Siuan, Min, Leane, and Logain have fled to Lugard, a city in Murandy. Speaking with an innkeeper who is part of the Blues’ network of spies, Siuan learns that Blues may be gathering in the nearby town of Salidar.
This chapter is so packed full of fluff it’s laughable. In fact, I read it two days ago, and in all the intervening time, I have forgotten to laugh. Ha ha. Ha hah hah.
The city of Lugard is described, in broad terms, as a melting pot of disaffected slackers:
Murandy was a nation in name only, the people barely held together by supposed allegiance to the king or queen and fear that Andor or Illian might snap them up if they did not hold together in some fashion.
Sounds like “conquer us if you can,” if you ask me.
Siuan leverages knowledge from her former life as head of the Blue Ajah’s network of spies and informants. (When you put it that way, they sound like the Mafia!) She finds an inn called The Nine Horse Hitch and consults with the proprietress, Mistress Tharne. Tharne can’t do much for her, but she does have a message to give to any Blue who comes around looking lost.
THARNE: Sallie Daera. Don’t ask me what it means, but there you have it.
Of course, Siuan knows it is code for Salidar, a nearby town that is the birthplace of a former Blue Amyrlin. Her inner monologue describes it as “one of the last places anyone would look for an Aes Sedai.” On her way out of the inn, Siuan is so lost in thought that she has to dodge out of the way of a Whitecloak patrol as she makes her way back to her friends. “We have to go south,” she says, and clearly she means to leave that evening.