New Spring/Chapter 17

Book Index

0 I II III IV V VI VII
VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV

Chapters

1	The Hook
2	A Wish Fulfilled
3	Practice
4	Leaving the Tower
5	The Human Heart
6	Surprises
7	The Itch
8	Shreds of Serenity
9	It Begins
10	It Finishes
11	Just Before Dawn
12	Entering Home
13	Business in the City
14	Changes
15	Into Canluum
16	The Deeps
17	An Arrival
18	A Narrow Passage
19	Pond Water
20	Breakfast in Manala
21	Some Tricks of the Power
22	Keeping Custom
23	The Evening Star
24	Making Use of Invisibility
25	An Answer
26	When to Surrender

Epilogue

<<< An Arrival >>>

Setting: Canluum

Summary[]

Point of view: Moiraine Damodred

Moiraine has been riding for approximately three months. Her skin still feels too tight from the Three Oaths. The latest news from Cairhien is that four Houses are vying for the Sun Throne. She is wearing her kesiera and one of her newly-tailored riding dresses. The new Aes Sedai has been traveling as Alys, a minor Cairhienin noble. She is currently in Canluum interviewing Jurin Najima and her daughters Colar and Eselle. Her husband Josef, baby Jerid, and their other sons were killed in a mysterious fire. Jurin claims that her husband was always lucky. He went to fight the Aiel at Lady Kareil's request. Moiraine learns that Jerid was born in the wrong place to be the Dragon Reborn and quickly loses interest. She has scratched off many names in her booklet, but hundreds remain.

Moiraine returns to her inn, the Gates of Heaven. Five sisters, including one Red, are staying at the same inn. At the inn, Moiraine runs into Larelle Tarsi and Merean Redhill, who can now leave the Tower as she is no longer Mistress of Novices. As Moiraine is trying to figure out how to evade them, Felaana Bevaine interrupts. Felaana is a Brown sister who does not know Moiraine and thinks Moiraine is a wilder. Because Moiraine has slowed but does not yet have the ageless face, Felaana thinks Moiraine is younger than she is, perhaps close to eighteen. Larelle and Merean decide not to dispel the misunderstanding and are willing to let Moiraine go, but then Cadsuane Melaidhrin appears and demands to speak to them.

Moiraine met the legendary Aes Sedai two years back, when the elderly Aes Sedai came out of retirement during the Aiel War. Rumor has it that Cadsuane kidnapped a Tarabon king who could channel, kidnapped the King of Arad Doman and the Queen of Saldaea to stop a war, and even assaulted an Amyrlin. Cadsuane prods Moiraine, Larelle and Merean to a private room where she questions Moiraine about being incognito. Cadsuane defies custom and asks Moiraine directly what she is doing in the Borderlands, and Moiraine implies that she is there to find a Warder. Then Cadsuane asks Larelle and Merean about her. They embarrass Moiraine, even telling Cadsuane that she and Siuan were caught with mice for Elaida's bed right before they were to be raised. Moiraine makes to leave, saying that she is going to Chachin and immediately realizes she should not have disclosed that. Her next targets are Avene Sahera in a village on the way and Lady Ines Demain in Chachin. Cadsuane then brings up age (the first rudeness), shocking the other Aes Sedai. She speaks of the Tower's problem of dwindling numbers, and how the strongest Aes Sedai such as herself will soon die off and ones like Moiraine will be the strongest of those who remain. Then she says that Larelle and Merean should go with Moiraine to Chachin to look after the young Aes Sedai until she finds a Warder, as the Tower cannot afford to lose her. The older Aes Sedai protest as vehemently as Moiraine, to no avail. Cadsuane tells Moiraine that she will check tonight to make sure that Moiraine does not leave without the others.

Notes[]

The "mysterious fire" was caused by members of the Black Ajah. As it is revealed at the end of New Spring, the Black did sloppy work trying to find the Dragon Reborn. They knew he would be ta'veren, so they just killed men who had been unusually lucky several times in their lives.