Page 149 (1/1)

"Is that a Waygate?" Hurin asked uncertainly "I’ve heard tell of theht to it and stops, Lord Rand How are we going to follow theate, you come out mad, if you come out at all"

"It can be done, Hurin I’ve done it, and Loial, and Mat and Perrin" Rand never took his eyes froles of leaves on the stone There was one unlike any other carved there, he knew The trefoil leaf of fabled Avendesora, the Tree of Life He put his hand on it "I’ll bet you can s the Ways We can follohere they can run" It would not hurt to prove to hiate "I’ll prove it to you" He heard Hurin groan The leaf orked in the stone just as the others were, but it caroaned, too

In an instant the illusion of living plants seemed suddenly real Stone leaves appeared to stir with a breeze, flowers appeared to have color even in the dark Down the center of theslowly toward Rand He stepped back to let the at the other side of the walled square, but neither did he see the dull silver reflection he reates was a black so dark it seehter The pitchblackness oozed out between the still the Avendesora leaf in his haste, and Loial cried out, "Machin Shin The Black Wind"

The sound of wind filled their ears; the grass stirred in ripples toward the walls, and dirt swirled up, sucked into the air And in the wind a thousand insane voices see each other Rand could h he tried not to

blood so sweet, so sweet to drink the blood, the blood that drips, drips, drops so red; pretty eyes, fine eyes, I have no eyes, pluck the eyes frorind your bones, split your bones inside your flesh, suck youryour screah all the rest Al’Thor Al’Thor Al’Thor

Rand found the void around hilow of saidin just out of his sight Greatest of all the dangers along the Ways was the Black Wind that took the souls of those it killed, and drove mad those it let live, but Machin Shin was a part of the Ways; it could not leave theht, and the Black Wind called his naate was not yet fully open If they could only put the Avendesora leaf backHe saw Loial scrarass in the darkness

Saidin filled hi, felt the redhot, icecold flow of the One Power, felt truly alive as he never ithout it, felt the oilslick taintNo! And silently he screa for you! It’ll kill all of us! He hurled it all at the black bulge, standing out a full span froate, now He did not knohat it was that he hurled, or how, but in the heart of that darkness blooht

The Black Wind shrieked, ten thousand wordless howls of agony Slowly, giving way inch by reluctant inch, the bulge lessened; slowly the oozing reversed, back into the stillopen Waygate

The Power raced through Rand in a torrent He could feel the link between himself and saidin, like a river in flood, between hi in the heart of the Black Wind, a raging cataract The heat inside him went to whiteheat, and beyond, to a shimmer that would have melted stone and vaporized steel and rew till the breath in his lungs should have frozen solid and hard aslike a soft clay riverbank, feel as hiets outHave to kill it! I -- can -- not -- stop!

Desperately he clung to fragh hian tocold

The ate halted, and reversed

Rand stared, sure, in the di what he wanted to see

The gates drifted closer together, pushing back Machin Shin as if the Black Wind had solid substance The inferno still roared in its breast

With a vague, distant wondering, Rand saw Loial, still on hands and knees, backing away froap narrowed, vanished The leaves and vines ed into a solid wall, and were stone

Rand felt the link between hih him cease A moment , he dropped to his knees It was still there inside Saidin No longer flowing, but there, in a pool He was a pool of the One Power He trerass, the dirt beneath, the stone of the walls Even in the darkness he could see each blade of grass, separate and whole, all of the of the air on his face His tongue curdled with the taste of the taint; his stomach knotted and spasmed

Frantically he clawed his way out of the void; still on his knees, not ht free And then all that was left was the fading foulness on his tongue, and the cra in his stomach, and the memory So -- alive

"You saved us, Builder" Hurin had his back pressed against the wall, and his voice was hoarse "That thing -- that was the Black Wind? -- it orse than -- was it going to hurl that fire at us? Lord Rand! Did it harot to his feet, helping hi his hands and his knees

"We’ll never follow Fain through that" Rand touched Loial’s arm "Thank you You did save us" You savedme, and it felt -- wonderful He sed; a faint trace of the taste still coated histo drink"

"I only found the leaf and put it back," Loial said, shrugging "It seeate closed, it would kill us I aood hero, Rand I was so afraid I could hardly think"

"We were both afraid," Rand said "We may be a poor pair of heroes, but we are what there is It’s a good thing