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 29: A Cup of Sleep
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Min Farshaw
Rand is sulking because Elayne tore down all of his banners and does not want his aid in securing the Lion Throne. Min encourages him to go visit Elayne in Caemlyn, but he won’t give in.
Sorilea brings five of the captured Aes Sedai in to where Rand and Min are arguing in front of the Sun Throne: Elza Penfell, Nesune Bihara, Sarene Nemdahl, Beldeine Nyram, and Erian Boroleos. She says all five have asked for the same beatings they gave him while holding him prisoner and all have asked to serve him however they can; but the choice is his whether or not to accept. One by one, Rand asks each woman why. After hearing their very different answers, he allows them to pledge fealty to him and orders them all to be made apprentices to the Wise Ones, like the others that had pledged fealty to him at first.
Rand is then told by Sorilea that Cadsuane is in the palace. He decides to visit her. He takes Min and Fedwin Morr with him and when they enter the hall there is a loud bang. Turning around they see his antechamber and bedroom burning and torn to rubble. Rand tells Morr to take care of Min.
Point of view: Rand al’Thor
Rand sets off down the hall seizing saidin. He sees Corlan Dashiva, Gedwyn and Rochaid. When they spot him, Dashiva attacks. Rand shields himself using some weave known probably just to Lews Therin, then attacks back with Fire but then can’t find them again. Later Rand attacks Narishma, more or less consciously, and contemplates if he can blame Lews Therin for this.
Point of view: Min Farshaw
Min is in a lower level of the Cairhienin palace watching Rand. Morr plays with wooden blocks. Min looks at him sadly knowing that the man who has protected her is now a boy in his mind. He is lost to himself with no chance of recovery.
Mazrim Taim comes in and Rand tells him to add Dashiva to the list of deserters who shall hang from the traitors’ tree. Taim agrees as Rand gives Morr a wine cup with an herb in it that will kill him, to free him from his madness. Rand tells Taim to return to the farm, the Black Tower, and not to come back to Cairhien.
Rand says he has to go and Min replies that she is not going to leave him.
REACTION:
Rand is upset that Elayne is tearing down his banners, etc. I understand this from Rand’s point of view. At the very least, she could have privately sent some type of communication to him regarding all of this. She didn’t. Rand found out from Taim. For someone who wants to be with Rand, she’s not exactly communicating that particularly well.
Set that aside for a second, though. Are Elayne’s actions politically sensible? Let’s say she allows Rand to oversee her taking the Crown in Andor. His presence would definitely cow the Houses in open Rebellion. What is the consequence? A lot of Andorans grumble, but reluctantly accept her on the throne (just as they tolerated Rand’s rule directly.) Maybe down the road some of them rebel. Or maybe she rules well and wins them over.
Her mother won the Crown in the traditional way, after a Succession War, and when we first visited Caemlyn in book 1, Morgase’s subjects were on the streets protesting, and on the verge of open rebellion. Further, it’s not like even if she wins the traditional way that Elayne won’t immediately turn around and pledge Andoran support to Rand, anyway. What’s the point of all of this? In order to assuage a tradition of independence (or maybe just her pride and ego), Elayne is willing to let her city/country go through a succession war, where maybe thousands of people will die, knowing every living human fit to carry a sword will be needed ASAP for the Last Battle. This is better than just letting the threat of Rand’s forces help her do all of this more quickly and less painfully? I don’t get it. All I can conclude is that Elayne must be *extremely* attractive. She is definitely the weak link in the Min-Avi-Elayne trio.
Anyway.
It feels significant that the Aes Sedai who were part of Rand’s torture are now also pledging to him. This isn’t organic. Remember when Verin was using Compulsion on captured Aes Sedai in the Aiel camp? This is the fruit of that effort. I wonder if that will eventually matter. If we go by Min’s viewings, it seems like it doesn’t matter.
Rand survives an assassination attempt. Dashiva – who is definitely one of the Forsaken in disguise – was the ringleader. But the whole thing failed because Rand has in-world plot armor. That’s got to be frustrating for the Shadow, right? I am pretty sure that Taim must know something about Dashiva’s real identity, but that doesn’t come out in this chapter, either.
The heart of this chapter is the sad end for Morr. He abruptly goes mad (which apparently can happen) and Min is lucky that his madness merely had him acting like a small child. So she entertained him until Rand found them. The child-ish madness made it sadder when Rand poisoned him to death. Overall though, we don’t know Morr and our real grief is for Rand. His own creation (the Black Tower) turned on him, and it is a real danger to turn on the entire world.
We’re now very nearly at the end of the book and this feels like the end of Rand’s part in it. This is the first time a Wheel of Time book feels like it ends on something like a cliffhanger. I say something like a cliffhanger because that’s not exactly it. What it really feels like is that we ended in the middle of a book. (Maybe Book 8 was growing so large that Jordan just broken in half.)
I didn’t really feel strongly one way or another about the first 95% of The Path of Daggers (it was enjoyable for the most part), but I have to admit this is a pretty unsatisfactory almost ending. It just feels like we ended abruptly and without any larger arc being traversed. Maybe the last chapter will make up for that. My working theory though is that Jordan’s publisher just told him they wouldn’t publish a 65 chapter book so he broke it in half (and that this is the first half.) We’ll see if Winter’s Heart (Book #9) confirms that hypothesis when we get there. To the extent that Jordan seems to be building toward something, that something is the Cleansing of the Taint. The end here just affirms how important that will be.
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