Re-Reading "The Dragon Reborn": "Chapter 24: Scouting and Discoveries," "Chapter 25: Questions," and "Chapter 26: Behind a Lock"

As Mat continues to show some surprising side effects of his time with the dagger from Shadar Logoth, Egwene tries to find the Black Ajah and wrestles with her dreams.

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Welcome back to Wheel of Time Wednesday here at Omnivorous, where I share my love of and thoughts on Robert Jordan’s sprawling series. Today we’re resuming our reading of The Dragon Reborn, this time focusing on one Mat chapter and two Egwene. In Mat’s outing, we follow him as he wanders through the grounds of the White Tower, in the process discovering just how trapped he is. He follows all of this up with a magnificent duel with Gawyn and Galad. Meanwhile, Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne continue on their search for the Black Ajah, with Egwene having a run-in with none other than Lanfear herself. 

In other words, this is a very exciting trio of chapters with some interesting twists and turns. In addition to making for compelling reading in their own right, these chapters help to lay the foundations for some of the plot twists to come in both The Dragon Reborn and subsequent volumes of the series as a whole. Say what you will about Jordan as a writer, but the man certainly knew how to set the stage for the narrative to come, though he wasn’t always able to maintain control of some of his own storylines.

Anyway.

We’ve already seen just how much Mat has changed as a result of his encounter with the dagger from Shadar Logoth. Even for someone like him, who never takes anything very seriously, the fact that he slips into the Old Tongue without knowing it– going so far as to say that he’s from Manetheren–can’t help but be a little bit disturbing (as it would be for anyone). Like Rand and Perrin, though, he’s going to keep trying to resist the truth of his circumstances, despite the fact that it’s clear as day that he’s not going to be able to escape, either his destiny or the clutches of the Aes Sedai, who have already gone to extraordinary lengths to make sure that he stays in Tar Valon rather than wandering about on his own.

The centerpiece of Mat’s chapter, of course, is his duel with Galad and Gawyn, and it’s really quite remarkable the extent to which he is able to subdue two very skilled swordsmen–who also happen to be royal–with nothing more than a quarterstaff. It’s one of those fantastic moments in The Wheel of Time where someone from a humble background manages to show that there’s far more to him than meets the eye. Mat himself seems a bit stymied by his success which, to be sure, seems to owe just as much to the laws of chance as it does to his own undeniable skill as a duelist. There’s also a hint that the memories that he’s gained as a result of his time with the dagger may have something to do with it, too.

There’s an interesting bit of symmetry here between Mat’s slippery identity and memories and what will come to affect Rand once he starts to hear Lews Therin’s voice in his mind. The past is never very far out of sight in The Wheel of Time, and it always manages to encroach on the present, often in ways that are very disconcerting for the human being caught in the crossfire between these two temporal planes. In other words, the weaving of the Wheel is not just the thing that allows one Age to succeed another, but its very actions–its metaphysics, if you will–are wound into the very bodies, souls, and minds of the various main characters that we meet. It’s all really quite fascinatingly complex, particularly since it’s often not simply the case that a given character is just the same soul in a new body. Nothing is really ever that simple in The Wheel of Time, and that’s a big part of what we love about it.

While Mat is dealing with all of this, Egwene continues to try to grapple with what it means to be pursuing the Black Ajah, when everyone that she knows–with the exception of Nynaeve and Elayne–could be a part of this forbidden group. I’ve written here before that part of Jordan’s narrative brilliance is this setup, which keeps us as readers always guessing about the various Aes Sedai and their motivations. With some exceptions we’re as clueless as Egwene and her companions, which means that even those Aes Sedai that we’re invited to at least like a little, including Moiraine, could very well be working for the Dark One. You just never know, and this gives the series as a whole an aura of mystery that persists until the very end.

At the same time, Egwene’s also struggling with her dreams and what they might (or might not) mean. Having read the series in its entirety, it’s actually quite fascinating to look back and see how things that happen in later books–such as Perrin’s little quasi-love triangle with Berelain and Faile–were presaged all the way back in this book. Jordan was quite proficient at using a puzzle-box sort of narrative and, while I find this very frustrating when it’s overused in TV, including in The Wheel of Time series from Amazon, it actually works in Jordan’s favor here. 

As if all of that weren’t enough, Egwene also manages to run into none other than Lanfear who, as she has been doing throughout this book, is skulking around the White Tower on some business of her own. One of the things I love about Lanfear is just how much of a chaos agent she always is: she always manages to show up at just the right (or wrong) time, causing lots of disruption. Of course, Egwene doesn’t realize that she’s set off after one of the most powerful and terrifying of the Forsaken, and that’s precisely what makes their little exchange so potent. We know the truth of things, and we’re on the edge of our seats wondering just how this is going to play out, particularly since we already know that Lanfear is dangerously jealous of any woman who she thinks is horning in on her territory. Fortunately for Egwene, though, she doesn’t burn her to a cinder. 

All in all, these chapters did some important work in terms of developing Mat’s character and deepening Egwene’s story. I still may not Mat’s biggest fan, but I will admit that I find him marginally less irritating than usual this time around. It probably goes without saying that I remain quite enamored of Egwene, even though I’m aware that that is very much a minority opinion amongst many other members of the fandom. 

That’s it for this week’s Wheel of Time Wednesday. I’ll be back next week with some more chapter analyses!