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As if Min’s thoughts had brought her, Siuan ca down the stairs, a bundle of white under her arm Stalked doas nearer truth; if she had had a tail, she would have been lashing it She paused for one instant, staring at Min and Logain, then marched toward the door that led to the kitchens

"Stay here," Min cautioned Logain "And please, say nothing until Siuan can talk to you" She was going to have to get used to calling people by their right naht up with Siuan in a hallway short of the kitchen; the rattle and splash of pots being scrubbed and dishes washed drifted through gaps where boards had dried in the kitchen door

Siuan’s eyes widened in alarm "Why did you leave him? Is he still alive?"

"He’ll live forever, for all I can see Siuan, no one wants to talk to him But I have to talk with you" Siuan stuffed the white bundle into her arms Shirts "What is this?"

"Gareth bloody Bryne’s bloody laundry," the other woirls, too, you can wash theht her arm as she tried to brush past "You can spare oneAn aura, and a bull ripping roses from around its neck, and None of it matters except the aura I didn’t even really understand that, butelse"

"How much did you understand?"

"If you want to stay alive, you had better stay close to him" Despite the heat, Min shivered She had only ever had one other vieith an "if" in it, and both had been potentially deadly It was bad enough so what ht "All I know is this If he stays close to you, you live If he gets too far away, for too long, you are going to die Both of you I don’t knohy I should have seen anything about you in his aura, but you seemed like part of it"

Siuan’s smile would have done to peel a pear "I’d as soon sail in a rotting hull full of last ht he’d follow us Are they really going toto lead our armies to victory Andto savea deep breath, she smoothed her skirts "When you have those washed and ironed, bring them to me I will take theo to sleep tonight We have a room -- a cubbyhole -- near him, so ill be close if he calls to have his bloody pillows plu down at the wadded shirts, Min was sure that she kneas going to be doing all of Gareth Bryne’s laundry, and it was not Siuan Sanche Rand bloody al’Thor Fall in love with ato another man When she marched into the kitchen to de every bit as much as Siuan

Chapter 29

(Ravens)

Me on his bed in the dark, in his shirtsleeves, Kadere idly twirled one of his large kerchiefs between his hands The wagon’s open s let in ht, but not much breeze At least Cairhien was cooler than the Waste Soarden where his sister Teodora had taught him his first letters and numbers He missed her as much as he did Saldaea, the deep winters when trees burst fro and the only way to travel was by snowshoes or skis In these southlands, spring felt like summer, and summer like the Pit of Dooh, he pushed his fingers into a son The folded scrap of parchment rustled He left it there He knew the words on it by heart

You are not alone aers A way has been chosen

Just that, without signature, of course He had found it slipped under his door when he retired for the night There was a town not a quarter of a mile away, Eianrod, but even if a soft bed remained empty there, he doubted whether the Aiel would allow hions Or that the Aes Sedai would For the h with Moiraine’s Perhaps he would get to see Tar Valon again A dangerous place, for his sort, but the work there was always i

He put his nore it The word "chosen" made him sure it came fro it now, after crossing ht after Jasin Natael attached himself to Rand al’Thor -- for reasons the ned to explain -- and his new partner Keille Shaogi had disappeared -- he suspected she was buried in the Waste, with a thrust froh her heart, and small riddance -- soon after that, he had been visited by one of the Chosen By Lanfear herself She had given him his instructions

Autoh his shirt the scars branded there He ht coldly, as it had at least once a day since, that they were an effective way to prove to hihtibbered with relief that she had not returned

The second surprise of the note had been the hand A wouess by a mile, and some of the letters formed in what he no for an Aiel way Natael had told hi the Aiel -- there were Darkfriends in every land, a every people -- but he had never wanted to find brothers in the Waste Aiel would kill you as soon as look at you, and you could put a foot wrong with the

Taken all in all, the note spelled disaster Possibly Natael had told so the kerchief to a long thin cord, he snapped it tight between his hands If the gleeh in Darkfriend councils, he would have killed the near the Waste The only other possibility made his stomach leaden "A way has been chosen" Maybe that had only been to put the word "chosen" down, and maybe it was meant to tell him that one of the Chosen had decided to use him The note had not come from Lanfear; she would si