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The city beyond the gates stilled his laughter

Here the streets were paved, soons abreast, all straight as knife cuts and crossing at right angles The hills that rolled outside the walls were here carved and terraced, faced with stone; they looked as s with their severe straight lines and sharp angles, or the great toith their unfinished tops surrounded by scaffolding People crowded the streets and the alleys, dulleyed and hollowcheeked, huddling beneath ed as tents, or siether in the open, in the dark clothes favored by Cairhienin city dwellers and the bright colors of Foregaters and the rough garb of farers Even the scaffolds were filled, on every level to the very top, where folk looked tiny for the height Only the middle of the streets re, and that only for as long as it took the people to surge out around theed as they were, jaether like sheep in a toosmall pen, they cheered He had no idea how they kneho he was, unless perhaps the officer’s shouts at the gates had been heard, but a roar sprang ahead of hi a way through the throng The thunder of it overwhelon" when enough shouted it together, but theup children to see him pass, in scarves and scraps of cloth waved from every , in people who tried to push past the Maidens with outstretched hands

They certainly seeer on Rand’s boots, and their nu theood many touched Asmodean’s instead -- he certainly looked a lord; in all his dripping lace, and perhaps they thought the Lord Dragon must be an older man than the youth in a red coat -- but it ed to put hand to anyone’s boot or stirrup, even Pevin’s, wore joy on their faces and on" into the din even as Maidens forced them back with their bucklers

Between the claate it was no surprise when Meilan appeared, a dozen lesser Tairen lords for retinue and fifty Defenders of the Stone to clear his way, laying about them with the butts of their lances Grayhaired, hard and lean in his fine silk coat with stripes and cuffs of green satin, the High Lord sat his saddle with the stiffbacked ease of one who had been put on a horse and taught to conored the sweat on his face, and equally the possibility that his escort ht trample soreater Edorion, the pinkcheeked lordling who had co the others, not quite so plu on hinized was a broadshouldered fellow in shades of green; Reimon had liked to play at cards with Mat back in the Stone, as he recalled The others were older men for the most part None displayed any h than Meilan There was not one Cairhienin in the lot

The Maidens let Meilan ride through when Rand nodded, but closed behind hih Lord did not notice at first When he did, his dark eyes sry, Meilan was, since Rand had first coan to abate with the Tairen arrival, fading to a dull id bow to Rand froaze flickered to Aviendha before he decided to ignore her, just as he was trying to ignore the Maidens "The Light illuon Be you well coize for the peasants, but I was unaware you meant to enter the city now Had I known, they would have been cleared I on Reborn"

"I have had one," Rand said, and the other on" He went on after ait clear that he did not understand "If you will acco S of you, yet by this even I will make sure --"

"Whatever you have arranged noill do," Rand cut in, and received another bow and a thin, oily smile for reply The felloas all subservience now, and in an hour he would be talking as to someone too feeblewitted to understand facts held under his nose, but beneath it all lay a conteh they shone in his eyes Contempt because Rand was not a lord -- not truly, as Meilan saw it, by birth -- and hatred because Meilan had had the power of life and death before Rand came, with few his equal and none his superior To believe that the Prophecies of the Dragon would be fulfilled so; to have them fulfilled, and his oer diminished by them, was quite another

There was a moment of confusion before Randtheir horses in behind Asmodean and Pevin’s banner Meilan would have had the Defenders clear the way again, but Rand curtly ordered that they follow behind the Maidens The soldiers obeyed, faces unchanging beneath the rih their whitepluh Lord put on a condescending smile That smile faded when it became clear that the crowds opened up easily ahead of the Maidens That they did not have to club a path through, he attributed to the Aiel reputation for savagery, and frohen RandRand made note of: Now that he had Tairens with hiain

The Royal Palace of Cairhien occupied the highest hill of the city, exactly in the center, square and dark and massive In fact, between the palace in all its levels and the stonefaced terracing, it was hard to say there was a hill there at all Lofty colonnaded walks and tall narros, high above the ground, did no ray, stepped towers precisely placed in concentric squares of increasing height The street becaates, and a huge square courtyard beyond lined with Tairen soldiers standing like statues, spears slanted More stood on the overlooking stone balconies

A ripple of h the ranks at the appearance of the Maidens, but it was quickly stilled in chanted shouts of "All glory to the Dragon Reborn! All glory to the Lord Dragon and Tear! All glory to the Lord Dragon and the High Lord Meilan!" From Meilan’s expression, you would have t