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Rand followed the others out, but at the door he stopped beside the Aes Sedai and watched Mat heading down the candlelit hall "Why does he look like that?" he asked her "I thought you Healed hiive him some time, anyway"

She waited until Mat and the others had turned up the stairs before speaking "Apparently, it did not work so well as we believed The sickness takes an interesting course in hith remains; he will keep that to the end, I think But his body wastes away Another feeeks, at most, I would say You see, there is reason for haste"

"I do not need another spur, Aes Sedai," Rand said,the title sound hard Mat The Horn Fain’s threat Light, Egwene! Burn me, I don’t need another spur

"And what of you, Rand al’Thor? Do you feel well? Do you fight it still, or have you yet surrendered to the Wheel?"

"I ride with you to find the Horn," he told her "Beyond that, there is nothing between !"

She did not speak, and he walked away from her, but when he turned to take the stairs she was still watching hi

Chapter 34

(Serpent and Wheel)

The Wheel Weaves

The first light ofalready pearled the sky by the ti back to The Bunch of Grapes Even where the halls and taverns lay thickest, there was a brief ti its breath In his present mood, Thom would not have noticed if the euests had insisted on keeping hi after Barthanes had taken hi The Great Hunt of the Horn, changing to the sort of tales he told and songs he sang in the villages, ’Mara and the Three Foolish Kings’ and How Susa Tamed Jain Farstrider and stories of Anla the Wise Councilor He had meant the choices to be a private coht listen, ued in a way They had de places, at the wrong things They had laughed at hi he would not notice, or else that a full purse stuffed in his pocket would heal any wounds He had al his pocket and pride was not the only reason for his mood, nor even the nobles’ conte to be subtle with a leeman Why was Rand in Cairhien? Why had an Andoran lord taken hileeman, aside? Too many questions He was not sure his answers had been clever enough His reflexes for the Great Ga toward The Bunch of Grapes, he had gone to The Great Tree; it was not difficult to find where so in Cairhien, if you pressed a palm or tith silver He was still not sure what he had intended to say Rand was gone with his friends, and the Aes Sedai It left a feeling of so not done The boy’s on his own, now Burn h the common room, empty as it seldom was, and took the steps two at a ti did not bend well, and he nearly fell Muttering to himself, he climbed the rest of the way at a slower pace, and opened the door to his room softly, so as not to wake Dena

Despite hi on the bed with her face turned to the wall, still in her dress Fell asleep waiting for ht; he was not sure there was anything she would do that he would not forgive or excuse Deciding on the spur of the ht he’d let her perform for the first time, he lowered his harp case to the floor and put a hand on her shoulder, to wake her and tell her

She rolled lilazed eyes open wide above the gash across her throat The side of the bed that had been hidden by her body was dark and sodden