Moiraine is in Tifan’s Well researching something. She reveals that Lan’s bond will pass to Myrelle if she should die. Lan saves Moiraine from a Dragkhar.
Moiraine and Lan visit a pair of Aes Sedai sisters in the farming town of Tifan’s Well, where she’s fruitlessly digging through books for some elusive scrap of information. She looks over at Lan and waxes nostalgic about the first time they met. Finally, this is it! I was thinking of this conversation when I wrote about Chapter 19: Pond Water from New Spring. Even after all these years, Moiraine has yet to receive an apology from Lan. She segues into asking him how he feels about being bonded to her, and reveals that she has made arrangements to have his bond passed to another Aes Sedai if she should perish. Which Aes Sedai, you may ask? Myrelle! That’s right — conjure-ice-into-naughty-places, rub-ointment-all-over-her-injured-sisters-naked-bodies Myrelle. Only now it’s Myrelle Sedai of the Green Ajah. Oh, Lan — I hope you still like to party as much as you did back in your Cairhien days!
Lan is understandably uncomfortable with the idea of Moiraine handing his leash off to another Aes Sedai, so he stalks off to do something manly. Moiraine is left to contemplate how Nynaeve has insinuated her way into Lan’s heart, leaving his loyalties in doubt. Of course, as hard as Robert Jordan tries to leave it ambiguous, there is no hard evidence that Moiraine has an intimate relationship with Lan, so should it really come as a surprise that a woman like Nynaeve can swoop in and wrap him around her finger? Frankly, I’m surprised it hasn’t happened sooner.
Moiraine goes out into the garden to contemplate the information she’s seeking. She hears footsteps behind her, and comes face to face with a Dragkhar! In The Eye of the World, we only saw them from a distance, wheeling about in the sky. Here, up close, they’re creepy in an almost Dracula-esque way — but instead of sucking blood, they feed on souls. Unfortunately, despite Moiraine’s talk earlier about transferring Lan’s bond to Myrelle, the situation just doesn’t feel that tense. It’s like in a Saturday morning cartoon where the main character is being lowered into a pit of lava before it fades to black. You don’t spend the whole commercial break biting your nails because you know damn well the show isn’t going to kill them. So yawn, Lan shows up and kills the Dragkhar. You know, dude — you could have just let the Dragkhar have her and gone off to party with Myrelle. I’d be sick of Moiraine’s bullshit after all these years too.