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"Loial," he said softly, "can you see theier looked in the direction of the Foregate, and nodded unhappily "I only see so Rand, I really don’t think--"

Selene cut hio in, alantin, he needs a door Such as that one" She pointed to a dark patch a little down the wall Even with her telling him, Rand was not certain it was a door, but when she strode to it and pulled, it opened

"Rand," Loial began

Rand pushed hi, reot them inside and closed the door behind them There were brackets for a bar, but no bar to be seen It would not stop anyone, but maybe the Trollocs would hesitate to co up the hill between two long, loless buildings At first he thought they were stone, too, but then he realized the white plaster had been laid over wood It was dark enough now for the ht

"Better to be arrested by the Illu up the hill

"But that is what I was trying to tell you," Loial protested "I’ve heard the Illuminators kill intruders They keep their secrets hard and fast, Rand"

Rand stopped dead and stared back at the door The Trollocs were still out there At the worst, huht be able to talk the Illuo; Trollocs did not listen before they killed "I’er adds a certain so," she said softly "And so far, you handle it well Shall we see e find?" She brushed past him up the alleyway Rand followed, the spicy s his nostrils

Atop the hill, the alleyway opened onto a wide expanse of smoothly flattened clay, almost as pale as the plaster and nearly surrounded by s with the shadows of narrow alleys between, but to Rand’s right stood one building s, light falling onto the pale clay He pulled back into the shadows of the alley as aslowly across the open space

Their clothes were certainly not Cairhienin The y as his shirt sleeves, both in a soft yelloith es of his breeches and across the chest of his shirt The woman’s dress, worked elaborately across the breast, seereen, and her hair was done in a multitude of short braids

"All is in readiness, you say?" the woman demanded "You are certain, Tammuz? All?"

The man spread his hands "Always you check behind iven this very ates and doors, they are all barred? All of the?" Her voice faded as they

Rand studied the open area, recognizing alht tubes, each nearly as tall as he and a foot or e wooden bases Froround and behind a loall, perhaps three paces long, on the far side All around the open space stood a welter of wooden racks with troughs and tubes and forked sticks and a score of other things

All the fireworks he had ever seen could be held in one hand, and that was as reat roar, or whizzed along the ground in spirals of sparks, or sos froo off In any case, fireworks were too expensive for the Village Council to have allowed anybody unskilled to open one He could well remember the time when Mat had tried to do just that; it was nearly a week before anyone but Mat’s ownthat Rand found familiar at all was the cords--the fuses That, he knehere you set the fire

With a glance back at the unbarred door, he motioned the others to follow and started around the tubes If they were going to find a place to hide, he wanted to be as far fro their way between the racks, and Rand held his breath every tis in the All of them seemed to be ine the racket if one were knocked over He eyed the tall tubes warily, reer If those were fireworks, he did not want to be this close to them

Loial muttered to himself continually, especially when he bumped one of the racks, then started back so fast that he bu in a cloud of clatters andShe strode as casually as if they were on a city street She did not bu, did not make a sound, but she also made no effort to keep the cloak closed The white of her dress seehted aiting for someone to appear All it would take was one; Selene could not fail to be seen, the alarh Rand was just breathing a sigh of relief as they approached the loall -- and the alleys and buildings behind it -- when Loial brushed against another rack, standing right beside the wall It held ten softlooking sticks, as long as Rand’s ar from their tips The racksticks sprawling across one of the fuses With a crackling hiss, the fuse burst into flaoggled for an instant, then he tried to whisper a shout "Behind the wall!"

Selene round behind the wall, but he did not care He tried to spread himself over her protectively as Loial crowded beside the for the tube to burst, he wondered if there would be anything left of the wall There was a hollow thuround as much as heard Cautiously, he lifted hie of the wall She fisted hiled out fronize, but he was beyond noticing

A trickle of s from the top of one of the tubes That was all He shook his head wonderingly If that’s