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Except for Bael and Sulin -- and Aviendha, of course -- the Aiel left a little space around hie," Rand said The Aiel nearest him moved back all of a foot He could not see over the forest of shoufashrouded heads "Is it full?" he called The thing o, but not many more "Is it full?"
"Yes," a woht it sounded like Laateway, Aiel sure there h!" Rand shouted "No ateway! Everyone stand well clear!" He did not hat had happened to the Seanchan spear to happen here to living flesh
A pause, and then, "It is clear" It was Lamelle He would have bet his last copper that Enaila and Soateway see until it vanished with one final flash of light
"Blood and ashes!" Mat ustedly on his spear "This is worse than the fla Ways!" Which earned hi one fro at the blackness
There was no sense of motion, no breeze to stir the banner Pevin held They could have been standing still But Rand knew better; he could al draw nearer
"If you come out too close to him, he will sense it" As at anyone "At least, that is what I have heard"
"I knohere I a," Rand said Not too close But not too far He remembered the spot well
Noin it Motionless Half an hour passed perhaps
A slight stir ran through the Aiel
"What is it?" Rand asked
Murmurs came across the platform "Sonized hiht Spear He wore the red headband
"Not one of the" Rand began, then caught Sulin looking at hier a stain clinging to the emotionless Void So it was not supposed to matter more to hi forever through endless black Would sanity crack before death came, from starvation or thirst or fear? In that fall, even an Aiel h to stop a heart He almost hoped so; it must be more merciful than the other
Burn me, what happened to all that hardness I was so proud of? A Maiden or a Stone Dog, a spear is a spear Only, thinking it could not make it so I will be hard He would let the Maidens dance the spears where they wished He would And he kneould search out the name of every one who died, that every name would be another knifecut on his soul I will be hard The Light helpin blackness
The platform stopped It was hard to say how he knehen he could tell it was ateway opened in the sale of the sun had hardly changed, but here early slope patched broith droughtkilled grass and wildflowers, a slope topped by a stone wall two spans high ornatural Above that wall he could see the golden domes of the Royal Palace of Andor, a few of the pale spires topped with banners rippling the White Lion on a breeze On the other side of that as the garden where he had first ly outside the Void, the dartingher heart and soul at his feet, oflove What would she say if she ever learned about Aviendha, about that night together in the snow hut? Me a swineherd to outer darkness It did not ht But he wanted What? Who? Blue eyes, and green, and dark brown Elayne, who maybe loved him and maybe could not make up her mind? Aviendha, who taunted hihed at hi the boundaries of the Void He tried to ignore it, to ignore anguisheddead in a palace corridor, so long ago
He had to stand there, while Aiel dashed out behind Bael, veiling theht It was his presence that maintained the platforateway Aviendha waited alh she did occasionally put her head out to frown faintly in one direction or the other down the street Asered his sword and breathed too quickly; Rand wondered whether theNot that he would have to Mat stared up the wall as though at a bad remembrance He had entered the palace this way once, too
The last veiled Aiel went by, and Rand ateinked out of existence, leaving hi circle of wary Maidens Aiel were running down the curving street -- it followed the line of the hill; all the streets of the Inner City floith the land -- vanishing around winding corners as they hurried to find and secure anyone whothe slope, and soes for finger- and toeholds
Suddenly Rand stared To his left the street bowed doard and rounded out of sight, the decline giving a view past tilecovered towers, sparkling in thecolors, across tile roofs all the way to one of the Inner City’sa lion’s head when seen froht the street rose a little before curving away, littering above the rooftops Aiel filled the street, fanning out quickly into side streets that spiraled away froh enough for people to be out and about their business, even this close to the palace
Like a nightmare the wall above toppled outward in half a dozen places, Aiel and stones s, sliding chunks of s, dropping the treethick battering ra scythecurved swords -- e manshapes in black e manfaces distorted by snouts anddown the slope with eyeless Myrddraal likeTrollocs and silent Myrddraal poured fro stabb