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 40: Unexpected Laughter
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Matrim Cauthon
Mat is trying to enlist Thom‘s help in getting Elayne, Egwene, and Nynaeve to see things his way. After telling Mat a story, Thom concludes that Mat may not know the whole story needed to make a decision. Also, Elayne and Nynaeve are off to Ebou Dar in a couple of days, with Thom and Juilin going with them. Thom talks Mat in to helping the women with their plans instead of trying to make them go along with his. Elayne will go with Mat back to Caemlyn when she is ready.
Point of view: Elayne Trakand
Elayne starts looking for Aviendha but hears many rumors about Mat, the ta’veren, and the Aiel woman who can channel. Aes Sedai are working to convice Aviendha to stay and train as a novice. Birgitte meets her and tells her two Aes Sedai, Vandene and Adeleas, will be going to Ebou Dar with them. Elayne again tries to talk Birgitte into letting her tell Egwene who she really is. Birgitte says that she can’t because the expectations people will have for what an actual Hero of the Horn can or should do is more than she can bear.
Elayne finds Aviendha and takes her away from the Aes Sedai. Aviendha wants to meet in Elayne’s room and grabs a branch of wood to use as a switch. Once in the room, Aviendha strips and presents Elayne with the switch and the knife she’s been sharpening for the last three days. Then she admits to loving Rand and to sleeping with him. Elayne can choose the knife or the switch, and use them as she wishes. Elayne realizes that Aviendha is the third woman from Min‘s vision. Elayne tells Aviendha that she has no toh.
REACTION:
Thom gives Mat good advice about the (lack of) wisdom of helping women who don’t want to be helped, and who have not asked to be helped. My first reaction was to think that one of the Supergirls put him up to this, but there was no way that they could have. He just sold Mat on all of this, on his own. I don’t think he really likes the advice he’s giving Mat, particularly the part about Elayne going to Caemlyn when she’s ready (rather than immediately), but he knows the group of them well enough to know that stopping them will be more difficult than making their scheme somehow work. Thom also knows Mat well enough to know that Mat evens the odds where bad plans are concerned.
Here’s reality. If the noble who is in line to take the throne doesn’t show up to eventually take the throne, then it rightly belongs to someone else. Does Elayne think she can wait forever? Are Andorans supposed to accept her if it takes a year or two for her to show up and actually claim the throne? It seems that she thinks so. And If said noble throws a hissy fit over the idea of it being held for her, and then given to her under those circumstances, then she’s probably not fit to sit on the throne. Alas, here we are.
I like that Thom – who is an actual political genius, unlike Elayne – is noticing that Egwene seems fit to rule. He has sniffed out the factions and knows who’s in them. Salidar has started operating differently since Egwene was raised and he’s being forced to give her credit. Also and without lying to Mat, he motivates Mat to help Egwene (and the other two by extension) by explaining that there are at least three open factions in Salidar that might want to topple her before they even get to the issue of Egwene dealing with Elaida.
Tricky thing: 1) He indicates to Mat that Egwene-as-Amyrlin is far from a hopeless cause, and 2) he plays into Mat’s sense of loyalty toward his friend from home. Thom plays Mat like a harp. He just moves Mat’s interest in saving her from doing it his own way to doing it her way. He also never lied about anything. By the time they’re done talking, Mat is halfway toward agreeing to go with them to Ebou Dar, and that’s without the women having mentioned it to Mat yet.
Avi tells Elayne about her feelings toward Rand, expecting Elayne to use either a knife or stick against her to help her meet her toh toward Elayne. Elayne thinks about it but opts not to use either. Maybe Elayne remembered that her last communication with Rand was a letter wherein she told him off? Or maybe Elayne remembered the weeks (or months?) of flirting with Thom, all the while telling the others that it was okay because she and Rand weren’t officially attached? Nah, probably not those things. She remembered Min’s vision and that a 3rd woman was always part of the bargain.
Unlike with Elayne, Avi’s immediately fierce reaction to learning about Min *is* somewhat endearing.
Elayne almost laughed. One moment talking about sharing, the next as fierce as, as me, she finished, not at all pleased with the thought.
She’s also relieved that it’s not Berelain. Given the frequency of Berelain-complaining that the women in the series engage in, I wish one of the three had been her. Instead she’s going to be bothering Perrin and Faile at some point soon, I think, neither of whom deserve the drama half as much as Rand and Elayne do.
We’re about 75% of the way through the book. I *suspect* now that Elayne, Nyn, Mat, Thom, etc., will finish the book in Ebou Dar finding the Bowl of the Winds and who knows what else. Rand has about 10 legitimate serious enemies and the one he’s going to finish the book fighting remains unknown. Perrin has been MIA for most of teh book after appearing early. So… lots of ground to cover coming up.