It’s chilly today as I’m writing this post for Reading The Wheel of Time, but not nearly as cold as it is in chapter three of Winter’s Heart, as Faile, Morgase, and Alliandre—along with fellow captives Bain and Chiad, Lacile and Arrela—try to survive their first few hours as prisoners of the Shaido. Being naked in a snowstorm is nothing to sneeze at, even for a Saldaean.
Walking and jogging naked through the falling snow with her captors, Faile mostly focuses on not freezing to death, and not falling down. She tries to notice everything, knowing that any detail might aid in her escape, but worries increasingly about frostbite, and over the way her feet are starting to bleed in the snow. She tries to work her fingers and toes as she goes, welcoming the pain because she knows that once she stops having feeling, that’s when she’s really in trouble.
Eventually the Shaido come to a halt, and start examining the feet of their prisoners. Rolan, Faile’s captor, is even bigger than Perrin, and lifts her effortlessly to throw her over his shoulder. Lacile and Arrela, two members of Cha Faile, submit to being similarly carried, once they see Bain and Chiad do the same, but Alliandre and Maighdin begin fighting their captors. Maighdin even bites the hand of the Aiel trying to lift her. Both Maighdin and Alliandre receive a whipping for their trouble and Faile doesn’t feel bad for them—their efforts were obviously useless and in addition to being wasted effort, meant keeping everyone out in the cold longer. But being carried makes it harder to stay warm and aware, and although Faile does her best to keep flexing her muscles and using her mind, she slowly loses her battle against the cold, finally falling asleep to nightmares of being chased by an angry Perrin through icy landscapes.
When she eventually wakes, she’s cold but not so deathly cold. A tall, green-eyed gai’shain serves her hot tea, warning her not to spill any. Faile is relieved to see that all her companions are there as well. Their captors have joined a large encampment of Shaido. She learns that their captors eventually wrapped them in blankets, fearing that they would freeze to death; the gai’shain says that it was a a dishonor, but Faile reminds him that she is not Aiel, and does not follow ji’e’toh. She points out that it is against custom to take wetlander prisoners, and wonders if the Shaido will let this man go once his time in white is up. But he doesn’t rise to her bait.
Buy the Book
The Atlas Complex
Two Wise ones approach, along with a very strange gai’shain adorned in robes of white silk and a bejeweled gold belt and collar. One of the Wise Ones, Someryn, jokes that Sevanna will never rest until all the world is made gai’shain, while the other, Therava, remarks that they have too many gai’shain and that it is hampering their progress.
All of Faile’s instincts tell her not to draw Therava’s attention, and she tries to hide her face in her cup of tea, to come off as meek and unimportant. Alliandre spoils this, however, by loudly announcing who she is and that their captors can get a large ransom for them. She even refers to Faile as her liege lady, and demands accommodations and apologies for their mistreatment.
They are overheard by Sevanna, who has just arrived on horseback, wearing an enormous amount of jewelry and wetlander-style skirts. The gai’shain, who she names Galina, eagerly confirms that Alliandre is a wetlander queen, and that her liege-lady must be very powerful woman—Galina has never heard of a queen swearing fealty in such a way. For Faile, it is a bit like seeing Logain or Mazrim Taim, and she has a personal grudge against Sevanna since Perrin was at Dumai’s Wells.
Sevanna orders Galina to Heal them, then leaves after a brief argument with Therava. Faile is shocked to see a Great Serpent ring on Galina as she reaches out to perform the Healing.
More gai’shain, many of them wetlanders, bring food and clothes. Faile tries to refuse being given a belt and collar, but is told that she serves “the Lady Sevanna” now. She must do as she’s told or be punished until she sees the error of her ways. Maighdin and Alliandre are also given the belt and collar.
The camp is soon on the move, and they soon lose track of Bain and Chiad, Lacile and Arrela. Maighdin and Alliandre refuse to take any chance of escape unless Faile can come with them, despite Faile’s orders. Then Therava joins them.
Therava is briefly surprised when Faile knows the appropriate way to speak to a Wise One. She promises that they will not succeed in any escape attempts, and because they are wetlanders, they will not be released after a year and a day. She tells them all to watch and listen to everything Sevanna does and says, and to report it all back to Therava. If they please Therava, she will make sure they are left behind.
Faile doesn’t want any part of this scheme, but she knows that they can’t refuse—she’s confident that Therava could and would have them killed. Carefully, she asks if Therava will protect them if they are caught, but Therava promises to cook them herself if they are.
When Therava leaves, Alliandre tries to find an out, but Maighdin is confident that every one of Sevanna’s servants has been given the same mission, and the same threat; if they don’t do as they are told, those other servants will report on them. Alliandre tells Maighdin off for the way she has been behaving and speaking to them as an equal.
“Until we escape,” Maighdin replied, “you are Sevanna’s servant. If you don’t think of yourself as a servant every minute, then you might as well climb onto that spit. And leave room for the rest of us, because you will put us on it, as well.”
Faile intercedes, making Maighdin apologize but also ordering both of them to behave as good servants, keep their heads down, and report absolutely everything to Therava. They all have a good idea what Therava will do to them if they don’t.
But soon they are approached again, this time by Galina, who claims to be on an important mission for the White Tower. Galina tells them what will happen to them as Sevanna’s servants, that every one of those made gai’shain to her is either a noble, a rich merchant, or someone who knows how to serve nobility. Every day, Sevanna has five of her servants beaten, to encourage the rest. Galina describes the punishment for the first time they try to escape, and how much worse it is the second, and the third.
Maighdin and Alliandre bristle at the tirade, with Maighdin going so far as to point out that Galina seems to be in the exact same position. Galina snaps, calling her a wilder, and Faile has to intervene again. Faile gives her name as “the Lady Faile t’Aybara.” But she regrets it immediately when Galina recognizes Perrin’s last name, and gloats over the fact that Sevanna has plans for Rand al’Thor and would love to know she has someone so closely connected to al’Thor.
Galina tells them about an object Therava keeps in her tent, a smooth white rod kept in a red chest with brass binding. If they bring it to her, then she will take them with her when she leaves the Shaido. She becomes irate when Alliandre asks why Galina doesn’t just retrieve it herself, and tells them that if they don’t get it, she will leave them there until they are old, and tell Sevanna about Perrin Aybara.
As she leaves, Faile feels a little desperate about all the traps surrounding them. But she is still determined to escape, and falls back into planning as they walk.
I’m not sure I understand what Therava’s deal is. I mean, obviously she’s a horrible, sadistic person, and part of her conflict with Sevanna is over the fact they are both selfish, cruel, and power-hungry. But Sevanna has done a terrible job at leading the Shaido every step of the way for as long as she’s been in power, and she hasn’t even been able to cover it up effectively. It’s pretty obvious that her choices have been a disaster from the start, even if the majority of the Shaido still agree that Rand is not the car’a’carn and they do not want to follow him.
Of course, Sevanna does have the whole “you all murdered Desaine on my orders” thing she’s holding over some of the Wise Ones’ heads, Therava included. At the time, Sevanna believed that this would bind the Wise Ones to her, not only because it served as blackmail but also because they had all made the decision to commit murder against one of their own, and use it as a lie to convince the rest of the Shaido to do what they wanted. Committing such an act together still created a bond that perhaps isn’t easy to ignore, even though it’s between people who hate each other.
Still, at this point it’s kind of hard for me to understand why Therava isn’t just taking Sevanna out already. It really seems like the rest of the Wise Ones are more on Therava’s side than Sevanna’s, and Wise Ones really have the most power and authority in Aiel culture, even if their strict customs dictate when and how that authority is exercised. After all, the Shaido have largely abandoned Aiel tradition and dictates, and no one more fully than Sevanna has. So it’s hard to imagine that Therava is either personally attached to Aiel customs or worried that the Shaido would rebel at having a Wise One acting as clan chief. I mean, Sevanna is already kind of doing that, even though she’s never been an apprentice or traveled to Rhuidean.
I really don’t like Therava but I do want to understand her motivations, and she would almost definitely be better for the Shaido than Sevanna is, and even better for the wetlander “gai’shain” prisoners—I think she might be even more sadistic than Sevanna, but she doesn’t want as many gai’shain and servants, so, on balance, more people would be better off.
Maybe Faile will discover some of the answers to these questions while she and Alliandre and Morgase are caught between Therava and Sevanna. Faile’s a perfect character to have in this position, narratively speaking, because she’s very smart and already understands something of Aiel custom. She’ll be able to understand more of what she sees and learns than your average wetlander, but she’s still an outsider to their culture, which means that everything she encounters will be filtered through that perspective, a perspective the reader, also an outsider to the Aiel world, shares.
I was so grateful to have the POV from Maeric, back in Chapter 40 of A Crown of Swords, because it actually showed us a Shaido Aiel who felt like a real, ordinary person. Before then, we really only had Sevanna, Couladin, and Therava—not to mention a bunch of Wise Ones who were willing to murder one of their own in order to influence the loyalty of the Shaido following them. Very early on we were told by a member of one of the other Aiel clans (I can’t remember which character, exactly) that the Shaido are tricky and lack the honor that is so important to Aiel culture. So far, most of what we have seen fits that description, but even if the culture of this clan dominates much of their upbringing and perspective, no people is a monolith, and it’s not like the Shaido are all Darkfriends or Evil-capital-E. There are mothers and children and ordinary craftsmen who are not algai’d’siswai, who are following their leaders and living their lives as best they can. As with all the Aiel, the Shaido’s entire worldview was recently shattered, and when they looked for guidance they got Couladin and Sevanna. And for that, they have my sympathy.
Not to be reading ahead or anything, but there’s a poignant little moment in Chapter Five in which Perrin looks at an Aiel doll found lost in the snow and wonders if somewhere a little Shaido child is crying for her missing toy.
So yeah, I’m hoping we’ll learn more about why the Shaido, and especially the Shaido Wise Ones, are still following Sevanna. Perhaps Faile and the others spying for Therava will give the narrative an opportunity to explain this for us. Of course, in a series that is so expansive, with so very many cultures and characters, we’re not necessarily going to be able to get into the nuances of every culture. The Seanchan have the same problem—so far, Egeanin is the only Seanchan character who has really been humanized for us. Still, I’m always hoping for more.
Robert Jordan’s descriptive skills are on display again this week, as they have been in every chapter of Winter’s Heart. I’ve never been in high-key danger of frostbite or death the way Faile and her companions are in chapter three, but I have done enough outdoor hiking and skiing to have a little taste of what it’s like to reach that point where you’ve gotten too cold and not going to warm up again without help. I really enjoyed how smart and educated Faile was about the dangers of frostbite and hypothermia. As per usual, I could have done without some of the gratuitous descriptions of bare hips and bottoms and spanking, but the rest of the descriptions were so powerful that I actually felt cold myself while I was reading.
I had a moment where I thought it was unrealistic that the Aiel, who come from a land that is always hot, were able to endure the weather so much better than someone like Faile, who comes from a cold climate. But between the nakedness and the lack of movement once they are being carried, that would definitely make a huge difference. The narration didn’t make it clear to me whether or not Bain and Chiad were also in danger of dying, though, and if they also had their honor “offended” the way Faile did. The Aiel are a strong, hardy people, but faced with something so different from their natural environment, one wonders how far such hardiness would translate, especially when they weren’t able to do any of the things you’re supposed to do to keep themselves warm and alert.
In any case, it’s interesting to see where the Shaido have adapted and where they struggle to change their thinking. Of course there are some practical changes, like adding green to the cadin’sor, but I’m most interested in the cultural changes. The Shaido don’t appear to have much of an objection to taking wetlander prisoners. Nor have we really heard anyone object to the way Sevanna adorns her personal gai’shain in gold, or chooses to wear wetlander-style jewelry and clothing, or to ride a horse. I mean, she’s even named herself a Wise One, despite already speaking as clan chief and never having apprenticed or gone to Rhuidean. Sure, there’s been some grumbling and derision from the Wise Ones, but on the whole, Rand—who is the car’a’carn and wasn’t even raised as an Aiel—has gotten more flack for not behaving according to the dictates of ji’e’toh than Sevanna appears to have.
Perhaps that’s just because Sevanna has a good sense of which tenets of jie’e’toh will be considered the most inviolate by her people—I doubt she’d ever pick up a sword, for example. Or, maybe the Shaido are breaking under the same weight that the rest of the world seems to feel, the sense that the Dragon Reborn is breaking all bonds. They don’t have a prophecy that says such a thing will happen, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t real ta’veren effects working on them.
When Galina was captured, I couldn’t help but think about the similarities between her situation and that of the damane. Bound by the One Power to obey Therava and Sevanna, beaten down physically and spiritually until she is becoming very obsequious and fawning—Faile even mentally compares her behavior to that of an obedient dog. It’s difficult to read, even knowing that Galina is a darkfriend, just as it is difficult to read about the interactions between sul’dam and damane. And Galina is not the only Aes Sedai bound to obedience by an Oath Rod, either—there are also the Salidar spies, uncovered and bound by Seaine and the rest. I imagine they won’t be treated like animals, but no one involved seemed to have much of an objection to enslaving the women in such a way, either.
And I know that this sort of thing was common in the epic fantasy of the time, but for me, these really intense subjects aren’t really being given their thematic due in most of the Wheel of Time books. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Robert Jordan is only including them for shock value. Rather, I think he does have some really interesting ideas about violence, including sexual violence, war, and trauma that he is trying to bring into his work, sometimes very effectively, but other times less so. The slavery thing, and a lot of the torture as well, isn’t thematically explored very often, not with any depth. Even Rand’s post-kidnapping PTSD, which receives more attention from the narration, feels like a really interesting thought, left unfinished. (Though it may be that the plotline with Cadsuane will address if further. And often when I’m reading, I get the sense that Jordan is poking at something deeper, something more profound than violence for violence’s sake, or as an excuse to describe a woman being naked again, but that he either can’t get the thought onto the page effectively or maybe didn’t even have a clear sense of it in his own mind.
As a result, much of the more graphic aspects of torture and exploitation, including sexual exploitation, often come off as though they are mostly intended to be titillating. And I do think that is sometimes true—the way grown women are always experiencing spanking and corporeal punishment on their derrieres, for example. But other times, I think Jordan is just missing whatever thematic exploration he is aiming at. And this has me thinking about his own history and experience of war, and what he might have been carrying with him as he wrote.
I really enjoyed Faile’s confusion over Maighdin’s attitude, and how similar it is to Alliandre’s. More than once the narration makes the point that Alliandre is a smart woman, but that she has a queen’s attitude and temperament. It is hard for her to adapt, even briefly, to the situation she finds herself in as a gai’shain captive of the Aiel. Faile, though a lady, is much more flexible, but for Alliandre, and for Morgase, it is difficult to change how a Queen thinks of herself, and the behavior she learned in order to be successful in her role as the leader of a country. Morgase is better at it than Alliandre, perhaps because she’s had more practice, but also because she is just that good, and that smart. I love the character, and I wish (again, so difficult with such an expansive story) that we could have more time in her POV, that she could become a slightly more significant part of our reading. I just feel like she has so much potential, and that it’s underused as long as her main function in this part of the story is to be a piece of dramatic irony—as much as I love dramatic irony.
Still, I’m fascinated to see where the story goes with Faile, Alliandre, and Morgase navigating the political intrigue of Sevanna vs Therava, with a side of Galina wanting them to steal the other Oath Rod for her. It would be really cool if they succeeded, and although Galina is fully capable of lying, since she’s Black Ajah, she still might end up taking them with her. On the other hand, there are lots of opportunities for Therava and Sevanna to be played against each other, a bit like how Egwene and Siuan manipulated Lelaine and Romanda. The dangers are even greater for Faile and co. than they were for Egwene and Siuan, but the need for success is even more important, at least from a personal standpoint.
And while I’m rooting for Faile, Morgase, and Alliandre to effect their own escape, there’s always a chance that the wolf will find his falcon after all. We’ll be checking back in with Perrin, who is not handling his wife’s kidnapping very well, next week.
It’s Sylas K Barrett’s birthday this week. Despite these chapters, he would kind of like a little bit of snow.
