| abstract | - Rand and Mat enter the stables with Lan to find Perrin already there. Lan asks Perrin if he's searched the stables, and Perrin says he has. Five horses are ready and waiting for them. Mat makes a comment about Rand's sword, and then they notice Perrin has an axe strapped to his belt. Lan says that Mat's bow is just as good a weapon, though, or the slings they used to bring down rabbits. Mat and Perrin say that they left notes for their families, since Moiraine asked them not to tell anyone they were leaving. Rand says that he talked to his father, which Moiraine hears as she enters the stable. She dismisses it as part of the Pattern. Lan says they are ready to leave, but Egwene slips into the stables and insists that she be allowed to come, too. She had noticed Mat and Perrin creeping about, and the extra horses Lan was buying, and deduced that they were leaving. She says this may be the only chance she gets to leave the Two Rivers and see the outside world. She also dismisses the boys' story about being chased by Trollocs. Moiraine agrees to let her come, once again invoking the Pattern, overriding Lan's incredulous objections. They decide that she can ride the gleeman's horse, but then Thom speaks from up in the hayloft, saying that will not be possible since he is going with them, too. He claims that he wants to play in Tar Valon. Lan watches him warily, bare sword in hand, until Moiraine agrees to let him come. They end up saddling Bela for Egwene to ride. They leave the stable and head off into the night. Lan brings them to a halt just before leaving the stableyard, and they hear the rattle of boots on the Wagon Bridge. Watching quietly, they see a group of men wearing old weapons and armor obviously scrounged from forgotten storage places, patrolling the village. Clearly this must be the new village watch. After the watch has gone, Lan leads them north through the village and out into the countryside, paralleling the North Road. Rand looks up at the sky and sees a dark, batlike shadow crossing the moon. When he tells the others about it, Lan identifies it as a Draghkar, which Thom says is another kind of Shadowspawn created after the Age of Legends. They continue north towards Taren Ferry.
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