A Hunt, a Siege and Another Siege in <i>Crossroads of Twilight</i> (Part 2)

I forgot about Gawyn and Bashere!

Okay, I didn’t forget about them, I just forgot that their sections were in between Yukiri’s and Samitsu’s. So we’re going to cover Yukiri, Gawyn, and Bashere’s sections this week and catch up with Samitsu in Cairhien next week.

Yukiri walks the halls of the White Tower, worrying about the news from outside the White Tower, or the lack thereof. She is especially concerned about the sisters in Cairhien, none of whom are known to be loyal, and the fact that there has been no word from Coiren and her embassy. Worst of all, Rand al’Thor has vanished.

None of this functionally matters, however, since there is nothing Yukiri can do about any of it. What she can do is continue the hunt for the Black Ajah. They are walking the halls in order to have some kind of privacy, since clandestine meetings in someone’s quarters could attract notice, especially if a ward against eavesdropping is used. But Yukiri underestimated how many other sisters would also be walking the halls, always in single Ajah groups and looking just as jumpy and suspicious as Yukiri feels. She considers that the Tower needs to straighten itself out soon or the rebels are going to have their work done for them, but the only way Yukiri can think of to undo the suspicion and hostility is by revealing the rebel spies and having them confess to spreading rumors about the Black Ajah and Logain—rumors that Meidani and her cohorts still insist are true.

Meidani has been spying, or at least attempting to spy, on Atuan Larisett, who Talene has named as one of the Black Ajah. Atuan is the extra Black sister Talene knows outside of her own heart, and the hope is that Atuan can lead Yukiri and her cohorts to the other two members of her heart. However, it isn’t easy to arrange getting Atuan alone for questioning, since it must be a secret from everyone, so for now, Atuan walks free.

Talene has also named Galina Casban as Black, which Pevara first had a hard time accepting and is now enraged over. Yukiri was less shocked when Temaile, a fellow Gray, was named; if the Black Ajah exists, it stands to reason that there will be members from every Ajah.

Yukiri orders Meidani to establish a friendship with Elaida, as the two were once friends as novices. Meidani hedges, and finally admits that she has already tried, and was continually blocked by Alviarin. Yukiri realizes that the rebels hoped to spy on Elaida, then tells Meidani that Alviarin is out of the Tower right now, so she must try again to reach Elaida, to watch her and Alviarin, and to see if anyone else seems to be accessing Elaida’s papers. The Black Ajah, according to Talene, knows all of Elaida’s orders before she issues them, but that doesn’t necessarily prove that either Elaida or Alviarin is Black.

Yukiri jumps when she hears someone call her name, and turns to see Seaine hurrying towards her. They send Meidani, Bernaile, and Leonin down the hall to watch for anyone coming by, and then Seaine weaves a ward against eavesdropping around herself and Yukiri. Seaine explains that she has figured out the “other mystery,” being the question of why the Ajah heads have been meeting in secret.

She lays out her logic, which includes the fact that she has learned definitively that several of the Ajah heads had an unusually direct hand in picking the Sitters that were chosen to fill those seats vacated when the rebels left the White Tower. None of the Sitters chosen were the logical choice, save one, and several were much younger than is customary. Yukiri realizes that Seaine is suggesting that the Ajah heads conspired over who would go into the Hall, and is astonished at the suggestion. Still, what she is doing is just as shocking, if not more.

She tells Seaine that she has time to puzzle out why the Ajah heads might do such a thing, and what the pattern is in the choice of sitters, while she remains safe and looked after for a while longer. Seaine looks sullen, but agrees. Yukiri finds herself wishing it were possible for the rebels to arrive before summer, in order to reunite the Tower against the common threat.  

A wave of cold air wakes Gawyn in the hayloft he’s sleeping in. He’s been having troubling dreams about Egwene, especially because he doesn’t even know if she’s alive or if she can forgive him. His first lieutenant, Rajar, arrives to report that an Aes Sedai messenger has arrived from the White Tower, wanting to see the sister in charge. Rajar sent her to the house where Katerine Alruddin and Tarna Feir are staying.

Gawyn thinks to himself that he should have returned to Caemlyn. After the battle at Dumai’s Wells, he and the Younglings had returned to Tar Valon to find themselves banned from the city—and Gawyn is still certain that Elaida wants them all dead. But he doesn’t know if Elayne is in Caemlyn now or in the White Tower, or somewhere else entirely, and then winter caught him here in the village of Dorlan, unable to reach either city. Even more importantly, there is an army between him and Tar Valon now, an army that seemed to spring up out of nowhere but certainly must be the rebel Aes Sedai.

He and Rajar find Katerine and Tarna meeting with the messenger, Narenwin, who tells Gawyn that she has orders for him from Elaida. Katerine and Tarna are more focused, however, on the fishing boat that helped Narenwin sneak out of Tar Valon, and how they themselves can reach the White Tower.

Tarna, a Red, rode into Dorlan the day after the mysterious army arrived and took charge of the Aes Sedai there, the remnants of those who escaped after Dumai’s Wells. She inspected the Younglings thoroughly, questioned the other sisters about anything and everything, and spent long hours out riding, searching for a way into Tar Valon. Gawyn is certain that, sooner or later, she will lead the army’s scouts back to Dorlan.

Katerine, also a Red, only arrived one day ago, taking leadership away from Tarna. She is aloof with the other sisters, but she, too, inspected the Younglings as though looking at a tool she meant to use. Gawyn will be happy to see them both go, but that will also leave him with Narenwin and Elaida’s orders.

Narenwin tells the other two that Elaida needs them here, that she would have sent fifty sisters out of the Tower if she could. Narenwin’s orders were to take charge of the Aes Sedai that she found in Dorlan, the sisters under Covarla. Both Katerine and Tarna are quick to inform her that neither are under Covarla, so Narenwin’s orders don’t apply to them. Katerine tells Tarna that she may accompany her on the journey to find a fisherman to sneak them into Tar Valon.

As they leave, Gawyn asks Narenwin if she knows where Elayne is. Tarna stops at the door and tells him that Elayne is with the rebels. Gawyn expresses upset that she didn’t tell him before this; Tarna answers that Gawyn didn’t ask. She also promises that Elayne is protected from retribution by the White Tower, because Accepted cannot choose which Aes Sedai to obey. She doesn’t need rescuing, even if Gawyn could manage it.

Alone with him, Narenwin echoes Tarna’s reassurance about Elayne’s safety. She also reminds him that Elayne is sealed to the White Tower, as is Gawyn himself, because of Andor. Gawyn knows that the Younglings are also sealed to the White Tower because of their choice to fight against the rebels.

Outside Caemlyn, Davram Bashere watches an army setting up camp and readying their siege. There are other camps being erected in other areas around the city, and Davram considers that hunger ends more sieges than swords or siege engines ever could; it is only a question whether it brings down the besieged or the besieger first.

The plan seems well thought out to Bashere’s eye, but he’s confused by the banners he sees, with habitual enemies seemingly allied together in support of Arymilla Marne, someone no one would have supported a month ago. Beside him, Bael complains that the soldiers below are ignoring them, even though they could crush the besieging army if they chose. Bashere reminds Bael that Elayne wouldn’t like that—which means Rand wouldn’t like it, either. Bael thinks it’s foolish of Elayne not to take advantage of every asset she can. Bashere doesn’t try to explain the politics involved: The interference of outlanders in any claim to the Lion Throne would cost Elayne the very thing she is trying to gain, regardless of who wins battles. 

Bael spots half a dozen wagons trying to leave the city, people who waited too long to flee before the siege started. They are accosted by some of the besiegers, but a large number of Queen’s Guards come out of the city to drive the attackers off and herd the wagons and people back inside the safety of the walls.

Bashere turns his attention back to the camps, noting that the besiegers have no guards on watch on the high ground, and that this fact may be useful to him at some point. Bael declares that he has better things to do than watch wetlanders dig holes and stands, uttering the ritualistic words:

The Aiel leave, and Bashere rejoins his own men and his own worries. He has heard that Tenobia and her army have left the Blightborder and are not far from their position, along with Ethenielle, Paitar, and Easar. He mostly trusts Tenobia, having watched her grow up and seen her rule well, if not always wisely. But he also knows her well enough to know that she will have her own goal, separate from the other Borderland rulers: the head of Davram Bashere.

He returns to his own camp to find a disturbance there. His wife, Deira, was injured when she found two thieves going through their tent. Bashere leaves Deira to be tended to and Tumad joins him, reporting that two bodies matching the description Deira gave were found outside the camp, apparently executed by someone else.

Lowering his voice to be sure he is not overheard, he instructs Tumad to take a message to the man who Bashere met with the day before.

I’m so confused about the timing of everything here, and I kind of wish Jordan had given us a bit more explanation, or included some dates or something. It’s clear that he knows exactly where everyone is and when (my goodness he must have had extensive notes) and that the main purpose of the Prologue is to catch all the timelines up and let us know where some of the key players are, probably those that will be especially important in Crossroads of Twilight. All these events happened/are happening before the cleansing of saidin, and it makes a lot of sense that we need to know where the world stands before this momentous and reality-altering change takes place.

However, it’s unclear whether or not the different events of the Prologue are happening roughly concurrently to each other. There’s nothing to indicate any kind of time jump from one section to the next, but in Yukiri’s section she is just thinking that it’s a pity the rebels can’t arrive before summer (hilarious to read, knowing what we know). Then, in the very next section, we find the Younglings and the Aes Sedai who escaped from Dumai’s Wells camped out in this little town because no one can get past the siege of Tar Valon.

Of course, part of the difficulty is that the narration of any given situation is limited to what the POV character knows. We the readers can fill in some of the details with our extra knowledge, but it can be difficult to keep track of everything even so. There are so many armies on the move, after all, and more than one siege is beginning! But even if this siege has only just started, the Aes Sedai are well aware of it right now because they had to sneak Narenwin out of Tar Valon in a fishing boat—so there must be at least a few days between the two sections, probably more, and in between one section and the next this really important thing just happened. I assume we’ll get filled in eventually on Egwene’s army’s arrival and everything that happened as they set up their siege, but in the meantime I just feel really unmoored from the action.

Aside from that, however, it’s very interesting being back in the White Tower, focusing on the hunt for the Black Ajah and the question as to whether it’s Elaida who’s Black or someone close to her. Of course it makes sense for the hunters to be careful not to jump to conclusions, given the risks they’re running and the dangers of their clandestine hunt being discovered. It is certainly possible (from their perspective) that someone close to Elaida is reading her papers—maybe Alviarin, maybe someone else—and relaying the information to the Shadow, but no one seems to have considered how perfectly Elaida’s (as far as they know) orders have contributed to the unrest and suspicion between the Ajahs. Yukiri puts it down to the rumors spread by the rebel spies, but that is only about the Reds and Logain. While it might make the Reds more hostile to everyone else and vice versa, it wouldn’t account for suspicion and distrust between the rest of the Ajahs as far as I can see.

Of course, everyone knows that Elaida’s kind of an extreme, not to mention quick-tempered, person—Yukiri remembers how Elaida used to treat her “favorite” Accepted, driving them unreasonably and needing an intervention to curb her behavior—so I guess that’s why no one has pegged the orders as a possible clue towards Black Ajah involvement in the Tower, but that still seems like a careless oversight. And if they did acknowledge the ridiculous, often disastrous, Ajah-dividing orders as a clue, they’d be drawn to the logical conclusion that it really could only be Elaida or Alviarin who is responsible for the Black knowing Elaida’s orders.

Or you know, could be both.

Alviarin blocking access to Elaida is another clue, of course, but not one I’d expect Yukiri and co. to catch, since that’s part of the Keeper’s job. Except there is also the fact that Elaida asked Seaine to hunt for “traitors” in the Tower with the hopes that Seaine would find out what Alviarin was doing. Seaine took this to mean hunt for the Black Ajah, but, as we know, these two goals are the same goal. You would think it would lead them to Alviarin eventually—which I suppose it may still do. They haven’t actually been on the hunt for that long, yet, and they are very limited in what they can do quickly.

So it is both interesting and frustrating to see Yukiri and the others finally on the trail of the Black Ajah and yet so far away from learning very much at all. This is the reason why the Black sisters are organized into small hearts, of course, but hopefully this is the book in which that egg will finally be cracked open. Best of all, if/when Egwene takes over as Amyrlin, she’ll already have a head start in rooting out the Black, though of course there will be Black sisters among the Salidar Aes Sedai, as well.

If Egwene’s knowledge of the Black is combined with the information Seaine and Yukiri and the rest have uncovered, I wonder if that would be enough to present to a reunified Hall and justify the use of the Oath Rod openly, with the intention of rooting out all Black sisters? Partly I suppose this will depend on how easy reunifying the White Tower is, and whether or not Yukiri, Doesine, and Saerin can be convinced to follow Egwene. Elaida’s incompetence and Alviarin’s interference certainly don’t inspire a lot of loyalty, but Aes Sedai are often overly loyal to procedure, custom, and history, so there really is no saying what it would take to convince them to support Egwene as a legitimate Amyrlin.

Which is an even bigger deal than having a bunch of Sitters who are really too young for the role.

The conspiracy about the Sitters is very interesting. It would make sense to me that, after all the upheaval in the White Tower—Siuan being deposed, the resulting split, the growing suspicion between the Ajahs—the Ajah heads might want to exert more control over the Hall than they traditionally have. Working together as unofficial leaders might have a lot of benefits, including trying to temper (or even override) Elaida’s bizarre decisions and to figure out ways to ease tensions and restore some kind of trust between the Ajahs. The Ajah heads might also be thinking about how some of the old Sitters became rebels, and would prefer to replace those seats with young women who they feel they can control, and therefore rely upon.

I have the feeling something similar happened in Salidar. Many of the Sitters for the Little Tower were also unusually young, as Siuan observed at one point, and I found myself wondering then if someone hoped to guide and control them, too. Maybe Lelaine and Romanda. Or possibly Sheriam and her crew, since they were doing plenty of unofficial running of things, including sending the spies back to Tar Valon.

Still, I agree with Yukiri that the Ajah heads conspiring to control Sitters in the Hall is pretty small potatoes in the face of rooting out the Black Ajah—unless those Ajah Heads all turned out to be Black themselves, but that seems too difficult to achieve even for the most organized group of Darkfriends.

There has been so much fuss about the sisters forced to swear to Rand that it’s easy to forget that many Aes Sedai still don’t know about what Rand has demanded of them—and that the White Tower doesn’t know. They don’t know about the sisters who have been made apprentices to the Wise Ones or that all of them have, seemingly of their own accord, chosen to give Rand their obedience.

They don’t know about Cadsuane, either, or the sisters who have taken Asha’man as Warders. I wonder if the Hall would approve of that.

The whole thing is very interesting because, in many ways, being rebels against the Tower has been very good for the Salidar Aes Sedai. They’ve been out in the world, exposed to more truth and less rumor, able to travel and receive news first hand, rather than relying solely on eyes-and-ears networks. I mean, Tarna’s still trying to get back to the Tower to report what she saw in Salidar, information that hardly matters now that the rebel army is beginning their siege.

The rebel (and undecided) Aes Sedai are far from united, but in being out in the world as it’s changing they at least have the opportunity to learn and evolve while they’re trying to figure out how to keep the world on course—and playing their little power games with each other.

Speaking of which, it’s really interesting to watch Aes Sedai figuring out their pecking order in front of non-Aes Sedai. No one outside the Tower knows that the strength-based hierarchy exists, or anything about the factors that determine leadership and precedence (like being assigned to a position of authority by the Hall or the Amyrlin) so watching Katerine, Tarna and Narenwin struggle to decide who’s in charge looks very different to the Younglings watching them than it does to them internally.

Katerine is probably stronger than Tarna in the One Power, so it was easy for her to take over when she arrived in Dorlan. But if Narenwin is weaker than Katerine, or both of them, it would explain how easily they brush Narenwin aside, despite the fact that she has Elaida’s authority behind her. Granted, they also have the loophole in the way the orders were worded, and I’m sure they would have used that regardless of their relative strength levels, but it may have been more difficult to refuse Narenwin’s authority if they didn’t have both greater strength and the loophole of the orders not strictly applying to them.

After all, getting out of Elaida’s orders stating that Narenwin is to assume charge of all the Aes Sedai in Dorlan under Covarla relies on them interpreting the letter of the law, not the spirit. Which is very Aes Sedai, of course, but if Narenwin had been the strongest of the three, I think she would have had an easier time asserting her interpretation of the orders—especially in Katerine’s case. Tarna is returning from being sent to Salidar, and anyone would assume that Elaida and the Hall would want her report as soon as possible, even if it is a bit late to anticipate the siege. But while Katerine may not have been under Covarla’s command, she was part of the embassy to kidnap Rand, and it would make sense to assume she should be included in Narenwin’s orders.

I almost forgot that Katerine was one of the Aes Sedai taken at Dumai’s Wells, and that she escaped before Verin could question her, killing several Aiel in the process. This seems to indicate that she is Black Ajah, though I suppose there’s always a slight chance of some other explanation. I don’t know what it would be, but maybe the Shadow wanted the information about the subjugation of the captured Aes Sedai to reach the White Tower? That can only increase the hostility between the Tower Aes Sedai and the Dragon Reborn, so it might serve their ends well enough. But I don’t know how Katerine could have escaped with some kind of Darkfriend aid while also not knowing she was being aided.

Having thought it all out, I must say I actually think Tarna and Katerine (unless she’s Black, anyway) are right. Whatever it is Elaida wants the Younglings and the Dorlan Aes Sedai to do, the Tower surely would want, and need, to know the information Katerine can bring about what happened to the embassy, and while Tarna is too late to provide warning, it’s still her duty to deliver any information about the rebels she can. Of course, it’s possible they could have made this case to Narenwin, and probably would have if they’d been forced to submit to Narenwin’s authority. Perhaps Narenwin would even have agreed with their arguments and given them permission to go. But this way is certainly faster, and if they both outrank Narenwin in strength, anyway, it would really go against custom to cede so much control.

But from the outside looking in, all of this looks like petty squabbling, especially when they both jump on the fact that Elaida’s orders don’t specifically designate them. Gawyn doesn’t seem to care much about it, especially since he doesn’t want either of the Red Sisters in charge of him. But even though it doesn’t come up in his narration, I find myself wondering if these sorts of moments, cumulatively at least, don’t affect how he feels about the Aes Sedai.

Gawyn’s conflict is understandable. He and his men have been betrayed by the White Tower, but where exactly are they supposed to go? He feels that having sided with Elaida marks him, as I suppose it does, and he is responsible for the men he leads. But it is also significant that, unlike the other Younglings who went to the White Tower hoping to become Warders, Gawyn and Galad went to train with the Warders and as Elayne’s escort. I think Narenwin is right that he’s mostly tied to the White Tower because Andor is. He is supposed to be First Prince of the Sword, after all, though he may very well end up a Warder, too, given what we know of Elayne’s plans.

I wonder if he can actually do both jobs, or if Elayne will have to release him from certain obligations in order for him to be Warder to the Amyrlin seat.

I wonder if it will occur to Gawyn that Elayne and Egwene being with the rebels really solves all his problems for him. Yes, he and the Younglings fought for Elaida against the rebels, but I don’t think it’s really fair for the rebels to hold that against them. The Younglings were caught up in a fight they couldn’t possibly be expected to know or understand the politics of. I guess they could have chosen not to take sides, but a bunch of young men hoping to be made Warders were suddenly faced with what looked like a violent attack on the rightful and legally appointed Amyrlin Seat. You can hardly expect them to have done other than what they did, just as you can’t hold Accepted responsible for following orders given to them by Aes Sedai.

Siding with Elayne against Elaida however, would allow Gawyn to remain loyal to Elayne, Egwene, and the White Tower—provided he is willing to consider the rebels to be the true and lawful White Tower. Which doesn’t feel like it would be too difficult, given how he feels about the girls and how the Younglings have been treated by the Aes Sedai. He even considers that he can’t abandon Elayne or Egwene as long as he breathes, but doesn’t include the White Tower in that assessment.

Also Gareth Bryne is leading the rebel army! That should mean something to Gawyn. He’s kind of a dummy, but I think he’ll get there sooner rather than later.

On the other hand, Min did have that one vision of Gawyn either breaking Egwene’s neck or bowing to her. It was the first time she’s ever known what a vision meant and yet had it waver between possibilities. Even if the murder or kneeling is metaphorical, it suggests that Gawyn’s decisions are still in flux, and that his choices will have a big effect at least on Egwene, and probably on the future of the Tower itself.

And lastly, there’s Bashere. There’s not much to say about what is going on with him. I think he might still have a little bit of a hand in Elayne’s defense if he thinks he can get away with it, but the bigger question is who was looking for things in his tent, and who is the man he met with and is striking some kind of deal with? My first thought was that maybe Tenobia sent the men to search Bashere’s tent, but the manner of the execution feels extreme. Perhaps if she truly suspects that Bashere is some kind of traitor… but no, even then it seems like too much to send men looking for proof of Bashere’s treason and then have them murdered if they fail. But who else could be responsible, and again, why?

Anyway, hello Bashere, and hello Bael. I like both characters, and the respect between them is fun, so I hope we get more of them. 

Next week we’ll move on to the events in Cairhien, as Samitsu attempts to hold onto her Cadsuane-appointed authority—and we finally get to see Loial again. Yay Loial!