Perrin and Egwene have been dragged around for days, with their hands constantly tied behind them. It’s really quite hard to read. And as luck would have it, the night of the rescue is also the same night that Byar decides to take matters into his own hands and contrive a way to make it look like he killed them while escaping, so the Whitecloaks can keep to their schedule, which is very important for some reason. Perrin sees right through it, furthering my interest in him despite going so long without any personality.
But that doesn’t really matter because Lan comes in and knocks Byar out, because he doesn’t kill anyone if he can help it. That may become annoying very fast, but at least he’s a step up from the Tinkers. And this leaves Byar as another minor antagonist that will likely return to plague them in future books; those are really starting to pile up.
After some Dressing as the Enemy they get back to Moiraine, who’s amusingly miffed that Nynaeve isn’t back yet. But then up she comes, and everyone has their reunion. After a few hours’ riding away from the Whitecloaks, they bed down for the night, and Nynaeve sees that Perrin has gotten the same wolf eyes as Elyas. Moiraine clearly knows what they are, but there’s a rather annoying case of Cannot Spit It Out that only serves to increase Nyvaeve’s distrust of Moiraine, which I thought we were moving past.
Perrin chats with Lan, who knew Elyas and hints that there’s more to his story, as the Aes Sedai have different factions or Ajahs that have different opinions on how to fight the Dark One. That should be fun. He also seems up on the whole ta’veren thing, thinking that the Wheel of Time brought Perrin to someone who could unlock his wolf abilities. That’s a handy excuse for a few more Contrived Coincidences, but I really hope Jordan doesn’t lean on it too hard.
A quite exciting first half with a reunion that’s been building for a while, which then kind of peters out as the newly met characters mostly just go over stuff we already know from Rand’s side of the story. And I’m dreading that there will be some new complication that prevents this new group from meeting Rand and Mat, though the book’s ending is approaching and them all getting back together would serve quite nicely for whatever the climax is going to be.