The Eye of the World: Chapter 44
The Dark Along the Ways
Author: Val a'Shain
Characters: Rand, Mat, Loial, Moiraine, Lan, Perrin, Nynaeve, Egwene, Master Gill.
Point of view: Rand
It is still well before sunrise when Master Gill leads the company out of the Inn by a hidden door in the stable. The Whitecloaks and those opposing the Queen are still watching the Queen's Blessing. Mat tells Rand he has noticed the change in Perrin, but there is no time to discuss it now. Loial can sense the Waygate and leads them through Caemlyn towards it. Just before sunrise they arrive at a building under which Loial says the Waygate is. Using the one power Moiraine breaks into the cellar. There they find the Waygate. Loial is visibly upset by what happened to the Grove that used to grow there. After Moiraine opens the Waygate the company enters one by one.
The Ways are a dark place where time runs differently. The light of the lanterns seem to have trouble penetrating the darkness. It turns out the Ways are a series of Islands connected by bridges, what holds the bridges up, or the Islands for that matter is a mystery to Rand. Each Island has a Guide, a big slab of stone covered in Ogier script, saying which bridge leads where. All Guides and bridges seem damaged, eroded by time, but Loial can still make out which bridge they to take.
Loial leads them across a series of bridges consulting a Guide at each Island. The damage to the guides and bridges seems to vary but Rand questions the stability of most. At midday Lan signals a brief stop to hand out a meal. They eat in the saddle though. Moiraine doesn't want to spend a moment more in the ways than they have to. The Warder indicates they will not stop before nightfall. After traveling across an other series of bridges Rand is beginning to feel the Ways are not that bad. At that moment though Loial finds the bridge he wants to travel has collapsed.
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