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I arimly, and I’m no bloody soldier Fiercely he pushed down ahis last reserves to where another crop of Trolloc scaling ladders had sprung up That was not ht burn whoever it was! I’ht -- but whatever he was, it involved ga That he was sure of It involved a good horse and every road in the world to choose fro for somebody to shoot arrows at hih his ribs Any different would make him a fool, and he would not be that, not for Rand or Moiraine or anybody else

As he sat up, the silver foxhead , slipped from the unlaced neck of his shirt He tucked it back before taking a long sine The medallionas they did not get it away from him -- surely one or another would try sooner or later -- but nothing except his oits kept hi with a few thousand other fools Or froht to be able to find a profit in so events twist themselves around him Rand certainly had, in a way He hi around him except the fall of dice He would not turn away fros that happened to ta’veren in stories Wealth and fame dropped into their pockets as if from the sky; men anted to kill them decided to follow instead, and women with ice in their eyes decided toat what he had, really And certainly not that he wanted anything like Rand’s bargain; the price to get into the gah It was just that he see ta’veren and none of the pleasure

"It is tihtfully and sipped at the goblet "It is tiet on Pips and ride Ride to Cae as he avoided the Royal Palace "Or Lugard" He had heard ruard A fine place, that, for the likes of hiot a bloody Aiel ar care of him He doesn’t need e way he was tied to Rand’s success or failure in Tarmon Gai’don, hiether The histories would probably only mention Rand Small chance he or Perrin would find any place in the stories And then there was the Horn of Valere Which he did not want to think about, and would not Not until he had to There ht be some way out of that particular mess yet Any way he looked at it, the Horn was a problem for another day A distant day With luck, all those bills would coht take more luck than he had

The point noas that he had said all of that about going and felt scarcely a twinge Not long ago, he had been unable even to speak of leaving; when he got too far from Rand, he had been drawn back like a hooked fish on some invisible line Then he had beco would distract hi away Even in Rhuidean, when he had told Rand he was going, he had been sure so; Mat had made it out of the Waste, but he was no further from Rand than before This time, he did not think he would be diverted

"Not like I was abandoning him," he muttered "If he can’t bloody take care of himself by now, he’ll never be able to I’oblet, he scra places, arranged a dark yellow silk scarf to hide the hanging scar on his throat, then snatched up his hat and ducked out

Heat hit him in the face after the relatively cool shade inside He was not sure how the seasons changed here, but su he had looked forward to on leaving the Waste was the arrival of autumn A little coolness No luck here At least the hat’s wide brim kept the sun off

This hilly Cairhienin forest was a pitiful thing,brown in the drought Not a patch on the Westwood, back hoh at any distance they took on the look of a pile of dead leaves or a bare huround unless the side flaps were up, and even then they were not easy to see The Aiel going about their business did not look at him twice

Froht of Kadere’s wagons, all in a circle, the drivers lying in the shade underneath and the peddler nowhere in view Kadere kept to his wagonhis nose out except when Moiraine caons, small knots with spears and bucklers, bows and quivers, uards Moiraine must think Kadere or soht out of Rhuidean Mat wondered whether Rand realized that he was giving her anything and everything she asked For a while Mat had thought Rand had gotten the upper hand there, but he was not so sure any longer, even if Moiraine did do everything but curtsy and fetch Rand’s pipe

Rand’s tent was on a hilltop by itself, naturally, that red banner on a staff at its front It rippled in a light breeze, soh to show the blackandwhite disc The thing on banner had If a le to do ave that symbol about

The slopes of the hill were bare, but Maidens’ tents encircled the foot of the hill and spread through the trees up surrounding slopes and down the other side That was as usual, too, and so was the Wise Ones’ ca distance of Rand’s hill, hiterobed gai’shain bustling about

There were only a few of the Wise Ones to be seen, yet they made up for lack of numbers with the stares that followed him He had no idea how many could channel in that bunch, but they were a fair equal of Aes Sedai weighing andwhen it ca an effort not to shrug uncomfortably; he could feel those eyes on his back as surely as he could have a poke fro out Well, a feords with Rand, and it would be the l