The Dragon Reborn

The third installment of Robert Jordan's epic fantasy series The Wheel of Time follows three intertwined journeys converging on the fortress city of Tear, where prophecy declares the Dragon Reborn will claim a legendary crystal sword called Callandor.

In the prologue, Pedron Niall, Lord Captain Commander of the Children of the Light, a militant religious order, reviews reports of chaos and schemes to exploit the turmoil. He orders his subordinate Jaichim Carridin to keep a false Dragon alive as a threat to drive nations into uniting behind the Children. A sinister advisor called Ordeith identifies the false Dragon as Rand al'Thor. Carridin, however, receives contradictory orders from a Myrddraal, an eyeless creature of the Dark One: Find and kill Rand immediately, or watch his family die one by one.

The main narrative opens in a mountain camp where Rand shelters with Moiraine, an Aes Sedai (the all-female wielders of the One Power), her Warder Lan, the young blacksmith Perrin Aybara, the Ogier Loial (a member of a long-lived nonhuman race), and Min, a young woman who sees prophetic visions. Perrin possesses golden-yellow eyes and an unwanted psychic connection to wolves, which he suppresses for fear of losing his humanity. Rand, tormented by his inability to control saidin, the tainted male half of the One Power, argues with Moiraine over strategy. He is haunted by Ba'alzamon, a figure of shadow and fire who has pursued him since the series began. During one confrontation, Rand accidentally triggers an earthquake.

Trollocs, monstrous creatures of the Dark One, attack the camp that night. Moiraine channels fire, wolves flood in to help, and Perrin kills a Myrddraal but not before it murders Leya, a Tuatha'an woman, one of a nomadic pacifist people, who brought intelligence to Moiraine. By morning, Rand has vanished, leaving a note declaring that Ba'alzamon is hunting him and one of them must die. Through shared dreams, Moiraine identifies Rand's destination: the Heart of the Stone in Tear, where Callandor, a powerful sa'angreal (an object that amplifies channeling), awaits the Dragon Reborn. She sends Min to Tar Valon with a message for the Amyrlin Seat, the leader of the Aes Sedai, and pursues Rand with Lan, Perrin, and Loial.

The pursuit reveals the warping effects of Rand's nature as ta'veren, a person around whom the Pattern of reality reshapes itself. Villages he passes through experience impossible events: mass weddings, soldiers going mad, a town burning from a single dropped lantern. Perrin grapples with vivid wolf dreams in which he encounters the Forsaken, ancient servants of the Dark One. He witnesses Ba'alzamon arguing with Lanfear, a Forsaken who claims the Dragon as her own, while a wolf named Hopper guides him through the dreamscape. Injuries sustained in these dreams carry over into waking life.

Meanwhile, Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara, and Elayne Trakand, the Daughter-Heir of Andor, travel toward Tar Valon escorting the unconscious Mat Cauthon, who is dying from his bond to a tainted dagger from the cursed city of Shadar Logoth. They are accompanied by Verin Mathwin, a sister of the Brown Ajah, one of seven factions within the Aes Sedai. At the White Tower, the Amyrlin Seat, Siuan Sanche, orchestrates Mat's Healing through a ritual involving ten Aes Sedai and a sa'angreal. Mat survives but wakes with gaps in his memory. Verin also delivers the Horn of Valere, a legendary artifact that summons fallen heroes; Mat sounded it at Falme, linking it to him for life.

The Amyrlin publicly punishes the women for leaving the Tower but privately reveals that thirteen Aes Sedai, led by Liandrin, have fled as confirmed members of the Black Ajah, a secret faction serving the Dark One. She tasks Egwene and Nynaeve with hunting them. Verin provides Egwene with a stone ring ter'angreal (a device powered by the One Power) that allows entry into Tel'aran'rhiod, the World of Dreams. Evidence planted by the Black Ajah points to Tear; the women recognize it as a likely trap but decide they must go.

Mat escapes Tar Valon carrying a letter from Elayne to Queen Morgase and reunites with Thom Merrilin, a traveling entertainer. In Caemlyn, Mat delivers the letter but overhears Morgase's new advisor, Lord Gaebril, ordering the murder of Elayne, Egwene, and Nynaeve in Tear. Mat races south with Thom to warn them.

Perrin's journey brings him through the town of Remen, where he frees a caged Aiel warrior named Gaul. The Aiel are a fierce desert people who rarely leave their homeland. A Saldaean woman named Zarine Bashere, who calls herself Faile ("falcon" in the Old Tongue), attaches herself to the party; her name matches one of Min's prophecies, unsettling Perrin. In Illian, they discover a Forsaken rules the city in disguise. Darkhounds pursue them until Moiraine destroys the beasts with balefire, a forbidden application of the One Power.

All threads converge in Tear, where Moiraine reveals that another Forsaken, Be'lal, rules the Stone of Tear as High Lord Samon. Faile triggers a Black Ajah trap that pulls her consciousness into Tel'aran'rhiod, leaving her body near death; Perrin enters the wolf dream to rescue her, freeing her after a brutal fight that leaves him severely wounded.

The thief-catcher Juilin Sandar, Compelled (magically coerced through the One Power) by Liandrin, betrays Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne. The Black Ajah captures the three women and imprisons them beneath the Stone, shielding them from channeling. Liandrin taunts them: They are bait, and thirteen Myrddraal are coming to turn them to the Shadow. Egwene uses the stone ring to enter Tel'aran'rhiod, where she can channel freely despite the shield, and attacks the Black sisters guarding them, weakening their hold.

After learning the women were taken into the Stone, Mat blows a hole in its wall with fireworks and fights his way to the cells, freeing them. Nynaeve knocks the guard Amico Nagoyin unconscious, fully breaking the shield, and Heals her companions. Simultaneously, Aiel warriors scale the walls in a massive assault.

In the Heart of the Stone, Rand confronts Be'lal, who wields a sword of black fire and tries to drive Rand toward Callandor so the Forsaken can seize it. Moiraine arrives and destroys Be'lal with balefire. Ba'alzamon then appears, wreathed in shadow, and hurls black lightning at Rand. Rand leaps for Callandor and seizes it, and the One Power floods through the crystal sword in a torrent he can barely control. He pursues Ba'alzamon through shifting corridors, countering every attack, and plunges Callandor through Ba'alzamon's chest. Aiel and Tairen soldiers kneel as he proclaims himself the Dragon Reborn.

Moiraine reveals that the body was a man's, not the Dark One's; she suspects it was Ishamael, the strongest Forsaken, who had called himself Ba'alzamon. At least nine Forsaken remain free, and only four of seven seals on the Dark One's prison are intact. Lanfear sends a note claiming Rand as hers. Eleven of the Black Ajah sisters escaped. Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne resolve to continue hunting them, while Mat outwardly agrees to help but privately plans to flee. The story ends with the people of Tear chanting Rand's name, the Dragon banner flying from the Stone, and the certainty that far greater dangers lie ahead.