An excerpt from towards the end of The Path of Daggers.
Background Info from early on in the book.
Elayne went and finally sat on her throne. All the Andoran nobles are happy now that Rand won't have to fry their asses.
Mat has been captured by the Seanchan and is currently being interrogated.
Perrin is wishing he had Mat or Rands knowledge of women as he is being confused by two beautiful women as he is a clueless git.
Rand has faced up to his harem and they're all getting along well.
"Wake up Rand Al'Thor," the beautiful redhead whispered to him.
Rand woke groggily from his well rested sleep, since he'd dumped all his Two
River brought up morals, he had been sleeping better than ever since the day
he learned he could channel.
"Good morning Avi, where are the others."
"Elayne Trakand and Min Farshaw are with Melaine, they will be here soon."
she replied.
"With Melaine? Oh. Say, how soon will they be here?" he asked looking her over.
"Too soon for what you want. They have important information for you. The
Dreamers all dreamt the same dream last night, they believe they have dreamt
of the key to defeating the dark one."
"A key to defeating the Dark One? Well, that would be useful to know." Rand
said as he tried to push down the image of Aviendha lithe athletic form. For
something as important as this, he needed a clear head.
He was just about to speak when the door opened and Elayne and Melaine
walked through the door.
Elayne beamed when she looked at Rand, for all she could be frosty and
imperious around others, whenever she was near Rand, she always melted.
"Morning Rand, I brought some food for you, I thought you might be hungry
after last night." the last said with a faint blush.
Melaine with a knowing smiled also gave greetings to Rand.
"Where's Min?" he asked.
"She's gone to the Aes Sedai about a back strain." Melaine said reprovingly.
"Oh," Rand uttered, " Um, about the dreams?"
"Eat your food Caracarn and I will explain what has happened. We believe we
have dreamt of an item of some kind which has the power to destroy or at
least defeat the Dark One. Myself, Bair and Amys all had the same dream, it
was a dream of you with an object of some kind," she hesitated , "it seemed
to look like a bottle or a pitcher. Either way, by using it , you should be
able to defeat the dark one, or at least defeat some of the forsaken."
"Sounds like you're talking of a sa'angreal or a ter'angreal." Rand mumbled
as he ate.
"Thats what I thought at first too, but they seemed to think there was no
channelling involved at all." Elayne responded.
Melaine continued , "Yes, that is correct. I still have an idea of where
this item can be found too, and since Elayne has taught us all how to create
gateways, I believe I can take you, us there."
"You can take me there, excellent." Rand stopped when the door opened again
and this time Neranda's head popped through the doorway.
"Mazrim Taim has come to see you Caracarn."
Taim strode through the door just as Neranda finished speaking.
"My Lord Dragon, I have great news, last night Gorran , one of my newest
recruits had a dream, in this dream he said he saw a weapon or something of
great power." Taim finished up as he saw a strange light in Rands eyes, as
he looked around he saw a similarly strange expression on Elayne's face, and
as usual the two Aiel in the room gave away nothing with their facial
expression.
"Yes Taim, I believe I know where it is, the Aiel dreamers must have had the
same dream as this Gorran. Meliane can take me there straight away." he said
with a meaningful look at the Wise One.
"You are leaving now, permit me to come with you My Lord Dragon, this place
may be very dangerous to have such a powerful weapon nearby." Taim asked,
almost pleading.
"You can't mean to go now." Elayne interrupted.
"Why not, I've nothing else planned for the day, it shouldn't take too long.
The five of us should be able to handle anything.
Elayne was ready to argue more, but one look at Rand and she caved. Even
Aviendha and Melaine didn't put up much of a fight after that. After Rand
was dressed , Melaine opened a gateway, through the gateway, the sky was
dark, it was night here, but there were what seemed to be sounds of
merrymaking coming from nearby.
Taim went through first quickly followed by Aviendha, Rand and Elayne walked
out together with Melaine bringing up the rear .
Rand looked around at this new strange land he now stood upon. To the left
of him was a beach and an ocean, to the right he could make out buildings
and lights and could even hear what seemed to be music and voices. He
motioned his party towards the buildings.
Most of the buildings were completely blacked out, but there was a few which
seemed to be inns or taverns, and these buildings all seemed to be full of
life. The closest one had a man standing in front of the door.
Rand motioned towards that building, as they were nearing the inn a man came
stumbling out. He tried walking a few steps, but obviously drunk he
staggered a few steps straight into a wall. He picked himself up , and
staggered down the street singing a song about Matilda and waltzing or
something, or so Rand thought.
"Good evening." Rand said to the man by the door as he went to enter the inn.
"Excuse me mate, you and ya pals got som' ID?" the doorman asked suddenly,
putting his arm across the doorway.
"What? eye-dee ? What are you talking about, we just want to go into this
inn and get some food." Rand responded confused.
"Inn? What the bloody hell you talking about mate? Look, if you want to get
into this pub, you gotta have som' ID, it's the law mate. I don't make the
laws, I just enforce them." the doorman explained, then carried on , "You
and you can go through tho, if you two ain't eighteen, then no-one in there
is." he said gesturing to Melaine and Taim."
"What about us ?" Rand asked, "Look, we're all eighteen, why can't we go
through."
"Ye must 'ave proof mate."
"Okay, we'll 'um go and get it." Rand said, "Taim, you and Melaine go in ,
we'll be back shortly."
Rand, Elayne and Aviendha walked around the corner as Taim and Melaine went
inside the pub.
"What kind of a place is this?" Rand wondered aloud, "And what is eye-dee
and eighteen supposed to mean."
"I do not know Rand Al'Thor, but how are we going to get in there, it must
be the place, this 'pub', where the item is, after all, why have all this
security if there is nothing in there." Aviendha said to Rand and Elayne.
Rand thought for a moment , then said , "Okay, I've done it, just walk real
slow til we're inside, we are now invisible."
Slowly the three edged their way back to the door and quietly snuck through
the doorway. Luckily for them the door had not been closed after Taim went
through. Once throught they found Taim and Melaine sitting at a bar up the
front of this pub.
Suddenly Rand dropped the wards and they were visible again.
"Flaming hell mate, did you see that." yelled one of the patrons.
"See what, you bloody duffer, c'mon mate, stop trying to skirt ya shout."
another called back at him.
No one else in the room seem to have noticed, although the man behind the
bar was surprised to see another three people at the bar when he turned
around. He quickly covered up for it though and asked the three, "What'll it
be mate?" he continued on as Rand looked at him blankly, "What do you want
to drink son?" he said slowly to Rand.
"Ah, I'll have a" lost he quickly looked at Taim and saw he had a drink in
hand, "...what he's having, thanks."
"Sure thing, and you two lovely ladies?" he asked Elayne and Aviendha.
"I'll have some oosqui." Aviendha replied while Elyane said she was not thirsty.
"Oosqui, what the hell is that then? Some kind of seppo drink I'd reckon'.
Look lass, we only sell VB, XXXX bitter and Fosters here." he replied with
the anguish of someone who has just been insulted.
"Ah, I'll try a veee-beee then." she replied feeling somewhat out of depth
in this strange place.
As the man left , Rand quickly rounded on Taim asking him what was going on.
"My Lord Dragon......" Taim began.
"Dont call me that here, just Rand." Rand ordered.
"Rand, we seem to be in an establishment similar to an inn or a tavern, but
these people call it a pub and it is a place to buy alcohol, hence my
drink." he held up a small-ish green tinged bottle with a label on the front
with the letters VB clearly visible.
"What is that drink?" Rand asked.
"It appears to be ale, My... Rand, but it's very cold and is more bitter
than any other ale I have ever had, it's good though." Taim finished just as
Melaine spoke up.
"It is the item in my dreams Rand Al'Thor, I clearly remember you holding it
up proclaiming it to have aided you in your defeat of something, I
originally thought it meant you had defeated the dark one, but it could be
anything from defeating a forsaken to just political enemies."
Taim had a quiet chuckle, "It seems Rand, that our dreams were probably just
some random taveren effects and they really mean nothing."
"Maybe , what do you all propose now?" he asked the small group quietly.
"Here's ya beers mates , enjoy." the barkeep said as he dropped another two
Vbs in front of Rand and Aviendha.
"Well, we might as well enjoy these strange drinks, perhaps these people
might help support the Dragon Reborn." Taim chuckled again as he drained the
last of his beer.
"Another thanks, barkeeper." he called to the barman.
Rand thought about it and decided he might as well relax with two of his
three favourite girls, this place had a nice relaxed feel about it, and
there was no-one here who knew he was the dragon reborn, he almost felt free.
"Sure thing, order one of these Elayne, they're not bad, he said after he'd
had a couple of sips. Lets take a seat at that table over there." he pointed
to a table at the edge of the wall.
Rand and the women all went to the table, but Taim stayed at the bar.
"Taim, you going to join us." Rand asked.
"No , I'll sit here, leave you in peace with your little harem." he said
snidely just before he took another long swallow of his beer.
Rand took it in his stride, he was too happy to get upset over Mazrim Taim,
and the more he thought about it, he preferred not having Taim to close to
Elayne and Aviendha anyway.
An hour later, Taim was on his nineth beer and the effects were starting to
show.
"Let me tell you Barry," he slurred to the innkeeper, "the Dragon Reborn's
not so great, I'm putting the biggest one over him, yes I am, he's such a fool."
"Sure you are Maz, but who the fucks this fool Dragon Reborn you keep
sprouting on about?" Barry the barman asked.
"Ye see that big tall red headed lad over there, thats him, a fool is he,
well I'll get mine one day, the Great Lord always delivers his promises to
those who obey."
"You mean that guy with the three girls, two of them just hanging of him."
the barman pointed to the table where Rand sat. Taim turned and nodded just
at the moment Elayne decided to give Rand some tongue.
Taim saw this, and spun of his stool knocking it flying to the ground.
"Hey I think you've had enough for tonight mate." the barman urged.
"Kspajic you." Taim swore back at him. Then rounded on Rand who had stood at
Taim's display of fury at the barman.
"Taim, what..." Rand began.
"You shut up Lews Therin, I've waited long enough, to Shayol Ghul with the
Great Lords plans. You took Ilyena from me, why? I wanted her. You had
Mierin. You can't have enough women can you, first your so called Aiel
bitch, then that peasant tart, now this spitting image of Ilyena." Taim
gestured at Elayne, " Well, tonight you die Lews Therin, only I shall be
Naeblis." he staggered towards them.
Rand was filled with the power and his skin tingled so he assumed the three
women were also embracing the power. But he waited, as yet Taim or whoever
he was, had not yet taken hold of the source.
He thought he knew who Taim was now, those words briefly mentioning Ilyena
were the key to Taim's true identity, of all the forsake , only Demandred
had lusted after Ilyena.
"So Demandred." he called , "I should have guessed this since the beginning,
but why did you help me as you did, you built up the Ashaman for me, or are
they all darkfriends too." Rand asked with a slight slur at the end, he too
had had quite a few beers.
"You'll neva' know will you Leewwws Therin." he stumbled over his own boots
embracing the source finally, but as soon as he did Rand felt saidin surge
out of control, Demandred was to drunk to fight saidin and the male half of
the true source had broken through and even as Rand watched, it ripped
Demandred's body and soul apart until all that remained was a smoky wisp.
All in the room stared at the spot where the tall man in black had stood a
moment before.
"TAXI" one man in the room yelled out as he stumbled towards the door.
The barman came out from behind the bar and stood looking over the spot
where Taim, Demandred had just been. He looked at Rand with shock in his eyes.
"Usually round here mate, when a man can't hold his liquor he just spews his
guts all over the place, he doesn't just fucking disappear into thin air.
What the fuck was that hey?" the barman gestured at the spot he was standing
over.
Next minute two large men came through the door. The barman pointed at Rand
and the women.
"Security, I want these fuckers out of here now." he ordered the bouncers.
"Hey, how'd you get in here," one of the bouncers shouted at Rand and Elayne
and Aviendha, "They had no ID at the door before boss."
"Then get them the fuck out of here." the barman said again.
Very soon, the two bouncers had herded the four of them out of the pub.
"And don't even think of coming back ya here, not until your eighteen." the
bouncer who stopped them the first time at the door shouted after them as
the hurried back towards the beach they had seen earlier.
As they reached the place where the gateway had led them to, Rand had a
laugh as he looked at the green bottle he held in his hand.
"You were right all along Melaine. There was an object of power here. It was
this drink that Taim, or rather I should say that Demandred took such a
liking too. It got him trashed and he revealed himself and when he tried to
control Saidin, he couldn't, so it destroyed him."
"But what about the Ashaman now, you can't be sure that they aren't......"
Elayne tried to ask.
Rand quietened her with a kiss, "Hush, layney. I will think on that
tomorrow. Lets go back and we'll find Min and have us some fun."
He laughed again at Melaine rolling her eyes, "Y'know it will be about
midday back in Caemlyn." she said.
Rand laughed again, "Great , that means we've got all day and night to have
us some fun." And this time both Elayne and Aviendha smiled up at him and
had a quick laugh themselves.
"I think we're going to have to come back to this place to get some more
vee-bee in the future," Aviendha said to Elayne , "It has a good effect on him."
"We sure will mate." Rand said to them all, using the term the locals had used.
Just then another couple stumbled towards the beach. A pretty blonde woman
on the arm of a young man.
"Hey you two." Rand called to them, "What do you called this nation of yours."
The woman replied , "Australia, ya bloody drongo."
And the man added, "Sometimes called the Land of the Madmen."
"And what is this place here?" Rand called to them waving his arms from the
beach to the buildings.
"That place," the man said pointing to the beach, "is a place to get
shagged, and that place," he said pointed to the town, "is a place to get
wasted."
Then both walked on further down the beach.
Elayne opened a gateway back to Caemlyn at Rand's request. Rand didn't trust
himself not to fall to the havoc that Demandred had fallen to. After the
gateway had opened they all stepped through, back into Caemlyn, leaving the
Lands of the Madmen.