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 20: Patterns Within Patterns
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Sevanna
Sevanna is sitting with some of the Shaido Wise Ones, two days after the disastrous Battle of Dumai’s Wells. They decide to use the callbox ter’angreal they were given. After it is activated, Caddar speaks to them through the callbox and Sevanna asks to meet in ten days where they met before. Instead Caddar is able to find their location and to Travel there within minutes. He brings Maisia with him and pretends that she is under his control. Sevanna was supposed to have Rand and Caddar was going to give them a way to control him. Sevanna asks to have the secret of Traveling since they arrived from somewhere else so quickly. He promises to get them some traveling boxes, similar to the callbox, for a price.
Point of view: Moridin
Moridin has been watching the meeting between the Wise Ones, Sammael, and Graendal. Since he is covered in fancloth (except for his eyes), he is essentially invisible. He hears Sammael claim that he has a truce with Lews Therin, that he has been named Nae’blis, and that he had no hand in Rand’s kidnapping (but that Mesaana surely did). He briefly considers killing Sevanna and the Shaido Wise Ones with her, then discards the idea. He uses the True Power to rip a hole and step outside the Pattern. There are black spots flicking across his eyes.
REACTION:
If Sevanna and the Shaido Wise Ones had used the “callbox” while Rand was captured… Sammael would have won. A captured Rand would have gone to the Pit of Doom. The Shadow wins. I have no doubt that if Rand were in hand, Sammael and Graendal could have walked into the Aes Sedai camp and walked out with Rand… especially with the Black Ajah undoubtedly in the camp, too, all ready to follow orders..
If we grade things on that scale, Sammael has come closer to ultimate victory than Ishy, Lanfear, or any of the others. It’s hard to really see Sammael as a threat, in the same way we saw Ishy (at least not of the same caliber), but maybe we should see him that way.
Then again… the Watcher using the True Power has to be Ishamael in a new body, right? He’s channeling the True Power. He talks like someone with vast experience. He seemed to be in possession of a callbox, too, which is how he knew where to find the gathering (I’m speculating on that part.)
We hear from Sammael that Rand’s kidnapping was orchestrated by Mesaana, and probably also Demandred and Semhirage. He throws in casually a line about “despite how it ended” to make us think one of those latter two did something that would lead us to believe they weren’t in on the kidnapping. Well… the best explanation for that is that one of them has something to do with the Black Tower.
Let’s say Demandred has something to do with the Black Tower (someone taught Taim how to test for the ability to channel)… did Taim unknowingly go rogue to rescue Rand? I don’t think so. If you remember, we saw Demandred bragging to the Great Lord of the Dark in the Epilogue of Lord of Chaos about how well he’s done. He seemed happy about Taim’s rescue. Did Demandred double-cross Mesaana? Possibly. It’s interesting then that all of this does not matter if Sevanna uses the callbox. Sammael had a counter-move in place and it would have worked if Sevanna had not been so greedy.
Sammael still seems as though things are going well for him. Maybe he’s the most dangerous of the Forsaken left on the board… except he doesn’t know about ‘The Watcher.”
Jordan is setting up a lot of potential twists and turns in the early part of this book. I spent nearly all of Lord of Chaos waiting for something to happen, as the stakes kept building. This already feels more tense, though I can’t imagine how it could end on a higher note.
We shall see!