The Emond’s Fielders have fought off several more Trolloc attacks, until a night when a mysterious dying man tells Perrin his people are coming. Then Loial and Gaul return, Loial having had an Offscreen Moment of Awesome by succeeding in sealing the gate, and then outracing Trollocs for four days while carrying the injured Gaul.
In his dream, Perrin injures Slayer, revealing him to be Luc when he runs out with the same injury. Having also seen how hopelessly the Trollocs outnumber them, he sends Zarine to Caemlyn on a flimsy pretext, but she’ll only go if they get married that night. It’s very well written, and would be a Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming if only it wasn’t her.
I really didn’t see the Slayer reveal coming, thinking that Luc was just your standard Jerkass. And I have absolutely no idea how anyone’s getting out of this. On the downside, this probably means Zarine will have her own POV subplot in the next book, which I am really not looking forward to.
