The Dragon Reborn: Chapter 37

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Author: Val a'Shain

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Fires in Cairhien


Chapter Icon: Rising Sun

Point of View: Egwene

Setting: Aboard the Blue Crane on the river Erinin where it is the border between Cairhien and Andor.

Characters: Egwene, Nynaeve, Elayne, Captain Ellisor

Outline

The Blue Crane runs aground and the girls decide to walk to the nearest town.

Summary

Egwene is standing aboard the Blue Crane looking at the Cairhien side of the river. They are just passing a burnt down village, not the first one they have seen on this trip, and she sees more smoke in the distance. War is ravaging Cairhien. Egwene thoughts are mostly on her dreams though. She has visited Tel'aran'rhiod every night since leaving Tar Valon but no new information has turned up. Her normal dreams have been frantic. Lots of things she thinks might be clues have turned up. Rand being threatened in several ways, holding a sword that shines so bright it is hard to see, Mat playing dice, in the company of an Illuminator and being followed by a man who isn't there, Perrin with an Aiel and a fighting Falcon and Hawk. None of it makes much sense though.

Elayne joins Egwene on deck. Her thoughts are more on the people of Cairhien despite the frequent wars between Andor and Cairhien. Since the Aiel War trade between the two countries has been good. Andor has been supplying Cairhien with almost as much grain as Tear has. During her conversation with Elayne, Egwene finally understands one of her dreams. Mat is being followed by a Gray Man. Of course there is nothing Egwene can do about that. She doesn't even understand why. The letter he is carrying isn't dangerous at all. Elayne thinks it is encouraging though. Maybe she'll understand more dreams from now on.

The conversation is interrupted by the Blue Crane hitting something in the river with considerable force. Egwene and Elayne fall. When they get up captain Ellisor is already yelling at the man at the bow. Nynaeve appears on deck as well to find out what is going on. The captain tells them he probably can't get the ship free without the help of another ship. They'll have to wait for one to pass. Nynaeve doesn't want to wait for that and insists on being put on the Cairhien bank of the river so they can walk to the nearest town. Reluctantly Egwene and Elayne agree, despite the captain's protests. They haven't gone very far yet though, when a figure clad in gray and brown rises from behind a bush in front of them.

Notes

Themes

Overconfidence in their own knowledge/Acting on poor information
  • When Egwene realises that there is a gray man after Mat, none of the girls think that he could be important enough to attract one on his own, despite him being a ta'veren and assume it is all about them.

Visions and Prophecy

Egwene's Dreams
  • Rand holding a sword that blazed like the sun, till she could hardly see that it was a sword, could hardly make out that it was him at all.
  • Rand threatened in a dozen ways, none of them the least bit real.
  • In one dream he had been on a huge stones board, the black and white stones as big as boulders, and him dodging the monstrous hands that moved them and seemed to try to crush him under them.
  • Perrin with a wolf, and with a falcon, and a hawk - and the falcon and the hawk fighting.
  • Perrin running from someone deadly
  • Perrin stepping willingly over the edge of a towering cliff while saying, "It must be done. I must learn to fly before I reach the bottom."
  • There had been one dream of an Aiel, and she thought that had to do with Perrin, too, but she was not sure.

Min's Aiel in a cage?

  • Min, springing a steel trap but somehow walking through it without so much as seeing it.
  • Mat with dice spinning 'round him
  • Mat being followed by a man who was not there

A Gray man?

  • Mat riding desperately toward something unseen in the distance that he had to reach, and
  • Mat with a woman who seemed to be tossing fireworks about. An Illuminator, she assumed, but that made no more sense than anything else.
  • Men and women breaking out of a cage, then putting on crowns.

The Forsaken

  • A woman playing with puppets, and another dream where the strings on puppets led to the hand of larger puppets, and their strings let to still greater puppets, on and on until the last strings led into unimaginable heights.
  • Kings dying, queens weeping, battles raging.
  • Whitecloaks ravaging the Two Rivers.

She had previously dreamed of Whitecloaks binding her parents

  • She had even dreamed of the Seanchan again. More than once. Those she shut away in a dark corner; she would not let herself think of them.
  • Her mother and father, every night."

Character Development

Egwene
  • Egwene still refuses to acknowledge that she is Andoran
  • Egwene is opposing Nynaeve more and more since leaving the White Tower, because she is annoyed Nynaeve is taking charge even though they are all at the same (Accepted) level now

Nature

Plants

Snowberry, Sugarberry

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

Visions and Prophecy

Egwene's Dreams
  • Rand holding a sword that blazed like the sun, till she could hardly see that it was a sword, could hardly make out that it was him at all.

This is Callandoor

  • Perrin with a wolf, and with a falcon, and a hawk - and the falcon and the hawk fighting.

Berelain and Faile, and their animosity

  • Perrin running from someone deadly
  • There had been one dream of an Aiel, and she thought that had to do with Perrin, too, but she was not sure.

Min's Aiel in a cage? Probably Gaul

  • Min, springing a steel trap but somehow walking through it without so much as seeing it.

Likely the revolt against Siuan, though this is not really a trap

  • Mat being followed by a man who was not there

A Gray man?

  • Mat with a woman who seemed to be tossing fireworks about. An Illuminator, she assumed, but that made no more sense than anything else.

Aludra

  • Men and women breaking out of a cage, then putting on crowns.

The Forsaken

  • A woman playing with puppets, and another dream where the strings on puppets led to the hand of larger puppets, and their strings let to still greater puppets, on and on until the last strings led into unimaginable heights.
  • Kings dying, queens weeping, battles raging.
  • Whitecloaks ravaging the Two Rivers.

She had previously dreamed of Whitecloaks binding her parents. This is the Whitecloaks in the Two Rivers

  • She had even dreamed of the Seanchan again. More than once. Those she shut away in a dark corner; she would not let herself think of them.
  • Her mother and father, every night."


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