31 Play for Your Supper

At dusk by the Hawkwing monument, Perrin grapples with his loathing for the axe and his near decision to mercy-kill Egwene if ravens caught them. Elyas counsels that as long as Perrin hates the axe, he’ll use it wisely. A sudden, urgent wolf sending interrupts: mounted men approach the pool.

Elyas douses the fire and darts off to divert attention, telling Perrin to hide. Perrin leads Egwene and Bela to shelter beneath the stone “hand” of Artur Hawkwing. As search parties with torches spread a patterned sweep, wolves harry the riders and their mounts in the dark, trying to push them back to their fires.

Whitecloaks discover the hiding place and demand surrender. Weighing their slim chances, Perrin yields. As a lance levels at him, Hopper leaps from the night, kills the lancer, then is skewered by multiple lances. Sharing Hopper’s death through the wolfbond, Perrin screams and charges with his axe before being clubbed down and captured with Egwene.

In Lord Captain Geofram Bornhald’s tent, the prisoners are bound heavily. Gaunt Child Byar reports losses and displays cold cruelty, inflaming Perrin’s grief when he mentions skinning a wolf. Bornhald dismisses Byar’s exaggerated account, adopts a grandfatherly firmness, and probes their story, citing the Tar Valon coin, knowledge of Trollocs and Shadar Logoth, and contact with a Warder as signs of Darkfriendship.

Perrin and Egwene offer a partial truth about fleeing the Two Rivers, encountering Shadar Logoth, and traveling with an unnamed guide. Bornhald returns their belongings except weapons but refuses release. He will take them to Caemlyn, then Amador, warning Egwene of the Questioners if she won’t confess. He declares Perrin will face the gibbet for killing two Children, while Elyas and the wolves are lost to Perrin’s senses.