The chapter starts with Rand suddenly realizing that it's gotten lighter. He's still in shock from the attack, and it's all he can do to keep moving forward. It makes sense after everything he's gone through, and I can almost feel bad for him. I say almost, because his character is so ill-defined that his Chosen One™ trademark hasn't worn off yet. Also, I am kind of a jerk and like seeing characters suffer. That's what happens when you get an English degree, I guess.
He knows he's getting close to town when he smells woodsmoke, and automatically assumes it's from the chimneys. Normally I'd mock him for forgetting that the Trollocs came from this direction in the first place, but he's not exactly on top of things right now so that's forgivable. And he quickly realizes that something's off when he notices that the smoke is too heavy, connecting the dots within seconds. Points to Our Hero, then. We will see how long this intelligence lasts.
Making his way into the village proper, he sees for himself all the damage and destruction the Trollocs have wrought. There's some description of the villagers trying to find their belongings in the wreckage, and it's pretty well-done. I laughed when I saw that the Bel Tine bonfires were going, though. You'd think that the villagers have had their fill of fire at this point. I guess they think the magic of Bel Tine will make everything better, or something.
Quickly he's approached by the blacksmith, Haral Luhhan. Have we seen him before? I know it's been a long time since I last did one of these, but the narration acts like he's appeared earlier. I don't remember this Luhhan guy, but I do remember Ewin, the village's unfavorite. That's pretty sad. The blacksmith calls Egwene over, and they all go over to Nynaeve. During the walk, Rand wonders how the blacksmith knows the monsters who attacked were Trollocs, but then he dismisses it as being perfectly possible if Tam also knows they're Trollocs. Yeah, because we didn't just establish four pages ago that Tam was a soldier who fought in who knows what area. This bodes ill for a number of reasons.
They pass some more burnt houses. One of them is Mat's house. Great, so I guess Mat really is going to be important. While Egwene leaves them there to go find Nynaeve in one of these houses, Luhhan regales Rand with a tale of how, in spite of the ferocity of the invaders, one woman "cracked one's skull with a frying pan."
"I don't suppose today will be much of a Bel Tine," Luhhan remarks. Yeah, we sure couldn't tell. Thanks for clearing that up, good sir. He leaves with a pithy remark about Two Rivers folk being tough, and Rand looks at all the people digging through the rubble and thinks, Yeah, I see what he means. But then he wonders if they saw the Black Rider, and felt the hate coming from him. I wonder what all of this looks like from the Black Rider's point of view.
"Man, I hate these village types. We're two measly decades from retirement, and then ol' Darky makes us go terrorize some Chosen Ones™ for reasons. Doesn't he know he's just spurring them to action in the first place? What do you think, Dave?"
"I think we need to just get this done and find a fast-food place. This holiday nonsense is bugging me. 'Best Bel Tine ever'? What is this, a Hallmark movie?"
Meanwhile, back with the plot, Egwene and Nynaeve show up. Nynaeve looks over Tam, then tells Rand there's nothing she can do. Rand can't accept this, and she says she's sorry, but there are other people she can still help. How very uncharacteristic of her. As she leaves, he can only think that "she would not help." Who am I supposed to side with here? Our Hero, who entirely ignores the existence all the other injured people, or Nynaeve, who barely even tried to see if she could help Tam?
Egwene glomps him, then runs off to help Nynaeve. Rand barely notices this, in a refreshing bit of realism (and I say this non-sarcastically). He decides to see the mayor, since he "always [knows] what to do." Because it's not like the mayor is probably plenty busy right now or anything. He heads off toward the inn, and we get this description of people walking alongside him, trying to talk to him, before eventually letting him be. It doesn't specify how many people, so I'm getting an image of this gaggle of fans trying to engage Our Hero in conversation before he can go out and be a hero (because heroes never stay in their hometowns). It amuses me, because why would any of these people bother to save their livelihoods when they can get in a quick last word with Our Hero? It's like they know this is a book, and they want to get mentioned specifically during his crisis, like some kind of literary photobomb.
The inn turns out to be just fine compared to everything else. That's a relief, because we wouldn't want our mysterious out-of-towners to be inconvenienced in any way, would we? Thom is chilling out on the doorstep, not bothering to help anyone else, but he jumps up to help bring Tam inside without being asked. I guess he knows that Our Hero is just that much more important than everyone else. Or maybe he figures he'd better do something since he's already in the way. He mentions that the peddler Fain has disappeared, which totally isn't suspicious at all, because he totally must have been eaten by the Trollocs. Oh, and Fain's giant ark wagon is wrecked, so obviously he can't have had anything to do with it. You'd think Thom of all people would be more questioning of this development, though I guess Jordan's trying to make him more empathetic or something.
On the inn's door is scratched a symbol called the Dragon's Fang. Apparently someone is accusing the mayor of something, or so Rand thinks. Because, you know, it's not like there's a witch sleeping in there or anything. Though that brings up the question of how someone in Emond's Field would know Moiraine's a witch in the first place. Curious.
The mayor snaps at Rand and Thom at first, but quickly changes his tune to concern when he realizes it's Tam being brought in. He sends Thom to go get Nynaeve before Rand can tell him that he's already asked her. I guess this shows the Village Council doesn't actually have any power in the end. The mayor has Tam brought up to one of several surprisingly comfortable rooms, of which "three ... were taken now." So one room for Padan Fain, one for Thom, and one for Moiraine and Lan? Yeah, that won't raise any eyebrows at all. I wonder if the mayor's checked these rooms. Maybe Fain is hiding in one of them. Rand and the mayor clean up Tam.
Thom comes in after a while, snapping at Rand for not telling him that Nynaeve had already seen him. He is such a sensitive guy, isn't he? They discuss who might've put the Dragon's Fang on the door, and it comes up that Moiraine was hitting Trollocs with lightning while Lan was doing sword stuff. The mayor notes that "We just ran like chickens with a fox in the henyard till Master Lan put some backbone into us." But what about the villagers being hardy folk? Their ability to survive doesn't seem so great now, eh?
Rand, and only Rand, is astonished at the fact that Moiraine is a witch. The mayor mentions that these Aes Sedai people can do some neat healing stuff, and suggests Rand ask her about it. Rand isn't too keen on the idea, but eventually he decides to go talk to her about it. He finds them at the bonfires, where they're watching people burn the Trolloc bodies. Apparently Trolloc bands don't usually work together, but according to Lan they did just that for this raid, which is a Bad Sign. Rand watches them for a moment, trying to work up the courage to talk to Moiraine, and we get the sense that Rand thinks beautiful people must be good guys. I honestly can't tell whether this is Rand being naive. I hope that's the case.
Eventually he manages to spit it out. He mentions that he's willing to pay any price for Tam's health, and she repeats this detail to herself. Is she remembering this fact to hold it over his head later, or is she sad that this is his whole impression of what dealing with Aes Sedai is like? Probably the former, but who knows.
Rand tells her to hurry and follow him, and Lan speaks up, telling him off for not seeing that she's tired after the long night. Moiraine pats Lan's shoulder to let him know it's all right. I can't tell if that's condescending or adorable. The chapter ends with Rand wondering about the price they will be discussing later — ominous, sure, but promising. After all, up to this point, things have been acting upon Rand. Now, by asking Moiraine for help, he's actually stepping forward into the realm of magic. And politics, most likely. I hate politics.
No comments:
Post a Comment