Chapter 34: The Wheel Weaves

Thom returns to The Bunch of Grapes at dawn after performing at Barthanes’s party. The nobles’ probing questions about Rand trouble him. He had gone to The Great Tree hoping to speak with Rand, but found him already gone with the Aes Sedai.

In his room he finds Dena dead—her throat cut. Two assassins leap from the wardrobes. Thom kills the first with a thrown knife and captures the second, who claims to work for Barthanes and wants information about Rand. Zera arrives and identifies the dead assassin as an agent of King Galldrian, not Barthanes.

Zera tells Thom that Barthanes himself was found dead that morning—torn to pieces in his bedchamber, his head stuck on a spike above the fireplace. She urges Thom to flee Cairhien immediately. Outside the city walls, thick columns of smoke rise: someone is firing the granaries. Thom gives Zera his purse to see to Dena and leaves with a wolfish grin and murder in his eyes.

Fain arrives at Falme on Toman Head, his surviving Darkfriends cowed by the journey through the Ways and by watching Trollocs cook one of their number. He rides unchallenged into the Seanchan-occupied town and presents the golden chest to the guards outside High Lord Turak’s residence.

Turak opens the chest with ease, revealing the Horn of Valere and the ruby-hilted dagger. He recognizes the Horn from its inscription but refuses to sound it—he is twelfth in line for the Crystal Throne and fears the Empress would see it as a bid for power. He plans to present the Horn to her as a trophy when he returns to Seanchan.

Fain spins a lie about his family serving Artur Hawkwing’s blood for generations, awaiting the return of the armies sent across the Aryth Ocean. Turak is partially intrigued and agrees to keep Fain around for amusement. Fain warns that Darkfriends led by “Rand al’Thor” are following with Trollocs. Turak dismisses the threat with mild curiosity. Fain slips out into Falme, already scheming to reach the Empress herself.