After several days on the smelly, rotting ship, the Spray, the crew docks in Whitebridge (known for its White Bridge). Domon fires Floran Gelb, the deckhand who spends all his time shooting glares at Rand, Mat, and Thom instead of actually, you know, working. Then he offers Thom a handsome amount of cash monies if he sticks around on the boat and distracts his deckhands from how hard Domon is pushing them around, an idea of which Thom considers because he can use all that new dough to buy more technicolor dreamcoats and other various baubles and trinkets. Rand interrupts and says NO, WE ARE HERE ON A MISSION and that settles that.

Thom grudgingly drags his two young companions to the local inn, where an innkeeper named Bartim tells them that the false Dragon, Logain, has been captured by Aes Sedai and now he’s getting paraded around Caemlyn. Rand, Mat, and Thom’s presence makes Bartim uncomfortable because there’s been two, count ’em TWO, weirdos that have passed through recently asking about three strangers. The first one was a raving lunatic, the second one was a Myrddraal. Mat and Rand are getting pretty fucking sick of getting hunted down by these bastards at every turn. Can’t they just enjoy a mug of hot spiced wine in PEACE?!

Thom is also unnerved and begins trying to convince the two to head back to Domon’s boat for some good gleeman livin’. Rand refuses; he’ll go to Tar Valon alone if he has to! Go suck a dick, clown.

After overhearing Gelb at the inn talk about how Domon had squirreled away Darkfriends on the Spray, Thom decides to say “screw that” to returning to the boat. Within the hour, the whole town will know about this rumor and their ability to clandestinely set sail will be nil! Thom, against his best judgment, decides to help the kids shuffle out of Whitebridge unseen. They split their coins evenly just in case they get separated and proceed to vamoose. The boys ask Thom why he even cares so much, and Thom admits that he used to have a nephew named Owyn whom he lost to the Aes Sedai and he couldn’t do anything about it at the time. So now he’s making up for it, damnit! Now scoot.

As they try to leave, they get followed by a Fade. Long story short, Thom gives Rand and Mat his belongings and tells the two of them to run as fast as they can, go to Caemlyn, and go to a specific inn named The Queen’s Blessing. Then, presumably (although it’s not shown, so who really knows) Thom gets killed by the Fade as he screams in an undignified manner.

I doubt Thom is actually dead. As much as I call him a clown and a child molester (and deservedly so!), Thom is my second-favorite character behind Nynaeve and I’d hate to see him not be in my story anymore. Who else to I have to read about? Perrin?? That guy’s an idiot!