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Toyou to let no one see these words, and to destroy the some ould usurp your power, and I cannot knoho around you is as faithful as I I am told that Moiraine Da your words as law, as I will, yet I cannot know, for I re, as Cairhienin are Yet even if you believe she is your creature, as I do, I beg you to keep this ers, on Reborn, and I aain, blinking, then handed it to Moiraine She barely scanned the page before giving it to Egwene, who had her head over the other letter with Aviendha Perhaps Moiraine already knehat they contained?

"A good thing you gave your oath," he said "The way you used to be, keeping everything back, Iyou’re more open now" She did not react "What do you make of it?"

"She wene said softly He did not think he had beenher head, she said more loudly, "This doesn’t sound like Alviarin at all"

"It is her hand," Moiraine said "What do you make of it, Rand?"

"I think there’s a rift in the Tohether Elaida knows it or not I assume an Aes Sedai can’t write a lie more easily than she can speak one?" He did not wait for her nod "If Alviarin had been less flowery, I ether to pullhalf of what Alviarin wrote, and I can’t see her having a Keeper who could write it, not if she knew"

"You are not going to do this thing," Aviendha said, Elaida’s letter crumpled in her hand It was not a question

"I am not a fool"

"Soly, and wene, who considered for aelse?" Moiraine asked

"I see White Tower spies," he told her dryly "They know I hold the city" For at least two or three days after the battle, the Shaido would have stopped anything but a pigeon going north Even a rider who knehere to change horses, no sure thing between Cairhien and Tar Valon, could not have reached the Tower in time for these letters to come back today

Moiraine smiled "You learn quickly You will do well" For a moment she al, except et within a mile of me" Thirteen of the weakest Aes Sedai could overwhelm him linked, and he did not think Elaida would send her weakest "That, and be aware that the Tower knohat I do the day after I do it Nothing more until I know wene?"

She hesitated, and he suddenly wondered whether she had told Moiraine any more than she had him Was it Aes Sedai secrets she kept, or Wise Ones’? At last she said simply, "I do not know"

A rap came at the door, and Somara put her flaxen head into the room "Matrim Cauthon has come, Car’a’carn He says that you sent for hio, as soon as he had learned Mat was back in the city What would the excuse be this time? It was time to be done with excuses "Stay," he told the women Wise Ones made Mat almost as uneasy as Aes Sedai did; these three would put hi the to use Mat, too "Send hi, as if it was a co open, and his shirt was half unlaced, exposing the silver foxhead dangling on his sweaty chest, but the dark silk scarf was draped around his neck to hide his hanging scar in spite of the heat "Sorry if I took too long There were soht they kne to play cards Doesn’t he know anything livelier?" he asked, jerking his head toward As man who can pick up a sants to join the Band of the Red Hand Tal to turn them away in droves And Daerid has doubled the nu himself into the chair Araco felloanting to be heroes"

"The Band of the Red Hand," Moiraine roup of heroes indeed, though the ed many times in a war that lasted well over three hundred years It is said they were the last to fall to the Trollocs, guarding Ae rose where they fell, towas already there"

"I wouldn’t know about that" Mat touched the foxhead ot the na it"

Moiraine glanced at theon the forehead see "You are very brave, it seems, Mat" It was flatly said, and the silence that followed stiffened his face "Very brave," she said finally, "to lead Shen an Calhar across the Alguenya and south against the Andorans Even braver than that, for there are rumors that you went alone to scout the way, and Talwene sniffed loudly in the background "Hardly wise for a young lord leading his men"

Mat’s lip curled "I’m no lord; I’ve more respect for myself than that"

"But very brave," Moiraine said as if he had not spoken "Andoran supply wagons burned, outposts destroyed And three battles Three battles, and three victories With sered a rip in the shoulder of his coat he sank back as far the chair would allow "Are you drawn to the thick of battles, or are they drawn to you? I aht have driven the Andorans back across the Erinin had you stayed"

"Do you think this is funny?" Mat snarled "If you have so to say, say it You can play the cat all you want, but I’wene and Aviendha, watching with folded arain He had to be wondering It had stopped one wo