Sanderson's new Twitter comments

[Terez]

For example, Brandon might be talking about things like the mercenaries outside Caemlyn. I've mentioned that some, but not much.

What's this theory about? You think some of the bands are controlled by the Shadow?

I talked about this some (providing the pertinent quotes) on the Demandred page in the FAQ link in my sig. Basically, Elayne doesn't see much to worry about. Mat does. There are 10,000 of them, and Elayne doesn't have the gold to pay them. Others do - notably Roedran (Demandred).