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Nynaeve stood there with her jaw hanging, ready to issue orders and none left to give. Emotions played across her face too fast to catch. "Very good," she mumbled finally. And sourly. Suddenly she brightened. "The women who aren’t Kin. Yes! They have to be – "
"Calm yourself," Alise broke in, making a soothing gesture. "They are already gone, for the most part. Mainly those with husbands or families they’re worried about. I couldn’t have held those back had I wanted. But a good thirty think those birds really are Shadowspawn, and want to stay as close to Aes Sedai as they can get." A sharp sniff said what she thought of that. "Now, you just gather yourself. Drink some cool water; not too fast. Put a little on your face. I have to keep an eye on things." Casting her eye over the bustle, everybody ru
"Well," Elayne said, brushing her skirt, "you did say she was a very capable woman."
"I never said that," Nynaeve snapped. "I never said ‘very.’ Hmmph! Where did my hat get to? Thinks she knows everything. I’ll wager she doesn’t know that!" She flounced off in a different direction than Alise.
Elayne stared after her. Her hat? She would have liked to know where her own hat had gone to – it was a beautiful thing – but really! Maybe being in a circle working that much of the Power, using an angrealdoing it, had unsettled Nynaeve’s wits temporarily. She still felt a trifle odd, herself, as though she could pluck little bits of saidarout of the air around her. In any case, she had other matters to worry about right then. Like being ready to get away before the Seanchan descended. From what she had seen in Falme, they really might bring a hundred damane, or more, and based on the little Egwene would let herself say of her captivity, most of those women really would be eager to help collar others. She said that what had turned her stomach most had been the sight of damanefrom Seanchan laughing with their sul’dam, fawning and playing with them, well-trained hounds with their affectionate handlers. Egwene said some of the women collared in Falme had been that way, too. It made Elayne’s blood run cold. She would die before letting them put that leash on her! And she would as soon let the Forsaken have what she had found as the Seanchan. She went ru
It seemed Alise really had thought of everything, though. The ter’angrealwere already stowed away on the packhorses. The unsearched pa
Elayne lifted canvas covers to examine the ter’angrealas well as she could without unloading them again. Everything appeared to be there, a bit tumbled together in two pa
Aviendha took a seat cross-legged on the ground, blotting sweat from her face with a large, plain linen handkerchief that seemed very much at odds with her pretty silk riding dress. Even she was begi
Elayne colored faintly. She had not meant to speak aloud. "I just don’t want anyone handling them who doesn’t know what they are doing, Aviendha." Some ter’angrealcould trigger even for people unable to cha
Order began to appear out of pandemonium more rapidly than Elayne expected, though not as fast as she could have wished. Of course, she admitted reluctantly, nothing slower than instantaneous could have matched her wishes. Unable to keep her eyes off the sky, she sent Careane ru
There were... bumps, of course, of sorts, even with what might be rushing toward them. What surely was rushing toward them. Nynaeve getting her blue-plumed hat back was not really a bump, though it almost turned into one; Alise hadfound it, and handed it back telling Nynaeve she needed to shield her face from the sun if she wanted to keep that smooth pretty skin. An open-mouthed Nynaeve watched the graying woman hurry off to deal with one of the numerous small problems, then ostentatiously shoved the hat under a strap of her saddlebags.
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