For once we see Nyneave's side of her and Egwene's arguments; she kinda sorta half admits she might be treating Egwene as a child, but so far all her choices have been good ones, so still 0 sympathy for Egwene.
Then Julin betrays them and the Blacks take them captive, seemingly one by one; at the least Nyneave was taken separately. She tried to put up a fight, but they are fully trained Sisters, and they had the element of surprise.
Don't be too hard on Julin though; he was under Liandrin's bastardized version of compulsion.
Not long after, Mat arrives at the Wise Womn's house to help Thom's cough, only to convince the woman to fill him in, and then start charming her. He leaves the house laughing with dice spinning in his head, and planning how he's going to break into the Stone of Tear.
Ta'veren man. If there is one plot device that RJ was a genius for coming up with, it was this. Coincidence on coincidence piles up until its almost unbelievable - Ta'veren.
Then we're back to Perrin; seriously, who is annoyed that he's being told to run when he'd rather fight, showing just how much he's changed. And he's warming up to Faile now, just in time for her to to fall into a Dream trap that only he can save her from.
And Loial earns my respect abit, turning from big and bookwormy to None shall Pass in two lines.
Mat breeches the Stone of Tear; he is by no means the first (that honor goes to Rand) but his is certainly the most impressive. The man uses a self styled bomb made from Fireworks.
Back to Egwene, and she impresses me with her plan to use Dreaming, then manages to beat a Black in the dream World. Still not sure how that's going to happen, but better than doing nothing.
And it appearntly only takes 1 Black to maintain the block on NEE's channelling. I seem to remember it taking 6 to block Rand, but to be fair, Rand was both better trained and much further along in One Power maturity than they are now.
We're then briefly back to Perrin, who has a nice moment with Faile - who fades away shortly after. Not as rescued as Perrin had hoped.
Then the Chapter ends with Mat, being awesome beating a High Lord 1-on-1 (his third, if the narrative is correct) and the getting super lucky with the 4th, who snuck up behind them and got hit on the head when Mat was putting his staff over his shoulder.
The chapter begins with Rand, and for the first time (I think) we have the symbol of the Dragon as the chapter's title picture. The fight with Be'lel was anti-climatic in a way, but it was pretty amazing how Moraine just strode straight up and balefired him by surprise.
Egwene does some good work, but not quite good enough; what it did do was let Mat free them himself, unmolested by the Aes Sedai guard.
And then they glare at him for swearing, and then use the One Power on him when he asks why they felt the need to punch out a woman who couldn't even move. When he calls them on it, they let him down. They then walk out to go and take on the Blacks, and Mat is left WTFing cause in his opinion they should be GTFO of there.
Perrin has a great moment, risking his life to save Faile.
Then Rand basically has a running batle with Ba'alzamon, where he pretty much lives purely via instinct. I'd call bullshit, but he's both in the World of Dreams and a confirmed reincarnation. It makes me hesitent to say its unbelieveable.
The final chapter is Mat's POV, and he serves as our questioner on what is going on. We find out from a convenient Aiel in the room that they are The People Of The Dragon; we also find another of the Dark One's seals, and finish up with Mat being reminded he's important, all while he's planning his getaway.
And finished.
Like I've already said, one of the major messages of the book is that Perrin and Mat are more important than first thought.
As a side note, the first book's main theme is probably escape/fear, while the second is Rand's acceptance/denial of who he is.
That said, they still didn't seem to do much, or what they did do was seemingly small.
Although the plot revolved around Rand and the Stone, much of the focus was on NEE's search and hunt, all of which intertwined in the Rand plot. Perrin's plot was both his own and Rand's, while finally Mat's was mostly a peripheral of NEE.
It was an interesting book which allowed us to see a variety of view points, what with the lack of Rand.
Rand, Perrin, Mat, Egwene, Nyneave all had POV chapter; Mat's is the only new one, in favour of Moraine who didn't have any. Its interesting to have him, seeing as we've only had hints on it before.
He clearly wants nothing to do with this shit, and wants to get out as quick as he can, but even so his own better nature keeps dragging him back.
He's also a gambler and ladies man, the former of which was only referenced in GH, and the latter only really became prominant now. Its nice to have a flirt, while of his two equals, are innocent to women completely.
Perrin is getting closer to accepting his Wolf half, though that is more out of neccessity than anything, and his romance with Faile is not terribly done.
When seen with th thought that Faile is kinda like a tsundere, and likes someone with a bite to him, her attraction to Perrin is quite clear. Perrin's attraction to her is also there, but its more in how his attitude shifts; at first he couldn't stand her, but then later he's very conscious of her in an almost possitive way.
Of NEE, Nyneave continues to be my favourite, being sound in the head and mostly sensible. Elayne's done little, while Egwene has up swings and low swings. Sometimes she's great, but just as often she's annoying and petty.
Moraine is sort of interesting as well, but with her its more because she's very obviously losing control of the situtaion.
Rand argues with her. Perrin argues with her. Lan argues with her. Mat lies to her face even as he plans his escape route. Events are happening nothing like she planned for.