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 22: Gathering Clouds
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Rand al’Thor
Rand has gathered a large force to begin attacking the Seanchan forces moving toward Illian. The Asha’man make gateways to the Venir Mountains in Altara for the 6,000 soldiers in Rand’s army.
Davram Bashere warns Rand about being too careless. Just as Rand says he has no plans to die yet, an archer assassin takes aim. Rand tries channeling, but becomes sick again. The arrow barely misses and the Asha’man kill the archer with fireballs. Rand vomits and his paranoia grows about being seen as weak and vulnerable. Many opportunists might take advantage of his weakness.
The leader of the rebel Illianers, Eagan Padros, was the archer assassin. As various Asha’man examine the body, Rand notes how much stronger they have become. They find Eagan carried a pouch of Tar Valon gold hinting at Aes Sedai influence. But, Tar Valon coins are commonly found everywhere and Eagan’s motives are left uncertain.
One of Rand’s scouts reports seeing a Seanchan. Rand orders the army to move. In Rand’s mind, Lews Therin recommends killing the Asha’man.
Point of view: Assid Bakuun
Bakuun commands a camp of Seanchan and Taraboner soldiers. An unknown sickness afflicts the damane which the sul’dam can’t explain. This greatly concerns Bakuun. A scout on a raken drops a message that a force roughly 5-6 times larger is 10 miles east. Bakuun is confident that the damane can handle force even 20 times larger. He orders the camp cleared and they move towards the forested slopes.
REACTION:
The “channeling sickness” is its own story in this chapter. With all of the focus on Rand, we have been given the impression that it is specific to him. However, the end of the chapter shows us that the damane have also been sick so that draws a “Rand alone” conclusion into question.
The best guess then for what’s going on is that when the women used “The Bowl of the Winds” and it made channeling more difficult in that area, after, perhaps continuing to channel in that area anyway might lead to illness. (If so, we should start to see the Asha’man also showing signs of illness.) They’re not likely to admit it if they feel it. The damane, by contrast, would be incapable of hiding it from their leash holders.
That is not to say that we are not getting an increasingly insane Rand in the stew of what’s happening. He’s definitely getting crazier. Jordan does a really good job of letting Rand’s thoughts move just beyond rationality but not too far. There’s just a little too much pride here and a little too much paranoia there. And his reactions are just a little bit too much. If you aren’t reading closely, you might not even notice Rand is crazy. Rand notices it in himself, but the effect is to kind of justify his concerns and to disarm the same in the readers… but it doesn’t disarm all the way. The end result is tension. Letting us into his thoughts in this way, we understand that he is crazy and we understand why it might be justified (and if so, not quite so crazy.) It’s really, really good writing.
Who do I think ordered the attempt on Rand? Despite the conversation with Bashere (who – unless we’ve forgotten once attempted to kill Rand to prove a point about Rand putting himself into unnecessary danger) I don’t think it *was* Bashere this time. Though… he is the one who downplays the Aes Sedai angle and points out that he has Tar Valon coins himself. (A disguised confession?)
My guess is one of the Darkfriends in Rand’s camp who want to stop his plans with the Seanchan. Weiramon seems like a good candidate. Dashiva is pretty untrustworthy also (the Old Tongue fluent scholar who doesn’t like being outside has the feel of one of the Forsaken – or someone planted by one of them.) It’s also possible that it came from an actual Aes Sedai, but I tend to agree with Bashere that the purse found on the would-be killer’s body seems like it was designed to point Rand in the wrong direction. Aes Sedai would probably be smart enough to pay in a coin that isn’t their own.
Anyway… the guy who tried to kill Rand had previously worked for Sammael, so the odds are really good he was a Darkfriend and that this was a Darkfriend attempted hit.
The end of the chapter sets up a fight to come. The Seanchan are aware of the possibility that channeling will be used against them, but they are pretty confident based on teh strength of their damane force. They have no idea about the Asha’man. My feeling here is that both sides are underestimating each other, which should make for a good fight – though one Rand’s side probably wins. I think we’re about to find out!
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