Chapter 32: Dangerous Words

Rand, Verin, Ingtar, and Loial arrive at Barthanes's manor, with Mat and Hurin posing as servants so they can slip away to hunt for the Horn and the dagger.

Loial quietly warns Rand that he can feel a Waygate nearby; the manor stands on what was once an Ogier grove.

Barthanes corners Rand and probes him in the style of the Great Game, fishing about the statue near Tremonsien, King Galldrian, his Borderland training, and his almost Aiel coloring. Every plain answer Rand gives is treated as a calculated move. A trio of Cairhienin noblewomen then pin him against a wall with their wide skirts before he can escape.

He retreats to Thom Merrilin, who is performing as a strolling bard. Thom holds to his clean break but warns Rand that the White Tower invented Cairhien's Great Game, and that tonight's gossip already has him tangled in it.

Hurin reappears with a coded message about Rand's injured manservant, and Rand plays the arrogant lord on his way out to meet him.