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Holding herself against the sway of the cart, Min goggled at her "You have gone mad," she said finally "How many years have orn away? Two? Five? I suppose you hope Gareth Bryne will spend the you on his knee! Well, I hope he turns you over it Every day!" The startled look on Leane’s face did nothing for Min’s temper Did she expect Min to take it as calmly as she appeared to? But it was not Leane that Min was really angry with She twisted around to glare at Siuan "And you! When you decide to give up, you don’t do it shter Why did you choose that oath? Light, why?"

"Because," Siuan replied, "it was the one oath I could be sure would keep hiht and day, h planks of the cart, shein the world And Leane appeared to agree with her

"You mean to break it," Min said after a lanced worriedly at the canvas curtains that hid Joni She did not think he could have heard

"I mean to do what I must," Siuan said firmly, but just as softly "In two or three days, when I can be sure they really aren’t watching us especially, ill leave I fear we ood stables I will regret that" And Leane just sat there like a cat with cream on her whiskers She must have realized fro

"You will regret stealing horses?" Min said hoarsely "You plan to break an oath anyone but a Darkfriend would keep, and you regret stealing horses? I can’t believe either of you I don’t know either of you"

"Do you really mean to stay and scrub pots," Leane asked, her voice just as low as theirs, "when Rand is out there with your heart in his pocket?"

Min glowered silently She wished they had never learned she was in love with Rand al’Thor Sometimes she wished she had never learned it A man who barely knew she was alive, a er seemed as important as the fact that he had never looked at her twice, but it was all of a piece, really She wanted to say she would keep her oath, forget about Rand for however long it took her to work off her debt Only, she could not open her mouth Burn him! If I’d never met him, I wouldn’t be in this pickle!

When the silence between the, broken only by the rhythmic creak of the wheels and the soft thud of the horse’s hooves, Siuan spoke "I mean to do as I swore to do When I have finished what I must do first I did not swear to serve him immediately; I was careful not to even i A fine point, I know, and one Gareth Bryne ed in a herself lurch with the cart’s slow motion "You intend to run away, then come back in a few years and hand yourselves over to Bryne? The man will sell your hides to a tannery Our hides" Not until she said that did she realize she had accepted Siuan’s solution Run away, then come back and I can’t! I love Rand And he wouldn’t notice if Gareth Bryne made me work in his kitchens the rest of hed "I nize e, but voices don’t" She touched her own face wonderingly, as she soe," she murmured Then her tone firmed "I’ve paid heavy prices already for what I had to do, and I will pay this one Eventually If you must drown or ride a lionfish, you ride and hope for the best That is all there is to it, Serenla"

"Being a servant is far from the future I would choose," Leane said, "but it is in the future, and who knohat ht I had no future" A small smile appeared on her lips, her eyes halfclosed dreamily, and her voice became velvet "Besides, I don’t think he will sell our hides at all Give me a few years of practice, and then a few reet us with open arms and put us up in his best rooe to carry us wherever ant to go"

Min left her wrapped in her fantasy Soht the other two both lived in drea, but it was beginning to irritate "Ah, Mara, tellI’ve noticed some people smile when you callabout ue," Siuan replied, "it hter’ You did have a stubborn streak e first met A mile wide and a mile deep" Siuan said that! Siuan, the most stubborn woman in the whole world! Her smile was as wide as her face "Of course, you do seeht use Chalinda That ave a harder lurch than any before, then picked up speed as if the horse were reaching for a gallop Bu sieve, the three women stared at one another in surprise Then Siuan levered herself up and pulled aside the canvas hiding the driver’s seat Joni was gone Throwing herself across the wooden seat, Siuan grabbed the reins and reared back, hauling the horse to a halt Min threw open the back curtains, searching

The road ran through a thicket here, nearly a small forest of oak and elm, pine and leatherleaf The dust of their short dash was still settling, some of it on Joni, where he lay sprawled by the side of the hardpacked dirt road sixty or so paces back

Instinctively Min leaped down and ran back to kneel beside the big , but his eyes were closed and a bloody gash on the side of his head was co up in a purple lump

Leane pushed her aside and felt Joni’s head with sure fingers "He will live," she said crisply "Nothing seems broken, but he will have a headache for days after he wakes" Sitting back on her heels, she folded her hands, and her voice saddened "There is nothing I can do for him in any case Burn ain"

"The question --" Min sed and started again "The question is, do we load him in the back of the cart and take hiht, I&