20 Dust on the Wind

The group enters the shattered grandeur of Shadar Logoth and takes shelter in a sturdy ground floor. While Moiraine rests with Nynaeve’s herbs and Lan orders a stable area made, Rand, Mat, and Perrin grow curious about the deserted city.

Ignoring caution, the three slip out to explore. They marvel at vast palaces and strange arenas until a man named Mordeth appears, calling himself a treasure hunter. He lures them into torchlit tunnels to a chamber piled with jewels, coins, and ornate weapons, then reacts with rage when he learns they travel to Tar Valon. Rand notices Mordeth casts no shadow; Mordeth swells monstrously, then shrinks into smoke and flees through a wall crack after shrieking that they are all dead.

Terror rising, the boys flee as torches snuff out behind them and unseen watchers press from the shadows. They return to the warded building, where Moiraine and Nynaeve scold them. At Moiraine’s urgent questioning, they confirm Mordeth’s name and that he neither touched nor gifted them.

Moiraine recounts Aridhol’s fall into Shadar Logoth: how Mordeth poisoned the city’s spirit, birthing Mashadar, and how his soul seeks escape by consuming another at the walls. She assures them her wards bar the city’s evil until daylight.

Near midnight, Lan returns with Trolloc badges and reports over a hundred Trollocs forced into the city by several Myrddraal, all terrified but driving straight toward them. Because using the One Power would shatter the wards and broadcast their location, Moiraine opts to leave now. She outlines a dash to the Arinelle River, where Trollocs and Fades fear deep water; there she will hold them at bay while the group seeks rafts or a trader’s boat to cross.