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Loial had a different look, a slightly puzzled frown, but his eyes were on Rand, too Rand wondered what he was thinking

"It orth a try," he told theht, it’s insideslowly, but he still thought he ain, in a few minutes"

He hoped he sounded confident He had no idea how the Stones worked, if what he was doing had any chance of success Maybe there are ruler for working theht, maybe you can’t use the saht There was no good in thinking like that He had it to do Looking at Loial and Hurin, he thought he knehat Lan haddown like a mountain

"My Lord, I think " Hurin let his words trail off, looking abashed for a moment "My Lord, maybe, if we find the Darkfriends, we can et back"

"I would ask a Darkfriend or the Dark One hiet a true answer back," Rand said "But we are all there is Just us three" Just me I’m the one who has to do it

"We could follow their trail, my Lord If we catch them "

Rand stared at the sniffer "You can still smell them?"

"I can, my Lord" Hurin frowned "It’s faint, pale -- like, like everything else here, but I can sht up there" He pointed to the rim of the hollow "I don’t understand it, ht, I could have sworn the trail went right on by the hollow back -- back where ere Well, it’s in the same place now, only here, and fainter, like I said Not old, not faint like that, butI don’t know, Lord Rand, except that it’s there"

Rand considered If Fain and the Darkfriends were here -- wherever here was -- they et back They had to, if they had reached here in the first place And they had the Horn, and the dagger Mat had to have that dagger For that if for nothing else, he had to find them What finally decided hiain Afraid to try channeling the Power He was less afraid of confronting Darkfriends and Trollocs with only Hurin and Loial than he was of that

"Then ill go after the Darkfriends" He tried to sound sure, the way Lan would, or Ingtar "The Horn must be recovered If we can’t puzzle out a way to take it frotar again" If only they don’t ask hoe’re going to find hiain "Hurin, make sure it really is the trail we’re after"

The sniffer leaped into his saddle, eager to be doing soer to be away from the hollow, and scrambled his horse up the broad, colored steps The ani loudly on the stone, but they made not a s -- the banner was still there; he would not have athered his bow and quiver and climbed to the stallion’s back The bundle of Thom Merrilin’s cloakround, Loial’s head came almost to Rand’s shoulder, and him in his saddle Loial still looked puzzled