The Shadow Rising: Chapter 34
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Author: Val a'Shain
Chapter Icon: A Dragon
Point of View: Rand
Setting: Rhuidean, the Aiel Waste
Characters: Rand, Mat, Bair, Couladin, Rhuarc, Lan, Egwene, Moiraine, Aviendha, Amys, Melaine
Contents
Outline
Rand and Mat return to camp to learn Moiraine and Aviendha have both gone to Rhuidean. Rand learns about his parents.
Summary
Rand and Mat stumble through the Waste on their way to the Aiel camp. They both are in bad shape bleeding from several wounds. The day is young yet and they try to get to the camp before the heat of the afternoon sets in. Rand hurries back to the people he must destroy to save the world. Bair is waiting for them at the edge of the camp with a bag of water. Before they can get to her though Couladin demands to know where Muradin is. He accuses Rand and Mat of killing him and the Shaido start flinging spears at them. As a proof Couladin points to Mat's oddly shaped spear and claims they went into the city armed. Bair interferes and attests to the fact neither was armed when they went into Rhuidean.
Bair demands Rand show the signs. It takes a moment for Rand to understand what she means but then he rolls back one of his sleeves and shows them the scarlet-and-gold dragon on his arm. Bair impatiently steps up to Rand and rolls back his other sleeve as well. Another Dragon is revealed. There can be no doubt, Rand is He Who Comes With the Dawn. The Shaido retreat to their tents and Rand and Mat can finally have a drink of water.
Egwene wants to know what happened but Bair tells them not to speak of their experience in Rhuidean with those who haven't been there. Rand just says it wasn't Muradin that attacked them. He wants to know where Moiraine is. He had expected her here. Egwene tells them she and Aviendha are still in Rhuidean. Lan is very upset over the fact that the Wise Ones hid Moiraine's departure from him. They left the same day Rand and Mat did. It turns out that this was seven days ago. If they are not back by the tenth day they won't be returning.
It turns out none of the Wise Ones can Heal so Rand and Mat are taken to a tent where their wounds can be tended with herbs and ointments. Against the wishes of the Wise Ones Rand wants the men to accompany him. Rand asks Rhuarc about what he has seen in Rhuidean and again the Wise Ones tell him it is not permitted to talk of such things before those who haven't experienced them. Rand tells them he intends to change that and after a bit of hesitation Rhuarc answers some of Rand's questions. He says it is different for each man. What Rand saw are ancestral memories. Rand already knew Tam wasn't his father but the fact he is part Aiel has now been driven home. Rhuarc explains a few other things and Rand now sees how the Cairhienin got the privileged position to travel through the Waste without being bothered and how this eventually lead to the Aiel War and Rand being born on the slope of the Dragonmount. Lan wants to know if Rand saw Moiraine and Rand tells him he didn't. Both Lan and Rhuarc warn him to watch out for Couladin. They expect trouble from him and possibly from others as well.
Rand now enters the tent where Mat is already being tended to. He is told to strip to the waist so the Wise Ones can have a look at his wounds. While the Wise Ones take care of him they discuss how to get the clan chiefs to gather. Rhuarc proposes to gather them in a place called Alcair Dal where something like the peace of Rhuidean holds. Mat translates this as the Golden Bowl. Without realizing it, Mat seems to have become fluent in the Old Tongue. Nobody comments on it though. Rhuarc also suggests asking the Wise Ones to visit the clan chiefs in their dreams and summon them to Alcair Dal. The Wise Ones seem hesitant to do this but agree to do it at Rand's request.
Rand switches the conversation to his mother for a bit. Amys knew her and Rand asks her to tell him about her. Amys reveals how Shaiel as the Aiel knew her was found in the Waste close to death because an Aes Sedai by the name of Gitara Moroso had had a Foretelling saying she must dwell among the Maidens of the Spear or a disaster would befall the world. She tells Rand how Shaiel met his father, Janduin, a young clan chief of the Taardad. How they ended up in the Aiel war and she found herself pregnant with his baby and how in spite of Aiel custom she didn't return to the Waste for the delivery but gave birth and died on the slopes of the Dragonmount. Janduin blamed himself for her death and went north to fight in the Blight. He was killed by a man though. He claimed he looked like Shaiel and simply refused to defend himself.
Rand has a lot to think about and for a while they wait in silence for the return of Moiraine and Aviendha. Then a question occurs to Rand. Why, if he is to destroy the Aiel people there aren't more of them plotting against him? It turns out that most Aiel don't know the whole version of the history of the Aiel that is shown to the people who enter Rhuidean. The truth breaks many people that enter there and could break more if it became common knowledge.
Aviendha returns late in the afternoon. The look on her face when she sees Rand makes Mat warn him not to turn his back on her. The Wise Ones take her off and dress her like one of them. Moiraine returns at dusk. Lan is there immediately to take care of her. Rand feels relieved he will not have to wait for three more days but can move soon. Mat asks him what he intends to do. Rand tells him he is going to break the rules.
Notes
This section contains Notes on this Chapter which may contain spoilers. Please expand to view.
Visions and Prophecies
- Gitara's Foretellings
- An Aes Sedai called Gitara Moroso, who had the Foretelling, had told Shaiel that disaster would befall her land and her people, perhaps the world, unless she went to dwell among the Maidens of the Spear, telling no one of her going. She must become a Maiden, and she could not return to her own land until the Maidens had gone to Tar Valon.
- Aiel Prophecies
- "Behold what has never been seen before. A Car'a'carn has been chosen, a chief of chiefs. Born of a Maiden, he has come with the dawn from Rhuidean, according to prophecy, to unite the Aiel! The fulfillment of prophecy has begun!"
- "He shall spill out the blood of those who call themselves Aiel as water on sand, and he shall break them as dried twigs, yet the remnant of a remnant he shall save, and they shall live."
Visions and Prophecies Fulfilled
Rand's mother was an outlander and his father an Aiel - fitting the Aiel prophecy of him being "born of our blood mixed with the Old Blood".
