Everyone leaves in the dead of night, doing their absolute best to leave in secrecy. Throughout the chapter, I finally got a handle on Lan's personality. He hasn't said that much in previous chapters, besides commenting on Tam's sword, but now that he's traveling with Rand and his friends, he comes across as a very serious man. All he speaks about is safety risks and keeping things a secret and making sure everything goes well.
- "That bow is a real weapon," Lan said suddenly. He propped an arm across the saddle of his tall black [horse] and regarded them gravely. "So are the slings I've seen you village boys with. Just because you never used them for anything but hunting rabbits or chasing a wolf away from the sheep makes no difference. Anything can be a weapon, if the man or woman who holds it has the nerve and will to make it so. Trollocs aside, you had better have that clear in your mind before we leave Two Rivers, before we leave Emond's Field, if you want to reach Tar Valon alive."
It kind of makes him a bit of a buzzkill, though, which is why it's nice to see Mat joking with Rand and Perring about the fact that they all brought weapons, and none too subtly. Rand has the heron sword his father had, Mat has a bow, and Perrin an axe.
Moiraine is also dedicated to the secrecy of the trip, but she's oddly tolerant of unexpected complications like these:
- "Not without me." Egwene slipped into the stable, a shawl-wrapped bundle in her arms. Rand nearly fell over his own feet.
- "She can ride the gleeman's horse," the Warder said. "I'll leave him enough to buy another."
"That will not be possible," came Thom Merrilin's resonant voice from the hayloft. Lan's sword left its sheath this time, and he did not put it back as he stared up at the gleeman.
That's right, Egwene and Thom are coming along, too. Egwene figured the boys are going out to see the world and wanted to do the same, while Thom was leaving anyway and wanted protection on the road to his next gig in Tar Valon. She was smart enough to notice the signs that something was amiss, although Mat and Perrin kind of made it easy for her. I'm just saying.
Naturally, Rand attempts to dissuade her, trying to convince Egwene that the journey will be dangerous, but Moiraine gives her permission to come, saying that her intrusion (and Thom's, for that matter) are all "part of the Pattern" (read: destiny). Destiny is another thing that I find a bit iffy about stories, especially in fantasy. A lot of the time, it's just used as an explanation for why the plot goes the way it does, precluding any further explanation. Granted, I'm glad that Egwene and Thom are coming, but still, did "the Pattern" have to be invoked for them to come along with Rand?
The departure goes off without a hitch, except for something Rand spies out of the corner of his eye:
- A black shape flew slowly across the silvery ball of the moon. Rand's involuntary jerk on the reins halted the gray. A bat, he thought weakly, but he knew it was not. Bats were a common sight of the evening, darting after flies and bitemes in the twilight. The wings that carried this creature might have the same shape, but they moved with the slow, powerful sweep of a bird of prey. And it was hunting. The way it cast back and forth in long arcs left no doubt of that. Worst of all was the size. For a bat to seem so large against the moon it would have had to be almost within arm's reach. He tried to judge in his mind how far away it must be, and how big. The body of it had to be as large as a man, and the wings... It crossed the face of the moon again, wheeling suddenly downward to be engulfed by the night.
This is a Draghkar, another type of minion for the Dark One, and one with an apparently murkier history than even Trollocs and Halfmen.
And that's it. This was another short chapter, all told.
NEXT TIME: The group makes amazing time going north. I'm just saying.
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