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Elayne heard a great deal about Rand, ru the King of Illian, of all things In Andor, he was bla bad that happened for the last two or three years, including stillbirths and broken legs, infestations of grasshoppers, twoheaded calves, and threelegged chickens And even people who thought her n of House Trakand was good riddance still believed Rand al’Thor an invader The Dragon Reborn was supposed to fight the Dark One at Shayol Ghul, and he should be driven out of Andor Not what she had hoped to hear, not a bit of it But she heard it all again and again It was not a pleasant journey at all It was one long lesson in one of Lini’s favorite sayings It isn’t the stone you see that trips you on your nose

She thought a nuht cause trouble, soateway The Windfinders, sain ly superior manner toward the Aes Sedai, especially after it caree to be one of the first sisters to go the ships Yet if the sizzling there continued like the burning of an Illuminator’s fusecord, the explosion never quite came The Windfinders and the Kinswo Circle, seemed as certain to blow up They cut one another dead when not sneering openly, the Kin at "Sea Folk wilders getting above the Aes Sedai feet" But it never went beyond lips curled or daggers caressed

Ispan certainly presented problerow, yet after a few days, Vandene and Adeleas let her ride unhooded if not unshielded, a silent figure with colored beads in her thin braids, ageless face turned down and hands still on her reins Renaile told everyone ould listen that a the Atha’an Miere, a Darkfriend was stripped of his or her nauilty, then thrown over the side tied to ballast stones A the Kinswomen, even Reanne and Alise paled every tirewsmiles for the thitehaired sisters no matter what it was they did to her when they carried her away froht On the other hand, Adeleas and Vandene grew more andthat the woman spilled out volumes about old plots of the Black Ajah, those she had not been involved in much more enthusiastically than those she was, yet even when they pressed her hard -- Elayne could not quite make herself ask how they pressed -- and she let slip the names of Darkfriends, most were certainly dead and none was a sister Vandene said they were beginning to fear she had taken an Oath -- the capital was audible -- against betraying her cohorts They continued to isolate Ispan as much as possible and continued with their questions, but it was plain they were feeling their way blindly, now, and carefully

And there was Nynaeve, and Lan Most definitely Nynaeve and Lan, with her near to bursting at the effort of holding her te over him when they had to sleep apart -- which was nearly always, the way accoer and afraid when she could sneak hi a Sea Folk wedding, in Elayne’s estimation The Sea Folk believed in hierarchy as they did in the sea, and they kneoht be promoted one past the other e rites took that into account Whoever had the right to coe, so Nynaeve said -- "not really," whatever that was supposed to mean! She always blushed when she said it -- but she kept waiting for hirow more and more amused This amusement, of course, screwed Nynaeve’s temper to a fever pitch Nynaeve did erupt, out of all the explosions Elayne had expected She snapped at anyone and everyone who got in her way Except at Lan; with him, she was all honey and cream And not at Alise She came close once or twice, but even Nynaeve could not seem to make herself snap at Alise

Elayne had hopes, not worries, about the things brought out of the Rahad along with the Bowl of the Winds Aviendha helped her search, and so did Nynaeve once or twice, but she was entirely too slow and ginger about it and showed little skill at finding what they were searching for They found no rew; once all the rubbish had been throay, objects that used the One Power filled five entire panniers on the packhorses

Careful as Elayne was, though, her atteo so well Spirit was the safest of the Five Powers to use in this -- unless, of course, Spirit happened to be what triggered the thing! -- yet at times she had to use other flows, as fine as she could weave So, but her first touch at the thing that looked like a blackslass left her dizzy and unable to sleep for half the night, and a thread of Fire touching what looked like a helave everyone within twenty paces a blinding headache Except for herself And then there was the crie of her bed at an inn called The Wild Boar, she exaht of two polished brass la, it looked like stone, but felt firm rather than hard She was alone; since the hel away from the others The heat of the rod , she opened her eyes and sat up in the bed Sunlight streamed in at theShe was in her shift, and Nynaeve, fully dressed, stood frowning down at her Aviendha and Birgitte atching from beside the door

"What happened?" Elayne derimly

"You don’t want to know" Her lips twitched

Aviendha’s face gave away nothing Birgitte’s est emotion Elayne felt from her was a co her ut!

The worst of it was, no one would tell what had happened What she had said, or done; she was sure it was that, by the quickly hidden grins she saw, from Kinswomen and Windfinders as well as sisters But no one would tell her! After that, she decided to leave studying the ter’angreal to somewhere more comfortable than a inn Somewher