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Thom blinked, then considered the way Rand had looked That coat had surely been fine enough for a lord He was growing old, letting things like that slip by hi whether to tell Zera the truth or let her continue thinking as she did All it takes is to think about the Great Ga it "The boy is a shepherd, Zera, frohed scornfully "And I’erous in Cairhien the last few years Nothing like what you knew in Caemlyn There are murders done, now You’ll have your throat cut for you, if you don’t watch out"

"I tell you, I aer That’s all twenty years in the past, near enough"

"Aye" She did not sound as if she believed it "But be that as it un perfor at the lords’ manors"

"They pay well"

"And they’ll pull you into their plots as soon as they see how They see aThis young lord of yours won’t help you; they will eat hi to convince her he was out of it "Is that what you ca the Great Game, Thom Marry Dena She’ll take you, the more fool her, bony and whitehaired as you are Marry her, and forget this young lord and Daes Dae’mar"

"I thank you for the advice," he said dryly Marry her? Burden her with an old husband She’ll never be a bard witharound her neck "If you don’t mind, Zera, I want to be alone for a while I perforht, and I need to prepare"

She gave hied the door shut behind her

Thoers on the table Coat or no coat, Rand was still only a shepherd If he had been more, if he had been what Thom once suspected -- a man who could channel -- neither Moiraine nor any other Aes Sedai would ever have let hientled Horn or no Horn, the boy was only a shepherd

"He is out of it," he said aloud, "and so aht

"I do not understand it," Loial said "I inning, aht back Every toss She called it a little lesson What did shetheir way through the Foregate, The Bunch of Grapes behind them The sun sat low in the west, a red ball half below the horizon, throwing long shadows behind theoathorned Trolloc with a sword at its belt, co the poles, but sounds of ate, where the halls of entertainment and the taverns stood Here, doors were already barred and s shuttered

Rand stopped fingering the wooden flute case and slung it on his back I suppose I couldn’t expect hi and coht, I wish Ingtar would show up He stuffed his hands in his pockets and felt Selene’s note

"You don’t suppose she " Loial paused uncomfortably "You don’t suppose she cheated, do you? Everybody was grinning as if she were doing soed at his cloak I have to take the Horn and go If ait for Ingtar, anything can happen Fain will come sooner or later I have to stay ahead of him The men with the puppet were almost to them