to spend one more hour tramping the streets, as Min had put it, and he suspected Alivia was only going through the motions of showing the drawings. When she did even that. They were all three out of the city for the day, in the hills, he judged from what the bond told him of Min. She felt very excited about something. The three of them believed Kisman had fled after failing to kill Rand, and the other renegades had either gone with him or never come at all. They had all been trying to talk him into leaving for days, now. At least Lan had not given up.
Angrily, Rand forced Lews Therin to a muted hum, like a biteme buzzing nearby. He had thought about accompanying the women on their ride, just to feel the Source again, though only Min had shown much enthusiasm. Nynaeve and Alivia would not admit why they wanted to ride out when the morning sky had promised the rain that was pouring down outside now. This was not the first time they had gone. To feel the Source, he suspected. To drink in the One Power again, if only for a short time. Well, he could endure not being able to channel. He could endure the absence of the Source. He could! He had to, so he could kill the men who had tried to kill him.
Wine slopped over Rand's wrist, soaking his coatsleeve, and he loosened his grip on the winecup. The thing had not been in true round to begin with, and he did not think he had bent it enough to be noticed. He was
Another tall man swaggered in, through the door to the stableyard, almost at the foot of the stairs in the back of the room. Shaking rain from his cloak, he tossed back his hood and strode to the doorway of the Women's Room. With his sneering mouth and sharp nose, and a gaze that swept contemptuously over the people at the tables, he did look something like Torval, but with twenty years' more wear on his face and thirty pounds of fat on his frame. Peering through the yellow arch, he called out in a high, prissy voice that was thick with the accents of Illian. 'Mistress Gallger, I do be leaving in the morning. Early, so I do expect no charges for tomorrow, mind!' Torval was a Taraboner.
Gathering his cloak, Rand left his winecup on the table and did not look back.
The noon sky was gray and cold, and if the rain had slackened, it was not by much, and driven by blustery lake winds, it was enough to have driven almost everyone from the streets. He held the cloak around him one- handed, as much to shelter the drawings in his coat pocket as to keep the rest of him dry, and used the other to hold his hood against the gusts. The windblown raindrops hit his face like flecks of ice. A lone sedan chair passed him, the bearers' hair hanging sodden down their backs and their boots splashing in puddles on the paving stones. A few people trudged along the streets wrapped up in their cloaks. There were hours of daylight left, such as it was, but he walked by an inn called The Heart of the Plain without going in, and then by The Three Ladies of Maredo. He told himself it was the rain. This was no weather to be making his way from inn to inn. He knew he was lying, though.
A short stout woman coming down the street bundled in a dark cloak suddenly veered toward him. When she stopped in front of him and raised her head, he saw it was Verin.
'So you are here after all,' she said. Raindrops fell on her upturned face, but she did not seem to notice. 'Your innkeeper thought you intended to walk up to the Avharin, but she was not sure. I'm afraid Mistress Keene doesn't pay much attention to the comings and goings of men. And here I am with my shoes soaked through, and my stockings. I used to like walking in the rain when I was a girl, but it seems to have lost its charm somewhere along the way.'
'Did Cadsuane send you?' he asked, trying to keep his voice from sounding hopeful. He had kept his room at The Counsel's Head after Alanna left so that Cadsuane could find him. He could hardly make her interested if she had to hunt for him inn by inn. Especially since she had shown no evidence that she would hunt.
'Oh, no; she would never do that.' Verin sounded surprised at the thought. 'I just thought you might want to hear the news. Cadsuane is out riding with the girls.' She frowned thoughtfully, tilting her head. 'Though I suppose I shouldn't call Alivia a girl. An intriguing woman. Much too old to become a novice, unfortunately; oh, yes, very unfortunate. She drinks in whatever she's taught. I believe she may know almost every way there is to destroy something with the Power, but she knows almost nothing else.'
He drew her to the side of the street, where the deep overhanging eaves of a single-story stone house gave a little shelter from the rain, if not from the wind to any great extent. Cadsuane was with Min and the others? It might mean nothing. He had seen Aes Sedai fascinated with Nynaeve before, and according to Min, Alivia was even stronger. 'What news, Verin?' he said quietly.
The round little Aes Sedai blinked as though she forgotten there was any news, then smiled suddenly. 'Oh, yes. The Seanchan. They are in Illian. Not the city, not yet; no need to go pale. But they have crossed the border. They are building fortified camps along the coast and inland. I know little of military matters. I always skip over the battles when I read a history. But it does seem to me that whether they are in the city yet or not, that is where they are aiming. Your battles don't seem to have done much to slow them. That's why I don't read about the battles. They seldom seem to alter anything in the long run, only in the short. Are you well?'
He forced his eyes open. Verin peered up at him like a chubby sparrow. All that fighting, all those men dead, men he had killed, and it had changed nothing. Nothing!
'Verin, if I went to Cadsuane, would she talk with me? About something other than how my manners don't suit her? That's all she ever seems to care about.'
'Oh, dear. I'm afraid Cadsuane is very much a traditionalist in some ways, Rand. I've never actually heard her call a man uppity, but…' She laid fingertips against her mouth in thought for a moment, then nodded, raindrops sliding down her face. 'I believe she will listen to what you have to say, if you can manage to erase the bad impression you made on her. Or at least smudge it, as much as you can. Few sisters are impressed by titles or crowns, Rand, and Cadsuane less than any other I know. She cares much more about whether or not people are fools. If you can show her you aren't a fool, she will listen.'
'Then tell her…' He drew a deep breath. Light, he wanted to strangle Kisman and Dashiva and all of them with his bare hands! 'Tell her I'll be leaving Far Madding tomorrow, and I hope she will come with me, as my advisor.' Lews Therin sighed with relief at the first part of that; if he had been more than a voice, Rand would have said he stiffened at the second part. 'Tell her I accept her terms; I apologize for my behavior in Cairhien, and I will do my best to watch my manners in the future.' Saying that hardly grated at all. Well, a little, but unless Min was wrong, he needed Cadsuane, and Min was never wrong with her viewings.
'So you found what you are after here?' He frowned at her, and she smiled back and patted his arm. 'If you had come to Far Madding thinking you could conquer the city by announcing who you are, you would have left as soon as you realized you cannot channel here. That leaves wanting to find something, or someone.'
'Maybe I found what I need,' he said curtly. Just not what he wanted.
'Then come to the Barsalla palace, on the Heights, this evening, Rand. Anyone can tell you how to find it. I really am sure she will be willing to listen to you.' Shifting her cloak, she seemed to notice the dampness of the wool for the first time. 'Oh, my. I must go dry off. I suggest you do the same.' Half turned to leave, she paused and looked back over her shoulder at him. Her dark eyes were unblinking. Suddenly she did not sound muddled at all. 'You could do far worse than Cadsuane for an advisor, Rand, but I doubt you could do better. If she accepts, and you truly are not a fool, you will listen to her advice.' She glided away through the rain looking nothing so much as a very stout swan.
