Welcome back to my re-read, recap, and reaction to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. This post will only have spoilers through the current chapter.
You can find my previous chapter recaps HERE.
Chapter 22: Heading South
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Matrim Cauthon
Mat and the Band are heading south to meet up with other forces arrayed to invade Illian. It has been eleven days since they left Maerone and they are just over half way. Chel Vanin returns from scouting and insists Mat see something he found. A Tinker caravan was attacked and everyone killed. One of the Tinkers used his own blood to write on one of the wagons, “TELL THE DRAGON REBORN,” but nothing indicated what he was to be told. Mat has the wagon burned to avoid rumors and arranges for the bodies to be buried.
Mat has trouble getting to sleep inside his tent so he heads outside to lay in the grass for a while. He hears a sound and looks back toward his tent and sees a group of Aiel setting up to attack the tent. Mat calls out to rouse the camp but the Aiel attack him and he makes a desperate defense until his troops come to his aid. The Aiel attackers are defeated but at a high cost. Mat decrees that from now on the Band will be digging a ditch with a log palisade every night to protect the camp―even if the men grumble about the extra work. When Mat inspects his tent and the area he finds that a Gateway was used to bring the Aiel, meaning one of the Forsaken was involved.
Mat hears footsteps and nearly attacks Olver before recognizing him. Mat thought Olver was supposed to be left in Maerone, but now he appears to be a camp mascot. Olver shows Mat his Snakes and Foxes board. Mat hires him to be his messenger.
REACTION:
It’s fun to be in Mat’s head and hear what he thinks about Nynaeve and Elayne. He thinks both are capable and that they’re also capable of getting people killed. I can’t really argue with that take. It also reminds us that he’s still pretty justifiably upset with him over how they treated him after he rescued them from the Stone of Tear.
He broke into the most impregnable fortress in the world, by himself (at least at the start), and rescued them from the BLACK AJAH. Had they thanked him, he would have shrugged it off. Instead, they chided him as though he did something wrong and then continued to treat him badly after. He even let Elayne know that there was a plot to kill her from within the Royal Palace in Caemlyn – from her mother’s new lover.
Was this in character for them? This was an extreme example… but yeah. Jordan thus has a problem now that three of his main female protagonists have this thing hanging over them, making it harder to like them after. That by extension has made their POV chapters since harder to enjoy (not helped at all by the fact that Elayne and Nynaeve chapters together are filled with bickering.)
One of the big criticisms of Jordan is that a lot of his female characters are hard to like. Sometimes this is entirely unfair (Faile in particular – people aim grievances that should be aimed at Perrin at her) but then other times it’s on point. I’m on record that Nynaeve is one of my favorite characters in the series, and she is, but I understand why other people struggle with her. She at least has had some great moments to offset her bad ones. That really just hasn’t been the case for Elayne or Egwene (or at least not nearly to the same extent.)
One of the things I like most about how Jordan writes Mat is that he lets him retain some boyishness. Mat juggles, and has favorite rocks based on their colors. He keeps an eagle feather among his things. Mat is written as a skirt-chasing warrior and rogue, but also as innately curious, and these things add to Mat’s well-rounded characterization without pulling anything away from his plausibility as a leader of men. When Olver’s own pack has a hawk’s feather and a rock of which he likes the color, we’re reminded of Mat from earlier in the chapter. This also really helps Olver’s character development because it tells us that Olver is either very much like Mat, on a deep level, or that he is mirroring Mat as a kind of substitute father figure. Mat accepts this and runs with it, giving Olver advice, gold, a purpose, etc. He even calls him a man just before the chapter ends.
I loved the section on how Mat chose out new scouts for the Band. He set out to find the best horse thieves he could. It makes sense. Jordan was a military man himself, so he had a good idea of how certain skills might translate from one trade to soldiering.
Who killed the Traveling People? The events that followed point to Aiel darkfriends (or Aiel under Compulsion) working with one of the Forsaken, or maybe one of Rand’s students at The Farm. The Forsaken make more sense because as far as we know, none of the people at the Farm have any ties whatsoever to the Aiel. The Gateway points to the One Power and Traveling and as far as we know, that’s still a very limited ability, especially among women. We’ve seen Aviendha do it and the female Forsaken. Avi is the only non-Darkfriend who has used this ability, as far as I can remember.
The most likely answer is that Sammael sent Aiel into Mat’s camp to kill him. It almost worked. He also wants Rand to show up personally – which is why he baited him with that message left among the Traveling People. Rand on the other hand has a plan for Sammael that remains a mystery to the readers.
One final bit of information. The Band appears to be in relative close proximity to Salidar. I doubt that we found this out by accident. Maybe Mat will get a reunion with Nyn and Elayne sometime soon.