The Dragon Reborn - By Robert Jordan Page 0,196

Egwene’s surprise, Elayne had pointed out that Brown sisters wore wool more often than silk. Elayne had been so eager to be away from the kitchen, Egwene thought, she would have worn rags.

I wonder how Mat is doing? No doubt trying to dice with the captain for whatever ship he’s traveling on.

“Terrible,” Elayne murmured. “It is so terrible.”

“What is?” Egwene said absently. I hope he isn’t showing that paper we gave him around too freely.

Elayne gave her a startled look, and then a frown. “That!” She gestured toward the distant smoke. “How can you ignore it?”

“I can ignore it because I do not want to think of what the people are going through, because I cannot do anything about it, and because we have to reach Tear. Because what we’re hunting is in Tear.” She was surprised at her own vehemence. I can’t do anything about it. And the Black Ajah is in Tear.

The more she thought of it, the more certain she became that they would have to find a way into the Heart of the Stone. Perhaps no one but the High Lords of Tear were allowed into it, but she was becoming convinced that the key to springing the Black Ajah’s trap and thwarting them lay in the Heart of the Stone.

“I know all of that, Egwene, but it does not stop me feeling for the Cairhienin.”

“I have heard lectures about the wars Andor fought with Cairhien,” Egwene said dryly. “Bennae Sedai says you and Cairhien have fought more often than any two nations except Tear and Illian.”

The other woman gave her a sidelong look. Elayne had never gotten used to Egwene’s refusal to admit she was Andoran herself. At least, lines on maps said the Two Rivers was part of Andor, and Elayne believed the maps.

“We have fought wars against them, Egwene, but since the damage they suffered in the Aiel War, Andor has sold them nearly as much grain as Tear has. The trade has stopped, now. With every Cairhienin House fighting every other for the Sun Throne, who would buy the grain, or see it distributed to the people? If the fighting is as bad as what we’ve seen on the banks. . . . Well. You cannot feed a people for twenty years and feel nothing for them when they must be starving.”

“A Gray Man,” Egwene said, and Elayne jumped, trying to look in every direction at once. The glow of saidar surrounded her.

“Where?”

Egwene took a slower look around the decks, but to make sure no one was close enough to overhear. Captain Ellisor still stood in the stern, by the shirtless man holding the long tiller. Another sailor was up in the very bow, scanning the waters ahead for signs of submerged mudbanks, and two more padded about the deck, now and again adjusting a rope to the sails. The rest of the crew were all below. One of the pair stopped to check the lashings on the rowboat tied upside down on the deck; she waited for him to go on before speaking.

“Fool!” she muttered softly. “Me, Elayne, not you, so don’t glower at me like that.” She continued in a whisper. “A Gray Man is after Mat, Elayne. That must be what that dream meant, but I never saw it. I am a fool!”

The glow around Elayne vanished. “Do not be so hard on yourself,” she whispered back. “Perhaps it does mean that, but I did not see it, and neither did Nynaeve.” She paused; red-gold curls swung as she shook her head. “But it doesn’t make sense, Egwene. Why would a Gray Man be after Mat? There is nothing in my letter to my mother that could harm us in the slightest.”

“I do not know why.” Egwene frowned. “There has to be a reason. I am sure that is what that dream means.”

“Even if you are right, Egwene, there is nothing you can do about it.”

“I know that,” Egwene said bitterly. She did not even know whether he was ahead of them or behind. Ahead, she suspected; Mat would have left without any delay. “Either way,” she muttered to herself, “it does no good. I finally know what one of my dreams means, and it doesn’t help a hemstitch worth!”

“But if you know one meaning,” Elayne told her, “perhaps now you will know others. If we sit down and talk them over, perhaps—”

The Blue Crane gave a shuddering lurch, throwing Elayne to the deck and Egwene on top of