Welcome back to Reading The Wheel of Time! It’s a bit of a short one this week—I was going to cover Chapters 49 and 50, but then I had a lot to say about the political minutiae of Chapter 49, and then I realized that I kind of wanted to cover Chapters 50 and 51 together. Things are about to get very exciting, in a bad sort of way. Which… I mean, you all know what series we’re reading. It’s time to recap Chapter 49 of Lord of Chaos.
Rand and Perrin sit in a courtyard smoking their pipes. Rand asks Perrin if he has reconsidered going to Tear, and Perrin brings up Min’s viewing. Rand asks if Perrin really wants to be tied to Rand’s belt. Perrin responds that what he wants hasn’t counted for much since they first met Moiraine, and that if Rand fails, everything fails.
Loial arrives, fresh from the stedding, and both Perrin and Rand begin fussing over him, much to the Ogier’s bewilderment. Loial is very distressed to learn his mother, Elder Haman, and a young Ogier woman are in the Two Rivers looking for him. He panics, claiming that he is too young to be married, that he’ll be forced to settle down and won’t be able to finish his book. But then he realizes that Rand named Erith, the young Ogier woman they met in Stedding Tsofu, who gave Loial a flower and was very interested in Loial’s lectures on various subjects. Rand and Perrin try to hide their amusement.
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Rand tells Loial that he needs someone to find all the Waygates and to get permission from the Elders for Rand to place guards on them. Perrin immediately gets upset, telling Rand that Loial needs rest and asking if there is anybody Rand won’t use. Rand answers that he will use anyone he needs to, including himself, because he has no choice. Loial fusses over them, asking them not to fight and suggesting they both need to rest in a stedding.
A moment later Min bursts in, panicked, to tell Rand that seven Aes Sedai are on their way, intending to surprise him. She is terribly frightened, unsure if this is related to her viewing that women who can channel will hurt Rand badly. In Rand’s head, Lews Therin panics about not being able to handle seven at once. Thinking of the angreal in his pocket comforts Rand a little. He gives quick orders to Jalani, which she has already anticipated, and then forbids Min from coming to hide in the Grand Hall.
Rand arrives in the Grand Hall to find Bael and Melaine flanking his throne and about a hundred veiled Maidens. There are other Aiel as well. He has only just seated himself when Mistress Harfor comes in, trying to announce the Aes Sedai as they sweep in behind her. Lews Therin immediately reaches for saidin, and Rand has to shout him down inside his head.
Rand recognizes most of the women Merana has brought with her, and notes that they are all dressed in their Ajah colors. The one he doesn’t recognize, dressed in brown, stands at the center of the line as they approach him—Rand surmises she must be Demira Eriff, who Min has told him about.
They think to impress me spinning the Mirror of Mists? Lews Therin’s incredulous laugh faded into mad giggles. Rand did not need the man’s explanation; he had seen Moiraine do something like this once. Asmodean had called it the Mirror of Mists too, and also Illusion.
Demira begins to speak, her voice amplified somehow, announcing that Rand has never learned the respect due Aes Sedai and that, while they intend no harm to him today, Rand’s restrictions are now going to be lifted.
“Any future insult to our dignity will be punished, though those we must punish are as children, and you will be responsible for their pain. This is how it must be. This is how it shall be. Know that we are Aes Sedai.”
By the time they halt before the throne they appear about twice as tall as Loial. Rand leans back on his throne, careful to look casual, confused by Demira’s words. There is clearly a message there he is meant to understand, but Rand can’t figure out what it is, or why the Aes Sedai have suddenly changed their minds about his rules.
Rand has been intending to shield them, but Lews Therin is still panicking and striving to reach saidin.
Not strong enough. Even with the angreal, maybe not strong enough, not to hold seven. You fool! You waited too long! Too dangerous!
Rand knows he might be right. Coming up with another idea, he strikes out with saidin, shattering their Mirror of Mists. The Aes Sedai look shocked for only a second, then their calm reappears and Demira repeats their expectations. Rand has no idea what he can do to show them that he won’t be browbeaten, and stands, towering over them in turn from his dais. He tells them that the requirements will remain, and that from now on he expects to see the respect he deserves from them as Dragon Reborn. He dismisses them, and after a moment the women turn, following Demira smoothly and unhurriedly out of the Hall.
Melaine praises his handling of them, but Rand finds himself wishing that he had allowed Min to spy on them—there are too many undercurrents here that he doesn’t understand, and he can’t figure out what the Aes Sedai were really after.
Unbeknownst to Rand, Min has hidden herself in the adjoining dressing room, and although she couldn’t see much, she has heard everything. She hurries back to the Crown of Roses, where Warders are hanging out talking and playing dice. One among them, Mahiro, sometimes gives Min advice, so she sits beside him and prods him for information on what happened between the Aes Sedai and Rand al’Thor.
Suddenly she catches sight of two Aes Sedai, Bera Harkin and Kiruna Nachiman, who were been sent to the Aiel Waste to look for Rand some months before. The aura she sees around the two makes her catch her breath, and she hears them talking about how Alanna should have taken Rand to heel and leashed him by now. Min continuing her original line of questioning with Mahiro a little longer, then tells him she’s going to go to the Inner City for a few days.
“Thirteen,” Rand said flatly, and just saying it was enough for Lews Therin to try seizing control of saidin from him again. It was a wordless struggle with a snarling beast.
Min tells him that it’s not just the number, it’s also the aura of “blood, death, the One Power, those two women and [Rand], all in the same place at the same time.” Rand considers that the number could be a coincidence, his ta’veren twisting of chance working against him, but also that Merana chose to challenge him on the same day that the Salidar Aes Sedai’s numbers reached thirteen. Lews Therin wants to strike at Merana, and Rand has to admit that he also finds the idea somewhat appealing.
Wrapped in the Void, Rand’s voice is cold as he tells Min that she is coming with him, and as he gives orders for Nandera to meet him in Perrin’s rooms with as many Maidens as she wants to bring.
He could not leave Perrin behind, and not because of any viewing; when Merana found Rand gone, one of them might well bond Perrin the way Alanna had him. “I may not be coming back here. If anyone sees Perrin or Faile or Loial, tell them to meet me there too. Jalani, find Mistress Harfor. Tell her I need pen and ink and paper.” He had letters to write before he left.
In Perrin’s rooms, he tells everyone about the thirteen Aes Sedai. Bain and Chiad and Gaul all happen to be there as well, and all decide to follow Faile and Perrin to Cairhien. Loial is ready to go at once, and Sulin as well, reminding “my Lord Dragon” that he has commanded her to serve him, Perrin, and Faile.
Perrin, Faile, Min, and Loial all have letters they want to write, but Rand is occupied with his, a warning to Taim and a letter to Merana as well. Nandera has five hundred Maidens outside waiting for him, and Rand opens the Gateway. It isn’t until everyone is through and he has let it close that Lews Therin’s presence seems to leave his thoughts.
It was as if, wearied by grappling with Rand, the man had gone to sleep. At last Rand pushed saidin away, and with that he realized how wearied he had been by the struggle. Loial had to carry him to his rooms in the Sun Palace.
In the sitting room of the Crown of Roses, Merana reads the letter, in which Rand tells her that he knows thirteen is an unlucky number, and that she may follow him to Cairhien with only five sisters, which will put them on even footing with the Tower embassy there. Merana notes that the last two lines—Do not press me again. I have little trust left in me.—are heavy, almost in a different hand.
The rest of the embassy from Salidar is with her in the room, and they all fall to discussing al’Thor’s disrespect, his ability to Travel, and the question of how powerful he actually might be. Verin reports that Perrin’s men have left the camp and are riding east. Merana is aware that the embassy is crumbling around her—it is unclear who will end up taking charge, but her own authority has faded away since she began deferring to Verin. She thinks about how this would never have happened when the White Tower was whole and an ambassador had the full authority of the Tower and the Amyrlin Seat behind her.
Alanna arrives, and reports that she can feel that Rand is to the east and yes, it could be Cairhien. When Kiruna demands why Alanna has not used her bond to bend Rand to her will, Alanna replies brightly that she tried, and that it felt like trying to uproot an oak tree with her bare hands. Bera and Kiruna are both astounded, and Alanna actually laughs, before suggesting that it might have to do with the fact that Rand can channel. Merana notices Verin watching everyone, and reflects on the fact that Verin always seems to defer to others without actually deferring to them.
Merana makes one last ditch effort to keep her authority and to keep the embassy together, making a speech about why they came and what has happened, and laying the blame for their failure at the feet of Kiruna and Bera, who, albeit unwittingly, have brought their number to thirteen. The two basically ignore her, and begin deciding who will go to Cairhien.
Merana trembled, the folded letter crumpling in her fist. “Don’t you see?” she shouted. “You talk as if we can go on as before, as if nothing has changed. There is an embassy from Elaida in Cairhien, from the White Tower. That is how al’Thor must see it. We need him more than he needs us, and I fear he knows it!”
For a moment there is shock in every face except Verin’s—she is smiling a small, secretive smile—and Merana knows that everyone sees the truth in her words. But then Bera tells her to sit down and calm herself. And Merana sits.
She makes her plea to come by deferentially suggesting that they might need a Gray for negotiations, and Bera agrees, though in a tone that fills Merana with a sense of shame. As Merana sits and listens to Bera decide who will go and who will help shepherd the Two Rivers girls to Salidar, she hopes very much that a new Amyrlin has been chosen, someone incredibly strong. And she prays that Alanna can lead them to al’Thor before he decides to acknowledge Elaida.
I’m happy Loial’s back! The dynamic between him and the boys has shifted since they met. Two years probably doesn’t mean that much in the development of an Ogier, even a young one, but Rand and Perrin have grown so much in that time. When they all first met, they read as about the same age maturity-wise, though of course Loial had years and years more knowledge which made him feel wiser and more protective of Rand and the others. Now, however, Rand and Perrin have taken on so much more responsibility, and are growing used to having people under their command and under their care. Perrin’s protectiveness over Loial was also increased by being responsible for him during the Trolloc battle in Emond’s Field, and Rand’s was increased by his interactions with Loial’s family.
It’s unclear in this section if there’s any reason for Rand and Perrin’s belief that Loial is tired, other than their knowledge about the dangers of being away from a stedding for too long, but I have to wonder. It wouldn’t surprise me if Loial was pushing himself more than is ideal (the same way the rest of our heroes are) because of his worry for Perrin and Rand and the others. They may have grown more protective of him, but he has always been protective of them. Also, he is not great at sitting around doing nothing, at least by Ogier standards—that’s the whole reason he ran away from his stedding in the first place.
There are a lot of good character moments for our protagonists in this chapter. Perrin’s comfortable companionship with Loial, Min’s friendship with Mahiro, Merana’s musings on the state of the Salidar Aes Sedai and their ability to function as they used to. I particularly enjoyed Rand’s interaction with Jalani, the way she enjoyed having anticipated his orders and the joke he made about having his horse delivered. Min’s reminder to Rand that he can lead her to Cairhien or wherever else but he’ll have to try pretty hard to send her away was also a highlight. I like that she’s been practicing with those knives.
Perrin has avoided criticizing Rand’s “using” of people until it comes up with Loial. He’s clearly more upset about Mat and about Tear that he’s let on to Rand, but he’s only bringing it up over someone he feels he should and can protect. Maybe he would have made the same comment about Mat if he had been there, but he wasn’t. And while he isn’t necessarily ready to go to Tear, he didn’t accuse Rand of anything when the request was made. Perrin is a pragmatic person. He even opened the chapter by remarking upon the fact that Rand is who he is, and both of them are ruled by factors other than what they want and would choose for themselves. At least for himself, he seems to mostly accept that—he’s reluctantly playing the role of a lord, at least as much as he has to, and he has capitulated to Rand’s ta’veren pull, even if not to Rand’s every request. How far this acceptance will go is still untested, however, and I’m very curious to see how things play out for the two of them.
Perrin’s outburst might not mean anything other than a general expression of frustration, but I worry that I’m not going to get my wish for the two of them to open up to each other more. This is yet’s another chapter in which people who should be allies are not talking to each other, and while the reasons are understandable, it’s leading to some very big problems, plot-wise.
Merana’s recognition that Rand may well know how much they need him was a refreshing one—she’s not the only Salidar Aes Sedai to realize this, but it’s always nice when any of the Aes Sedai actually give Rand some credit as an intelligent, insightful person. Most of the Aes Sedai are still thinking of him as being ignorant, someone they can fairly easily manipulate and intimidate. Given what Rand has accomplished so far, this seems like a dangerously foolish assumption to make, however inexperienced Rand might be as a channeler and a ruler.
I was a little shocked myself to realize that there were thirteen Aes Sedai in Caemlyn now—surely they would have realized how that would look to Rand, regardless of what they think he may or may not have learned from Moiraine or other sources. It’s clear that Merana is aware of the missteps they’ve made, or at least some of them, though she’s also trying to scapegoat Bera and Kiruna in a last ditch effort to hang onto her authority. It’s also interesting to confirm that it was Verin who mostly guided the decisions on how to confront Rand—one wonders how different that may be from how Merana herself would have liked to handle things.
Really, Rand and the Salidar Aes Sedai have the same problem—they both desperately need the other for various reasons, but they are both in very precarious positions, both in the sense of personal safety and also in the sense of establishing the legitimacy of their authority. As a result, they are both putting on strong, borderline aggressive fronts. Rand remarks that the Tower embassy has accepted all his rules and offered him gifts, but he doesn’t seem aware that the Tower is rich both in money and in authority—they can both afford to be patient and have the resources to be sneaky… but that’s getting ahead of ourselves.
And as much as I might criticize the Salidar Aes Sedai for their lack of insight where Rand is concerned, it is also true that they are in a tricky position without a lot of bargaining power. They may not recognize it the way Merana seems to—or maybe they are just putting serene Aes Sedai faces on for each other as much as they are for Rand. If you look at it from a certain point of view, you could almost call the display in the Great Hall nothing more than a bluff—that is what the Mirror of Mists is, after all. The women believe that Rand knows what they are talking about—that he had one of them stabbed on purpose to teach them some kind of lesson—and their response is merely a show of strength and a statement that the rules he has set for them will now be altered. The move is a mix of arrogance, restraint, hubris, and desperation. And it got them absolutely nowhere.
I wonder what would have happened if Rand had displayed his confusion as to this random (to him) about-face from the Aes Sedai. It’s hard to feel that the Aes Sedai would have believed him, but you never know. The whole exchange is just a group of half-terrified Aes Sedai and a fully terrified Dragon Reborn thundering at each other in an attempt to disguise that fear and to be granted respect they haven’t really earned. I mean, they both say it in this scene; each demands to be given respect they are “due” because of what they are, not who they are, and by “respect” they both mean “following my orders.” If Rand had maintained an unbowed and firm attitude but also shown puzzlement and asked for clarification, would the Aes Sedai have cared? If he had seemed inquisitive instead of comparing them to the Tower embassy, could he have offered them refreshments and asked some of them to come talk to him in a less formal setting? Would any have agreed? Could Rand’s real and genuine confusion read as such to any of the Sisters?
I can’t help feeling that this is closer to how Elayne would have handled things. Of course, Rand is not Elayne, and his circumstances will never be hers. I can hardly blame him for not wanting to invite seven Aes Sedai to sit down and talk with him, or even some of them. They were there to threaten, after all, no matter that they specifically said they are not going to harm him. After what Alanna did, he’s never going to believe that claim on its face ever again.
But the real factor here is Lews Therin. Forget restraint on the part of the Salidar Aes Sedai—Rand has to fight every second to stop someone else from lashing out with his power, never mind to control his own anger and fear. No one has brought up the taint madness lately, but you’d think that would be on people’s minds whenever they’re having political dealings and power struggles with such a powerful male channeler. And oh, if they only knew how hard Rand was fighting on their behalf.
It’s not just the fear of being gentled that is sending Rand running off to Cairhien. It’s also the fear of what Lews Therin will do if he remains so close to that threat. Rand is not just protecting himself by fleeing Caemlyn. He is also protecting the Aes Sedai, and probably everyone else in the city. How exhausting must it be to fight such an unrelenting battle against something in your own mind on top of everything else Rand has to accomplish? I mean we know how exhausting it is—Rand makes it to Cairhien and collapses, unable even to stand up anymore. Lews Therin is exhausted too, which is curious. The man is a disembodied ghost, why should he grow tired? Unless he really is just a splinter of Rand’s mind, exhausted when Rand is exhausted. That doesn’t seem right, though. It’s also curious that the last two lines of Rand’s letter to Merana appear almost to have been written in a different hand than the rest. Lews Therin’s, perhaps?
I’m far from angry with Rand for the way he handled this encounter, and I’m only a little mad at the Aes Sedai. It’s frustrating though, watching them misunderstand each other. Watching the Aes Sedai be led astray by the attack that so clearly didn’t come from Rand and probably wasn’t even made by real Aiel. Watching them fail to realize what Moiraine realized—that they cannot direct and control the Dragon Reborn the way they are accustomed to do with everyone else. That trying to do so will only cause further harm.
Speaking of Lews Therin, he specifically talks to Rand in this chapter, calling him a fool and addressing him as “you.” Until now, Lews Therin has used “I” statements in such moments, then become disturbed when Rand corrects him. And even in the encounter he has the line They think to impress me… (emphasis mine). I wonder if the ghost in Rand’s head is growing accustomed to his situation, or if this is some sign that the madness is deepening and Lews Therin’s presence is becoming stronger. He certainly seems to be vying for control of saidin more frequently, and Rand seems to be working harder and harder to keep it from him.
I am curious as to why the Aes Sedai were so put off by the fact that Perrin’s men were carrying the banner of Manetheren. Is it that they anticipate more vying for power, another rising nation claiming old rights and muddying the political waters even further? Or is there something else? Merana and Verin seem to think it’s a bigger deal than the others, and I feel like I trust their judgment more right now.
I love that the chapter ends with Merana’s prayer that the Hall has chosen an Amyrlin by now, and that she is very strong. That prayer has been answered, as it turns out, but I doubt that Merana will see it that way at first. I’m also pleased with myself for surmising last week that not having an Amyrlin’s authority backing the embassy was why Merana was struggling to maintain her appointed position. As she herself put it, without the full authority of the White Tower and an Amyrlin Seat they are “only a collection of Aes Sedai now, slipping into their relative places without thought.”
I don’t think we knew before now that Alanna tried to compel Rand when she bonded him—we saw that act only from Rand’s point of view so that makes sense. I was a little surprised to learn it, but I suppose I shouldn’t be. Of course someone who is as powerful a ta’veren as Rand is wouldn’t be very easy to compel. Alanna theorizes that it might have something to do with him being a channeler, but I think the ta’veren powers are a more likely culprit. I also find it weird that Kiruna agrees with the conventional opinion that bonding a man without permission is a violation, but that using such a bond to compel him is nothing more than a slap on the wrist in comparison. It seems pretty clear to me that bonding someone and using that bond to control and force compliance is a lot worse than bonding and allowing (if that’s what you want to call it) that person to have nearly complete freedom of movement and autonomy in every other respect. One is violation, a continual one, but the other is violation and enslavement. Hardly a slap on the wrist.
And so the Salidar embassy, with its unfortunate additions, has sent Rand running straight into the arms of the Tower embassy. But not in the way they think. Next week we’ll be covering Chapters 50 and 51, which contain a bunch more political machinations and culminate in a visit from Coiren and her lot. Yikes.
See you then!
Sylas K Barrett would like to thank Loial for reminding us that we met Erith before, as he had forgotten. It was pretty cute when she gave Loial the flower, and it’s also quite endearing the way Loial is excited to have an intelligent, engaging partner. Who knows, maybe she’s exactly the Ogier for him. It was also pretty funny when he told Perrin that he doesn’t understand because Faile does what Perrin says–Loial, she manipulated you into bringing her to the Two Rivers after Perrin expressly forbade it. You were there!
