Chapter 27

Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne, still working kitchen punishment and uneasy about clues found in a storeroom, gather in Egwene’s room. After several Aes Sedai pass through the kitchens, they debate meaning and traps. That night, with Nynaeve and Elayne keeping watch, Egwene sleeps wearing the dream ring to enter Tel’aran’rhiod.

In the World of Dreams, Egwene tests her control, then abruptly finds herself in an inn room where Perrin is chained to a black stone pillar, guarding himself with a heavy chain while a wolf menaces her. Perrin recognizes her and stops the wolf, but the door slams and she is thrust into darkness and a forest.

Following firelight, Egwene meets Rand at a strange fire that burns nothing. Rand, exhausted and paranoid, believes the Shadow tempts him with familiar faces. When Egwene tries to bind him with Air, his heron-mark blade of flame shatters her weave; he advances and she flees, returning to the sunny hills.

Determined to find answers about the Black Ajah, Egwene focuses the ring and is carried to the Heart of the Stone in Tear, where Callandor hangs shielded by a complex ward woven of saidar and saidin. An ugly old woman, Silvie, appears, speaking of High Lords, plots, and the Forsaken, and urges Egwene to leave as booted footsteps approach.

When Egwene cannot escape on her own, Silvie grabs the dream ring and forcibly ejects her, causing searing pain. Egwene wakes and recounts everything, omitting Perrin’s wolf. Concluding the Black Ajah is in Tear and that the storeroom clues point there, Nynaeve proposes springing the trap by going. They plan to depart secretly if the Amyrlin does not contact them by midday, arrange river passage, and consider how Elayne can send a guarded letter to her mother. Nervous of more threats, they share a bed for the night, and Nynaeve hints at someone eager to carry the letter.