Chapter 53

Perrin returns from a day at the forge with Zarine (Faile) needling him about refusing work for a High Lord. Moiraine and Lan meet them outside the inn and announce proof that Rand is in Tear, citing a surge of uncanny events across the city and common dreams of Rand in the Heart of the Stone with the shining sword.

Moiraine declares she and Lan will deal with Be’lal that night and orders Perrin, Loial, and Zarine to flee to Tar Valon for safety. Inside the inn, Perrin finds Faile collapsed in the private dining room. Moiraine halts him, sensing a trap woven of pure Spirit. Lan drags in the terrified innkeeper, Jurah Haret, who admits two “Ladies” (Black Ajah) left a carved wooden hedgehog as a “surprise.”

Moiraine identifies the hedgehog as a ter’angreal tied to Dreaming, last studied by Corianin Nedeal. She concludes Faile’s body lives but her self is trapped in a dream, likely Tel’aran’rhiod, and warns that anyone entering the room will spring the same snare. With Be’lal alerted but possibly overconfident, Moiraine and Lan depart immediately for the Stone, leaving Faile’s rescue unresolved.

Perrin refuses to abandon Faile. He asks Loial to guard him while he tries the wolf dream. Loial, grim and resolute, vows to let none pass. Perrin leaps toward Faile, touching her as he goes under, and enters the wolf dream, armed with a smith’s hammer instead of his axe.

Hopper appears and warns that the dream is more dangerous than ever and that Perrin is present too strongly, risking death. Perrin insists he must free the falcon; Hopper accepts, and together they begin the hunt for Faile across the dream’s rolling hills.