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Neres seeood luck at such winds and worry at ly at a backwater, a treeshrouded streaht have been moored and hidden Occasionally Nynaeve relad he must be that the people from Samara would soon be off his ship, with a co now that she was rested or how energetic that woh to put ideas of stopping right out of his head It ht have been easier to threaten him with the Shienarans, or Thoheaded as it was And she certainly had no intention of arguing with a man who still would neither look at her nor talk to her

Gray dawning of the third day saw the crew ain to draw theer than Sa down from Jehannah, ran into the slower Eldar There were even three towers inside the tall gray walls, and a building shining white beneath a red tile roof that could certainly pass for a palace, if a ss at the end of one dock -- half their length across dried one all the way to Saoods here

Elayne nodded toward a stout ing across his chest There were several others like hi two other broad vessels unload at other docks "Queen Alliandre’s exciseers on the rail, Neres was not looking at the men just as intently as they were at the other vessels "Perhaps he had an arrangement with those in Samara I don’t think he wants to talk to these"

The plank, ignored by the excisemen There was no custo of uncertainty They had their lives ahead of thein anehat they stood up in and what Nynaeve and Elayne had given theether, so to look as disheartened as the an to cry Vexation painted Elayne’s face She alanted to take care of everyone Nynaeve hoped Elayne did not discover that she had slipped a few more silvers to some of the women

Not all left the ship Areina re her sons, who gazed in anxious silence after the other children vanishing toward the town The two lads had not said a word since Sao with you," Nicola told Nynaeve, unconsciously wringing her hands "I feel safe near you" Marigan nodded e, but she stepped closer to the other toroup even as she looked levelly at Nynaeve, defying her to send her away

Thoriitte that Nynaeve looked Elayne did not hesitate in nodding, and the other wo her skirts, Nynaevein the stern

"I suppose I will have my ship back now," he told the air somewhere between the ship and the dock "Not before tie has been the worst I ever undertook"

Nynaeve smiled broadly For once, he did look at her before she was done Well, he almost did

It was not as if Neres had much choice He could hardly appeal to the authorities in Boannda And if he did not like the fares she offered, well, he had to sail downriver anyway So Riverserpent cast off again, heading for Ebou Dar, with one stop to beastern

"Salidar!" he growled, staring over Nynaeve’s head "Salidar’s been abandoned since the Whitecloak War It would take a fool wo, Nynaeve was angry enough to e at his neck and his hip at the same time "The horseflies are very bad this tiitte roared with laughter before they were halfway down the deck

Standing in the bows, Nynaeve inhaled deeply as Elayne channeled to bring the wind up again and Riverserpent lu out of the Boern She was all but eating red fennel for meals, but even if she ran out before Salidar, she would not care Their journey was alh orth it, for that Of course, she had not always thought so, and Elayne and Birgitte’s rasping tongues had not been the only cause

That first night, lying on the captain’s bed in her shift while a yawning Elayne occupied the chair and Birgitte leaned against the door with her head brushing the beaily, a scent of spice from the oil; maybe Neres had not liked the stench ofthe ring between her breasts -- andsure the others knew it touched skin -- well, she had cause A few hours of superficially reasonable behavior on their parts had not made her less wary

The Heart of the Stone was exactly as it had been every ti fro crystal sword Callandor thrust into the floorstones beneath the great do off into shadow And that sensation of being watched that was so common in Tel’aran’rhiod It was all Nynaeve could do not to flee, or set off on a frantic search through the columns She forced herself to stand in one place beside Callandor, counting slowly to one thousand and pausing every hundred to call Egwene’s name

Truly, it was all she could do The control she was so proud of vanished Her clothes flickered with her worries about herself and Moghedien, Egwene and Rand and Lan Between onecloak and deep hood which became a suit of Whitecloak mail which became the red silk dress -- only transparent! -- which becaht her face changed, too Once she saw her hands, with skin darker than Juilin’s Perhaps if Moghedien could not recognize her

"Egwene!" The last hoarse call echoed a the colu for one reat cha she could feel ret than haste, she s