Chapter 20: Saidin

The group crosses into Cairhien as Selene continues demanding to see the Horn of Valere. When Rand asks whether she is Aes Sedai, she furiously denies it. Near the Cairhienin village of Tremonsien, Rand spots a massive excavation where a gigantic stone hand grasping a crystal sphere protrudes from the clay—the sphere blazes with reflected sunlight, and saidin sings to him through it so powerfully that the void forms without his willing it and refuses to release him.

He loses himself entirely, mumbling words from what sounds like an Aiel oath before shouting them aloud; only Red nearly going over the cliff's edge breaks the trance.

Shaken and unable to fully remember what happened, Rand leads the group into Tremonsien, where they take rooms at the village inn. Selene, frightened by what she witnessed, offers to stay by his side forever if he will take the Horn and ride away with her—he refuses, saying the Horn is not his to keep.