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Before approaching, he reached out through the angreal in his coat pocket to seize saidin There was no need to actually touch the carving of the fat little led filth and sweetness filled hi avalanche of ice Channeling as he had done every night since leaving Rhuidean, he set wards around the entire encampment, not only as in the pass but every tent in the hills beloell, and on the slopes of the e, but only just He had thought that he was strong before, but Aser No hu the line of that ould notice anything, but Shadon that touched it would sound a warning that everyone in the tents would hear Had he done this in Rhuidean, the Darkhounds could never have entered without hi

The Aiel thes were co tocould render them useless, in practicality He could havewarning, but that would have been like a beacon to any , and to Myrddraal, too No need to bring his eneht not knohere he was This, even one of the Forsaken would not know until he was close, and a Myrddraal not until it was too late

Letting go of saidin was an exercise in selfcontrol, despite the foulness of the taint, despite the way the Power tried to scour him away like sand on a riverbed, to burn him, obliterate him He floated in the vast eainst each hair on his head, see the weave of the gai’shain’s robes, smell Aviendha’s warm scent He wanted more But he could smell the ashes of Taien, too, smell the who had been burned, the corruption of those who not, even the ones already buried, raves That helped For a while after it was gone, all he did was take deep breaths of hot, arid air; compared to before, the whiff of death seemed absent, and the air itself pure and wonderful

"Look as here before us," Aviendha said as he let a meekfaced whiterobed woman take Jeade’en She held up a brown snake, dead, but as thick as his forear The bloodsnake took its na the blood to jelly in uess, the neat wound behind its head had come from her belt knife Adelin and the other Maidens looked approving

"Did you ever for one minute think that it could have bitten you?" he said "Did you ever think of using the Power instead of a bloody belt knife? Why didn’t you kiss it first? You had to be close enough"

She drew herself up, and her big green eyes should have brought on the night’s chill early "The Wise Ones say it is not good to use the Power too often" The clipped words were as cold as her eyes "They say it is possible to draw too htly, she added, h I have not co his head, he ducked into the tent The woman would not listen to reason

No sooner had he settled hiainst a silk cushion near the still unlit fire than she followed hi soraystriped blanket "You orried for me," she said in a flat voice There was no expression at all on her face

"Of course not," he lied Fool woet herself killed yet because she doesn’t have the sense to be careful when it’s needed "I’d have been as worried for anyone I would not want anyone bitten by a bloodsnake"

For a ave a quick nod "Good So long as you do not presu the bundled blanket at his feet, she sat on her heels across the firepit fro debt between us"

"Aviendha, there is no debt" He thought that she had forgotten about that She went on as if he had not spoken

" but perhaps that will cancel it"

Sighing, he unwrapped the striped blanket -- warily, since she had held it far more uneasily than she had the snake; she had held the bloody snake as if it were a piece of cloth -- unwrapped it, and gasped What lay inside was a sword, the scabbard so encrusted with rubies and old except where a rising sun of h for two hands, had another inlaid rising sun in gold; the pommel was thick with rubies andthe quillons This had never been made to use, only to be seen To be stared at

"This must have cost Aviendha, how could you pay for it?"

"It cost little," she said, so defensively that she ht as well have added that she lied

"A sword How did you ever come by a sword? How did any Aiel come by a sword? Don’t tell ons"

"I carried it in a blanket" She sounded even more touchy now than she had about the price "Even Bair said that wouldas I did not actually touch it" She shrugged unco her shawl "It was the treekiller’s sword Laman’s It was taken from his body as proof that he was dead, because his head could not be brought back so far Since then it has passed fro men or fool Maidens anted to own the proof of his death Only, each began to think of what it was, and soon sold it to another fool The price has come down very far since it first was sold No Aiel would lay hand to it even to remove the stones"

"Well, it is very beautiful," he said, as tactfully as he could audy And that ivory hilt would twist in a hand slippery with sweat or blood "But I cannot let you" He trailed off as he bared a few inches of the blade, out of habit, to exa steel stood a heron, symbol of a blademaster He had carried a sword marked like that once Suddenly he was ready to bet that this blade was like it, like the ravenmarked blade on Mat’s spear, metal made with Power that would never break and never need sharpening Most blademasters’ swords were only copies of those Lan could tell him for certain, but he was sure already in his ownthe scabbard off, he leaned across the firepit to place it in front of her "I will take the blade to cancel the debt, Aviendha" It was long and slightly curved, with a single edge "Just the blade You can have the hilt back, too" He could have a new hilt and scabbard made in Cairhien Maybe one of Taien’s survivor