somehow made full lips seem thin; her eyes were black pebbles, flat and hard Whatdown all the troubles she feared from them? "Tell Elayne and Nynaeve to be wary Tell them enemies always come when you least want them You must say this to her, without fail" The Windfinder nodded with barely concealed ily, she waited for Aviendha to release her before ateway

The walk up on the tower stood e his way down to the stableyard Whoever he hatever he was, he was dangerous; this was not a dustfunnel dancing in her iination The last four Warders had foruard ould be last to leave, and rateful that someone there besides herself knew the use of sharp holam, or worse, one of the Shadowsouled, than the servants waiting with the horses Or than she herself

Grirew near to pain A hair beyond, and pain would alony for the moments needed to die or lose the ability co wo fear, but she was very much afraid that hers was painted on her face

Chapter 2

(Snakey Square)

Unweaving

Elayne stepped to one side as soon as she was through the gateway, but Nynaeve trarasshoppers fro this way and that for evidence of the Warders Of one Warder, anyway A bright red bird flashed across the clearing and was gone Nothing else moved except the sisters; a squirrel barked somewhere in the mostly leafless trees, and then there was silence To Elayne it seemed impossible those three could have passed this ithout leaving paths as wide as that behind Nynaeve, yet she could not n that they had been there at all

She sensed Birgitte soht, and feeling quite content, clearly in no iathered around Sareitha and the Bowl, cocked her head al Apparently her Cieryl was to the southeast Which h, north was the direction Nynaeve had settled down to watch, all the whilemarried had created some sense of him in her More likely, she had noticed a track that escaped Elayne Nynaeve was as skilled at woodscraft as she ith herbs

From where Elayne stood at first, Aviendha was clearly visible through the gateway, studying the palace rooftops as if she expected an a spears, ready to leap into battle in her riding dress Shehow distressed she was about her probleateway, so much braver than she herself But at the sa Aviendha was brave, and no one Elayne kneas better able to keep her head She also ht when there was no chance except in running The light around her shone so brightly it was obvious she could not draw much more of saidar If one of the Forsaken did appear

I should have stayed with her Elayne rejected the thought iave, Aviendha would know the truth, and she was touchy as a man, sometimes Most of the tih, Elayne let the Atha’an Miere crowd her further froh to hear any shout on the other side, though Close enough to leap to Aviendha’s aid in a heartbeat And for another reason

The Windfinders ca to keep their faces sht shoulders once her bare feet were beating down the tall brown grass Solanced back with round eyes at the opening hanging in midair One and all, they stared at Elayne suspiciously as they stepped by her, and two or three opened their , perhaps to ask -- or tell -- her to lad that they hurried on in obedience to Renaile’s curt urgings They would have their chance to tell Aes Sedai what to do soon enough; it did not have to start with her

That thought made her stomach sink, and the nue of weather to use the Bowl properly, yet even Renaile agreed -- if reluctantly -- that the h the Bowl, the better the chances of being able to heal the weather It must be directed with a precision ih A full circle of thirteen it had to be That thirteen certainly would include Nynaeve and Aviendha and Elayne herself, and probably a few of the Kin, but Renaile plainly intended to juain that said they would be allowed to learn any abilities the Aes Sedai could teach The gateway had been the first, and forht every Windfinder in the harbor I to deal with three or four hundred of these women! Elayne offered a small prayer of thanks that there were only twenty

She was not standing there to count theh As each Windfinder passed, barely th in the Power Earlier there had been tih to only a handful, ith all the trouble of convincing Renaile to co the Windfinders had nothing to with either age or strength; Renaile was far froest even in the first three or four, while one woman toward the rear, Senine, had weathered cheeks and thickly grayed hair Strangely, by the ht once have worn s, and thic