I thought Graendal died when Rand balefired her in her secret hiding place. But then she shows up in AMoL! What?! I didn't understand the explanation about how she was able to come back. Someone want to take a stab at explaining it to me?
She released the True Power and embraced less-wonderful saidar. Quickly! She was so unsettled that her embrace nearly failed. She was sweating.
Go. She had to go.
She opened a new gateway. Aran'gar turned, staring through the walls in the direction of al'Thor. "So much power! What is he doing?"
Aran'gar. She and Delana had made the weaves of Compulsion.
Al'Thor must think Graendal dead. If he destroyed the place and those Compulsions remained, al'Thor would know that he'd missed and that Graendal lived.
Graendal formed two shields and slammed them into place, one for
Aran'gar, one for Delana. The women gasped. Graendal tied off the weaves and bound the two in Air.
"Graendal?" Aran'gar said, voice panicked. "What are you—"
It was coming. Graendal leaped for the gateway, rolling through it, tumbling and ripping her dress on a branch. A blinding light rose behind her. She struggled to dismiss the gateway, and caught one glimpse of the horrified Aran'gar before everything behind was consumed in beautiful, pure whiteness.
The gateway vanished, leaving Graendal in darkness.
She lay, heart beating at a terrible speed, nearly blinded by the glare. She'd made the quickest gateway she could, one that led only a short distance away. She lay in the dirty underbrush atop a ridge behind the palace.
Yeah, the whole scene struck me as extremely contrived - who was supposed to have taught Delana Compulsion for instance
Graendal needed time, and she needed to discover what al'Thor knew. If Nynaeve al'Meara had the skill needed to read Compulsions, that was dangerous. Graendal needed to lay him a false trail, delay him—hence her requirement that Delana create a thick Compulsion with strange provisions in it.