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Rand forced his hand to loosen its grip on the Dragon Scepter He had always been sure Dashiva was nearly as mad as Lews Therin himself Usually the h, however precariously "I’ve been channeling longer than you, Dashiva You’re just feeling the taint o mad yet, and neither could they! "Get to your place We’ll besoon" The scouts had to return soon Even in this flatter country, even limited to no further than they could see, ten

Dashiva rily, then snapped it shut Shaking visibly, he drew a deep breath "I a you have channeled," he said in an icy, almost contemptuous voice, "but surely even you can feel it Feel, e’ applied to saidin, and I don’t want to die or or be burned out because you’re blind! Look athih, but Dashiva in a temper? And then he did look at the ward Really look The flows should have been as steady as the threads in tightwoven canvas They vibrated The ward stood solid as it should be, but the individual threads of the Power shie near Ebou Dar, and for a hundred miles around They were closer than a hundred miles, now

Rand made himself feel saidin He was always aware of the Power -- anything else le He fought for life, but the fight had becole was life He made himself feel that battle, his life Cold to make stone shatter into dust Fire to make stone flash to vapor Filth to arden in full flower And a pulsing, like so in his fist This was not the sort of throbbing he had felt in Shadar Logoth, when the taint on saidin had resonated with the evil of that place, and saidin had pulsed with it The vileness was strong, but steady here It was saidin itself that seeer, Dashiva called it, and Rand could see why

Down the slope, behind Flinn, Morr scrubbed a hand through his hair and looked around uneasily Flinn alternated shifting on his saddle and easing his sword in its scabbard Narish creatures, blinked too often A muscle twitched in Adley’s cheek Every one of then of nervousness, and little wonder Relief welled up in Rand Not madness after all

Dashiva smiled, a twisted selfsatisfied smile "I cannot believe you didn’t notice before" There was very close to a sneer in his voice "You’ve been holding saidin practically day and night since we began this mad expedition This is a siether like pulling out of ateway rotated open atop one of the bare hills, half a h andfrom the scout Even at a distance, Rand could ateway before they vanished The rider had not reached the bottoateway opened on the crest, and then a third, a fourth,et out of the way

"But it did forateways "If saidin is hard to control, it’s always hard, and it still does what you want" But why ht, he wished Herid Fel were still alive; the old philosopher ht have had an answer "Get back with the others, Dashiva," he ordered, but the man stared at him in astonishment, and he had to repeat himself before the fellow let the ward vanish, jerked his horse around without a salute and thumped the animal back down the slope with his heels

"Soon?" Anaiyella si the first scout on the way toward Rand, the others fanned off to north and south, where they would join one of the other colu the about with gateways Drawing rein in front of Rand, Nalaam slapped fist to chest -- did he look a bit wildeyed? Noit ave his report The Seanchan were not encamped ten miles away, they were noeast And they had sul’dam and daalloped away, and his colu west The Defenders and the Coionmen marched at the rear, just behind Denharad A reminder to the noblewomen, and their armsmen, if they needed one Anaiyella certainly looked over her shoulder often enough, and Ailil’s refusal to was pointed Rand formed the main thrust of the column, Rand and Flinn and the others, just as it would be with the other coluuard their backs while they killed The sun still had a long way to clied to alter the plan

Madness waits for some, Lews Therin whispered It creeps up on others

Miraj rode near the head of his arh hilly olive groves and patchy forest Not at the head A full regiment, most Seanchan, rode between hienerals anted to be at the very front Most were dead Most had lost the battles they died in Mud kept down dust, yet word of an army on the move ran like wildfire on the Sa’las Plains, whatever the land Here and there a the olive trees he spotted an overturned wheelbarrow or an abandoned pruning hook, but the workers had vanished long since Luckily, they would avoid his opponents asraken, his opponents would not knoas on the to luck

Aside from underofficers ready to produce ers ready to carry theh toseeers painted green ore a black wig to conceal his baldness, and Lisaine Jarath, a grayhaired woman from Seandar itself, whose pale plump face and blue eyes were a study in serenity Yulan was not calm; Miraj’s coaldark Captain of the Air often wore a scowl for the rules that seldom let him touch the reins of a raken anymore, but today his froent bone deep The sky was clear, perfect weather for raken, but by Suroth’s command, none of his fliers would be in the saddle today, not here There were too few raken with the Hailene to risk them unnecessarily Lisaine’s calm troubled Miraj more More than the senior der’sul’dam under his command, she was a friend hoa over with enthusiasms and amusement And she was icy calm, as silent as any sul’dam