Enjoying the safety of the stedding, Perrin mopes around demonstrably not enjoying the safety of the stedding and instead fretting about how he intended to kill Egwene with his axe. Elyas mocks him, telling him that he must REALLY HATE HER if he would’ve chopped her up into itty bitty pieces in lieu of her getting pecked alive by hungry, hungry ravens. Perrin, of course, defends his love of Egwene (like a sister? Unlikely) and intends to throw his axe in the pond. Elyas stops him, saying that one who hates his axe is better off with an axe than one who loves his axe and wants to fondle his axe and kiss the haft.

Elyas doesn’t have much more time to talk about the axe. Both he and Perrin get hit with the Wolf Sense that something’s ain’t right and they rush to get their affairs in order to leave the camp, much to Egwene’s surprise and confusion. Elyas tells both of them to run somewhere out of the stedding and hide; he’ll catch up with them later.

Perrin and Egwene find the Artur Hawking statue’s fingers and hide within the hand while Perrin’s wolf television brain is being shown a screening of the wolves scoping out the advancing men on horseback. Soon, the men surround the area. They are the Whitecloaks, and they threaten anyone hiding with death if they fail to come out of hiding. The wolf called Hopper chomps down on one of the Whitecloaks’ throat, killing him, and then Hopper gets killed himself. Perrin feels all the pain, passes out, and wakes up later in a strange, new place. Like Narnia, except with more Wheels of Time.

No, Perrin and Egwene are bound in ropes in a Whitecloak tent. There’s the leader, the grandfatherly Lord Captain Bornhald, and his underling, the shitty nephewly Child Byar. The final body count is 9 dead, 23 injured, due to Act of Wolf. The Whitecloaks were probably inches away from killing these kids, but Bornhald obviously wants to keep them around for reasons we’ll find out later.

Perrin and Egwene plead for their lives and try to convince Bornhald that they have no connections to the Dark One or even, godforbid, the Aes Sedai! No, sir, not us! We definitely have not been hanging out Moiraine the Aes Sedai, whoever she is! No no no!

It doesn’t matter what they say, though, because Bornald disbelieves them with each additional spoken word. Eventually, though, he decides to take these two with them to Amador (by way of Caemlyn, of course, where I imagine THINGS WILL CONVERGE). Bornhald intends to hand the kids over to the Questioners, which is like the Inquisition. Egwene will be questioned and possibly released if she is able to “walk into the Light”. Perrin, having killed two of their people, will be killed upon arrival in Amador.

Sounds like a shitty situation. Good thing they’re passing through Caemlyn where everyone will meet up like a family reunion and escape all the various bad guys they’ve all come across in their travels, resetting to status quo and living happily ever after. The end.