in a following chapter when nynaeve catches up to them in the stag and lion she threatens to spread moiraine's secret (of not being "mistress alys" and being an aes sedai) when thom bears down on her saying that the whitecloaks are in baerlon and that anyone associated with moiraine would be seen as a darkfriend

he goes on to say that they would all be sent to the questioners who would begin questioning with a sentence already in mind and that they would be tortured till they gave the answers they wanted:

"whitecloak questioners assume you're guilty before they start, and they only have one sentence for that kind of guilt. they don't care about finding the truth; they think they know that already. all they after with their hot irons and pincers is a confession"

i know it's fairly unlikely that the WC could ever take and hold rand know, certainly at this junction, but then it's group that's yet to severely do rand harm, he's taken a beating from most other factions so far. plus i think it's odd that RJ would use the phrase "hot irons" so soon after min's foretelling if it wasn't noteworthy, unless he is just trying to throw a red herring. certainly i think the red hot irons could hint at further torture to come?