Sort of a short update today, but the this is a rather short chapter. It lasts a paltry eight pages, which at first lead me to believe that perhaps it would be better combined with the previous or following chapter. But since the last chapter was about Rand and Tam escaping their house and the one after this will probably be about them arriving in the village, I suppose I'll let it slide.
And for what it's worth, Jordan manages to make this pretty concise and suspenseful. Tam's wound is infected and making him delirious, taking him back mentally to when his wife Kari was alive. Rand is making those wagon shafts into a stretcher for him, and they barely manage to avoid a patrol of Trollocs lead by the black rider. I can't decide, however, if the imagery of Rand attempting to carry his father in a stretcher, having to drag one end on the ground since there aren't any other people to help him, is sad and pitiable or hilarious and over-the-top. Since I like Tam, I'll be generous and go with the former.
Then Tam's fevered ramblings give us this bombshell:
- "I couldn't just leave a child. ...no children of our own. ...always knew you wanted children. I knew you'd take it to your heart, Kari. Yes, lass. Rand is a good name. A good name."
How dramatically convenient that Tam would remember this at this exact moment. Naturally, Rand denies that he's a foundling and redoubles his efforts to go back to Emond's Field, closing the chapter out.
I suppose I'm already starting to get bored. Of course Rand has a special destiny and special parentage. It makes perfect sense. I mean, it's not like I'm gonna predict this book word for word or anything, but the ending of the chapter gave me deja vu.
NEXT TIME: You will not be surprised!
What's the time period between the attack on the house and this chapter? From your summaries, it sounds like it was no more than an hour or so, if Rand is trying to get back to town. In which case, that is a ridiculously fast infection. Especially if Tam is already delirious... the only way that might be possible is poison. Otherwise, infection would take at least a day or so to set in, and several days to get bad enough that blood poisoning and delirium would show up. :/
ReplyDeleteMy future self knows the answers to this already. But to answer your question, yes, this is almost immediately after the attack on the house in Chapter Five.
ReplyDeleteYes, I went and read the reviews after this, and realized it was poison after all. I'm okay with it in that case. I was just worried it might be some biology fail.
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