Chapter 5: Winternight

Back at the farm in the Westwood, Tam circles the buildings looking for sign of the black rider and finds nothing. He and Rand settle into chores while Bel Tine waits in Emond's Field.

After dark Tam locks both doors—something nobody in the Two Rivers bothers to do—and brings down a heron-marked sword from an old chest under his bed. He says he bought it long ago, far from here, and his late wife always wanted him to be rid of it.

The door is smashed in by Trollocs: huge, mailed creatures with horned, muzzled faces, things Rand had thought were only stories. Tam cuts down the first two and drives Rand out the back, then leaps from a window to lead the rest off into the trees.

Rand finds Tam wounded and feverish in the forest. Going back alone for the cart, he kills a lingering Trolloc that warns him a Myrddraal wants to speak with him. Bela and the cow are gone and the cart is wrecked, so he hacks off an unbroken shaft, gathers blankets and water, and returns to start carrying his father toward the village and Nynaeve.