Re-Reading "The Dragon Reborn": "Chapter 49: A Storm in Tear," "Chapter 50: The Hammer," and "Chapter 51: Bait for the Net"
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It’s a very exciting Wheel of Time Wednesday here at Omnivorous this week, as events in The Dragon Reborn finally begin to heat up. I’ve written before that this novel is a bit deliberately paced–as was the case with both The Eye of the World and The Great Hunt–with things taking their good time to get going. Now, though, events are once again hurtling toward a pretty spectacular conclusion, as the various characters all finally make their way to Tear, where the Forsaken Be’lal and his Dark Ajah minions have laid a trap that they think will snare them not just the Dragon but also the others who are working against them.
I think I’m finally ready to admit that I’m becoming a fan of Mat. Maybe it’s that I’m getting soft in my middle age, or maybe he just hasn’t gotten as annoying as he will be in later volumes, but this time around I really do find myself enjoying getting to spend time with him. I am particularly touched by just how far he’s willing to go to try to find Elayne and the others before Gaebril/Rahvin’s assassin can reach them. When it comes right down to it, Mat isn’t such a bad guy. He just puts on a show that he is, when deep down he’s as much of a softie as either Rand or Perrin.
At the same time, he also has to contend with the fact that his luck can be, well, quite dangerous. After all, he certainly didn’t mean to kill the man sent after Elayne and the others, even if that’s just what ended up happening. Sometimes, when one is ta’veren and the very strings of chance and fate respond to one’s actions, these kinds of things are bound to happen. Once again, we see the extent to which the boys from Emond’s Field, for all that they seem to be masters of their own fate, are often at the whim of powers that they can neither see nor really grasp in their entirety.
And speaking of Perrin. I quite enjoyed the brief bit of time we get to spend with him, particularly his encounter with the blacksmith and the forge. As is often the case with Jordan, the whole scene is related in meticulous detail, as we watch Perrin go through the various stages of forging. Given just how far Perrin has come, and how different his life is than it was when he was just an apprentice in Emond’s Field, this whole experience is a reminder, to both him and us, of his humble origins. It turns out that you can take the boy out of the smithy, but you can’t take the smithy out of the boy. This all to the good, because it’s clear that things are going to get very messy and violent in Tear before they get any better. Perrin, like all of the others who’ve found themselves drawn into this violent new world, is going to have his work cut out for him when it comes to surviving (to say nothing of how much he’s going to have to put up with from Faile/Zarine, who continues to be a bit of a thorn in his side).
Which brings us to Nynaeve. It’s been a minute since we had a chapter from her point of view, and it’s nice to see her again. She’s as impatient as always, but that’s always been a key part of her charm. Moreover, she manages to put up quite a fight against Liandrin and her fellow Black Ajah, even knowing that it won’t do her any good. Like the other people from Emond’s Field–and like Elayne herself, come to that–Nynaeve is never going to go down without swinging. You cheer for her, even as you know that she’s pretty much doomed as soon as Liandrin and the others manage to separate her from the True Source.
Liandrin has to be one of the most terrifying villains in this entire series. With her pert mouth and her doll-like beauty, one would never expect her to be such a sadistic creature, and yet every time that Nynaeve and the others think that they’ve gotten the drop on her, she somehow manages to beat them to the punch. This chapter reveals once again just how much she loathes and detests Nynaeve, mostly because she’s a wilder and thus, for someone like Liandrin, uncontrollable. (As a brief aside, I’m very much looking forward to seeing what the Amazon series does with her character season, particularly since they seem to have combined her with Alviarin).
Even though I know that things will turn out okay in the end, I still found myself on the edge of my seat while re-reading these chapters. Jordan was one of those authors who knew how to land his characters in terrifying situations with seemingly no way out, and they don’t come much more terrifying than falling into the hands of the Black Ajah. Liandrin has already shown that she hasn’t an ounce of mercy in her body and that, in fact, she seems to take a great deal of pleasure in the pain of others. The fact that there are thirteen Myrddraal on their way to Tear suggests that the stakes, for Nynaeve and everyone else, are growing very high indeed.
One of the things that makes the Black Ajah so terrifying is that they really could be anyone. Any Aes Sedai that the characters–and, by extension, we as readers–encounter during their various adventures could in fact be servants of the Dark One. It’s really quite a brilliant narrative device when you think about it, and it’s a big part of why this book, like so many other entries in the series, keeps you riveted even during the slower parts.
Looming over these three chapters is the ever-present shadow of the Forsaken. Unlike with Ishamael and Lanfear, about whom we actually know quite a bit–or as much as anyone is capable of knowing anything about these mysterious yet incredibly powerful figures–we still don’t know much about Be’lal. The most important thing, really, is that he was very jealous of Lews Therin (which seems to be a bit of an ongoing trend with the Forsaken). He’s also a canny strategist but, as time will tell, that only gets him so far when confronted with a master schemer–and balefire user–like Moiraine.
That’s all for this week, fellow Wheel of Time fans. We’ll see you next Wednesday!