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He stopped her with a wave of his hand, chuckling "A vicious little cat, though pretty Perhaps pretty enough to keep, with your teeth and claws drawn" Suddenly his face became more intent "Tell me what you know of Rand al’Thor, and especially his friends, if he has any, his co until her mouth and throat went dry, and her voice cracked and rasped She never raised her goblet until he told her to drink; then she gulped the wine down and spoke on She could please hiase could think of

The ase’s bedchamber dropped hasty curtsies, surprised to see her there in thethem out of the room, she climbed onto her bed still in her dress For a tis of the bedposts No Lions of Andor here, but roses For the Rose Crown of Andor, but roses suited her better than lions

Stop being stubborn, she chided herself, then wondered why She had told Gaebril she was tired, and -- Or had he told her? Impossible She was the Queen of Andor, and no ht of Gareth Bryne? He had certainly never told her to do anything; the CaptainGeneral of the Queen’s Guards obeyed the Queen, not the other way around But he had been stubborn, entirely capable of digging in his heels until she ca of him? I wish he were here That was ridiculous She had sent hier seemed quite clear, but that was not is she had had for hione for years Surely it had not been so long? Stop being stubborn!

Her eyes closed, and she fell immediately into sleep, a sleep troubled by restless drea she could not see

Chapter 2

(Dragon)

Rhuidean

High in the city of Rhuidean, Rand al’Thor looked out froht have once been in it was long since gone The shadows below slanted sharply east A bardharp played softly in the room behind him Sweat evaporated from his face almost as soon as it appeared; his red silk coat, da open in a fruitless bid for air, and his shirt was unlaced half down his chest Night in the Aiel Waste would bring freezing cold, but during daylight even a breeze was never cool

With his hands above his head on the smooth stoneframe, his coatsleeves fell down to reveal the front part of the figure wrapped around each forearoldenmaned, serpentine creature with eyes like the sun, scaled in scarlet and gold, each foot tipped with five golden claws Part of his skin, they were not tattoos; they glittered like precious eht

Those e variously called the Dragonwall or the Spine of the World, as He Who Comes With the Dawn And like the herons branded into his palonwall, too, according to the Prophecies, as the Dragon Reborn In both cases prophesied to unite, save -- and destroy

They were na past if it had ever existed, and he no longer thought of it Or if he did, on rare occasion, it ith the faint regret of aa foolish dreah to boyhood to remember every minute Instead, he tried to think only of what he had to do Fate and duty held him on the path like a rider’s reins, but he had often been called stubborn The end of the road must be reached, but if it could be attained by a different way, maybe it need not be the end Small chance No chance, almost certainly The Prophecies demanded his blood

Rhuidean stretched below hiy ed, broken land, where men had killed or died over a pool of water they could step across, was the last place on earth anyone would think to find a great city Its longago builders had never finished their work Is dotted the city, stepped and slabsided palaces that soht or even ten stories not with a roof but with the ragged her yet, but stopped in jagged abruptness as often as not Now a good quarter of the great structures, with their lass, lay strewn as rubble across wide avenues with broad strips of bare dirt down their centers, dirt that had never held the trees they were planned for The marvelous fountains stood dry as they had for hundreds upon hundreds of years All that futile labor, the builders finally dying with their work undone; yet at tiun so he could find it

Too proud, he thought A man would have to be half dryly There had been Aes Sedai with the o, and they had known The Karaethon Cycle, the Prophecies of the Dragon Or perhaps they had written the Prophecies Too proud by tenfold

Directly below hi shadow, littered with a jumble of statues and crystal chairs, oddities and peculiar shapes of s he could put no naled heaps as if deposited by a storhclothed ons with items chosen by a short, slender wo froh the heat did not press down on her as hard as on the others Still, she wore a damp white cloth tied around her temples; she just did not let herself show the effects of the sun Rand would have wagered she did not even perspire

The workmen’s leader was a dark, bulky man named Hadnan Kadere, a supposed merchant dressed all in creamcolored silk that eatsodden today He e handkerchief, shouting curses at the uards -- but he leaped as quickly as they to haul at whatever the sli or small Aes Sedai had no need of size to iht Moiraine would have done as well if she had never been near the White Tower

Two of theto move what appeared to be an oddly twisted redstone doorframe; the corners did not ht pieces It stayed upright, turning freely but refusing to tip over however they h the doorway up to his waist Rand tensed For a mos kicked wildly in panic Until Lan, a tall ain by his belt Lan was Moiraine’s Warder, bonded to her in some way Rand did not understand, and a hardwolf; the sword at his hip did not seem part of hi stones on the seat of his breeches and left him there; the fellow’s terrified cries rose thinly to Rand, and his companion looked ready to run Several of Kadere’sat one another and at the mountains around the city, plainl