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"Just bloody wonderful," he h brandy Talmanes and Nalesean seereeathered to watch the two lords speak to hiinning with a verse of their own

"Well toss the dice however they fall,

and snuggle the girls be they short or tall,

then follow young Mat whenever he calls,

to dance with Jak o’ the Shadows"

With a wheezing laugh he could not stop, Mat sank back down onto the boulder and set about e the pitcher There had to be some way out of this There just had to be

Rand’s eyes opened slowly, staring up at the roof of his tent He was naked beneath a single blanket The absence of pain see, yet he felt even weaker than he reht things His skin went cold I cannot let hi beneath the blanket, he found the smooth round scar on his side, tender yet whole

"Moiraine Sedai Healed you," Aviendha said, and he gave a start

He had not seen her, sitting crosslegged on the layered rugs near the firepit, sipping from a silver cup worked with leopards Asmodean lay sprawled across tasseled cushions, chin on his arms Neither appeared to have slept; dark circles underlined their eyes

"She should not have had to," Aviendha went on in a cool voice Tired or not, she had every hair in place, and her neat clothes were a sharp contrast to Asmodean’s rumpled dark velvets Now and then she twisted the ivory bracelet of rosesandthorns that he had given her as if not realizing what she was doing She wore the silver snowflake necklace, too She still had not told hih she had seemed amused when she realized he really wanted to know She certainly did not look amused now "Moiraine Sedai herself was near collapse fro wounded Aan’allein had to carry her to her tent Because of you, Rand al’Thor Because Healing you took the last of her strength"

"The Aes Sedai is on her feet already," Asnored Aviendha’s pointed stare "She has been here twice since sunrise, though she said you would recover I think she was not so certain last night Nor was I" Pulling his gilded harp around in front of hi in an idle tone "I did what I could for you, of course -- my life and fortune are tied to yours -- but , you understand" He strummed a few notes to deentle hith in the Power is useless if the body is exhausted Saidin can easily kill, if the body is exhausted Or so I have heard"

"Are you finished sharing your wisdom, Jasin Natael?" Aviendha’s tone was chillier, if anything, and she did not wait for a reply before turning a gaze like bluegreen ice back to Rand The interruption, it seemed, was his fault "A man may behave like a fool sometimes, and little is the worse for it, but a chief must be more than a ht to push yourself near to death Egwene and I tried to rew too tired to continue, but you would not listen You wene claims, yet you are still flesh You are the Car’a’carn, not a new Seia Doon seeking honor You have toh, obligation, to the Aiel, Rand al’Thor, and you cannot fulfill it dead You cannot do everything yourself"

For a ed to do anything at all, had left the battle to others for all practical purposes while he stu to be useful He had not even been able to stop Sa where and as he chose And she upbraided hi too much

"I will try to remember," he said finally Even so, she looked ready to lecture oma and the other three clans?" he asked, as much to divert her as because he wanted to know Wo to stop until they had haed to distract them

It worked She was full of what she knew, of course, and as eager to instruct as to scold As pleasant, even pastoral -- oma, the Shiande, the Daryne and the Codarra were caht of one another, a few miles to the east A steady strea Rand’s, but only a societies, and Indirian and the other chiefs were not stirring There was no doubt now that they would come to Rand eventually, but not until the Wise Ones finished their talks

"They are still talking?" Rand said "What under the Light do they have to discuss that takes so long? The chiefs are coave him a flat look that would have done credit to Moiraine "The Wise Ones’ words are for Wise Ones, Rand al’Thor" Hesitating, she added, as ifof it When it is done" Her tone iht not, too

She resisted his attempts to learn more, and finally he let it lie Perhaps he would find out before it bit hi to pry one word out of her that she did not want to speak Aes Sedai had nothing on Aiel Wise Ones when it ca the that particular lesson very well

Egwene’s presence at theof Wise Ones came as a surprise, and so did Moiraine’s absence -- he would have expected her to be in the s to her plans -- but it turned out that one grew from the other The newcome Wise Ones had wanted to meet with one of the Aes Sedai who followed the Car’a’carn, and although she was back on her feet after Healing hiwene had been routed froh She had been outside when Sorilea and Bair practically dragged Egwene fro to pull on her clothes while they hustled her along "I called to her that she would have to dig holes in the ground with her teeth this tiht in a an protesting that she would not, so hard that Sorilea began de what she had done to think she deserved to You should have seen Egwene’s face" She laughed so hard tha