Chapter 21: The Nine Rings

Rand, Loial, Hurin, and Selene settle in for the evening at The Nine Rings inn, where innkeeper Maglin Madwen makes them welcome and Rand plays his flute for the common room soldiers. Cairhienin Captain Caldevwin, overseeing King Galldrian's excavation of an Age of Legends statue nearby, joins their table and probes Rand with careful questions—Daes Dae'mar, the Game of Houses, at work. Selene retires early claiming illness, and Caldevwin quietly posts sentries around the inn.

By morning Selene has vanished entirely—slipping past the watch unseen—leaving only a sealed note stamped with a crescent moon and stars, promising to await Rand in Cairhien.

Officer Tavolin and fifty soldiers form up outside the inn, and the group rides south toward Cairhien under their watchful escort.