Chapter 30: Daes Dae'mar

Stuck in Cairhien at The Defender of the Dragonwall, Rand has been burning noble invitations unopened to stay out of Daes Dae'mar. Cuale the innkeeper brings two bearing personal seals: one from King Galldrian, one from Lord Barthanes of House Damodred. Hurin warns the Houses are bitter rivals—burning either invites assassins, accepting either reads as alliance against the other.

Rand stalls by letting the common room see the unopened seals, then walks to the gate guardhouse to ask after Ingtar and Selene. The clerk denies any record and lies about Captain Caldevwin, whom Rand glimpses ducking out of sight. Loial reminds him Fain's Trollocs still wait beyond the walls, and they have no way out of the city.

Smoke rises over the rooftops. The inn is burning. Rand crawls through the smoke-filled upper hallway and finds Hurin unconscious with a head injury. The chest holding the Horn of Valere is gone.

Loial hauls Hurin out on his back. Rand cuts into his own burning room for the saddlebags holding the banner of Lews Therin Telamon, escaping as the ceiling collapses. Outside, Mat, Perrin, and Ingtar arrive through the crowd. Rand tells them they came too late, and sits down in the street laughing.