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 48: Leaning on the Knife
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Nynaeve al’Meara
Nynaeve, Elayne, Birgitte, and Aviendha are in their rooms in the Tarasin Palace. The other Aes Sedai in the Palace do not accept that Elayne and Nynaeve are Aes Sedai. Adeleas and Vandene are supposedly looking for runaways from the Tower. Elayne and Nynaeve doubt that; they think Adeleas and Vandene are going to try to find the ter’angreal that can fix the weather.
A servant arrives and invites the three Aes Sedai for an audience, but only Elayne and Nynaeve go since Aviendha is not an Aes Sedai. After some frank discussion, they win Tylin over and have a more intimate discussion rather than an audience with a queen. They tell Tylin everything about their search for the bowl and get her promise to help if she can. They are introduced to her sole surviving son, Beslan, to whom she hopes to pass on her throne. Elayne believes they can wrap up their mission in ten days and get back to Egwene.
REACTION:
Elayne (on Mat) “He is only here to pull him out of Egwene’s hair.”
Mr. Jordan… I beseech you… give me a reason to like Elayne. Mat only saved her soul from being turned forcibly to the Shadow and/or from dying at the hands of one of the Forsaken after she’d been captured by his Black Ajah minions. Mat crossed a continent and went alone into an impregnable fortress to rescue her, too… and succeeded at someone nobody else ever had in 3,000 years. Beyond that, she knows he’s ta’veren. AND that he is with them to provide her a military escort to Andor where she’s allegedly at some point going to assume the throne – whenever it’s convenient to her to do so, I guess. AND she had the absolute audacity to be mad at Rand for saying he was “giving” her the throne of Andor. He should give it to someone else, honestly. What’s she going to do about it?
Rand: I was told you didn’t want me to give the throne to you. I let the Andorans pick a new monarch so I could occupy myself with the business of saving the universe. I put in a word for you but they told me that the Queen actually has to be in Andor to be coronated, and they got tired of waiting.
Elayne: [petulantly stomps her foot]
Jordan does let us know that Bors / Carridin is in Ebou Dar. I’m not sure that we know why, though. Earlier in the book, Pedron Niall finally became convinced that the Seanchan might be real and that he needs to check them out. Maybe Carridin is in Ebou Dar for that reason? Ebou Dar is farther west and on the way to Tarabon. Or he’s here as a Darkfriend. His pattern historically is to be where ever he is for both reasons. I’m not sure which of the Forsaken would be sending Carridin on errands though. Sammael makes the most sense.
“Leaning on the knife,” as we learn when we meet Queen Tylin, is an idiom in Ebou Dar for intimacy – at least it is one used among women. Use your imagination as to how that came to be.
It’s pretty funny that Nynaeve and Elayne both mess up so badly in their discussion with her, but that it works out (seemingly) for the best. The mistake they make is providing the Queen any kind of openness at all. (Even people who tolerate Aes Sedai don’t like them.) Really though, the mistake was made by Vandene, Adeleas, and Merille. Either they assumed the two new Aes Sedai would never be in a situation to mess up discussions with the Queen (or be even invited to speak with her), or they assumed that they’d handle the politics notably better than they actually do. It’s probably fair for the “actual” Aes Sedai to assume, to some degree, that Elayne at least would have thought through some of what she ended up saying before running her mouth recklessly. She’s allegedly been trained her entire life to navigate politics (even if we’ve seen very little evidence of that in the series.) We’ve seen her know how to manage a city, via Rand in Tear, but not how to navigate politics. Nynaeve has been better than her at politics on a regular basis.
“Elayne was supposed to know how to handle kings and queens.” – Nynaeve
Maybe Morgase was never very good at the Game of Houses and has an unearned reputation due to Thom’s manipulations on her behalf. When we first meet Morgase in book 1, Caemlyn itself is in the midst of anti-Queen riots. Gaebril rose to power because he put down more riots that happened later. She had the hare-brained idea to seek out the Whitecloaks to invade Andor on her behalf. It might just be that Elayne had bad tutelage.
Nynny and Elayne end up being open with Tylin and they learn that the object for which they are looking is in the Rahad (a very dangerous part of the city.) They also learn via the Queen that Vandene and Adeleas are actually searching for it, too, even if we don’t know precisely what their search plan is. The only clue Jordan gives us is that those two sister Sisters are going to be looking for White Tower runaways in the city. Finally, we also learn that there is a two person Aes Sedai embassy in Ebou Dar from Elaida and the White Tower.
One of the Aes Sedai in Ebou Dar is Teslyn. The last time we saw her was early in The Fires of Heaven. She was a key part of the conspiracy that brought down Siuan, but she subsequently made Elaida angry by not being sufficiently subservient. I don’t remember meeting Joline before. The whole situation here feels very combustible – which is the pattern when Elayne and Nynaeve are on an adventure together (Falme, Tanchico, Tear.) Given that the book is almost over and other characters still have to complete their arcs as well, it seems that whatever needs to happen in Ebou Dar will have to happen pretty quickly. Maybe Elayne will actually prove to be right with her “ten days and then we leave” predictions.
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