Read the series far too late. I Have been trying to look up what people thought about Rand not even letting Tam know he was alive and stumbled upon this... The women lit the pipe. He stares at his pipe and thinks about it lighting over and over again and suddenly it lights up and he looks at the three women staring at him from his funeral pyre. They felt it through the bond and lit it for him. He smiles and rides away wondering who will follow him first. Couple pages earlier they are speaking about how they can feel his bond pulse so obviously they are all still connected even though he switched bodies.