Chapter 48: First Claiming

Min pushes through panicked crowds in Falme, drawn toward a tall stone building as if by a string. In the harbor, Seanchan ships burn and Bayle Domon's Spray beats out to sea. A mounted figure appears around the cliffs, riding across the water, and looses a silver arrow that sets a Seanchan vessel alight. Min is certain she has just seen Birgitte and Artur Hawkwing.

In a garden behind the building she finds Rand unconscious under an oak. The hilt of his heron-mark sword has melted; the heron has branded itself into his palm. A wound is burned through his side, cauterized. His flesh is cold as ice. Min drags him inside, builds a fire in a back bedroom, and climbs under the blankets beside him to keep him warm.

Egwene finds them. She and Elayne both felt Rand pulling at them; Nynaeve did not. Egwene tells Min that whatever Rand is, he cannot be safe for any of them. Min refuses to stand aside. Egwene leaves to fetch Nynaeve.

A woman in white, belted in silver, appears in the doorway. She names Rand as Lews Therin Telamon, the Dragon Reborn, and says she has guided his steps, not Ishamael. Her finger traces something like the Dragon's Fang on Rand's forehead, and he stirs for the first time. She calls herself Lanfear, tells Min to tend him until she comes for him, and is gone.

East of Falme, Byar gallops with the setting sun behind him. The Whitecloak legion is destroyed and Lord Captain Geofram Bornhald is dead. Byar blames Darkfriends, Perrin of the Two Rivers among them. He rides to carry that word to Dain Bornhald, and what he saw in the sky above Falme to Pedron Niall himself.