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Weaving a fingerthin flow of Fire, he sliced the outline of a door in one wall, widening the gap at the top Startlingly, daylight shone through Releasing saidin, he exchanged surprised looks with Aviendha He knew he had lost track of time -- you lost track of the year -- but they could not have been inside that long Wherever they were, it was a great distance froe until he put his back to it, dug in his heels and shoved with all of his ht Just as it occurred to him that he very probably could have done thishiht Not all the way, though It stopped at an angle, propped against snow that had built up around the hut Lying on his back, with only a bit of his head sticking out, he could see other mounds, some smooth drifts around sparse, stunted trees that he did not recognize, othersbushes or boulders

He opened hisswept through the air not fifty feet above hier than a horse, on slowbeating widespread wings, a horny snout thrust out before and clawed feet and thin, lizardlike tail trailing behind His head twisted on its own to follow the thing’s flight over the trees There were two people on its back; despite what seear the around below If he had had , if he had not been directly under the creature, they would surely have seen him"Leave the blankets," he said as he ducked back inside He told her what he had seen "Maybe they’d be friendly and maybe not, but I’d as soon not find out" He was not sure he wanted tolike that in any case If they were people "We are going to sneak back to the gateway As quickly as we can, but sneaking"

For a wonder she did not argue When he co her climb over the ice block -- that was a wonder, too; she accepted his hand without so ue when you make sense, Rand al’Thor" That was hardly the way he remembered it

The land around them lay flat beneath its deep blanket of snow, but to the west sharp, whitetipped mountains rose, peaks wreathed in cloud He had no difficulty knowing they lay west, for the sun was rising Less than half its golden ball stuck above the ocean He stared at that The land slanted down enough for hi in violent spray on a rocky, boulderstrewn shoreendlessly to horizon and sun If the snow had not been enough, that told him they were in no land he knew

Aviendha stared at the rolling breakers and pounding waves in aht never have seen an ocean, but she had seen ave her evenhis way through as asped as he scooped her up in his arlared

"We have tothose skirts," he told her The glare faded, but she did not put an arm around his neck, as he had halfhoped Instead she folded her hands and put on a patient face A bit touched with sullenness Whatever changes what they had done ht in her, she was not completely different He could not understand why that should be a relief

He could have h the snow as he had in the stors caht to theht, pure white except for a black tip to its bushy tail, occasionally eyeing him and Aviendha warily Rabbit tracks marred the snow in places, blurred where they had leapt, and once he saw the prints of a cat that had to be as large as a leopard Maybe there were larger anihtless relative of that leathery creature Not so he wanted to encounter, but there was always the chance the fliersnow as the track of some animal

He stillthere were ether Of course, if there had been, he runted, frowning up at hiain -- but it would surely have helped now It was because he was creeping in that way, though, that he saw the others first

Less than fifty paces away, between hiateway; he could feel his weave holding it -- were four people on horseback and more than twenty afoot Thethick, furlined cloaks; two of them each wore a silvery bracelet on her left wrist, connected by a long leash of the saht around the neck of a grayclad, cloakless wo in the snow The others afoot were old, overlapping plates down their chests and the outsides of their arold tassels, their long shields were painted in the sae insects, faces peering out through thespear or shield, but with a curved, twohanded sword on his back Silver outlined the plates of his lacquered arhtened the illusion of his painted helmet Rand knehere he and Aviendha were now He had seen ar her down behind so that looked a little like a isted pine, except that its trunk was sray, streaked with black, he pointed, and she nodded silently

"The tomen on leashes can channel," he whispered "Can you block them?" Hurriedly he added, "Don’t embrace the Source yet They’re prisoners, but they still ht warn the others, and even if they don’t, the woht be able to feel them sense you"

She looked at him oddly, but wasted no time on foolish questions such as how he knew; they would come later, he knew "The women with the bracelets can channel also," she replied just as softly "It feels very strange, though Weak As if they had never practiced it I cannot see how that can be"

Rand could Damane were the ones ere supposed to be able to channel If toh the Seanchan net to become sul’dam instead -- and from the little he knew of them, that would not be easy, for the Seanchan tested every last wons of channeling -- they would surely never dare to betray themselves "Can y