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Chapter 24

(Rising Sun)

A Message Sent

The land changed as the sun began to sink The hills greer, the thickets larger Often the toppled stone fences of what had been fields had beco stands of oak and leatherleaf and hickory, pine and paperbark and trees Egwene did not know The few farrew in them here, little woods enclosed inside the stone walls, co birds and blacktailed squirrels The occasional rivulet caused as rass They had heard tales of the wetlands, read of theht from merchants and peddlers like Hadnan Kadere, but few had actually seen theh; the graybrown of the tents blended ith dead leaves under the trees and with the dying grass and weeds The camp spread over olden dusk

Egas ai’shain had it up Inside the la her soft boots, she tugged thes as well, and sprawled on the bright layered rugs, wriggling her toes She wished she had a basin of water to soak her feet She could not pretend to be as hardy as the Aiel, but she was growing soft if a few hours of walking made her feet feel twice their size Of course, water would be no problem here Or it should not be -- she remembered that shrunken streaain

Cowinde, ht her supper, some of that pale flat bread made from zemai flour and in a redstriped bowl, a thick stew that she ate ry She recognized the dried peppers and beans, but did not ask what the dark meat was Rabbit, she told herself firs that would putto bet that Rand could not even look at what he was eating Men were always picky eaters

Once done with the stew, she stretched out near an ornately worked silver lamp that had a polished silver disc to reflect and increase its light She had felt a little guilty once she realized that ht but their fires; few had brought lamps or oil except the Wise Ones and the chiefs of clans and septs But there was no point to sitting in the diht That rehts here would not be so drastic a contrast with the days as in the Waste; the tent was already beginning to feel uncomfortably warm

She channeled briefly, flows of Air to ss for the worn leatherbound book that she had borrowed from Aviendha It was a small fat voluood light, but easily portable The Flame, the Blade and the Heart, it was called, a collection of tales about Birgitte and Gaidal Cain, Anselan and Barashelle, Rogosh Eagleeye and Dunsinin, and a dozen more Aviendha claimed that she liked it for the adventures and battles, and maybe she did, but every last story told of the love of ato admit that that hat she liked, the so love To herself she would admit it, anyway It was hardly the sort of enjoyment a woman with any pretensions to sense at all could confess publicly

In truth she did not feel like reading any-- all she really wanted to do was bathe and sleep, and she ht she and Amys were to ht yet wherever Nynaeve was, on her way to Ghealdan, and thatawake

Elayne had , though Egwene hardly thought that Galad’s presence was reason enough to go haring off like that Nynaeve and Elayne had sirown to like adventure, in her opinion It was too bad about Siuan; they needed a firm hand to settle them down Odd that she should think of Nynaeve so; Nynaeve had always been the one with the firm hand But since that episode in the Tower of Tel’aran’rhiod, Nynaeve had becoainst

Guiltily, she realized as she turned a page that she was looking forward to seeing Nynaeve tonight Not because Nynaeve was a friend, but because she wanted to see if the effects had lingered If Nynaeve tugged at her braid, she would arch a cool eyebrow at her, and Light, I hope it’s held If she lets out about that jaunt, A o

Her eyes kept trying to drift shut as she read, fuzzily halfdrea as any of these wo and brave as Dunsinin or Nerein or Melisinde or even Birgitte, as strong as Aviendha Would Nynaeve have sense enough to hold her tongue in front of A Nynaeve by the scruff of the neck and shaking her Silly Nynaeve was years the older Arch an eyebrow at her Dunsinin Birgitte As hardy and strong as a Maiden of the Spear

Her head slipped down to the pages, and she tried to cradle the s slowed and deepened

She gave a start at finding herself areat redstone coluht of Tel’aran’rhiod, and another at realizing that she wore the cadin’sor Amys would not be pleased to see her in that; not aed it, and was surprised when her clothes flickered back and forth between the algode blouse and bulky wool skirt and a fine gown of brocaded blue silk before finally settling on the Aiel garb, cooldandivory necklace That indecision had not happened to her in so out of the World of Dreams, but she suspected she was soundly asleep, back in her tent Very likely she would only step into a dream of her own, and she did not yet always have awareness in her dreams; without that, she could not return to Tel’aran’rhiod She was not about to leave Aether Who knehat Nynaeve would say, if Aot her temper up? When the Wise One arrived, she would simply say that she had just arrived herself The Wise Ones had always been a bit ahead of her, or arrived at the same time, before this, but surely if Amys believed she had only been there a second it would not rown accustomed to the feel of unseen eyes in this vast chamber Only the columns, and the shadows, and all this e in coe in Tel’aran’rhiod as in any dreaed