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Elayne sorted and stored away faces and the na sense of coht have secured an upper hand of sorts, and she and Nynaeve wene and the Hall of the Tower once the terain becah ah She told herself not to feel sreed -- yet it was very hard not to These were the best the Atha’an could produce, after all Here in Ebou Dar, anyway And if they had been Aes Sedai, every one of them, from Kurin, with her stony black stare, to Renaile herself, would have listened when she spoke and stood when she entered a roo as they should

And then the end of the line appeared, and she gave a start as a young Windfinder off one of the smaller ships passed her, a roundcheeked woman called Rainyn, in plain blue silks, with barely a halfdozen orna from her nose chain The two apprentices, boyishly slieyed Metarra, scurried at the very tail with harried expressions They had not earned the nose ring yet,in the left ear balanced the three in the right Her eyes followed the three of the Perhaps not short of it, at that

The Atha’an Miere clustered with Renaile again, rily at the Aes Sedai and the Bowl The last three women stood at the rear, the apprentices with the air of those uncertain whether they had a right to be there at all, Rainyn folding her ar little better than the other two The Windfinder on a darter, the least of the Sea Folk vessels, likely seldom found herself in company with the Windfinder to her clan Wavemistress, not to mention the Windfinder to the Mistress of the Ships Rainyn was easily as strong as Lelaine or Romanda, and Metarra on a level with Elayne herself, while Talaan Talaan, so meek in her red linen blouse, with eyes that seemed permanently downcast, came very close to Nynaeve Very close More, Elayne knew she herself had not yet reached her full potential, and neither had Nynaeve How close were Metarra and Talaan? She had grown accustoer than she Well, Egwene, but she had been forced, and her own potential, and Aviendha’s, wene’s So much for complacency, she told herself ruefully Lini would have said it hat she deserved for taking things for granted

Laughing softly at herself, Elayne turned back to check on Aviendha, but the Knitting Circle stood rooted to one spot in front of the gateway, twitching at cold stares from Careane and Sareitha All but Sumeko, and she did not azes Kirstian appeared ready to burst into tears

Suppressing a sigh, Elayne herded the Kinswo the horses through The Knitting Circle went along like sheep -- she was the shepherd, Merilille and the rest the wolves -- and they would have moved faster if not for Ispan

Fa Circle without a touch of gray or white in her hair, and Eldase, a fierceeyed wo at an Aes Sedai, held Ispan by the ar her firhtly, with the result that the Black sisterhalfway to her knees when they loosened their grips, then pulled back up just before she fell co to Ispan with a faint Taraboner accent "Oh, I aave a little moan every time Ispan stumbled Just as if Ispan had not helped ht alone kneto die The killings in the White Tower that Ispan had conspired at were enough to condemn her by themselves

"Take her over there soateway into the clearing They obeyed, bobbing curtsies and nearly dropping Ispan, ies to Elayne and to the hooded prisoner Reanne and the rest scurried along, anxiously eyeing the sisters around Merilille

Alain, the Aes Sedai at the Kinswo Circle at the Windfinders, and the Atha’an Miere at anybody their eyes fell on Elayne cla to shout at theot better results with yells, anyway But she did want to shake some sense into every one of the Nynaeve, as supposed to be getting everyone organized instead of staring into the trees But what if it had been Rand as going to die unless she could find a way to save him?

Suddenly tears treoing to die, and there was nothing she could do to stop it Peel the apple in your hand, girl, not the one on the tree, Lini’s thin voice seemed to whisper in her ear Tears are for after; they just waste time before

"Thank you, Lini," Elaynewoes had really grown up, but her advice was always good Just because Nynaeve was slacking her duties was no reason for Elayne to slack hers

Servants had started trotting horses through right on the heels of the Knitting Circle, beginning with the packhorses None of those first ani so frivolous as clothes They could walk if the riding horses needed to be abandoned on the other side of the gateway, and hat they stood up in if the rest of the pack animals had to be left behind, but as on those first horses could not be left for the Forsaken Elaynethe very first to follow her aside, out of the way of the others

Untying and tossing back the stiff canvas cover on one of the icker panniers revealed a great heap of what appeared to be rubbish stuffed in every which way, right up to the top, soreater part of it probably was rubbish E A rusted breastplate quickly went onto the ground, along with a broken table leg, a cracked platter, a badly dented pewter pitcher, and a bolt of rotted, unidentifiable cloth that almost broke apart in her hands

The storeroom where they found the Bowl of the Winds had been stuffed full, things that should have been on a refuse heap jumbled in with more objects of the Power than just the Bowl, some in beetleriddled casks or chests, some carelessly stacked For hundreds and hundreds of years the Kin had hidden away all things they found that were connected to the Power, fearful of using the the This was the first chance Elayne had had to see orth keeping The Light send that the Darkfriends had not gotten aith anything important; they had taken some, but certainly less than a quarter of what the rooht send she found so thes