Back-alley deals and dark conspiracies collide in Tanchico as Egeanin buys an a’dam from a desperate Gelb. The dry politics of Tarabon get a massive jolt when we find out Whitecloak leader Jaichim Carridin is actually Bors, the high-ranking Darkfriend from the series’ creepiest masquerade party. Liandrin extorts him into seizing the Panarch’s Palace to help the Black Ajah find a “leash Rand” ter’angreal. Meanwhile, Egeanin survives a visit from the Seanchan Gestapo and retreats to her cellar to check on a dirty secret: a sul’dam currently experiencing the irony of being leashed by an a’dam.
It’s time for a change of scenery and a blast from the past! Egeanin sits at a wine garden in Tanchico with none other than Gelb. It’s been so long since we’ve seen either of these characters that I feel the need to reintroduce them.
Egeanin is the Seanchan captain who captured Bayle Domon during the events of The Great Hunt, bringing him and his treasure to High Lord Turak. It seems she is wearing a mask and going by the pseudonym Mistress Elidar, at least when she is dealing with Gelb.
For Gelb, we have to go all the way back to The Eye of the World when he was a deckhand on Bayle Domon’s ship, Spray. Rand and Mat were fleeing Trollocs and tripped over Gelb’s sleeping form when they clambered aboard, thereby busting him for sleeping on the job. Gelb, by the way, is a member of the exclusive Horrible Names club along with Caniedrin and Urien.
Egeanin and Gelb have a business arrangement. He finds things Mistress Elidar wants, and she pays him for it. Gelb hands over a bag with an a’dam inside, and Egeanin slides him a bag of silver. Then Gelb tells her he has a lead on “one of the women.” Egeanin isn’t keen on Gelb’s leads — the last one he brought her turned into a liability — so she tells him to piss off until he has something solid.
As she leaves the wine garden, Egeanin notices things. She notices Egwene and Nynaeve’s Sea Folk boat sail into the harbor. She notices Bayle Domon leaving the wine garden. She notices Jaichim Carridin, commander of the Questioners in Tarabon, entering it. Most of all, she notices a certain malaise of worn-out desperation among the people. Tanchico is ready to crumble, Egeanin is ready to conquer.
Jaichim Carridin is meeting with King Andric and Taraboner noblemen in a private room in the wine garden. It sounds like the Panarch (essentially the Queen?) has been murdered, and Andric wants the Children of the Light to help secure the Panarch’s Palace so his mistress, Lady Amathera, can become the new Panarch. Blah blah blah. Etcetera etcetera etcetera. This is dry Wheel of Time politics at its finest. Boooooring.
Things get interesting once Carridin gets back to his office. He’s keen on having a stiff drink, but instead he finds Liandrin there. He demands to know who she is, and she catches him off guard:
LIANDRIN: Threats, Bors? You should be more welcoming to a guest, yes?
Bors. It’s the name of the man who went to the Eyes Wide Shut party at the start of The Great Hunt! The throwback theme continues! Liandrin seizes Carridin with flows of Air, and he is at her mercy. Even if Liandrin and Bors are both working for the Shadow, they clearly aren’t on the same team.
Liandrin wants assurances that the Children of the Light will hold the Panarch’s Palace soon. And when she has it, she lets Carridin go and takes her leave.
Liandrin makes her way back to her accomplices.
LIANDRIN: It is done. Jaichim Carridin will move his Whitecloaks to the Panarch’s Palace and hold it for us.
At this point we get some interesting insight into Liandrin’s twelve Black Ajah conspirators. They grow concerned that they might have to defend themselves against a Forsaken. Even so, it seems they are on the cusp of having access to the Panarch’s Palace, where they believe they will find a ter’angreal that will allow them to control Rand al’Thor.
When Egeanin gets home, some Seanchan mumbo jumbo happens with a Seeker dude. I didn’t really get it, but he vibed just like the Gestapo do in World War II movies. Creepy, definitely speaking with a German accent, with that “ya, Commandant!” attitude, but in a calm, understated, “just doing my job” sort of way.
When he leaves, Egeanin goes to her root cellar and checks on Bethamin. Bethamin is a sul’dam who somehow wound up with an a’dam around her neck. It sounds like Egeanin may have put it there, and we realize she knows the truth about the sul’dam (leash holders) and damane (leashed ones)…
…they are both filthy, good-for-nothing channelers.