Returning to camp, Perrin learns that Aiel Maidens have captured five Shaido. He finds Masema’s followers torturing the prisoners with hot coals under the supervision of Gerard Arganda. Perrin halts the torture and questions one of the captives, who answers with a defiant, mocking song. Perrin chops off the man’s hand with his axe, then has Seonid Heal the stump. He then threatens all five: They will each lose two hands and two feet unless they answer his questions about the captive women, and if they hold out entirely, he will leave them to beg in a village as crippled men.

The Shaido give consistent answers, all claiming they have never seen Faile or the other captive women. Elyas notes this may simply be true—with thousands of Shaido and thousands of prisoners, a man could live among them and never meet more than a few hundred—and warns that further coercion would only produce the answers Perrin wants to hear. Overcome with guilt, Perrin goes into the woods, throws his axe into a tree, and confesses to Elyas his fear of becoming addicted to the violence of battle. Three days later, Balwer returns with Tallanvor, whom he had encountered by chance in So Habor. Tallanvor proposes a desperate alliance: 15,000 Seanchan soldiers, including damane, are also hunting the Shaido and could serve as allies in rescuing Faile.

Mat Cauthon’s journey with Valan Luca’s circus is slow and fraught with tense encounters with Seanchan patrols. The three Aes Sedai and three sul’dam in his party frequently sneak into towns and villages to gather intelligence, learning that the main Seanchan army is moving east to invade Illian. Seeking to manage his high-value prisoner, Tuon, Mat begins a calculated courtship. He visits her nightly to play a board game called “stones” and brings her gifts.

His first major gift, an expensive necklace, backfires when Tuon gives it to Selucia, who forces Egeanin to wear it. Tuon then renames Egeanin “Leilwin Shipless,” stripping her of her identity. Though Tuon is a captive, she remains the all-powerful heir to the Seanchan throne in Egeanin’s eyes, and Mat is amazed to see Egeanin groveling before her. Mat shifts his strategy, presenting small gifts of flowers to Selucia instead. His plan is complicated when Egeanin reveals a Seanchan marriage custom: A marriage is legally formed if a man calls a woman his wife three times and she later does the same, even if done separately before witnesses. Mat had been told he would marry the Daughter of the Nine Moons, and Egeanin’s explanation confirms what he already suspected—that he unwittingly completed his half of the ritual when he kidnapped Tuon. Soon after, he presents Tuon with a cluster of silk rosebuds, and she agrees to take walks with him, signaling that she is now in control of their strange courtship.

Mat takes Tuon and Selucia on a shopping trip in the town of Jurador to fulfill a promise to buy Tuon new clothes. When they return, he learns that the sul’dam Renna has stabbed Egeanin and fled on a stolen horse. The Aes Sedai Teslyn heals Egeanin, who reveals Renna’s secret: She and the other two sul’dam, Bethamin and Seta, can learn to channel and can be leashed by an a’dam. Renna likely feared Egeanin would expose her.

Mat and his men pursue Renna, who is riding hard toward Coramen. They spot her on the far side of a river, urging a lathered horse up a slope, still some 50 feet from the crest of the ridge behind which the town lies. To prevent her from cresting the ridge and alerting the Seanchan garrison, Mat orders his men to shoot. Gorderan’s crossbow bolt strikes her back first; then, as she struggles upright, Harnan’s arrow takes her. Her body tumbles down the slope and into the stream.

Mat returns to the circus, expecting it to be gone, but finds it still in place. Tuon has stopped the escape by issuing an official warrant of protection for the show, placing it under her authority. She tells Mat his actions against the traitor were just, but coolly informs him that his name is at the top of the list of those not covered by her protection. Mat sees she is wearing the rosebuds he gave her and begins to laugh, realizing she has completely outmaneuvered him.

In the rebel Aes Sedai camp, Egwene learns that another Blue sister, Kairen Stang, has been murdered by a man channeling saidin, deepening the climate of fear. Egwene’s dream-warning about an imminent Seanchan attack is dismissed by the other sisters, who do not believe she is a Dreamer—that is, an Aes Sedai capable of seeing the future in dreams.

During a tense meeting, Romanda confronts Egwene about the Kin. Egwene points out that the one real difference between Aes Sedai and the Kin is that the Kin left the Tower before swearing on the Oath Rod—implying that the Oaths shorten life. She then reveals that the Oath Rod can unbind as well as bind, suggesting that sisters could be released from their oaths upon retirement to live longer lives among the Kin. Romanda is appalled by the idea. Later, Lelaine suggests modifying the Warder bond to create a form of Compulsion to control male channelers, an idea Egwene furiously forbids.

Egwene herself devised a plan to break the defensive chain across Tar Valon’s harbor, and selected Bode Cauthon—a novice of the White Tower and Mat Cauthon’s younger sister—to perform the channeling after the original choice, Kairen, was murdered. Deeming the mission too dangerous for a novice, Egwene secretly takes Bode’s place. Under cover of darkness, she rides to the river, boards a boat with soldiers, and successfully shatters the chain. Immediately after, she is captured by White Tower Aes Sedai who were waiting in ambush, revealing that she has been betrayed.

In the city of Tear, Davram Bashere returns from a diplomatic mission to Rand al’Thor. Bashere reports that the Seanchan are amenable to meeting, but require Rand to come in person rather than send an emissary. They have one condition: Rand must meet with a newly arrived royal, the Daughter of the Nine Moons.