When it comes to fantasy books where a group spends the entire book traversing a map, there are two flavors of the “going down the road” sections: 1) The group does a lot of talking amongst themselves for 15 pages. The more knowledgeable characters fill the more ignorant characters in on worldbuilding-related matters. 2) The group gets ambushed by dogs or wolves or baddies and must fight and/or run away for 15 pages. I think the first type is interesting. I think the second type is boring. Chapter 18 was of the second type.

On the Caemlyn Road, heading toward wherever, the troupe of eight starts hearing battle horns in the distance behind them. Lan breaks off to investigate and discovers about 500 Trollocs advancing on them within the hour. Horns are now heard in every direction. Horns as far as the, uh, ear can hear.

They rush to make a decision on where to go from here. Lan suggests a place where Trollocs can’t go. A mysterious magical place with candy and toys, but Moiraine says NO! Instead, they battle an army of Trollocs that ambush them from ahead.

Lan cries “For the Seven Towers!” before entering the fray. Being a couple of lame mimics, Rand and Perrin do their own battle cry: “Manetheren!” yells Rand. Mat Cauthon says this: “Carai an Caldazar! Carai an Ellisande! Al Ellisande!” He doesn’t even know what it means, where it came from, why he said it, or why he even knows it. Egwene admits that it sounded familiar to her. Moiraine recognizes it as an ancient Manetheren war cry, so that means Mat did one better than his comrades in the war cry game.

Moiraine does some of that useful Aes Sedai sorcery and causes ripples in the Earth and throws the Trollocs and the Fades away from them. Then she creates a large wall of fire between them, allowing the group to continue riding north to safety. You see, an Aes Sedai is like all the Captain Planet Planeteers rolled into one! The climax of the novel will be the reveal of her Heart power, the most dumbshit of all the Planeteers’ powers.

Once the war horns are heard again, Lan insists on going to where the Trollocs can’t go. Moiraine agrees, and they come upon the ruins of a gigantic city. It used to be called Aridhol, named after Manetheren’s buddy. Now it’s called Shadar Logoth. The chapter ends with that revelation as if it’s a cliffhanger that’s supposed to mean something to me, but it means nothing to me. It means literally nothing, just like the words “trolloc” and “aes sedai” and “rand” and “wheel” and “time”.