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When they slipped out through a sase did not look very old hair, taken its sheen away anddown her face helped, as well No one believed that queens sweated A shapeless dress of rough -- very rough -- gray wool, with divided skirts, cos were coarse wool She looked a farm woman who had ridden the cart horse to market and noanted to see a little of the city Lini looked herself, straightbacked and nononsense, in a green woolen riding dress, well cut but ten years out of fashion

Wishing she could scratch, Morgase also wished that the other wo very well Stuffing the lownecked goay under the bed, her old nurse hadwares you did not ase claie, if I ase more than halfsuspected that her itchy, illdraped dress was punishown

The Inner City was built on hills, streets following the natural curve of the land and planned to give sudden views of parks full of trees anda hundred colors in the sun Sudden rises hurled the eye across Caease saw none of it as she hurried through the crowds thronging the streets Usually she would have tried to listen to the people, to gauge their reat city She had no thought of trying to rouse thee could overwhelm the Guards in the Royal Palace, but if she had not known it before, the riots in the spring that had brought Gaebril to her attention, and the near riots the year before, had shohat ain in Caemlyn, not see it burned

Beyond the white walls of the Inner City, the New City had its own beauties Tall slender towers, and doe expanses of redtiled roofs, and the great, towered outer walls, pale gray streaked with silver and white Broad boulevards, split down the rass, were jaons Except to notice in passing that the grass was dying for lack of rain, Morgase kept her

From the experience of her annual forays, she chose the people she questioned carefully Men, mostly She kne she looked, even with soot in her hair, and so directions from jealousy Men, on the other hand, racked their brains to be right, to ih The first were often offended at being approached, as though they were not afoot the directions had so for his face, hawking a tray of pins and needles, grinned at her and said, "Did anyone ever tell you you look a mite like the Queen? Whatever ave hih that earned a stern look from Lini "You save your flattery for your wife The second turn to the left, you say? I thank you And for the coh the crowd, a frown settled on her face She had heard too much of that Not that she looked like the Queen, but that Morgase had s Gaebril had raised taxes heavily to pay for his levies, it seehtly so The responsibility was the Queen’s Other laws had come out of the Palace, as well, laws that made little sense, but did make people’s lives more difficult She heard whispers about herself, that h Only murht Perhaps it would not have been as easy as she had thought to rouse oal, a broad stone inn, the sign over the door bearing a oldenhaired woman in the Rose Crown, one of her hands on his head The Queen’s Blessing If it was ood likeness The cheeks were too fat

Not until she stopped in front of the inn did she realize that Lini was puffing She had set a quick pace, and the wo "Lini, I am sorry I should not have walked so --"

"If I can’t keep up with you, girl, hoill I be able to tend Elayne’s babes? Do youfeet never finish a journey’ He said he would be in the stable"

The whitehaired woase followed her around the inn Before stepping into the stone stable, she shaded her eyes to look at the sun Noby then, if he was not already

Tallanvor was not alone in the stalllined stable When he went to one knee on the strawcovered floor, in a green wool coat with his sword belted over it, two men and a woman knelt with him, if a bit hesitantly, unsure of her as she was The stout , must be Basel Gill, the innkeeper An old leather jerkin, studded with steel discs, strained around his girth, and he wore a sword at his hip, too

"My Queen," Gill said, "I’ve not carried a sword in years -- not since the Aiel War -- but I’d count it an honor if you allowed me to follow you" He should have looked ridiculous, but he did not

Morgase studied the other two, a hulking fellow in a rough gray coat, with heavylidded eyes, an oftbroken nose, and scars on his face, and a short, pretty wo her h, but her highnecked blue wool dress appeared too finely woven for one like hiht

The fellow sensed her doubts, for all his lazyeyed appearance "I aood Queen’s ht, what’s been done, and it has to be put straight I want to follow you, too Me and Breane, both"

"Rise," she told them "It e lad of your cowin, but it will be safer for your woman if she re straw froave her a sharp look, and Lini a sharper "I have known hard days," she said in a Cairhienin accent Nobly born, unless Morgase ood win Or until he found me The loyalty and love he bears for you, I bear for him tenfold He follows you, but I follow him I wi