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at least. If
    the Light shone on him, if no one had been overcome by eagerness or given in to despair
    at the hold the Seanchan had on Tarabon, if no one had fallen afoul of the mishaps that
    could ruin the best-laid plan, then all across Tarabon, above twenty thousand men had
    struck blows like this, or would before the day was out. And tomorrow they would do it
    again. Now all he had to do was raid his way back across better than four hundred miles
    of Tarabon, shedding Taraboner Dragonsworn and gathering in his own men, then re-
    cross Almoth Plain. If the Light shone on him, that blaze would singe the Seanchan
    enough to bring them chasing after him full of fury. A great deal of fury, he hoped. That
    way, they would run headlong into the trap he had laid before they ever knew it was
    there. If they failed to follow, then at least he had rid his homeland of the Taraboners and
    bound the Domani Dragonsworn to fight for the King instead of against him. And if they
    saw the trap….
    Riding down the hillside, Ituralde smiled. If they saw the trap, then he had another plan
    already laid, and another behind that. He always looked ahead, and always planned for
    every eventuality he could imagine, short of the Dragon Reborn himself suddenly
    appearing in front of him. He thought the plans he had would suffice for the moment.

    The High Lady Suroth Sabelle Meldarath lay awake on her bed, staring up at the ceiling.
    The moon was down, and the triple-arched windows that overlooked a palace garden
    were dark, but her eyes had adjusted so that she could make out at least the outlines of the
    ornate, painted plasterwork. Dawn was no more than an hour or two off, yet she had not
    slept. She had lain awake most nights since Tuon vanished, sleeping only when
    exhaustion closed her eyes however hard she tried to keep them open. Sleep brought
    nightmares she wished she could forget. Ebou Dar was never truly cold, but the night
    held a little coolness, enough to help keep her awake, lying beneath only a thin silk sheet.
    The question that tainted her dreams was simple and stark. Was Tuon alive, or dead?
    The escape of the Atha’an Miere damane and Queen Tylin’s murder spoke in favor of her
    death. Three events of that magnitude happening on one night by chance was pressing
    coincidence too far, and the first two were horrifying enough in themselves to indicate
    the worst for Tuon. Someone was trying to sow fear among the Rhyagelle, Those Who
    Come Home, perhaps to disrupt the entire Return. How better to achieve that than to
    assassinate Tuon? Worse, it had to be one of their own. Because she had landed under the
    veil, no local knew who Tuon was. Tylin had surely been killed with the One Power, by a
    sul’dam and her damane. Suroth had leaped at the suggestion that Aes Sedai were to
    blame, yet eventually someone who mattered would question how one of those women
    could enter a palace full of damane in a city full of damane and escape detection. At least
    one sul’dam had been necessary to uncollar the Sea Folk damane. And two of her own
    sul’dam had disappeared at almost the same time.
    In any case, they had been noticed as missing two days later, and no one had seen them
    since the night Tuon vanished. She did not believe they were involved, though they had
    been in the kennels. For one thing, she could not imagine Renna or Seta uncollaring a
    damane. They certainly had reasons enough to sneak away and seek employment far off,
    with someone ignorant of their filthy secret, someone like this Egeanin Tamarath who
    had stolen a pair of a damane. Strange that, for one newly raised to the Blood. Strange,
    but unimportant; she could see no way to tie it to the rest. Likely the woman had found
    the stresses and complexities of nobility too much for a simple sailor. Well, she would be
    found and arrested eventually.
    The important fact, the potentially deadly fact, was that Renna and Seta were gone, and
    no one could say exactly when they