In this
section, Lan fights the Last Battle.
Leane is
about to order the retreat of the remaining Aes Sedai, until Egwene shows up,
devastating the enemy with her sa’angreal.
Even at this late stage of the story, two new Aes Sedai is named. As Keeper of
the Chronicles for ten of the last twelve years, Leane has better reason than
anyone to know every Aes Sedai’s name and face. Had she not named these two, it
would have been out of place, and it would be equally out of place if readers
only saw Aes Sedai they had already met.
Talmanes is
leading the repair of the dragons. The return of the dragons offers some hope
so it is well juxtaposed with Egwene’s return to the field of battle.
Faile
chases Aravine and the Horn, riding barebacked on Bela, the mare who has
carried many of the heroes throughout their adventures. Stalwart Bela has
always been dependable, like her owner Tam. Bela represents the way Rand was
raised, his foundation and moral compass that will always carry him through and
help him bear his burdens, which is why she has never faltered. Faile appeals
to Bela to give her all in the chase: Faile
scrambled to Bela’s side, cutting free the saddle – and all of its burdens –
with a few swipes of the knife. And then, “Run, Bela,” Faile said. “If you’ve kept any strength back, now is the
time to use it. Please. Run, girl. Run.” Bela’s imminent death signals the end
of the last vestiges of Rand’s childhood.
Faile learns that Vanin and Harnan had just
been hoping to steal back some tabac, not the Horn. They clear her a path, and
she kills Aravine with a dagger in the back. Realizing there is no way she can
escape her pursuers, she gives the Horn to Olver while she leads them away. She
is certain they will kill her. The feeling of desperation is heavy, with Faile’s
imminent death and this essential task passed into the hands of the meekest of
heroes. “I’m sorry to place this upon you, little one. There is no one else.
You did well earlier; you can do this. Take the Horn to Mat or all is lost.”
Logain
keeps the Seals and goes hunting for Demandred, his sa’angreal, and something
to fill the void within him. Logain is one of the only remaining characters who
has not yet completely joined one side or the other. While he opposes the
Shadow, he feels no affinity for the Light.
Egwene
leads her assault and encounters Mazrim Taim, the M’Hael.
Raen and
Ila triage the dead and wounded. Raen wonders what alternative there is to
fighting the Shadow, since Trollocs would never stop chasing them no matter
where they ran. He decides he will not think quite so poorly of those who
follow a different path. Though he did not ask anyone to sacrifice their life
for his, he recognizes that they have made the sacrifice nonetheless. Ila considers Raen’s words. When she sees but
fails to recognize the Darkfriends who have infiltrated the civilians helping
with the wounded, she begins to see the world in greys, not the stark black and
white she has seen all these past years. Her strict adherence to a viewpoint
which had only two polar opposites drove her grandson away. This rejection of
strict moral boundaries is very similar to what Rand will soon come to
understand.
Olver has
been abandoned. He is chased into a crevice. Simple use of verbs and adjectives
strongly convey how hopeless his situation is while retaining his childlike
view of the world.
Alone. He’d been left alone again.
Olver whimpered.
No safety.
There were hundreds of them back there, chasing
him.
The tantalizing
hope of escape ends as Bela is shot dead by arrows. In a little cleft, Olver
hides, with Trolloc claws tearing at his clothing. Take the Horn to Mat or all is lost. Can the reader have any doubt
that the Horn will never reach Mat, and that all is indeed lost?
Logain
attacks Demandred, but is quickly overpowered. He relies on his training to escape,
and not only the power. He wonders how they will ever beat Demandred. He is the
third to face the Forsaken, and third to fail. Perhaps they will lose unless
Rand comes to their aid. The only thing which cuts through Logain’s frustration
is the realization that his Aes Sedai Gabrelle actually was concerned for him.
Egwene
overpowers Taim, but he escapes using the True Power. She ponders the nature of
balefire. This is a second attempt to prepare the reader for Egwene’s surprise
weave.
Hurin’s
nose describes more violence than has ever been wrought. He manages to keep
fighting, but the worst is yet to come. His own faith in Rand is the only
certainty any of the characters feel.
Berelain
has had to order that only those who can be saved may be tended, rationing the
care of the wounded. She further must cajole the gai’shain into helping collect and tend the wounded. Berelain
discovers Annoura has burned herself out as a sacrifice of atonement to bring
Galad back to Mayene. This final kindness to restore a friendship before the
end was one that brought tears to my eyes. For other readers it may have been
this scene, or another, since they all build on waves of hopelessness, courage
and redemption. Where they finally break through depends on the characters you
identify with. The author makes excellent use of the most minor characters such
as Ila, Annoura, Hurin, and others to prime the readers for what may be in
store for their favourites.
Galad
passes out before he can tell Berelain about the medallion.
Rand
watches as friends and allies die. His ability to see the battle unfold in detail
even while in an otherworldly dimension is an efficient way to compress many
emotional moments into a small amount of text. Minor characters are dying,
quickly. Now that they are out of the way, the author can move on to the main
characters. The Dark One weaves…
Taim
receives a loan of the sa’angreal Sarkanen.
Egwene is commanded to be destroyed by balefire. Taim forces himself to think
of himself as M’Hael. When Fortuona renamed Mat as Knotai, he made no similar
effort despite acknowledging Karede’s insistence he go by that new name; he
still thinks of himself as Mat. M’Hael’s forced effort to adopt the identity
thrust upon him by another is contrary to how each of the Heroes has resisted changing
their identity when it was dictated by others.
Elayne is
attacked by mercenaries. Mellar’s control of her is displayed as Elayne is even
denied the chance to spit in his face properly. He then kills Birgitte in a
bloody and awful manner. The suddenness of her death is jarring, lacking any
heroism, and emphasizes Elayne’s lack of options. Mellar even gets to brag
about how good it felt. A substitute blonde corpse convinces her army that she
is dead, so none know she is missing. Her children will be cut out of her and delivered
to Shayol Ghul. This looks bad.
Rand
receives the Dark One’s final offer to annihilate the world, eliminating pain
suffering and existence itself. He can stop Elayne’s forced caesarean, end the violent
deaths, and end the betrayals and the burdens. The Dark One offers suicide. Rand
rejects the offer. He does not seek an end, he seeks a solution.
Min unmasks
Moghedien using her ability to see Viewings. It is one of the only times when a
character’s abilities trump their personality in overcoming an obstacle. In past
examples, there has almost always been an overt decision or affirmation made by
the character before the abilities or happenstance come into play. Nonetheless,
it is rewarding to have a non-channeler such as Min best one of the Forsaken. The
Seanchan will soon join the fray.
Egwene delivers
destruction unto her enemies. Despite bonding Leilwin, she is distraught, and
fueled by rage. In most circumstances this ends badly for an Aes Sedai, and her
suicidal frontal assault would normally end poorly, if not for the entirety of the
White Tower’s channelers providing defense while she recklessly advances.
The use of
balefire in large quantities is shown to have the expected effects, but in such
a chaotic battle, there is no use in dissecting the chain of events that has
been rewritten. This provides some cover to the author, who is free to dictate
what has happened and what hasn’t, with no further explanation. Egwene
discovers a new weave, as she has done in the past, yet the explanation feels
contrived and I wonder if less explanation may have been more convincing than
this blaze of illogic: Two sides to every
coin. Two halves to the Power. Hot and cold, light and dark, woman and man.
If a weave exists, so must its opposite.
The counter-weave
to balefire and Egwene’s death have deeper meaning. M’Hael sought to undo
Egwene, erasing her from existence. Egwene represents Rand’s childhood. She
needed to die so that he could truly pass from childhood to adulthood. The
manner of her death by balefire would represent that Rand had forever lost his
childhood ideals and the love of the community that raised him. With Egwene’s
final assertion, embodied in the new weave, she instead protects that childhood, stopping
its erasure, preserving it for Rand to draw upon in times of need.
Rand gets very
angry at Egwene’s death. THE DEAD ARE
MINE. I WILL KILL THEM ALL, ADVERSARY. Rand feels her loss like part of him
has been cut away. He remembers all his failures.
Leane
discovers Egwene is gone, and a crystal column stands in her place, that will
likely stand forever. The balefire damage has been repaired. Word of the
Amyrlin’s demise begins to travel.
Berelain
hears a whisper from her beloved Galad “…Hope…”, and she rushes out to return
Mat’s medallion. Once again, I am impressed how even the least powerful
characters have essential roles to play, and could easily have carried a story
on their own.
Mat learns
Egwene has eliminated almost all the enemy channelers, leaving a battle between
armies. And Demandred. He has no
brilliant strategy to give Lan, asking him to check on reserves from Mayene. He
calls on his luck, and receives word Elayne is dead, which is fitting as she
represents both the present and the gleaming promise of civilization itself.
Andor and the Queen have always been foremost among humanity’s champions. Mat
delivers orders to Tuon and Talmanes, his last reserves. Mat can’t win, but he
fights on anyway, “Because I’ll be a
Darkfriend before I’ll let this battle go without trying everything,
Arganda.”
As Mat makes his final preparations, Lan has gone on to fight Demandred alone.
Trollocs
tear at Olver. He stands in for all humanity, enemies mercilessly clawing, the ground
caving in on him, trapped with no hope of escape.
Loial must
witness the fall of the last King of the Malkieri. Predicting his death with a reliable
character works convincingly. All other opponents before have lost, why should
Lan fare any better? Loial is trustworthy, which means Lan will die.
Tam sees
Lan, a dim spark of Light in the Shadow: Tam
almost lost Lan’s figure atop the midnight stallion, despite the bonfires
burning on the Heights. Their light seemed feeble. He paves the way for Lan
with a hail of fiery arrows. Lan’s spark alone can’t do it, but with a second
to join with Lan’s? Rand’s father figures unite for a last desperate strike.
Lan intends
to destroy Demandred, implausible as it seems. First he must get close, and
even knowing the impossibility of it, he tries, and finds that Tam has come to
his aid. Even as he nears his objective, he shows care for his horse by leaving
its saddle, though it seems likely Mandarb would not stand idly by, and could
end up just as dead. Lan offers no opening, shows no hesitation. There is no
glory, no pride, no contest of equals. He is the man who will kill Demandred.
Who then is Demandred? He is the man whose pride could not abide being less
than first, who chose to gamble on being first for the Shadow’s cause, who
traded ideals for a chance at prominence. Demandred is pride, and too much
pride has been one of Rand’s weaknesses.
Min sees
signs of the end, or so it seems. Once again she is a reliable character whose
viewings are never wrong, and this confidence in her statements transfers
easily to her opinions, which have also proven mostly correct. She represents
the future, and she watches the lights flicker, the last embers of a fire that
would soon be extinguished. She feels Rand tremble.
Rand thinks
he has failed. In his pride he believes that all of these deaths were his
fault, their lives were his responsibility. And then he remembers to let go.
Rand has a role to play in people’s lives, but he does not bear final
responsibility for everything that befalls them. He is there to give them a chance
to choose who they will be, and how they will stand, or fall.
Lan calls
himself just a man, which is why he succeeds when the prince of Andor, the Dragon’s
Brother, and the leader of the Black Tower all failed. While the medallion and
swordsmanship allow him to stand on almost equal terms with Demandred, it is
his dedication to what he stands for and understanding of who he is and the
battle that he fights that allows him to anticipate his enemy’s moves, whether
with sword or the One Power. Mirroring what he taught Rand near the beginning
of the series, Lan impales himself on Demandred’s sword, immobilizing it, then
drives his own blade into Demandred’s throat. He never cared about winning as
Demandred did, so full of pride. A tie is all he needed. He came to do what
needed to be done, and he slays false pride. He quotes “Death is light as a
feather”, sends his love to Nynaeve and dies.
The Last Battle
is apparently over, and surprisingly, it was not Rand’s, but Lan’s.
Writing Lessons:
The identity and reputation of the character
delivering the message matter as much as the message itself.
