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For five hundred years riches had flowed into Cairhien with the silk and the ivory Five hundred years, and Avendoraldera grew in Cairhien And then King Laman had the tree cut down to make a throne The nations knehy the Aiel had crossed the Spine of the World twenty years ago -- Laman’s Sin, they called it, and Laman’s Pride -- but fe that to the Aiel it had not been a war Four clans had come to find an oathbreaker, and when they had killed him, they returned to the Threefold Land But their contempt for the treekillers, the oathbreakers, had never died Moiraine being Aes Sedai offset her being Cairhienin, but Rand was never sure how much

"These folk broke no oaths," he told them "Find the others; the saddleentle with the away into the mountains by now" The two Aiel started to turn away, and he added, "Did you hear what they told me? What do you think of what Couladin did here?"

"They killed usted shake of his head "Like black ferrets falling on rockhens’ nests in a gully" Killing was as easy as dying, so the Aiel said; any fool could do either

"And the other thing? Taking prisoners Gai’shain"

Rhuarc and Dhearic exchanged looks, and Dhearic’s htened Clearly they had heard, and it reat deal to make an Aiel uncomfortable

"It cannot be so," Rhuarc said at last "If it is Gai’shain is a thing of ji’e’toh No one can be ai’shain who does not follow ji’e’toh, else they are only human animals, such as the Sharans keep"

"Couladin has abandoned ji’e’toh" Dhearic sounded as though he were saying stones had groings

Mat guided Pips closer, using his knees He had never been more than an indifferent rider, but so else, he rode as though born on a horse’s back "That surprises you?" he said "After everything he has done already? The ave him flateyed stares, like blue stones In many ways, Aiel were ji’e’toh And whatever else Couladin was, he was still Aiel in their eyes Sept before clan, clan before outsiders, but Aiel before wetlanders

Some of the Maidens joined them, Enaila and Jolien and Adelin, and wiry, whitehaired Sulin, who had been chosen roofmistress of the Roof of the Maidens in Rhuidean She had told the Maidens who stayed to choose another, and now she led the Maidens here They sensed the rounded their spearpoints patiently An Aiel anted to could make the rocks look hasty

Lan broke the silence "If Couladin expects you to be following him, he may have left a surprise somewhere in the pass A hundred ainst an army A thousand"

"We will camp here, then," Rand said, "and send scouts ahead to make sure the way is clear Duadhe Mahdi’in?"

"Water Seekers," Dhearic agreed, sounding pleased That had been his society before he becaave Rand flat stares as the Reyn chief walked away downslope He had chosen scouts froun to fear what hethey kneas not just giving the others their turns He tried to ignore their looks Sulin’s was especially difficult; the woman could have driven nails with those pale blue eyes

"Rhuarc, once the survivors are found, see that they’re fed And well treated We will take theaze was drawn to the toall So their curved horn bows to kill ravens Sometimes Shadon used ravens and other animals that fed on death as spies; Shadoweyes, the Aiel called the until they fell transfixed with an arrow, but a wise man did not take chances with ravens or rats "And see that the dead are buried" At least in that, right and necessity were the sa Sun)

The Gift of a Blade

The caai Pass, if away fro over the hills around the approaches, a the scattered thornbushes, and even onto the slopes of thewas very visible except as inside the pass; Aiel tents blended into the stony soil so well that you couldfor and where In the hills the Aiel carouped themselves by society They were mostly Maidens, but the men’s societies sent their representatives, too, so tents well above the ruins of Taien in slightly separated caht they did, about the Maidens carrying Rand’s honor, but all societies wanted to guard the Car’a’carn

Moiraine -- and Lan, of course -- went to get Kadere’s wagons settled, just below the town; the Aes Sedai fussed over as in those wagons nearly as much as she did over Rand The drivers muttered and cursed about the town’s s the Aiel cut bodies down from the wall, but after theirclose even to the wreckage of what they saw as civilization

Gai’shain were erecting the Wise Ones’ tents -- those of Amys and Bair and Melaine -- below the town, astride the faded track that led up out of the hills Rand was sure they would say they had chosen the spot to be available to him as well as to the countless dozens of Wise Ones below, but he thought it no coincidence that anyone coh or around their camp to reach hi the whiterobed figures Only three nights before, she had married Bael, in a ceremony that made her his wife and firstsister to his other wife, Dorindha That part had been just as ie, apparently; Aviendha had been shocked at his surprise, or wene arrived with Aviendha up behind her on the gray mare, those full skirts pushed above their knees, they looked aand Aviendha being tall enough to look over Egwene’s shoulder without stretching, each with just one ivory bracelet and one necklace The work of reun Most of the ravens lay dead, bundles of black feathers littering the ground, and the rest had flown, but vultures too gorged to flap aloft still waddled through t