"I have an heir", Tuon said, "but I am the one off that hook. Now I can kill you, if I want".
Mat felt his grin widen. "Well, we’ll have to see what we can work out. Tell me, do you ever play dice?"
Perrin sat down among the dead and finally started weeping.
Gai’shain in white and city women picked through the dead. There was no sign of Faile. None at all.
I can’t keep going. How long had it been since he’d slept? That one night in Mayene. His body complained that it hadn’t been nearly enough. He’d pushed himself long before that, spending the equivalent of weeks in the wolf dream.
Lord and Lady Bashere were dead. Faile would have been queen, if she’d lived. Perrin shook and trembled, and he could not make himself move any more. There were hundreds of thousands of dead on this battlefield. The other searchers ignored a body if it had no life, marking it and moving on. He had tried to spread the word for them to seek Faile, but the searchers had to look for the living.
Fireworks exploded in the darkening sky. Perrin buried his head in his hands, then felt himself slide sideways and collapse among the corpses.
Moghedien winced at the display in the sky. Each explosion made her see that deadly fire again, tearing through the Sharans. That flare of light, that moment of panic.
And then . . . and then darkness. She’d awakened some time later, left for dead among the bodies of Sharans. When she’d come to, she had found these fools all across the battlefield, claiming to have won the day.
Claiming? she thought, wincing again as another round of fireworks sounded. The Great Lord has fallen. All was lost.
No. No. She continued forward, keeping her step firm, unsuspicious. She had strangled a worker, then taken her form, channeling only a tiny bit and inverting the weave. That should let her escape from this place. She wove around bodies, ignoring the stink to the air.
All was not lost. She still lived. And she was of the Chosen! That meant . . . that meant that she was an empress among her lessers. Why, the Great Lord was imprisoned again, so he could not punish her. And certainly most, if not all, of the other Chosen were dead or imprisoned. If that were true, no one could rival her in knowledge.
This might actually work out. This might be a victory. She stopped beside an overturned supply cart, clutching her cour’souvra—it was still whole, thankfully. She smiled with a wide grin, then wove a small light to illuminate her way.
Yes . . . Look at the open sky, not the thunderclouds. She could turn this to her advantage. Why . . . in the matter of a few years, she could be ruling the world herself!
Something cold snapped around her neck.
Moghedien reached up with horror, then screamed. "No! Not again!" Her disguise melted away and the One Power left her.
A smug-looking suldam stood behind. "They said we could not take any who called themselves Aes Sedai. But you, you do not wear one of their rings, and you skulk like one who has done something wrong. I do not think you will be missed at all".
"Free me!" Moghedien said, scratching at the a’dam. "Free me, you—"
Pain sent her to the ground, writhing.
"I am called Shanan", the suldam said as another woman approached, a damane in tow. "But you may call me mistress. I think that we should return to Ebou Dar quickly".
Her companion nodded, and the damane made a gateway.
They had to drag Moghedien through.
Nynaeve emerged from the Healing tent at Shayol Ghul. The sun was almost below the horizon.
"He’s dead", she whispered to the small crowd gathered outside.
Saying the words felt like dropping a brick onto her own feet. She did not cry. She had shed those tears already. That did not mean that she didn’t hurt.
Lan came out of the tent behind her, putting an arm around her shoulders. She raised her hand to his. Nearby, Min and Elayne looked at one another.
Gregorin whispered to Darlin—he had been found, half dead, in the wreckage of his tent. Both of them frowned at the women. Nynaeve overheard part of what Gregorin said. ". . . expected the Aiel savage to be heartless, and maybe the Queen of Andor, but the other one? Not a tear".
"They’re shocked", Darlin replied.
No, Nynaeve thought, studying Min and Elayne. Those three know something I do not. I’ll have to beat it out of them.
"Excuse me", Nynaeve said, walking away from Lan.
He followed.
She raised an eyebrow at him.
"You shall not be rid of me in the next few weeks, Nynaeve", he said, love pulsing through his bond. "Even if you want it".
"Stubborn ox", she grumbled. "As I recall, you are the one who insisted on leaving me so that you could march alone toward your presumed destiny".
"And you were right about that", Lan said. "As you so often are". He said it so calmly that it was hard to be mad at him.
Besides, it was the women she was mad at. She chose Aviendha first and stalked up to her, Lan by her side.
". . . with Rhuarc dead", Aviendha was saying to Sorilea and Bair, "I think that whatever I saw must be able to change. It has already".
"I saw your vision, Aviendha", Bair said. "Or something like it, through different eyes. I think it is a warning of something we must not let happen".
The other two nodded, then glanced at Nynaeve and grew as still-faced as Aes Sedai. Aviendha was just as bad as the others, completely calm as she sat in her chair, her feet wrapped in bandages. She might walk again someday, but she would never fight.
"Nynaeve al’Meara", Aviendha said.
"Did you hear me say that Rand is dead?" Nynaeve demanded. "He went silently".
"He that was wounded has woken from the dream", Aviendha said evenly. "It is as all must do. His death was accomplished in greatness, and he will be celebrated in greatness".
Nynaeve leaned down. "All right", she said menacingly, embracing the Source. "Out with it. I chose you because you can’t run away from me".
Aviendha displayed a moment of what might have been fear. It was gone in a flash. "Let us prepare his pyre".
Perrin ran in the wolf dream. Alone.
Other wolves howled their sorrow for his grief. After he passed them, they would return to their celebrations, but that did not make their empathy any less real.
He did not howl. He did not cry out. He becam
