“What I do, I do because there is no other
way. He is hunting me again, and this
time one of us has to die, I think.
There is no need for those around me to die, also. Too many have died for me already. I do not want to die either, and will not, if
I can manage it. There are lies in dreams,
and death, but dreams hold truth too.
That was all, with no signature.
There was no need to wonder who Rand meant by “he.” For Rand, for all of them, there could be only
one. Ba’alzamon.” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 90.
My introductory post to The Dragon Reborn looked
at how the prologue and first three chapters shifted the writing and story away
from the insular towards the wider world as the third installment in The Wheel
of Time is integral in allowing the series span its fourteen books. That frame shift continues in the following
three chapters as the reader stays in Perrin’s head while the quote above
reveals where Rand’s headspace is, on running away. Rand is ready to rush into the Last Battle,
leaving all of his followers and more importantly friends behind to chase after
him because he knows that he is going to have to face Ba’alzamon again, and
this time it is going to end in death.
The contemplation of this fact became the cover of this installment when
the entire series was reprinted as trade sized paperback format in the United
States. This is brought on by, like the
opening of The Great Hunt, Trollocs and multiple Fades attacking Rand’s
camp and leaving the Tinker woman dead which affects both Perrin and Rand
greatly, Perrin being the point of view character for this section.
Rand is motivated by his own perceived inaction, in the
wake of the attack saying “Do you know what I did during the fight?...Nothing! Nothing useful. At first, when I reached out for the True Source,
I couldn’t touch it, couldn’t grasp it.
It kept sliding away. Then, when
I got hold of it, I was going to burn them all, burn all the Trollocs and
Fades. And all I could do was set fire to some trees.” – The Dragon Reborn,
p. 82. There is the pain of saidin
always calling him with its taint and that’s what pushes him over the edge into
leaving his camp and people behind. He
will not be seen again until near the very end of the book outside of one or
two chapters which feature his point of view, putting this book firmly in the
goal of finding it’s title character, further supported by Chapter 6 being
titled “The Hunt Begins”. Rand is still
running away from his responsibilities here though subconsciously, he is leaving
everyone behind because he doesn’t want to see people hurt, but people Perrin
meet on the ground in his camp show a different story. Masema, a Sheinaran warrior introduced in The
Great Hunt, becomes important here as a member of Rand’s camp who places the
Dragon Reborn as a deity, reacting to Rand running off thusly ““You’re from his
village,” Masema said hoarsely. “You
must know. Why did the Lord Dragon abandon
us? What sin did we commit?”” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 88. Rand is rejecting this deification as a
natural progression of his character throughout The Eye of the World and
The Great Hunt where he is rejecting the Aes Sedai’s (mainly Moiraine’s)
attempts to make him a false Dragon, but now is rejecting what comes with being
the Dragon. He has not been marked by
herons and has fulfilled few of the prophecies.
This book implies a heading towards the Stone of Tear where a sword
called Callandor is placed, the falling of the Stone of Tear being a prophecy
Rand must undertake, but that has not happened yet.
Ba’alzamon is not only tempting Rand, goading him to
leave, but also he and Lanfear, as well as two other yet unnamed of the thirteen
Forsaken, are coming to Perrin, and presumably Mat, in their dreams. In Perrin’s he is specifically playing on the
internal struggle of Perrin and his axe, as well as his connection with the Tinkers. Leya’s death is something that pushes him
into a wolf-like rage, being referred to in the text for a period of that
chapter as Young Bull to indicate the potential loss of humanity. This does allow the wolves to come to the aid
of the camp which may have been overrun had it not been for their timely
arrival. Perrin, being this novel’s primary
viewpoint character, is meant to be paralleling Rand who has run off to fulfill
his destiny while Min tells Perrin some of his, including the danger of a beautiful
woman, a falcon and a hawk on each shoulder fighting, a Tinker with a sword,
and an Aiel in a cage. Perrin and Min’s
conversation is interesting as Jordan establishes a relationship to make Min
more important, although being mentioned for her visions throughout The Eye
of the World and The Great Hunt, she has been supporting for other
plots while here she is briefly important as a messenger heading towards the
White Tower once again on Moiraine’s orders.
Min has grown to care about both Rand and Perrin as she has spent time
in the camp, feeling a brotherly love towards the later which Perrin reciprocates
(though it takes a minute for him to get it) in one moment where a man and
woman work together to bring Rand to a place of momentary calm. While that has not lasted, the entire section
is all about Perrin and Rand coming to fault and rejecting their roles to a
various degree. This is something which
has been building for an entire novel, and the coming to a head is one which
will remain the thrust of the novel for each of the three plotlines, this first
continuing for the next three chapters before the next storyline can
begin. Perrin will face a choice, a
similar choice to Rand, but that is a choice for another day.
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