Sandar is a consummate professional, but also a ladies’ man, and he sets his sights on Nynaeve. Could this be the start of her realizing that Lan was just a shallow fancy before she knew what love really is? Oh, let me dream! Egwene goes into the dream world again, but this time meets Liandrin and the other Blacks, and immediately wakes up.
Mat and Thom arrive in Tear during a huge downpour, and Mat’s stupidity and sexism keep him from finding the girls right away. More of that, please. But after a night of searching inns, he does find Comar, and goads him into a fight that ends with Comar dead…from being thrown onto a table. An odd bit of Made of Plasticine, there. He tells Mat that there are others like him in the city before he dies, so they keep looking for the next several days.
Liandrin’s cameo was a real Oh, Crap! moment, perhaps the biggest I’ve had in the series so far. Sandar seems like just a generic Han Solo type here, but maybe he’ll get to develop if he survives this. And it’s Mat who has the rather more interesting story, with his Determinator search for the girls and the people after them doing a lot to make up for his earlier flaws. It seems the climax to this one is going to be a Battle in the Rain, between several different factions. That should really up the epic factor.
