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"Yes, Mara" At least you could have put a touch of sarcasht scornfully You don’t have to be oose You’ve told Leane off to her face The Doested that she practice what they had been discussing on a farrier in the last village A tall, handso hands and a slow smile, but still "I will try not to be sulky" The worst part was that she realized she had tried to sound sincere Siuan had that effect Min could not even begin to i how to smile at a man Siuan would look a man in the eye, tell him what to do, and expect to see it done promptly Just the way she did with everyone else If she did anything else, as she had with Logain, it would only be because the point did not h to press

"It is not much farther, is it?" Leane said briskly She saved the other voice for men "I do not like the look of hiht Well, if he helps any less than he did this et hiain"

"Not ht" Siuan sounded irritated She had asked questions at that last village, two days ago -- not letting Min hear, of course; Logain had showed no interest -- and she did not like to be reminded of them Min could not understand why Siuan could hardly expect Elaida to be behind them

She herself hoped it was not much farther It was hard to be sure how far south they had drifted since leaving the highway to Jehannah Most villagers had only vague notions of where their village actually was in relation to anything except the nearest towns, but when they crossed the Manetherendrelle into Altara, just before Siuan took therizzled old ferry a tattered map for some reason, a map that stretched as far as the Mountains of Mist Unless her esti to reach another wide river in not many miles Either the Boern, which meant they were already into Ghealdan, where the Prophet and his mobs were, or else the Eldar, with A on Ghealdan, Prophet or no Prophet, and even that was a surprise if they really were close Only a fool would think to find a gathering of Aes Sedai any nearer to A but that Whether they were in Ghealdan or Altara, A would have to catch up to hi on a few more days" Min kept her mouth shut; if the wo her head, Siuan heeled Bela back into the lead, gripping her reins as though expecting the stoutof Logain Maybe she did have feelings for him; it would be no odder a choice than Min’s own

Forested hills slid on by with never a sign of change, all trees and tangles of weeds and braht; Leane had said the soil was different where the road had been, as if Min should have known that Squirrels with tufted ears sometimes chattered at them from a branch, and occasionally birds called Which birds, Min could not begin to guess Baerlon ht not be a city when coht of herself as a city woman; a bird was a bird And she did not care what kind of dirt a fern grew in

Her doubts began to surface again They had oozed up s, but back then it had been easier to push theard they had bubbled to the topSiuan in ways she would never have dared, once Not that she had the nerve to actually confront Siuan with any of thealled her to admit that, even to herself ButShe could lie, since stilling broke her away fro that if she continued searching she would find some trace of what she needed desperately to find In a s a life for herself apart from concerns of power and the Power and Rand Not that she had abandoned the else for Siuan The White Tower and the Dragon Reborn were the whole of her life, and she would hold to theave way to a large village so quickly that Min stared Sweetgunize -- running to within fifty paces of thatchroofed housesto low hills She illing to wager that not so long ago the forest had grown right through A goodsoainst the walls, and here and there unweathered stumps stood close by the front of a house The streets still had a look of newturned earth, not the hardpacked surface that caenerations of feet Men in their shirtsleeves were up laying new thatch atop three large stone cubes that had to have been inns -- one actually had the re above the door -- yet no old thatch lay anywhere that she could see There were far too ht, and far too few children playing for the nu in the air were the only norlimpse startled Min, when she really sahat lay in front of her she nearly fell out of her saddle The younger wo on soe of any size had ever contained sodresses of silk or fine wool, in every color and cut Around those woes floated before her eyes, changing and flickering; , but Aes Sedai and Warders seldom lacked an aura for as ed to Tower servants Aes Sedai whothe their servants, with their families, out of any place they felt that they

There was an eerie stillness as they rode into the village No one spoke Aes Sedai stood without irls who must be Accepted or even novices Men who a race were frozen, one hand hidden in thatch, or reaching into a doorway, doubtless where weapons were hidden The children vanished, hurriedly herded away by the adults who had to be servants Under all those unwinking stares, the hair on the back of Min&39