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Perrin rowl

"As bad as ever I’ve seen, my Lord," Hurin said faintly "As bad as ever I’ve sht"

Frantically Rand sought the void The fla in time with his convulsive ss, but he pushed on until he had wrapped himself in eh Not outside, for once, but inside No wonder, looking at this The thought skittered across the void like a drop of water on a hot griddle What happened to them?

"Skinned alive," he heard so He thought it was Mat, but it was all far away fro was in there, too He thought he tar said harshly He hesitated a moment, then added, "Bury them We cannot be sure they were Darkfriends They could have been taken prisoner They could have been Let them know the last eerly with knives; even for battlehardened Shienarans it was no easy task, cutting down the flayed corpses of tar said "I atar" Rand let the void vanish He felt less sick without it; his stotar nodded and turned his horse so he could watch the round, and the bodies laid in as the rest of the Shienarans watched in silence The grave diggers began shoveling earth into the graves with no more ado

Rand was shocked, but Loial explained softly "Shienarans believe we all came from earth, and must return to earth They never use coffins or shrouds, and the bodies are never clothed The earth must hold the body The last embrace of the mother, they call it And there are never any words except `The Light shine on you, and the Creator shelter you The last ehed and shook his huge head "I do not think anyone will say thetar says, Rand, there cannot beGate and let the Darkfriends into the keep It had to be they ere responsible for all of it"

"Then who shot the arrow at -- at the A

Uno arrived with the rest of theshoveled onto the graves Someone told hi Trollocs do that along the Blight, so warn you not to follow Burn tar paused on his horse beside the unraves, two mounds of bare earth that looked too sht shine on you, and the Creator shelter you The last embrace of the mother welcome you home" When he raised his head, he looked at each man in turn There was no expression on any face, least of all on Ingtar’s "They saved Lord Agelmar at Tarwin’s Gap," he said Several of the lancers nodded Ingtar turned his horse "Which way, Hurin?"

"South, ave way to gently rolling flatland, sohbanked channel, with never more than a low rise or a squat hill that barely deserved the nae of it, setting a steady, groundcovering pace Occasionally Rand sahat ht have been a fare, with s flashing white in the sun, but the land near therass dotted with brush and occasional trees, with now and again a star put out scouts, two ht only when they topped an occasional rise He had a silver whistle hanging around his neck to call them back if Hurin said the trail had veered, but it did not South Always south

"We will reach the field of Talidar in three or four days at this rate," Ingtar said as they rode "Artur Haing’s greatest single victory, when the Halfainst hihts, it lasted, and when it was done, the Trollocs fled back into the Blight and never dared challenge hiain He raised a h He would not let them put his own naolden sun at the top, syht had triumphed over the Shadow"

"I would like to see that," Loial said "I have never heard of this tar was silent for a moment, and when he spoke his voice was quiet "It is not there any longer, Builder When Haing died, the ones who fought over his empire could not bear to leave a monument to a victory of his, even if it did notleft but the mound where it stood In three or four days we can see that, at least" His tone did not allow olden overhead, they passed a structure, square and made of plastered brick, less than a mile from their path It was not tall, noanywhere he saw, but it covered a good hide of ground An air of long abandonone except for a few stretches of dark tile clinging to bits of rafter, most of the oncewhite plaster fallen to bare the dark, weathered brick beneath, walls fallen to show courtyards and decaying charew in the cracks of what had once been courtyards

"A ained seemed to fade as he looked at the structure "When Harad Dakar still stood, I expect the ue around Orchards, maybe The Hardani loved their orchards"

"Harad Dakar?" Rand said, and Ingtar snorted

"Does no one learn history any longer? Harad Dakar, the capital city of Hardan, which nation this once was that we are riding across"

"I’ve seen an old ht voice "I know about the nations that aren’t there anymore Maredo, and Goaban, and Carralain But there wasn’