The Dragon Reborn: Chapter 10

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Author: Val a'Shain

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Secrets


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Point of View: Egwene

Setting: Countryside west of Tar Valon

Characters: Egwene, Nynaeve, Elayne, Verin, Mat, Hurin, Dain Bornhald

Outline

The girls approach Tar Valon, where Dain Bornhald tries to intimidate them but they frighten him with the Power.

Summary

A travelstained Egwene and her party are aproaching Tar Valon, the end of their journey from Toman Head. They are carrying Mat on a stretcher. His condition is worsening fast. He needs to be healed in Tar Valon soon or Nynaeve fears he'll die. With Dragonmount rearing up in the distance everybody is getting eager to reach the end of their long journey, their tempers are short and the company is uneasy.

Dreams have been troubling Egwene again lately. Nynaeve's weather sense tells her a storm is coming—but of late her weather sense seems more related to people than to the weather. Hurin is worried about some track he saw in the past few days, sniffing a trail he's unsure of. Only Verin seems composed even though she is hip deep in matters of the real world. Very unusual for a Brown.

Suddenly Nynaeve spots a band of Whitecloaks. Knowing the Whitecloaks will not be friendly to Aes Sedai, Verin tells them to let her do the talking. The leader of the Whitecloaks demands to know where they are coming from and the conversation quickly turns unfriendly. When the Whitecloaks threaten to take them to the Questioners for interrogation, Elayne can hold her tongue no longer and makes herself known. She demands that they let the company past or they'll have Queen Morgase to answer. The Whitecloaks are not impressed, suggesting that the Queen is not as close to Tar Valon as she once was.

The leader raises his hand as if to signal his man to attack. Egwene, thinking back of her experiences with the Seanchan, has had enough. She opens herself to the One Power and frightens the leader with a fountain of earth exploding in front of his horse. Elayne and Nynaeve join her much to Verin's astonishment. The leader falls off his horse and the rest of the Whitecloaks make a run for it.

Verin severly repremands Egwene, Nynaeve and Elayne for disobeying her. Egwene tries to apologize to the Whitecloak and tells him they had a long journey from Falme. After hearing that name the Whitecloak explodes and yells at them that he is Dain Bornhald and Aes Sedai killed his father at Falme. Again Verin is very displeased with Egwene for not guarding her tongue. They leave the Whitecloak where he is and travel on in the direction of Tar Valon, where, according to Verin, "the real danger begins".

Notes

Character Development

Egwene
  • She thinks of seeing Galad again.
  • She has accepted she won't marry Rand, although she isn't yet entirely reconciled to this.
Elayne
  • She has also greatly improved her channeling ability.

It is not clear how she managed this - Egwene had intensive damane training, during which time Elayne didn't channel at all and it is unlikely she has been secretly practicing on the way back.

Nynaeve
  • She has tried Healing Mat.
  • She senses a storm, most likely Bornhald and the Whitecloaks.
  • She is still blaming Moiraine.
Dain Bornhald
  • Is convinced that Perrin is a Darkfriend.

Characters

First Appearance

Dain Bornhald

Miscellaneous

Hurin sensed "trouble".
Does Verin really believe that what the girls did is banned by the Three Oaths?

If they really thought it was not using the Power as a weapon, they would be able to, but it is possible they would be so thoroughly conditioned during training that they would share her view.

Nature

Plants

Feverbane

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