Chapter 2: Strangers

Rand and Mat finish unloading the cider at the Winespring Inn, where the Village Council is meeting in worried discussion. Young Ewin Finngar bursts in with news of strangers: a lady named Moiraine and her companion Lan. Outside, a raven watches them with unsettling intent, dodging the stones they throw at it.

Moiraine appears—a woman of indeterminate age with dark hair worn unbraided, dressed in fine blue velvet and wearing a gold ring shaped like a serpent eating its own tail. She gives each boy a silver coin and asks them to help her with tasks later. She says she is a student of history, interested in old stories about this place. The peddler's wagon arrives at the village as the chapter ends.