Lan and Bukama find accommodations at an inn where they run into Ryne, and old acquaintance. He brings news that Lan’s old flame, Lady Edeyn Arrel, has been stirring up trouble. After six men attempt to murder Lan, he realizes that Lady Edeyn might be responsible.
Lan and Bukama have to check three inns before finally finding accommodations at the fourth.
It turns out that Bukama knows the proprietress, Racelle. She was both glad to see Bukama and pissed at him for not coming back to see her sooner. Racelle violently alternates between kissing Bukama and punching him, and we’re left with the distinct impression that she is actually a Klingon woman who was dropped into the Wheel of Time universe by accident. Writing timelines being what they are, this isn’t entirely impossible that Mr. Jordan was thinking the same thing.
They also find Ryne there, an old friend of Lan’s, so everyone sits down for a drink together. The waitress who brings the drinks hits on Lan with all of the subtlety of a sledgehammer, as if to prove the book’s point that Lan is quite the ladies’ man, with women lining up to throw themselves at him. Ryne tells Lan about how a certain Lady Edeyn Arrel has been using Lan’s name to rally troops.
Lan takes some time to himself in the stables, embracing ko’di (a.k.a. “The Void”) and ruminating on his place in the world as a king without a nation. What a legacy his parents handed him!
el’Leanna Mandragoran: Welcome to the world, sweet boy!
al’Akir Mandragoran: Now, here’s a sword and a ring.
el’Leanna: You’re King of Malkier now.
al’Akir: Sworn to take this nation back one day.
Perhaps this wouldn’t seem so cliche if Superman hadn’t done it first.
The book brazenly recounts how this Lady Arrel is an unrepentant cougar who had made 15-year-old Lan into her boy-toy many years back, and it sounds like he didn’t entirely mind.
Bukama shows up and inquires what Lan intends to do about her. They decide to go back into the common room to talk about it. Crossing the courtyard and casually discussing how properly laid they are both going to get that night, six men show up and make Lan’s spidey sense tingle.
When the group tries to kill Lan, he dispatches all six men. As his wounds are attended, everyone realizes rumors of Lan’s death fighting the Aiel had spurred Lady Arrel to rally men under his name. She used it to gain power. Did she also send the assassins? Lan needs to pay her a visit.