The Blight

"Peace favor your sword"
   —Shienaran warrior's blessing

"Flowers can kill in the Blight, and leaves maim. There's a little thing called a Stick that likes to hide where the leaves are thickest, looking like its name, waiting for something to touch it. When something does, it bites. Not poison. The juice begins to digest the Stick's prey for it. The only thing that can save you is to cut off the arm or leg that was bitten. But a Stick won't bite unless you touch it. Other things in the Blight will."
   —al'Lan Mandragoran

For the location, see Great Blight.

Book Index
0 I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV
Chapters
Dragonmount - Ravens 1 An Empty Road 2 Strangers 3 The Peddler 4 The Gleeman 5 Winternight 6 The Westwood 7 Out of the Woods 8 A Place of Safety 9 Tellings of the Wheel 10 Leavetaking 11 The Road to Taren Ferry 12 Across the Taren 13 Choices 14 The Stag and Lion 15 Strangers and Friends 16 The Wisdom 17 Watchers and Hunters 18 The Caemlyn Road 19 Shadow's Waiting 20 Dust on the Wind 21 Listen to the Wind 22 A Path Chosen 23 Wolfbrother 24 Flight Down the Arinelle 25 The Traveling People 26 Whitebridge 27 Shelter from the Storm 28 Footprints in Air 29 Eyes Without Pity 30 Children of Shadow 31 Play for Your Supper 32 Four Kings in Shadow 33 The Dark Waits 34 The Last Village 35 Caemlyn 36 Web of the Pattern 37 The Long Chase 38 Rescue 39 Weaving of the Web 40 The Web Tightens 41 Old Friends and New Threats 42 Remembrance of Dreams 43 Decisions and Apparitions 44 The Dark Along the Ways 45 What Follows in Shadow 46 Fal Dara 47 More Tales of the Wheel 48 The Blight 49 The Dark One Stirs 50 Meetings at the Eye 51 Against the Shadow 52 Neither Beginning Nor End 53 The Wheel Turns

<<<   The Blight    >>>

Setting: The Blight

Summary

Point of view: Rand al'Thor

"All I have is a sword, and a war I cannot win, but can never stop fighting." - al'Lan Mandragoran

Ingtar leads an escort of Shienaran lances under the Gray Owl banner for Moiraine and the group headed to the Eye of the World. He halts the lances at the Blightborder that was once Malkier and appears unhappy at his previous orders to go no further, saddened by the prospect of missing the Battle at Tarwin's Gap, angry that the Emond's Field folk get to travel the Blight with Lan. Rand thinks back to the soldiers heading toward the Blight, the non-combatants reluctantly heading south in case the worst happens as Ingtar leaves them.

The group travels north at the Warder's pace. They notice that the weather is warmer, and wrong at the same time. The party finds the heat stifling, and hard to breathe in; all except Perrin and Lan. Rand reaches out to touch a sickly looking tree and earns a rebuke from the Warder. They travel further into the Blight, the corruption growing worse with each step. Mat retches multiple times. Loial is disgusted at the corrupted trees. Lan announces that they will not reach the mountains by nightfall, prompting the Aes Sedai to suggest a nearby area as a camp site. It would be a good omen to camp there.

They camp not too far from a lake. Nynaeve and Mat ask why they do not camp closer to the lake, but then they see a writhing tentacled creature emerge from the surface before eventually going back below, answering their question. This is one of Malkier's Thousand Lakes. Moiraine uses the One Power to bend light around their location and set wards around them. The light bending confuses the boys briefly, as it sometimes causes the women to disappear. Egwene says she will learn to do this in Tar Valon; Nynaeve tentatively suggests she will go there as well, under the pretense of accompanying Egwene. Egwene says Rand will be her Warder when she becomes Aes Sedai, which Rand goes along with even though he remembers that Min told him that he and Egwene would not be for each other.

Rand has trouble sleeping and eavesdrops on a personal conversation between Nynaeve and Lan in which they both profess feelings for the other, but Lan refuses to accept her love. Lan believes he is doomed to die fighting the Shadow. Rand closes his eyes after seeing his Wisdom cry.

Characters

• Lan Mandragoran
• Rand al'Thor
• Mat Cauthon
• Perrin Aybara
• Egwene al'Vere
• Nynaeve al'Meara
• Moiraine Damodred
• Ingtar Shinowa
• Loial

Animals

• Mandarb
• Aldieb
• Bela

Referenced

• Agelmar Jagad
• King Easar
• Dark One
• Green Man
• Min Farshaw

Places

• Shienar
• The Blight
• Malkier

Referenced

• Tarwin's Gap
• Eye of the World
• Tar Valon
• Fal Dara
• Fal Moran
• Ankor Dail
• Mountains of Dhoom
• Spine of the World
• Mos Shirare
• Fal Sion
• Camron Caan
• Stedding Shangtai
• Two Rivers
• Waterwood

Groups

• Aes Sedai
• Warders
• Ogier

Events

• The Battle of Tarwin's Gap
• The Fall of Malkier

Items

• Gray Owl banner
• Black Hawk banner
• Three Foxes banner
• Ruby-hilted dagger

Culture

• Web of the Pattern

Concepts

The One Power

• Wards
• Folded Light