The Dragon Reborn (The Wheel of Time, #3)

by Robert Jordan

“Just because fate has chosen something for you instead of you choosing it for yourself doesn’t mean it has to be bad.

“An Aielman in a cage,” she said promptly. “A Tuatha’an with a sword. A falcon and a hawk, perching on your shoulders. Both female, I think. And all the rest, of course. What is always there. Darkness swirling ’round you, and—”

“According to her, wolves live partly in this world, and partly in a world of dreams.”

Always plan for the worst, child; that way, all your surprises will be pleasant ones.”

A man is the easiest animal to put on a leash, and the hardest to keep leashed. Even when he chooses it himself.”

‘Heart of the Dark. Ba’alzamon. Name hidden within name shrouded by name. Secret buried within secret cloaked by secret. Betrayer of Hope. Ishamael betrays all hope. Truth burns and sears. Hope fails before truth. A lie is our shield. Who can stand against the Heart of the Dark? Who can face the Betrayer of Hope? Soul of shadow, Soul of the Shadow,

he is—’

“She is ready to leave behind what she was, and, passing through her fears, gain Acceptance.”

There had been a dream of Rand, reaching for a sword that seemed to be made of crystal, never seeing the fine net dropping over him. And one of him kneeling in a chamber where a parched wind blew dust across the floor, and creatures like the one on the Dragon banner, but much smaller, floated on that wind, and settled into his skin. There had been a dream of him walking down into a great hole in a black mountain, a hole filled with a reddish glare as from vast fires below, and even a dream of him confronting Seanchan.

Perrin with a falcon on his shoulder, and Perrin with a hawk. Only the

hawk held a leash in her talons—Egwene was somehow convinced both hawk and falcon were female—and the hawk was trying to fasten it around Perrin’s neck. That made her shiver even now; she did not like dreams about leashes. And that dream of Perrin—with a beard!—leading a huge pack of wolves that stretched as far as the eye could see. Those about Mat had been even nastier. Mat, placing his own left eye on a balance scale. Mat, hanging by his neck from a tree limb.

There’s always a balance, you know. Good and evil. Light and Shadow. We would not be human if there wasn’t a balance.”

Men were sometimes silly enough to think a woman was harmless merely because she was a woman; Egwene had no such illusions.

‘Blood of our blood mixed with the old blood, raised by an ancient blood not ours.’

Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this. Men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget.