After reuniting with Thom Merrilin, Rand attempts to persuade him to rejoin their quest, but Thom, valuing his peaceful life, refuses. This decision leaves Thom with an internal conflict about his loyalties and safety.
Rand grabs Thom’s things, leaves Hurin to guard the Horn, and cajoles Loial into coming with him. Loial doesn’t want to go anywhere since he’s afraid of running into another Ogier, but Rand basically shoves him out the door. At the inn where Thom has a room, a slender woman named Dena answers the door. She is training to become a gleeman, and is Thom’s lover, as evidenced by the long kiss they share when he arrives. Whoa. Thom, you old dog — you’ve done well!
Thom convinces Dena to give them some privacy. Rand introduces Loial to Thom and returns his flute and harp. Then, despite Loial’s misgivings, Rand tells Thom that they have the Horn of Valere. Naturally, this makes Thom laugh — he’s heard the very same thing countless times before and there has never been a shred of truth to it. But even after they get past this, Thom refuses to be a part of it.
At this point, Rand asks Loial to leave the room. Not kidding! Rand forced him to come along, and now he’s tossing Loial out like he’s yesterday’s newspaper. What a dick move. But I guess it’s because Rand wants to talk about the Karaethon Cycle — aka the Prophecies of the Dragon. Thom recites a few interesting snippets from the work, which will no doubt be a joy to come back to later in the series.
This leads nowhere, because all Rand wants is to rope Thom in. But Thom only risked his neck for the Emond’s Field boys when he thought one of them might be a channeler — like his nephew was — and in danger of being gentled in the same way. But if the Aes Sedai let Rand go? In a twist of brilliant dramatic irony, Thom refuses to help. Thom values the life he has built in Cairhien too much to risk blowing it up for the messiah of the Light. That’s like refusing to pick up a hitchhiking Jesus because the beard wasn’t convincing.
Thom insists that this be their last meeting, and bids him farewell. But still he thinks about it, convincing himself that it isn’t his problem. Uh oh, Dena. This isn’t looking so good for you.