Re-Reading "The Dragon Reborn": "Chapter 12: The Amyrlin Seat," "Chapter 13: Punishments," and "Chapter 14: The Bite of the Thorns"

In Tar Valon, Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne learn just how far the Amyrlin Seat is willing to go to protect her order and ensure Rand wins the Last Battle.

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Hello everyone, and welcome as always to a new installment of Wheel of Time Wednesdays, where I provide reflections on Robert Jordan’s magisterial work of epic fantasy. For this week I’m looking at a trio of chapters that take place within the halls of the White Tower, as Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne contend with the consequences of their flight from Tar Valon. As it turns out their punishment is both better and worse than they could have imagined, for none other than the Amyrlin Seat herself has decided that the two from Emond's Field will be her eyes and ears, ferreting out the Black Ajah. 

It’s always a pleasant change when we get the perspective of a character that isn’t one of the central five from Emond’s Field. While the chapter from Siuan’s perspective is actually quite brief, it nevertheless reveals a great deal about her character and how she views the world. Most importantly, it demonstrates the extent to which she still holds onto the quirks of her youth as a fisherman’s daughter in Tear. No matter how high she has risen within the ranks of the Aes Sedai and now matter how much wealth and power surrounds her, it says something remarkable about her character that she hasn’t let it all go to her hand. In this respect, as in so many others, she’s unlike many others who seek to wear the Stole, including her successor. 

At the same time, Siuan also reveals the extent to which she is more than happy to use others so long as it suits her purposes to do so. We knew this already, of course, thanks to her conversations with Moiraine regarding Rand’s eventual fate, but it’s still a little unnerving to see her be willing to throw our beloved Egwene and Nynaeve into the path of the Black Ajah, especially since she knows the latter are quite willing to murder anyone who stands in their way.

On the other side of the table, Egwene finds herself filled with mixed feelings. She obviously wants to be Aes Sedai more than almost anything else, which is why she is willing to tolerate a great deal so long as it means that she’ll one day be raised to the shawl. By this point we’ve already seen the extent to which her greatest fear is ever being under someone else’s thrall again, and becoming an actual Aes Sedai is one way that she could avoid such a fate. 

Just as importantly, this whole exchange reveals the extent to which the Aes Sedai, for all that they are some of the most powerful people in the world, nevertheless are quite egalitarian in some ways. After all, anyone who has the ability to channel can potentially enter their ranks, though obviously they have to be powerful enough, and determined enough, to endure the trials that face them. Becoming an Aes Sedai is not for the faint of heart and, as Siuan can attest more than most, it’s a position that is as lonely and restricting as it is liberating. To put it in Shakespearean terms, heavy lies the shoulder that wears the Stole. 

It’s thus all the more remarkable that Nynaeve in particular remains determined to pursue her training, despite everything that she believes to be true about the Aes Sedai. For all that she might like to pretend that she’s above such things and that she’ll never let herself be welcomed into the ranks of the women that she hates with a fiery passion, the truth is that she yearns for power and knowledge just as much as Egwene. 

And then there’s the Black Ajah. 

One of the things I’ve always appreciated about Jordan is his ability to really capture the ethos of his secondary world. Readers, of course, have known for a very long time that there are many within the halls of the White Tower who have sold their souls to serve the Dark One, and so it might seem a bit strange (and hard to believe) that there would still be Aes Sedai who would be shocked and horrified at the truth of matters. However, when one considers the extent to which many who belong to this group believe wholeheartedly in their mission of fighting against the Dark One, it’s a little easier to see how they would see the admission of a Black Ajah would be truly earth-shattering. At a more practical level, as Siuan herself puts it, letting this truth get out to the general public would be devastating for their brand, opening them to even more public hostility and skepticism. 

By the time these chapters come to a close it’s clear that there’s a very long road ahead of our young heroines. Just as importantly, it’s also unclear whether Mat will end up surviving his encounter with the dreadful dagger from Shadar Logoth or whether it will end up claiming his life. Even Siuan herself doesn’t seem to know whether she should let him die so that someone else can wind the Horn of Valere or whether she should do what she can to move him along the direction she wants him to take. It’s yet another indication of just how far she will go to make sure that Rand is prepared to face down the Dark One at the Last Battle. Like Moiraine, she isn’t someone to let something as paltry and limiting as emotions or mercy get in the way of what must be done.

All in all, I found myself quite enjoying these three chapters. I continue to find the female characters much more interesting and far less irritating than their male counterparts, even if there are times when you want to reach inside the novel and shake Egwene so that she stops being so rash. One might think that being forced to wash pots might do the trick but, as we know by now, if there’s one thing that’s true of the folks from Emond’s Field it’s that they’re stubborn. As both Nynaeve and Egwene will have cause to realize, that can be both a blessing and a curse.