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Rand shivered before he could stop himself Mistrust of Gedwyn and Rochaid was si dohat Nynaeve had called the dreads? A kind of ? There had been a Coplin, Benly, who thought everybody was scheainst hi to eat for fear of poison

Ducking low on Tai’daishar’s neck, Rand heeled the gelding through the largest gateway Flinn’s, as it happened, but he would have ridden through one ht then He was the first onto Altaran soil

The others followed quickly, the Asha’, and Narish his Soldiers One by one, they rushed forward, opened a gateway and darted through, dragging their ht told of gateways opening and closing The Asha’ the ground they left fro In short order, only Gedwyn and Rochaid reateways The others would be fanning out ard, searching for Seanchan The Saldaeans were through froionmen spread into the trees at a trot, crossbows held ready In this country, they could move as fast afoot as , Rand rode up the valley in the direction the Asha’ the Deep, but west the peaks ran al’s pace to a canter

Bashere caught him before he reached the pass The man’s bay was small -- most of the Saldaeans rode small horses -- but quick "No Seanchan here, it see his mustaches with a knuckle "But there could have been Tenobia’s likely to have on Reborn, much more a dead one"

Rand scowled Maybe he could take Flinn, to watch his back, and Narishma, and Flinn had saved his life; the h And Narishma? Even after? He felt cold at the risk he had taken Not the dreads Narishma had proved true, but it still had been afro to where he had no notion aiting Bashere was right, but Rand did not want to talk about it further

The slopes leading up into the pass were bare stone and boulders of all sizes, but a the natural stone lay weathered pieces of what nizable as worked stone, othersa sword hilt with a broken stub of blade wider than his hand A great head, a woman with cracks across her face and a crown that seeers, some still whole

"Who do you think she was?" he asked A queen, of course Even if merchants or scholars had worn crowns in soenerals earned statues

Bashere twisted in his saddle to study the head before speaking "A Queen of Shiota, I’ll wager," he said finally "Not older I saw a statue made in Eharon once, and it was so worn you couldn’t say whether it was man or woman A conqueror, or they wouldn’t have shown her with a sword And I seeave a crown like that to rulers who expanded the borders Maybe they called it the Crown of Swords, eh? A Brown sister ht be able to tell you more"

"It isn’t important," Rand told him irritably They did look like swords

Bashere went on anyway, graying eyebroered, gravely serious "I expect thousands cheered her, called her the hope of Shiota, ht have been as feared and respected as Artur Haas later, but now even the Brown sisters et, who you were and what you did, or tried to do Everybody dies eventually, and everybody is forgotten, eventually, but there’s no bloody point dying before your time comes"

"I don’t intend to," Rand said sharply He knehere he was ht he did

The corner of his eye caught ave way to brush and a few small trees Fifty paces away, afletchings to cheek Everything see, Rand hauled Tai’daishar around, watching the archer adjust to follow He seized saidin and sweet life and filth poured into hiether His head spun There were two archers Bile rose in his throat as he fought wild, uncontrolled surges of the Power that tried to sear him to the bone and freeze his flesh solid He could not control theht to clear his sight, to be able to see well enough to weave the flows he could barely forht he heard Bashere shout Two archers loosed

Rand should have died At that range, a boy could have hit his target Maybe being ta’veren saved hied quail burst up alh to throw off an experienced man, and indeed, the fellow only flinched a hair Rand felt the wind of the arrow’s passage against his cheek

Fireballs the size of fists suddenly struck the archer He screa the bow Another took his left leg at the knee, and he fell shrieking

Leaning out of his saddle, Rand voround His stomach tried to heave up every meal he had ever eaten The Void and saidin left with a sickening wrench It was nearly e not to fall

When he could sit upright again, he took the white linen handkerchief Bashere silently offered, and wiped his ht Rand’s stoht his facesaidin that way could kill you But he could still sense the Source; at least saidin had not burned him out At least he could see properly; there was only one Davram Bashere But the illness seemed a little worse each tih left of this fellow to talk," he told Bashere There was not

Rochaid was on his knees, calh the corpse’s torn, bloodstained coat Besides hisas his head all the way through his chest It was Eagan Padros; his sightless eyes stared at the sky in surprise Gedwyn ignored the body at his feet, studying Rand instead, as cold as Rochaid Both ly