The Great Hunt/Chapter 9

==Summary==
:
Rand goes to the outer gate to join in preparation for the Hunt, and is surprised to see Loial ride up. Loial still wishes to travel with ta'veren, no matter how dangerous. Mat and Perrin ride up to the group, see Rand's fancy coat, and ride away from him without a word. They haven't forgiven him for his words to them even though Rand tries to apologize. Loial accepts Rand's apology however. Lan comes to give Rand a final lesson before they leave, Sheathing the Sword. There may come a time when Rand must kill his enemy at all costs; in that case, Rand must be willing to allow the opponent to strike a great blow in order to defeat him. Rand hears part of a conversation with Agelmar and the Amyrlin. Agelmar is trying to convince her to stay longer, but she refuses.
The Amyrlin is giving a brief speech to the departing party as Rand feels someone's eyes watching him. He feels uneasy and turns around to look at the balconies above. Suddenly, the Amyrlin is nicked with an arrow, and there are shouts of "find him! Stop him!" The arrow was aimed at Rand but missed when Rand turned around. The Amyrlin says they must not worry about her and go about their business.
As they leave the city the sniffer Hurin joins the party. Hurin is able to track the Shadowspawn by smelling violence and those who did it. Hurin directs them southward. Ingtar mentions that Changu and Nidao, two of Fain's guards, are gone from the keep. He says they must be Darkfriends, even though they saved Agelmar during the Battle of Tarwin's Gap a month earlier.
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In Illian, festivities continue for the Great Hunt, but Bayle Domon has no interest in it. Domon was born in Illian, but has traveled widely and is not used to his hometown anymore. His mind is preoccupied as he knows he is going to meet men who may be trying to kill him. He goes into Easing the Badger in the seedy part of town, where he takes a table by himself and gets a mug of ale. The innkeeper makes sure Domon sees her when she slides her gaze to three Cairhienin in the corner. These men go over to Domon's table and say they have someone who needs to be transported from Mayene to the east.
Domon says his ship is a riverboat unsuited to sailing in the sea, but they say that they have heard he is not sailing the rivers anymore. This troubles Domon, as he has decided not to sail back upriver but had not yet told anyone. They offer him 200 gold marks upfront with another 800 to be paid later, an enormous sum for such a simple job. This is the fourth such job he has been offered, and this latest sum is four times the previous offer. They give him a sealed document to hand over to the Port Captain of Mayene where he will pick up his passenger. When he pays for his drink with the gold they gave him, the barkeep notices they are Tar Valon marks. Realizing the Whitecloaks are in town, he thinks that someone definitely wants him to leave the city, since passing those around would get noticed and he would be thought to be "in league with the witches."
Yarin Maeldan, Domon's second on the ship, comes in to tell him that sailor Carn is dead. Domon doesn't know what to do now, as his men got killed when he declined the previous jobs, yet now he agreed to the commission and still his man was killed. It looks like they tortured Carn for information before he was killed, and some men tried to sneak around the Spray before that. Domon tells Yarin that they are leaving as soon as they have minimum crew on the ship and anyone who isn't onboard is being left behind.
Domon retires to his quarters on the ship and examines the sealed document. He heats the seal and removes it with a knife, revealing a document purportedly from Galldrian Riatin, king of Cairhien. It says that the bearer of the document is a Darkfriend wanted for foul crimes and charges the recipient to arrest and hang him. Domon's possessions are to be held until men are sent to retrieve them, which prompts him to look through his collection of old artifacts. He recalls that he was first pursued by Darkfriends after purchasing four items in Maradon. He realizes that the item that brought him all this trouble is a cuendillar disc in the shape of the ancient symbol of the Aes Sedai. Not knowing that it is one of the Seven Seals, he does not know why the Darkfriends want it. He tells Yarin to sail toward the Aryth Ocean, far away from the eastern ports that the Darkfriends wanted him to go to.
==Characters==
*Rand
*Mandarb (animal)
*Aldieb (animal)
*Red (animal)
*Ingtar
*Uno
*Ragan
*Masema
*Loial
*Bela (animal)
*Mat
*Perrin
*Lan
*Siuan - as Amyrlin
*Leane
*Agelmar
*Hurin
*Bayle Domon
*Nieda Sidoro
*Bili
*Yarin Maeldan
===Referenced===
*King Easar
*Bran al'Vere - as Egwene's father
*Egwene
*Nynaeve
*Changu
*Nidao
*Moiraine
*Kajin
*King Galldrian Riatin
*Carn
==Groups==
*Aes Sedai
===Referenced===
*Darkfriends
*Children of the Light
*Sea Folk
==Places==
*Fal Dara
*Shienar
*Illian
===Referenced===
*Tar Valon
*Mos Shirare
*Fal Moran
*Arad Doman
*Almoth Plain
*Aryth Ocean
*Tarwin's Gap
*Ankor Dail
*Whitebridge
*Blight
*Cairhien
*Maradon
*Haddon Mirk
*Mayene
*Borderlands
*Tear
*Tremalking
*Tarabon
*Toman Head
*Bandar Eban
*Falme
==Items==
*Horn of Valere
*Heron-mark sword
*Seven Seals
==Events==
*Long Exile
*Great Hunt for the Horn
*Breaking of the World