Chapter 29: Eyes Without Pity

Elyas pushes Perrin and Egwene hard across open grassland, taking extreme precautions—hidden fires, erased campsites, avoiding ridgelines—though he will not say what he fears. Massive flocks of ravens, the Dark One's spies, fill the sky, searching the countryside and tearing apart any creature they find.

The group spends a desperate day dodging raven sweeps, with Egwene bringing down a straggler with her sling. When wolves behind them are attacked by ravens and fight their way through, Perrin relays the warning aloud, and Egwene realizes he truly can communicate with the wolves.

With the ravens closing in from behind and barely an hour before they are overrun, the group crosses into a stedding—an ancient place where the One Power cannot be used and no creature of the Dark One will willingly enter. Elyas tells the story of Artur Hawkwing's great statue that once stood here, raised by a grateful people for the High King who united all the lands, and of the War of the Hundred Years that followed his death and destroyed his legacy.