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"But the A She sent us out of the Tower in the first place"

Nynaeve sniffed loudly "I can believe anything of Siuan Sanche I would like to have her for one hour where she could not channel We would see how tough she is then"

Elayne did not think that would aze, she suspected Nynaeve would earn a fine lot of bruises in the unlikely event that she ever got her wish "But what are we going to do about it? The Ajahs have eyesandears everywhere, it see to slip things into our food all the way to Tar Valon"

"Not if we do not look like what they expect" Lifting a yellow jug out of the cupboard, Nynaeve set it on the table beside the teapot "This is white henpepper It will soothe a toothache, but it will also turn your hair black as night" Elayne put a hand to her redgold tresses -- her hair, not Nynaeve’s, she would wager! -- but as ood one "A little needlework on some of those dresses in the front, and we are notwith their servants"

"Riding on a wagonload of dye?" Juilin said

Her level look said gratitude for saving her extended only so far "There is a coach in a stableyard on the other side of the bridge I think the oill sell it If you go back to the wagon before soot into you two, just leaving it for whoever ca! -- if it is still there, you can take one of the purses"

A few people goggled when Noy Torvald’s coach pulled up in front of Ronde Macura’s shop, drawn by a team of four, with chests strapped to the roof and a saddled horse tied on behind Noy had lost everything when the trade with Tarabon collapsed; he was scraping a living doing odd jobs for Widow Teran, now No one in the street had ever seen the coach white mustaches and cold, imperious eyes, or the dark, hardfaced footman in a Taraboner hat who ju turned to murmurs when tomen swept out of the shop with bundles in their arown, the other plain blue wool, but each had a scarf wrapped around her head so that not so much as a hint of her hair was visible They all but leaped into the coach

Two of the Children began sauntering over to inquire who the strangers were, but while the foot up to the driver’s seat, the coach way for a lady Her name was lost as the Children threw the in the dusty street, and the coach ruallop toward the A the purchases fro away froh happened in Mardecin of late, and this would provide days of conversation The Children of the Light brushed the the incident would make them look foolish Besides, their captain did not like nobles; he would probably send the ride in the heat for noof one House or another If no charges could be brought -- always tricky with the nobility -- it would not be the captain who took the bla that word of their huht of questioning Ronde Macura

A short tiay led his cart into the yard behind the shop, provisions for the long journey ahead already packed away under the round canvas top Indeed, Ronde Macura had cured him of a fever that had taken twentythree the winter before, but it was a nagging wife and a shrewish lad of a journey all the way to where the witches lived Ronde had said soh not who, but he hoped to make it to Tar Valon

He tapped on the kitchen door six ti in, but it was not until he climbed the stairs that he found anyone In the back bedroom, Ronde and Luci lay stretched out on the beds, sound asleep and fully clothed, if rather rumpled, with the sun still in the sky Neither woman roused when he shook them He did not understand that, or why one of the coverlets was lying on the floor cut into knotted strips, or why there were two empty teapots in the roo on Ronde’s pillow But he had always known that there was a great deal in the world he did not understand Returning to his cart, he thought about the supplies Ronde’s ht of his wife and her mother, and when he led the cart horse off, it ith the intention of seeing what Altara was like, or maybe Murandy

One way and another, it was quite a time before a disheveled Ronde Macura tottered up to Avi Shendar’s house and sent off a pigeon, a thin bone tube tied to its leg The bird launched itself north and east, straight as an arroard Tar Valon After a ht, Ronde prepared another copy on another narrow strip of thin parchment, and fastened it to a bird from another coop That one headed west for she had proes In these hard times, a woman had to make out as best she could, and there could be no harm in it, not the sort of reports she et the taste of forkroot out of her ht just a little hararden patch as usual, Avi paid no attention to what Ronde did And as usual, as soon as she was gone, he washed his hands and went inside She had placed a larger sheet of parchment underneath the strips to cushion the nib of the pen When he held it up to the afternoon light, he could eon was on its way, heading in still another direction

Chapter 11

(Flame of Tar Valon)

The Nine Horse Hitch

A wide straw hat shaded Siuan’s face as she let Logain lead the way through Lugard’s Shilene Gate under the lateafternoon sun The city’s tall gray outer walls were in some disrepair; in two places she could see, tumbled stone lowered the wall to no more than a tall fence Min and Leane rode close behind her, both tired fros He wanted to be in charge, and it took little enough to convince hi, when and where they stopped of a night, if he kept the money, even if he expected them to serve his meals as well as cook them, it was of little account to her All in all, she felt sorry for hi fish on the hook to catch a b