Rand knows that he has to die, so I doubt his mind will run to things like balefire to solve the problem of his death. But in any case, I think he will probably kill Gawyn in self-defense, and that Gawyn will return with HIS last bit of strength to kill Rand. I think that's a relatively recent thought on my part - the details change a lot, as I find that mutable ideas are more sound than rigid ones - but I did cover that in the post on Dragonmount.

Beyond that, it's not even necessary that Rand kill Gawyn; he could easily be killed by a Maiden or some such after the duel is finished and it's clear Rand is dead. It may be that no one with knowledge of balefire happens to be hanging around.



I don't believe there is any evidence whatsoever as to what Rand is capable of, with the sword. For all we know, Lews Therin had quite the one-handed sword technique, and now that the integration is complete, Rand's loss of a hand is completely meaningless. It could be that Rand has been working on his technique so hard that he's already overcome the weakness; he did, after all, become a blademaster in the first place rather quickly. His wounds have never stopped him from being capable in a fight; he ignores the pain.