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A dozen firepits s to share tales of exploits, of woues of flas or rocks, so into the coals with a twisted branch and stirring tiny sparks into the air as his friends sang "Come Ye Maids" or "Fallen Willows at Noon"

The men of the Band were from a dozen different nations, but this cah theotten a new scarf for his neck People knew about his scar, but there was no reason to show it off like one of Luca’s bloody wagons

The scarf he had chosen this time was red In holam For a short time, he had been teh songs rang from several of the campfires, none were loud, and there was a healthy stillness about the caood He hated silence Made hi so hard to sneak up on hi softly, fires crackling, otheras those on watch passed by The peaceful noises oftheir lives

Mat found his way back to his table outside his darkened tent He sat down, looking over the papers he had stacked here The inside of the tent had been too stuffy Besides, he had not wanted to wake Olver

Mat’s tent rippled in the wind His seat did look odd, the fine oak table sitting in a patch of hensfoot, Mat’s chair beside it, a pitcher of round beside hihed doith various rocks he had picked up, lit by a single flickering lamp

He should not have to have stacks of paper He should be able to sit at one of those fires and sing "Dance with Jak o’ the Shadows" He could faintlyfroreed to Elayne’s e And papers about setting up the dragon crews Papers about supplies, discipline reports, and all kinds of nonsense And a few papers he had been able to wiggle out of her royal majesty, spy reports he had wanted to look over Reports on the Seanchan

Much of the neas not new to hiateway, Mat had traveled to Caeateways of her own, and some of the news from Tear and Illian was fresh There was talk of the new Seanchan Empress So Tuon really had crowned herself, or whatever it was the Seanchan did to naht, but they did not knohat they were in for! They probably thought they did But she would surprise theray lately

There was also talk of Sea Folk in alliance with the Seanchan Mat dish Sea Folk vessels to give that ies with news about Rand, too, most of it unspecific or untrustworthy

Blasted colors Rand was sitting around and talking with some people in a tent Perhaps he was in Arad Do in the Borderlands, now could he? One rumor said that Rand had killed Queen Tylin Which bloody idiots thought that?

He turned over the reports on Rand quickly He hated having to banish those fla clothes this ti in enor in chorus? The skies shining red at night? Livestock lining up in the fields, all facing toward the north, watching silently? The footprints of Shadon ars smelled of simple hearsay, passed on from farmwife to farmwife until they reached the ears of Elayne’s spies

Mat looked over the sheet, then--without even thinking of it--realized he had pulled Verin’s envelope out of his pocket The still-sealed letter was looking worn and dirty, but he had not opened it It see that urge

"Now that is a sight of soularity," a wo toward him She wore a brown dress that laced over her a at it