The change in Perrin, which I previously spoke of in the last chapter is more evident in this chapter. Rand even used 'resigned' to describe the look on Perrin's face. This attitude which seems to come out of - not nowhere, but almost. However, I do like that Perrin was the one who broke the ice with Loial and we even learn a little more about Loial, because naturally, now that the Edmond's Field group is all back together again, everyone is reluctant to talk, but as all friends do, they eventually break the ice.
Straightaway a couple things struck me about this chapter. Perrin, who we last saw being tortured then rescued, but still pretty much himself is now morose, hanging his head at everything and and more non-talkative then normal (and as I write this I realize many of my impressions come from the coming chapter, but it starts here). Also - Mat seems to have gone downhill rather quickly, that or Rand just didn't notice, and we've already talked about reasons that Rand may not have noticed. Still - for me when Moraine opened that door and Mat's lying there - it somehow was still abrupt.
Rand fell into the castle, knocking his head pretty hard, woke up and met a couple VERY IMPORTANT people, in fact, many very important people are introduced in this chapter. More than the slow, one or two characters who will pop up later that the reader has been introduced to so far. Definitely far more than I realized upon first read. However, I'm jumping ahead of myself.
Mat's slowly getting worse, but Rand doesn't realize yet the extent of Mat's illness. It seemed obvious to me, the reader, so by extension, Rand should have realized the same conclusion I had come to. That stupid dagger was causing all the paranoia, the weakness, etc., the conclusion I came to was drawn from things Rand himself had observed. But hey - I'm just the reader. And Rand was just an inexperienced kid in a big city for the first time. Of course he's going to go off and explore.
Is it me, or is it only the bad guys that happily take items; jewelry, clothes, weapons, etc. and then wear them around in front of the person and then later it comes back to bite them? Kind of like what Byar did to Perrin and Perrin's ax?
This chapter, I feel it was finally all coming back together. Two of our three groups were reuniting and I still have the strong impression that they'll find each other in Caemlyn.
Oh, Loial! What a refreshing introduction! So simple and yet so deep. You humans are very excitable....I had heard all the stories, and read the books, of course, but I didn't realize." It's fun to have a character introduced that can point out different character traits or actions and bring those to the forefront of the story.
For all that I was trying to get a post done, I still missed things I'd wanted to point out from Chapter 34. I did mention I loved Bunt's chatter, but in particular I loved the bits about the tree chopped down and the black veiled Aiel coming over the dragonwall. Oh, and a question - only semi rhetorical - in this chapter his skin is prickling (rather like it does when channeling is happening), I assumed it was because of the Fade, but has this happened before and does it happen again?
Lastly I also loved the quote from Thom while Rand is dreaming The Queen is wed to the land...but the Dragon, the Dragon is one with the land, and the land is one with the Dragon. Okay, with that out of the way we can enter Caemlyn.
More traveling and passing of time "Only three nights since Howal Gode and Four Kings, two since Paitr had surprised them in Market Sheran. Just a bare day since the nameless Darkfriend woman tried to kill them in the stable of The Queen's Man, but even that seemed a year ago, or a lifetime." But how many nights since they left two rivers? How many days since Shador Logoth? Is it is any surprise that the passage of time is so hard to follow in the Wheel of Time, especially in later books when they stop mentioning even this?
The adventure continues....due to unforeseen family events I had to take a slight break from posting. Though I even brought my journal, the book and my laptop with me, I never cracked any of them. And then I went and got a cold as soon as I got home (probably picked up from the Northwest). Life however, goes on, and as I started with - the adventure continues...
The chapter title leads the reader to believe there's something not quite right either about the town, about to happen or maybe both. The reader gets some more descriptions about the world as Rand and Mat move through Four Kings, with no one meeting the boys' eyes and is left with a sense of, well, something bad's about to happen.
How time flowed in this and the following few chapters didn't seem to bother me on first read or upon this latest re-read. When asked to articulate the timing, I cannot, but it seemed to be intuitively understandable. At least before I thought about it too much. If you're wondering of what I speak, simply re-read the beginning of this chapter through mid chapter 33 paying close attention to scarves and you'll see what I mean.
