Chapter 33: A Message from the Dark

Below Barthanes's manor, Hurin tells Rand the Darkfriend trail leads into a walled garden behind the house. Trollocs went in with the men who burned the inn, and none came out. Mat has searched the manor top to bottom and cannot sense the dagger.

At the garden, Loial recognises what the wall encloses: the ground was once an Ogier grove, and a Waygate stands inside. Rand sends Mat to fetch Ingtar and Verin, then climbs in with Hurin and Loial. He pulls the Avendesora leaf to prove he can still use the Ways, and Machin Shin boils out of the opening gate, whispering his name. Rand seizes saidin and hurls the Power at the Black Wind while Loial finds the leaf in the grass and reseals the gate.

As they leave, Barthanes draws Rand aside with a message from Fain: he waits on Toman Head with what Rand seeks, and if Rand does not follow, he will hound Rand's blood and his people until Rand faces him.

Back at The Great Tree, Verin says writings from the Fal Dara dungeons already pointed to Toman Head. They will ride at first light for Stedding Tsofu and take its Waygate. Privately she warns Rand that Mat's body is wasting; weeks at most.