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 7: Pitfalls and Tripwires
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Rand al’Thor
Rand‘s thoughts churn in his head. He has to make three visits tonight, one of which will have to remain secret. Lews Therin rants about killing the Asha’man. Rand silently asks Lews how he is different from them. Lews Therin asks right back whether Rand is real. Rand thinks about the time in the chest, when Lews Therin had been his only companion, his only friend. Also in the chest he started experiencing flashes of color and motion whenever he thinks of Mat and Perrin.
Sulin urges Rand to get on with what they are doing because it is late. He opens a Gateway and lets himself feel the strength of the accompanying Asha’man as they pass him. Lews Therin again wants to kill them and tries to wrest saidin away from him. Rand screams at Lews about killing Ilyena and his loved ones. In Andor, after the Gateway closes, Lews Therin expresses relief at having left Alanna behind. Rand lets himself and Fedwin be tied and cloaked like prisoners so that nobody learns of this visit to Davram Bashere and Bael. Rand has some hard moments in the dark of his hood. In the room with Bashere and Bael, Rand finds Deira Bashere, Melaine, and Dorindha. Deira, Melaine and Dorindha shower him with questions. When he comments about them being here in the first place, Bashere and Bael tell him that you can’t keep too much from your wife and that he will see that when he is a married man, too. Rand angrily asks what woman he could hate enough to marry her to the Dragon Reborn, causing an awkward silence.
Deira wants to know what he intends to do about the Aes Sedai. Bael tells Rand that Tar Valon has put itself against him; Rand replies that he will let them be and ignore the kidnapping as long as they don’t move against him again. While the others argue about whether Elaida will leave him alone, Rand looks at maps and thinks of Elayne, Mat and the Band of the Red Hand, and Sammael in Illian. He hears that Dyelin has put Elenia and Naean in prison for treason as they had themselves declared queens and that Dyelin has been named Regent. Aes Sedai gather in Caemlyn, but no more than ten at a time. Rand misses the Fat bald man angreal, but it hasn’t turned up in the things that were recovered from Dumai’s Wells.
Rand tells them that Fedwin can carry messages to him, that he will leave other messengers with Semaradrid and Weiramon, and that the attack on Illian will begin soon.
REACTION:
The first half of this chapter is our first time in Rand’s POV in this book… and bro’s mental health seems to have declined quite a bit since his multi-week experience of being viciously beaten, and stuffed into a cramped box, day after day.
On the plus side, he seems to have 1) learned how to mute Lews Therin’s voice in his head, when he wants, and 2) developed some new… ability (?)… where he sees colors after thinking of Mat or Perrin. On the down side, he has even less trust than he had before, is so visibly haggard that even Sulin is being gentle with him, and he seems locked in a competition with Lews Therin – constantly – to grab saidin first, or else risk the other man killing everyone in sight – especially Asha’man.
Rand visits his military brain trust (Bashere, Bael, etc.) and goes to them disguised as a prisoner – complete with hood over his head. We don’t learn right away that this was so that if Elayne or Aviendha was in the camp, he could come and go without either knowing, but we find out that this was the point later. Why exactly does he want to visit unseen by them? He’s *desperate* for Elayne to take the thrones of Andor and Cairhien. (It’s infuriating that she’s taking for granted that he will hold both until she’s ready to come take them – and will likely be unappreciative when she eventually does take them.)
But that doesn’t explain the subterfuge completely. My guess is that whether it’s a conscious choice or not, Rand does not want to see two of his lady loves while he’s still feeling so vulnerable. He might say it’s to keep them safe, or to avoid their problematic reactions on his behalf, and there may be some element of truth in that, but more than anything he just prefers to be unburdened and himself with those two. He can’t do that if they’re reacting to what just happened to him.
This is just me reading into the text, but I do not believe that Rand wants them to see another version of himself, because that new version of himself would erase and replace in their minds the previous version of him that they know. I’ve heard of women losing romantic feelings for a guy after seeing him get beaten up. I don’t believe that this would happen here, but they’d definitely see him differently and in that, Rand feels vulnerable. (This is probably why a lot of men don’t share the difficult things they’re going through with others.)
It reminds me of a scene from Seinfeld – though the stakes here are obviously much more serious and less comedic in Rand’s case.
Rand does something pretty clever here, at the end of the chapter, and I hope it’s a sign of things to come. He’s taking disguised Asha’man and stationing them with his various military leaders, to serve primarily as messengers. They’d also likely make for good military help in a pinch and maybe most importantly, pulling them away from Taim will reduce their loyalty to him. Rand needs to get very busy reducing the number of Asha’man whose loyalty is to Taim ahead of himself. That situation at “The Black Tower” is a time bomb.
The chapter ends with one more reiteration of how desperate Rand is to see Elayne take the Lion and Sun Thrones – so I have no doubt we’re about to go to an Elayne chapter next so that I can be infuriated by her total lack of concern to her national duties (and the world.)
One thought on “A Crown of Swords (Chapter 7): Pitfalls and Tripwires”