Chapter 42 Chapter 37: Cairhien's Fire

Facing the respectful bow of the crew, Egwene nodded gracefully in return.The sailor was walking past her barefoot, pulling a taut line across his shoulders, easily hoisting a large square sail.As he ran to the round-faced captain beside the helmsman, he bowed to Egwene again, and Egwene nodded again before turning his attention back to the bushes along Cairhien.Between them and the Blue Crane, there is nearly twenty widths of water. A village slips by the side of the boat, or a place where there was once a village, half of the houses are smoking rubble and stand alone chimneys.The rest of the houses were not much better, with doors blown open and shut, and fragments of furniture, clothing and household utensils strewn about the dusty streets, looking as if they had been thrown around. .There was no living thing to be seen in the village except a half-starved dog, which, paying no attention to the passing boats, trotted behind the half-section of the wall that had once been the village inn.Egwene couldn't help a twitch in her stomach at the sight, but she tried to keep a calm appearance. She thought Aes Sedai should be like this, and there was no point in being sad.In front of the village, a puff of smoke shot straight into the sky, and Egwene estimated that it should be three or four miles away.

It was not the first time Egwene had seen such a smoke column and such a village since the Ereni River flowed across Cairhien's borders.At least, this time she didn't see the body.Captain Ellisor sometimes sailed close to the banks of the Cairhien because of the shallows in the middle of the river.He said that in this part of the river, silt would build up in the river, but no matter how close she got to the scene of the disaster, Egwene couldn't see a living person. Both the village and the smoke column had been left behind by the Blue Crane, but there was another smoke column in front of everyone, which was farther away from the river.The woods began to thin out, and the ash and featherwood and dead and blackened trees gave way to willow and shingle and water oak, and trees that Egwene couldn't name.

The river wind lifted Egwene's cloak, and she let it float, letting her body feel the cold and fresh air.It felt like freedom in brown rather than any kind of white, and while it wasn't her favorite color either, the dresses and capes were made of the finest wool and finely cut and knitted. Another crew member ran past her, bowing to her.Egwene swore to herself that she would learn at least a little of what they were doing.She didn't like the feeling of ignorance, or the ring of the Serpent on her right hand, making these Tar Valon-born captains and crew bow to her endlessly. Egwene had had an argument with Nynaeve about who they were to others, and Egwene had won.Nynaeve believed that only she could be believed to be an Aes Sedai, and Egwene and Elayne were too young, but Nynaeve was wrong.When they boarded the Blue Crane at Southport that afternoon, Egwene had been prepared to see both her and Elayne receive stares of surprise, but at the sight of them, the bald-headed Captain Alisole's eyebrows almost touched the hair on his forehead. The occasion, followed by a series of smiles and bows.

"What an honor, Aes Sedai, for three Aes Sedai to travel on my ship? It is a great honor, and I promise you an expeditious trip to your comfort, and the bandits of Cairhien will have no trouble with us. When I get there, I won't dock again. Of course, if you do, that's a different story, Aes Sedai. Andor's soldiers have taken several cities on the Cairhien side. It's an honor, Aes Sedai division." The captain's eyebrows twitched again when they asked for only one stateroom.Not even Nynaeve wanted to spend the night alone if she had to.The captain told them that they would each have a separate stateroom without extra fare.He has no other passengers, and his cargo has been loaded.If the Aes Sedai had urgent business downriver, he would never spend an extra hour waiting for other passengers.But the girls still insist that only one cabin is enough.

The captain was surprised, from the look on his face that he didn't understand what they meant, but being born in Tar Valon he wouldn't question an Aes Sedai, he just had to know what to do.If two of them looked young, that meant there would be such a young Aes Sedai. The ruins disappeared into the distance behind Egwene, and the plume of smoke drew closer.Farther away, another plume of smoke appeared.The forest began to grow low, and the grassy hills were dotted with many bushes, which were bursting with spring flowers.The snowberry trees had clusters of small white flowers, and the treacleberry trees had clusters of bright red.A shrub Egwene didn't recognize was covered with white flowers bigger than her two palms put together, and occasionally a wild rose vine stood between the bush's thick green leaves and new red ones Leaving thin yellow or white marks, this thriving scene formed too sharp a contrast with those ashes and ruins.

Egwene wished she had an Aes Sedai by her side now to answer her questions, one she could trust.She touched her pocket with her hand and vaguely felt the twisted stone ring inside. Egwene had slept with the ring on every night since leaving Tar Valon, except for two, and it had worked differently.She always found herself in Tel'aran Rhiod, but of the things she saw, the only ones that could possibly make sense were the Halls of Hearts of Stone, though Sylvia never appeared again.It certainly has nothing to do with the Black Aes Sedai. Without the ter'angular artifact, her dreams were filled with glimpses of unseen worlds.Rand held a long sword with a blade as bright as the sun, and the blade became brighter and brighter until she couldn't make out the shape of the sword at all, and couldn't make out Rand's figure.Rand shows up in a dozen ways, none of which have the slightest sense of truth.In one dream, he was standing on a ground made of huge stones, black and white stones like hills, and Rand kept dodging huge hands, which were holding the A boulder, trying to smash Rand to pieces.It must mean something, it shouldn't just mean that Rand is in danger, threatened by someone, or is threatening someone - Egwene thinks that's obvious - not that, but She had absolutely no idea what it was.Now, I can't help him.I have my own tasks.I don't even know where he is, I just know that maybe he's two thousand miles away from me.

She dreamed of Perrin and a wolf, too, and a falcon and a hawk.Falcon and hawk are fighting and Perrin is trying to escape from someone, and he happily steps over the edge of the cliff, saying: "I must do it, I must learn to fly before I hit the ground." An Aiel dream, she thought it had something to do with Perrin too, but she couldn't be sure.A dream about Ming, who triggered a steel blade trap and walked through it unharmed.There are also dreams about Mat, the dice are spinning around Mat and she thinks she knows where that dice came from, Mat is being followed by a man who is not there - she still doesn't understand what it means - someone Was following Mat, or more than one, but for some reason, no one seemed to be there.Matt rode with all his might towards some unseen thing in the distance, where he had to go, and Matt and a woman who appeared to be throwing fireworks.She thought it was an illuminator, but the dream, like the others, made no sense.

She had so many dreams that she began to doubt all dreams.Perhaps it was from using the ter'angreal too much of late, or from carrying it around, perhaps she had finally learned the ways of the soothsayer.Frantic dreams, feverish dreams.The man and woman rushed out of the cage, then put on the crown again.A woman plays with a puppet.In another dream, the puppet was manipulated by a big puppet, and the big puppet was manipulated by a bigger puppet, and so on, one level at a time, until the line of puppets disappeared at an invisible height.The kings died one after another, the queens were weeping, the war spread everywhere, and the white robes ravaged the two rivers.She had even dreamed of the Seanchan more than once, those whom she had swept into dark corners, and she would not allow herself to think of them again.Every night, she also dreams about her parents.

At least, she knew the meaning of this last dream, or thought she did.It means I'm hunting the Black One, and I don't know what my dreams mean, or how to make this stupid ter'arreal work, and I'm scared, and... homesick.For a moment she thought how nice it would be if her mother could just put her to bed and tell her things would be better in the morning.It's just that my mother can no longer help me with my problems, and my father can no longer chase away the bedside monsters and convince me they're all gone.Now, I have to solve my problem by myself. By now, she has come a long way from that time.She didn't want to look back, really didn't want to, but it was really a warm time, it just felt like a long time had passed.How nice it would be to see them again and hear their voices again.But I chose to wear this ring, and I did the right thing.

She finally allowed Nynaeve and Elayne to each sleep the night wearing the stone ring.When the ring left her palm, she was surprised to find that she was so reluctant to part with it.The other two girls were clumsy in their descriptions of Tel'aran Rhiod, and except for a glimpse of the Heart of Stone, they found nothing useful. The thick column of smoke was already approaching the side of the Blue Crane.Maybe five or six miles down the river, she thought.All that remained of the previous plume was a shadow on the horizon. It looked like a dark cloud, but Egwene knew it wasn't.In some places small bushes grew densely along the banks, and between them the grass grew down to the water, and only in one place the bare bank emerged.

Elayne stepped up to Egwene's side, the river wind blowing her dark cloak as well, and she was clad in the same strong wool as Egwene.Their clothes were also the result of an argument between the three, but this time Nynaeve won.Egwene insisted that Aes Sedai always wear their best clothes, even when they travel.She could always think of the silk dress she wore in Tel'aran Rhiod, but Nynaeve said that even though Amyrcus left them a large bag of gold coins in the closet, they didn't know the downstream cost. how.According to the servants' reports, Mat was supposed to be heading towards Cairhien, where civil war broke out, driving up prices there.To Egwene's surprise, Elayne reminded them that Brown Aes Sedai wore wool more often than silk.Elayne wanted to leave that kitchen like crazy, and Egwene felt that as long as she could get out of there, Elayne would be willing to wear a rag. I wonder how Matt does it.No doubt he would play dice with the captain of whatever ship he was on. "Terrible," murmured Elayne, "terrible." "What?" said Egwene absent-mindedly. "I hope he won't let too many people see that piece of paper we gave him." Elayne gave her a surprised look, then frowned. "That!" She pointed to the smoke column in the distance, "How can you turn a blind eye to it?" "I turn a blind eye to it because I don't want to think about what will happen to the people there, because I can't do anything about it, because we have to go to Tire now, because the target we are hunting is in Tire." Wen was surprised by her strong determination.There is nothing I can do about it, and the Black Aes Sedai are in Tire. The more she thought about it, the more certain she was that they must somehow find their way into the Heart of Stone.Perhaps only Lord Tyr was allowed in there, but she believed that getting there was the key to the traps of the Black Aes Sedai, the key to bringing them down in the Heart of Stone. "I know all this, Egwene, but that doesn't stop me from mourning these Cairhien." "I've heard of the wars between Andor and Cairhien," Egwene said blankly. "Aes Sedai Bene said that the war between you and Cairhien is worse than that between Tyr and Irian." more frequently between any other two countries." The girl beside her glanced at her, and Elayne had never been comfortable with Egwene's refusal to admit that she was an Andor.At least the borders on the map showed that the Mesopotamia was part of Andor, and Elayne believed the map. "We've been at war with them, Egwene, but after they were devastated by the Aiel War, Andor sold them almost as much rice as Tyr. Now the trade has stopped. Every Cairhienian noble is fighting With other nobles vying for the throne of the sun, who else is going to buy grain to distribute to the people? If this war is as dire as what we've seen along the coast... well, no one is going to starve the people after twenty years of feeding them The end of death is indifferent." "A Gray," Egwene said.Yilan was startled, and hurriedly searched around, the halo of Yin force surrounded her body. "Where?" Egwene scanned the deck slowly, but she was just making sure no one could hear their conversation.Captain Ellisor was still standing next to the shirtless man at the helm at the stern, and another sailor was standing at the bow, searching for mudflats that might be hidden beneath the water's surface ahead.Two other sailors were running up and down the deck, adjusting the sail's tethers from time to time, and the rest of the crew were in the cabin.One of the two sailors who were running stopped at this moment and began to check the ropes tied to the lifeboat on the deck.Egwene waited until the man had passed them before speaking again. "Fool!" she muttered under her breath, "it's me, Elayne, not you, don't stare at me like that." She continued in a whisper, "A gray man is after Mat, Elayne. It must be The revelation of that dream, but I can't see the gray man, I'm a fool!" The halo around Elayne disappeared. "Don't blame yourself so much," she whispered back, "maybe that's what the dream meant, but I can't see anything at all, and neither can Nynaeve." She paused, her golden curls coming and going as she shook her head. swing. "But it doesn't matter, Egwene, why would there be gray people after Mat? There is nothing in my letter to my mother that can hurt us." "I don't know why." Egwene frowned, "There must be a reason, I'm sure that's what the dream meant." "Even if you're right, Egwene, there's nothing you can do about it." "I know." Egwene said bitterly.She didn't even know if Mat was ahead of them or behind them, she thought it should be.There would be no delay when Mat left. "Anyway," she murmured, "it's not a good thing, I finally know the meaning of one of the dreams, and it doesn't help!" "But if you know the meaning of one dream," Elayne told her, "maybe now you'll know what the others mean. If we sit down and talk about these dreams, maybe—" The Blue Crane suddenly shuddered and lurched sideways, sending Elayne slumped to the deck with Egwene on top of her.By the time Egwene struggled to her feet, the bank was no longer sliding back.The ship came to a standstill, the bow was raised high, the deck was tilted to one side, and the sails kept flapping and crackling in the turbulent wind. Captain Eliso stood up and galloped towards the bow, leaving only the helmsman to get up slowly from the deck. "You blind worm of the field!" he growled at the man in the bow.The man grabbed the rail with both hands and hung out of the bow. "You mud-digging sheephead! How many years have you been sailing on this river? Can't you recognize the water marks on the mud flats?" He grabbed the man by the shoulders and dragged him back to the deck, but the captain said Just to clear the bow so he could look down over the bow. "If you make a hole in my hull, I'll plug it with your guts!" Now, all the crew members on the board had climbed up, and other crew members ran to the deck from below and gathered around the captain. Nynaeve appeared in the hatchway, still adjusting her skirt.She tugged at her hair, then frowned at the people in the bow, and walked towards Egwene and Elayne. "He bumped the boat into something, didn't he? After all, he said he knew the river like he knew his wife. That woman probably never got a smile from him." She pulled again With dense braids, he walked forward, pushed away the onlookers, and came to the captain.They were all now focused on the water below. No one expected Nynaeve to come, and she seemed to be telling the captain what to do.But Egwene knows what she's thinking, and if they get entangled in this kind of thing, we'll be off the ship early.Elan seemed to have the same opinion as Egwene. She looked at the crowd at the bow and shook her head in frustration.At this moment, the captain and crew all turned their eyes back from under the bow and looked at Nynaeve respectfully. A ripple of excitement swept through the men and grew stronger.At this moment, the captain's hands were raised above the heads of the crowd, shaking them back and forth, seemingly expressing their disapproval.Then Nynaeve walked away from them, and they all moved out of the way, still bowing.Captain Aliso trotted beside her, wiping his face with a large red handkerchief.As Nynaeve approached Egwene and Elayne, the captain's anxious voice reached their ears too. "...It's fifteen miles to the next village on the Andor side, Aes Sedai, and at least five or six miles downriver on the Cairhien side! Are the Andor soldiers guarding that village? Wrong, but they didn't control everything from here to the village!" He kept wiping his face, as if he was sweating all the time. "A wreck," Nynaeve said to the other two girls. "The captain thinks it was done by river pirates. He tried to push the boat back into the water with his oars, but he didn't look like he thought it would be useful." "After we've sorted this out, we'll move at a faster pace, Aes Sedai, and I'll give you as much speed as you'd like." Captain Eliso wiped his face harder.Egwene knew that he was afraid the Aes Sedai would scold him. "We got hit pretty badly, but I don't think there's any water in the boat, Aes Sedai. There's nothing to worry about. Other boats will be coming soon, and with some help, the two sets of oars will be able to We pull it out. You don't need to go ashore, Aes Sedai, I swear by the light." "You want to leave this ship?" Egwene asked. "Do you think it's wise?" "Of course, this—!" Nynaeve paused, frowning at Egwene, and Egwene was also frowning at her.Nynaeve calmed her voice, but it was still tinged with exasperation: "The captain said the first ship capable of helping us would have to wait at least another hour, maybe even a day or two. I think Well, we can't waste a day or two waiting, we can go to that village first. What's it called, Captain? Gellon? We can go to Gellon by land, it only takes two hours or less time. If Captain Ellisor rescued his ship in time, as he hoped, we could still go aboard. He said he would stop there to see if we were there. Even if he couldn't get out, we could be in Kellon found another ship. The captain said that because of the Andor soldiers, traders usually anchor there." Nynaeve took a deep breath, but her tone became more tense, "I like this Was the explanation clear enough? What else do you need to know?" "That's clear," Elayne interjected before Egwene could speak. "That sounds like a good idea, Egwene, and you think it's a good idea too, don't you?" Egwene nodded reluctantly: "I think so." "But Aes Sedai," said the captain disapprovingly, "at least go to Andor's side of the river! There's a war going on on Cairhien's side, Aes Sedai, full of brigands and rogues of all kinds, The soldiers are not much better, and those people made the bow of our ship." "We saw nothing alive on the shores of Cairhien," said Nynaeve, "and, in any case, we are not defenseless, Captain. I shall not go when I can go six miles Fifteen miles." "Of course, Aes Sedai." The captain was really sweating now, "I didn't mean... Of course, you can protect yourselves, Aes Sedai, I didn't mean that." He wiped his face vigorously, but still Beads of sweat that kept coming out endlessly. Nynaeve opened her mouth and looked at Egwene again, seeming to temporarily change what she wanted to say: "I'm going down to pack my things." Her words were aimed at the air between Egwene and Elayne. Said.Then she said to the captain, "Get your boat ready, Captain." The captain bowed, and before Nynaeve could respond, he was gone.As Nynaeve made her way to the hatch, the captain's shout to the sailors to lower the skiff over the side was already heard on the deck. "If one of you always says 'up,'" Elayne whispered, "and the other says 'down,' we'll never get to Tyr." "We'll get there," said Egwene, "and we'll get there sooner if Nynaeve knows she's no longer a sage, we're all..." She didn't say the word "apprentice" because Two crew members ran past them, "...same class." Elayne sighed. With brief orders, the dinghy carried the three girls to shore.They came ashore, sticks in hand, their luggage on their backs, papers and other small things in their waist pouches.Undulating grasslands and scattered miscellaneous forests surround them, and on the hills a few miles away from the river bank, small forests can be vaguely seen.The oars of the Blue Crane kept pushing the river water, but they couldn't move the boat at all.Egwene turned and walked south without looking at the Blue Crane again, and Nynaeve, who was about to lead the way, had to follow behind her. When the other two girls caught up to Egwene, Elayne gave her a reproachful look while Nynaeve walked on without taking her eyes off her.Elayne told Nynaeve what Egwene had said about Mat and the Grays, but she just said calmly, "He can only take care of himself," and walked forward without stopping. .After a while, the princess of Andor gave up the plan to let the other two companions speak, and all three of them walked forward in silence. The Blue Crane was soon blocked by thickets of woods on the shore, lush water oaks and willows.The trees along the river were quickly replaced by miscellaneous woods. Although the forest was not big, there was enough shadow to hide anything. Some low bushes were distributed among the trees, and there was no way to hide a child there. , and there is also a large open space between the miscellaneous trees. "If we do see robbers," Egwene said, "we'll have to protect ourselves. There's no Jade Throne here to watch over us." Nynaeve pursed her lips. "If need be," she said to the air ahead, "we can take down the bandits as we did the Whitecloaks, if we can't find another way." "I hope you'll stop talking about bandits," Elayne said. "I just hope I don't see any—" At this time, almost in front of them, a figure in brown and gray clothes stood up from behind a bush.