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September 22 - October 8, 2025
No matter. Onward. The time had come to kill al’Thor. It saddened him that the hunt must end. But there was no longer a reason for a hunt. You didn’t hunt something when you knew exactly where it was going to be. You merely showed up to meet it. Like an old friend. A dear, beloved old friend that you were going to stab through the eye, open up at the gut and consume by handfuls while drinking his blood. That was the proper way to treat friends. It was an honor.
To have a duty was to have pride—just as to bear a burden was to gain strength.
Keemlin went down on one knee. “Why do you draw your sword?” Malenarin asked, voice loud so that every man atop the tower would hear. “In defense of my honor, my family, or my homeland,” Keemlin replied. “How long do you fight?” “Until my last breath joins the northern winds.” “When do you stop watching?” “Never,” Keemlin whispered. “Speak it louder!” “Never!” “Once this sword is drawn, you become a warrior, always with it near you in preparation to fight the Shadow. Will you draw this blade and join us, as a man?” Keemlin looked up, then took the hilt in a firm grip and pulled the weapon
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Malenarin was a man of the Borderlands, same as his father, same as his son beside him. They knew their task. You held until you were relieved. That’s all there was to it.
“Ho, stranger,” Almen said, raising a hand, not knowing what else to say, not even sure if he’d seen what he thought he’d seen. “Did you…did you get lost up in the foothills?” The man stopped, turning sharply. He seemed surprised to find Almen there. With a start, Almen realized the man’s left arm ended in a stump. The stranger looked about, then breathed in deeply. “No. I’m not lost. Finally. It feels like a great long time since I’ve understood the path before me.”
“You can’t hide your goodness from me, Siuan Sanche. I see your heart.”
Silviana’s strap had never been able to break her will, but Gawyn Trakand…he was coming dangerously close to doing so.
“I pretend, during my more confident moments, that I would have resisted them and eventually escaped on my own. It do be important to maintain some illusions with yourself, would you not say?” Mat rubbed his chin. “Maybe, Teslyn. Maybe indeed.”
Considering the company you often keep, you might want to learn to control your language.” “Considering the company I keep all too often,” Mat said, “it’s bloody amazing I don’t swear more. Off with you, Joline.
Everyone else fought for life. The Asha’man…they’d fought to die.
Your Royal Bloody Pain in My Back, We’re bloody waiting here to talk to you, and we’re getting angry perturbed. (That means angry.) Thom says that you’re a queen now, but I figure that changes nothing, sense you acted like a queen all the time anyway. Don’t forget that I carried halled your pretty little backside out of a hole in Tear, but you acted like a queen then, so I guess I don’t know why I’m suprised now that you act like one when you really are a queen. So I’m thinking I should treat you like a bloody Queen and send you a bloody letter and all, speaking with high talk and getting your
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The Stone of Tear had withstood sieges and storms, wars and desolation, but Min wondered if it had ever survived anything quite like Nynaeve al’Meara in a pique.
New viewings spun around his head. She normally ignored those, but she couldn’t do so now. An open cavern, gaping like a mouth. Bloodstained rocks. Two dead men on the ground, surrounded by ranks and ranks of Trollocs, a pipe with smoke curling from it.
Rand stopped on the steps, and Min could feel his reluctance, his shame, his terror. It seemed so strange. Rand—who had faced Forsaken without a tremor—was afraid of his father. Rand took the last few steps in two sudden strides and grabbed Tam in an embrace. He stood one step down, which brought them near an equal height. In fact, in that posture, Tam almost seemed a giant, and Rand but a child who was clinging to him. There, holding to his father, the Dragon Reborn began to weep.
“Nobody walks a difficult path without stumbling now and again. It didn’t break you when you fell. That’s the important part.”
Nothing was more dangerous for the sanity of men than a woman with too much time on her hands.
“My goal in this test was to prove that I deserve to be Aes Sedai. Well, then, I could argue that the lives of the people I saw were more important than gaining that title. If losing my title is what would be required to save someone’s life—and if there were no other consequences—I’d do it. Every time. Not saving them wouldn’t be serving a higher good; it would just be selfish.”
“I swear to you, woman, if you do not pass me Lan’s bond this very moment, I will step into that tent and teach you the meaning of obedience. Do not press me. In the morning, I swear the Three Oaths. I’m free of them for one more night.” Myrelle froze.
“I know well what it is to love from afar, Morgase. I’d done it for years before this fool’s trip began, and I will do it for years yet. My heart is a traitor. Perhaps some Trolloc will do me a favor and rip it free of my chest.”
“Steward of the city…” Iralin said. “Can you do that?” Rand smiled. “Somebody must. Hurry about your work; there is much to do. I can only remain here long enough for you to make things stable. A day or so.” Rand turned to climb up the ladder. “A day?” Iralin said, still standing in the hold with Min. “To get things stable? We can’t possibly do it in that time. Can we?” “I think you’ll be surprised by him, Lord Iralin,” Min said, gripping the ladder and starting to climb. “I am, each day.”
It was hard to explain to students that there was a rule that trumped all of the others: Always trust your instincts. The Trollocs would be afraid. He could use that. He’d use anything they gave him. He didn’t like to think too long about that rule, lest he dwell on the fact that he’d violated it already. Because his every instinct screamed that he should have abandoned this city hours ago.
Wolves appeared around Perrin, flashing into existence midleap. They continued to bay, jumping at one another, exulting and dancing in the sunlight as it washed over them. They yipped and barked, tossing up patches of snow as they bounded. Hopper was among them, and he leaped into the air, soaring over to Perrin. The Last Hunt begins, Young Bull! Hopper screamed. We live. We live! Perrin turned back to the place where Rand had stood. If that darkness had taken Rand… But it hadn’t. He smiled broadly. “The Last Hunt has come!” he screamed to the wolves. “Let it begin!” They howled their
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“Have you never realized that some men are different from you, Bornhald?” Perrin asked. “Have you ever tried to think what it must be like to be someone else? If you could see through these golden eyes of mine, you’d find the world a different place.”
“We’re not children, Mother,” Siuan said dryly. “No, you’re Aes Sedai—nearly as bad at following directions.”
Life is not so easy as the toss of a coin, his mother had said. One side or the other…your simple illusions…
What was the point of great acts? The recognition they brought, or the better lives they created?
“It’s time for me to lead,” Perrin said. He looked one last time at his old hammer, and laid fingers on its haft. Then he hefted Mah’alleinir to his shoulder and strode away, feet crackling on drops of hardened steel. The tool he left behind was the hammer of a simple blacksmith. That person would always be part of Perrin, but he could no longer afford to let him lead. From now on, he would carry the hammer of a king.
“The Golden Crane flies for Tarmon Gai’don,” Lan said softly. “Let any man or woman who wishes to follow join it and fight.” He closed his eyes as the call went up. It soon became a cheer. Then a roar.
“Duty can bloody get in line. It’s had its share of me. Everyone’s had their share of me, Tallanvor. Everyone but the man I want.” She stepped over his sword, still lying in the cockleburrs, then couldn’t stop herself. In a blink, she was kissing him.
“Blasted fool,” Cadsuane muttered from beside Min, low enough that nobody else could hear. “He asks me to be ready to get him out, then leaves us?” “He likely meant that you should get me away,” Min said softly. “Knowing him, he’s more worried about me than himself.” She paused. “Blasted fool.” Cadsuane shot her a glance, then smiled slightly before turning back to watch Rand.
“You don’t know how close you came to doom,” Rand said softly. “If I had come to you but a short time earlier, I’d have returned those slaps with balefire.” “Inside the Guardian?” Tenobia sniffed disdainfully. “The Guardian blocks the One Power,” Rand whispered. “The One Power only.” What does he mean by that? Cadsuane thought, frowning.
“Courage to strengthen,” Noal whispered, stepping forward, holding up a lantern with a flickering flame. “Fire to blind. Music to dazzle. Iron to bind.” “And Matrim Cauthon,” Mat added. “To bloody even the odds.”
“The price has been set,” another whispered from behind. And it had been. Somehow, Mat knew. A part of him had known from the first time he had read that note. If he had never spoken to the Aelfinn that first time, would any of this have happened? Likely, he would have died. They had to tell the truth. They had warned him of a payment to come. For life. For Moiraine. And he would have to pay it. In that moment, he knew that he would. For he knew that if he did not, the cost would be too great. Not just to Thom, not just to Moiraine, and not just to Mat himself. By what he’d been told, the fate
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Mat stepped back and tipped his hat to the creatures. “Looks like the game can be won after all,” he said. “Tell the foxes I’m mighty pleased with this key they gave me. Also, you can all go rot in a flaming pit of fire and ashes, you unwashed lumps on a pig’s backside. Have a grand bloody day.”
“And your wound?” “Doesn’t hurt so much.” Actually, it throbbed. Really, really badly.
“I am al’Lan Mandragoran,” Lan bellowed. “Lord of the Seven Towers, Defender of the Wall of First Fires, Bearer of the Sword of the Thousand Lakes! I was once named Aan’allein, but I reject that title, for I am alone no more. Fear me, Shadow! Fear me and know. I have returned for what is mine. I may be a king without a land. But I am still a king!”
