Four Kings skeeves Rand out, but since he and Mat have grown accustomed to not sleeping on piles of pitchforks, they try their luck anyway. Inn after inn after inn already has entertainers in their common rooms, but then they stumble across a real piece of shit with only about six people in it called the Dancing Cartman. The innkeeper is a real piece of shit too. His name is Hake and he’s going to try to rob these two blind!

Mat and Rand are kind of stuck, though. They need to eat, they need a place to stay, it’s storming outside, and they’re the two most visible people in the now packed room. There’s really nothing more they can do besides play their little songs and juggle their little balls and run down the clock.

During the cringey entertainment show, Rand notices a man in the crowded room who sticks out like a sore thumb. He’s dressed about fifteen times better than the least slovenly man otherwise, and he eyeballs Mat and Rand with keen interest! Apparently, this guy skipped over every inn in town just to stay at this one. The Dancing Cartman is the ugliest place in town, with an innkeeper that wants you to respect his authoritai, so it’s perplexing that this sharp dressed man is here, now isn’t it? It just about makes Rand want to poop his pants. This guy has been following them since Whitebridge. This guy is a Dark One aficionado. A real fan.

Later, after Hake and his bouncers escort Mat and Rand to a fucking utility closet for them to stay for the night, the two boys attempt to make a futile escape. Soon, the sharp dressed man (named Gode) approaches their door and tells them to submit to the Dark One and not to fight it any longer. While he tries to bust the door down, a brilliant flash of light busts a huge hole in the wall. Bodies are everywhere, Gode is gone, and what the hell just happened? Mat says lightning? I say magic! In any case, Mat and Rand bolt on out of there and into the rainy night.

And that’s that! This was a good chapter; very suspenseful and it had me at the edge of my seat. And my seat is 45 feet long, so it takes a lot for me to get to the edge of my seat. Good work.