Chapter 45: Blademaster
Nynaeve, Min, and Elayne wait in the pre-dawn streets of Falme for a sul'dam and damane pair to pass. Nynaeve channels a trickle of saidar and springs the silver collar open; the freed damane punches her captor and runs without looking back.
They drag the struggling sul'dam—Seta—into a nearby shed. Nynaeve dons the woman's lightning-marked dress and closes the a'dam bracelet around her own wrist, discovering she can sense Seta's physical feelings through the link and can use it to inflict pain. Rather than put the collar on Elayne, Nynaeve devises a simpler plan: Seta herself will wear the collar and play the damane, while Elayne walks free as a servant.
On his ship in Falme's harbor, Bayle Domon stands watch with axes ready at the mooring lines, prepared to cut loose the moment the women arrive or Seanchan soldiers appear instead.
Rand, Ingtar, Mat, Perrin, and Hurin ride separately into Falme at first light and reassemble in the horse lots near the wagon yards. Hurin follows Fain's scent through the cobblestone streets to Turak's mansion—heavily guarded, with two grolm flanking the soldiers. Mat feels the pull of his dagger from inside.
Ingtar leads the group over the garden wall at the rear, kills the lone back guard, and they slip inside. Following Mat's sense of the dagger, they find the upper room where the golden Horn of Valere sits on a table alongside the ruby-hilted dagger. From the window, Rand glimpses Egwene leashed in silver, being walked in the damane quarters' garden across the street.
High Lord Turak enters with soldiers crowding the doorways. Mat slashes one soldier with the dagger; the man dies in seconds, his flesh blackening horribly. Ingtar and the others fight the soldiers while Rand faces Turak alone—a confirmed blademaster, with a heron on his blade to match the one on Rand's.
Without the void, Rand struggles and takes two wounds before Turak dismisses him as unworthy. When he finally enters the void and refuses saidin, his skill sharpens. He presses the attack with the Boar Rushes Down the Mountain and finishes with the River Undercuts the Bank, killing Turak—his first human kill with a sword. Turak's two servants immediately take their own lives, pledging 'From birth to death, I serve the Blood.'
Rand refuses to flee without freeing Egwene. Ingtar argues that no girl's life can outweigh the Horn of Valere, and drags him away as an alarm sounds. They escape through the garden and alleys at a run, Mat carrying the Horn.