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| - Rand and Mat unload the first barrels and enter the common room of the inn, to find not only Tam and Bran, but Cenn Buie and Haral Luhhan present. Master Luhhan frowns at Mat. Mistress al'Vere brings out some food, and says the boys can get something to eat in the kitchen when they're done. In the cellar, Mat tells Rand that Master Luhhan is mad at him, and explains that he played a prank on Adan al'Caar, Ewin Finngar, and Dag Coplin using two of Master Luhhan's dogs, and his joke ended up getting flour all over the Luhhan house.
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| abstract
| - Rand and Mat unload the first barrels and enter the common room of the inn, to find not only Tam and Bran, but Cenn Buie and Haral Luhhan present. Master Luhhan frowns at Mat. Mistress al'Vere brings out some food, and says the boys can get something to eat in the kitchen when they're done. In the cellar, Mat tells Rand that Master Luhhan is mad at him, and explains that he played a prank on Adan al'Caar, Ewin Finngar, and Dag Coplin using two of Master Luhhan's dogs, and his joke ended up getting flour all over the Luhhan house. When they pass back through the common room to continue unloading, Rowan Hurn and Samel Crawe have arrived, and Tam is speaking quietly and intently to the now complete Village Council. They unload the rest of the barrels while eating honeycakes. Just as Mat is about to tell Rand about the gleeman, Ewin Finngar arrives and says there are strangers in the village -- not a man in black, but a women in blue and a man in a cloak that shifts colors. Mat says that they were the ones he'd started to tell Rand about earlier; they'd arrived the evening before and taken rooms at the inn. Ewin interjects that their names are Moiraine and Lan. Ewin says that Nynaeve doesn't like Moiraine, because she called Nynaeve "child." Moiraine has been asking questions about how old people are, and how long they've lived where they have. Mat again mentions the gleeman and Ewin is skeptical. They go back through the common room, where the Village Council is still huddled together talking quietly, and on outside. Mat asks Rand to back up his story about the dark rider, but he suddenly gets the feeling he's being watched. He looks around, but only sees a raven sitting on the inn roof. Mat and Rand, both angry at the bird staring at them, throw rocks, but the raven dodges, to their surprise. A woman's voice from behind them describes the raven as a "vile bird", and it flies away. The boys turn to see a woman who can only be Moiraine. She looks like nobody Rand has ever seen, and he can't pin down her age. He notices the Great Serpent ring on her hand. They greet her as "Lady Moiraine," but she tells them to just call her Moiraine. She says she may have some small tasks to be done while she is in Emond's Field, asking the boys if they might be willing to assist her. Moiraine gives each of the boys a silver penny in return for their promise. She says that later they must tell her all about them. Rand asks why she came to Emond's Field, and she says she is a collector of old stories. They wonder aloud what stories there might be in the Two Rivers, but she says that men wear different faces as the Wheel of Time turns, and nobody can see the whole Pattern. The boys are tongue-tied; she says they will talk later, and walks away. As she does, a man who had been standing unnoticed nearby now moves to follow her. The tall man in the color-shifting cloak gives each of the boys an appraising look as he walks past. Ewin says that is Lan, and that he's probably a Warder. Mat scoffs, saying that Warders have jeweled armor and fight Trollocs in the Great Blight. With the strangers gone, they finally look at their coins; Ewin is ecstatic to find his is a 'whole silver penny.' Rand and Mat have been given a silver coin also, but theirs is different; it is fat and bears the image of a woman balancing a flame on her upturned hand. The coins are worth more than the boys have ever had before, enough to buy a good horse, Rand thinks, but they resolve not to spend them. Hearing shouts, they look up to see a crowd of villagers accompanying the peddler's wagon towards the Wagon Bridge.
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