This week in Reading The Wheel of Time, Mat contends with the dubious relief of telling Elayne the truth about him and Tylin, is named a “worthy subject,” and finds a new use for the foxhead medallion. It’s Chapters 37 and 38 of A Crown of Swords!
Mat hurries out of the Tarasin palace, anxious and uncomfortable under the knowing stares of serving women, and out into the stable yard. His men, as well as the red-belted Wise Women, are waiting by the coaches. Mat hears Elayne talking to a few of the Wise Women, including Reanne Corly, and pauses out of sight for a moment to listen. They are talking about ages, and Mat hears Elayne say that “no Aes Sedai since the Breaking has lived as long as any of you in the Knitting Circle claim.” This elicits gasps from the women, but their conversation is cut off as Mat comes around the corner.
When Mat learns that Thom and Juilin, along with Birgitte and Aviendha, are going to spend the day watching Carridin instead of accompanying them to retrieve the Bowl of the Winds from the Rahad, he insists that they don’t have time to worry about Carridin, they’re going to get the Bowl and leave. Elayne counters that they can’t leave until they have figured out how to use the Bowl, which might take half a week or more. Near panic, Mat tries to convince her that she can use the Bowl anywhere, reminding her about going to Caemlyn, but before Elayne can respond, a servant arrives with a basket of food for Mat, sent by Tylin. Mat retreats to one end of the coach, only to find Beslan there, along with Nalesean.
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Nynaeve finally arrives, and Mat is shocked to see Lan on her arm. He’s even more surprised to learn that they are married. In the coach, Lan tells him about Moghedien’s attack and the death of his men.
Mat finds a note in the basket from Tylin, telling him that she’s having his things moved into her rooms and that when he returns she will be having him measured for some new, Ebou Dari-style clothes. Seeing everyone watching him, Mat tugs his hat down over his eyes and pretends to nap, thinking that he has more protection against Moghedien, wearing the foxhead medallion, than he does against Tylin.
When they reach the river, Mat wants to give Nynaeve a piece of his mind for trying to keep the news about Moghedien and the death of his men from him, but with Lan there he thinks twice about that. He catches the tail end of a discussion between Nynaeve and Elayne about some custom the Sea Folk demanded—catching sight of them Nynaeve starts stammering an apology to Lan, who merely tells her that she may say whatever she wants in public, and offers to escort her to the ship.
Before Mat can say anything to Elayne, though, she starts upbraiding him for “forcing” himself on Tylin—she figured out the symbolism of the flowers on the basket he was sent. Mat finally loses his temper, dragging her aside to a more private place and angrily explaining that Tylin “won’t take no for an answer,” “chased him down like a stag” and even threatened to have her serving women undress him. Elayne appears shocked for a moment, then is clearly trying to stifle amusement, and even teases him about it.
She hurries off, clearly holding back laughter and muttering something about “a taste of his own medicine.” Furious, Mat thinks he should have known better than to expect sympathy. Still, he follows her, and when he catches up he slips off the foxhead medallion and tries to hand it to her, insisting that he wants it back as soon as they leave Ebou Dar. Elayne appears shocked, even when he explains that he knows about Moghedien.
“Do you have any notion what I would have done to have this for study?” she said quietly. “Any notion at all?” She was tall for a woman, but she still had to look up at him. She might never have seen him before.
Elayne tells him to keep it, and apologizes for laughing at him, telling him that he is a worthy subject.
As they travel across to the Rahad, Beslan and Nalesean complain that they will be bored—apparently having a Wise Woman with you is guaranteed protection even in the Rahad, and Beslan insists you could go so far as to slap a man and he would just walk away. Sure enough, though the Rahad is everything Mat remembers, they are all given a wide and respectful berth. Children are even sent out from doorways with cups of water to offer to the Wise Women, while men and women offer directions or services. They appear hostile towards the men in the group, but no one bothers them.
“What a pleasant walk,” Nalesean said dryly, “with such interesting sights and smells. Did I tell you I didn’t get much sleep last night, Mat?”
“Do you want to die in bed?” Mat grumbled. They might as well all have stayed in bed; they were bloody useless here, that was for sure. The Tairen snorted indignantly. Beslan laughed, but he probably thought Mat meant something else.”
They finally stop before the building Mat visited the day before, and Nynaeve and Elayne both repeat “six stories” with evident satisfaction and relief. Mat insists on sending his Redarms to examine all the side entrances and hallways, and Nynaeve is irked to learn that Lan told Mat about Moghedien. Elayne is more concerned with the Bowl and heads up the stairs, followed by Vanin and most of the Wise Ones.
Suddenly, Mat’s medallion goes cold as he turns to see Aes Sedai standing in the doorway, along with a group of big men with clubs. Nynaeve desperately starts telling everyone that these are Falion Bhoda and Ispan Shefar, two members of the Black Ajah, and that they have shielded her. The other two deny the accusations, claiming to be from the White Tower sent to bring Nynaeve and Elayne back, warning Nynaeve’s companions to disperse and not to meddle in the affairs of Aes Sedai.
Lan moved. He did not draw his sword, and against Aes Sedai he should have had no chance if he had, no chance in any case, but one moment he was standing still and the next he had thrown himself at the pair. Just before he struck, he grunted as though hit hard, but he crashed into them, carrying both Black sisters to the dusty floor. That opened the sluicegates wide.
Mat prevents one of the men following the Black Sisters from clubbing Lan while he’s down, and the fight begins in earnest, two dozen against Mat, Lan, Nalesean, Beslan, and five Redarms. The tight quarters help even the odds, as Nynaeve asks in vain for the two Wise Women to help her fight the two Black Sisters. After a moment she warns Mat that she can feel channeling upstairs, begging him to go up after Elayne.
He finds that Elayne and all the Wise Women are down while Vanin is bleeding and trying in vain to get to his feet. The only standing Wise One, Janira, is suddenly grabbed from behind by a man who breaks her neck with one swift motion. Mat launches himself at the man, but he seems to move unnaturally smoothly and swiftly, grabbing Mat’s spear and tossing Mat aside. Nalesean appears as Mat draws his knife, but the strange attacker just slides around Nalesean, grabs him by the neck, and rips his throat out. The stab of Mat’s knife seems to go unnoticed—the man actually smiles and tells Mat that “He wants you dead as much as he wants her,” and reaches for Mat’s head.
Mat knows he is about to die, but when the foxhead medallion slips from his shirt and hits the man’s cheek he screams and throws Mat away. The medallion leaves a brand-like mark. The attacker pulls the knife from his own body and hurls it at Mat, who catches it out of the air—and is dismayed to see that there’s no blood on the blade.
Meanwhile, groups of men are coming out of the doorway carrying bags and boxes and random items. Mat considers trying to follow them, maybe with Vanin, when he sees Elayne stir and move. The mysterious attacker sees as well. Mat pulls off the medallion and whirls it in the air, and the strange attacker retreats. Mat follows him into another room only to find the place empty, despite the fact that there is no doorway or window. He returns to Elayne, who groggily thanks him.
Nynaeve comes up and is dismayed when she sees the dead and injured women strewn about the floor. She immediately starts checking them over, looking for those who are still alive that she can Heal. When Lan and Sumeko come up right behind Nynaeve, Sumeko runs to Reanne and begins to Heal her—she apologizes to Nynaeve over and over for learning, but Nynaeve urges her to continue and expresses interest in what she’s doing.
Nynaeve sends Elayne to look for the Bowl while Ieine comes up holding Ispan’s arm behind her—Mat assumes she must be shielded, and Ispan is weeping and terrified. Beslan comes up, followed by a few of the Redarms, all of whom have apparently been Healed of injuries by Nynaeve. Slowly the Wise ones get to their feet as they are Healed, but there are still two Wise Women and six Redarms lost, killed by a man who moved like a snake and whom the One Power will not touch.
Elayne emerges, triumphant at having found the Bowl. Nynaeve and Elayne load everyone down with other items taken from the room while Reanne goes out to find men to carry the dead, and then they leave. Mat doubts that anyone in the Rahad has ever seen such a strange procession, or one that moved so quickly.
Man, Mat is just so good in these two chapters. In the last several books Jordan has maintained a very consistent and subtle narrative with him that I find really appealing, especially in the way he often has the impulse towards doing the right thing, and even towards self-sacrifice, and yet tries to pass it off as something else, even to himself. I wasn’t as surprised as Elayne when he offered her the medallion, but I was pretty surprised—Mat must feel naked without the thing at this point, and he’s making himself very vulnerable to Elayne and Nynaeve, never mind any other Aes Sedai or channelers. That’s no small feat.
Do we know if the medallion works on saidin as well as saidar? I don’t think Mat’s ever had that situation come up yet.
Every time Mat has an impulse to protect Elayne, he thinks in his own head about the promises he made to Rand. Those promises are very important to Mat, but I fully believe he would have all the same impulses even without them.
I got actual chills when Mat put himself between her and the… whatever it was. The strong fast Shadowspawn guy. Mat was the Pippin of the group back when it was just the four Two Rivers folks, Moiraine, and Lan. But the way the moment played out, and what Mat said, gave me real Sam-Gamgee-defending-Frodo-from-Shelob energy.
Sighing, Mat tucked the useless knife into its scabbard. “You can’t have her,” he said loudly. Promises. One jerk broke the leather cord around his neck; the silver foxhead dangled a foot below his fist. It made a low hum as he whirled it in a double loop. “You can’t bloody have her.” He started forward, keeping the medallion spinning. The first step was the hardest, but he had a promise to keep.
Just… perfect. Mat is really coming into his own as a character, becoming more interesting and complex as the story goes on, and I really love him.
So, I figured Falion and Ispan were going to show up and try to make trouble again, but I didn’t expect them to so nearly get away with it. The new type of Shadowspawn—at first I thought it was a Gray Man, but I don’t think those can talk, and there’s no evidence that the One Power doesn’t work on them—tipped the balance in their favor. With Elayne separated from Nynaeve, and taken out by a channeling-resistant monster of some kind, Falion and Ispan were able to make the fight two on one, though it appears that Nynaeve was either able defeat them both or to persuade Ieine and Sumeko to help her fight them.
Sumeko’s ability as a Healer shows once again how much the Aes Sedai might be able to learn from other non-Aes Sedai channelers, and how limited Aes Sedai training can be. Between the myriad of strict rules and the tradition of secrecy between Ajahs—and between individual sisters, for that matter—the Aes Sedai haven’t had as much of an ability to grow as they might have if they shared information more freely and allowed for more experimentation. The idea that strength in the One Power dictates (with a few exceptions) one’s ability to achieve authority in the Tower also limits them—there might be many sisters with valuable minds and insights who could help advance the Tower’s understanding of channeling, like how Dashiva helped Flinn developed his Talent for Healing.
The discussion around how long the Kin live is another reminder of limits placed on Aes Sedai that aren’t carried by other female channelers. The oath rod seems to limit their lifespans as well as to physically bind them to whatever oaths they swore, though why it would do such a thing I can’t fathom. I also find myself wondering how many conditions in the White Tower have been affected by the workings of the Black Ajah. The more recent effects are obvious enough, as the Black Ajah starts being discovered and as everyone’s plans ramp up in preparation for the Last Battle, but it’s possible that the Black Ajah has been active in the White Tower for some time, or even since the beginning, slowly working to undermine the trust between Ajahs and to weaken the Aes Sedai in any way they could. The suspicious isolation Seaine notes in the sisters she passes on her way to visit Pevara are the result of Alviarin’s machinations, but other, more subtler machinations were probably paving the way towards this for some time.
I’m terribly curious to know what the Sea Folk made Nynaeve and Lan do during their wedding. Get married topless maybe? That would certainly fluster Nynaeve, and probably amuse Lan. It’s so funny to watch Mat be confused by their relationship—Elayne and Egwene knew a lot more about what was going on there, but of course Mat was out of the loop. Still, given that Nynaeve and Lan are behaving exactly as I would have expected, Mat’s bemusement is pretty funny, as is the fact that he keeps having to say “but not Nynaeve though” when he complains about the women.
What’s less funny is Elayne’s reaction to learning the truth about Tylin’s interest in Mat. I was pretty shocked when she accused Mat of forcing himself on Tylin. For one, the idea that Tylin, a Queen and an Ebou Dari woman, couldn’t contend with unwanted attentions from a man is pretty ridiculous (and even if she was assaulted, why would she send that person flowers and food?). For the other, I can sort of understand why Elayne and Nynaeve are still stuck on the idea that Mat is an irresponsible child, since he was one once, but for Elayne to believe that Mat was a rapist is quite another thing. True, she hasn’t known him as long or as well as Nynaeve has, but still.
And then, after being so disgusted by the idea that Mat forced himself on Tylin that she would pull her cloak away from touching him, Elayne finds out that it’s Tylin who won’t accept a no and thinks that is funny. She sobers a little once confronted and admits that she has a duty to protect him, but I was pretty surprised at this evidence of Elayne’s poor opinion of Mat. I knew she (and Nynaeve, and Egwene) looked down on him for being a ladies’ man, and of course the Andoran attitude towards casual sex, or any sex outside of marriage, would disapprove of Mat’s skirt chasing and any woman who wanted to chased. But there is a difference between that and being a sexual predator, and I wouldn’t have expected Elayne, and definitely not Nynaeve, to leap to such a conclusion based on some symbolic flowers.
Though I would also like to know exactly what those flowers meant.
Now, of course, it is relevant that this book takes place in a different time, with different ideals around gender expectations and sexual norms. It’s also relevant that it was published in 1996—our cultural vocabulary and ability to talk about social issues has advanced a lot since then. But I can see that Jordan is trying to explore the subject of male rape and domestic abuse—though the latter is mostly allegorical. And I just wish it was a little clearer in the narrative what exactly the narrative is trying to say, even if it is only asking questions it can’t answer. Especially in a high fantasy story like this, in which the struggle between Good and Evil is the crux upon which the whole series turns, clarity in these moments is crucial.
The narrative gives us a beautiful and complex clarity from the exploration of what it means to take a life, be it directly through one’s own weapon, by generals directing armies, or rulers deciding when someone must be sacrificed for the greater good. Rand’s continually growing distress over “becoming hard” has already been revisited many times within the series, and reflected in the journeys of other characters, especially Perrin. The narrative has also been clear in showing how other people, especially the women in his life, interpret, or misinterpret, Rand’s struggles. For example, he is often viewed as being arrogant or self-centered in moments when he is actually putting on a mask in order to emotionally survive the decisions he has to make.
And I would really like that same clarity here. Wherever Jordan lands on the issue of male rape and how it should be treated as a moral issue, or even if he himself is undecided or lands somewhere in between “the rape of men should be given equal weight to the rape of women” and “people with penises can’t be raped” I need more of an impression of that judgment. Because even if I set my own judgments aside for a moment, I need to know how he intends for me to take Elayne’s amusement over Mat’s predicament, and what it says about her as a person. Is this supposed to be taken as just another example of the ways women are kind of mean and haughty towards men? Or are we supposed to get a sense of a large flaw in Elayne, either because of her views about men or perhaps her views about class power imbalances—she has a lot more in common with Tylin than she does with Mat, after all, and she also has the Aes Sedai authority and power added on to her authority as a (future) Queen.
Granted, I haven’t finished the book yet so I may get some answers to these questions. But based on what I’ve seen so far, I anticipate being left unsatisfied.
Speaking of not having finished the book yet, I can’t believe that we’re so close to the end of A Crown of Swords already! There will be no post next week as I am going away to visit my grandma, so I will see you all on May 2nd, to finish up the book with Chapters 39–41!
But until then, I leave you with a few final thoughts and favorite moments from this week’s section.
- Mat noticed, without understanding it, that Elayne seems to have a personal anger towards Jaichim Carridin. There’s a nice bit of dramatic irony in that Elayne knew immediately that Carridin’s message is a trap, but specifically because she believes that her mother is dead. In fact, the part about Morgase being alive is the only part of the missive that’s true! Though I’d like to think that Elayne’s too smart to be fooled by the suggestion that the Whitecloaks would want to, or could be trusted to, help either Morgase or Elayne.
- I was very moved by the death of Nalesean, and the way it was foreshadowed and set up throughout the two chapters, with the way Nalesean hoped there would be some of Beslan’s kind of “fun” to make up for the fact that he was roused from bed. I wasn’t particularly attached to Nalesean as a character, but the way it was handled added a nicely tragic and personal element that made me feel it more, and feel Mat’s pain more, as well.
- I also really enjoyed the description of how the people in the Rahad react to seeing the Wise Women. This passage was particularly evocative:
Women, sometimes with as many scars and always eyes to make Tylin flinch, curtsied awkwardly and breathlessly asked whether they might supply directions, had anyone made a bother of themselves to bring so many Wise Women? If so, the strong implication was, Tamarla and the rest had no need of troubling themselves if they would just supply the name.
Sylas K Barrett assumes that we’ll learn more about the strange One Power-immune Shadowspawn soon, and possibly who sent him. Which of the male forsaken would particularly be after Elayne? Sammael, presumably, since Graendal suspected that he had found a really good stasis box.
