This week in Reading The Wheel of Time, we’re covering chapters 6, 7, and 8 of Knife of Dreams. Not that much happens in these chapters—they’re the sort I would just breeze right through if I were solely reading for pleasure—but there are some really interesting little developments and tidbits of information hidden in the boring traveling and pretty boring courtship of Mat and Tuon, and I’m very excited to explore them.
The dice are tumbling in Mat’s head again, particularly loudly, and he is in a hurry to get to Lugard, but there is no rushing Luca’s desire to make money, and to enjoy the attention of the crowd. In addition to the dice, Mat has found that the swirling colors and visions he experiences when he thinks of Rand have grown more powerful; he actually witnesses Rand and Min sleeping together before he can shake the vision away.
Mat goes into Jurador again, this time looking for a different present for Tuon. While he’s searching, he comes across a stave of black yew, suitable for making a Two Rivers style bow, sitting amongst a collection of quarterstaves. Wondering how such an item came to be here in Altara, he buys it without haggling.
Mat does haggle over the price of the horse he buys for Tuon. Another surprising find, the mare is a razor, a prized breed from Arad Doman. He hides the mare among the other horses in the show until the time is right to give her to Tuon. He finds Noal and Olver in Tuon’s wagon, visiting her. Tuon upbraids him for his manners in not knocking before entering, and for having grease on his coat. Mat calls her Precious—since she has nicknamed him Toy, he feels he should have one for her.
“I see,” Tuon murmured, pursing her lips in thought. The fingers of her right hand waggled, as though idly, and Selucia immediately slid off the bed and went to one of the cupboards. She still took time to glare at him over Tuon’s head. “Very well,” Tuon said after a moment. “It will be interesting to see who wins this game. Toy.”
Selucia serves them food. Mat is pleased, believing that once you convince a woman to feed you, she is likely to feel like she has to keep doing it. Listening to Noal recount stories from somewhere called Ayyad, Mat wonders if the man is related to Jain Farstrider—only to be surprised by Noal admitting that they are cousins.
“He was a fool,” Noal said grimly before Mat could open his mouth, though Olver did get his open, and left it gaping while the old man continued. “He went gallivanting about the world and left a good and loving wife to die of a fever without him there to hold her hand while she died. He let himself be made into a tool by—” Abruptly Noal’s face went blank. Staring through Mat, he rubbed at his forehead as though attempting to recall something.”
Olver insists that Jain was a great man, but Noal asks if those were worth leaving your wife to die alone. Olver looks sad, but Tuon tells Noal he has a good heart. Noal is just asking her if that is true when they are interrupted by Juilin, who announces that there are Seanchan soldiers setting up across the road.
Mat sends Noal to warn Egeanin and Olver to warn the sul’dam and Aes Sedai while he goes to check out the Seanchan camp. There is nearly a fight when some of the soldiers try to come into the show without paying, but a Standardbearer shows up and disperses first her own men—once Mat confirms that the men tried not to pay—and then the crowd of showfolk, by pretending to be trying to recruit them.
When he goes to check on the Aes Sedai, he feels his foxhead medallion go cold and bursts in, furious that they would take such risks. He finds Seta and Bethamin apparently restrained by the One Power and Joline slapping Bethamin. When Mat intervenes, Joline slaps him, but Mat comes out the better in the confrontation that follows, feeling the medallion grow increasingly cold.
Mistress Anan appears very thoughtful at seeing this, and doesn’t scold Mat as he expected.
“Joline must have tried to stop you, and Teslyn and Edesina as well, but whatever they did failed. I think that means you possess a ter’angreal that can disrupt flows of the Power. I’ve heard of such things—Cadsuane Melaidhrin supposedly had one, or so rumor said—but I’ve never seen the like. I would very much like to. I won’t try to take it away from you, but I would appreciate seeing it.”
The Aes Sedai demand to know how Mistress Anan knows Cadsuane, which the former innkeeper brushes off by pointing out that she owned The Wandering Woman for some time, and that people talk. The Aes Sedai are unconvinced.
Mat learns that the commotion was Bethamin accidentally channeling. The former sul’dam is horrified, weeping and insisting that she won’t do it again, but Joline and Edesina inform her that she will; now that she has touched the True Source, she won’t be able to help herself, and she will be a danger to herself and everyone else. Teslyn wants them to let her die, but the others decide that Bethamin must be trained. Mat sneaks away as soon as he can, not wanting to be involved.
The next morning Luca finally has the show up and moving, not wanting more trouble from the Seanchan soldiers who might hold a grudge after being disciplined by their superior. While they travel, Mat continually feels the medallion go cold as the Aes Sedai work to teach Bethamin.
When they stop at the next village, Mat goes to see Aludra. He has guessed that she wants a bellfounder to make bigger and stronger lofting tubes for her nightflowers. Aludra calls him a clever young man.
“Me, I should watch my tongue. I always get into the trouble when I make promises to clever young men. Never think I will tell you the secrets that would make you blush, though, not now. You are already juggling two women, it seems, and me, I will not be juggled.”
“Then I’m right?” He was barely able to keep the incredulity from his voice.
Aludra confirms that he is, and explains the logistics: Bronze lofting tubes will allow her to make a new, bigger kind of nightflower, one designed for war rather than display. Mat can immediately see the wartime advantages of her creation, which she calls dragons and dragons eggs. She is determined to have her new weapon used against the Seanchan, to avenge the murdered illuminators. And she will keep her promise to teach Mat how to make the secret powders.
Mat asks for one better—that she come with him when he leaves Luca’s show. He promises that he can introduce her to the Dragon Reborn. Aludra is skeptical at first, then decides that she believes him, and agrees to go. As she does, Mat feels like the dice got a bit quieter in his head, but that night he has nightmares of trying to stop the new night flowers from falling, and of the Dark One laughing.
The next morning he learns that Egeanin, who insists on being called Leilwin now, and Domon have gotten married. As a result, Mat has to buy himself a tent to stay in, so the newlyweds can have some privacy. He has the tent erected near Tuon’s wagon, so he can see her from time to time. The visions of Rand have now gotten so powerful that Mat has to tell Juilin and Thom to stop bringing him rumors about the Dragon Reborn.
He spends more time with Tuon, learning that the Seanchan prophecies say that the Dragon will kneel to the Crystal Throne. Tuon also wants to find the person who blew the Horn of Valere, which Mat finds quite alarming.
Eventually, he presents her with the razor, and Tuon is delighted. Mat is too, even though Selucia insists on chaperoning their ride. They are just passing a caravan of Tuatha’an when Tuon suddenly kicks her horse into the trees, galloping fast. Selucia follows, though her slower horse can’t keep up, and Mat as well. He doesn’t think Tuon is trying to escape, but he can’t think what else she is doing, dashing through the forest at full speed and jumping obstacles with reckless abandon. When she finally stops, Mat upbraids her for her foolishness, only to be surprised when she doesn’t get angry at him for it. Instead, she declare the horse’s name will be Akein, which means “swallow.”
Tuon notices that they are amid some very old ruins, and asks Mat about it, triggering a cascade of other men’s memories. He knows that the two nearby hills are called the Dancers, and the area had been Londaren Cor, the capital city of Eharon. He also has several disparate memories of Londaren, and of fighting amid the ruins some later time, and even of taking an arrow to the throat. Tuon notices that he has gone pale.
Somehow only the Light knew, the Eelfinn had gathered the memories they had planted in his head, but how could they harvest memory from a corpse? A corpse in the world of men, at that. He was certain they never came to this side of that twisted doorframe ter’angreal for longer than minutes at a time. A way occurred to him, one he did not like, not a scrap. Maybe they created some sort of link to any human who visited them, a link that allowed them to copy all of a man’s memories after that right up to the moment he died.
Tuon remarks that he looks like he is about to be sick, but Mat insists that he is fine. There is nothing he can do about the realization, as much as it disgusts him.
Selucia arrives to report that they are being followed by the Tuatha’an and their dogs. Mat explains that the Traveling People will be worried about Tuon and Selucia; they are coming to check if they are trying to get away from Mat.
When the Tuatha’an arrive, Selucia and Tuon are surrounded by the women while Mat is cornered by the men. He talks with the Seeker, who is surprised when Mat’s memories provide him with a little knowledge about the Tuatha’an. Mat asks why he has seen so many Tuatha’an wagons heading towards Ebou Dar.
“It is the people called Seanchan, my Lord,” he said finally. “Word is spreading among the People that there is safety where the Seanchan rule, and equal justice for all. Elsewhere… You understand, my Lord?”
Mat understands, but he warns the Seeker that the Seanchan safety comes with a price, especially for women who can channel. But the Seeker responds that few Tuatha’an women ever begin channeling, and if they do, they are sent to Tar Valon.
Satisfied that Tuon and Selucia are safe, the Tuatha’an depart, though Mat doesn’t like the sound of the laughter the two Seanchan ladies are sharing with the Tuatha’an women. When he asks, Tuon tells him that it is none of his business, and Selucia laughs harder.
Have… have we learned the name Eelfinn before now? Because I feel like I would remember if that had come up at some point, but it’s dropped in so casually here that it makes me feel like there may just have been a chapter in one of the previous books where Mat learned the name of the beings that live in whatever dimension you are accessing when you go through a redstone doorway ter’angreal. Probably the name came into Mat’s memories the same way the name of the mountains he’s looking at did, the same way he learned the Old Tongue—the knowledge belonged to someone who visited the Eelfinn as he did, and Mat got a piece of that knowledge stuffed into his brain when he asked to have the holes in his memory filled.
The name Eelfinn is interesting, since it sounds so much like “elfin.” The foxy and snakey folk do seem to be some kind of fae, or faeries, after all, and the world they live in is not ours, or Mat’s. His realization about their ability to see the entirety of someone’s life, not just the part they’ve lived up to visiting the Eelfinn’s world, is an astute one, but I don’t think his conclusion is entirely accurate. It’s most likely true that every memory he received belonged to someone who visited through one of the twisted redstone doorways before him, but it doesn’t then follow that the Eelfinn maintain a link to those who visit them even after they leave. It could be true, but I don’t think it is.
The Eelfinn were able to give Mat information about his future, and even the future of the world, as they seem to have done for Rand and possibly for Moiraine as well. If they can see all that, then it follows that their view of time is different from that of humans. Perhaps they can see through time, or maybe their world—or dimension, or whatever it is—exists outside of the dimension the human world exists in, and the Eelfinn can look at any part of it they please, or perhaps see it all at once. Whether they can do that only when a human is visiting them or all the time is unclear, but it is clear that they saw part of Mat’s future while he was visiting them, before it actually happened for him.
Given that, it doesn’t seem like it would be necessary for them to maintain a link to those they make a bargain with in order to see more of their life or harvest their memories. More likely, they do all that when the human is present in their realm. They’re still creepy experience voyeurs, but they’re probably not voyeur-ing right now.
Jordan isn’t great at writing romance and courtship. I can see how certain aspects of Tuon’s personality are appealing to Mat, especially her sense of humor and her competent, practical nature. But since he started courting Tuon solely because he knew he was fated to marry her, it would be nice to see a bit more of how his feelings are being changed. Instead, every time we revisit them, his feelings have changed slightly.
Tuon’s feelings are harder to grasp, of course, since we are never in her POV. It’s hard to say if her continued use of the derogatory nickname is an attempt to even out the playing field. After all, even though she let herself be kidnapped and has taken some control over the situation by making an ally of Luca, Mat still has a decent amount of control over her. Ceded control, but still. The other option is that she is still uncertain of Mat’s character. Based on his behavior, she has decided he is a good person, but she is the future Empress of the Seanchan, a people with very strict social rules around behavior. Even if he is a good man, she might not see him as being honorable or dignified enough to be the consort, or husband, of an Empress. She started using the nickname when Mat was with Tylin, after all; maybe she is uncertain that Mat is capable of being loyal in a marriage. The term also suggests a kind of ownership, so she may be using it to remind him of her threat to make him da’covale.
I am curious how she intends Mat to take that threat. Da’covale can have great power, after all, and a favored da’covale of the Empress herself might have more authority than most of the nobility. It has to be an empty threat, of course; da’covale might be highly prized and able to rise to great power in the right circumstances, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are considered property. We saw how Egeanin felt about the idea of marrying someone who was formerly property; we can assume that Tuon would feel at least as strongly about it, if not more so. If Tuon doesn’t think Mat would understand that, then she might have intended the threat to be a powerful one. However, for all that she acknowledges that Mat has much to learn about Seanchan culture, she does seem surprised when he doesn’t understand what she sees as basic fundamentals. She might have made the threat more as a tease than anything else.
It’s hard to like Tuon. She’s an interesting character, certainly, and it makes sense to me that Mat would end up with someone very intelligent, who challenges him on every level, but she will have to undergo some very extensive changes as a person in order for her to stack up against Faile, or Min, or Elayne, or Aviendha. She doesn’t have to become someone I’d want to hang out with, however, to make her a good match for Mat from the Pattern’s perspective. Also, of the three Emond’s Field boys, Mat’s match feels the most preordained—even more so than Rand’s relationships.
I’ve always felt like the Pattern pushed Rand into falling in love with Min, Aviendha, and Elayne, and they with him. Partly because the romance seems to have just happened to them (as I mentioned, people falling in love is not Jordan’s strong suit) but it’s also because it makes sense. As the most powerful ta’veren, Rand’s very existence compels such things—we’ve seen him cause marriages in other people—and the Pattern “knows” (for lack of a better word) that he needs certain supports, certain people, in order to succeed in fulfilling his destiny. Perrin and Mat are so strongly drawn and connected to Rand that they’ve started having weird visions anytime they think about him, and Perrin left the Two Rivers because he actually felt Rand pulling at him. It makes sense that Rand would have a similar connection to the women he loves, and that the Pattern would not leave those connections to chance. Each woman gives him an important aspect of support, but also something material: connection to Andor, understanding of the Aiel, access to informative visions.
Rand also has personal connections to all three of his lovers, and did before he fell in love with them. Min saw that future in the Pattern for herself, Elayne, and Aviendha, but Rand still fell for them on his own; he didn’t choose them because he knew their relationship was preordained. Mat and Tuon, however, have both begun their relationship because they were told they would end up married, and although Mat seems to be developing some feelings for Tuon, and Tuon has exhibited some concern for his well being, the relationship feels like it’s going to be more practical than anything else. The real question is: What is Tuon waiting for? Is she waiting to make sure she actually likes and respects Mat? Or does she want to be free and back in her rightful persona before she accepts the marriage? Or is it something else, something to do with the fortune that told her she would end up with Mat?
Whatever Tuon is thinking and planning, it’s clear that the Pattern is bringing them together for practical reasons. Because Mat is so aware of his warping of luck, and because of the dice in his head, it is easier to see how powerfully the Pattern is using him than either of his friends. You can see it clearly here in Tuon as well: Not only did she receive a Foretelling that set her on a course to marry Mat, but her reaction to that Foretelling led to her donning the veil; her interpretation of the dolphin as a sign to stay her course, made possible all the events that followed.
The Pattern certainly seems to be swirling around Mat especially powerfully in this section, bringing him the yew stave where none should be, and a special Domani horse where none should be, but all that pales in comparison to the momentous moment in history Mat has become a part of, with Aludra and her invention of, to borrow the language of the world, bloody cannons.
I mean, they aren’t quite cannons; it seems like the Dragons are just big tubes, while the Eggs are more like giant fireworks with their own propelling charge and “nothing to make pretty colors.” But functionally, they’re going to have a similar impact on warfare as cannons did in our world, I think, which is why Mat’s reaction to them was so darkly funny.
[…] this agreement with Aludra might help the Band, and incidentally Mat Cauthon, stay alive, yet it could hardly be called fateful. He would still have to fight those battles, and however you planned, however well-trained your men were, luck played its part, too, bad as well as good, even for him. These dragons would not change that.
The dragons won’t change that, but as Mat himself acknowledged, the Dragons could end up being as useful—and as destructive—as channelers. That alone is a huge disruption, not only to how warfare can be waged but to the balance of power between non-channelers and channelers, at least when it comes to battles and sieges. Of course, Mat can’t be expected to imagine the far future, when he has so much in the present to deal with, but he doesn’t quite think like a general in this respect, for all that he has other men’s strategies in his head. If that wasn’t enough, he did have nightmares about the dragon’s eggs and the destruction they bring, and seems to regret the choice to help them be made. He even hears the Dark One’s laughter. The dragons and the dragon’s eggs may be useful in Tarmon Gai’don, but I think Mat is seeing a future where warfare is something it could never have been before; one might argue that this is the greatest, and worst, invention since the war against the Shadow at the end of the Age of Legends.
To be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about the fact that Mat’s memories aren’t from his past lives, as I initially expected. I think it bothers me because it means those skills aren’t “his” in the same way. They weren’t earned, even in another lifetime. It makes Mat’s contribution to the coming Last Battle feel less impressive, somehow.
Maybe that’s nitpicky, but I think this is scraping up against that eternal question of whether anything anyone does is actually their choice, or the Pattern’s. I’m not saying everyone’s just a puppet of the Wheel, exactly, but it does kind of feel close sometimes. Also, why does Mat have only men’s memories? It has become apparent that souls have a gender in The Wheel of Time, since we know that Birgitte and Gaidal Cain are always reincarnated as their respective genders, and that Balthamel’s reincarnation into a female body was some kind of twisted punishment/joke/distortion carried out by the Dark One and did not affect Aran’gar affinity for saidin.
That’s silly enough, but am I supposed to believe that only men ever visited the Eelfinn, when the ter’angreal doorways were made, or at least existed, during the Age of Legends? Or that the Eelfinn have memories from both men and women, but sorted through and only gave Mat men’s memories. Why would the Eelfinn even have a concept of sex and gender that matches that of humans, anyway?
But I digress. I can’t figure out why Tuon ran away from Mat when she saw the Tinkers, unless she was just enjoying the moment and the fun of getting to go riding and being wild and free for a moment. It was interesting that the Tinkers followed them in an attempt to protect Tuon and Selucia; it’s not behavior we have seen before, but it is consistent with what we know of the Da’shain Aiel’s interpretation of the Way of the Leaf. The Da’shain Aiel didn’t just practice non-violence—they served humanity, and peace. The way the Tinker women surrounded Selucia and Tuon reminded me of the Aiel who stood before one of the maddened male Aes Sedai at the beginning of the breaking, singing to him in hopes of helping him come back to himself. They died one by one, never fighting back but also never running away, and bought time for many other people to get away safely. It seems that the Tuatha’an have retained this part of Da’shain Aiel culture along with their practice of non-violence, even in a time when they are accustomed to being unwelcome and in danger almost everywhere they go.
It’s not really surprising that the Tuatha’an are enticed by the order and peace of Seanchan society. The enslavement of female channelers is a danger the Seeker is definitely underestimating, if he thinks they will be allowed to send anyone to Tar Valon once they live under Seanchan rule, but other than that, there isn’t much within Seanchan culture that is more of a threat to the Tuatha’an than the cultures that they are accustomed to interacting with. The Seanchan have no reason to hate them, and unless they have some kind of military conscription service, the Seanchan laws would probably not be very difficult for the Tuatha’an to abide by, accustomed as they are to behaving respectfully and even submissively to all individuals, even though they often enduring insults and violence in return.
It’s a reminder that Seanchan culture comes from the way things were during Hawkwing’s rule, a time when, as Elyas once described to Egwene and Perrin, a child could carry a purse full of coins from one side of the Empire to the other without it being stolen. That is certainly a place the Tuatha’an—who have been searching for a place of safety since they separated from the rest of the Aiel—would want to live, even though the reality of that peace comes with a dark price.
Whether or not that price is worth the peace depends, of course, on who you are, and whether you are the one doing the paying.
Bethamin’s inadvertent channeling is a new development for the former sul’dam. When we last saw those that are being held by the Aes Sedai in Caemlyn, all of those were still resisting the idea that they are potential channelers, even pretending/claiming that their ability to see weaves of the One Power was some kind of Aes Sedai trick. As Mat assumes, Bethamin and Seta were probably also trying to deny the full truth to themselves, but even the most adept at self-delusion probably can’t convince themselves they didn’t channel when they did—not when they know as much about channelers as Bethamin does, and in front of so many expert witnesses.
I have little sympathy for Bethamin, but I am still curious about what this might mean for Tuon. Mat has realized that Tuon must be able to learn to channel, but I don’t believe Tuon has been given the relevant information about sul’dam yet. And since being a sul’dam is just a hobby for her, one she indulges during her spare time, it’s doubtful she’s been using an a’dam enough to start feeling the effects.
Last but certainly not least: Is Noal secretly Jain Farstrider? It never occurred to me that Jain Farstrider was a contemporary of the characters in the book, even the older ones, but maybe I missed something. It’s certainly possible, especially because the first time, or possibly the first few times, Jain was mentioned, I didn’t know enough about him to register any importance. Jordan is incredible at dropping little bits in long before they become relevant, so that’s something for me to go back and check at some point.
In the meantime, based on just what’s here, every sign points to Noal being Jain. Mat notes that when Noal speaks of the death of Jain’s wife, he sounds “sad enough to die on the spot himself,” and Noal seems desperate for Tuon’s reassurance that he is a good man. There’s always been a mystery to Noal—his competence, his odd memory, the strange way he just turned up and became part of Mat’s story—and unless he was a secret companion of Jain’s and shared the man’s adventures, it seems to me like he must actually be Jain, traveling in disguise. But Jain or Noal, there must be something important in the man’s story that we have yet to learn, and if Noal is saying things like “let himself be manipulated,” I have to wonder if it doesn’t involve Darkfriends. Maybe Carridin? Or someone more powerful.
In any case, we’ll be moving on next week to chapter 9 and 10, which are still Mat chapters, so maybe we’ll get answers to some of these questions. Also, I’ll go back and check the details on Jain Farstrider, and see if there’s something I missed.