"I would never harm an Aes Sedai," Aviendha said abruptly. "I would have you know that. Whether Dailin lives or dies, it makes no difference in that. I would never use this" – she lifted one short spear a trifle – "against any woman. And you are Aes Sedai." Egwene had the sudden feeling that the woman was trying to soothe them.

"I knew that," Elayne said, as if talking to Aviendha, but her eyes told Egwene the words were for her. "No one knows much of your people, but I was taught that Aiel never harm women unless they are – what did you call it? – wedded to the spear."

Bain seemed to think Elayne was failing to see truth clearly again. "That is not exactly the way of it, Elayne. If a woman not wedded came at me with weapons, I would drub her until she knew better of it. A man... A man might think a woman of your lands was wedded if she bore weapons; I do not know. Men can be strange."

"Of course," Elayne said. "But so long as we do not attack you with weapons, you will not try to harm us." All four Aiel looked shocked, and she gave Egwene a quick significant look.

Egwene held on to saidin anyway. Just because Elayne had been taught something did not mean it was true, even if the Aiel said the same thing. And saidar felt ... good in her.

Nynaeve lifted up Dailin's head and began pouring her mixture into the woman's mouth. "Drink," she said firmly. "I know it tastes bad, but drink it all." Dailin swallowed, choked, and swallowed again.

"Not even then, Aes Sedai," Aviendha told Elayne. She kept her eyes on Dailin and Nynaeve, though. "It is said that once, before the Breaking of the World, we served the Aes Sedai, though no story says how. We failed in that service. Perhaps that is the sin that sent us to the Three-fold Land; I do not know. No one knows what the sin was, except maybe the Wise Ones, or the clan chiefs, and they do not say. It is said if we fail the Aes Sedai again, they will destroy us."

"Drink it all," Nynaeve muttered. "Swords! Swords and muscles and no brains!"

"We are not going to destroy you," Elayne said firmly, and Aviendha nodded.

"As you say, Aes Sedai. But the old stories are all clear on one point. We must never fight Aes Sedai. If you bring your lightnings and your balefire against me, I will dance with them, but I will not harm you."

"Stabbing people," Nynaeve growled. She lowered Dailin's head, and laid hand on the woman's brow. Dailin's eyes had closed again. "Stabbing women!" Aviendha shifted her feet and frowned again, and she was not alone among the Aiel.

"Balefire," Egwene said. "Aviendha, what is balefire?"

The Aiel woman turned her frown on her. "Do you not know, Aes Sedai? In the old stories, Aes Sedai wielded it. The stories make it a fearsome thing, but I know no more. It is said we have forgotten much that we once knew."

"Perhaps the White Tower has forgotten much, too," Egwene said. I knew of it in that... dream, or whatever it was. It was as real as Tel'aran'rhiod. I'd gamble with Mat on that.

"No right!" Nynaeve snapped. "No one has a right to tear bodies so! It is not right!"

"Is she angry?" Aviendha asked uneasily. Chiad and Bain and Jolien exchanged worried looks.

"It is all right," Elayne said.

"It is better than all right," Egwene added. "She is getting angry, and it is much better than all right."

The glow of saidin surrounded Nynaeve suddenly – Egwene leaned forward, trying to see, and so did Elayne – and Dailin started up with a scream, eyes wide open. In an instant, Nynaeve was easing her back down, and the glow faded. Dailin's eyes slid shut, and she lay there panting.

I saw it, Egwene thought. I... think I did. She was not sure she had even been able to make out all the many flows, much less the way Nynaeve had woven them together. What Nynaeve had done in those few seconds had seemed like weaving four carpets at once while blindfolded.

Nynaeve used the bloody bandages to wipe Dailin's stomach, smearing away bright red new blood and black crusts of dried old. There was no wound, no scar, only healthy skin considerably paler than Dailin's face.

With a grimace, Nynaeve took the bloody cloths, stood up, and threw them into the river. "Wash the rest of that off of her," she said, "and put some clothes back on her. She's cold. And be ready to feed her. She will be hungry." She knelt by the water to wash her hands.

Jolien put an unsteady hand to where the wound had been in Dailin's middle; when she touched smooth skin, she gasped as if she had not believed her own eyes.

Nynaeve straightened, drying her hands on her cloak. Egwene had to admit that good wool did better for a towel than silk or velvet. "I said wash her and get some clothes on her," Nynaeve snapped.

"Yes, Wise One," Jolien said quickly, and she, Chiad, and Bain all leaped to obey.

A short laugh burst from Aviendha, a laugh almost at the edge of tears. "I have heard that a Wise One in the Jagged Spire sept is said to be able to do this, and one in the Four Holes sept, but I always thought it was boasting." She drew a deep breath, regaining her composure. "Aes Sedai, I owe you a debt. My water is yours, and the shade of my septhold will welcome you. Dailin is my second-sister." She saw Nynaeve's uncomprehending look and added, "She is my mother's sister's daughter. Close blood, Aes Sedai. I owe a blood debt."

"If I have any blood to spill," Nynaeve said dryly, "I will spill it myself. If you wish to repay me, tell me if there is a ship at Jurene. The next village south of here?"

"The village where the soldiers fly the White Lion banner?" Aviendha said. "There was a ship there when I scouted yesterday. The old stories mention ships, but it was strange to see one."

"The Light send it is still there." Nynaeve began putting away her folded papers of powdered herbs. "I have done what I can for the girl, Aviendha, and we must go on. All that she needs now is food and rest. And try not to let people stick swords in her."

"What comes, comes, Aes Sedai," the Aiel woman replied.

"Aviendha," Egwene said, "feeling as you do about rivers, how do you cross them? I am sure there is at least one river nearly as big as the Erinin between here and the Waste."

"The Alguenya," Elayne said. "Unless you went around it."

"You have many rivers, but some have things called bridges where we had need to cross, and others we could wade. For the rest, Jolien remembered that wood floats." She slapped the trunk of a tall whitewood. "These are big, but they float as well as a branch. We found dead ones and made ourselves a... ship... a little ship, of two or three lashed together to cross the big river." She said it matter-of-factly.

Egwene stared in wonder. If she were as afraid of something as the Aiel obviously were of rivers, could she make herself face it the way they did? She did not think so. What about the Black Ajah, a small voice asked. Have you stopped being afraid of them? That is different, she told it. There's no bravery in that. I either hunt them, or else I sit like a rabbit waiting for a hawk. She quoted the old saying to herself. "It is better to be the hammer than the nail."

"We had best be on our way," Nynaeve said.

"In a moment," Elayne told her. "Aviendha, why have you come all this way and put up with such hardship?"

Aviendha shook her head disgustedly. "We have not come far at all; we were among the last to set out. The Wise Ones nipped at me like wild dogs circling a calf, saying I had other duties." Suddenly she grinned, gesturing to the other Aiel.

"These stayed back to taunt me in my misery, so they said, but I do not think the Wise Ones would have let me go if they had not been there to companion me."