Chapter 43: A Plan

Min flees the damane quarters in tears, unable to listen to Egwene being punished inside, and runs into Nynaeve and Elayne on a street in Falme. The two have been in town nearly as long as she has, disguised as country women. Min reads their auras: a heavy man's ring above Nynaeve, a red-hot iron and an axe above Elayne—trouble, but distant.

She tells them the Seanchan will ship Egwene back to Seanchan within days because she can find ore, and she has a captain who might take them but no way to free Egwene or reach his deck.

At The Three Plum Blossoms, Captain Domon stalls over the damane patrolling the harbor until Nynaeve briefly shows him her Great Serpent ring. He pales and describes what he once saw: an Aes Sedai ambushed in an alley, her Warder cutting down six or seven soldiers before he fell, six damane stepping out around her. The woman screamed 'Ryma, help me,' and one damane dropped weeping before the collar went on. Min lets slip that the Seanchan hold two Aes Sedai here, one of them Ryma of the Yellow Ajah. Domon agrees to keep Spray ready to sail the moment they arrive.

Outside, Nynaeve sags against the wall, admits she was afraid he would refuse, and says there are still 'one or two small problems' to work out.