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"We brought you so her flaxen head toward a silver tray covered with a striped cloth, sitting on the dais that held the Lion Throne Carved and gilded, with huge lion’s paws at the ends of its legs, the throne was a massive chair at the top of four whiteup to it The Lion of Andor, picked out in ase’s head whenever she occupied that seat "Aviendha says you have not eaten yet today It is the soup Lamelle used to make for you"

"I suppose none of the servants have cohed "One of the cooks, maybe? A helper?" Enaila shook her head scornfully She would serve her tirace, if it ever ca their entire life serving so the stairs, he squatted to twitch the cloth aside His nose twitched, too By the smell, whichever of them had made it was no better a cook than La up the hail gave him an excuse to turn his back on the tray With any luck, he would not have to eat it

The , redandwhitetiled floor was certainly no Andory trousers stuffed into boots turned down at the knee Slender and only a head taller than Enaila, he had a hooked beak of a nose and dark tilted eyes Gray streaked his black hair and a thick mustache like downcurved horns around his widethe curved sword at his hip gracefully despite the fact that incongruously he carried two silver goblets in one hand and a sealed pottery jar in the other

"Forgive my intrusion," he said, "but there was no one to announce ht be plain and even travelworn, but he had what appeared to be an ivory rod capped with a golden wolf’s head thrust behind his sword belt "I am Davram Bashere, MarshalGeneral of Saldaea I aon, who rumors in the city say is here in the Royal Palace I assulittering Dragons twining redandgold around Rand’s aron Reborn" Enaila and Somara had moved between Rand and the bladed knife, poised to veil "I am surprised to find a Saldaean lord in Cae to speak to ase, but I was put off by Lord Gaebril’s toadies -- King Gaebril, I should say? Or does he still live?" Bashere’s tone said he doubted it, and did not care one way or the other He did not pause "Many in the city say Morgase is dead, as well"

"They’re both dead," Rand said bleakly He sat down on the throne, his head resting against the moonstone Lion of Andor The throne had been sized for woase"

Bashere quirked an eyebrow "Should I hail King Rand of Andor, then?"

Rand leaned forward angrily "Andor has always had a queen, and it still does Elayne was DaughterHeir With her mother dead, she is queen Maybe she has to be crowned first -- I don’t know the law -- but she is queen as far as I aon Reborn That is as much as I want, and er disturbed Bashere at all, the n Those tilted eyes watched Rand carefully, but not uneasily "The White Tower allowed Mazrion" He paused, then went on when Rand said nothing "Queen Tenobia did not want Saldaea troubled again, so I was sent to hunt him down once more and put an end to him I have followed hiht a foreign army into Andor Except for an escort of ten, the rest I left camped in Braem Wood, well north of any border Andor has claimed in two hundred years But Taiain, hesitating "You cannot have hion? If you wish to use Aiel to hunt him, I have no objection My men will remain in Braem Wood until I return"

This part of his plan he had not meant to reveal so soon Delay could be costly, but he had intended to have a firin now "I a an amnesty I can channel, Lord Bashere Why should another entled because he can do what I can? I will announce that any man who can touch the True Source, any man ants to learn, can co, Lord Bashere There o mad before, and I would not waste one man for the risk anyway When the Trollocs caht in the Trolloc Wars, they marched with Dreadlords, men and woain at Tarmon Gai’don I don’t kno many Aes Sedai will be at my side, but I won’t turn away any man who channels if he will march with me Mazrim Taim is mine, Lord Bashere, not yours"

"I see" It was flatly said "You have taken Caemlyn I hear that Tear is yours, and Cairhien soon will be if it is not already Do you mean to conquer the world with your Aiel and your ar the One Power?"

"If I must" Rand said it just as levelly "I’ll welcome any ruler as an ally elco for power, or outright hostility Lord Bashere, there’s anarchy in Tarabon and Arad Do Altara The Seanchan -- you may have heard rumors of them in Saldaea; the worst are likely true -- the Seanchan on the other side of the world eyeing us all Men fighting their own petty battles with Tarmon Gai’don on the horizon We need peace Time before the Trollocs come, before the Dark One breaks free, time to ready ourselves If the only way I can find time and peace for the world is to impose it, I will I don’t want to, but I will"

"I have read The Karaethon Cycle," Bashere said Putting the goblets under his arm for a moment, he broke the wax seal on the jar and filled them ine "More importantly, Queen Tenobia has read the Prophecies, too I cannot speak for Kandor, or Arafel, or Shienar I believe they will come to you -- not a child in the Borderlands but knows the Shadoaits in the Blight to descend on us -- but I cannot speak for theoblet he handed her suspiciously, but she climbed the stairs to hand it to Rand "In truth," Bashere continued, "I cannot even speak for Saldaea Tenobia rules; I aeneral But I think once I send a fast rider to her with a on Reborn In the meanwhile, I offer you my services, and those of nine thous