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.
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