A Leader Reads

As Simple As That        Startled, [Ailhuin] touched her cheek, not seeming to know whether to look at the coins or at [Mat].  "Get them out, you say.  Just like that.  Out of the Stone."  Abruptly she stabbed him in the ribs with a finger as hard as a tree stub.  "You remind me of my husband, Mat Cauthon.  He was a headstrong fool who would sail into the teeth of a gale and laugh, too.  I could almost think you'll manage it."Ailhuin and Mat, The Dragon Reborn, p. 527    Emotions are infectious....

'Til Shade Is Gone    Juilin Sandar, the thieftaker hired by Nynaneve, Elayne and Egwene, is successful in finding Liandrin and the others.  Unfortunately, Liandrin got to him first, and sprung a trap on the three women.  Egwene, never once forgetting her torment at the hands of the Seanchan, fought until she was unconscious.  Elayne, gave a fair account of herself as well, despite the pampered upbringing of a Daughter-Heir.  Nynaeve fought until she crumpled; not quite unconscious, but close.  ...

Leader Development: Loial    While Mat makes short work of Gaebril's agent, Comar, Moiraine, Perrin, Faile, Lan and Loial arrive in Tear.  The Forsaken are hiding in plain sight amongst the rulers, first Illian, now in Tear.      "Be quiet," Moiraine told [Faile] sharply.  "One of the Forsaken in in Tear.  The High Lord Samon is Be'lal."  Perrin shivered.    Loial squeezed his eyes shut and groaned.  "I could have remained in the stedding.  I would probably have been very happy, married, whoever...

Leader Development: Nynaeve al'Meara    Despite spending the ship ride from Jurene seasick, the three women arrive in Tear.  The odd fued between Nynaeve and Egwene is ongoing, mostly out of pride and ego at this point.  As they begin their search for Liandrin and the rest in earnest, Nynaeve recognizes the danger of being predictable and staying at an inn.    "'Not an inn," Nynaeve said as firmly as she guided the stallion; she never seemed to let the animal get out of her control.  After a mom...

Leader Development: Thom Merrilin    Thom's maintained a somewhat unobtrusive presence in the background since the leaving Mat and Rand in The Eye of the World.  He made an appearance in The Great Hunt, but went off on his own.  Now he's roped back in with Mat and starts to showcase his expertise when Mat explains to Thom and Basel that Lord Gaebril intends to have Elayne killed.    "Rumor."  Thom rubbed the side of his nose; he seemed to be studying the stones board and talking to himself.  "No...

The Bloody Garden Wall Again    Following his failure at the main entrance, Mat changes his attack and climbs the cliff-facade that Rand climbed during their first visit to Caemlyn in The Eye of the World.  As before, it yields a successful entry to the palace garden (without the embarassment of Rand's fall).  As he makes his way towards the palace, Mat overhears two men plotting to have Elayne killed on her way to Tear.  Mat encounters Tallanvor, who escorts him directly to Queen Morgase.      ...

What's In A Question?    Arriving in Caemlyn, Mat splits from Thom in his haste to rid himself of Elayne's letter.  This attempt fails spectacularly as Mat is forced away from the main gate to the palace at a gallop.    Fool, he thought, meaning the fat officer, then added another for himself.  All I had to do was say her bloody name in the beginning.  "Elayne, the Daughter-Heir of Andor, sends this letter to her mother, Queen Morgase."  Light, who could have thought they'd think that way about ...

Disobedience    At the end of Chapter 42, Moiraine leaves Lan (and the rest) very explicit instructions to stay behind while she scouts ahead.  Lan, Perrin, Faile, and Loial take time to scout out the immediate surroundings of their inn.  Discovering paw prints from a Darkhound etched clearly in the cobblestone streets, Lan elects to disobey Moiraine.    The Warder was silent for a time.  "The answer to that, blacksmith," he said grimly at last, "may be more than you or I, either one, want to kn...

Emotional Intelligence VIII: Perrin Aybara    Perrin, Moiraine, Lan, Loial and Faile arrive in Illian.  Perrin welcomes the din of the city to drown out his connection to the wolves.  As the small group drives further into the city, there is a palpable sense of wrongness permeating the Illian and its denizens.  Settling in to the inn, Easing the Badger, Moiraine grills the innkeeper for news - what she finds out clearly terrifies her.    If Moiraine had sounded afraid before, it had been nothing...

Character Development: Mat Cauthon    Mat and Thom arrive in Aringill, where Cairhienin civil war is pushing refugees in searching for food and shelter just as it's driving prices for those same amenities skywards.      The two girls sobbed into their mother's skirts while the boy fought his tears.  The woman's deep-set eyes rested on Mat for a moment, studying his face, before drifting on; they looked as if she wished she could weep too.  On impulse he dug a fistful of loose coins out of his po...

Violent Disagreement And Healthy Discourse    Nynaeve and Egwene are still having their odd little argument, even amidst the Aiel.  Elayne's efforts at a heat sink are mostly ineffective.  Nynaeve attempts to hide her frustration in moving ahead towards Jurene after leaving the Aielwomen, but ends up just creating a war of silence between all three of the women.    They caught up to Nynaeve, Egwene glowering as she thought, Nynaeve staring straight ahead toward Jurene and that ship, and Elayne f...

Culture Shock    Egwene, Elayne and Nynaeve begin walking from the stuck river boat to Jurene.  They find themselves sidetracked by a group of Aiel, searching for someone to help heal one of their wounded comrades.  The exchange between the two groups of women reveals plenty of ignorance and misconception on both sides.     "I am Egwene al'Vere," she told them.  They seemed to expect more, so she added, "Daughter of Marin al'Vere, of Emond's Field, in the Two Rivers."  That seemed to satisfy the...

Acting The Part    Elayne, Egwene and Nynaeve head towards Tear aboard the Blue Crane.  Whatever unity they had prior to their trip seems to be unraveling rapidly.  Egwene and Nynaeve are at each other's throats; in violent disagreement about each step of the way, with Elayne caught in the middle.  Nynaeve seems to be 'winning' the arguments more often than not; reverting back to her days as Wisdom.  She's not yet learned to match the title of Aes Sedai with the intrinsic capabilities she holds ...

100 Days Challenge Complete    This is by no means the end; merely a quick reflection on what the past 100 days have been.  This was a great challenge: 42,528 words written from 13 May to 20 August.  That's a small novel (or large novella).  Were there days when I absolutely did not want to write anything? Most definitely (weekends were usually the hardest).  Just as there were days where it was tremendously hard to find a link in the text to leadership.  And there were a couple days of pure pho...

Judging Books    As quickly as they arrive in Remen, Perrin's fight with the Whitecloaks causes them to leave.  Perrin, Lan, Moiraine and Loial board a ship bound for Illian; along with a new passenger, a dark haired Saldaean woman.    He blinked; there was no mistaking that emphasis.  "A Hunter?  You?  You cannot be a Hunter.  You're a girl."Perrin, The Dragon Reborn, p. 335    Perrin makes his own misstep here, discounting Zarine's abilities simply because of her gender.  This one puzzles me a...

The Man In The Mirror    Perrin, Loial, Moiraine and Lan continue to follow Rand's trail.  Nearly every village they pass through has had some excitement out of the ordinary - massive fires, a village full of weddings, bags of gold being found, a new well, a completely dried well - until they come to Remen, where an Aielman is locked in a cage, with children throwing rocks at him.    What was he supposed to do?  I could have stopped those children throwing rocks.  I should have.  It was no use t...

Putting The 'I' Back In 'Team'    Fresh from a fall off a bridge with a now dead Gray Man, Mat stumbles into another inn.  This time, he runs across Thom Merrilin and invites Thom to join in his escape from Tar Valon.  Thom agrees and the two literally jump onto the first ship heading in the direction of Andor.  Scrabbling onboard Mat and Thom negotiate the price of passage; which due to the state of world affairs has increased dramatically.    "As you may have noticed, Captain, I am a gleeman."...

Leader Development: Mat Cauthon    Mat, letter in hand, leaves the Tower under pretenses of a night of gambling, with the end goal to leave Tar Valon entirely.  He fills his pockets and multiple purses with gold; his luck on an incredible winning streak.  Leaving his final inn for the evening, he's (poorly) pursued by footpads.    Hefting the quarterstaff, he briefly considered turning to confront them.  But it was dark, and the footing on the cobblestones uncertain, and he had no idea how many ...

Overconfident    Nynaeve, Elayne and Egwene, hard at work in the kitchens, are approached by the Amyrlin curious about an update on their progress.  Egwene and Elayne get carted off under some pretense the Amyrlin concocts to minimize eavesdroppers to get their mouths washed out with soap, leaving Nynaeve to give the update.  Else Grinwell, who pointed the three women onto the path of finding the belongings the Black Ajah left behind, is revealed to have been dismissed from the White Tower weeks...

A Smile And A Wink    Mat is approached by Egwene, Nynaeve and Elayne to carry a letter from Elayne to her mother, Queen Morgase.  In a sort of comical interlude, we see several attempts by the three women to bring Mat around to their way of thinking.    "You're up to something, Nyanaeve.  You are all smiling like cats staring at a finch caught in a thornbush, and I think I am the finch."Mat, The Dragon Reborn, p. 264    "I told you we should ask him straight out.  He's stubborn as a mule when h...

The Power Of Intent: The Amyrlin Seat    Egwene, Elayne and Nyaneve get a tip from another novice about the hiding place of all the belongings for Liandrin and the rest of her Black Ajah runaways.  Upon further inspection, the search reveals some clues about their intended destination.  Once again, the clues are scattered too precisely to be completely random; giving only the illusion of randomness Elayne discussed in the previous chapter.  Egwene uses her ter'angreal to enter the World of Dream...

None Of Us Is As Smart As All Of Us    Elayne, Egwene and Nynaeve are now fully engaged in their hunt for the Black Ajah.  Currently, their efforts are focused on a couple of documents given to them by Verin: a list of those who left with Liandrin and a list of what they stole.  Hardly a tremendous start, but better than nothing at all.    Nynaeve came to a halt staring down at Elayne.  "Put those away.  We have been over them twenty times, and there isn't a word that helps.  Verin gave us rubbi...

A Way Out    Switching back to Mat, we see him probing the White Tower guards in his attempt to leave Tar Valon.  True to her word, the Amyrlin did send Aes Sedai out to all the guards, drilling them in all the details of Mat's appearance so they can recognize him on sight.      He had simply meant to find out how well his description had been passed around.  If only the officers among the bridge guards had had it, he might have been able to slip by.  He had always been good at slipping into pla...

When Things Fall Apart    Egwene completes the Accepted's Trials, facing her fears.  Verin Sedai gives Egwene a ter-angreal to assist her in her efforts of becoming a Dreamer.  It seems that the ter-angreal Dreaming ring caused some interference with the Accepted's Trials ter-angreal, nearly melting it into the floor with Egwene lost inside.  Alanna Sedai noticed the interference initially, and ignored it, allowing the Trials to continue; where the initial interference resonated to near-catastro...

Through The Fire And The Flames    The Amyrlin gave an exasperated sigh.  "You remind me of my uncle Huan.  NO one could ever pin him down.  He liked to gamble, too, and he'd much rather have fun than work.  He died pulling children out of a burning house.  He wouldn't stop going back as long as there was one left inside.  Are you like him, Mat?  Will you be there when the flames are high?The Amyrlin Seat, The Dragon Reborn, p. 183    I've always been a fan of this passage.  It's an apt descript...

Leader Development: Mat    The Amyrlin and several Aes Sedai link together and Heal Mat, breaking him from the link from the dagger of Shadar Logoth.  He awakes, still extremely weak, in visitor's chambers in the White Tower, holes in his memory filled with memories of other men in other times and places.  Along with a seeming fluidity of the Old Tongue.    You can turn the worst that comes to your advantage is you only think, his father always said, and certainly Abell Cauthon was the best hors...

Emotional Intelligence VII: When NOT To Go To War    As Elayne, Nynaeve and Egwene contemplate their task of hunting down the Black Ajah, Elaida Sedai, Queen Morgase's former advisor, interrupts them, eager for details on their exploits.      "The two of you," Elaida went on in a casual tone, "vanish, taking with you the Daughter-Heir of Andor - the girl who may become Queen of Andor one day, if I do not strip the hide off her hide and sell it to a glove maker - vanish without permission, withou...

Leader Development: Nynaeve    Following their dismissal from the Amyrlin's offices, Nynaeve and Egwene find themselves targets of a Gray Man.  Egwene barely misses a crossbow bolt to the head.  The two women give chase, and find the Gray Man dead with a knife in his chest.  The Mistress of Novices conveniently arrives shortly after to assist in cleaning up the dead Gray Man.      "Did you notice what Sheriam did not mention?"    "No. What?"    " She never wondered who stabbed him.  Now, come on...

A Bad Plan Well Executed...    Egwene, Nynaeve and Elayne are brought before the Amyrlin Seat and given severe punishments for running away.  The Amyrlin dismisses Elayne, holds Egwene and Nynaeve back and enlists them to find the Black Ajah traitors.      "You are the only two in the Tower I can be absolutely sure are not Black Ajah."  The Amyrlin's mouth still twisted around those words.  "Liandrin and her twelve went, but did all of them go?  Or did they leave some of their number behind, lik...

What Does 'Good' Look Like?     It was a stark, windowless room, like all those in the novices' quarters, small and square and painted white, with pegs on one wall for hanging her belongings, the bed built beside a second, and a tiny shelf on a third, where in other days she had kept a few books borrowed from the Tower library.  A washstand and a three-legged stool completed the furnishings.  The floorboards were almost white from scrubbing.  She had done that task, on hands and knees, every day...