I don't like Demandred for it because of his reaction to Moridin's claim Sammael is still alive. It's very natural, very instinctive. Demandred jumped right at it to scorn the notion, then when Moridin exposed the rest, Demandred realized he spoke too soon, that if it can't be Sammael then it's someone passing himself for him, thus he's a big time suspect.

It seems pretty clear Demandred had no idea why Moridin suddenly brought up that Sammael might be alive. Of course, if it's Demandred then we could surmise he didn't see it coming because Moridin invented the whole thing about someone passing himself as Sammael to destabilize the real culprit so his zomoran could catch stray thoughts that would expose him or her (as clearly, whoever it was would have been very much on his guard the second he/she saw Moridin packed the place with zomoran).

However, a good case can be made for Semirhage. She had just received orders to capture Rand. She's no fool, she must have known it was a very risky mission, and all the more if the inner circle was intact. She had spies near Rand who could tell her Rand's party wasn't exactly weak. She could have decided to send the attack, in the hope of decimating most of the inner circle right before she had her set meeting with Rand.


The same case, minus the disobedience element, can actually be made against Moridin. He was planning a secret action using Semirhage, he knew Rand's circle was mixed-gender and strong - and that inner circle was responsible for Rand's success at the Cleansing - a major blow to the DO and Moridin. That plan was secret, and it could go very wrong if the Chosen got wind of it and interferred. It's conceivable Moridin issued false accusations and threats to force the Chosen to stay on their guard and on their best behaviour until Rand was captured. Why? Because they believed Moridin and the DO were looking for a traitor among them. It wasn't a good time to do anything suspicious. There were many oddities at that meeting, not the least the fact Moridin claimed Sammael could be alive when he knew only too well he couldn't possibly be. And there were the extra chairs, which I think were there to reinforce the notion Moridin didn't know the fates of two Chosen. That was my original theory at the time of KOD, and I still think it's a possibility.

But I certainly don't rule out Cyndane the way I used to circa KOD. We missed many facts back then that made me underestimate seriously the sort of grudge she may hold against Moridin (and so the amount of risk she might be willing to take), not only against Rand. Moridin wants Rand kept alive badly, so does the DO - by killing Rand, Cyndane gets not one but three revenges. Cyndane probably also hangs around Moridin a lot as his pet, it's quite possible that like Graendal she noticed oddities in his behaviour and puzzled out the link with Rand/LTT. In short, she really had a pile of motives to attempt to get Rand killed. The attack is completely not her style, but if she was to avoid serious suspicions, that's precisely what she would have had to do.