This was a boring chapter. Chapters like these in fantasy books are a slog to read, and maybe I was already very tired today while reading this. I was up until 1:30am last night, I woke up at 6:30am, and I trudged through a whole day at work! A WHOLE day! I was looking forward to an evening reading a lengthy chapter about what I hoped would be the start of Rand’s anxious, queasy journey.

Here’s what I got instead:

A 5-page dream sequence – Rand spends five of these pages having a dream, and there’s nothing worse than reading about someone’s dream. Especially if the dream is just about running away from evil-looking landscapes and evil-looking entities that are supposed to represent real evil entities. In this case, Godzilla and the Dark One. BoOoooOoOOOOooO! Scary!

He ends up at a city with a big white tower, and the white tower is in front of him everywhere he turns. He finally approaches it and Myrddraal is there waiting for him! Boo! Scary!

A 5-page history of Emond’s Field – During a mob’s confrontation of Moiraine wherein they urge her to, uhhhh, get the fuck out of town, Moiraine silences them all and starts talking about how Emond’s Field came to be. Very frustrating, because it was distressingly dull. Distressing because I just KNOW that it was a really important five pages. I couldn’t even tell you what it was about. I read it twice! Fuck me, man. Maybe I should try re-reading it again tomorrow after I get even less sleep than I got last night.

The stuff in the middle was slightly more interesting: Rand and Tam have a conversation. Tam is almost back to his old self, although he is advised to stay in the inn’s bed for another few weeks to recover. Nonetheless, although Tam might not totally believe that the Trollocs are after his son, he understands that Rand must do what he must do and doesn’t fight too hard against it. Probably because Tam wants his angsty teenage out of his house for a while. Sounds like a real opportunity to me!

The chapter ends with Lan huffily dragging Rand and Mat over to the stableyard. Their journey will finally begin. Maybe. Or it won’t! And I’ll have to deal with it.