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 17: Th Triumph of Logic
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Matrim Cauthon
Mat returns to the Wandering Woman from his visit to Tarasin Palace, feeling fortunate to have escaped from Queen Tylin. Mat arranges for Vanin and Harnan to begin watching Carridin after he explains the Darkfriend Mili Skane he saw visiting. Upstairs on the way to his room he is attacked and ends up killing two men sent to abduct him.
He finds a note in his pocket warning that Nynaeve and Elayne need to be more careful if they want to avoid being sent back to the White Tower. Mat figures either Joline or Teslyn must have slipped him the note since they were the only two who came close enough. Despite the kidnapping attempt, the dice are still rolling in his head.
Point of view: Joline Maza
Teslyn tries to convince Joline that they should be trying to get Elayne and Nynaeve back to the Tower. Bringing Mat and Aviendha would be a bonus. Joline convinces her that there is no rush and they are both upset with Elaida for sending them to Ebou Dar.
Point of view: Falion Bhoda
Falion is torturing one of the Wise Women of Ebou Dar for information on the cache of ter’angreal that they seek but accidentally kills her instead. Arnin and Nad are ordered to dispose of the body. She and Ispan are still following orders from Moghedien even though the Forsaken has not contacted them for a long time. Falion no longer believes there is a cache to be found. Instead she believes they should capture Nynaeve for Moghedien and perhaps Elayne also.
Point of view: Noal Charin
Noal is watching a goldsmith’s house where two Aes Sedai are staying. He sees two men leaving the house with a wheelbarrow and wonders what they are up to. He touches his forehead, trying to remember something, but all he knows is that it is something he has to remember soon.
REACTION:
Sometimes the location of a story feels like a character, in and of itself. It’s like how the bar from Cheers was as much a part of the show as any of the characters – maybe more than some. The Hogwarts Castle is a huge part of Harry Potter. Jordan writes in that way. Emond’s Field has a feel to it. So does the White Tower. Here, the Tarasin Palace has a vibe, as does The Wandering Woman.
The vibe of The Wandering Woman is one of a particularly rowdy Old West Saloon, where the owner is a tough as nails woman who might make you think of Miss Kitty.
Mat Cauthon – like Matt Dillon – won’t be stealing any kisses from the Innkeeper.
Mat gets attacked in his room by two men and manages to kill them… but just barely. He survives because the first attacker alerted him to danger by stepping on the one and only squeaky board in the entire inn. The two men brought an empty chest with them, up the stairs, and Mat guesses that they were planning to steal from him (speculating about whether they heard about his gambling win earlier.)
As a Reader, and having recently seen how an empty chest was used against Rand… this looks like a kidnapping attempt to me. By who?
After the fight, he finds a note in his pocket and reasons out that Teslyn or Joline were probably the only people close enough to him to put it there… and also that neither of them make sense to have done so.
We get the Joline POV and she definitely does not come across as a bad person. Being furious at the Rebels makes some sense if she believes Elaida was raised legally. She also thinks to herself about how badly Elaida has messed up since being raised. She blames Elaida for the lack of Tower reconciliation thus far. Jordan is not giving her “bad guy” treatment.
Teslyn on the other hand plots “taking” Elayne, Nynaeve, Mat, and Aviendha to the White Tower, whether they want to go or not. This feels like a misdirect, though. Coming right on the heels of Mat’s almost kidnapping, I think I’m supposed to blame her, but I… don’t. She is more or less talked out of doing anything by Joline and if she’d already arranged to kidnap Mat, and believed he was on his way to her right now, I don’t think she would have agreed so easily.
Falion, one of the Black Ajah who we encountered in Tear and Tanchico, is torturing one of Ebou Dar’s Wise Women on… Moggy’s orders? She’s trying to wrestle out of her the location of the cache of One Power objects that Sammael is now after, too. Moggy gave this order before her own capture by Nynaeve. I guess it’s lucky for Elayne and Nynaeve that they have not been efficient in their work. They actually kill the Wise Woman and it doesn’t sound like she’s the first. It’s interesting that Sammael is seemingly unaware of them. Maybe we’ll see him and Moggy at odds soon, or a chastened Spider will join him to help out. It’s also possible that a recently freed Moggy is how Sammael knows about this cache of One Power objects, though if that were true, I think she’d have told him about her searchers. It seems clear from the dialogue, at least, that Moggy’s searchers are aware of the ones Sammael has sent out.
We don’t know how Moggy learned of this place… but it’s possible she learned the same way that Elayne and Nynaeve did – via The World of Dreams. Falion and Ispan are on the verge of giving up their search, so Falion decides that they should capture Nynaeve and Elayne as gifts for Moggy. It’s an interesting contrast to the White Tower conversation immediately before, where they talk themselves out of kidnapping.
The chapter ends with a new character – who is an old man watching a house with two Aes Sedai. Falion and Ispan seem like the two he’s likely watching. He’s also aware of “Carridan’s pretty killer.” So maybe this is the same guy Mat was speaking with when Carridan saw him through the window? Maybe this is “Old Cully” Not much to go on, but I bet we see more of him again.
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