*
The other heroes were gone. Birgitte remained as evening approached. Nearby, soldiers prepared Rand al’Thor’s pyre.
Birgitte could not stay much longer, but for now . . . yes, she could stay. A short time. The Pattern would allow it.
"Elayne?" Birgitte said. "Do you know something? About the Dragon?" Elayne shrugged in the waning light. The two stood at the back of the crowd gathering to watch the Dragon Reborn’s pyre be lit.
"I know what you’re planning", Birgitte said to Elayne. "With the Horn.
And what am I planning?"
"To keep it", Birgitte said, "and the boy. To have it as an Andoran treasure, perhaps a nation’s weapon".
"Perhaps".
Birgitte smiled. "It’s a good thing I sent him away, then".
Elayne turned to her, ignoring those preparing Rand’s pyre. "What?"
"I sent Olver away", Birgitte said. "With guards I trust. I told Olver to find someplace nobody would look, a place he could forget, and toss the Horn into it. Preferably the ocean".
Elayne exhaled softly, then turned back toward the pyre. "Insufferable woman". She hesitated. "Thank you for saving me from having to make that decision".
"I thought you’d feel that way". Actually, Birgitte had assumed it would take a long time before Elayne understood. But Elayne had grown in the last few weeks. "Anyway, I must be far from insufferable, since you’ve done an excellent job of suffering me these last months".
Elayne turned to her again. "That sounds like a farewell".
Birgitte smiled. She could feel it, sometimes, when it was coming. "It is". Elayne looked sorrowful. "Must it be?"
"I’m being reborn, Elayne", Birgitte whispered. "Now. Somewhere, a woman is preparing to give birth, and I will go to that body. It’s happening. "I don’t want to lose you".
Birgitte chuckled. "Well, perhaps we will meet again. For now, be happy for me, Elayne. This means the cycle continues. I get to be with him again. Gaidai . . . I’ll be only a few years younger than he".
Elayne took her arm, eyes watering. "Love and peace, Birgitte. Thank you".
Birgitte smiled, then closed her eyes, and let herself drift away.
*
As evening settled onto the land, Tam looked up across what had once been the most feared place of all. Shayol Ghul. The last flickers of light showed plants growing here, flowers blooming, grass growing up around fallen weapons and over corpses.
Is this your gift to us, son? he wondered. A final one?
Tam lit his torch from the small, flickering flame that crackled in the pit nearby. He went forward, passing lines of those who stood in the night. They had not told many of Rand's funeral rites. All would have wanted to come. Perhaps all deserved to come. The Aes Sedai were planning an elaborate memorial for Egwene; Tam preferred a quiet affair for his son.
Rand could finally rest.
He walked past people standing with heads bowed. None carried light save Tam. The others waited in the dark, a small crowd of perhaps two hundred encircling the bier. Tams torch flickered orange off solemn faces.
In the evening, even with his light, it was hard to tell Aiel from Aes Sedai, Two Rivers man from Tairen king. All were shapes in the night, saluting the body of the Dragon Reborn.
Tam went up to the bier, beside Thom and Moiraine, who were holding hands, faces solemn. Moiraine reached over and gently squeezed Tam’s arm.
Tam looked at the corpse, gazing down into his son’s face by the fire’s light. He did not wipe the tears from his eyes.
You did well. My boy . . . you did so well.
He lit the pyre with a reverent hand.
*
Min stood at the front of the crowd. She watched Tam, with slumped shoulders, bow his head before the flames. Eventually the man walked back to join the Two Rivers folk. Abell Cauthon embraced him, whispering softly to his friend.
Heads in the night, shadows, turned toward Min, Aviendha and Elayne. They expected something from the three of them. A show of some sort.
Solemnly, Min stepped forward with the other two; Aviendha needed the help of two Maidens to walk, though she was able to stand by leaning on Elayne. The Maidens withdrew to leave the three of them alone before the pyre. Elayne and Min stood with her, watching the fire burn, consuming Rand’s corpse.
"I’ve seen this", Min said. "I knew it would come the day I first met him. We three, together, here".
Elayne nodded. "So now what?"
"Now . . ". Aviendha said. "Now we make sure that everyone well and truly believes he is gone".
Min nodded, feeling the pulsing throb of the bond in the back of her mind. It grew stronger each moment.
*
Rand al’Thor—just Rand al’Thor—woke in a dark tent by himself. Someone had left a candle burning beside his pallet.
He breathed deeply, stretching. He felt as if he’d just slept long and deep. Shouldn’t he be hurting? Stiff? Aching? He felt none of that.
He reached to his side and felt no wounds there. No wounds. For the first time in a long while, there was no pain. He almost didn’t know what to make of it.
Then he looked down and saw that the hand prodding his side was his own left hand. He laughed, holding it up before him. A mirror, he thought.
I need a mirror.
He found one beyond the next partition of the tent. Apparently, he’d been left completely alone. He held up the candle, looking into the small mirror. Moridin’s face looked back at him.
Rand touched his face, feeling it. In his right eye hung a single saa, black, shaped like the dragon’s fang. It didn’t move.
Rand slipped back into the portion of the tent where he’d awakened. Laman’s sword was there, sitting atop a neat pile of mixed clothing. Alivia apparently hadn’t known what he would want to wear. She had been the one to leave these things, of course, along with a bag of coins from a variety of nations. She hadn’t ever cared much for either clothing or coin, but she had known he’d need both.
She will help you die. Rand shook his head, dressing and gathering the coins and the sword, then slipping out of the tent. Someone had left a good horse, a dappled gelding, tied not far away. That would do him well. From Dragon Reborn to horsethief. He chuckled to himself. Bareback would have to do.
He hesitated. Nearby, in the darkness, people were singing. This was Shayol Ghul, but not as he remembered it. A blooming Shayol Ghul, full of life.
The song they sang was a Borderlander funeral song. Rand led the horse through the night to get a little closer. He peered between the tents to where three women stood around a funeral pyre.
Moridin, he thought. He’s being cremated with full honors as the Dragon Reborn.
Rand backed away, then mounted the dapple. As he did so, he noticed one figure who was not standing by the fire. A solitary figure, who looked toward him when all other eyes were turned away.
Cadsuane. She looked him up and down, eyes reflecting firelight from the glow of Rand's pyre. Rand nodded, waited for a moment, then turned the horse and heeled it away.
*
Cadsuane watched him go.
Curious, she thought. Those eyes had confirmed her suspicions. That would be information she could use. No need to keep watching this sham of a funeral, then.
She walked away through the camp, and there strolled directly into an ambush.
"Saerin", she said as the women fell in around her. "Yukiri, Lyrelle, Rubinde. What is this?"
"We would like direction", Rubinde said.
"Direction?" Cadsuane snorted. "Ask the new Amyrlin, once you find some poor woman to put into the position".
The other women continued to walk with her.
As it hit her, Cadsuane stopped in place.
"Oh, blood and ashes, no!" Cadsuane said, spinning on them. "No, no, no"
The women smiled in an almost predatory way.
"You always talked so wisely to the Dragon Reborn of responsibility", Yukiri said.
"You speak of how the women of this Age need better training", Saerin added.
"It is a new Age", Lyrelle said. "We have many challenges ahead of us . . . and we will need a strong Amyrlin to lead us".
Cadsuane closed her eyes, groaning.
*
Rand breathed a sigh of relief as he left Cadsuane behind. She did not raise an alarm, though she had continued to study him as he put distance between them. Glancing over his shoulder, he noticed her walking off with some other Aes Sedai.
She worried him; she probably suspected something he wished she did not. It was better than her raising an alarm, though.
He sighed, fishing in his pocket, where he found a pipe. Thank you, Alivia, for that, he thought, packing it with tabac from a pouch he found in the other pocket. By instinct, he reached for the One Power to light it.
He found nothing. No saidin in the void, nothing. He paused, then smiled and felt an enormous relief. He could not channel. Just to be certain, he tentatively reached for the True Power. Nothing there either.
He regarded his pipe, riding up a little incline to the side of Thakan dar, now covered in plants. No way to light the tabac. He inspected it for a moment in the darkness, then thought of the pipe being lit. And it was.
Rand smiled and turned south. He glanced over his shoulder. All three women at the pyre had turned from it to look directly at him. He could make them out, though not much else, by the light of the burning body.
I wonder which of them will follow me, he thought, then smiled deeper. Rand al’Thor, you’ve built up quite a swelled head, haven’t you? Assuming that one, or more, would follow.
Maybe none of them would. Or maybe all of them would, in their own time. He found himself chuckling.
Which would he pick? Min . . . but no, to leave Aviendha? Elayne. No. He laughed. He couldn’t pick. He had three women in love with him, and didn’t know which he would like to have follow him. Any of them. All of them. Light, man. You’re hopeless. Hopelessly in love with all three, and there's no way out of it.
He heeled the horse into a canter, heading farther south. He had a purse full of coin, a good horse and a strong sword. Laman’s sword, which was a better sword than he’d have wanted. It might draw attention. It was a true heron-marked sword with a fine blade.
Did Alivia realize how much money she’d given him? She didn't know a thing about coins. She’d probably stolen the lot of it, so he wasn't just a horsethief. Well, he’d told her to get him some gold, and she’d done it. He could buy an entire farm in the Two Rivers with what he carried.
South. East or west would do, but he figured he wanted to go someplace away from it all for good. South first, then maybe out west, along the coast. Maybe he could find a ship? There was so much of the world he hadn't seen. He’d experienced a few battles, he’d gotten caught up in a huge Game of Houses. Many things he hadn’t wanted anything to do with. He’d seen his father’s farm. And palaces. He’d seen a lot of palaces.
He just had not had the leisure to have a real look at much of the world. That will be new, he thought. Traveling without being chased, or having to rule here or there. Traveling where he could just sleep in a barn in exchange for splitting someone’s firewood. He thought about that, and found himself laughing, riding on south and smoking his impossible pipe. As he did so, a wind rose up around him, around the man who had been called lord, Dragon Reborn, king, killer, lover and friend.