Crossroads of Twilight: Chapter 28

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Author: Kyria d'Oreyn

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A Cluster of Rosebuds


Chapter Icon: Five dice, arranged in a ring

Point of View: Mat

Setting: Great North Road not thirty miles from Ebou Dar, on their way to Lugard

Characters: Mat, Edesina, Bethamin, Renna, Teslyn, Noal, Egeanin, Tuon, Selucia

Outline

Tuon names Egeanin Leilwin Shipless. Mat manages to attract Tuon's attention and finds out he completed half of the Seanchan wedding ceremony by naming Tuon his wife three times. Surprisingly Tuon keeps her word and does not attract attention.

Summary

At the beginning of the journey, Luca and the performers of the travelling show were willing to push hard, but the greater the distance to Ebou Dar, the slower they travel. Luca wants to set up his menagerie, wherever there are people to lure in. Vanin doubts they will ever reach Lugard. Mat is afraid of discovery every time a Seanchan patrol passes.

Mat sees the Aes Sedai and sul'dam sneak into their wagon and decides to follow them, because his medallion tells him someone is channeling. Edesina complains about having to be observed by the sul'dam, since she knows how to be careful. Renna wants to collar the Aes Sedai to prevent them from causing trouble, but Mat will not let her. Teslyn says Seanchan soldiers passed through the day before, looking for strangers and clearly malcontent with not being sent east with the rest of the Ever Victorious Army to conquer Illian. As soon as Teslyn is finished, Bethamin tells Mat they can provide him with answers about all he wants to know, since talk of Illian has been common among the sul'dam in Ebou Dar, but they did not know it would interest him. Mat, however, wants them all to stay in the wagons to avoid notice.

Mat thinks Thera is a bigger danger than the Aes Sedai, because she might reveal everything if asked by a Seanchan. He asks Noal to follow her and Juilin. The Aes Sedai and sul'dam report every rumor they snatch up in the towns to Mat, but he doubts them until Thom confirms what they say.

Mat wants Egeanin to go with him to Tuon to smooth things over. She does not want to at first, but then she decides it is best to be over and done with. When Mat enters, Noal remembers a part of the Prophecies:

"Fortune rides like the sun on high
with the fox that makes the ravens fly.
Luck his soul, the lightning his eye,
He snatches the moons from out of the sky."

When Noal and Olver leave the tent, Mat gives Tuon an expensive necklace, but neither she nor Selucia want it, because it is a "piece for a shea dancer to wear with her veil" as Selucia puts it. The woman throws the necklace at Egeanin and tells her to put it on. Tuon asks Selucia what Egeanin's new name should be and Selucia proposes Leilwin Shipless. Tuon agrees.

The following nights, Mat works out tactics to interest Tuon the way he would plan battles. Every other time he brings some flowers made of cloth by the show’s seamstress as a present for Selucia. He plays stones with Tuon and manages to win more often than he loses. Once, he brings a beautiful cluster of rosebuds, but he just places it next to the stones board and after playing to a draw, Tuon wants to take a walk. Mat may accompany her "to make sure she does not run away". On another day while talking to Egeanin, Mat finds out he has half completed the Seanchan wedding ceremony by naming Tuon his wife three times.

The show travels toward a town with hundreds of Seanchan soldiers in camps around it. Tuon and Selucia ride cloaked and hooded next to Setalle on the driver's seat. Mat expects the child-like woman to shout and summon a thousand soldiers down on them. But she surprises him by not saying a word.

Notes

This section contains Notes on this Chapter which may contain spoilers. Please expand to view.

Visions and Prophecies

The Karaethon Cycle
  • Fortune rides like the sun on high/ With the fox that makes the ravens fly./ Luck his soul, the lightning his eye,/ He snatches the moon from out of the sky.

The moon is likely the Daughter of the Nine Moons.


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