Thom gets a bad cold after so much walking around in the rain, so Mat takes him to Ailhuin. There’s some playing around with him ignoring all the signs that the girls were here, before some idle conversation gets Ailhuin to talk about them. Mat is now determined to somehow break them out of the Stone, though he has to leave the sick Thom behind.
This easily could have been a Contrived Coincidence, but I think it’s believable enough how Mat finds this stuff out. And of course, it’s quite fun to see him kicking himself for walking right past this place the night he arrived. My one worry now is pacing: I assume the next chapter is going to get Perrin’s group filled in about the Stone, which then will only leave three chapters to wrap this up. And where does Rand come in?
