It took 300 pages, but we are in a situation now where the group has splintered apart. On their way out of Shadar Logoth, there’s a whole thing involving *looks it up* Mashadar, which *looks it up* is an evil, ethereal entity with smoke and tendrils and it will kill a person instantly if they touch it. That’s terrifying and, honestly, obnoxious. Can’t anyone spend two minutes alone without having to run away from yet another mysterious, evil presence in one form another? Trollocs, Myrddraal, Fades, Draghkar, Mordeth, Mashadar? Anime? There’s simply too much to keep track of, and they’re always running away. Always always always running away.

The Mashadar separates Lan and Moirane from the rest of the group with a snakey, killy tendril, so the rest must find their own way to the river. Of course, certainly, because why not, the other six run into Trollocs and start running, running, running away. They lose each other during the ruckus, breaking off into separate directions. Rand, Mat, and Thom end up together. Perrin and Egwene find each other, but Perrin loses Egwene (and his horse) when he falls off a cliff and into the raging river. Soaking wet and freezing and hilariously dying of hypothermia, Perrin is able to swim to the other side of the river alone, safe from the Trollocs and Fades. Egwene’s fate is undetermined for now, as is Nynaeve’s.

Rand, Mat, and Thom find the river and are chased onto a riverboat helmed by a man named Domon, who speaks funny and wouldn’t even let his own mother on his ship without payment. He has half a mind to dump these three into the river, he does! Thom wants to gleeman his way through this negotiation by singing a few songs or puffing through his flimsy flute, but Rand and Mat offer up the measly amounts of silver in their pockets. It is deemed satisfactory. Off they go to Whitebridge.

Don’t take anything I say as griping. I’m enjoying this series quite a bit. That being said, at this point it would be FAR more interesting if the group remained separated and we now start getting a variety of point-of-view chapters. It’s been too much Rand for too much time, and that guy has the personality of a fucking pineapple.