Page 87 (1/1)

Light filled him Heat filled hi hi no doubt that he could save her -- but they ht was all The heat and the light, suffusing his li hiainst his flesh He tried to suck it all in, all the heat, all the light All The syone out for the blink of an eye, the world flickered And again The syht The world flickered Flickered Itof thirst Flicker He sucked at it It leandcircle seared hi his hand Flicker He wanted it all! He screa

Flickerflickerflickerflickerflicker

Hands pulled at hiered back; the void was slipping away, the light, and the sickness that twisted at hiht, that’s crazy to want it But I was so full of it! I was soDazed, he stared at Selene It was she who held his shoulders, stared wonderingly into his eyes He raised his hand in front of his face The heron brand was there, but nothing else No triangleandcircle burned into his flesh

"Relanced at Loial and Hurin The Ogier looked stunned, his eyes as big as plates; the sniffer was squatting with one hand on the ground, as if unsure he could support himself else "All of us here, and all of our horses And you do not even knohat you did Rean hoarsely, and had to stop to s

"Look around you," Selene said "You’ve brought us hoht all of us hos again The hollow surrounded theh here and there lay a suspiciously sainst the mountainside, half buried in the loose rock of a fall The sy on theranite a strong gray, the brush green and brown After that other place, it seemed alhing, too "We’re ho Hurin danced a caper

"You did it," Selene said, leaning closer, until her face filled Rand’s eyes "I knew that you could"

Rand’s laughter died "I -- I suppose I did" He glanced at the fallen Portal Stone and h"

Selene looked deep into his eyes "Perhaps one day you will know," she said softly "You are surely destined for great things"

Her eyes seeht, as soft as velvet Her mouthIf I kissed herHe blinked and stepped back hurriedly, clearing his throat

"Selene, please don’t tell anyone about this About the Portal Stone, and me I don’t understand it, and neither will anybody else You kno people are about things they don’t understand"

Her face wore no expression at all Suddenly he wished very much that Mat and Perrin were there Perrin kne to talk to girls, and Mat could lie with a straight face He could e neither very well

Suddenly Selene s curtsy "I will keep your secret, lanced at her, and cleared his throat again Is she angry with ry if I had tried to kiss her I think He wished she would not look at hi "Hurin, is there any chance the Darkfriends used this Stone before us?"

The sniffer shook his head ruefully "They were angling to the west of here, Lord Rand Unless these Portal Stone things are more common than I’ve seen, I’d say they’re still in that other world But it wouldn’t take me an hour to check it The land’s the same here as there I could find the place here where I lost the trail there, if you see what I lanced at the sky The sun -- a wonderfully strong sun, not pale at all -- sat low to the west, stretching their shadows out across the hollow Another hour would bring full twilight "In the ," he said "But I fear we’ve lost theer! We can’t! "Selene, if that’s the case, in theill take you on to your home Is it in the city of Cairhien itself, or ?"

"You may not have lost the Horn of Valere yet," Selene said slowly "As you know, I do know a few things about those worlds"

"Mirrors of the Wheel," Loial said

She gave him a look, then nodded "Yes Exactly Those worlds truly are mirrors in a way, especially the ones where there are no people Soreat events in the true world, but some have a shadow of that reflection even before the event occurs The passage of the Horn of Valere would certainly be a great event Reflections of ill be are fainter than reflections of what is or as, just as Hurin says the trail he folloas faint"

Hurin blinked incredulously "Youwhere those Darkfriends are going to be? The Light helpwhere violence has been, with out s where it will be, too There can’t be many spots where there won’t be some kind of violence, some time It would drive me crazy, like as not That place we just left nearly did I could s, and the vilest evil you could think of I could even smell it on us On all of us Even on you,so It was just that place, twisting ave hilad we’re out of there I can’t get it out of my nostrils yet, all the way"

Rand rubbed absently at the brand on his palm "What do you think, Loial? Could we really be ahead of Fain’s Darkfriends?"

The Ogier shrugged, frowning "I don’t know, Rand I don’t know anything about any of this I think we are back in our world I think we are in Kinslayer’s Dagger Beyond that