Reading The Wheel of Time: Perrin Leans About Darkhounds and Faile Finds Allies in Crossroads of Twilight (Part 7) 

Are you ready to read The Wheel of Time? Because I am! We are back from our break to cover chapters eight and nine of Crossroads of Twilight, in which Perrin finally catches up with the Shaido and things look very bleak for the prospect of rescuing Faile. Both husband and wife struggle to maintain composure and keep a clear head in the face of the Shaido might, and an ally emerges from an unexpected quarter.

As Perrin and Arganda both demand information, Elyas reports that they have found the Shaido encamped in a nearby town. He also tells them that the number of Shaido in that town might equal the population of Mayene or Ebou Dar, and that there are nine or ten septs and probably more than ten thousand spears alone for them to contend with. Perrin knows his own forces would be outmatched against an even number of Aiel, never mind such an absolutely overwhelming number.

Arganda asks, tentatively, if the Shaido will accept a ransom. Marline answers it is a possibility, since the Shaido have broken many customs already, while Gallenne points out that the Shaido might take the money but can hardly be relied upon to stay faithful to the bargain. Their only true advantage is that the Shaido don’t know they are here, and they would give that advantage up if they tried to bargain.

Perrin interrupts the discussion, declaring that there will be no ransom.

While waiting for Grady to join them, Perrin shows Elyas the Darkhound tracks. His mind is much more focused on Faile, but Elyas smells sad.

Elyas explains that the Darkhounds fought in the Trolloc Wars, and in the War of the Shadow before that, and that what a wolf knows isn’t really forgotten as long as other wolves live. They avoid talking about the Shadowbrothers, though; a hundred wolves might die trying to take one down, and if they fail, a Darkhound can eat the souls of the wounded, turning those wolves into Darkhounds in turn.

Perrin asks if they can eat a wolfbrother’s soul, too, but Elyas doesn’t know.

Aram eventually arrives with Jur Grady, who is yawning, and a dozen Two Rivers men led by Dannil. Grady opens a gateway, and Perrin charges through the moment Elyas confirms that it’s the right place. He can barely restrain himself from charging up to the ridge to see the Shaido camp while he waits for the others to come through. When Arganda and six of his men emerge from the gateway without their armor on, Perrin realizes that Elyas made them take it off. He should have thought of the danger of shining armor being spotted by the Shaido and realizes that he is still letting his impatience cloud his thinking.

They meet with Sulin and another maiden, Tuandha, who report that the Shaido seem to have settled for now. Perrin is struck by the enormity of the Shaido camp, which fills and spills out of the walled town. Although he scans the crowds for a moment, there are too many women in white to ever hope to spot Faile among them. Marline reports that she suspects all the Shaido Wise Ones are here in the camp. Perrin can’t understand how that could be true when the rest of the Shaido seem to be scattered everywhere, but Marline is confident that there are around four hundred women who can channel down there, perhaps more.

They are discussing the aqueduct that brings water to the town when Perrin is suddenly hit with an explosion of colors, much worse than any he has experienced before, and an image of Rand and Nynaeve in the center of the vision. He finds himself unable to see anything else, but he fights until he’s able to force the images away. When he comes back to himself, Grady and Marline and Annoura are looking northwest and discussing the amounts of the One Power they can feel being handled. Annoura wonders if it is the Forsaken, or the Dark One himself. Perrin announces that it’s Rand, and reminds them that they have their own business to take care of.

Down in the Shaido camp, Faile reports on Sevanna to Someryn while holding Sevanna’s dirty laundry that she’s been sent to wash. She feels anxious about being seen talking to Someryn, but there is no way out of the trap she’s in. As much as she fears what Sevanna might do to a spy, the other Wise Ones have made it clear that if she does not report everything she witnesses, and faithfully, she could end up dead.

Suddenly Faile realizes that Someryn is staring past her, open-mouthed. Faile turns to look and sees two other Wise Ones—both women who can channel—staring in the same direction.  The only explanation for the strange behavior is that the Wise Ones sensed an Aes Sedai channeling up on the ridge. Faile hopes it isn’t the Aes Sedai with Perrin. She knows her husband is going to come to rescue her, and she also knows that she must escape before he reaches her.

Sent on her way by Someryn, Faile passes Chiad, and the two pretend to shift their burdens as they exchange a few words. Bain and Chiad helped Lacile and Arrela escape three days ago, and the two women haven’t yet been caught. Faile asks Chiad to come with the rest of them when they make their escape, but Chiad is affronted, answering that she is helping them because wetlanders do not follow, and are not bound by, ji’e’toh. But she will not cast aside her honor and obligations just because the Shaido have. She leaves, and Faile makes a note to herself that she will have to apologize for insulting her friend.

Faile is accosted by a huge Aielman in cadin’sor who tells her that she is pretty. Faile mentions that she is gai’shain to Sevanna and cannot stop to talk, but the proceeds to pick her up and start to carry her off. He is interrupted by Rolan, who declares that it was he who made Faile gai’shain.

After a pause, Nadric drops Faile. She struggles to control her temper and her fear, knowing that her mind is the only weapon she has, and thanks Rolan for his help. Rolan compliments her strength and fierceness, and tells her that he would like to see her laugh. When Faile assures him how much she loves her husband, Rolan remarks that what happens while you are gai’shain can’t be held against you, and wonders if they can talk some time. Thinking that a little flirting might gain her an ally, Faile responds agreeably, but right now she has work to do.

At the cistern, Faile meets with Alliandre, who is also there doing washing.  Alliandre is worried about Maighdin, who left that morning to attempt to search Therava’s tent for the rod Galina wants. She’s concerned that Maighdin is becoming desperate enough to take foolish chances.

They are hard at work with the washing when Alliandre spots Galina coming towards them. Acting every inch the Aes Sedai, despite her gai’shain robes, Galina points out that they aren’t making any progress in the work they are supposed to be doing for her. But she is alarmed to learn that Maighdin went to Therava’s tent that morning.

Just as Faile is starting to worry, too, Maighdin appears in the crowd. She tells them that Therava caught her, but only thought she was there to steal. She declares her desire to kill Therava, and then admits that something happened that made Therava leave. Maighdin admits she can feel it too, but when she asks Galina what it is, begins manhandling and threatening her. Then another woman, Aravine, the Amadician gai’shain who first told Faile that she belongs to Sevanna, appears and knocks Galina down, threatening to tell Therava what Galina is doing. Then she tells Faile that Sevanna wants her.

Aravine leads Faile out among the carts and shows her Arrela and Lacile, naked and bound in contorted positions. She tells Faile that she knows that these women are connected to her, and then drops to her knees to swear allegiance to “Lady Faile t’Aybara.” She admits to having heard Galina use that name, and asks Faile to take her with them when they escape. Faile knows this could be a trap, but decides to trust Aravine, swearing the other half of the oath of fealty.

Therava is in Sevanna’s tent, warning the other woman about the danger of “what is happening today” and advising that they move to the mountains. But Sevanna refuses her advice—she is content to wait in the town for the other ten septs, which will be arriving in a few weeks. She shifts her attention to Faile, presenting her with a knife. Faile recognizes it as one she stole early and has kept hidden away.

Sevanna seems amused at Faile’s shock. Therava decides that Faile was clearly keeping the knife because she intended to escape, but she believes Faile can be taught better.

Faile’s punishment is to be laid out on a table, naked in the cold and trussed up in the same painful position that Arrela and Lacile were in. She has to stay there until morning, so she is surprised when Rolan arrives carrying two braziers of coals, which he places under the table Faile is lying on. As the rising heat warms her he begins to massage her muscles, easing the pain, remarking that Sevanna never said she couldn’t have company and that he hopes Faile won’t mind if he keeps himself busy while he tries to think of a way to make her laugh.

But Faile is already laughing, because she’s realized that she is going to escape.

Okay, I am officially worried about Perrin. Which is to say, I was already worried about him after chapters six and seven, but chapter eight really cemented for me how badly he is actually doing. In the previous chapters he was thinking in violent metaphors, imaging himself as a hammer that would be used to break the Shaido and to “hammer them into scrap,” but they were at least only metaphors. There’s no hiding, however, behind the sentence “She would be afraid, and they had to pay for that, not profit from it.”

Fortunately for Perrin, his emotional choice is in line with the logical one. Given how the Shaido have behaved—how they have abandoned much of the ji’e’toh that governs Aiel life and behavior, how they have decided that anything goes when dealing with wetlanders—Gallenne’s prediction that they would happily accept a ransom and then not live up to their side of the bargain feels exactly correct. I can absolutely see Sevanna, in particular, declaring this intention to her Wise Ones in so many words, happy to take advantage of the stupid, weak wetlanders. And while at least some of the Shaido don’t like how Sevanna is running things, if the Wise Ones aren’t challenging her more forcefully when it comes to the good of the clan, I can’t imagine they would start doing so over a matter concerning wetlanders. Therava doesn’t care about them anymore than Sevanna does—she might actually hate them more.

The question of how the Shaido understand and embody (or don’t) the precepts of ji’e’toh is an fascinating one. Certain rules still hold with them, of course, but the ones that seem most easily discarded are the ones to do with personal restraint and one’s inner sense of honor.

Within Aiel society, there are rules and guidelines about which actions violate ji and incur toh. However, it is usually up to the offending party to decide whether they have incurred toh and how much, and then to choose how they meet that toh. There are prescribed ways of doing this, of course. Society provides guidelines; if an Aiel doesn’t conform to what’s expected, there are social consequences. The matter is also very personal and internal, with the offender expected to be guided by their own internal sense of honor and duty.

This is why Aiel sometimes choose displays of penance that go beyond what is socially demanded by their transgression, even to the point of being considered too proud by others. I think it is also why Shaido society seems to be having such an easy time discarding so many of the tenets of ji’e’toh. Most Aiel feel disdain and even hatred towards wetlanders, but they still govern themselves by the same rules of engagement that they employ when fighting fellow Aiel, because how they behave towards their enemies is a reflection of themselves, not a reflection of the worth of those enemies.

However, as Faile observes, the Shaido don’t feel compelled to treat the wetlanders the way they treat other Aiel, because the wetlanders are basically dumb animals in their eyes, unlike their fellow Aiel who they (nominally) respect as people. Sevanna is the most egregious because she is the most self-centered Aiel we’ve ever met; all she cares about is her own power and glory, so of course she is attracted to the clothing, jewelry, servants, and all the other status symbols of wetlander nobility. It makes her look and feel powerful, and sets her apart in status even from other powerful Aiel such as Wise Ones or actual clan chiefs.

It is significant to note, too, that none of these status symbols Sevanna has acquired are things she had to do much to earn. Aside from the work she put in to establish herself as the one who speaks for the clan chief and as an unofficial Wise One (I’m still not sure why they let her have that, but I digress), she doesn’t have to earn any of the things she’s acquired. Other Aiel do the fighting and taking of gai’shain, then Sevanna just sweeps in and takes more than her share because she can. There is, of course, some privilege that comes with leadership rank among the Aiel, but other clan chiefs and Wise Ones are still bound by ji’e’toh. It is a decent amount of work to live up to those exacting standards, to maintain one’s honor and personal sense of integrity. Most Aiel, whether common or powerful, have to work to maintain their ji—but Sevanna has no interest in any of that.

It’s clear that she doesn’t care about anyone other than herself, which is why she never considers her obligation to others. By contrast, the Shaido Wise Ones do have loyalty to others: the Shaido clan under their care. This doesn’t help Faile, since the Wise Ones’ sense of toh doesn’t extend to wetlanders, but it does make a difference to the other Shaido. Or at least, it would if anyone could learn to stand up to Shaido. I can only assume that part of the problem here is that there’s not any precedent for the Wise Ones to fall back on. If they were home in the Three-Fold Land, they would have sent someone else to Rhuidean and would have a new clan chief by now. Having someone speak for the chief is clearly supposed to be a temporary measure to keep the hierarchy of society running smoothly until someone can successfully return from Rhuidean—not a long-term situation. The Wise Ones may despise Sevanna, but getting rid of her would create a gap that wouldn’t be easily filled, and although Therava and the others seem ambitious and cruel, that doesn’t mean they are willing to take over governing the clan—that isn’t the Wise Ones’s job.

The question of whether one feels an internal sense of ji or only an external one is also how you get the difference between Nadric and Rolan. Nadric goes so far as to say it directly—Sevanna takes what she wants and so does he; it is the new way. For Nadric, and no doubt for many of the Shaido, Sevanna has redefined ji’e’toh, or perhaps discarded it altogether, and now he sees little need to be governed by it.

But Rolan, for all that he is Mera’din, ji’e’toh still shapes his perspective. He treats Faile as he would a normal gai’shain under normal circumstances, respecting her as a person and even attempting to court her. This is a bit uncomfortable from Faile’s perspective, and from the readers’, but it is consistent with Aiel behavior and sense of honor and propriety. His coming to ease Faile’s suffering during her punishment is, I think, very similar to Bain and Chiad’s willingness to help Lacile and Arrela escape. Bain and Chiad are bound by ji’e’toh and determined to serve out their time as gai’shain correctly, but since the taking of Lacile and Arrela as gai’shain goes against ji’e’toh, it isn’t just permissible but actually necessary to help them escape.

Rolan’s perspective is slightly different, since he seems to have no problem with the taking of wetlanders as gai’shain. However, it goes against custom for Sevanna to take someone else’s gai’shain away from them, and he clearly sees Faile as his, morally speaking, though from a practical standpoint he can’t actually challenge Sevanna about it. He seems to have struck a compromise of protecting her from the abuses of others, such as Nadric’s rape attempt and Sevanna’s punishment.

I’m not sure if the punishment Sevanna gives Faile is appropriate to a gai’shain that was only planning to run away, but even if it was, it’s probably not appropriate to punish someone else’s gai’shain without permission from the Aiel they belong to. And even if it is, Sevanna has already gone against custom by taking Faile from Rolan. He can’t exactly do anything about that, given that Sevanna speaks for the Shaido clan chief and he is a despised member of the Brotherless, but his own sense of ji might well feel no obligation to honor Sevanna’s punishments of a gai’shain that should by rights and traditions be his.

I am so interested in the concept of the Mera’din, and I’ve been hoping we might actually get a character who is one of them. In many ways, the Brotherless are just like the homeless wanderers that have emerged since Rand’s identity became known. I have a lot of sympathy for them. Yes, they abandoned their clan rather than accept the truth of where the Aiel come from, and rather than accept him as the car’a’carn, but I can understand why it was difficult for them to accept such a radical shift to their sense of identity. It’s not the most honorable choice they could have made, maybe, but it’s hardly the worst—look at how Sevanna and the Shaido Wise Ones are behaving. What’s more, it’s possible that Rand’s ta’veren power is acting on them, just as it seems to be acting on many of the wetlanders. It is said that the Dragon will break all bonds, and while some people are clearly choosing to break their bonds of loyalty because they know this, others seem to be brought to it by some outside force, especially those who are now aimlessly drifting, like the woman with the baby that Elayne saw the last time she was out riding.

I’m hoping we can get more of Rolan’s perspective on these things because I’m very keen to know how he understands his own sense of ji as someone who left his own clan, but who still seems more attached to traditional Aiel customs and values than many of the Shaido seem to be. Also, I am predisposed to like him because he’s kind of stiff and wants to make Faile laugh, which has me imagining him as the kind of guy who just delivers the occasional perfect one-liner. Also his name reminds me of the Song of Roland.

To get back to Perrin for a second, I mentioned above that I thought it was fortunate that his desire for revenge is aligned with the fact that there is little likelihood that attempting a ransom or otherwise negotiating with the Shaido is going to work out. But now that I’ve thought about it, I almost wonder if that is true. Because there is little hope in negotiating with the Shaido, Perrin doesn’t have to question or fight his impulse towards revenge. What would he do if negotiation was, logically, the best chance they had at rescuing Faile and the others? Sure, it’s distasteful to pay the Shaido for what they did, but could he put that emotion aside, put down his desire for revenge, if it gave him Faile back safe and sound?

Perrin doesn’t have to ask that question, doesn’t have to confront his violent impulses, because right now they feel in line with logic. But he isn’t being logical: He himself has acknowledged that he isn’t thinking clearly and that he’s making mistakes people like Elyas are having to compensate for. He thought he learned his lesson when he rushed ahead and missed the Shaido turning aside from the path he was tracking, but he made exactly the same mistake when he rushed through the gateway without considering the precautions that needed to be taken. If Elyas, who Perrin knows is pretty exhausted at this point, hadn’t been quick enough to think about how the Ghealdanin would be easily visible to the Shaido, Perrin could have lost everything. He takes note of the mistake, reminding himself that he needs to be clear-headed, but he doesn’t seem to realize the full extent of the danger. I don’t think he can overcome his fear enough to take a step back and reorient himself properly.

Berelain isn’t helping, and Arganda’s fear and the Aes Sedai’s motivations are clouding in on Perrin’s already frayed nerves, but mostly it’s his own fear that is driving him. The fact that it is pushing him towards an impulse to violence isn’t like the Perrin we have known. When he thought about killing Egwene rather than let her be pecked to death by birds, that was actually an impulse towards mercy. When he marshaled the people of Emond’s Field to band together against the Trollocs, it was because he believed that the deaths resulting from a battle would be less of a consequence than doing nothing and allowing the Trollocs to run wild over the Two Rivers. Even though his family was killed, he spent a lot less time thinking about revenge than he does in these chapters. In part, that may be because the Shaido are people—does one really seek revenge against monsters of the Shadow? But it also shows, I think, how his sense of identity has become tied to his love of Faile. When the latter is threatened, so is the former.

Even with Rolan as an ally, I don’t think Faile’s escape is going to come easily, or quickly, and Perrin isn’t going to be able to just storm the castle, so to speak, and set her free. After waiting an entire book to get back to this storyline, I almost feel like Robert Jordan is trolling me at this point. To be fair, I am holding myself back from just racing through the book, as I would have if I’d been reading the series as it came out. On the other hand, if I had been reading along as the books were published, I would have had to wait much longer between finishing Winter’s Heart and starting Crossroads of Twilight. So perhaps, in a way, my restrictive reading format has given me a glimpse into what it was like to be a fan of The Wheel of Time as the books were being written.

There is something profound in watching first Mat’s party, then Perrin’s, and then the Shaido Wise Ones realize that something momentous is happening off towards Shadar Logoth. When we watched the actual attempt to remove the taint, it felt very personal and small in a way, because the focus was on Rand’s experience, and on the experience of the little band of defenders fighting off the attacking Forsaken. However, the act itself is actually momentous. The consequences of Rand’s success will reshape the future of his world, not just for the Last Battle but for whatever and whoever survives that conflict.

It will also change what channelers can accomplish, both together and separately, and how they are viewed by the rest of the world. What will it mean for male channeling when those who practice it aren’t doomed to eventually lose their grip on reality and suffer a violent and horrible death? What will it mean for the Aes Sedai to no longer be the sole authority on the One Power?

I’m really excited to read a POV from a male channeler experiencing the untainted saidin, but I’m perhaps even more excited and curious to see how non-channelers will react when they eventually find out that the taint has been removed. I am sure that many won’t believe it, but eventually it will become understood by the world. Everything that people think they know about channelers of saidin will have to be reconfigured. Which doesn’t mean Asha’man will suddenly be accepted, or that they won’t be still feared—Rand did make them into weapons, after all, and channelers of saidar are also feared for their power. However, it will be different, and as a reader, I am aware that a fundamental piece of worldbuilding has suddenly been changed. My own relationship to this world will probably be changed, too.

Speaking of which, I am intrigued, and a bit alarmed, by the fact that wolves apparently have the same inherent vulnerability to the Shadow that channelers have. The Darkhounds can consume a wolf’s soul and turn it into a Darkhound, just as a human channeler can be turned to the Shadow against their will. It’s a fascinating aspect of worldbuilding that I really want to see further explored and explained. In the case of the wolves, it seems that the consumed soul would be lost forever, even if the Darkhound it becomes is later destroyed. I have wondered before if this is also true for channelers who are forcibly turned to the Shadow against their will. Do their souls still go to the Dark One when they die, the way the souls of Darkfriends who swear willingly do? It’s a horror even worse than death at the hand of the Trollocs or Forsaken, the idea that one can be lost to Shadow forever through no fault of one’s own, possibly… forever?

I really need to know more.

However, I won’t be finding out more either about Faile’s fate or the wolves’ next week, because it’s time to go back to Caemlyn and catch up with Elayne. We’ll be covering chapters ten and eleven, and possibly twelve, depending on how far I get. In the meantime, I’ll be musing on the sudden revelation that the calendar used in this world apparently has ten days per week?

I can’t tell you how perplexed I was when both Perrin and Faile kept considering that it has been two weeks since her capture, or to be more specific, twenty-two days. That’s three weeks and a day! I thought to myself, beyond confused as to how two weeks plus an extra day or two suddenly added up to twenty-two.

Eventually I gave in and looked it up on the Wheel of Time wiki. I try not to do this often, for fear of spoilers, but I felt a little better when I read that the early books have both seven-day weeks and ten-day weeks. I guess Jordan couldn’t make up his mind at first. So I don’t feel bad for not realizing that the Randland calendar has ten-day weeks. Faile was captured two (ten day) weeks plus two more days ago, for a total of twenty-two days in total.

This definitely makes the urgency Faile and Perrin are feeling even more poignant—fourteen/sixteen days is a while, but twenty-two feels even heavier, and the fact that Faile and the other captives are starting to feel themselves change psychologically also feels more appropriate to what we the readers would call three weeks. Thanks for being clear about that, Jordan!