Chapter 20: Saidin

Rand pushes the group hard through the night, crossing into Cairhien. Selene keeps demanding to see the Horn of Valere; Rand refuses, and when he asks outright whether she is Aes Sedai, she denies it furiously and turns cold.

Near the village of Tremonsien, Rand spots a vast excavation. A gigantic stone hand holding a crystal sphere protrudes from the clay, alongside the bearded face of a giant. The sphere blazes with the setting sun, and saidin sings to him through it. The void forms unbidden and will not release him.

He mumbles the Aiel words about shade and water that Loial once recited to him, then shouts the last line aloud. Rand's horse nearly carries him over the edge before the trance breaks. He cannot remember what happened.

At the village inn, Selene pleads with him to ride out tonight with the Horn and her at his side. He refuses; the Horn is not his.