“He is the Car’a’carn,” Aviendha said.

“I did not say that he was not,” Nakomi said, sounding amused. She got out some tea leaves and herbs.

No. She hadn’t said so. Aviendha turned her shellback, and her stomach rumbled. She’d need to share her meal with Nakomi as well.

“May I ask,” Nakomi said. “What do you think of the Car’a’carn?”

I love him, Aviendha thought immediately. But she couldn’t say that. “I think he has much honor. And though he is ignorant of the proper ways, he is learning.”

“You have spent time with him, then?”

“Some,” Aviendha said. Then, to be more honest, she added, “More than most.”

“He is a wetlander,” Nakomi said, thoughtful. “And Car’a’carn. Tell me, are the wetlands as glorious as so many say? Rivers so wide you cannot see the other side, plants so full of water they burst when squeezed?”

“The wetlands are not glorious,” Aviendha said. “They are dangerous. They make us weak.”

Nakomi frowned.

Who is this woman? It was not unusual to find Aiel traveling the Three-fold Land; even children learned to protect themselves. But should Nakomi not be traveling with friends, family? She did not wear the clothing of a Wise One, but there was something about her…

Nakomi stirred the tea, then repositioned Aviendha’s shellback, placing it over the coals to cook it more evenly. From inside her pack, she drew forth several deepearth roots. Aviendha’s mother had always cooked those. Nakomi placed them in a small ceramic baking box, then slid this into the coals. Aviendha hadn’t realized the fire had grown so warm. Where had all those coals come from?

“You seem troubled,” Nakomi said. “Far be it from me to question an apprentice Wise One. But I do see worry in your eyes.”

Aviendha stifled a grimace. She would have preferred to be left alone. And yet, she had invited this woman to share her water and shade. “I am worried about our people. Dangerous times come.”

“The Last Battle,” Nakomi said softly. “The thing the wetlanders speak of.”

“Yes. I worry about something beyond that. The wetlands, corrupting our people. Making them soft.”

“But the wetlands are part of our destiny, are they not? The things the Car’a’carn is said to have revealed…they link us to the wetlands in curious ways. Assuming what he said was true.”

“He would not lie about this,” Aviendha said.

A small wake of buzzards cawed and flapped past in the dark night air. Aviendha’s people’s history—the things Rand al’Thor had revealed—still caused many of the Aiel grief. In Rhuidean, Aviendha would soon see this history for herself: that the Aiel had broken their vows. Aviendha’s people had once followed, then abandoned, the Way of the Leaf.

“Interesting thoughts you raise, apprentice,” Nakomi said, pouring the tea. “Our land here is called the Three-fold Land. Three-fold, for the three things it did to us. It punished us for sin. It tested our courage. It formed an anvil to shape us.”