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"I advise you to ride wide," Seonid said Edarra and Nevarin turned gri her matteroffact tone "Those are surely the Prophet’s in Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands,that to save a handful?"

Perrin did not intend to kill anyone if he could help it, but he did not intend to look the other way either He wasted no tihten thehten?" He remembered all too hat the Wise Ones had done at Dumai’s Wells And the Asha’man Maybe as well Grady and Neald were not there

"Perhaps," Edarra replied, studying the crowd around the pen She halfshook her head, shrugged a fraction "Perhaps" That would have to be good enough

"Ara in his heels, and as Stepper leaped forward, he was relieved to see the Warders following closely Fourmade a better show than two He kept his hands on the reins, away froalloped S up alongside him He opened his mouth, and she arched an eyebrow at hi in the wind of their rush She was beautiful An arched eyebrow; no ed what he had been about to say "Guard er from somewhere With all the blades she carried hidden away, so to hug her

As soon as she looked ahead again, he gestured frantically to Ara to keep the motion where she could not see Ara forward, sword bared, ready to skewer the first of the Prophet’s folk he reached Perrin hoped the uard Faile’s back, and the rest of her, if they actually carips with those fellows

None of the ruffians had noticed them yet Perrin shouted, but they see A ed to scraet over If the Wise Ones were going to do anything, it was past --

A thunderclap nearly over their heads almost deafened Perrin, ahis pace The attackers certainly noticed that, staggering and looking around wildly, so hands over their ears The man on the wall overbalanced and fell off outside He leaped up i to the enclosure, and some of his companions leaped back at it Others saw Perrin then and pointed, their , but still no one ran A few hefted weapons

Suddenly a horizontal wheel of fire appeared above the goatpen, as wide as atufts of flaroan to keening wail and back

The roughcladquail For acoat waved his arlance at the fiery wheel, he too darted away

Perrin alhed He would not have to kill anyone And he would not have to worry about Faile getting a pitchfork through her ribs

Apparently the people in the pen were as frightened as those outside, one of them at least The woman who had reared her horse at the attackers slipped open the gate and kicked her allop Up the road, away from Perrin and the others

"Wait!" Perrin shouted "We won’t har her reins A bundle tied behind her saddle bounced wildly Thoseas hard as they could now, but if she went off by herself, even two or three could do her injury Lying flat on Stepper’s neck, Perrin dug in his heels, and the dun shot forward like an arrow

He was a bigfeet Besides, by its lu run, the woman’s mount was hardly fit for a saddle With every stride Stepper closed the gap, nearer, nearer, until Perrin was able to reach out and seize the other horse’s bridle Up close, her hammernosed bay was little better than crowbait, lathered and worn out more than the short run could account for Slowly he drew both horses to a halt

"Forgive htened you, Mistress," he said "Truly, I y did not get the response he expected Angry blue eyes glared at hial as any queen’s for all that it was plastered with sweat and dust Her dress was plain wool, travelstained and as dusty as her cheeks, but her face was furious as well as queenly "I do not need," she began in chill tones, trying to jerk her horse free, then cut off as another of the woalloped up on a slabsided brownhard for some time, these folk The older woer

She alternated between bea at the woman whose bridle he still held "Thank you, ave a hitch as she noticed his eyes, but goldenyellow eyes on a man slowed her only an instant Not a woman fazed byfor a weapon "A ? You could have gotten yourself killed! And the rest of us, too! She’s a headstrong girl,before she looks Reives up silver for shiny brass We do thank you, hdin will, too, when she coood ten years older than Perrin, could only be called a girl in corier, she accepted the tirade, only pulling onceup Letting her hands rest on her cantle, she frowned at Perrin accusingly, then blinked The yellow eyes again Yet despite that strangeness, she still did not smell afraid The old woman did, but Perrin did not think it was of hihdin’s coled horse, this a knobkneed gray, approached while the old wo, but kept back He was tall, as tall as Perrin if not nearly so wide, in a travelworn dark coat with a sword belted over Like the women, he had a bundle tied on behind his saddle That tiny breeze swirled to bring Perrin his scent He was not afraid; he ary And if the way he looked at Maighdin was any guide, it was she he ary of Maybe this was not so si