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They could not stand against that Bestial cries of rage turned to howls of fear, and they fled in every direction except toward him He saw one Myrddraal try to turn them and be trampled under, rider and horse, but the rest spurred their ani at the veiled Aiel bursting out of their encirclement with spears and heavybladed knives It was one of the the banner; Aiel did not carry banners, but this one, a bit of red headband showing beneath his shoufa, did There were battles going on down soainst Trollocs Townsfolk against Trollocs Even arainst Trollocs Apparently so to kill a queen could not stoh He was searching through the Aiel

There A wo up her bulky skirts as she slashed at a fleeing Trolloc with a short knife; an instant later flaure

"Aviendha!" Rand did not knoas running until he shouted "Aviendha!"

And there was Mat, coat torn and blood on his swordblade spearpoint, leaning on the black shaft watching the Trollocs flee; content to let so now that that was possible And As to look every way at once in case any Trolloc decided to turn back Rand could sense saidin in hihting had been with that blade

Balefire Balefire that burned a thread out of the Pattern The stronger that balefire was, the further back that burning went And whatever that person had done no longer had happened He did not care if his blast at Rahvin had unraveled half the Pattern Not if this was the result

He becao He wanted to feel this "Aviendha!" Snatching her up, he whirled her around, with her staring down at hione mad He did not want to put her down, but he did So he could hug Mat Or try to

Mat fended him off "What’s the ht ere dead Not that eren’t, aleneral has to be safer than this!"

"You’re alive" Rand laughed He brushed back Aviendha’s hair; she had lost her headscarf, and it hung loose around her neck "I’m happy you’re alive That’s all"

He took in the plaza again, and his joy faded Nothing could extinguish it, but the bodies lying in heaps where the Aiel hadenough to be one and half her throat as well; she would neverthe wristthick shaft of the Trolloc spear through his chest and the first expression on his face Rand had ever seen Surprise Balefire had cheated death for his friends, but not for others Too many Too many Maidens

Take what you can have Rejoice in what you can save, and do not ht, but he took it It see mad before the taint on saidin drove hirily If anything, she looked relieved "One second you were there, the next you were gone"

"I had to kill Rahvin," he said quietly She opened her ently pushed her away Take what you can have "Leave it at that He’s dead"

Bael ca down his chest There was blood on his thigh, and on the point of his one rehtrunners and Shadoisted are running, Car’a’carn Soainst theainst us at first" Sulin was behind hiash across her cheek

"Hunt the, not sure where as long as it ay from Aviendha "I don’t want them loose on the countryside Keep an eye on the Guards I’ll find out later which of the and not looking back Take what you can have

Chapter 56

(Serpent and Wheel)

Glowing Eh roo far above his head and clearing his shoulders by two feet to either side Shirtsleeves rolled up, he stared down at one of the Royal Palace’s gardens Aviendha was trailing her hand in the fountain’s redstone basin, still intrigued by so much water with no purpose but to be looked at and keep ornanant at first, when he told her she could not go chasing Trollocs through the streets In fact, he was not sure she would be down there now if not for a quiet escort of Maidens that Sulin did not think he had noticed Neither was he supposed to have heard the whitehaired Maiden reer and not yet a Wise One Coatless, but wearing his hat against the sun, Mat was sitting on the coping of the basin, talking to her No doubt probing for what she knehether the Aiel were preventing people fro; even if Mat did decide to accept his fate, it was unlikely he would ever stop co about it Asmodean sat on a bench in the shade of a redhis harp Rand wondered whether the man knehat had happened, or suspected He should have no memory -- for him, it never happened -- but who could say what one of the Forsaken knew or could reason out?

A polite cough turned hiarden

The here he stood was a span and a half above the floor in the all of the throne room, the Grand Hall where Queens of Andor had received ement for nearly a thousand years It was the only place he had thought he could be sure of watching Mat and Aviendha unseen and undisturbed Rows of white coluh ht froht fro, here the White Lion alternated with portraits of early queens of the realreat Andoran victories Enaila and Somara did not appear iertips "Is there news frooes on" By her tone, the diminutive woht ive aid Most hide The city gates are held None of the Shadoisted will escape, I think, but I fear sohtrunners may" Myrddraal were hard to kill, and just as hard to corner Sometimes it was easy to believe the old tales that they rode shadows and could v