Chapter 39

Disguised as wealthy petitioners, Egwene, Nynaeve, Elayne, and Min slip through the White Tower’s crowded corridors and avoid recognition. In the South Stable, Nynaeve leverages Liandrin’s name and her ring to secure their horses. They ride out through Tarlomen’s Gate and thread Tar Valon’s busy streets toward the Ogier grove.

Liandrin meets them angrily, then claims she had arranged protection for Elayne and Min against the Black Ajah. She leads them into a fenced enclosure and reveals a Waygate. Despite fear of the corrupted Ways, the women follow as Liandrin opens the gate and urges haste.

Inside the pitch-dark Ways, their lantern light barely holds back the pressure of the black. Liandrin navigates from Guiding to Guiding using a hidden parchment, driving them hard and forbidding channeling, asserting she alone will handle the Black Wind if needed. The oppressive journey proceeds over crumbling ramps and unsupported bridges.

They make a brief camp on a stone Island. Talk turns to the Black Ajah and Rand, with Min questioning the Pattern and Egwene wrestling with fear of Rand’s fate. Egwene dreams of the burned, fire-eyed man and of being lost in the Ways, waking to Liandrin’s relentless schedule.

After more grueling, disorienting travel, Liandrin abruptly leaves the Guidings to approach another Waygate. Declaring they have arrived where they must go, she opens the exit, having delivered them through the Ways toward Toman Head under her tight, unsettling control.