Chapter 40: Damane
Liandrin leads the girls through the Waygate onto Toman Head, where High Lady Suroth is waiting with Seanchan soldiers and a pair of women linked by silver leash and collar. The ambush was the point. In the chaos, a woman named Renna fastens a collar around Egwene's neck, Elbar seizes Min, and Nynaeve and Elayne break loose in a storm of lightning and fire before fleeing into the brush.
Liandrin and Suroth trade threats over Egwene's head. Both serve an unnamed master; each expects the other to kneel one day. Liandrin orders that Egwene and Nynaeve be carried across the Aryth Ocean and kept there, then steps back through the Waygate. Elbar moves to kill Min for cutting his hand, but Egwene begs for her life and promises obedience. Suroth spares Min as leverage.
The device around Egwene's neck is an a'dam. Renna is a sul'dam, Egwene a damane. Pain Renna feels reaches Egwene doubled; any attempt to channel without permission burns the damane from within. Renna invites Egwene to call her by name, then pats her on the head like a dog. The collar was invented by Deain, a woman who called herself Aes Sedai and sold the device to Luthair Paendrag, son of Artur Hawkwing. Deain was then collared with her own creation. All channelers the Seanchan find are marath'damane: those who must be leashed.
When Renna orders Egwene to boil the sap in a distant oak, Egwene claims she cannot and pretends not to have tried. The bracelet tells Renna otherwise. Phantom blows fall on Egwene until she can only sob against Bela's neck, and Renna tells her approvingly that the best damane are those with spirit to be shaped. The party rides west toward Falme.
Nynaeve and Elayne find each other hiding in the trees. Without the fury of the ambush, Nynaeve cannot reach saidar at all; Elayne blames herself for running. Nynaeve cuts that off and sets a course for Falme: trade her silk dress for country clothes on the way, then find Egwene and Min. Whether Liandrin lied about Rand being in danger, neither of them can say. An Aes Sedai does not speak a word that is not true, but the truth she speaks is rarely the one you hear.