Hurin sniffed out the Barthanes manor Darkfriends: they and some Trollocs went into a walled-off garden and didn’t return. Coupled with Loial’s sensing of a Waygate on the premises, then we know where our lovely enemies went. Mat reports that he couldn’t sense the dagger anywhere at all, which means it’s still very much missing. He grumbles and mumbles about it in a typical Mat-with-one-“t” fashion.

Hurin leads Rand, Mat, and Loial to the garden. Rand (lordly) orders Mat to go find Ingtar and Verin and decides to scale the wall of the garden while they wait for him to come back. Hurin and Loial follow. The Waygate is closed by an avendensora, which I think is Aielian for “thing”. Rand removes the avendensora and the Waygate slowly opens, revealing pitch blackness that starts to seep out into the real world. The Black Wind! The stuff that steals souls and causes people to go mad! While Loial searches for the avendensora, Rand attempts to channel the One Power to keep the seeping ooze at bay. Eventually, the avendensora is found at the Waygate is closed, but not before Rand hears a thousand disturbing voices screaming and whispering through the gate, including one that kept repeating “al’Thor, al’Thor, al’Thor”.

Bueller. Bueller. Bueller.

Needless to say, no one’s walking through the fucking Ways anytime soon.

Back at the party, Barthanes has a message for Rand from an unknown messenger. Something to the effect of “Come to Toman Head, buttfucker. I have what you want, and if you don’t come find me, I will come find you. You hear me, buttfucker?” This scares Rand to pieces! But, he lets the rest know later than Padan Fain has gone through the murky, murky Ways with the Horn and is en route to Toman Head. Verin has no idea how Fain could have tamed the Black Wind in order to get through the Ways. Impossible stuff. It’s like… well… taming the wind.

Verin’s idea is to try another Waygate, and the closest one is in Stedding Tsofu. Loial is uneasy about visiting a stedding, but he’ll have to suck it up. Also, Mat has about three weeks to live without that dagger. LOL!