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Ilyena, ive me!

The Void trembled; for an instant Rand teetered on the brink of destruction Waves of the One Power crashed through him in a froth of fear; the taint see stone

Clutching the rail until his knuckles ached, he forced himself back to calmness, forced the ehts in his head Instead he concentrated everything on channeling, onwell back into what treeline there was on the crest, Mat held Pips’ nose under his ar would not whicker as he watched a thousand or so Aiel slanting toward hi over the horizon, stretching long rippling shadows to one side of the trotting ive way to the heat of day The air would swelter once the sun reached any height He was already beginning to sweat

The Aiel had not seen him yet, but he had few doubts that they would if he waited there er It hardly mattered that they very nearly had to be Rand’sto get very interesting for those stupid enough to be in the oing to run the risk of letting them see hi for that kind of carelessness Absently he fingered the neat slice across the shoulder of his coat Good shooting, at a h trees He could have ad his eyes fro Aiel, he carefully backed Pips deeper into the sparse thicket; if they saw him and picked up their pace, he wanted to know People said Aiel could run down a ood lead if they tried

Not until the trees hid the Pips onto the reverse slope beforewest A man could not be too careful if he wanted to stay alive on this day and this ground He muttered to himself as he rode, hat pulled low to shade his face and blackhafted spear across his poood two hours before first light, when Melindhra had gone off to solanced at hi half under her breath about Rand al’Thor and honor and "Far Dareis Mai, above all" She sounded as if she were arguing with herself, but frankly, he did not care whether she wanted to pickle Rand or stew hi his saddlebags No one had so hosted away to the south A good beginning Only he had not counted on columns of Taardad and To around to the south No consolation that it was very close to what he had babbled to Lan He wanted to go south, and those Aiel had forced hi would be

Adeep in the scattered trees on the crest It was a higher hill than ood view This ti the botto hill valley was almost as bad Mounted Tairens had the lead behind a knot of colorful lords’ banners, with a gap back to a thick, bristling snake of pikemen in the Tairens’ dust, and then another to the Cairhienin horse, with their multitude of banners and pennants and con The Cairhieninabout as lords shifted back and forth for conversation, but at least they had flankers out to either side In any case, as soon as they were past, he had a clear route south And I’ll not stop until I’m halfway to the bloody Erinin!

A flicker of ht his eye, well ahead of the coluh None of the riders could have, certainly Digging his ss -- Kin Tovere liked the dice -- he peered tohat he had seen, and whistled softly through his teeth Aiel, at least as many as the men in the valley, and if they were not Couladin’s, theylow a bushes and dead leaves

For a oing to be some corpses down there And not many of them Aiel None ofsouth He would wait a bit, then head off while they were all too busy to notice

This fellow Weiraraybeard’s nauard out, and no scouts, or he’d knoas bloody in store for him For that matter, the way the hills lay, the way the valley twisted, the Aiel could not see the colu skyward They certainly had had scouts to get the there on the off chance

Idly whistling "Dance with Jak o’ the Shadows," he put the looking glass back to his eye and studied the hilltops Yes The Aiel co just before the coluround But even they could not possibly see anything yet In a few ht, but until then

It caallop downslope What under the Light ao their deaths like geese to the knife He would warn theone

The Cairhienin outriders saw hi before he reached the bottoe Two or three lowered their lances Mat did not precisely enjoy having a foot and a half of steel pointed at him, and still less three ti like ain near the lead Cairhienin lords long enough to shout, "Halt here! Now! By order of the Lord Dragon! Else he’ll channel your head into your belly and feed you your own feet for breakfast!"

His heels dug in, and Pips sprang ahead He only glanced back to be sure they were doing what he said -- they were, if showing some confusion over it; the hills hid them from the Aiel still, and once their dust settled, the Aiel would have no way of knowing they were there -- and then he was lying low on the gelding’s neck, whipping Pips with his hat and galloping up alongside the infantry

If I wait to let Weiramon pass the orders, it’ll be too late That’s all He woul