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 38: Six Stories
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Matrim Cauthon
Mat, Elayne, Nynaeve, the Kin, the Redarms, and Beslan head for the river on their way to house with the ter’angreal stash in the Rahad. Mat overhears hints regarding an arrangement between Lan and Nyneave as a result of being married by the Sea Folk having to do with being in public versus in private. Elayne realizes what the flowers in the basket imply and accuses Mat of forcing himself on Tylin. Mat defends himself saying he didn’t have any say in the matter, that she has forced herself on him. Elayne responds with barely contained amusement. Despite his humiliation, Mat shocks Elayne with the selfless offer of his Silver foxhead medallion as protection against Moghedien. She reluctantly refuses the ter’angreal. To top everything off, the dice are still spinning in his head.
After crossing the river they move through the Rahad to the house, which is six stories tall. Mat orders Harnan and some others to find the back entrance and guard it while Elayne claims there is no need for that. Elayne, Reanne, and most of the Kin head up the stairs while the others wait with Nynaeve.
While they are waiting, Falion Bhoda and Ispan Shefar come in the door behind them and shield Nynaeve. Lan crashes into the two Black sisters, which starts a fight between the Redarms and the Darkfriends that accompanied Falion and Ispan. Nynaeve tells Mat there is channeling upstairs so he goes up to help Elayne. The women are all unconscious or dead and a strange man seems to be the cause. Mat attacks and finds the man is faster than a Myrddraal. Nalesean arrives and is quickly killed. Mat stabs the man several times but it has no effect. As they struggle on the floor, Mat’s medallion touches the man’s cheek and it screams. Mat uses the medallion as a weapon to drive the creature off into another room. When Mat enters the room the creature is gone and there weren’t any openings larger than a rat hole.
Elayne recovers and says that channeling had no effect on the creature. Nynaeve arrives and begins Healing those not already dead. Elayne heads in to the room where the Bowl of the Winds should be and begins searching while Mat tallies the dead, ending with a count of two dead Wise Women and six dead Redarms along with Nalesean. Elayne can be heard cursing in the other room, but finally shouts that she has found it and brings the bowl into the room to show those remaining.
REACTION:
Mat has had so many great moments in this series, that’s it’s really hard to say “this is his best moment.” THAT SAID… I think this was his best moment. Confronted with an unstoppable brand new Super-Shadowspawn, Mat’s luck… but more than that his heroism… saves the day.
“You can’t have her!”
A big part of what made that scene so great was the terrible and unfair way that Elayne had treated Mat in the lead-up to that moment. This chapter starts with that continuing from her. She (as she found out soon after) accused him very unfairly of treating Tylin badly, she laughed at him when she found out it was the other way around, she never really apologized for not telling him two of his men died or that one of the FORSAKEN was in the city. Despite all of this, Mat’s first instinct is to give her the a’dam to protect herself against Moggy. This was the start of the scales falling from her eyes. Then she witnesses Mat fight off an unstoppable super-strong monster to save her life. It was the sort of thing that only happens in a Gleeman’s Tale and it was *for* her. We leave the chapter with her seeing him accurately, for the first time. She owes him big time and she finally really sees it. To this point, she hasn’t sincerely really began to pay him back even in the lead up wherein she was allegedly meeting her toh.
In most stories, these two characters would be on their way to a romantic pairing. She’s a prim princess who *could* fall in love with the rogue who has a heart of gold. We know that won’t happen here, but maybe it should happen. Mat has about 10,000% more chemistry with Elayne than Rand does. Mat has a lot more interaction, mind you, but he definitely has more chemistry all the same. Sidenote – isn’t it a problem when the first of Rand’s three Big Love interests has spent about 3 to 4 days with him total (a few pages of canoodling early on in The Shadow Rising and about about 15 minutes together during The Eye of the World.)
Either way, Mat and Elayne have now been through an arc. Rand and Elayne have not. Whether I decide to like Elayne going forward will depend on whether this makes any difference with her from here on out. It should. She has more toh to Mat than she can ever repay.
Separately… Nyn gets mad at Lan for telling Mat about Moggy and his men. I think she would have told him, given the chance, but the fact that Lan did it for her shamed her. When she’s embarrassed, she yells at the person who embarrassed her. When she’s just about anything else, she also yells. She yells a lot. On the other hand, she also whooped a couple members of the Black Ajah in a two-on-one fight even after they got the drop on her and shielded her. It makes sense that she did, mind you, but it’s good to see.
Mat had a great line about Nyn just before he ran upstairs to save Elayne and the others.
“Please Mat,” Nynaeve said tightly. She never begged. She would cut her own throat first.
This says a lot about Nynaeve, because it’s a true observation, but it says a lot about how Mat feels for her, deep down. When the chips are down, he respects her immensely. Jordan really needs to let the Readers see, at some point, that she feels the same way in return.
The chapter ends with the new Shadowspawn getting away, but with the good guys finding the Bowl of the Winds AND getting away from the scene with one captured member of the Black Ajah AND with several other One Power items that might prove useful, too. The Darkfriends got away with some stuff, too, and it’s a good bet it will be useful to Sammael.
Speaking of him, we’re very near to the end of this book. Is he going to avoid a big bad fight with Rand yet again? He’s been set up for that several times so far. That said.. I don’t really know what else Rand might do to finish up so maybe Sammael just found a weapon to help out against Rand in the next couple of chapters.
Either way… .fantastic chapter. This has been a great book so far I’m looking forward to the big finish.
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