“Ten days?” Thom said. “Mat, even with this ‘gateway’ it will take five or six just to reach Ebou Dar. Better than twenty or so, but. . . .”

Mat stopped listening. Every shred of irritation that had been building since he first laid eyes on Egwene again came to a head at once. Snatching off his hat, he stalked to where Elayne and the others were. Keeping him in the dark was bad enough—how was he supposed to keep them out of trouble when they told him nothing?—but this was ridiculous. Nynaeve saw him coming and darted behind her mare for some reason.

“It will be interesting traveling with a ta’veren,” one of the white-haired Aes Sedai said. Up close, he still could not fasten any age to her, yet somehow her face conveyed an impression of long years. It must have been the hair. She could have used the other for a mirror; maybe they really were sisters. “I am Vandene Namelle.”

Mat was in no mood to talk about being ta’veren. He was never in that mood, but certainly not now. “What’s this nonsense I hear about five or six days to reach Ebou Dar?” The old Warder straightened, staring hard, and Mat reevaluated him as well; stringy, but hard as old roots. It made no difference in his tone. “You can open a gateway in sight of Ebou Dar. We aren’t any bloody army to scare anyone, and as for popping out of air, you’re Aes Sedai. People expect you to pop out of air and walk through walls.”

“I fear you are speaking to the wrong one of us,” Vandene said. He looked at the other white-haired woman, who shook her head as Vandene said, “Nor Adeleas, I fear. It appears we are not strong enough for some of the new things.”

Mat hesitated, then settled his hat low and turned to Elayne.

Her chin came up. “Apparently you know rather less than you believe, Master Cauthon,” she said coolly. She was not sweating, he realized, no more than the two . . . the other two . . . Aes Sedai. The Hunter was staring at him challengingly. What had put a bee in her ear? “There are villages and farms around Ebou Dar for a hundred miles,” Elayne went on, explaining the obvious to a fool. “A gateway is quite dangerous. I do not intend to kill some poor man’s sheep or cows, much less the poor man himself.”