Chapter 44: The Dark Along the Ways

Before dawn, the party slips out of The Queen's Blessing through a hidden door at the back of Master Gill's stable, avoiding the Whitecloaks watching the inn. Loial leads them through the dark streets of Caemlyn, guided by an instinct he cannot explain, to a shuttered shop above an old cellar.

Loial is angered to find the cellar where an Ogier grove once stood. The Waygate is built into one wall, its carving so old it predates the brick around it. Moiraine works the lock open with her staff, then opens the gate by moving the leaf of Avendesora, the Tree of Life, to a new position in the stone.

Stepping through feels like passing through cold water. Inside the Ways there is only blackness, and the lanterns light a smaller circle than they should. Time runs faster here than outside; those still in the cellar move as if through jelly.

Loial reads cracked Ogier script on the stone Guidings, leading them across pitted bridges and up curving ramps from one Island to the next. Moiraine refuses to stop, so they eat in the saddle. After hours of riding, Loial grunts in alarm: the bridge ahead ends in a jagged gap.