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 8: The Figurehead
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Egwene al’Vere
Egwene al’Vere is meeting with Siuan Sanche and Sheriam Bayanar. She decides her army needs to pause for a day but Sheriam believes they should pause for a longer time. Chesa, Egwene’s maid, makes comments supposedly to herself but meant as advice to Egwene. These offhand comments also unsettle Sheriam, which gives Egwene an edge. While reading reports, Egwene wonders where Logain Ablar has gone since she arranged for him to escape from Aes Sedai captivity.
Egwene puts on the a’dam bracelet that connects her to Moghedien, known to others as Marigan. Egwene forces Sheriam to admit that ten sisters, two from each Ajah except Blue and Red, were sent back to the Tower to spread rumors that the Red Ajah arranged for Logain to be proclaimed as a False Dragon.
Egwene feels a stab of pain through the a’dam bracelet, realizing that a man has channeled to remove the necklace that Marigan wears. Egwene excuses herself and then hurries to Marigan’s tent only to find her gone.
REACTION:
Jordan gives Egwene a wobbly chair to symbolize her unstable rule as Amyrlin.
The most noteworthy thing from the first half of this chapter is that 1) Logain is gone, and 2) Egwene is having headaches of some sort. The latter is interesting because headaches should not be a thing in a place where medial issues are healed with magic. But it doesn’t seem to occur to anyone to think much on that.
The POV lets us know that Egwene has a good mind for politics and she has a very good tutor in Siuan. The comparison with Rand for Egwene is obvious. They’re both way too young and too unqualified to be in the positions they are in, as world leaders, and they’re both naturals.
That said… at this point, Egwene correctly interprets the belief within her camp that she is a figurehead to be controlled, rather than an Amyrlin to be obeyed and respected. Her tactic to gain control is to play everyone thinking to control her against each other. So her character arc for the next long while – perhaps the rest of the series – will be being the Amyrlin in truth as well as in name. (I’d bet on her succeeding, tbh.)
If this were done well, this would be really fun to see in a live action series. I always liked the political maneuvering on Game of Thrones.
Do we think Egwene is a famous person reborn? She has to be, right? Mat is almost certainly one of Manetheren’s great leaders reborn. He spoke the Old Tongue before he went through the Red Doorframe and when he was healed from the dagger, he kind of re-lived a preious death as one of the soldiers in Manetheren.
The most notable woman from ancient Manetheren that we have heard of is Eldrene.
Eldrene ay Ellan ay Carlan (translated from the Old Tongue as Eldrene daughter of Ellan daughter of Carlan) was the wife of King Aemon al Caar al Thorin and the last queen of lost Manetheren. She was an Aes Sedai and a beloved figurehead of her people who named her Ellisande which translates from the Old Tongue as “The Rose of the Sun”.
It’s so weird to imagine Mat married to Egwene that we have to assume either that he was not Aemon, or that she was not Eldrene. I guess he could have been Aemon’s top general. That would fit, given Mat’s current role with Rand.
In the second half of the chapter, Egwene catches Sheriam off guard and finds out by force (Sheriam didn’t want to tell her) that the Salidar camp sent ten Sisters to Tar Valon to quietly spread the information about the Red Ajah setting up Logain as a False Dragon. We learn that not even the Hall of the Tower is aware of them.
The whole thing is a secret because they’re all afraid of the Black Ajah finding out. This is kind of ironic though because Sheriam is a significant candidate herself to be Black Ajah. (Remember the assassination attempt on Eggy and Nynaeve, where Eggy’s ear is clipped by a Gray Man’s arrow? Sheriam showed up *immediately* after and very suspiciously.)
At the moment Eggy is really digging into this situation, Eggy senses Moggy being freed from the a’dam by someone channeling saidin. So she abruptly runs out of the tent to Siuan’s extreme consternation. Just before that happened, Eggy seemed to be thinking that if they did this to Elaida, it was likely Elaida had done this to them in return. But alas, that significant realization (one that will almost certainly matter later) flies away in the the much more pressing problem of a freed Forsaken.
We know from the end of the last book that Moggy was sent to the Pit of Doom, ASAP, but from Eggy’s POV Moggy might be on the verge of obliterating their whole camp in an attack. In some sense, it was INSANE for Egwene to run right there to her tent. Nyn is the only one strong enough among the women so far, to fight one of the Forsaken. Eggy only realizes her bad judgment after the fact. Fortunately for her it came to nothing.
Those Two Rivers folks are ridiculously brave, though often a bit stupid, too.
So we know that Halima is the one who freed Moggy, but Jordan does a good job of painting Chesa as a suspicious character here, too. Moggy was only freed after Chesa left Eggy’s tent. Why was she at Marigan’s (Moggy’s) tents? I guess if Eggy ran out of her own tent, Chesa followed. But it’s sus. Maybe Chesa told Halima that Eggy was busy?
Eggy suspects Logain or one of Rand’s Asha’man. She then considers the most likely explanation – that one of the male Forsaken entered the camp and freed her. So they have a lot of reason to be very freaked out.
It’s really too bad that Eggy and Rand aren’t on more direct speaking terms. Their stories are so parallel. Eggy knows better than anyone Rand knows what it’s like to be tortured over a long period of time. He could help her and discreetly park one of his Asha’man in her camp to keep an eye out for a male channeler. But that would require a level of trust that none of them (quite understandably) have. Alas, alas.
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