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Which produced another stir a on their faces Every second rumor in the camp was about what illness had confined the sul’dam and damane to their tents Alwhin reacted quite openly, lare The daan to shiver where she lay Oddly, the honeyhaired da’covale flinched, as well

Slided to where the da’covale knelt Why would she s the kneeling woman’s thin braids, and a sullen pout appeared on that rosebud mouth A former noblewoh obviously reat failures bring painfully great costs You will have the damane you require, Miraj And you will teach these Asha’man they should have remained in the north You ipe them from the face of the earth, the Asha’man, the soldiers, all of them To the man Miraj I have spoken"

"It will be as you say, Suroth," he replied "They will be destroyed To theelse he could say, now He wished, though, that she had given him an answer about whether the sul’dam and damane were still sick

Rand reined Tai’daishar around near the crest of the bare, stony hill to watchout of other holes in the air He held hard to the True Source, so hard it seerasp With the Power in hi his temples felt at once keener than ever and utterly re chill both colder and beneath notice The neverhealing wounds in his side were a dull and distant ache Lews Therin see in uncertainty Or perhaps fear Maybe after co so close to death the day before, he did not want so much to die anymore But then, he did not alant to die The only constant in the man was the desire to kill Which just happened to include killing hih for anybody, soon, Rand thought Light, the last six days were enough to sicken a vulture Had it only been six days? The disgust did not touch hih He would not let it Lews Therin did not answer Yes It was a time for iron hearts And iron sto clothwrapped package under his stirrup leather No Not time, yet Maybe not at all Uncertainty shi else Not at all, he hoped Uncertainty, yes, but the other had not been fear It had not!

Half the surrounding low hills were covered with squat, gnarled olive trees, dappled by the sunlight, where lancers already rode along the rows to n of workers in those orchards, no farht A few ion files below Rand, fored square of Illianer volunteers, now enlisted into the Legion As soon as their ranks were aligned, they marched out of the way to round seemed mostly clay, and boots and hooves alike skidded in the thin ski in the sky, white and clean The sun was a pale yellow ball And nothing flew up there larger than a sparrow

Dashiva and Flinn were aateways, as were Adley and Hopwil, Morr and Narishht behind the folded hills He wanted everyone through as quickly as possible, and except for a few Soldiers scanning the sky, everyheld a weave Even Gedwyn and Rochaid, though both griht theateway for others to use

Bashere cantered up the slope, very much at ease with hi back despite the ’s coolness, not so cold as the mountains, but still wintery He nodded casually to Anaiyella and Ailil, who gave bleak stares in return Bashere s horns, a not entirely pleasant smile He had as many doubts of the women as Rand did The wo her head quickly fro’s idly

That pair had not strayed far fro their tents pitched in earshot of his the night before On a browngrass hillside opposite, Denharad shifted to study the two noblewoether behind hi Rand Very likely he watched Ailil, and maybe Anaiyella as well, but he watched Rand without doubt Rand was unsure whether they still feared to take the blame if he was killed or si he was certain of was that if they did want hiive them no opportunity

Who knooman’s heart? Lews Therin chuckled wryly He sounded in one of his saneroff what a man would kill you for, and kill you for what a ateway in Rand’s sight winked out The Asha’ their horses were too far for him to say for sure whether any still held on to saidin, but it did notas he did Clumsy Dashiva tried to mount quickly and nearly fell off twice before successfully reaching his saddle Most of the blackcoatednorth or south

The rest of the nobles gathered quickly with Bashere on the slope just below Rand, the highest ranking and those with thehere and there, where precedence remained uncertain Tihera and Marcolin kept their horses on the fringes, on opposite sides of the ht be asked for advice, but both knew the final decisions rested with others Weirain another splendid peroration on the glories of following the Dragon Reborn Sunah to take no care around hi quietly Sunamon’s face wore an unaccustomed hardness, and Torean seemed ready to squabble over a boundary line despite the red satin stripes on his coatsleeves Squarejawed Bertome and so at each other’s jokes Everyone had had a bellyful of Weirah Semaradrid’s scowl deepened every time he looked at Ailil and Anaiyella -- he did not like the close to Rand, especially his countrywoman -- so perhaps his sourness had more root than W