“Peace, Iralin,” Rand said softly. “It is not so bad as you think.” He stepped forward and yanked free the tie on the top of a sack. It fell to the side, and golden barley spilled from it across the floor of the hold, not a single speck of darkness on it. The barley looked as if it had just been harvested, each grain plump and full.

Milis gasped. “What did you do to it?”

“Nothing,” Rand said. “You merely opened the wrong sacks. The rest are all good.”

“Merely…” Iralin said. “We happened to open the exact number of bad sacks without reaching one of the good ones? That’s ridiculous.”

“Not ridiculous,” Rand said, laying his hand Iralin’s shoulder. “Simply implausible. You did well here, Iralin. I’m sorry to have left you in such a predicament. I’m naming you to the Merchant Council.”

Iralin gaped.

To the side, Captain Durnham pulled open another sack. “This one’s good.”

“So’s this one,” said one of his men.

“Potatoes here,” another soldier said from beside a barrel. “Look as good as any I’ve had. Better than most, actually. Not dried up, like you’d expect from winter leftovers.”

“Spread the word,” Rand said to the soldiers. “Gather your men to set up distribution in one of the warehouses. I want this grain well guarded; Iralin was wise to worry that the people would rush the docks. Don’t give out uncooked grain—that will turn people to hoarding and bartering with it. We’ll need cauldrons and fires to cook some of it. Move the rest to stores. Hurry, now.”

“Yes, sir!” Captain Durnham said.

“The people I’ve gathered so far will help,” Rand said. “They won’t steal the grain; we can trust them. Have them unload the ships and burn the bad grain. There should be thousands of sacks that are still good.”

Rand looked to Min. “Come. I need to organize the Aes Sedai for Healing.” He hesitated, looking at the stunned Iralin. “Lord Iralin, you are steward of the city for now, and Durnham is your commander. You will soon have sufficient troops to restore order.”

“Steward of the city…” Iralin said. “Can you do that?”

Rand smiled. “Somebody must. Hurry about your work; there is much to do. I can only remain here long enough for you to make things stable. A day or so.”

Rand turned to climb up the ladder.

“A day?” Iralin said, still standing in the hold with Min. “To get things stable? We can’t possibly do it in that time. Can we?”

“I think you’ll be surprised by him, Lord Iralin,” Min said, gripping the ladder and starting to climb. “I am, each day.”

Chapter 26

Parley

Perrin rode Stepper out of camp, leading a large army. They didn’t fly the wolfhead banner. So far as he knew, his order to burn the things had been followed. He was less certain of that decision now.