Chapter 27: The Shadow in the Night

Rand and Loial, walking back from The Bunch of Grapes, are ambushed in the Foregate by Trollocs concealed inside Darkfriend puppet shows. Rand cuts one down with the sword form 'The Moon Rises Over the Lakes' while Loial wrestles a boar-snouted Trolloc bare-handed and snaps its neck — his first kill, which leaves him quietly shaken.

More Trollocs herd them eastward, cutting off every route back into the city. Selene appears out of the shadows and joins their flight. Together they slip inside the walls of the Illuminators' chapter house — a walled compound on a hill east of the Foregate — preferring the risk of Illuminators over certain death from Trollocs.

Inside, Loial accidentally tips a rack of smoldering punks onto a fuse, triggering one of the display fireworks early and throwing the Illuminators into an uproar. When the Trollocs follow them into the compound, Rand tilts a large firework tube toward them and lights the fuse. The explosion destroys part of the building and eliminates the Trollocs.

Selene slips back into the compound rather than escaping with them. Rand and Loial make their way back through the Foregate to The Defender of the Dragonwall, where innkeeper Cuale hands Rand a sealed parchment left by an old woman. The note — sealed with a crescent moon and stars in white wax — is from Selene, teasing him about the Horn and claiming he is always hers.