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Froe of the trees, Fain studied the unwalled town and sneered One shortthe stables and horse lots and wagon yards that bordered the tohile another ru little dust fro the wagons and the few riding beside the, yet the mounted men, at least, had swords on baldrics, and even a few spears and bows The soldiers he saw, and there were few, did not see the armedof these people, these Seanchan, in his day and a night on Toman Head At least, as much as the defeated folk knew It was never hard to find someone alone, and they always answered questions properly put Men gathered more information on the invaders, as if they actually believed they would eventually do so hat they knew, but they soe, see on with their lives whoever their rulers were, yet they noted details men did not, and they talkedChildren talked the quickest of all, but they seldom said much that hile

He had discarded three quarters of what he had heard as nonsense and ru into fables, but he took some of those conclusions back, now Anyone at all could enter Falme, it appeared With a start, he saw the truth of a little more "nonsense" as twenty soldiers rode out of the town He could not make out their mounts clearly, but they were certainly not horses They ran with a fluid grace, and their dark skins see sun, as of scales He craned his neck to watch them disappear inland, then booted his horse toward the town

The local folk aave hilance or two He had no interest in them, either; he rode on into the town, onto its cobblestone streets sloping down to the harbor He could see the harbor clearly, and the large, oddly shaped Seanchan ships anchored there No one bothered him as he searched streets that were neither crowded nor empty There were more Seanchan soldiers here The people hurried about their business with eyes down, bohenever soldiers passed, but the Seanchan paid them no mind It all seemed peaceful on the surface, despite the armored Seanchan in the streets and the ships in the harbor, but Fain could sense the tension underneath He always did here e house with uard before it Fain stopped and dismounted Except for one obvious officer, most wore armor of unrelieved black, and their helmets made him think of locusts’ heads Two leatheryskinned beasts with three eyes and horny beaks instead of s; the soldier standing by each of the creatures had three eyes painted on the breast of his ar above the roof, the spreadwinged hawk clutching lightning bolts, and chortled inside himself

Women went in and out of a house across the street, wonored theht be of so at hiold and red and green

Forcing an ingratiating smile onto his face, Fainhere that will interest your Great Lord I assure you, he ant to see it, and estured to the squarish shape on his packhorse, still wrapped in the huge, striped blanket in which his people had found it

The officer stared hiner to this land Have you taken the oaths?"

"I obey, await, and will serve," Fain replied sh none had understood what they meant If these people wanted oaths, he was prepared to swear anything He had long since lost count of the oaths he had taken

The officer motioned two of his runts at the weight as they lifted it down froasps when they stripped the blanket away The officer stared with no expression on his face at the silverworked golden chest resting on the cobblestones, then looked at Fain "A gift fit for the Empress herself You will cohly, but he endured it in silence, noting that the officer and the two soldiers who took up the chest surrendered their swords and daggers before going inside Anything he could learn of these people, however sh he was confident of his plan already He was always confident, but never more than where lords feared an assassin’s knife froh the door, the officer frowned at him, and for a moment Fain wondered why Of course The beasts Whatever they were, they were certainly no worse than Trollocs, nothing at all beside a Myrddraal, and he had not given them a second look It was too late to pretend to be afraid of the, only led him deeper into the house

And so Fain found his except for folding screens that hid its walls, while the officer told the High Lord Turak of hiht a table on which to set the chest so the High Lord would have no need to stoop; all Fain saw of the slippers He bided his time impatiently Eventually there would come a time when he was not the one to bow

Then the soldiers were dis both the High Lord, with his shaven head and his long fingernails and his blue silk robe brocaded with blossoms, and the man who stood beside hi braid Fain was sure the fellow in green was only a servant, however great, but servants could be useful, especially if they stood high in their ift" Turak’s eyes lifted froh Lord "Yet the question asks itself; how did one like you come by a chest many lesser lords could not afford? Are you a thief?"

Fain tugged at his worn, none too clean coat "It is soh Lord My present shabbiness allowed h Lord -- as old as the Age of Legends -- and within it lies a treasure such as few eyes have ever seen Soon -- very soon, High Lord -- I will be able to open it, and give you that which will enable you to take this land as far as you wish, to the Spine of the World, the Aiel Waste, the lands beyond Nothing will stand against you, High Lord, once I -- " He cut off as Turak began running his longnail