The Eye of the World: Chapter Thirty-Nine

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: WEAVING OF THE WEB

The chapter opens on a high note by displaying more of Mat's winning personality:

• "Are you coming?" [Rand] asked again.
  
  Mat glowered from where he lay curled up in a ball on his bed. "Take the Trolloc you're so friendly with."
  
  "Blood and ashes, Mat, he's not a Trolloc. You're just being stubborn stupid. How many times do you want to have this argument? Light, it's not as if you'd never heard of Ogier before."
  
  "I never heard they looked like Trollocs." Mat pushed his face into his pillow and curled himself tighter.

Isn't he just a delightful card? Racism is fun when it's fun.

Fortunately, this is the last we see of Mat for now, as he's completely shut himself up in his room, not letting anyone else but Rand see him or give him food. Rand thinks he might be sick (which I certainly hope is the cause of his rotten attitude), but he can't get a healer up to the inn because it would make them vulnerable to assholes who are paranoid about people they don't understand being Darkfriends.

Honestly, I'm trying to understand where Mat's coming from right now, but the fact that he's acting almost exactly like the prejudiced masses we're supposed to hate is really not helping his case.

Not even kind, hospitable Master Gill is immune to hating people he doesn't know, as he points out a couple of "blood-be-damned traitors" to Rand before the guy leaves to see Logain being paraded through the city. Traitors to what cause, you may ask? Well, they wear white, the sign of opposition to the Queen, as opposed to red. Naturally, Rand doesn't have any real stake in this political debate, but since he's being sheltered by a very pro-queen inn, he's being dragged into it whether he likes it or not. Add to that the fact that the whites outnumber the reds about twenty to one and it seems that Rand's quest to find a place where he isn't in mortal peril remains fruitless.

He goes to the crowded streets where the parade celebrating Logain's capture is to pass by, which naturally reminds me of the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. I'm not a very outdoorsy sort of person, nor do I like waiting in crowds, so the appeal of parades is sort of lost on me. Then again, in a setting without photography or the internet, people would probably struggle to get a close look at a VIP more than they would in the real world.

But seeing Logain will have to wait, as Rand locks eyes with a shabby ragman who Master Gill said was looking for him. While there's no guarantee that he's a Darkfriend, there's not much option on what else he could be, and Rand suddenly decides that appearing in a public place isn't the right way to go. Instead he settles for scrabbling up a sodden slope and climbing a stone wall to get a more unconventional look at Logain. It's a bit of an odd thing for Rand to do, but it gives me the impression that he's curious about the world around him, and willing to indulge in a childlike sense of wonder. It gives him some character apart from typical Hero's Journey fare, and that's always a plus.

What he ends up seeing is a confident man with a regal bearing, acting like there's nothing wrong, like everything's going according to his plan. It makes me think of how the Joker acted in The Dark Knight after the first time he's captured, which turned out to be the setup for his real plan all along. Seeing this connection with a book published seventeen years before the release of that movie surprised me at first, but now that I think of it, it makes sense. Logain has been built up quite a bit before his first actual appearance here, and it would be a waste if he just spent the rest of the series defeated and captured, wouldn't it?

• "Why were the Aes Sedai watching him?" [Rand] wondered aloud.
  
  "They're keeping him from touching the True Source, silly."
  
  He jerked to look up, toward the girl's voice, and suddenly his precarious seat was gone. He had only time to realize that he was toppling backward, falling, when something struck his head and a laughing Logain chased him into spinning darkness.

Wait, what? What just happened? Who was that? Did Rand just fall and hit his head? Did someone knock him out? Why did he hear Logain laughing? WHO AM I?

The Eye of the World: Chapter Thirty-Eight

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: THE RESCUE

Yeah, this one was kind of a letdown, honestly. As it turns out, the Whitecloaks are completely unable to lift a finger against Lan and Moiraine's rescue attempts. The feeling of danger that I got when the super-competent fighter and sorceress weren't around was nice when it lasted, but now the stakes have been lowered again as the protagonists are being reunited. I'm still waiting for a nice, decent climax in this book, but this chapter wasn't it, or even the beginning of it.

Another issue I have with this chapter is the issue of Byar's character, which I don't think meshes up with his introduction way back in chapter thirty. Back then, it seemed like he was a psychopath who was barely being leashed by an immoral, bigoted organization who would let him have his way if they didn't want that veneer of respectability. Now he seems to be all business and an emotionless robot, who just kicks the crap out of Perrin because he thinks he doesn't have feelings. He is so obviously a Darkfriend, after all. It just doesn't mesh with me, maybe because of the way I interpreted Byar's first appearance. His character here is pretty explicitly spelled out, so it's not that open to interpretation. I assume this means it takes precedence, but I still find it weird that a character who's so dispassionately cruel would smile at the thought of the punishment the Whitecloaks have in store for Perrin and Egwene.

Anyway, this chapter does not entirely follow from the previous chapter, with the narrative cutting off on Nynaeve mid-rescue. Instead we start with a microcosm of Perrin and Egwene's experience as captives of the Whitecloaks, and I'm very grateful that Jordan was brief on that. What surprised me is what Byar does right before the rescue happens:

• "You are slowing us down, Darkfriend, you and your wolves. The Council of the Annointed has heard reports of such things, and they want to know more, so you must be taken to Amador and given to the Questioners, but you are slowing us down. I had hoped we could move fast enough, even without the remounts, but I was wrong."

His solution? Hint that there's a sharp rock for Perrin and Egwene to cut their bonds on, allowing them to escape, but not that there are guards waiting to butcher them the instant they try. It's actually a pretty clever idea that Perrin didn't catch onto at first, and if the wolves didn't alert him that help was coming, Byar might have just forced them into doing that.

But help does come just in the nick of time, and Lan drops Byar in seconds, not killing him because Jordan went to too much trouble to set up a recurring villain. Moiraine refers to Lan by a bunch of titles that hint at more history between them, and they all set off to meet Rand and Mat in Caemlyn.

As Nynaeve heals him of the conglomeration of bruises Byar gave him, she continues to express her irritation with Moiraine, and just as I'm about to vent on that like I did with Mat's whining, Moiraine proves that Nynaeve has good reason to bitch about her. When Nynaeve points out that Perrin's irises are yellow now, thinking that it's a symptom of a disease, Moiraine gives her the most obtuse non-explanation she possibly can:

• "Do you know what it is?" Nynaeve asked reluctantly, then hesitated. "Can you do something for him? Your Healing?" The request for aid, the admission that she could do nothing, came out of her as if dragged.
  
  Perrin glared at both the women. "If you're going to talk about me, talk to me,. I'm sitting right here." Neither looked at him.
  
  "Healing?" Moiraine smiled. "Healing can do nothing about this. It is not an illness, and it will not..." She hesitated briefly. She did glance at Perrin, then, a quick look that regretted many things. The look did not include him, though, and he muttered sourly as she turned back to Nynaeve. "I was going to say it will not harm him, but who can say what the end will be? At least I can say it will not harm him directly."
  

Because withholding information from the vulnerable youths who are on your side worked out so well for Albus Dumbledore, am I right? Fortunately, Lan is a bit more forthright with Perrin, listening to how he got his wolf communion abilities and explaining that Elyas used to be a Warder and a close friend of his. I can't wait to see Elyas again, much like I can't wait to see Tar Valon, stop this endless chase, and finish this book. But that'll have to wait until we get Rand and Mat back with Moiraine, so let's go do that now.

The Eye of the World: Chapter Thirty-Seven

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: THE LONG CHASE

Another Nynaeve chapter, and another short one at that. Judging by the events, this is probably the last time I'll be looking at things from Nynaeve's perspective in the book, barring her separation from other characters yet again, so it pains me to admit that Nynaeve probably shouldn't have been a focus character just yet. The book's chapters on Nynaeve were few and far between, and did little to advance things except to remind readers that Nynaeve, Lan, and Moiraine still existed and were following the people the villains were actually after were, the people who were getting into conflicts. I appreciate that Jordan didn't feel the need to add incidental events to their journey like he did with Rand and Mat's travel down the Caemlyn Road, but something to justify these chapters would have been nice, too.

The reason I feel that this will be the book's last chapter from Nynaeve's POV is that she and her companions have finally stumbled across Perrin and Egwene, as well as over two hundred Whitecloaks. Pretty even odds for Lan and Moiraine, if you ask me. That's also the reason this chapter is so short; since Perrin is involved in this rescue and his POV takes precedence over Nynaeve's, everything after he starts seeing his rescuers again must take place from his viewpoint. Nevertheless, Nynaeve's part in starting the rescue (cutting the ropes securing some of the horses to the point that they'll snap when the horses get spooked, creating a distraction) is a tense moment and the chapter ends on a decent cliffhanger.

A couple more things rather distracted me, however. For starters, Moiraine senses that Perrin (she doesn't know it's him specifically) has lost possession of his coin, only for her to sense that he's gotten it back a couple of paragraphs later. This indicates that the Whitecloaks did in fact give it back to him. Since Bornhald knows full well that this is an Aes Sedai charm meant to lead them back to Perrin, this indicates two possibilities: Either the Whitecloaks are blithering idiots or they have a trap waiting to spring for Moiraine.

Also, take a look at the behavior of the guards Nynaeve has to sneak past:

• "All is well with the night," one white-cloaked shape announced. "The Light illuminate us, and protect us from the Shadow."
  
  "All is well with the night," the other replied. "The Light illuminate us, and protect us from the Shadow."
  
  With that they turned and marched off into the darkness again.
  
  Nynaeve waited, counting to herself while they made their circuit twice. Each time they took exactly the same count, and each time they rigidly repeated the same formula, not a word more or less. Neither so much as glanced to one side; they stared straight ahead as they marched up, then marched away. She wondered if they would have noticed her even if she had been standing up.

Am I the only one who thinks their behavior is just like that of enemies in crude, early stealth games like Metal Gear Solid? I don't know whether to find this funny or creepy. I mean, I know that the Children of the Light hate any sort of individuality, but this is on a whole other level!

But Nynaeve does set the distraction in motion. Lightning crashes, horses run wild, and Elyas's wolfpack comes in, leaving Nynaeve in confusion. Will she and her friends get out alive? Tune in next time to find out!

NEXT TIME: Well, that was easy.

The Eye of the World: Chapter Thirty-Six

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: WEB OF THE PATTERN

There are two things that really grabbed my attention in this chapter. One was intended to by Jordan and the other was not. I'm going to start with the latter one first:

• Rand went back to his food, but he saw that Mat had stopped eating. "I thought you were hingry," he said. Mat kept staring at his plate, pushing one piece of potato in a circle with his fork. "You have to eat, Mat. We need to keep up our strength if we're going to reach Tar Valon."
  
  Mat let out a low, bitter laugh. "Tar Valon! All this time it's been Caemlyn. Moiraine would be waiting for us in Caemlyn. We'd find Perrin and Egwene in Caemlyn. Everything would be all right if we only got to Caemlyn. Well, here we are, and nothing's right. No Moiraine, no Perrin, no anybody. Now it's everything will be all right if we only get to Tar Valon."

My immediate reaction to this passage was to wish that I could slap the stupid out of Mat and order him to shut up if he couldn't say anything constructive. I am not the sort of person who jumps down characters' throats the instant they bemoan their circumstances. I think Shinji Ikari is a pretty cool guy, even if he does afraid of anything. But the combination of Mat saying variations on the exact same thing every chapter he's talked in recently and my chapter-a-day pace in a stretched-out book is starting to make me hate this character now. (Now that I think about it, I'm probably holding Shinji up to a double standard because I haven't seen Evangelion in a long time. Oh well.)

I started thinking of how much longer I could stand to tolerate this attitude coming from Mat, and when I finished the chapter I began to thought of in-story events that could make him stop being such a broken Simple Plan record. Here's what I came up with, in order of my preference for those events:

1. Reuniting with any of the traveling companions he got separated from in Shadar Logoth,
2. Losing that dagger he found there by theft or destruction, breaking a spell it had on him,
3. Getting fed up with Rand and leaving either permanently or temporarily,
4. Turning on Rand to save his own skin,
5. Dying.

As long as Mat changes for the better before the end of the book, I'd rather not see that last option happen. Otherwise, though, all bets are off.

I spent so much time thinking about Mat at first that I forgot the conversation Rand had with Gill before they got their (pitiful) meal. Rand tells Gill the whole story, but with the Fades an Trollocs changed to ordinary men and Darkfriends, since not everyone believes in them. Gill offers his help, and points out that going to Elaida (or the Guards) would be a bad idea since it's likely she'll ascertain the connection with Thom, who left Morgase on very bad terms. Rand eats with mat, hangs around the common room, then gets uncomfortable and moves to the library (which this inn has, I guess), where he finally meets someone who managed to put Mat out of my mind for a while.

Rand stumbles into a guy named Loial in the library, who's in there not because he wants some privacy from the hustle and bustle of the crowd, but in order to keep people from panicking about the fact that he's ten feet tall and furry with a snout-like nose and eyebrows that grow so long that they dangle from his face like leaves on a weeping willow. Yes, Loial is the Wheel of Time's very first non-human character!

He belongs to a race of beings called the Ogier, which I vaguely remember hearing some characters talking about before. All I remembered is that they lived long ago and built ancient cities like Caemlyn and Manetheren, which lead be to believe that they were an ancient precursor civilization of humans that died out long ago. Instead, they turn out to be a reclusive, long-lived species with barely any similarities to be had with humans. Because it's the only other high fantasy story I have reference to, I immediately thought of the Ents from Lord of the Rings when I heard that the Ogier were patient and slow to act in accordance with their longer lifespans.

Unlike the Ents, though, Loial is a hot-tempered youth of ninety years, who brazenly left the stedding he's bound to in order to see the world! His age is a bit of a sensitive matter to him, as he can't take part in Ogier meetings for another decade, even the meeting that decided whether he could leave the stedding or not. When Rand tells him the story of his travels, Loial even expresses a wish to come with him so that he can visit the grove in Tar Valon.

Even so, Loial is polite and subdued; when Rand reacts with shock upon first seeing him, mentally mistaking him for a Trolloc, Loial just says, "I wish you humans wouldn't do that." Indeed, his reaction to human prejudice and being sequestered in the inn's library is confusion and not pain. He also reminisces on when cities had different names and when there was a grove in Caemlyn. When Rand tells him that Two Rivers was once named Manetheren, Loial suddenly recognizes it and apologizes that the Ogier couldn't get there in time.

Because Rand gets a vibe of naivete from Loial, he reluctantly tells him the whole truth about the journey, from which Loial concludes that he is ta'veren, a thread in the Pattern that tangles up other threads (a metaphor for Rand's destiny influencing the destiny of others). He explains this with the air of a proud student who wants to prove that he did in fact learn something from school, which is appropriate since nobody who graduated from school is surprised that Rand is destined for Great Things (TM). Is there really a need to beat us over the head with this, Jordan? But I am glad that the Pattern allows for a little leeway in how most people can live their lives, as long as it doesn't really interfere with whatever grand scheme of things that vague metaphysical forces have in store for the world.

Despite the corniness of the revelation that Rand is a VIP (which Rand humbly denies, of course), I am kind of interested in Loial. True, I would have preferred that Rand run into old companions than new ones, but I guess it would be nice to see Thom's slot in the party get filled.

NEXT TIME: We catch up with someone else.

The Eye of the World: Chapter Thirty-Five

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: CAEMLYN

As the final third of the book begins, things are finally looking up, with the main character having arrived in an honest-to-God city, where plotlines are set to converge and there's danger and intrigue lurking in the distance. This is where my own personal bias comes into play, as I have always found cities more interesting than the open wilderness. Don't get me wrong, unspoiled vistas of forests and mountains and even deserts are breathtaking to look at, and breathing in fresh air with a pine scent is a nice sensation, but those joys are ephemeral and I tend to get bored of them rather quickly. A city, by contrast, is full of interesting people and a myriad of different cultures interacting and sometimes clashing with one another. Even if privacy is hard to find sometimes, you can always find something interesting going on in a city, especially a fictional city. It's really just a personal preference; The Lies of Locke Lamora and Perdido Street Station each took place entirely in one city and I'm going to have to put them several levels higher than Eye of the World.

This being Rand's first real city, he's as happy to see it as I am, or at least in complete awe of the sheer enormity of the place. His mind tries to grasp how many Whitebridges or Baerlons would fit inside Caemlyn, and sees the crowd he remembers seeing back home at Bel Tine repeated thousands of times over. Mat, meanwhile, only sees threats to their safety multiplied:

• "How are we going to hide in this?" he demanded loudly when he saw Rand looking. "How can we tell who to trust with so many? So bloody many. Light, the noise!"
  
  Rand looked at Bunt before answering. The farmer was caught up in staring at the city; with the noise, he might not have heard anyway. Still, Rand put his mouth close to Mat's ear. "How can they find us among so many? Can't you see it, you wool-headed idiot? We're safe, if you ever learn to watch your bloody tongue!" He flung out a hand to take in everything, the markets, the city walls still ahead. "Look at it, Mat! Anything could happen here! Anything! We might even find Moiraine waiting for us, and Egwene, and all the rest."
  

Thank you, Rand, you are entirely correct! Mat's sullen paranoia is starting to get on my nerves at this point, as it's been pretty one-note from what I can remember, and I still don't have a definitive answer as to why Mat's personality changed so suddenly after Shadar Logoth. But he does have a point in that the city is so big they barely have any idea of where to go next. Fortunately, they do have one lead: the inn that Thom directed them to before he died.

They head off, but not before Bunt advises Rand not to carry his sword where people can see the heron mark. Yeah, he pretty much figured out that they were the people his sketchy friend told him about, but he just shrugs it off and walks away, leaving well enough alone. Because he wants to be loyal to Tam, Rand resists the idea of putting the sword away despite the fact that it would be a really smart move, and as almost soon as I thought of a compromise that Rand could use to solve this problem - covering up the heron mark with cloth - Rand himself thinks sees swords with hilts wrapped in cloth and goes to buy cloth to do the same thing, naturally getting scalped by a cynical local businessman who insults and threatens him. What was that Bunt said about Caemlyn being the grandest city in the world again?

After passing by a ton of people on the streets, they do get to the inn, and I have to admit that I find it amusing that Rand finds fat innkeepers far more trustworthy than skinny ones. But then if the only skinny innkeeper I ever met was a creeper like Saml Hake, I'd probably make the same association no matter how illogical it really was. This fat innkeeper, Basel Gill, is an old friend of Thom's, and manages to fill in some things about him:

• "I'll believe he's dead," the innkeeper said slowly, "when I see his corpse." He nudged the bundled cloak with his toe and cleared his throat roughly. "Nay, nay, I believe you saw whatever it was you sawl I just don't believe he's dead. He's a harder man to kill than you might believe, is old Thom Merrilin."

Interestingly enough, we get a little backstory for Thom from Gill, which surprised me, because what I knew about Thom was simple, but seemed complete in itself. Not that I'm complaining to get more character development, unless perhaps it's for a character who's legitimately dead and might not actually affect the series anymore. When I think of characters who get more focus after their death than before, I think of the Comedian from Watchmen, which is just about the best way a writer can do it. Of course, if Thom is alive after all (which might not be as much of a copout as I thought at first, I dunno), this talk is moot, but I'm keeping an eye out for more of this subplot. I'm adding it to the list, as it were.

NEXT TIME: Rand hunkers down, meets a new friend.

The Eye of the World: Chapter Thirty-Four

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR: THE LAST VILLAGE

I found myself focusing on the background details that we learn in this chapter instead of Rand and Mat, because their progression through this chapter is the exact same goddamn thing it was in the last one. If it weren't for the fact that there was a pointless chronology scramble in the last chapter, these chapters could be merged and presumably shortened into one. I'm sure it was enjoyable for Jordan to write, but it's generally not a good idea to be so redundant and repetitious when telling a story.

The pair continue to trudge along the Caemlyn Road, and it's choked full of people wanting to see Logain in chains before he's sentenced to death or life imprisonment or whatever fate awaits him. Much like the average tourist in the real world, they're self-centered and completely disrespectful of anything that gets in the way of their fun:

• A flicker of motion as the first wagon rumbled close was all the warning [Rand] had. He went sprawling on the ground as the wagon driver's whip cracked in the air where his head had been. From where he lay he met the driver's eyes as the wagon rolled by. Hard eyes above a mouth in a tight grimace. Not a care that he might have drawn blood, or taken an eye.
  
  "Light blind you!" Mat shouted after the wagon. "You can't-" A mounted guard caught him on the shoulder with the butt of his spear, knocking him down atop Rand.
  
  "Out of the way, you dirty Darkfriend!" the guard growled without slowing.

These two can't catch a break, can they? I thought accusing people of being Darkfriends was serious business, but I guess it can just be used as a casual insult by people with road rage.

Everyone's sick of these jerks on the road, but sadly the hands of the Queen's Guard are tied, as they haven't actually hurt anyone or stolen anything yet. They seem like far more reasonable authority figures than the Whitecloaks, who are less beleaguered and at their wits end than bigoted and frothing at the mouth.

It's starting to feel like Mat and Rand are part of the Long Walk now, with Rand's insistence that they keep going as much as they can despite exhaustion and hunger. They can't afford food anymore, nor can they perform for money thanks to the Darkfriends knowing about their entertaining abilities. Through sheer willpower, they manage to make it to another village, where Rand spots a Fade almost immediately.

Thankfully, it doesn't spot him, instead talking with an innkeeper and leaving. The innkeeper passes on the cover story it told him to Almen Bunt, a man with a cart nearby, that Rand and Mat stole the heron-mark sword from him. It's a reasonable story, since nobody's going to believe that a weapon like that is the rightful property of a peasant boy like Rand, but Bunt doesn't seem to be taking it all that seriously:

• "Darkfriends and followers of the false Dragon? And telling wild stories, too? Getting up to a lot for young fellows. You did say they were young?" There was a sudden note of amusement in Bunt's voice, but the innkeeper did not seem to notice.

Bunt disregards the innkeeper's warnings about traveling and gets ready to leave, and Rand decides that he's better off with him than with the Fade. They hit it off well and Bunt starts an expository talk about Caemlyn and its politics.

Apparently Caemlyn is the capital of the nation of Andor (where we've spent the whole story so far), or at least where Queen Morgase lives. She also works with an Aes Sedai named Elaida, and it's a matter of contention as to which of them is dominant over the other. Uh, I mean which one is in control. Yeah. Rand thinks Elaida would be helpful, but Mat just shakes his head, because he doesn't trust anyone anymore.

Bunt is a good Queen's man - I know because he said so at least three times - and denies that Morgase is subservient to Elaida or that she wrongfully stole the throne from the previous heirs, Luc and Tigraine, who died in the Blight and vanished without a trace, respectively. They were trained as Warder and Aes Sedai, as are the current Lady Elayne and Lord Gawyn, which doesn't sit well with Bunt. He'd just as soon see Andor sever ties with Tar Valon. It might sound weird, but political intrigue like this is a good way to hold my attention. Hell, there's times when real world politics can really capture my interest, so fantasy politics are good, too, and you just know that Rand's going to get dragged into that mess sooner or later.

That's all Rand hears before Bunt's endless droning puts him to sleep. When he wakes up, they're in Caemlyn, and Mat confirms that Bunt talked the entire way there.

I may be getting my hopes up here, but now that the boys have finally reached Caemlyn, I'm excited for what sort of things are going to happen here now. It seems like everything's going to happen in Caemlyn! Everyone's going there or already inside: Rand and Mat just got there, the Whitecloaks who captured Perrin and Egwene are stopping over there, Moiraine, Lan, and Nynaeve are following them, Logain is on display in the city, and then there's the mysterious queen we know barely anything about. If this series is worth a tinker's damn, things are going to happen and happen big. Let's not waste any more time!

NEXT TIME: Caemlyn, at long last.

The Eye of the World: Chapter Thirty-Three

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: THE DARK WAITS

I don't really know what this chapter accomplished. It's yet another travel montage, and I'm really starting to wonder how many of them this book needs (and at this point I'd much rather see one of the captive Perrin and Egwene, or even with Nynaeve's party). Admittedly, I don't have too much experience writing stories myself, but I'm not sure if this is just too much world- or mood-building. I hesitate to call the chapter padding, because things do happen in this chapter, but I don't see how those things could possibly effect the plot in the grand scheme of things.

Another thing about this chapter that baffles me is that it's not in chronological order. It begins with Mat and Rand riding on the cart of a friendly merchant, who takes them far enough to be two days from Caemlyn. In the beginning, I had no idea how they met up with this guy, and just sort of assumed that those circumstances weren't of much consequence. Then, after a break of white space (which I think is only the second time I've seen such a break in this book), Rand and Mat go through some other events, ending the chapter with them meeting the merchant for the very first time. What was the point of going anachronic for this one chapter? I don't mind things being told out of order, but it helps if the audience knows that's how you're doing things!

Since this break with tradition makes no sense to me, at least for now, I'm going to present things in the order that they actually happened:

1. Another dream with Ba'alzamon, this time at the Dancing Cartman with Gode's burned, barely-alive body turning to dust. When they guys talked about Gode and how they hoped he was dead, I took that as a sign to mean that he would survive and become a recurring villain, but I guess not.
   
   It's at this point that I have to admit that I like how Jordan can come up with decent names - with just a hint of exoticism because FANTASY - for a handful of incidental characters who pop up here, at least some of which will undoubtedly never show up again for the rest of the series. It conveys the impression that there are things that exist in the world outside the story's main narrative, along with news from far-off places like the capture of Logain.
   
   But what I don't admire is the villain cliche of the main bad guy instantly disposing of his minions the instant they fail at a task he gives them. I just pictured Ba'alzamon disintegrating a henchman for putting too much foam on his latte, which isn't a good sign for the depth of his character. Honestly, if he doesn't get any deeper than this, I would have preferred it if he pulled a Sauron and never made a personal appearance.
   
   
2. Mat not only has a similar dream, but wakes up completely blind. Not to worry, he does get most of his vision back by the end/beginning of the chapter, which again makes me wonder what this contributes to the grand scheme of things.
   
   
3. They meet a kind man who gives them another ride on a cart, and can tell that they're running from something. He graciously gives them each a woolen scarf, and Rand says that he's "the best we've met in days," which kind of broke my heart a little. I still noticed that this guy repeated a bit of his own dialogue, as did Ba'alzamon in Rand's dream. Weird.
   
   
4. They stop at another inn, where rising prices part them from most of their remaining money. Mat starts seeing again, and Rand looks forward to getting to Caemlyn and seeing Moiraine again. Whatever misgivings about her he had before have been swept away by the experience of living without her. Then a twitchy young man comes by and is almost immediately guessed to be a Darkfriend. Rand and Mat waste no time hurling verbal abuse at him, and he tries to convince them to talk before just losing it and blowing his cover in a common room with people in it. It was a sad, pathetic display which reminded me of a drug addict desperately trying to get another fix that he doesn't have the means to acquire.
   
   I also noticed that Mat initially asked the guy what he wanted to talk about before hearing Rand shut him down, at which point he joined in. I think I know where this is going.
   
   
5. They leave for another village and hear the news of Darkfriends appearing in the town they just left. The stories naturally vary from the truth; some say there weren't any Darkfriends while others claim that dozens had gathered for some sort of ritual orgy or something.
   
   
6. They reach another inn, which Rand notes to be about the same small size of the last one, prompting this paragraph:
   
   Strange, to think of the Winespring Inn as small. Rand could remember when he thought it was about as big as a building could be. Anything bigger would be a palace. But he had seen a few things, now, and suddenly he realized that nothing would look the same to him when he got back home. If you ever do.
   
   Rand collapses from an illness he caught from being soaked in the rain and is forced to sleep in the stables. There is no Wisdom to help him out, and thus he hallucinates guilt-provoking visions of all the people who aren't with him until his fever breaks.
   
   
7. A woman comes in, offers to look at Rand, and turns out to be another Darkfriend. Mat foils her assassination attempt, disarms her, and kicks her out (after being urged to spare her by Rand). Then they leave town and quickly meet up with the merchant guy. End chapter.
   
   
8. They ride with him, and see a procession of the Queen's Guard. The merchant has to explain to Mat and Rand who these are, and Rand thinks on his ignorance of the queen, noting that Two Rivers always seemed completely autonomous to him. It seemed that way to me, too; I didn't even know that there was a queen until a few chapters ago. Then they get off two days from Caemlyn.
   

None of that really seemed essential to me, and I can't see how I'll be proven wrong.

NEXT TIME: Tourists and politics.

The Eye of the World: Chapter Thirty-Two

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: FOUR KINGS IN SHADOW

Even though Jordan made the stupid move of flat-out telling me that something bad would happen to the boys in Four Kings, I managed to stay in suspense throughout this chapter again because at least Jordan didn't say what would happen, exactly. For a while, I debated to myself whether that little disclosure actually heightened my suspense, but in the end I decided that it didn't.

The titular Four Kings is a village right next to Caemlyn, sitting at the nine-tenths mark of the Caemlyn Road. Once they get there, Mat and Rand try to find an inn to play at, but the only one that doesn't have much better musicians playing is a wretched hive of scum and villainy called The Dancing Cartman. Rand and Mat decide that they'd much rather have a roof over their heads as they sleep than stay under a bridge, but after the first look at the inn's proprietor, I would have made an about-face and searched for the nearest bridge, pneumonia be damned:

• "I've got a man plays the dulcimer," the innkeeper said sourly.
  
  "You have a drunk, Saml Hake," one of the serving maids said. She was passing him with a tray and two mugs, and she paused to give Rand and Mat a plump smile. "Most times, he can't see well enough to find the common room," she confided in a loud whisper. "Haven't even seen him in two days."
  
  Without taking his eyes off Rand and Mat, Hake casually backhanded her across the face. She gave a surprised grunt and fell heavily to the unwashed floor; one of the mugs broke, and the spilled wine washed rivulets in the dirt. "You're docked for the wine and breakage. Get 'em fresh drinks. And hurry. Men don't pay to wait while you laze around." His tone was as offhand as the blow. None of the patrons looked up from their wine, and the other serving maids kept their eyes averted.

By the end of the chapter, I could picture this creep giving me a weird look on the subway. At first he just seems like a joyless asshole who abuses the women he employs like it's no big deal, but after Rand and Mat break a deal with him and start to draw a crowd, he suddenly develops a new layer of slime:

• Hake smiled when he looked at Rand and Mat. After a while Rand realized that Hake was not smiling at them; the smiles came when his eyes slid behind them, to where the heron-mark sword lay. Once, when Rand set the gold-and-silver-chased flute down beside his stool, the flute got a smile, too.

And thus begins a subtle cat-and-mouse game, where Rand and Mat look for a way to escape the inn (and hopefully get at least a meal out of the deal) without being robbed while Hake and his bouncers, Jak and Strom (If you must use contemporary English names like "Jack" or "Samuel" in your fantasy epic, make sure to at least spell them differetly, I suppose) keep the two of them trapped in the inn until it's time for bed. Throughout the evening neither party outright lets the other know of their intentions, but they manage to pick up on subtle things and learn about them anyway.

The game gets even more complex when a "sleekly fleshy" (really, Jordan?) stranger enters, dressed in fancy finery and taking a rather worrying interest in Rand and Mat. Because I haven't worked the urge to reference Lord of the Rings out of my system yet, I immediately (and incorrectly) thought of Aragorn here.

The suspense continues without a hiccup as Rand and Mat keep playing for the crowd. They even nut up and demand food from Hake:

• When they had been performing for two hours, as near as Rand could estimate, he slipped the flute into its case and he and Mat gathered up their belongings. As they were stepping down from the low platform, Hake came bustling up, anger twisting his narrow face.
  
  "It's time to eat," Rand said to forestall him, "and we don't want our things stolen. You want to tell the cook?" Hake hesitated, still angry, trying unsuccessfully to keep his eyes off what Rand held in his arms. Casually Rand shifted his bundles so he could rest one hand on the sword. "Or you can try throwing us out." He made the emphasis deliberately, then added, "There's a lot of night left for us to play, yet. We have to keep our strength up if we're going to perform well enough to keep this crowd spending money. How long do you think this room will stay full if we fall over from hunger?"
  
  Hake's eyes twitched over the room full of men putting money in his pocket, then he turned and stuck his head through the door to the rear of the inn. "Feed 'em!" he shouted. Rounding on Rand and Mat, he snarled, "Don't be all night about it. I expect you up there till the last man's gone."

But the token of goodwill that makes me give Jordan for that display gets rescinded almost immediately when Rand just happens to overhear a conversation two of the serving maids have about the rich stranger who's eyeing Rand. He learns that the man has been ducking in and out of every Four Kings inn but this one, and in a cinematic moment, Rand steps into the outside, where it's pitch black and pouring buckets, and reads the name Howal Gode off the man's carriage thanks to a flash of lightning.

• [Rand] had never realized before what a good trap the inn made. Hake, Jak and Strom did not even have to keep a close eye on them; the crowd would let them know if he or Mat left the dais. As long as the common room was full of people, Hake could not send Jak and Strom after them, but as long as the common room was full of people they could not get away without Hake knowing. And Gode was watching their every move, too. It was so funny he would have laughed if he had not been on the point of throwing up. They would just have to be wary and wait their chance.

Unfortunately, the closest thing they get to that chance comes when they're shown to their rooms. They find something to block the door, but the window is not only jammed and hard to open, but it's also barred. As they try to pry off the bars and get the window open, with the pouring rain making everything slippery, Gode offers his ultimatum:

• "Stop being foolish, my young friends. You know. You know very well. The Great Lord of the Dark has marked you for his own. It is written that when he awakes, the new Dreadlords will be there to praise him. You must be two of them, else I would not have been sent to find you. Think of it. Life everlasting, and power beyond dreams." His voice was thick with hunger for that power himself.
  
  Rand glanced back at the window just as lightning split the sky, and he almost groaned. The brief flash of light showed men outside, men ignoring the raid that drenched them as they stood watching the window.
  
  "I tire of this," Gode announced. "You will submit to my master - to your master - or you will be made to submit. That would not be pleasant for you. The Great Lord of the Dark rules death, and the can give life in death or death in like as he chooses. Open this door. One way or another, your running is at an end. Open it, I say!"

And as Gode hammers down the door, it would seem that their running is indeed at an end, were it not for the lightning blasting a hole in the wall, clearing a way for Rand and Mat to escape and leaving them completely unharmed.

What seems at first like a deus ex machina is obviously Rand tapping into the One Power for the first time. Even if I hadn't remembered reading a spoiler a long time ago about Rand having magic, I probably could have figured things out from knowing that Rand's going to be the Dragon Reborn, and that even the false Dragon Logaine had magic at his disposal. In other words, we're seeing the beginning of another subplot here, and I'm beginning to think that none of them are going to be resolved in this book.

NEXT TIME: Not much of anything, really.

The Eye of the World: Chapter Thirty-One

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: PLAY FOR YOUR SUPPER

Naturally, after leaving us with a huge cliffhanger like that, we cut to Rand and Mat in what is essentially a written version of a travel montage. Throughout the chapter, we see them walking down the Caemlyn Road, and putting the gleeman skills they learned from Thom to use. Since this is just after Thom's death, the chapter starts off on a rather low note, and manages to keep an uncomfortable, almost claustrophobic mood throughout.

Actually, in my case, I think it worked a bit too well, and I kept dreading another tragedy to kick the boys when they're down. They spent the first leg of their journey to Caemlyn looking for dust trails and avoiding everyone on the road, just in case they're Fades looking for them. Combine that with Rand furtively staring behind them in the vain hopes that Thom will show up again, as well as Rand's homesick musings whenever he saw a village on the side of the road, and it made me feel somber and share in the sensation that something else was going to go wrong for them.

Another interesting moment comes when Rand suggests to Mat that he sell that dagger with the ruby pommel to help them pay for food, lodging, and transportation. At first, Mat gets defensive and snaps at Rand for even thinking of separating him from his precious, but then he listens to Rand's retort, calms down, and points out actual flaws in this plan:

• They stood like that in the middle of the road until Mat suddenly gave an uncomfortably shrug, and dropped his eyes to the road. "Who would I sell it to, Rand? A farmer would have to pay in chickens; we couldn't buy a carriage with chickens. And if I even showed it in any village we've been through, they'd probably think we stole it. The Light knows what would happen then."

I'm always happy when characters display signs of intelligence like this, and it kind of makes my joking that Mat's turned into Gollum kind of silly now. The dagger may not be a supernatural treasure that inspires greed after all. Maybe Mat's just the sort of person who'd let the prospect of owning something that's worth more than half of Emond's Field go to his head like this. Then again, if this is just a normal piece of treasure, then why was it featured in Min's prophecy (which I'll come back to soon)?

We've never gotten a look into Mat's thoughts like we have with Rand and Perrin, so I'm not sure what's going through his head right now. At one point I thought that he was being more ambitious than his friends, wanting to see the world and make a bigger life for himself than Emond's Field would allow. Then I remembered that ever since Shadar Logoth, he's been on edge and considerably more dour than he used to be, when he was letting loose badgers on young women and pushing barrels onto Whitecloaks just for kicks. Maybe that made him wish he never left? Right now it's still pretty inconclusive for me.

But Rand and Mat apologizing doesn't do anything to solve the duo's money troubles. They still have to figure out how they're going to eat, and at first they try and see if they can steal anything. But of course they soon find out that the risk isn't worth the reward, and looking back I'm surprised that the chapter kind of glosses over this. They didn't get hurt or killed or caught or anything like that. They just get chased off one farm and call off other prospective thievery attempts when they spend hours waiting for an opening in the farmhounds' patrols that never comes. China Mieville would have screwed them over hard and fast, but I suppose Robert Jordan figured they've suffered enough for now.

So instead they offer their services doing odd jobs in the nameless villages on the Caemlyn Road, despite Mat's constant suspicion of the people they stay with. Even with the tension I was feeling in this chapter (which probably should have worn off by then), I didn't buy Mat's assertions for a second. Most of the various jobs they do are glossed over by the montage-like writing in the chapter, but then things slow down again when they get to the Grinwell farmstead.

The first thing I noticed is that the farmer's daughter, Else, started blatantly flirting with Rand and Mat. Here it comes, I thought. One of them is going to sleep with her and they're going to be nearly lynched. I was still expecting things to get worse, and so I latched onto the old farmer's daughter cliche, not thinking about how little sense it would make for the boys to jump her bones with the Dark One's hunt for them in the back of their minds. So Else doesn't get lucky, but she does get forced to let the boys use her room for the night. I did kind of chuckle when Else grimaced at that, no doubt because she wouldn't be joining them.

But the main reason the chapter doesn't gloss over the boys' visit with the Grinwells is because that's when they start using their apprentice-level showmanship abilities to earn money. It's what convinces the Grinwells to give them a room for the night, and the narrative flat-out admits that while they're a poor substitute for a real gleeman, these rural folk don't know enough about entertainment to tell the difference, much like most casual moviegoers in the real world. It's another nice moment that finally managed to relieve tension. The boys are honoring Thom's memory by using his old stuff to carry on his tradition to their limited abilities, and that made me smile.

Then I read this:

• Rand began to think their problems were over till they reached Caemlyn. But then they came to Four Kings.

Thanks for that, Jordan. I almost got sucked into the story there. Thanks for breaking the illusion. I always, always hate it when authors just spoil their own story like that, whether it be just telling the readers to expect bad things as opposed to implying it, or through ham-fisted and obvious foreshadowing.

I'm a huge Stephen King fan, and I consider The Stand to be one of his best works, but King ended up doing that same thing (by ending chapters with "Little did Character X know that he/she'd never see Characer Y again) a few times in the latter half of the book, which almost ruined the experience for me. I never understand why authors would ever do this!

Contrast that with the way Min's mystical omen-vision happened back in Baerlon. I'm not entirely enthusiastic about that happening - mainly because it makes Min seem more like a plot device than an actual character - but it gave hints to these characters' futures in an acceptable way, by depriving them of context and making the audience wonder what they mean, instead of just ruining the surprise, like Stephenie Meyer constantly did for Mark with her foreshadowing.

But whatever. The horrible thing I expected to happen in this chapter will instead happen in the next one. Bring it on.

The Eye of the World: Chapter Thirty

CHAPTER THIRTY: CHILDREN OF SHADOW

One of my favorite things for an author to do is to present old elements of a story in a new context, and another one is lowballing the audience's expectations in order to blow them away later. Aspects of a story that are at first disappointing and predictable can blossom and make a story far more interesting than if they started out that way. Now, this is a risky move to make, since there's always the risk that a reader or viewer will get fed up and leave before they can see the payoff. In this case, though, the setup and payoff comes in one book.

In this case, I'm talking about Moiraine, who is so much more capable than the other protagonists that she seems like a deus ex machina in the early parts of the story, but serves to make them far more vulnerable when they end up being separated from her. If she was with Rand, Mat, and Thom when the Fade tracked them down in Whitebridge, there isn't the slightest chance that she would have allowed any of them to die, let alone sacrifice themselves for their companions.

(Consequently, this explains why Nynaeve's chapters are the least interesting of the prospective viewpoints. Since the bad guys are only after Perrin, Rand, and Mat, none of which are traveling with her now, there's been no conflict with her except her insecurities regarding Moiraine. Since she's been so scarcely featured, it's clear that Jordan agrees with me.)

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Before we can see yet another dire consequence of Moiraine's absence, we come back to Perrin, and the shell shock he got from being nearly caught by the raven's. Specifically, he's grappling with the fact that he very nearly cut Egwene down with his axe, in order to spare her a far more painful death in being picked apart by birds. This prompts a heart-to-heart with Elyas:

• "A blind man could read your face, boy. Well, speak up. Do you hate the girl? Do you despise her? That's it. You were ready to kill her because you despise her, always dragging your feet, holding you back with her womanish ways.

...what the hell? Naturally, Elyas doesn't actually mean this - I think - but I have no idea why he decided to start his talk with Perrin that way. Fortunately, he manages to say wiser things after that:

• "I hate this bloody thing," [Perrin] growled. "I don't know what I'm doing with it, strutting around like some kind of fool. I couldn't have done it, you know. When it was all pretend and maybe, I could swagger, and play as if I..." He sighed, his voice fading. "It's different, now. I don't every want to use it again."
  
  "You'll use it."
  
  Perrin raised the axe to throw it in the pool, but Elyas caught his wrist.
  
  "You'll use it, boy, and as long as you hate using it, you will use it more wisely than most would. Wait. If ever you don't hate it any longer, then will be the time to throw it as far as you can and run the other way."

Not exactly a new moment for me, but it works, and it gives me a good respect for Elyas. Shame we may not be seeing him again after this.

Almost immediately after Elyas talks with Perrin, they both get a mental signal from the wolves that men on horseback - ordinary men who can enter the stedding no matter how rotten they are - are approaching. Outrunning them isn't an option, so Perrin and Egwene have to hide while Elyas and the wolfpack do their best to hinder the riders, but it's all in vain. The riders, revealed to be Whitecloaks, find Perrin and Egwene, and to add insult to injury, Perrin's mind was melded to that of one of the younger wolves when that wolf was skewered like a sausage.

• Out of the nigh Hopper came, and Perrin was one with the wolf. Hopper, the cub who had watched the eagles soar, and wanted so badly to fly through the sky as the eagles did. The cub who hopped and jumped and leaped until he could leap higher than any other wolf, and who never lost the cub's yearning to soar through the sky...
  
  ...His good eye met Perrin's two for just an instant. Run, brother! He whirled to leap again, to soar one last time, and a lance pinned him to the earth. A second length of steel thrust through his ribs, driving him into the ground under him. Kicking, he snapped at the shafts that held him. To soar.
  
  Pain filled Perrin, and he screamed, a wordless scream that had something of a wolf's cry in it.

Some of the wolves have names, given to them by Elyas as the closest thing to their identity as wolves. I didn't mention it before because it didn't seem at all relevant until right there. Hopper's death doesn't carry as much weight as Thom's because he isn't characterized until right before his death. It's rather like when an eager, naive cadet dies in a war movie, but it still managed to affect me, especially when the Whitecloaks casually admit that they skinned him and turned him into a rug.

Which brings me to after Perrin wakes up in a tent, with him and Egwene bound with ropes so tightly that they cut into his skin when he struggles. From this helpless position, they talk with a Whitecloak captain and his subordinate, Child Byar, who is so psychotic and bloodthirsty that he tried to cleave Perrin's skull open with his own axe just because Perrin talked back to him and the captain. Indeed, the captain seems much more reasonable by comparison when he rebukes Byar, joyfully laughing at Byar's ridiculous assertion that their party was attacked by fifty wolves and over a dozen people.

Of c ourse, my initial hopes that the captain was actually lenient and not just playing good cop, bad cop is immediately dashed when he introduces himself as Geofram Bornhald. A glint of recognition flared in my mind, and I flipped back through the book to check for that name. Just as I suspected, this is the same bellicose fanatic who accosted Rand and Mat in Baerlon, and tried to keep them from leaving it. Back then, of course, he was an inconsequential dullard, who was made a fool of by Mat and knocked aside easily by Moiraine's magic. But as I've said, Moiraine isn't here now, and Bornhald holds all the cards now.

Perrin and Egwene dig themselves deeper into the hole as they try to explain that wolves aren't evil, then revealing that they've talked to a warder, and know the name Shadar Logoth. Not that I think that any story of theirs would explain why Perrin carries Moiraine's silver piece, which Bornhald recognizes as a tracking charm. The entire conversation comes off as rather sadistic. Sure, Bornhald reacts like a grandfather who's disappointed in his children, but Byar is clearly enjoying seeing them squirm.

In the end, Egwene and Perrin are prisoners, and since Perrin actually ended up killing a pair of Whitecloaks in a berserk fury after Hopper died, he's doomed for jail in the faraway city of Amador. Elyas is nowhere to be seen; Perrin can't sense him or the wolves anywhere nearby. The status of the tracking spell on Perrin's coin is unknown, as the coin was taken from him and since I didn't explicitly read anything about giving it back with the rest of his non-weapon possessions, I can only assume they didn't. Moiraine is tracking them down, but the Whitecloaks doubtlessly know she's coming, and will prepare accordingly (though the wolves did manage to inflict heavy casualties on them and their horses). All of our protagonists are set on a collision course for Caemlyn, and it's a suspenseful situation that genuinely excites me.

I'm not so inexperienced with fiction that I thought Bornhald was gone for good after his brief appearance in Baerlon, so I was expecting to see him again. But his role in the story has turned upside-down, and now he's managed to draw more heat as a villain from me in a single chapter than Ba'alzamon has in the entire book. Much like in Harry Potter, I love to hate the petty, corrupt bigot far more than the grandiose, super-powered master of all evil. The more realistic and oppressive evil that I can see happening in the real world will always be more compelling than a cross between Sauron and Freddy Krueger. That's just the way it is.

More than ever before, I can't wait to keep reading. Expect the next update soon.

NEXT TIME: On the road again.

The Eye of the World: Chapter Twenty-Nine

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: EYES WITHOUT PITY

As much as I've moaned about the slow pace of this book, and the way I've chosen to read the book, it is really slow, I have to admit that none of the action scenes (so to speak) in the book have really disappointed me. Granted, I'm not much of a judge of action scenes, let along action scenes in books, but still.

The action scene that takes up most of this chapter manages to be different enough from the previous ones to avoid coming across as stale and repetitive. This time around, Perrin, Egwene, and Elyas are being hunted by flocks of hundreds of ravens, and they have to weave through the hills to avoid being detected by the ravens, which they can't outrun. At first I was rather skeptical of ravens as threats, because the horrible movie adaptation of The Dark Is Rising used them (or crows, close enough) to far from terrifying effect.

But thankfully Jordan manages to convey a sense of danger by having the flock of ravens pick apart a fox as if they were a school of piranha. Yes, you read that right, and it's one of the most memorable images in the book so far.

Thankfully Elyas's wolf pack serves as a decent lookout, and they even manage to fight off the killer swarm, though they don't get away unscathed. After a few more tense pages (except for the fact that Elyas says "burn you" instead of "damn you", which distracted me a little), the group finally reaches a stedding, a sort of dead zone which not only repels agents of the Dark One, but disables the magic of the Aes Sedai.

But this isn't any ordinary stedding, not that they're ordinary to begin with. It holds the crumbled remains of giant statue of Artur Hawkwing, who is obviously based on the mythical King Arthur (who I'm sure needs no introduction). But other than the fact that both characters are kings, they actually don't have that much in common, judging by the tale Elyas tells them. In fact, Artur Hawkwing is more like a fantasy Alexander the Great than anything else. He conquered every acre of land on the book's map, only for his kingdom to completely fall apart the instant he died (when said statue was completed, for extra pathos). He also hated the Dark One and the Aes Sedai in equal measure, which makes me wonder if it isn't a coincidence that there's a stedding where his statue was.

All in all, a solid chapter which I'll probably forget about in a month or so.

NEXT TIME: An old face in a new context.

The Eye of the World: Chapter Twenty-Eight

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: FOOTPRINTS IN THE AIR

We get another short interlude here, and we also get to catch up with Nynaeve as she, Lan, and Moiraine get to Whitebridge. Besides that, there's nothing much new to talk about, which sort of frustrates me.

The potential for Nynaeve's character has me curious and intrigued, but her development seems to have stalled out a bit, having not really progressed all that much since the last time the story focused on her. She's still hostile to Moiraine and only traveling with her and Lan because they're the best hope she has of finding the other Emond's Fielders. Indeed, when they talk about the subject after gathering what information they can find on what happened to the place (which isn't much), Nynaeve takes offense to the fact that Moiraine didn't spare a thought to Egwene, who's in just as much danger as the boys despite the fact that Ba'alzamon doesn't have the same interest in her.

Everything about Lan and Moiraine seems to make Nynaeve even more irritated. She's pretty obviously got an inferiority complex, and still refuses to have anything more to do with them than is strictly necessary. Again, that's the state she was in the last time we saw her; if this chapter weren't intercut with them crossing the White Bridge, arriving in the town, and questioning the people, this chapter would be a bit extraneous.

Moiraine decides to go after Perrin, the one she's still sure to find, as he still has the coin she gave him. She knows that Rand and Mat went east, in the direction of Caemlyn, because the tracking spell apparently has a lingering effect even when they're separated from the coins. It reminds me that I want to find out more of the basics on magic in this world, just so I know it doesn't just do whatever's convenient to the plot.

And so they leave, with Nynaeve still treating Moiraine like a predator of young women. Oh well. Time to shift focus again.

The Eye of the World: Chapter Twenty-Seven

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: SHELTER FROM THE STORM

• Perrin fretted over the days spent with the Tuatha'an, traveling south and east in a leisurely fashion. The Traveling People saw no need to hurry; they never did. The colorful wagons did not roll out of a morning until the sun was well above the horizon, and they stopped as early as midafternoon if they came across a congenial spot. The dogs trotted easily alongside the wagons, and often the children did, too. They had no difficulty in keeping up. Any suggestion that they might go further, or more quickly, was met with laughter, or perhaps, "Ah, but would you make the poor horses work so hard?"

Oddly enough, I'm really emphasizing with Perrin right now, because this isn't the first time that I wished this book would pick up the pace (a problem exacerbated thanks to me recently reading Mark's experience of His Dark Materials, which seems like a roller coaster in comparison). We're following up the harrowing, tragic conclusion of the last chapter with a serene, peaceful beginning to this current chapter, with the Tinkers having not a care in the world. If this were a movie, I would put in the clip from Bambi of the babbling brook with the frolicking music here a la the Nostalgia Critic.

Indeed, pretty much the rest of the chapter is about Perrin and Elyas trying to get things moving again and resist the peaceful serenity of the Tinkers' camp. Granted, the Tinkers don't really know firsthand about the urgency of Perrin's situation here, but their obliviousness kind of annoys me nonetheless. Egwene is also on their side, practically acting like she's on vacation, and she does know what's at stake here. Her rationale is that they should take this time to unwind, since they don't know when they'll ever get another chance. Now, Egwene is probaby my least favorite character in the book, and I've tried to restrain myself from trashing her and play devil's advocate with her. And when I think about how the chase has sucked all the fun out of Mat, I'm starting to think that Egwene might have a point, however badly she makes it.

• Sometimes [Perrin] wanted to shout at them. There were Trollocs in the world, and Fades. There were those who would cut down every leaf. The Dark One was out there, and the Way of the Leaf would burn in Ba'alzamon's eyes. Stubbornly he continued to wear the axe. He took to keeping his cloak thrown back, even when it was windy, so the half-moon blade was never hidden. Now and again Elyas looked quizzically at the weapon hanging heavy at his side and grinned at him, those yellow eyes seeming to read his mind. That almost made him cover the axe. Almost.

This part of the chapter I did find interesting, though, because I immediately wondered if there was some sort of political subtext. It sort of reminded me of the sort of pro-war argument the American right likes to use. Of course, the main difference here is that the real world has nothing like Ba'alzamon, no monolithic evils that you can chip away at without hurting real people who don't deserve it. I don't want to dwell on this too much, since there's not much indication that Jordan is intentionally trying to draw this parallel... yet.

Throughout the chapter, Egwene starts to mingle with the Tinkers and learn to dance, Aram seems to prepare to make a move on her, Elyas waits for some sort of sign to get moving, and Perrin generally acts uncomfortable. As it turns out, that sign is Ba'alzamon showing up in Perrin's nightmares again:

• Abruptly the wolf rose, rumbling deep in its throat, the thick ruff of fur on its neck rising. Ba'alzamon stepped into the kitchen from the yard. Mistress Luhhan went on with her cooking.
  
  Perrin scrambled to his feet, raising the axe, but Ba'alzamon ignored the weapon, concentrating on the wolf, instead. Flames danced where his eyes should be. "Is this what you have to protect you? Well, I have faced this before. Many times before."
  
  He crooked a finger, and the wolf howled as fire burst out of its eyes and ears and mouth, out of its skin. The stench of burning meat and hair filled the kitchen. Alsbet Luhhan lifted the lid on a pot and stirred with a wooden spoon.

Yeah. And you better believe the wolves near Perrin freaked out when his powers conveyed that dream to them. Relying on the pack for protection doesn't seem like such a hot idea now, does it, Elyas?

They leave after one last exasperation from the Tinkers. Raen is reluctant to let them leave without a going-away feast (I was right about them being vegans, by the way), so he settles for having every single Tinker personally give them a hug goodbye. They're congenial, I get it. And so it looks like the Tinkers are out of the story after two chapters. Hopefully this is building up to something, because otherwise this diversion was kind of a waste of time, you know? It probably is, though, even if the characters run into a different band of Tinkers.

So the Perrin, Egwene, and Elyas leave for Caemlyn again, and Egwene closes out the chapter with this little gem:

• "Finally, [Perrin] said, "What did you spend so much time talking about with Ila? If you weren't dancing with that long-legged fellow, you were talking to her like it was some kind of secret."
  
  "Ila was giving me advice on being a woman," Egwene replied absently. He began laughing, and she gave him a hooded, dangerous look that he failed to see.
  
  "Advice! Nobody tells us how to be men. We just are."
  
  "That," Egwene said, "is probably why you make such a bad job of it." Up ahead, Elyas cackled loudly.

Alright, that was kind of funny, I have to admit that.

NEXT TIME: Nynaeve returns, however briefly.

The Eye of the World: Chapter Twenty-Six

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: WHITEBRIDGE

Forget what I said at the end of the last post. This is the chapter where shit gets real.

It didn't seem like it would at the beginning, though. We started this rather eventful and pleasantly long chapter with Mat completely botching and ruining a flute melody:

• "I suppose I should thank you," Thom Merrilin muttered finally, "for teaching me how true the old saying is. Teach him how you will, a pig will never play the flute." The sailor burst out laughing, and Mat raised the flute as if to throw it at him.

Shortly after that, they enter Whitebridge, and the description of the mysterious structure the city is named after actually makes me feel a sense of wonder at it:

• The White Bridge arched high over the wide waters, twice as high as the Spray's mast and more, and from end to end it gleamed milky white in the sunlight, gathering the light until it seemed to glow. Spidery piers of the same stuff plunged into the strong currents, appearing too frail to support the weight and width of the bridge. It looked all of one piece, as if it had been carved from a single stone or molded by a giant's hand, broad and tall, leaping the river with an airy grace that almost made the eye forget its size. All in all it dwarfed the town that sprawled about its foot on the east bank, thought Whitebridge was larger by far than Emond's Field, with houses of stone and brick as tall as those in Taren Ferry and wooden docks like thin fingers sticking out into the river. Small boats dotted the Arinelle thickly, fishermen hauling out their nets. And over it all the White Bridge towered and shone.

That's it. Nobody knows where it came from. It's just there. A few minutes after I was mesmerized by this, I realized that the same thing happened with the Elderglass structures in The Lies of Locke Lamora, and I love that book a lot more than this one. But you know what? I'll take what I can get, and I wish that the White Bridge was a real thing that I could visit on vacation.

The three of them disembark, and the captain kicks Floran Gelb's worthless ass off with them. As Rand notes, they managed to get to Whitebridge without any sort of mutiny happening on the Sway, though he likely loses the chance at making friends with the sailors who overheard him.

Gotta be more careful than that, Rand. I thought you'd be more cautious after the mistake you and your friends made in Shadar Logoth. Everyone is still feeling the ramifications of that mistake now. Nobody in one group knows whether the people in the other groups are dead or alive, and Thom's pretty much given up hope, as he says when Rand questions the need for him to teach them gleeman skills.

This brings me to what I think the chapter's ultimately about. Though it takes place from Rand's perspective, this chapter is essentially all about Thom. The gleeman has always seemed like the odd man out in the protagonists' party from the very beginning. He joined Rand's party solely for protection against the Trollocs, an explanation which seems flimsy when we know that the forces of darkness are concentrating almost entirely on Rand and his friends. If he really wanted safety, he would have been far better off just taking his chances on his own. He gives off the air of someone who isn't all that concerned with shepherding the boys to Tar Valon. Turns out I was only half right about that.

As Thom leaves, he's sorely tempted by an offer from Captain Domon to stay and entertain the sailors as they sail to Illian, a really happening place where there's going to be a Great Hunt for the Horn of Valere, an event that hasn't happened in four hundred years, as the party learns when they collect information later. So paralyzed by indecision is Thom that Rand has to pull him away from the docks in order to

After they go to a strategically-placed tavern and learn that their friends haven't passed through town, that a madman (I thought it was Padan Fain when I first heard this, but he's unidentified for now.) and a Fade (It was gratifying to know that Fades do in fact have the ability to go wherever they want without detection, hence that name for them.) have both inquired after the eight of them, and that the false Dragon, Logain, has been captured by the Aes Sedai, Thom thinks of the offer again, and begs Rand and Mat to come with him. Rand counters Thom's assurance that it'll throw off the bad guys and that he needs the Aes Sedai's help for his dreams, which cues him remembering the thorn prick that transferred to real life. But I can sense that this is a hard decision for Rand to make, just as Thom was sorely tempted to leave the boys behind at the docks for money and success. Mat, meanwhile, continues to have an inexplicable bee in his bonnet and snaps at Thom to just leave them if he wants to go so bad.

I'm not going to recap every single point made here, but it centers around trusting the Aes Sedai, or rather not trusting them. Thom reveals that he wants to get the two of them away from the Aes Sedai, because they did something horrible to his nephew Owyn a long time ago. The guilt he feels about not even trying to help Owyn is the reason why he tagged along and did his best to help out the boys, and until now he concealed his hatred of Moiraine's kin until he had the opportunity to get them away.

I didn't get the brilliance of this twist until a few minutes after I finished the chapter, but with a single detail Jordan managed to make a previously superfluous character not only relevant, but a potential game-changer. We'll get into how that is in a little while, but for now I just wanted to point out that my assessment of Thom has turned completely on its head.

He also touches into the theme of the mistrust the common folk have for the Aes Sedai, and the direction Jordan's taking it is really making me curious to see more of them. He could have dispelled all doubt regarding them and make the prejudices seem stupid and unfounded. Thom sort of references this when he points out, in response to Rand saying that he'll go to Tar Valon without Thom if he has to, that Rand doesn't know the first thing about the Ajahs the Aes Sedai have organized themselves into. But instead, the mistrust seems entirely genuine; we know as little about them as Rand does and the only fully-realized Aes Sedai that's appeared has hints of ruthlessness about her. Even Rand's counter-argument doesn't rest on his trust of the Aes Sedai's motives, but his quite reasonable assumption that they're the only people who can possibly help him with his dreams, protect him from the Trollocs, and give him answers. It's an understandable dilemma that does interest me, and if Thom had parted ways with Rand and Mat, I would have been satisfied with the way his part in the story ended, at least until he popped up again.

But that doesn't happen, because Floran Gelb pops up again and ruins everything:

• "It's true, I tell you," Gelb protested loudly. "I've been in the Borderlands. I've seen Trollocs, and these were Trollocs as sure as I'm sitting here. Those three claimed the Trollocs were chasing them, but I know better. That's why I wouldn't stay on the Spray. I've had my suspicions about Bayle Domon for some time, but those three are Darkfriends for sure. I tell you..." Laughter and coarse jokes drowned out the rest of what Gelb had to say.

I seem to recall you getting booted off the ship against your will, you lying sack of crap. Gelb is an obviously unsympathetic character, designed solely to get the readers to boo him. Usually I would prefer more three-dimensional characters in my stories whenever possible, but there are times when it works well, the best example being Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter series. They get the reader's attention and make the characters opposing them seem more sympathetic by contrast. However, the effectiveness with which Jordan gets us to hate Gelb (in a good way) is offset by the sheer convenience that Rand's party just happened to overhear him talking shit about them and spreading a story that will get them noticed by the Fade who's still in Whitebridge. Mark has gone on record saying that it always annoys him whenever people just happen to overhear things by chance, and this here is a prime example of that.

I'm willing to let that slide, though, because of what happens next. This curveball dashes Thom's plan to get on the boat to Illian, since the Sway isn't leaving for another day, so they decide to sneak out of the city as quickly as they can. But it's not quick enough; no sooner do they make it halfway across the square than a Fade spots them, and starts making their way towards them.

The entire end of the chapter is very tense and ends up being a little heart-wrenching, because there's so much fatalism in Thom's reaction to this that it's hard to believe I didn't see his fate coming.

• "Think..." Thom stopped to swallow, and went on hoarsely. "Think you can outrun it, do you, boy?" He began to mutter to himself; the only work Rand could make out was "Owyn." Abruptly Thom growled, "I never should have gotten mixed up with you boys. Should never have." He shrugged the bundled gleeman's cloak off of his back and thrust it into Rand's arms. "Take care of that. When I say run, you run and don't stop until you get to Caemlyn. The Queen's Blessing. An Inn. Remember that, in case... just remember it."

That's when Thom attacks the Fade, giving Rand and Mat the time to escape Whitebridge. Thom manages to surprise the Fade and push it to the ground, but in the end, its magic envelopes Thom in a flash of blue light, and the last we hear of him is his screams of pain, mixed with the word "RUN!"

And run they do, out into the Caemlyn Road. Rand's heart is broken by Thom's sacrifice, and he keeps checking the road in the vain hopes that Thom got away, following them. I feel for Rand, really I do. I'd be lying if I said this ending brought me to tears, but that's just who I am. Fiction rarely makes me physically cry. But I was genuinely moved. I liked Thom quite a lot, I love how he contributed to the story, and I love how he went down fighting. For the first time, I'm really feeling how vulnerable Rand is without Lan and Moiraine, and I'm burning to know what's at the Queen's Blessing and if it can change the course of the entire book. The other details, like the description of the White Bridge and the hints that Mat's bad attitude is just him cracking under the stress of the chase is icing on the cake. I don't even care that Nynaeve's been out of the story for several chapters now, that's how awed I am.

It is true that we never saw Thom's dead body, and there's a possibility that he could always come back. But that would just cheapen this moment, and Jordan's been pretty good about not making stupid decisions like that so far, so it looks like this is really it for Thom. Even if the characters and the writer ultimately forget him, I'll try my best not to do the same.

NEXT TIME: Jordan pulls out the drag chute.

The Eye of the World: Chapter Twenty-Five

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: THE TRAVELING PEOPLE

Meanwhile, Perrin and Egwene ride with the wolves, and neither of them are really all that comfortable with the prospect. Egwene and her horse are paranoid that the wolves hiding in the shadows are going to turn on them, and Perrin is weirded out by the fact that he can sense the wolves lurking in the shadows. Egwene extends the offer to share her horse with Elyas this time, but he isn't having any of that civilization crap, no sir. His own two feet are enough for him!

I was all set to tell Perrin to enjoy his gift for once, but he ends up doing just that in his dreams. Not only has he not had a visit from Ba'alzamon since he met Elyas, but he's dreaming of a normal life, with the addition of having wolves watch over him and his loved ones. It's an interesting idea and I wish that it had been shown instead of just told.

But then, after days of traveling, the party has another chance encounter, this time with the Traveling People of the title. Also known as the Tinkers or the Tuatha'an, these are a nomadic people who travel in wagons and are unfairly judged and misunderstood by the rest of the world. In other words, Roma (or gypsies, as they're more commonly known). I don't think real Roma seek a song that can bring world peace or practice the Way of the Leaf, though:

• "What was that about a song?" Egwene asked.
  
  "That's why they travel," Elyas said, "or so they say. They're looking for a song. That's what the Mahdi seeks. They say they lost it during the Breaking of the World, and if they can find it again, the paradise of the Age of Legends will return." He ran his eye around the camp and snorted. "They don't even know what the song is; they claim they'll know it when they find it. They don't know how it's supposed to bring paradise, either, but they've been looking near to three thousand years, ever since the Breaking. I expect they'll be looking until the Wheel stops turning."

(As a side note, Mahdi is an Islamic term for a prophesied savior who will redeem the world along with Jesus Christ. Interesting that Jordan would use the term here in a rather different context with a different meaning.)

• "The Way of the Leaf?" Egwene said. "What is that?"
  
  Aram gestured to the leaves, his eyes fastened intently on hers. "The leaf lives its appointed time, and does not struggle against the wind that carries it away. The leaf does no harm, and finally falls to nourish new leaves. So it should be with all men. And women." Egwene stared back at him, a faint blush rising in her cheeks.
  
  "But what does that mean?" Perrin said. Aram gave him an irritated glance, but it was Raen who answered.
  
  "It means that no man should harm another for any reason whatsoever." The Seeker's eyes flickered to Elyas. "There is no excuse for violence. None. Not ever."

This revelation causes a bit of tension between Elyas and the Mahdi, as this difference in their philosophies is hinted to have caused clashes between them in the past, and I have to admit it's an interesting dynamic. Elyas and the Tinkers have a lot in common, after all. They both follow a philosophy that removes them from mainstream ways of thought so much that they've eschewed living with other people and instead live off the land, the natural way.

Yet their disagreements on the matter of violence ensures that they can never coexist with each other, either. The Tinkers are absolute pacifists (which would make them vegetarians or vegans as well if that nonviolence applies to all animals and not just other people), and they've managed to stay true to such an inconvenient moral principle and make a decent life out of it. Elyas, on the other hand, lives by his bond with a wolf pack, and nonviolence simply isn't an option when living with carnivores like them.

Neither side comes off as right or wrong here. It's just a difference of opinion, and thankfully the two parties involved are able to set their differences aside as long as they only occasionally run into each other.

I also kind of had a chuckle at Aram, the pretty boy who's clearly making a move on Egwene and acts condescending to Perrin when he hears that Perrin would at least use violence in self-defense. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that Aram decided to join the Tinkers for selfish or self-righteous reasons. Not all religious pilgrims are perfect saints, after all.

And just when we're getting immersed in a new fantasy culture, we hear about another one, one that lives far away in the Aiel Wastes. The Wastes are the Here There Be Dragons lands beyond the mountain range at the eastern border of the book's large map, much like the Blight is for the mountains at the northern border. (The artificial geography on display here is still the biggest sticking point for me here.) But while the Blight is home to the hordes of the Dark One, the Aiel Wastes are home to the Aiel people, a savage warrior race who avoid other people and hunt Trollocs for fun.

But one day, Mahdi Raen explains, Trollocs actually ventured into the Waste, and the lone survivor of the warrior women who fought them back told some Tinkers that the Dark One was trying to "blind the Eye of the World" and "slay the Great Serpent", and that people should "stand ready for "He Who Comes With the Dawn". Nobody knows what to make of this story, and they find the idea of the Dark One destroying such vague, world-sustaining forces ludicrous, to say the least.

I think we may have found the plot that's central to this first book, as opposed to the entire series as a whole. Up until now most of the setup has been towards long-term character arcs and the overarching conflict. It's an odd way of telling a story, but it's worked before.

Then again, maybe I'm just grasping at straws. I don't really have enough information to pinpoint where the plot's going beyond generalities like "the good guys win" or "Mat turns evil". I'm really just along for the ride at this point. This is probably the part where Mark would say that shit just got real in all capital letters. I'm just going to stroke my chin and go, "hmmm."

NEXT TIME: I was not prepared.

The Eye of the World: Chapter Twenty-Four

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: FLIGHT DOWN THE ARINELLE

We switch back to Rand in the middle of another dream, and once again I'm liking the sorts of things he sees in them. He wanders an endless maze of bridges, spires, and walkways that stretches as far as the eye can see in all three dimensions. This is an image I want to see in a painting, and I wouldn't mind Robert Jordan getting a little bit self-indulgent with the description of the environment here.

Rand spends his time in here hiding from Ba'alzamon, who's wandering the maze and trying to catch Rand in order to control him for his own purposes. The chase is kind of suspenseful, though I did smirk when Rand turned a corner and runs smack dab into Ba'alzamon. This raises an interesting question, though, and sort of disproves my theory from earlier. I thought at the end of the first dream that Ba'alzamon was letting him go with the seeds of mistrust sown in his mind. But if he's still searching for Rand in this dream and trying to catch him, then that means he didn't mean to let Rand go at all. Rand escapes Ba'alzamon the same way he did earlier, by waking up from the dream just in time. But much to his shock, his skin is still pricked from a thorn that cut him in the dream. DUN DUN DUN!

Rand is still on the Sway with Mat and Thom, riding with a crew that thinks he and Mat are Thom's apprentices as gleemen. Thom takes training them seriously, teaching them basic stories, juggling, and tumbling. When they complain, he has this to say:

• "I don't know how to play at teaching, boy. I either teach a thing, or I don't. Now! Even a country bumpkin ought to be able to do a simple handstand. Up you go!"

This guy's really starting to grow on me.

There also seem to be issues with the crew of the Sway, since they can't be trusted with the real reason for the guys' journey. One man in particular, Gelb, is being a complete cowardly weasel, insisting at every turn that the three are Darkfriends and should be tossed aside. Captian Domon calls him out on his bullshit right away, pointing out that Gelb's just trying to pass the buck on his slacking off and not keeping watch when the Trollocs attacked a few chapters ago. But the ever-observant Thom notes that there might be a mutiny on the horizon, from crew members who aren't as paranoid of more Trolloc attacks as the Captain, and it would be the worst case scenario for the three of them. I do hope that Jordan didn't spoil a future surprise in his own book just then.

As I read the chapter, I was beginning to notice something really off about Rand and Mat's characterization, but the chapter seemed to be trolling me in that regard, because it seems to at least acknowledge that something is wrong in that regard. Mat's treasure obsession that he caught in Shadar Logoth continue to fester, and he goes on about how there must be treasure in a mysterious metal tower that passes by in the distance, and when Rand expresses a desire to return home and never travel again, Mat whispers, and I quote, "I'll bet he just doesn't want anybody else going after the treasure."

Rand, meanwhile, gets giddy from spending a few hours in the crow's nest. The plot decides that he might as well take up Mat's reckless, fun-loving character trait since Mat's too crazy to make use of it, and so he climbs around on the rigging and almost falls to his death a few times only to steady himself and catch a rope at the last second (I think. Naval terms for parts of a ship that I don't recognize are bandied about here.). Thankfully Thom manages to get him down before he brings the book to a premature end.

That's when we discover that Mat's secretly kept around a relic from Shadar Logoth, a dagger with a ruby in the pommel, which I immediately recognized as one of the objects that Min saw in her premonitions of Min. And or course, Mat's paranoid about the crew members finding out about his precious and trying to steal it. This might be an explanation for Mat's sudden, drastic personality change, though I'm wondering how exactly that works right now.

No such explanation is provided for why Rand suddenly acted like a daredevil for a page, but they at least acknowledge that it's abnormal, when Rand suddenly realizes and remembers what he did, panicking at the thought and wondering what the hell's wrong with him. That's something, at least, and we'll probably see more in the chapters to come.

NEXT TIME: Not-gypsies and not-Klingons!

The Eye of the World: Chapter Twenty-Three

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: WOLFBROTHER

For some reason, I thought that the following chapters would alternate between Rand, Perrin, and Nynaeve until either the book ended they had cause to be reunited, but I guess we're still following Perrin here, same as last time. Oh well. I debated a bit on whether it'd be better or not to merge this chapter with the previous one, in that case, but I decided that they were fine as they were. After all, Perrin and Egwene's decision to not immediately seek out the rest of their traveling party is an event important enough to end a chapter on. Also, both this chapter and the last one have two distinct halves (Yes, this happens with only five pages.) and Jordan seems to be on a roll with that.

Whereas the last chapter consists of before and after Perrin happens to stumble upon Egwene, this one consists of before and after the two of them happen to stumble upon the titular wolfbrother. The first half deals with Perrin and Egwene dealing with the consequences of the one minor flaw in their plan to go around Whitebridge and the Caemlyn road: they have absolutely no idea what direction to go to get to Caemlyn that way. Oops!

• From the start Perrin knew the journey to Caemlyn was going to be far from comfortable, beginning with Egwene's insistence that they take turns riding Bela. They did not know how far it was, she said, but it was too far for her to be the only one who rode. Her jaw firmed, and her eyes stared at him unblinking.

The main theme of this blog (indecision on my part) crops up again here, as I wonder what to make of Perrin and Egwene arguing about what to do with their only horse (Perrin lost track of the one he was riding, which is only to be expected when Jordan didn't bother to give it a name.). I'm going to write a paragraph each expressing my conflicting thoughts on the matter before ultimately giving a reluctant edge to Egwene (spoiler warning).

PERRIN: Jesus Christ, girl, do you have to be so obnoxious? I mean, Perrin's just trying to help you and this is the thanks he gets? And why are you trying to get him to ride that little horse when he says he's too big for it? You're gonna screw up her spine or something, and even if you don't, don't you think a long journey would be made even longer by the horse carrying a heavy load like him even part of the time? And as much as I don't care for chivalry, is there really any evidence that that's what's going on here? Perrin's just worrying about the concerns I've brought up here, and besides, I'm getting annoyed of the female character bluntly insisting that she doesn't need any special treatment. It's just preachy is what it is! Pfah!

EGWENE: Then again, Egwene's got a point as well. Neither of them knows how long they'll be traveling to get to Caemlyn (assuming they're even going the right way), and I can't even imagine how hard on the caboose it would be to sit in the saddle the whole way. While she could stand to be more polite about it, she's still got a point. I mean, I've given Nynaeve a pass for being far more abrasive. As for the point about chivalry, even though the narration never really implies that this is Perrin's motivation for wanting to let Egwene have Bela all to herself, a lot of people who put women on a pedestal don't really think twice about it. As Mark would no doubt remind me, sexism and racism and other forms of denigrating the "other" don't have to be explicit. People can just do it without thinking or intending any malice because they don't know any better. I'm trying not to fall into this trap myself; I hold doors open for all my friends and family members, not just the women. Chivalry just seems silly and condescending to me now. And while at first I thought that society couldn't be that sexist with a powerful, all-female organization like the Aes Sedai running around, I remembered that they're not a unified organization and they're also hated and feared by almost everyone. So yeah, point for Egwene.

You could probably tell I was losing conviction in the Perrin side of the argument even as I was typing this, couldn't you?

They don't stop disagreeing there. When Egwene tries lighting a fire with her nascent magical abilities, Perrin freaks out a bit, though since she can barely do anything with it anyway, he needn't have bothered. I'm sure that there's more subtext of putting women on a pedestal to be found here, but I don't feel like following it right now.

For the most part, though, they get along pretty decently, because if there's one thing that brings people together, it's starvation! They lost most of their food, used up the rest, and they can scarcely find rabbits to hunt. But of course it would be indescribably disappointing if they ended up dying like this, so a lucky break naturally comes their way.

• He was not a Trolloc, but he was the strangest fellow Perrin had ever seen. For one thing, his clothes all seemed to be made from animal skins, with the fur still on, even his boots and the odd, flat-topped round cap on his head. His cloak was a crazy quilt of rabbit and squirrel; his trousers appeared to be made from the long-haired hide of a brown and white goat. Gathered at the back of his neck with a cord, his graying brown hair hung to his waist. A thick beard fanned across half his chest. A long knife hung at his belt, almost a sword, and a bow and quiver stood propped against a limb close at hand.
  
  The man leaned back with his eyes closed, apparently asleep, but Perrin did not stir from his concealment. Six sticks slanted over the fellow's fire, and on each stick a rabbit was skewered, roasted brown and now and then dripping juice that hissed in the flames. The smell of them, so close, made his mouth water.
  
  "You done drooling?" The man opened one eye and cocked it at Perrin's hiding place. "You and your friend might as well sit and have a bite. I haven't seen you eat much the last couple of days."

This is Elyas, a mountain man who not only lives with a pack of wolves, but has the ability to understand what they're feeling and thinking. As fate would have it, Perrin also has this ability. The new evidence of a special supernatural gift he possesses makes him giddy and gleeful, and he immediately asks Elyas how he can hone it and use it to its full potential.

Just kidding. That's what Egwene and I would do in his place. Perrin instead insists that he's nothing special even as he feels the emotions of the wolves around him. He even thinks of Elyas as a madman, which is a surefire way to get on Mark's bad side, if the earlier chivalry thing wasn't enough already.

After the wolves see right through the cover story Egwene tells Elyas (It's nigh impossible for Perrin to keep secrets from them, after all.) and he gets the real story, he makes the offer for the two of them to just stay with the pack, which is a pretty bad idea for multiple reasons. First of all, it would mean leaving Mat and Rand behind to fend for themselves, which is a dick move even if running with wolves was the sure way out Elyas thinks it is. But I seriously doubt that, too, since there are thousands of Trollocs out there and only a few dozen wolves. True, Trollocs may avoid wolves like the plague, but the same was true of Shadar Logoth and that didn't stop the Halfmen from forcing them inside, did it? What's that, Elyas? You say your pack can take down a Halfman even if half the pack dies in the process? Well, that's lovely, but what happens if they fight multiple Halfmen at once, or a Draghkar? Also, I would think that Perrin would just go stir-crazy living with wolves for the foreseeable future, even with his empathic powers. So naturally Egwene wouldn't stand a chance.

Hell, she's already struggling not to start a flame war with Elyas regarding the Aes Sedai. Elyas hates them because one sect, the Red Ajah, tried to "gentle" him for fear of his powers, which didn't comform to their view of how magic works. Egwene, as we've established, is jumping at the chance to become an Aes Sedai, and gets kind of defensive if they're impugned in any way. When Perrin admits that he wouldn't stick with the Aes Sedai if he had a choice in the matter, she shoots him a withering look. At first I was thinking that she was engaged in the sort of short-sighted, impulsive behavior I've criticized Mat for, but now that I think about it, I've been in her position before and reacted much the same way. I have been and still am a member of some certain demographics that don't exactly have the best reputation, and whenever those groups are generalized or maligned in my earshot, I choke back the urge to pick a fight a lot, too. I guess I'm apologizing for treating Egwene as annoying before, because we do actually have some common ground.

She and Perrin wisely decline Elyas's initial offer, and he compromises by offering to guide them back to civilization, a much better idea. They agree and prepare to leave, but not before some of the angrier pack members wash their paws of these strange humans and run off to go kick some Trolloc ass, Death Wish style. I was almost tempted to make an Inglourious Basterds comparison instead, but the Basterds just came off as sadistic, with no personal grudge against the Nazis, whereas Burn and his new splinter pack are consumed by hatred and bloodlust, as Perrin notes in the final paragraph.

NEXT TIME: Sailing down the river.