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There was only the blackness around her in every direction, except for the rectangle of the open Waygate, like aof sht in -- the black seewene could see the others, ht around the polelanterns and lighting therace, apparently insisting on speed

When Nynaeve carayher, and at least half of her feeling was for the lantern Nynaeve carried The lantern ht than it should have -- the darkness pressed against the light, trying to force it back into the lantern -- but Egwene had begun to feel that darkness pressing against her, as if it had weight Instead, she contented herself with saying, "Bela’s all right, and I did not break ht along the Ways, before the taint on the Pohich they had first been un to corrupt them

Nynaeve thrust the pole of the lantern into her hands and turned to pull another fro as you know you deserved to," she murmured, "then you didn’t deserve to" Suddenly she chuckled "So else that created the title of Wisdom Well, here’s another You break your neck, and I’ll see it htly, and Egwene found herself laughing, too -- until she recalled where she was Nynaeve’s ah the Waygate hesitantly, leading their horses and carrying lanterns, obviously expecting to findat the least They looked relieved, at first, to find nothing but darkness, but the oppressiveness of it soon had the nervously from foot to foot Liandrin replaced the Avendesora leaf and rode through the closing Waygate leading the packhorse

Liandrin did not wait for the gate to finish closing, but tossed the lead line of the packhorse to Min without a word and started along a white line, di into the Ways The floor seewene scrambled hurriedly onto Bela’s back, but she was no quicker to follow the Aes Sedai than anyone else There seeh floor under the horses’ hooves

Straight as an arrow the white line led through the dark to a large stone slab covered with Ogier script inlaid in silver The sa that ," Elaynein her saddle to look around uneasily "Elaida taught h," she added glumly "Or maybe too much"

Cal with a parchment, then stuffed it back into a pocket of her cloak before Egwene could get a look

Their lanterns’ light stopped abruptly rather than fading out at the edges, but it was enough for Egwene to see a thick stone balustrade, eaten away in places, as the Aes Sedai led the An Island, Elayne called it; the darkness ht it es and ramps pierced the balustrade, each with a stone post beside it es see The rainning of any of the only to eye the stone posts, Liandrin took a ra but the ra; Egwene had the feeling that even the clatter of the horses’ hooves on the rough stone did not travel very far beyond the light

Down and down the ra back on itself, until it reached another Island, with its broken balustrade between bridges and ra that Liandrin compared with her parchment The Island seeished she was not sure that the first Island was directly over their heads

Nynaeve spoke up suddenly, voicing Egwene’s thoughts Her voice sounded steady, but she paused to s in the ht be," Elayne said faintly Her eyes rolled upwards, and quickly dropped again "Elaida says the rules of nature do not hold in the Ways At least, not the way they do outside"

"Light!" Mindo you mean us to stay in here?"

The Aes Sedai’s honeycolored braids swung as she turned to regard them "Until I take you out," she said flatly "The er that will be" She bent back to studying the parchwene and the others fell silent

Liandrin pushed on froes that seeh the endless dark The Aes Sedai paid very little heed to the rest of the whether Liandrin would turn back to search if one of theht, for they all rode bunched tightly on the dark as surprised to realize that she still felt the attraction of saidar, both the presence of the female half of the True Source and the desire to touch it, to channel its flow Soht the Shadow’s taint on the Ways would hide it from her She could sense that taint, after a fashion It was faint and had nothing to do with saidar, but she was sure that reaching for the True Source here would be like baring her arreasy smoke in order to reach a clean cup Whatever she did would be tainted For the first ti the attraction of saidar

It ell into ould have been night in the world outside the Ways when, on an Island, Liandrin abruptly dismounted and announced that they would halt for supper and sleep, and that there was food on the packhorse

"Parcel it out," she said, not bothering to assign the task "It will take us the better part of two days to reach Tory if you were too foolish to bring food yourselves" Briskly she unsaddled and hobbled her mare, but then she sat down on her saddle and waited for one of them to b