Rand POV#

Rand arrives at the outer courtyard of Fal Dara keep where the two parties prepare to leave. He passes the Amyrlin's party and sees Aldieb and Mandarb saddled, but Moiraine and Lan are not in sight. Rand joins Ingtar's group and mounts Red. Some of the other men with Ingtar are Uno, Ragan and Masema.[1] Loial joins Rand on his own horse, then Mat and Perrin ride up. They are annoyed at Rand's fancy coat, but all of his plain ones disappeared. Lan approaches Rand and Loial and asks for a moment alone with Rand. He tells Rand about Sheathing the Sword. Siuan enters the courtyard with Leane and Agelmar. He tries to convince her to stay, to no avail. He tells her a bard is coming from Mos Shirare and King Easar is coming from Fal Moran. At Siuan's command, a Warder gallops away from Fal Dara. Loial says that he heard that she was sending someone to Arad Doman to learn about the trouble on the Almoth Plain.[2] Siuan approaches with Leane and Agelmar. She talks to Ingtar and Loial wishing them well in their quest to retrieve the Horn. She refers to Loial as Kiseran, Builder in the Old Tongue. Rand feels watched again. As Red dances, an arrow narrowly misses Rand, scratches Siuan, and embeds itself in a man standing behind Siuan.[3] Siuan and Rand both realize the arrow was meant for Rand. Leane tries to Heal the wounded man, but he is already dead. Agelmar is mortified and apologizes profusely. Siuan gives Ingtar and his men another pep talk, then the Shienarans[1] ride off with Rand, Mat, Perrin and Loial in search of the Horn of Valere and the ruby dagger. Rand joins Ingtar. Ingtar tells him that Changu and Nidao are gone. They must be Darkfriends, yet a month ago they saved Agelmar at Tarwin's Gap. He then introduces Rand to Hurin. Hurin is a sniffer; he can smell and track violence. His job is to track criminals. The king also has a sniffer in Fal Moran and there is another in Ankor Dail. He has tracked criminals as far as Maradon and Cairhien. A Brown Ajah sister once held him in Cairhien for a month trying to figure out how his talent works. Hurin says he can smell men, Trollocs, Fades and something worse.[4] Ingtar expects the trail to go north, but Hurin says it is south. Surprised, Ingtar notes that the Amyrlin was right.[5] They ride south with Hurin leading the way.

Bayle Domon POV#

Bayle Domon walks through Illian. It is the Feast of Teven. The Great Hunt of the Horn will begin in a few days and there are gleemen and Illuminators here for the festivities. He crosses the Bridge of Flowers into the port district called the Perfumed Quarter and enters an inn called Easing the Badger. Nieda Sidoro is the innkeeper. Nieda's nephew Bili is the bouncer. Domon sits down at a table and three Cairhienin men approach him. Their coats are striped in silver, scarlet and gold.[6] They want him to bring someone from Mayene to Illian. They offer a thousand marks, with two hundred up front. They give him the money and a sealed parchment and then leave. There are Whitecloaks in town as well. Darkfriends have been after him since before he left Maradon. Yarin Maeldan enters the inn and tells Domon that Carn, a crewmember, was murdered and that Yarin's room at the Silver Dolphin was broken into. They gather the crew, go back to the Spray and set sail. Domon opens the parchment and finds out that it is a death warrant signed by King Galldrian of Cairhien. All of his possessions are to be seized as well. He puts the parchment in his secret compartment with the other objects he acquired in Maradon, a light stick, a fossil skull, an ivory carving of a man holding a sword, and a black and white disk.[7] The man who sold him the carving told him that holding it made him feel warm, but it does nothing for Domon.[8] Domon suspects that it is the disk that they want, although he is not sure what it is. He bought it from a shopkeeper in Maradon. He tells Yarin to head in the opposite direction to Toman Head.