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Fifty paces farther on, the tenthe slopes above theh not as carefully as they should have Too many men who rode spearhead relied on the forward scouts to find any dangers Karede made a note to speak to them personally They would do their duties properly after that, or he would send them to the labor levies

A raken appeared in the east ahead, ski to follow the curves of the land like ahis hand dooman’s back Peculiar Morat’raken, fliers, always liked to soar high unless the sky was actually full of lightning Karede lowered the looking glass to watch

"Maybe we’ll finally get another scouting report," Jadranka said To the other officers waiting behind Karede, not to him Three of the ten matched Karede’s rank, yet few except the Blood disturbed a reen of the Deathwatch Guard Not thatto the tales he had heard as a child, one of his ancestors, a noble, had followed Luthair Paendrag to Seanchan at Artur Haing’s command, but two hundred years later, with only the north secure, another ancestor tried to carve out a kingdom of his own and ended sold from the block instead Perhaps it was so;the In any case, Karede had felt lucky when the Choosers picked hined duties, and he still felt pride in the ravens tattooed on his shoulders Many Deathwatch Guards ithout coat or shirt whenever possible, to display those The huier Gardeners were not marked or owned, but that was between them and the Empress

Karede was da’covale and proud of it, like every man of the Guard, the property of the Crystal Throne, body and soul He fought where the Empress pointed, and would die the day she said die To the Empress alone did the Guard answer, and where they appeared, they appeared as her hand, a visible re the Blood could beco a detach out a Lord’s stables or serving kaf to a Lady But he cursed the luck that had sent him into these mountains to inspect the outposts

The raken darted on ard, the two fliers crouched low in their saddle There was no scouting report, no ination, but the creature’s long, outstretched neck soht have been anxious, too There had been few o to assu more than cleared it

The locals, these Altarans, had moved into thethe northern border of this range were patrolled and watched nearly to the border of Illian, by fliers and morat’torm as well as horsemounted parties What could have ether? A h they had begun to learn challenging a Guards your own throat -- but he had seen nobles of this socalled nation trying to sell each other and their Queen for the ht be protected and perhaps those of their neighbor added to the man with a deceptively mild face, twisted in his saddle to watch the raken "I don’t likeblind," he ed to put forty thousand men up here Forty, at least"

Jadranka snorted so hard that his tall white gelding shifted Jadranka was the senior of the three captains behind Karede, having served as long as Karede himself A short thin ht him of the Blood That horse would stand out at a mile "Forty thousand or a hundred, Nadoc, they’re scattered froe, too far apart to support one another Stabwith outposts everywhere That’s e aren’t getting reports We’re just expected to sweep up the reh He had hoped Jadranka was not a fool atop his airs Praise of victors spread quickly, whether they were an army or half a Banner It was the rare defeats that were sed in silence and forgotten So much silence was ominous

"That last report didn’t sound like remnants to me," Nadoc persisted He was no fool "There are five thousand men not fifty miles ahead of us, and I doubt we’ll take theain "We’ll crush theht burn ement I told the scouts to press on until they found the away from us"

"You did what?" Karede said softly

Soft or not, his words jerked every eye toward hile to stop gaping at Jadranka Scouts told to press ahead, scouts told what to look for What had gone unseen for those orders?

Before anyone could open his mouth shouts rose from the men in the pass, screams and the shrieks of horses

Karede pressed the leather tube of the looking glass to his eye Along the pass ahead of hiht h steel breastplates, exploded through chests protected bywounded in their saddles or afoot and running fro Even as he looked,back up the pass Where in the Light were the sul’dam! He could not find them He had faced rebels who had sul’dam and damane, and they always had to be killed as fast as possible Maybe the locals had learned that

Suddenly, shockingly, the ground began to erupt in roaring fountains all along the writhing snake of his co htning flashed out of the sky, bluewhite bolts shattering earth and men alike Otherhe could see Did the locals have damane of their own? No, it would be those Aes Sedai

"What are we going to do?" Nadoc said He sounded shaken As well he ht

"Do you think to abandon your men?" Jadranka snarled "We rally the, as Karede’s swordpoint went neatly into his throat There were times fools could be tolerated, and times not As the man toppled fro’s white mane before the animal bolted There were tim