Good morning, my darlings, and welcome all to Week 18 of this Read of The Dragon Reborn. This week we’re covering Chapters 41-44, and I do my best to keep the recap a reasonable size. I find it a bit nerve-wracking, trying to cut down on the lengths of the recaps, because there are so many little bits in the narration that seem important, even if I don’t know why they are important yet. That says very good things about the complexity and depth of Jordan’s writing, however, so it’s not at all a bad thing!
In my recaps I generally try to refer to characters and things with the same names and descriptions as the narration gives them in the relevant chapters; in a Nynaeve chapter I would always refer to Siuan as the Amyrlin because that’s what Nynaeve calls her, and I continued to refer to Lanfear as Selene as long as the other characters were calling her that, etc. However, even though Perrin is still calling her Zarine, I am going to call Faile by the name she has asked to be called, because that is a practice I believe in in real life, so I am going to extend it to fictional characters as well.
Chapter 41 opens with the Snow Goose arriving in Illian, and Perrin is very focused on studying the marsh birds, and the fishing boars, and the great tanneries that he can see from the deck, less out of a genuine interest than out of a desire to avoid looking at Moiraine and Faile (or Zarine, as Perrin persists in calling her). Moiraine had been a little upset at Perrin for not telling her that Faile knew that she was Aes Sedai, but what had really angered her was finding out that Faile (who was happy to be forthcoming with Moiraine) believed that Perrin and company would lead her to the Horn of Valere, and that Perrin had known about that, too. Now the two women are seated on the deck together, each studying the rooftops of Illian, Faile pretending that she isn’t cowed by Moiraine’s occasional hard looks.
Honestly, Perrin’s impressed that Faile can smile back under that stare, even though she has to swallow and wipe away sweat whenever Moiraine looks away. The sailors are similarly cowed, having found out that Moiraine is Aes Sedai from an argument between Faile and Perrin. Only Lan remains unfazed, even amused, by the two women’s silent confrontation.
A few days earlier Perrin had heard Moiraine ask Lan, in a voice like ice, whether he saw something to laugh at. “I would never laugh at you, Moiraine Sedai,” he had replied calmly, “but if you truly intend to send me to Myrelle, I must become used to smiling. I hear that Myrelle tells her Warders jokes. Gaidin must smile at their bondholder’s quips; you have often given me quips to laugh at, have you not? Perhaps you would rather I stay with you after all.” She had given him a look that would have nailed any other man to the mast, but the Warder never blinked. Lan made cold steel seem like tin.
When the boat is finally docked and the horses are unloaded, Loial appears, apologizing for being engrossed in his notes, and Faile sneaks up behind Perrin to tickle his neck, making him jump. Perrin thinks that she looks at him like he’s a tool she’s trying to figure out the purpose of, and then Moiraine tells her that it is time for her to leave.
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Faile replies that she will not leave, that a hunter must follow the trail she sees, and insists again that her name is Faile. She knows that there is nothing that Moiraine, as an Aes Sedai who lives by certain rules, would do that would be enough to stop her, and does not believe that “stone-face,” as she calls Lan, would do something that dire, either.
“Are you sure enough of that to risk it?” Lan spoke quietly, and his face did not change, but Zarine swallowed again.
“There is no need to threaten her, Lan,” Perrin said. He was surprised to realize he was glaring at the Warder.
Moiraine’s glance silenced him and the Warder both. “You believe you know what an Aes Sedai will not do, do you?” she said more softly than before. Her smile was not pleasant. “If you wish to go with us, this is what you must do.” Lan’s eyelids flickered in surprise; the two women stared at each other like falcon and mouse, but Zarine was not the falcon, now. “You will swear by your Hunter’s oath to do as I say, to heed me, and not to leave us. Once you know more than you should of what we do, I will not allow you to fall into the wrong hands. Know that for truth, girl. You will swear to act as one of us, and do nothing that will endanger our purpose. You will ask no questions of where we go or why: you will be satisfied with what I choose to tell you. All of this you will swear, or you will remain here in Illian. And you will not leave this marsh until I return to release you, if it takes the rest of your life. That I swear.”
Faile, once making sure she will be considered one of the group, even though unable to ask questions, swears by her Hunter’s oath. “Done,” Moiraine says, and touches Faile forehead, making the girl shiver. She tells Perrin that Faile is his responsibility now, and tells him, too, that if she endangers the mission, Moiraine will not hesitate to snip both of them from the Pattern. Perrin protests that he did not ask for Faile to come along, while Faile is struck by Moiraine addressing Perrin as ta’veren.
Perrin hoists her up on his horse behind him, as she tries to remind him that she is her own person and can buy her own horse, asking where they are going and calling him “blacksmith.”
“No questions, remember? And my name is Perrin, Zarine. Not ‘big man,’ or ‘blacksmith,’ or anything else. Perrin. Perrin Aybara.”
“And mine is Faile, shaggy-hair.”
They pass through the nicer parts of town, crossing over bridges that span the canals that criss-cross Illian, and through a great square where Faile points out the King’s Palace and the slightly smaller but otherwise identical Great Hall of the Council, which she explains was built after the King told the Council that they could build anything they liked as long as it was smaller than his. “That has been the way of Illian ever since. The King and the Council of Nine duel with each other, and the Assemblage struggles with both, and so while they carry on their battles, the people live much as they wish, with none to look over their shoulders too much.” She also tells Perrin that this is the Square of Tammaz, where she took the Hunter’s Oath.
As they ride, both Moiraine and Loial express a sense of foreboding, a feeling that something is wrong in the city. Perrin doesn’t feel it himself, but once he is alerted to their discomfort he begins to notice that many of the passing people, perhaps one in five, wears a look of anger and hatred, and he begins to feel the sense of something wrong as well.
They cross eventually into the less wealthy areas of city, into “the Perfumed Quarter,” which smells of pitch and mud and emptied chamber pots, and Lan leads them quickly through the hot, muggy, fragrant air to an inn called Easing the Badger. In the common room they find a few workmen and sailors clustered around a table where a woman in perfume stands on the tabletop playing a bittern and singing raunchy songs. Faile teases Perrin when he blushes.
The innkeeper, Nieda, greets Moiraine familiarly, calling her Mistress Mari and asking if her pigeons have arrived safely. Moiraine assures her that she’s certain they have, but that she has been away. They discuss how there has been an increase in fights breaking out at the inn, to the point that Nieda hired the girl to sing and distract the inn’s guests from quarreling. She remarks that it may have been the long, cold winter—it’s warm enough in Illian that she was shocked to find ice in her washbin a few mornings, and doesn’t believe that snow is real. When Moiraine presses, asking what unusual things may have happened in Illian recently, Nieda can only think of one.
“I do suppose you could call Lord Brend’s ascension to the Council of Nine unusual,” Nieda said. “Fortune prick me, I can no remember ever hearing his name before the winter, but he did come to the city—from somewhere near the Murandian border, it be rumored—and did be raised inside a week. It do be said he be a good man, and strongest of the Nine—they all do follow his lead, it be said, though he be newest and unknown—but sometimes I do have strange dreams of him.”
Her dreams, Nieda says when pressed again, are of “Lord Brend in strange places, and walking bridges hanging in air,” and that they are foggy dreams that come every night. And Bili, her nephew, has had them as well.
Perrin is shocked to realize that Moiraine is frightened by this information, even as Nieda brushes away the conversation as foolishness. Moiraine asks what ships are currently in the harbor bound for Tear, and Nieda answers that the Council has forbidden any ships to travel to Tear and those that have passed through are forbidden to dock. There is some talk of war with Tear, even, although traders say that the army is looking elsewhere.
They are shown to their rooms then, and although Perrin’s is quite comfortable, he is very concerned by a remark from Moiraine that there is something that must be done tonight. She’d been even more frightened than when she heard about the dreams, and Perrin can’t imagine what would scare an Aes Sedai so much. He himself feels more anticipatory, excited, than anything, and he realizes that he feels the way wolves feel right before they fight. Suddenly, he would rather be terrified.
Downstairs they sit down to dinner, and discuss how there are no Ogier in Illian, even though they are so commonly in the city that no one has even blinked at Loial since he arrived. There are often Ogier from Stedding Shangtai in Illian, since it was their masons who built much of the city and who are always called in when repairs are needed. Loial was concerned that he would be recognized and taken home, but now he has learned from Nieda than they all left suddenly during the winter. Loial can’t understand it—they left their work unfinished, which is not something Ogier would do unless they were not paid. He reiterates to Perrin that the city makes him uneasy.
Moiraine remarks that Ogier are sensitive to some things, and Perrin notes that while she no longer smells of fear, her voice sounds tightly controlled.
Zarine complains about how she hates fish, giving Perrin an opportunity to tease her by enjoying his own meal. Just when the plates are being cleared, however, Perrin suddenly picks up a horrible smell, not something from the canals but rather a vile scent he has smelled twice before, at Jarra and at Remen. He can see by looking around that no one else has noticed anything—the singer is still performing and even Lan and Moiraine, who would be able to sense any Shadowspawn nearby, seem unconcerned. Twice, his gaze slides off of a group of men crossing the floor when suddenly he realizes that the scent is coming from them.
He shouts that they have knives and throws a platter at them, the room erupting into chaos; Moiraine shoots a ball of fire as Loial snatches up his chair like a club, the singer screaming and Faile drawing her own knife. But Perrin has no time to pay attention to that, as the six men’s focus seems to be entirely on him. He rips a leg off his chair and uses it like a bludgeon against the knife-wielding assassins, as the others try to get at the men without hurting Perrin too, or coming into range of his counterattacks.
The fight seems to Perrin to last forever, but it’s actually only a few moments until he takes all his attackers out, and the wrong scent seems to die with them. Lan, looking grim, makes a quick search of the bodies, as Faile and Moiraine stare at Perrin.
“Gray Men,” the Aes Sedai said softly, “and after you.”
Nieda chatters uncomfortably about how there’s no such thing as Gray Men, taking Moiraine’s words to mean that they are Darkfriends, and probably thieves. She instructs Bili to take the bodies out the back, while the singer cautiously comes up to Moiraine to apologize for singing such songs in the presence of an Aes Sedai. Still, she doesn’t look happy that everyone now knows that she is an Aes Sedai, and makes for the door.
The Warder moved quickly to intercept her, and they spoke quietly in front of the door, but Perrin could hear as well as if they whispered right next to him.
“Do you mean to go without me?” Lan said. “I pledged to keep you whole, Moiraine, when I took your bond.”
“You have always known there were some dangers you are not equipped to handle, my Gaidin. I must go alone.”
“Moiraine—”
She cut him off. “Heed me, Lan. Should I fail, you will know it, and you will be compelled to return to the White Tower. I would not change that even if I had time. I do not mean you to die in a vain attempt to avenge me. Take Perrin with you. It seems the Shadow has made his importance in the Pattern known to me, if not clear. I was a fool. Rand is so strongly ta’veren that I ignored what it must mean that he had two others close by him. With Perrin and Mat, the Amyrlin may still be able to affect the course of events. With Rand loose, she will have to. Tell her what has happened, my Gaidin.”
“You speak as if you are already dead,” Lan said roughly.
“The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, and the Shadow darkens the world. Heed me, Lan, and obey, as you swore to.” With that, she was gone.”
The singer goes back to her singing—Perin notes that it’s no longer lewd songs and is disgruntled with himself for being disappointed—and Bili continues his work disposing of the Gray Men’s corpses. Lan and Perrin discuss Perrin’s ability to smell Gray Men when even Moiraine and Lan can’t sense them, and then Lan takes Perrin and Loial outside to look around, Faile following. Outside, Perrin thinks he smells something like fireworks, like burnt sulphur, on the air. Lan prowls around while the rest of them try to figure out what they’re looking for. Perrin is about to re-check an alley when Lan suddenly discovers something: large dog-like footsteps in the paving stones.
“Darkhound,” Lan said, and Zarine gasped. Loial moaned softly. For an Ogier. “A Darkhound leaves no mark on dirt, blacksmith, not even on mud, but stone is another matter. There hasn’t been a Darkhound seen south of the Mountains of Dhoom since the Trolloc Wars. This one was hunting for something, I’d say. And now that it has found it, it has gone to tell its master.
Faile is shocked, struggling to believe that Darkhounds are real, and although Lan tells her off for thinking that this means that the Dark One is free, she’s stunned to hear him talk of Myrddraal as well, or Fetches, as she calls them. Lan tells her that Moiraine will still release her from her oath, if she swears not to follow them; he himself will let her go right now, and thinks she would be wise to do it. But still Faile insists that she will not be frightened away, however much Perrin can tell that she is frightened.
“I have a question,” Perrin said, “and I want an answer. You didn’t sense this Darkhound, Lan, and neither did Moiraine. Why not?
The Warder was silent for a time. “The answer to that, blacksmith,” he said grimly at last, “may be more than you or I, either one, want to know. I hope the answer does not kill us all. You three get what sleep you can. I doubt we will stay the night in Illian, and I fear we have hard riding ahead.”
Lan declares that he is going after Moiraine, that she can’t be angry with him when she would never otherwise know the Darkhound was there until it killed her. He hurries upstairs to fetch his sword and color-shifting cloak, ordering them to get some sleep if they can, as he expects they’ll be doing some hard riding soon. Loial is dismayed at the implications of Lan wearing his Warder’s cloak in a city, while Faile seems to want to stay with Perrin, but Perrin has other plans for his night. He shuts his door in her face and settles down to sleep, to dream, and to seek the answers he feels he has to have.
Perrin dreams of many things, including Gray Men chasing him and a “tall, slender man… in richly embroidered coat and boots with gold fringe” laughing triumphantly and holding what looks like “a sword, shining like the sun.” Then he finally finds the wolf dream he’s looking for. Standing atop a high stone spire, he can look out over arid land and ridges, where other spires sprout up from time to time. The scents of the place drift to him, and for a moment he almost thinks he has a wolf’s body before assuring himself that it’s still his own.
He calls to Hopper, but the wolf doesn’t come. Instead he sees a vision of Mat, rattling a dice cup across from a man with eyes of fire, but he doesn’t see Ba’alzamon, or hear Perrin call out a warning. Next, Perrin sees Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne step into a metal cage and purposefully reach up to loose the catch on the door, while a woman in braids laughs at them and a woman in white laughs at her.
When the vision has cleared, he calls again for Hopper and this time the wolf appears, flying down from above. He tells Perrin that he has been warned that it’s too dangerous for him, but Perrin is insistent that he needs answers to his questions. Still, he doesn’t understand the wolf’s answer when he asks if what he sees in this place is real, and when he asks why Hopper wanted to show him Ba’alzamon and Lanfear before, the wolf answers, seeming sorrowful, that the Last Hunt is coming.
“I do not understand! The Last Hunt? What Last Hunt? Hopper, Gray Men came to kill me tonight.”
The Notdead hunt you?
“Yes! Gray Men! After me! And a Darkhound was right outside the inn! I want to know why they’re after me.”
Shadowbrothers! Hopper crouched, looking to either side as if he almost expected an attack. Long since we have seen the Shadowbrothers. You must go, Young Bull. Great danger! Flee the Shadowbrothers!
“Why are they after me, Hopper? You do know. I know you do!”
But Hopper does not answer the question; instead he leaps at Perrin, knocking him over the edge and telling him to flee the Shadowbrothers. Again Perrin asks why, and he receives only the answer: The Last Hunt comes.
He thinks he’s going to hit the ground but instead he wakes up, lightning flashing and a candle flickering on the table. He realizes that he didn’t light a candle at the same moment Faile, seated nearby on a stool, remarks that he talks to himself and thrashes in his sleep.
“You are ta’veren,” she said as if ticking off a point. “Stone-face thinks those odd eyes of yours can see things his can’t. Gray Men want to kill you. You travel with an Aes Sedai, a Warder, and an Ogier. You free caged Aiel and kill Whitecloaks. Who are you, farmboy, the Dragon Reborn?” Her voice said that was the most ridiculous thing she could think of, but he still shifted uneasily. “Whoever you are, big man,” she added, “you could do with a little more hair on your chest.
Frustrated, a bit angry, and fumbling for his clothes, Perrin suddenly remembers Min warning him to run from a beautiful woman. He’s been assuming she meant Lanfear, but Lanfear was only in the dream, while Zarine is here, looking at him, right now.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded. “What do you want? Who are you?”
She threw back her head and laughed. “I am Faile, farmboy, a Hunter of the Horn. Who do you think I am, the woman of your dreams? Why did you jump that way? You would think I had goosed you.”
Before he could find words, the door crashed back against the wall, and Moiraine stood in the doorway, her face as pale and grim as death. “Your wolf dreams tell as truly as a Dreamer’s, Perrin. The Forsaken are loose, and one of them rules in Illian.”
Perrin is on his feet and dressing at once, aware that they need to move, but Faile is slower, completely flummoxed and horrified by the revelation. Perrin is convinced that this will be the thing that drives her away, but when Moiraine offers Faile the out, she still refuses to take it. Even if they do not lead her to the Horn, she believes that no one will have a story such as this, a “story for the ages,” and she is determined to be part of it. Perrin doesn’t believe her reasoning, believes there’s something else behind her motivation, but Moiraine cuts them off, saying that “Lord Brend” may learn at any moment that a Warder has killed one of his Darkhounds and they need to move, already.
Outside in the rain, there is an extra horse for Faile, and Moiraine argues with Nieda, who is reluctant to do as Moiraine orders and leave the city, insisting that she can still be useful and that no one will suspect her. In the debate, Perrin learns that the Gray Men were not sent by Sammael, although the Darkhound was, and he’s increasingly frustrated by his inability to understand what is happening, and why. Demanding an answer from Moiraine doesn’t go well, however, as, without thinking, he utters the phrase “Why me? Rand is the bloody Dragon Reborn!”
Gasps from Nieda and Faile alert him to what he just said, and he curses himself for not thinking before he speaks, but it’s too late.
“You are sealed to us, now,” Moiraine told [Zarine]. “There is no turning back for you. Ever.” Zarine looked as if she wanted to say something and was afraid to, but the Aes Sedai had already turned her attention elsewhere. “Nieda, flee Illian tonight. In this hour! And hold your tongue even better than you have held it all these years. There are those who would cut it out for what you could say, before I could even find you.” Her hard tone left doubts as to exactly how she meant that, and Nieda nodded vigorously as if she had heard it both ways.
“As for you, Perrin.” The white mare moved closer, and he leaned back from the Aes Sedai despite all he could do. “There are many threads woven in the Pattern, and some are as black as the Shadow itself. Take care one of them does not strangle you.” Her heels touched Aldieb’s flanks, and the mare darted into the rain, Mandarb following close behind.
As he follows, Perrin silently curses Moiraine and the fact that he’s still unsure whose side she is on.
The rain starts to ebb as they ride, which turns out to be a bad thing, as Lan informs Perrin that Darkhounds like clear, moonlight nights best and dislike rain; thunderstorms can even keep them at bay. They’re about two miles from the city when they hear a howl from behind them, one that sounds enough like a wolf that Perrin, for a moment, is tempted to howl back. But the answering howls let him think better of it. They are the sounds of nightmares; he’s shocked that Moiraine and Lan slow, rather than taking advantage of the distance between them and their pursuit.
Lan explains that one cannot outrun a Darkhound, that the only way to survive is to stand and defeat them, or they will pull you down, and Moiraine picks a treeless hilltop to make their stand. Loial finds a weathered stone that has been carved, and identifies the woman as Ogier work, although there is no stedding nearby. Moiraine remarks only that many nations have risen and fallen since the Breaking, and that they must wonder if they themselves will leave as much behind.
Loial and Faile are instructed to hold the horses and keep them from bolting at the scent of Darkhounds, and Perrin takes out his bow. Lan tells him he may try it if he likes, that he might be able to kill one of the ten that appear to be following them.
The hounds appear, and it takes Perrin sending three arrows home against one hound before it falls. He can see that it will take too long to kill any more; he has only time for one or two more shots before the hounds are upon them.
“Now,” Moiraine said as his arrow left the bow. The air between her hands caught fire and streaked toward the Darkhounds, vanquishing night. The horses squealed and leaped against being held.
Perrin threw an arm across his eyes to shield them from a white-hot glare like burning, heat like a forge cracking open; sudden noon flared in the darkness, and was gone. When he uncovered his eyes, spots flickered across his vision, and the faint, fading image of that line of fire. Where the Darkhounds had been was nothing but night-covered ground and the soft rain; the only shadows that moved were cast by clouds crossing the moon.
I thought she’d throw fire at them, or call lightning, but this… “What was that?” he asked hoarsely.
Moiraine was peering off toward Illian again, as if she could see through all those miles of darkness. “Perhaps he did not see,” she said, almost to herself. “It is far, and if he was not watching, perhaps he did not notice.”
“Who?” Zarine demanded. “Sammael?” Her voice shook a little. “You said he was in Illian. How could he see anything here? What did you do?”
“Something forbidden,” Moiraine said coolly. “Forbidden by vows almost as strong as the Three Oaths.” She took Aldieb’s reins from the girl, and patted the mare’s neck, calming her. “Something not used in nearly two thousand years. Something I might be stilled just for knowing.”
Loial suggest that they should be going, before more hounds are sent, but Moiraine does not think Sammael would send two packs out at once, even if he had two, since they would turn on each other. She also thinks that they were not his main objective, more of an annoyance that he left the Darkhounds to deal with rather than come himself.
“Rand?” Perrin asked. He could almost feel Zarine leaning forward to listen. “If we are not what he hunts, is it Rand?”
“Perhaps,” Moiraine said. “Or perhaps Mat. Remember that he is ta’veren also, and he blew the Horn of Valere.”
Zarine made a strangled sound. “He blew it? Someone has found it already?”
Moiraine ignores her, more focused on her own frustration that events have again outpaced her. Lan reminds them that they should be getting on to Tear, and Perrin has to scrabble to follow as the two set off.
Meanwhile, Mat is sitting around a campfire with Thom doing exactly what he was told not to, surprising nobody. Thinking of how the fireworks only sometimes explode when exposed to air, he trusts to his luck and carefully slices into the smallest one with his knife, finding “tiny “gray-black pebbles and dust” inside. Thom is horrified when he realizes what Mat is doing, telling him that Illuminator work is next to that of Aes Sedai, but Mat points out that he used to think that Master al’Vere’s clock was Aes Sedai work until he saw that the inside was all made up of metal disks and springs. Now he thinks that Perrin could probably have made one once he saw the inside.
“You would be surprised, boy,” Thom said dryly. “Even a bad clockmaker is a fairly rich man, and they earn it. But a clock does not explode in your face!”
“Neither did this. Well, it is useless, now.” He tossed the handful of paper and little pebbles into the fire to a screech from Thom; the pebbles sparked and made tiny flashes, and there was a smell of acrid smoke.
“You are trying to kill us.” Thom’s voice was unsteady, and it rose in intensity and pitch as he spoke. “If I decide I want to die, I will go to the Royal Palace when we reach Caemlyn, and I’ll pinch Morgase!” His long mustaches flailed. “Do not do that again!”
But Mat is already reaching for the next biggest firecracker, wondering aloud why there was no bang, and telling Thom not to be so afraid. Thom is just replying that he’s shaking with rage, not fear, when someone calls out to them in the darkness. A woman in good clothes and three men, apparently retainers, ride up to the fire and dismount, as she asks for directions to the nearest inn. Mat is smiling at her and standing when suddenly one of the men produces a crossbow from under his cloak and she screams at the man to kill Mat.
Mat throws the firework into the flame and leaps for his quarterstaff as Thom’s dagger buries itself in the crossbowman’s chest. A second dagger takes out one swordsman and Mat takes out the other. He’s telling the woman to sit down while he decides what to do with her when a final dagger takes her in the throat. Mat curses Thom out for killing a woman, even a robber woman, who couldn’t have harmed them without her men, but Thom points out the long knife she’d been holding.
They need to move on before a patrol of the Queen’s guard happens across the scene and wants an explanation, but Mat is still put off by the woman’s death as he saddles his horse. He doesn’t care about the men, robbers who deserved what they got when they lost the game. He does notice that the crossbowman has a familiar face, and points out to Thom that he’s one of the men that had attacked them on the Gray Gull. Thom is skeptical, but Mat is certain, and he again curses Elayne’s letter and the three women who put him in this position. He can’t think of any other reason a man would have followed him all this way, so it must be the letter. Still thinking of the woman’s pretty face, he rides off.
I guess Mat doesn’t remember the fancy lady who tried to kill him while Rand was sick in the stables of The Queen’s Man back in The Eye of the World. She had a poisoned dagger, too, but Mat’s own dagger really was playing havoc with his brain.
It’s kind of frustrating, in that dramatic-irony way, to watch Mat and Perrin continue to brush off the idea that they might still be worth something to Ba’alzamon and maybe some other Darkfriends, too. Perrin knows that he is ta’veren, after all, even though it’s unclear exactly what that means, and it wouldn’t be wild for him to wonder if the Dark One or his henchmen might be interested in a wolfbrother, either. Mat also knows he’s ta’veren, although he doesn’t have Moiraine around to constantly remind him of that fact, but he does know that he has this connection to the Horn of Valere. The Amyrlin even explained to him that the only way for the Horn to become available to someone else is for Mat to die—pretty convenient reason for someone to be trying to kill you, eh Mat? I mean, if you assume someone could find out you’re carrying a letter from Elayne that she gave to you while you were all still in the White Tower, I feel like you could assume someone could find out you blew the Horn of Valere, when you did it out in the open in the middle of a battle.
I suppose it’s a bit like Rand being in denial about his identity as the Dragon in The Great Hunt. It must seem too big, too impossible to Mat and Perrin that they could be important enough to draw the attention of Ba’alzamon and the Forsaken and other Darkfriends, and they don’t even have the relative clarity Rand had in the explanation that he is the Dragon Reborn. Still, I feel like they’re going to start figuring it out, since these Gray Men just keep coming, and other assassins too.
And now Faile knows all about Perrin, and Rand too. Perrin is normally Mister-think-everything-through, but it’s hard to think things through when you have so little information. I wonder if Moiraine isn’t making a bit of a mistake, here. She observes at the end of Chapter 44 that events have outpaced her again; she’s relying so much on this one piece of foreknowledge she had about when and where the Dragon would be reborn, but she must realize that it will only take her so far. Perhaps it’s time for her to use the more unconventional resources at her disposal, and to realize that someone like Perrin, a ta’veren with ancient powers, just might be more useful if she told him a few things. Of course she’s guarded and used to not being able to trust anyone, but, you know. Ta’veren. That’s supposed to be important. And she recognized it herself, back in Chapter 9. I suppose I expected her to have changed towards him, at least a little, after that revelation.
Now that Faile knows the truth she’s stuck with them—Moiraine can’t risk her going off and telling anyone about Rand—but I don’t think there was ever a chance she could be driven away. Perrin seems to think this dedication suspicious, and I can understand why, but I’m personally inclined to take her at her word in this. She is clearly stubborn and hot headed, but I rather like her, despite her abrasive personality. From what Moiraine said about her name, she must be some kind of noblewoman (perhaps her exact background will be plot-relevant later) and I suspect that what we’re dealing with in Zarine is a woman with a fierce personality who has spent her life being coddled and protected, and who just really wants to get out and prove herself and have a real adventure. Short of falling in with Rand himself, she’s found the biggest one there is.
Of course Perrin can’t see that in her, can’t trust it, because he’d give everything to be free of this, to go back to being an ordinary person. Zarine may be able to adjust to the idea of Darkhounds and Myrddraal and even the Forsaken, but she hasn’t found Ba’alzamon in her dreams yet, or discovered strange abilities that fundamentally change how she understands her own nature.
She’s pretty overbearing at times, and rude for no reason, the way she hounds Perrin, but she’s got some great come-backs too, like when Perrin tries to get her to call him by his name and not a nickname, but continues to call her Zarine. Her shooting back “And [my name] is Faile, shaggy-hair,” was gold.
Her more flirtatious relationship with Perrin makes less sense to me. The fact that she has him on edge makes sense, but there are also moments where he almost seems to be responding as if he likes her, or at least wants her to like him, such as after the Gray Men attack when she observes that he’s quite strong and he notices himself standing straighter, then feels foolish about it. It’s not hard to guess that there is a romance in their future—even if we didn’t have Min’s vision, the Benedict/Beatrice vibes are unmistakable—but it seems too early to seed it, since Faile hasn’t had anything to offer Perrin besides criticism and complaining, and he hasn’t shown even the slightest interest in her personality or her looks. I’ll be interested to see when and how an actual rapport develops between them.
I’m glad we finally have a distinct explanation for the Darkhounds and the fact that they are real and physically present in the world. It’s interesting to me that they are literally just hellhounds, right down to the scent like sulfur that seems to follow them. And if neither Moiraine or Perrin are what their master is most focused on, then one has to wonder what Sammael is so invested in. Plots to gain power? One of our other heroes or heroines? I suppose only time will tell.
If the excerpts part of the recap of this section seems to focus mostly on Lan and Moiraine, it’s because that is the storyline I am most preoccupied with at the moment; you’re welcome. Honestly, I was pretty certain Moiraine was going to die when she left Lan and the others behind at the inn. (In all fairness, so was she.) And even though she’s made it through a few more chapters, the writing on the wall is not exactly subtle, here, what with the tension between her and Lan and the reminder of the bond that will pass on to Myrelle. Lan’s ribbing of Moiraine about it, especially the bit of how he must learn to smile at quips because he’s heard that Myrelle likes to tell her Warders jokes, almost felt like gallows humor, like he’s using the irreverence and digs at Moiraine to cope with what he knows is coming. He wasn’t technically wrong about Moiraine accepting him coming after her in order to warn about the Darkhound, but the strain between them isn’t going to ease just because this wasn’t the moment for her to die, after all. It makes my little fanboy heart ache.
Moiraine’s power shows through more as she gets sterner and colder, too. Her comment about how both Faile and Lan assume they know what an Aes Sedai would or would not do was chilling, even from the other side of the pages, and I’m desperately curious as to why what she did to the Darkhounds is so forbidden that she could be stilled just for knowing it, even though it was used against Shadowspawn. Surely something more powerful than just a really bright fire, the way it is described, but what exactly it was, I can’t begin to guess.
Next week we will cover Chapters 45-47, in which we’ll see Mat get into some more mischief, and in which Thom’s prediction that cutting off refugees isn’t like Morgase will begin to show true in a very chilling way. I leave you with my final thoughts:
- Illian sounds a lot like Florida to me, with marshes and muggy heat, and the big columns sounding like Southern U.S. architecture. Plus there’s the ladies’ wide-brimmed hats with the scarves that wind around, which also feels sort of American Southern to me.
- The gender dynamics of this world still aren’t my favorite, but I admit that I chuckled when Perrin was thinking that no women ever bully Rand and Mat the way he feels he is getting bullied, only to slowly go though the list of basically every woman in the Two Rivers and how they always got their way.
- Loial is darling as always. Despite his peaceful nature and desire to put an optimistic perspective on anything, he is always ready to fight if it’s necessary, picking up his chair to fight the Gray Men as readily as he sang himself that club in the mirror world back in The Great Hunt. And you know those Darkhounds were truly frightening to him; he didn’t even talk about how he didn’t have to leave the stedding when Moiraine had him take them through the Ways!
- Given that Perrin knows that Rand is the Dragon and the Last Battle is coming, I feel like “the Last Hunt” is pretty self-explanatory. As for “What is real is not real. What is not real is real. Flesh is a dream, and dreams have flesh,” I’m pretty sure that’s the wolf equivalent to Dumbledore’s answer to Harry when he asked if the station they met at after Voldemort’s defeat was real or just happening in his head. “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”
- Mat might need to have his hands sewn into his pockets, but his tendency to grab things is being spun out into a more fully-developed character trait, and curiosity is rapidly becoming a defining feature of his. I imagine that his intelligence will become more and more apparent, and with the addition of knowledge and experience he’ll seem less like an idiot than he did when we met him and his curious nature just read as impulsive and foolish.
- Thom’s line: “If I decide I want to die, I will go to the Royal Palace when we reach Caemlyn, and I’ll pinch Morgase!” might be one of my favorites in the books to date.
Sylas K Barrett just wants Lan to be happy! And Thom too, really.
I know Sylas doesn’t read comments anymore . . . but if you want marshy and American Southern, go with Louisiana, not Florida. Florida is overrun with imports from northern states/Hispanic countries and has very few pockets of Southern culture/architecture. (I live in Florida and my sister lives in Louisiana.)
I knew the Zarine Faile thing would bother Sylas a lot more than it does me. I wonder how Sylas will feel about Toy and Precious . . .
I think Jordan’s doing a tricky bit of writing here. Perrin is fighting his true nature as a leader and warrior and it’s that nature that is so very attracted to Faile. So Jordan has to convey that Perrin has this attraction to Faile that he doesn’t understand and doesn’t want to acknowledge, but is ultimately right for him. It’s definitely a long game that I don’t think is fully fleshed out until after the plotline of doom when Morgase practically channels Jordan and narrates why they’re right for each other.
Further note on Florida and being overrun for anyone that thinks I’m exaggerating – When I was born in 1980, Florida’s population was 9.75 million. It is now 21.3 million.
“but it seems too early to seed it, since Faile hasn’t had anything to offer Perrin besides criticism and complaining, and he hasn’t shown even the slightest interest in her personality or her looks.”
She’s an attractive young woman, and he is a healthy young man with hormones. That’s all that is required.
The implication you’re supposed to read between the lines is that the Darkhounds where there for Perrin. From the Forsaken’s point of view Moiraine is only an untrained child, while ta’veren are ta’veren.
Note to the admins, I’m pretty sure that should be Morgase not Moiraine.
Perrin’s initial descriptions of Faile focus on that “too bold nose” which he “can’t quite decide they are fit her or not”. Something to that effect. Basically, she’s foreign and while she’s attractive to him she’s not what he imagined his type was up until this point. That’s the seed as far as physical attraction goes. She’s also made his responsibility from the moment she joins the group, which triggers his protective instincts (when she’s not busy putting burrs under his collar). The pieces do fit together for him to fall for her.
As to Faile, there’s a lot of things that Perrin does early on that makes him not only intriguing but also culturally appealing, something which will only become clear once we get deeper into Saldaen culture.
I’m honestly surprised Sylas didn’t pick up on the way Darkhounds are created from Hopper’s “Shadowbrothers” comment.
Moiraine obviously can’t know it, but we’ve already seen balefire once before from Nynaeve when she, Elayne, and Egwene are captives of the robber/Darkfriend crew before being rescued by Aviendha et al a while back. And I think Rand has used it a couple of times by now as well. Gonna be fun when that weave is finally explained to Sylas.
“Faile is shocked, struggling to believe that Darkhounds are real”
Given her backstory, shouldn’t she know they are already?
“I imagine that his intelligence will become more and more apparent, and with the addition of knowledge and experience he’ll seem less like an idiot than he did when we met him and his curious nature just read as impulsive and foolish.”
Unintentionally hilarious.
@6 I believe Egwene also either used balefire (or just revealed she knew how) during her testing.
@6
Correct, Darkhounds can’t be killed by any other means and Rand uses Balefire to blast some during one of the few flashes we see with him.
@8 –
Darkhounds can’t be killed by any other means
We see Perrin kill one with three arrows in this very chapter.
@7 – she knows Myrdraal and Gray Men are real, but not Darkhounds. The latter were quite a bit more scarce prior to the events of the series.
@7
As it is stated, Darkhounds haven’t been seen south of the Mountains of Dhoom since the Trolloc Wars. The counting of the Free Years (FY) starts with the end of the Trolloc Wars, placing it a thousand years ago. The Mountains of Dhoom are within the blight, meaning none of the borderlands have seen a Darkhound in around 30 generations. It is very likely that they are treated almost as myth, even that far north.
@8 It’s strongly implied that Lan killed the lone darkhound earlier. “When Sammael learns the darkhound is dead he’ll know a gaidin is about.” And also, Lan says darkhounds are harder to kill than Myrddraal. Note he doesn’t say they’re impossible for the borderlanders to kill which would make more sense if only balefire could kill them.
In a world of unreliable narrators I’m not sure who is wrong here, but either Jordan changed his mind between here and when Rand fights them, or Lan didn’t kill the darkhound and is wrong when he talks about them, OR Lan knows some secret to killing them without balefire than Rand doesn’t.
@9
We see Perrin fell them. Whether they are dead is undetermined, given that we see them pull themselves back together after Rand chops them into pieces in Fires of Heaven. What we do know is that it is later stated that the only way to kill them for certain is with Balefire.
@11 Common theory holds that there are two breeds of Darkhound, one which is more durable and only killable with Balefire. I’ll admit I forgot about the implication that Lan had killed one. Honestly I think it’s probably as you say and RJ changed his mind and that’s how we got two breeds that are indistinguishable in any other way.
@9/10 Still she’s not just any borderlander she should be fairly well educated about such things, and I don’t recall ever seeing any other borderlanders be surprised they exist. I know we can rationalize it away based onw hat you two are saying, but I definitely think this is a case of early book ‘plot not fully fleshed outness”
@@.-@ – Corrected, thanks.
Mods, the bolded words need to be corrected.
@Mods There’s a formatting mistake in one of the quotes. The following line should not be indented:
Typo – there was also a Rerrin in the text near the top. Assume that should be Perrin.
I always think of Ilian as Venice – hadn’t considered it to be FL or LA.
Sylas didn’t make any Easing the Badger jokes. Le sigh.
I was going to make the same points re Darkhounds but I’ve been fully ninja’d at this point.
@15, 16, 17 – Yikes! All corrected, thanks.
He He He !
“She is clearly stubborn and hot headed, but I rather like her, despite her abrasive personality” – this is probably the kindest opinion anybody can have of Faile. It’s one I share as well, heh. I like her, despite herself.
Regarding the killing of darkhounds: The way it’s said in the book makes it seem like only warders can kill darkhounds. If a darkhound is dead, then it follows that a warder is involved, and therefore an Aes Sedai must be around. That makes little sense to me. Since darkhounds are so difficult to kill, it would make more sense to assume that it was killed by an Aes Sedai (or another channeler) personally.
It’s rather quickly glossed over, but during the Last Battle it’s discovered that Mah’alleinir, the Power-wrought hammer, can kill darkhounds. From there it’s no big leap to guess that Lan’s Power-wrought sword might have the same property. That doesn’t explain why warders in general would have a special ability to kill darkhounds though. Most warders don’t have Power-wrought weapons.
Regarding Faile’s knowledge: I don’t have the book at hand right now to double-check, but it seems to me that Faile doesn’t disbelieve in darkhounds so much as she’s shocked that they’re out and about. Apparently folklore has cast the darkhounds as the Dark One’s personal hounds, who won’t appear unless the Dark One is loose.
Aerona, who wondered about blue cranes two weeks ago, should note that Perrin sees some blue birds in the marsh that he thinks of as cranes.
@21 Though not stated in the text, I think it’s a small leap to assume they were thinking the following: “When Sammael learns the darkhound is dead (from sword wounds) he’ll know a gaidin is about.” And while we do meet other swordmasters with power wrought blades, I think we can agree most of the best swordsmen in the world are from Tar Valon. (For the didactic I’m not including warriors on the other side of the ocean.)
Also, assuming power wrought blades are necessary to kill them, it makes sense that Aes Sedai would have collected most of those for their warders over the centuries.
So while it is stated as an absolute, given Jordan’s propensity for unreliable narrators, I don’t think we have to take it literally that ONLY warders could kill a darkhound. However, it does seem logical in-world that a forsaken seeing a nigh-indestructible shadow-spawn dead of sword wounds would immediately think warder.
Moiraine is rather inconsistent in that she’s so fond of saying “the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills”, while at the same time she expects that she or Siuan should be able to control events, and complains that events have outpaced her.
First time commenting, but I’ve been following since a few weeks in to the first book. I really liked this week’s chapters and the recap of them. I felt that pressure and sense of urgency, especially when they had to flee the city. Always love these little reminders of why the series is my favourite out there.
@23, I’ve noticed that. Our Moiraine is a bit of a control freak.
@5 Totally agree with your interpretation of Perrin’s and Faile’s early relationship… He takes responsibility HARD.
Faile is totally into him…she likes his stubborn nature… his willingness to argue with her and the Aes Sedai and stand before Lan the killing machine. “There is no reason to threaten her, Lan.” He took responsibility of her long before it was handed to him… she followed him! So it is his fault she is there… in Perrin’s mind. And then there is ta’veren… And all the important bits in the next book….
@23, I’ve noticed that Moraine’s pronouncement of “the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills” tends to come out whenever someone else complains about events. It would be hilarious if someone parroted that back to her during one of frustrated moments.
@caddan (#27):
It would, but who would dare?
The more I think about it, the less confused I am by the inconsistencies in Darkhound lore and the more I wonder how in hell Sammael could possibly have learned the nuances of the Aes Sedai/Warder relationship, the abilities of Warders, and the alternate term gaidin (though that one he may not know).
@20 – Faile doesn’t really get that annoying until later when the Berelain jealousy thing and weird Saldaean dominance/submission/violence relationship dynamics come into play. The former is largely understandable if you read this, along with a bit of the latter, the rest of which can simply be chalked up to Jordan trying a bit too hard to accentuate his own version of the Mars/Venus nonsense.
I thought Sylas was going to use “Failed” not “Zarine” throughout?
I think Faile and to a lesser extent Perrin are victims of Jordan advancing their relationship/arc too far in Shadow Rising and then realizing the series was going to be a lot longer than he expected at the time.
Does Moiraine use an oathrod-like weave on Faile? Would that even work on a non-channeler?
Illian is obviously Venice.
People from this Age might think of Warders, but the Forsaken aren’t really familiar with Warders, but they do know about OP-made swords.
For those thinking too much about Sammael supposedly knowing there’s a Gaidin in the city if a Darkhound winds up dead: We get that from the good guys, not the Forsaken. The Forsaken likely would never even make the connection to Gaidin specifically, even if they found a sliced up Darkhound. They’d be much more likely to suspect Rand or the other ta’veren. These books are filled with people making pronouncements that are wrong simply because they believe them to be right, and in this case it’s Lan(?) who gets it wrong.
There is nothing special about Gaidin that allows them to kill Shadowspawn others cannot. They’re just highly trained men with some augmented strength and stamina due to the bond.
@32 Given Moraine’s personality, I’m actually much more inclined to assume this is just smoke and mirrors, especially since such a weave doesn’t exist as far as is shown in the narrative itself (short of the variations on Compulsion of course). This is – of course – merely head cannon, but my read is that she probably just gave her a light healing while pronouncing judgement. It would feel “Aes Sedai-y” to those watching, and she never said that her word was in some way bound by the True Source or anything like that. From Moraine’s perspective it’s an optimal outcome with minimal effort on her part. The perception of a binding oath would be hold just as strongly as an actually binding oath for most people – a Figs and Mice situation, so to speak.
@32/34 I figure she did something similar to the coins in Eye of the world/or the affinity healing gives the channeler with the healed (see Nyeave being able to find Egwene in Eye) Something to help keep tabs on Faile if needed.
@@@@@ 33 – I agree. I think this is an instance of Moiraine’s (and all Aes Sedai) unconscious arrogance about their position in this world. Which isn’t unfounded, necessarily. But until ~2 years ago Moiraine was inarguably one of the few dozen most powerful people in the world (as she knew it, excluding Aiel/Seanchan/Shara/whatever). To her mind, it’s probably natural that when a powerful Shadowspawn goes down, Sammael will immediately connect it with Aes Sedai. Very few other people are capable of killing it, and killing such a rare and powerful creature is almost certainly a big deal for Moiraine. I’m sure it doesn’t even occur to her that Sammael may not even be aware it’s dead, and that if he does, she’s so far beneath his notice that he may not even think of her as responsible, versus another Forsaken or Rand or something like that.
@36: That’s true, but I also think that Moraine’s deciding to err on the side of caution in this instance. After all, it’s one of the Forsaken she’s talking about, a being powerful and ruthless enough to give even her pause. She may be overestimating his capabilities, but she has a good reason for doing so, and I could definitely see her not wanting to screw around and hope for the best when dealing with someone that dangerous. (Also helps explain her plan of attack at the end). Better to be a touch paranoid than turn up face down in a ditch, as Seneschal Varel once put it.
The big question of this chapter, to my mind — how in the world did Moiraine know it was Sammael, rather than another of the Forsaken?
That last part with Mat made me rethink my earlier reaction to Rand’s similar encounter.
Before, I thought Rand had lost it completely. In an irredeemable way.
After, I thought he had only slightly lost it.
I mean, he probably had to kill them, but he didn’t need to make their corpses bow to him. That’s still way too creepy, no matter how you slice it.
“Tonight, you will eat fish. Tomorrow, you may die.” Words I would like to live by. :-D :-D :-D
@21: Yeah, I noticed the blue cranes. My bad. I read this book only once, in 2004. :-p
I liked the other descriptions of birds and scenery. I wish this series had more of them than it does; they would make it more interesting for me. Scenery and wildlife are very important aspects of any story for me.
The series is somewhat more generous with scenes of characters entering a city (or other municipality) for the first time, discovering it alongside the readers. I enjoy that.
Belligerent Sexual Tension is a real thing. Antagonism at first sight, becoming love, is allegedly a real thing. They make romances less enviable and thus frequently more tolerable for me to observe in stories. But I think they’re over-represented in fiction. So is love at first sight, for that matter. You don’t get as much Plot Drama from people who like each other from the start and form friendships which ripen into love, but as far as I can tell as an outsider, that’s a thing which also happens a lot in real life. It’s something to hope for and aspire to, and fiction doesn’t tend to give much encouragement in its prevalence. Mind you, Jordan is especially big on combative romance; Perrin/Faile tops the TV Tropes list of Masochist Tango examples in literature.
“He had never heard of any woman doing anything like what the girl was singing about, but it certainly sound interesting.” *snort* Given what passes for raunchy descriptions in Randland (e.g. a “far too salacious” song about a couple who “snuggled and tickled”), and how apparently little Two Rivers folk talk about sex when young’uns can hear, I would really like to know what Perrin is referring to here.
“Shadows could make a hammer seem to smile.” Heh.
Ironic Line of the Day: “Ba’alzamon isn’t bad enough; we have to have the Forsaken loose too!”
What “vows almost as strong as the Three Oaths” forbid balefire, even used on Shadowspawn?
If Darkhounds haven’t been south of the Mountains of Dhoom since the Trolloc Wars, that begs some questions. Darkhounds multiply by eating or corrupting* the souls of wolves. Wolves are mortal enemies of Darkhounds, but do they go that far into the Blight to fight them? That doesn’t make sense. If so, were these very Darkhounds created during or before the Trolloc Wars? Are they immortal? Quite possibly. Masuri the Darkhound expert says the number of packs in existence is debated but probably quite small, so that figures. But she says that there were said to be vast numbers of them during the Trolloc Wars; the veracity of this is of course uncertain, but if it’s true, they must have largely died off or been killed off, the latter probably by Aes Sedai and Warders. Also, Masuri claims to have encountered the tracks of seven packs in her life. When did that happen? After this point? Or did she go looking for them in the Mountains of Dhoom? Burn it, I want to talk with Masuri.
I expect “Shadowbrother” is like Dreadlord or Gray Man — a “male” term applied regardless of gender. I assume there are male and female Darkhounds, as there are male and female wolves.
Congratulations, Mat, you’re officially Randland’s Biggest Doofus Forever. I feel sorry for Thom.
*One chapter — one flaming paragraph, IIRC — uses both terms, so I have no idea what that really means.
@40:
The question on the use of balefire being discontinued gets answered to my satisfaction later on. I mean, the AS don’t swear vows. She’s being poetic. But it carries over to the War of Power when both the Aes Sedai and the Forsaken agreed to stop using Balefire. They had some sort of formal agreement to stop using it during the War. Because it was unraveling the Pattern. I’m sure that’s what Moiraine is referring to here, even if RJ didn’t know the specifics at the time.
As for what Moiraine does to Faile, I assume it’s some variation of the weave Elayne uses on the footpad in Caemlyn later. It placed some trace on him so that she would be able to find him later. Supposedly it fades from cloth in a few weeks and stays considerably longer on metal. It seems like a version of whatever weave she placed on the coins she gave to the golden trio in the first book.
Oh and another thing: hope everybody enjoyed the descriptions of Illian here, because aside from the climax of Crown of Swords (when everybody’s really more interested in Rand’s battle with Sammael) it’s the only onscreen appearance for the city in the entire series. Which is weird, given how much time we spend in the other great cities (Cairhien, Caemlyn, Tear, Tar Valon) and even in cities considered to be “flyspecks” like Ebou Dar, Tanchico, Bandar Eban, or Amador (granted, we really only get to see the Fortress of the Light in that last one). Illian in general gets short shrift compared to all of the other nations under Rand’s banner.
** EDITED TO ADD: There’s also the extremely short Graendal POV in Path of Daggers which Jordan set in Sammael’s rooms in the palace in Illian as a way to confirm that Graendal killed Asmodean… which absolutely nobody picked up on at the time, even the “Graendal killed Asmodean” crowd.
@41
Actually it wasn’t a formal agreement. I can’t remember the exact quote or where it’s from, but I’m fairly certain it goes something like . . .
I particularly remember the line about never any truce or mercy. I’m pretty sure this was from a forsaken POV, but I can’t even remember which one.
I think what Moiraine is referring to is the White Tower’s list of forbidden weaves. Despite not knowing how to do them, every sister seems to know that compulsion and balefire are forbidden.
I find it funny how Sylas started off this book saying how annoying Mat is and now seems to be enjoying him immensely while he is starting with a favourable impression of Faile…I’m almost certain his impression of her will change.
@43
Actually the passage you’re describing with Graendal and Sammael in Illian is in Lord of Chaos, not Path of Daggers. And I’m not sure what you mean by “nobody picked up on at the time.” Graendal being certain that Asmodean was dead was a big point against her in the whodunit, and was well-known enough that it was in the WOTFAQ: http://www.steelypips.org/wotfaq/1_dark/1.1_forsaken1/1.1.6_asmo.html#grn
@@@@@ 11 & 12
Or they can only be killed by power wrought weapons such as Lan’s sword.
@@@@@22
Unsurprising, since Tar Valon operates the only dedicated military academy in the Westlands.
@devin Smith (37): Seneschal Varel has a good point, but Moiraine must believe what she says to be able to say it. If she were just erring on the side of caution, then the first oath should force her to weaken the statement with “It’s safest to assume that …” or something like that. (Moiraine can still be wrong though.)
@Alreadymadwithdarkhounds (47): I suppose you can surmise that the Borderlands have no military academies because military training is just a natural part of upbringing to them. What about the Whitecloaks though? They are quite militarized. Surely they have some form of organized training?
@47 @48
We never hear any reference to a Children of the Light Academy. And Galad being made an officer immediately hints that one might not exist. I don’t know the exact timeline, but it’s not long between when we last see Galad in Tar Valon and then see him as an officer.
It’s a foreign concept now, but many militaries throughout history had recruits learn on the job as it were.
I’m not sure I would classify Tar Valon as having a military academy either. Most of what Gawyn and Galad (the main students we follow) learned about strategy and tactics they say came from their upbringing in Caemlyn and Gareth Bryn. Tar Valon has more of a Japanese style sword school if anything. Maybe there are more classes we don’t get to see or that I’m forgetting, but I think they’re just training youths in swordsmanship with some philosophy thrown in . . . like most martial arts dojos.
@46 — no, I’m not referring to the scene with Sammael and Graendal in Lord of Chaos. I’m referring to the scene with Graendal herself, in Path of Daggers, going through Sammael’s rooms after Sammael had died to pick through his stuff and see whether he had any *angreal she could take. I believe that that’s where she found the plain golden ring angreal that she later used.
With respect to “nobody picked up on it at the time”: as is specifically referenced in the WOTFAQ you linked to, Jordan said that readers should “definitely be able to figure it out by the end of The Path of Daggers.” At the time, everybody pored through everything that happened in The Path of Daggers trying to figure out what clues were there that would have been relevant to the “Who Killed Asmodean” issue. The actual clue — which nobody picked up on at the time; I was an active member of RASFWR-J at the time, engaged in all the discussions, and don’t recall anybody ever mentioning it — was Graendal’s POV scene, where she’s going through Sammael’s rooms after Rand killed Sammael looking for spare *angreal. That scene shows us the exact scenario of how she killed Asmodean — she had been looking through Rahvin’s rooms after Rand killed Rahvin, looking for spare *angreal, and accidentally stumbled upon Asmodean, killing him at the spur of the moment. Nobody picked up on it at the time.
I’d also like to point out that this readthrough of Sylas’ inspired me to do a re-read of the series (my third full re-read since after A Memory of Light was published, and probably my… fifteenth or so re-read overall?). I started when Sylas did his fourth post of The Dragon Reborn, in mid-March, and just finished A Memory of Light today. So, a little over three months to read the series altogether. Thanks for the inspiration, Sylas! It had been about three years since my last re-read.
@50 Interesting bit about Graendal’s scavenger inclinations linking her to Caemlyn after Rahvin’s demise. I wonder if she did/had a chance to look through The Stone of Tear after Bel’al died as well.
@50
OK, I get what you’re referring to now, but there is still no scene where we directly see Graendal going through Sammael’s rooms in Illian. In TPoD chapter 12, Graendal is in her palace in Arad Doman, which is the first time we see her in that book. She already has the little gold ring, and recalls how she found it in Sammael’s stash previously, offscreen. Which is why I thought you must have been referring to the scene that actually takes place in Illian in LoC. That said, the TPoD scene probably was meant to suggest Graendal’s “opportunity” for being in Caemlyn at the moment Asmo died.
It wasn’t the only hint toward this though. Not to derail this further into Asmo-trivia, but Bob Kluttz of Encyclopaedia-WOT (a.k.a. innkeeper Quillin Tasil of Bandar Eban) had a pretty solid theory back in the day about how Graendal and Sammael had been conspiring with Rahvin and therefore had reason to be in Caemlyn during Rand’s attack, and were laying low and/or spying in the aftermath before leaving. http://www.encyclopaedia-wot.org/main/theories.html . I wasn’t on RASFWR-J but first read the series in 2001 and that was my thinking at the time.
It should be noted that there’s no real indication that any Forsaken should have been aware of Rahvin’s demise so soon after the event. As such, Graendal would not have a reason to go there specifically to scavenge. However, a member of Rahvin’s alliance (with Lanfear, Graendal and Sammael) would have reason to visit him in general. Lanfear is dead and Sammael doesn’t know Asmodean is dead, which leaves Graendal. I don’t think there’s a reason to assume she’d have gone to Caemlyn to scavenge since there’s no good explanation for her knowing Rahvin is dead so soon after the event. However, if she does go to visit him and then finds out that he has been killed she may then indulge in some scavenging, putting her in place to bump into Asmodean and off him.
I’m pretty sure Rand actually *meets* Graendal in Caemlyn after he shanks Rahvin. Remember that couple he encounters?
@55
Exactly. If you click the link in @53 that is detailed in the Two Servants theory.
Forgive my lateness to this thread, but I am surprised that not a single comment pointed out that Illian sounds like Charleston, SC. The place that Robert Jordan (as well as myself) is from.