Rand drags Tam toward Emond’s Field, avoiding Trollocs and Fades. Tam’s fever makes him babble about the Aiel War and finding Rand as an infant laying on the slopes of Dragonmount.
The most interesting thing about this chapter is Tam having fever dreams and ranting about the Aiel War 20 years ago. I believe this is the same conflict that ended at the beginning of New Spring. I remember reading in New Spring that it was one of Moiraine’s asshole uncles who started the Aiel War, so my guess is this “Laman” character that Tam keeps babbling about has the surname Damodred. It sounds like the war started when Laman chopped down a tree named Avendesora, also known as the Tree of Life, which had been a peace offering from the Aiel many hundreds of years ago.
Tam’s babbling shifts to describing how hellish it was fighting on the slopes of Dragonmount. He desperately needed to escape from the death and carnage. When he finally found a quiet spot, there was a crying baby. According to Tam’s remarkably coherent and informative speech, he and his wife adopted the child and named him Rand. This means that Rand’s true lineage lies with the Aiel — and amusingly, the possibility that the Dragon would be born of the Aiel was a one that never seemed to cross Moiraine’s mind at all during the events of New Spring. Rand, for his part, also refuses to indulge this possibility, and goes on trying to convince himself that he has misunderstood.