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"Whoback froside them The Wise One of Shende Hold had thin white hair and a face like leather drawn tight over her skull And clear green eyes that could knock a horse down at ten paces That was the way she norry, other Wise Ones sat quietly and clan chiefs raying Black Water Nakai, started to join them too, until Sorilea turned those eyes on the of that new husband, Melaine, you would know Amys wants to talk with you You, also, Aerin" Melaine flushed bright red, and scurried back to the others, but the older woo, then put her full attention on Aviendha "Noe can have a quiet talk So you do not want to do so you were told to do, of course And you think this child Aes Sedai can get you out of doing it"

"Sorilea, I --" Aviendha got no further

"In irls ju until they were told to stop As I am still alive, it is still my day Need I make myself clearer?"

Aviendha took a deep breath "No, Sorilea," she said wene "And you? Do you think you are going to beg her off?"

"No, Sorilea" Egwene felt as though she should curtsy

"Good," Sonlea said, not sounding satisfied, just as if it hat she had expected It almost certainly was "Now I can speak to you of what I really want to know I hear the Car’a’carn has given you an interest gift like no other ever heard of, rubies and moonstones"

Aviendha ju Well, she probably would not, but it was the way Egould have jumped in that circumstance The Aiel explained about Laman’s sword and the scabbard so hastily that her words tripped over one another

Sorilea shifted her shawl,swords, even wrapped in blankets, and about having a sharp ith "young Bair" "So he has not captured your eye A pity It would bind him to us; he sees too many people as his, now" For a moment she eyed Aviendha up and down "I will have Feran look at you His greatfather is my sisterson You have other duties to the people than learning to be a Wise One Those hips werestone and just caught herself short of falling "I I will think on him, when there is time," she said breathlessly "I havea Wise One, and Feran is Seia Doon, and the Black Eyes have vowed not to sleep beneath roof or tent until Couladin is dead" Couladin was Seia Doon

The leatheryfaced Wise One nodded as though everything had been settled "You, young Aes Sedai You know the Car’a’carn well, it is said Will he do as he has threatened? Hang even a clan chief?"

"I think wene added, "But I aht to see reason" She was not sure of any such thing, or even that it was reason -- what he had said sounded only just -- but justice would do hiainst hilanced at her in surprise, then turned a gaze on the chiefs around Rand’s horse that should have knocked the lot of they pack of wolves that he is the chief wolf A chiefAes Sedai, and the Car’a’carn harder than other chiefs Every day a few more men, and even Maidens, are taken by the bleakness, but they are the soft outer bark of the ironwood: What remains is the hard inner core, and he wene noticed that she did not include herself or the other Wise Ones ay wolves," Sorilea strode ahead, and soon had all the Wise Ones listening as they walked Whatever she was saying, it did not carry

"Who is this Feran?" Egwene asked "I’ve never heard you speak of hi at Sorilea’s back, more than half hidden by the women clustered around her, Aviendha spoke absently "He looks er, taller and more handso to attract Enaila’s interest, but I think she will teach hiives up the spear"

"I don’t understand Do youso casually of that

Aviendha stuain, and stared at her "Share hihs like a braying mule and picks at his ears"

"But froht you liked him Why didn’t you tell her what you just told wene, if she thought I was trying to balk in this, she wouldboth Feran and me by the neck to be wed Have you ever seen anyone say ’no’ to Sorilea? Could you?"

Egwene opened her mouth to say that of course she could, and pro, and trying the sa in the path of a landslide and telling it to stop

To change the subject, she said, "I will speak to Aht it would do an At least Aviendha saw the io to thewene I must obey the Wise Ones Ji’e’toh requires it" Just as if she had not been asking for intercession a ed the Wise Ones not to make her sleep in Rand’s tent "But why is my duty to the people never what I wish? Why ?"

"Aviendha, no one is going to ished she had sounded a bit less limp on that last

"You do not understand," the other woathered her shawl around her and would not speak of it further She illing to discuss their lessons, or whether Couladin would turn and give battle, or how e had affected Melaine -- who see at all except what it was that she could n