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"You really did so foolish this time," Elayne muttered "We can trust Galad’s oath, I’ht do beforehand And to approach the Prophet!" She jerked the shawl frohly "You could have had no idea whatsoever what he !"

"I know," Nynaeve er see Birgitte at all But Birgitte could see her Of course she could That was the i

Elayne looked at her suspiciously "You know?"

"I know I risked everything I should have talked with you, asked you I know I’ve been a fool I should not be allowed outside without a keeper" It all caitte must be able to see her

Suspicion becaht? If you really do not want to do this"

The woht she was afraid Nynaeve could not, would not, allow that She forced a sht "Of course I want to I’ave her a dubious frown, but nodded at last "You are sure about Salidar?"

She did not wait for an answer, but hurried off to one side, folding the shawl For sonation over the question, or Elayne not waiting Her breath was coht out of the dress’s low neck, yet even that thought could not catch her The sun filled her view; had she squinted, she itte after a fashion, but her eyes had a will of their own, increasingly widening

There was nothing she could do now It was a punishe only the tiniest pique over being punished after working everything out so well And Elayne did not even believe her about Salidar! She would have to take it stoically She would --

Seely out of nowhere an arrow tchunked into the wood, vibrating against her right wrist, and stoic resolve broke with a loail It was all she could do to keep her knees straight A second arrow brushed the other wrist, producing a slightly higher pitch to her yelp She could as soon stop Birgitte’s shafts as silence herself Arrow by arrow the yelps rose higher, and it see her cries The louder she shrieked, the louder they cheered and applauded By the time she was outlined from knees to head, the applause was thunderous In truth, she felt some irritation at the finish, when the crowd all rushed to throng around Birgitte, leaving her standing there staring at the fletchings around her So away, she scurried off toward the wagons as quickly as she could before anyone noticed howany attention to her All she had done was stand there and pray Birgitte did not sneeze, or get an itch And toain That or let Elayne -- and worse, Birgitte -- know she could not face it

When Uno ca after Nana, she told him in no uncertain terms to prod Masema as much as he dared and to find Galad and tell him he must find a boat quickly, whatever it required Then she took to her bed without eating and tried to itte that she was too ill to stand against that wall Only, she was all too certain they would know exactly what her illness was That even Birgitte would likely be all sympathy just made it worse One of those foolSun)

The Craft of Kin Tovere

One hand on his sword hilt, the other holding the greenandwhite tasseled length of Seanchan spear, Rand ignored the others on the sparsely treed hilltop for the moment while he studied the three ca sun Three distinct camps, and that was the rub They were all the Cairhienin and Tairen forces at his disposal Every man else who could use sword or spear was penned in the city, or the Light alone knehere

The Aiel had rounded up refugees in hordes between the Jangai Pass and here, and a few had even straggled in on their own, lured by ruht, or else too dispirited to care so long as they had a ht they would die, at the hands of the Aiel or the Dragon Reborn, or in the Last Battle, which they seeoodly nuether, but farmers and craftsmen and shopkeepers for theto fetch a rabbit, but there was not a soldier in the lot and no time to teach them The city of Cairhien itself lay little, more than five miles to the west, some of the fabled "topless towers of Cairhien" visible above the intervening forest The city sprawled across hills hard by the River Alguenya, encircled by Couladin’s Shaido and those who had joined hi shallow valley below Rand held soht hundred Tairens, armored men Nearly half were Defenders of the Stone in burnished breastplates and riold The rest were levies from a double handful of lords whose banners and pennants made a circle in the cah Lord Weira their picket lines as if they expected a raid against the horses any uarded their horses as tightly The ani the fine archnecked stock of Tear, and so those ropes or Rand uess The Cairhienin numbered perhaps a hundred more than the Tairens, but their tents were fewer and most often patched, and their banners and con represented some seventyodd lords Few Cairhienin nobles still had many retainers, and the arathering lay another five hundred paces along, full of Cairhienin for the most part, yet well and truly separated froer than the other pair combined, this camp held few tents or horses It displayed no banners, and only the officers wore con, the small pennants on their backs in solid colors nify a House Infantry ht be necessary, but rare was the lord of Tear or Cairhien, either one, ould adree to actually lead such It was the h, the cookfires in neat rows, the long pikes stacked upright where they could be seized in athe lines According to Lan, discipline kept men alive in battle, but infantry were more likely to know it