Chapter 13: From Stone to Stone

Rand wakes to find the hollow transformed. The gray stone column they camped beside now stands fully exposed at the center, ringed by polished steps in the seven Ajah colors, and everything beyond looks pale and washed out. Only Loial and Hurin remain; the Shienarans, Mat, and Perrin are gone.

Loial recognizes the column from a book fragment as a Portal Stone, older than the Age of Legends. The most powerful Aes Sedai once used such Stones with the One Power to travel between worlds that might be. Rand concludes he must have reached for saidin in his sleep and brought them here.

He tries again, deliberately, putting his hands on the Stone and seeking the taint-fouled male half of the Source. He cannot grasp it, and the void shatters in his mind like glass. Shaken, he refuses to try a second time.

Hurin can still smell the Darkfriends' trail, faint but present, leading south. Rand decides they will follow it. The Darkfriends crossed without channeling, so there must be another way back, and the Horn and Mat's dagger have to be recovered. The three ride south through the strange, eye-twisting land.