The Dragon Reborn (Chapters 32-37)

Summaries:
Mat is determined to board the first ship leaving and uses the Amyrlin’s ridiculous letter to get past the dockmaster before buying passage for Thom and himself in the ship captain’s cabin. The captain thinks Mat is a lord in disguise. He rolls his dice and gets “The Dark One’s Eyes” which is a winning throw in some games and a losing throw in others, which prompts him to ask which game he’s playing. Assassins board the ship and Mat and Thom dispatch them.

Perrin and company approach a town called Remen. He notices a weird mark that smells of sulphur and looks like a dog’s paw print. They’ve passed by a lot of towns marked by Rand’s passage for good and ill. In Remen, they find an Aiel hanging in a cage. He was captured by Lords Orban and Gann (Hunters of the Horn) who purport to have fought twenty Aiel while only losing six men. Perrin remembers Min’s viewing of him.

Perrin and Moiraine discuss whether to take a ship to Tear or attempt to continue tracking him cross-country. Perrin unconsciously decides to let the Aiel out of the cage. Whitecloaks appear as Perrin is urging the Aielman (Gaul) to flee. The two of them slaughter the Children of the Light. Perrin realizes that a girl has witnessed the event.

Gaul trots off with the knowledge that Rand is headed to Tear, and Perrin’s group flees Remen onboard the Snow Goose. Just as they are casting off, a girl jumps on board. She is the same girl that was watching Perrin in the last two chapters and she tells him that she can’t figure him out, but that this group is far too interesting to not follow and who knows? they might even lead her to the Horn of Valere that she is Hunting. Her name is Zarine Bashere, she wants to be called Mandarb until Perrin laughs and tells her that is the name of Lan’s stallion. Then she says she’ll go by Faile which means Falcon. Perrin isn’t happy about having two of Min’s viewings fulfilled in the same day - although he hopes it is only one and this girl isn’t the falcon he is afraid she might be.

Perrin dreams of Ba’alzamon and Lanfear. He also sees Rand fighting Shadowspawn and takes a bolt of lightning in the chest which causes him to awake in fear. He approached Moiraine about his dream. They manage to piss each other off.

Egwene, Elayne and Nynaeve are headed to Tear when their ship runs aground. They decide to walk. Egwene and Nynaeve are vying for dominance of the group. There never were three more spoiled headstrong women.

My Thoughts
Mat. Mat. Mat. Mat. Mat. Mat. Mat. Mat. Mat. Mat. Mat. Mat. This character is so much fun. Sure he is suddenly a most formidable fighter but dang that was fun. Let’s just assume that something in the process of extracting the dagger taint unlocked new abilities!

I loved the way he is so casual with his newfound wealth. “Sure, I’ll just drop a fortune and sleep in the captain’s cabin.”

I love how Perrin has developed this thing with Whitecloaks where there is pretty much guaranteed to be death and slaughter if they are ever in the same general vicinity. Reminds me of this scene from Trigun



I love Faile. I’m very excited to see more of her. I told my wife that Perrin and Faile remind me of the two of us.

I do not envy Rand at all. He seems to be completely miserable and alone. Ba’alzamon is out for blood. He can’t even sleep well at night. Somehow he continues to outpace a group on horses...

Wow. There are some future events being set up with Egwene and Nynaeve that have been foreshadowed since the first book. To be honest, I was completely surprised when these events occurred, so kudos to the author for laying a trail that I just straight up missed.