Praise for Robert Jordan “His writing is distinguished as literature by the richness of its fabric, with all the charm and naiveté of the Brothers Grimm, and the social/moral commentary of Huxley’s Brave New World With his well-fleshed-out characters, dark imagery, comic relief, vivid landscapes, and a fascinating sense of timelessness, Jordan has created a complex literature with a language and reality all its own.” —Brewster Milton Robertson, The Sun News (Myrtle Beach, SC) Praise for The Wheel of Time “The Wheel of Time [is] rapidly becoming the definitive American fantasy saga It is a fantasy tale seldom equaled and still less often surpassed in English.” —Chicago Sun-Times “Jordan’s multivolume epic [is] a feast for fantasy aficionados.” —Library Journal “For those who like to keep themselves in a fantasy world, it’s hard to beat the complex, detailed world created here.” —Locus Praise for A Crown of Swords “The seventh volume of Jordan’s bestselling high fantasy series carries on the colossal, dauntingly complex storytelling established by the previous entries Fans of the series will gobble down this generous addition.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “In the long-awaited sequel to the bestselling Lord of Chaos, Jordan returns to the [same] complex, detailed fantasy world Highly recommended.” —Library Journal “In the seventh volume of Jordan’s preeminent high fantasy saga, intrigue and counter-intrigue continue to roil This latest installment of a major fantasy epic definitely will not disappoint its fans.” —Booklist ® T W HE HEEL OF T IME® by Robert Jordan The Eye of the World The Great Hunt The Dragon Reborn The Shadow Rising The Fires of Heaven Lord of Chaos A Crown of Swords The Path of Daggers Winter’s Heart Crossroads of Twilight Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson The Gathering Storm A CROWN OF SWORDS ROBERT JORDAN A TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK NEW YORK This is a work of fiction All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously A CROWN OF SWORDS Copyright © 1996 by The Bandersnatch Group, Inc The phrases “The Wheel of Time®” and “The Dragon Reborn™,” and the snake-wheel symbol, are trademarks of Robert Jordan All rights reserved Frontispiece by Mélanie Delon Maps by Ellisa Mitchell Interior illustrations by Matthew C Nielsen and Ellisa Mitchell A Tor Book Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC 175 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10010 http://www.tor-forge.com Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC ISBN 978-1-4299-6057-1 First Edition: June 1996 First E-book Edition: April 2010 Manufactured in the United States of America To Harriet, who deserves the credit once again CONTENTS 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 MAPS PROLOGUE: Lightnings High Chasaline The Butcher’s Yard Hill of the Golden Dawn Into Cairhien A Broken Crown Old Fear, and New Fear Pitfalls and Tripwires The Figurehead A Pair of Silverpike Unseen Eyes An Oath A Morning of Victory The Bowl of the Winds White Plumes Insects A Touch on the Cheek The Triumph of Logic As the Plow Breaks the Earth Diamonds and Stars Patterns Within Patterns Swovan Night Small Sacrifices Next Door to a Weaver The Kin Mindtrap The Irrevocable Words To Be Alone Bread and Cheese The Festival of Birds The First Cup Mashiara 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 Sealed to the Flame A Bath Ta’veren Into the Woods Blades A Note from the Palace Six Stories Promises to Keep Spears A Crown of Swords GLOSSARY There can be no health in us, nor any good thing grow, for the land is one with the Dragon Reborn, and he one with the land Soul of fire, heart of stone, in pride he conquers, forcing the proud to yield He calls upon the mountains to kneel, and the seas to give way, and the very skies to bow Pray that the heart of stone remembers tears, and the soul of fire, love —From a much-disputed translation of The Prophecies of the Dragon by the poet Kyera Termendal, of Shiota, believed to have been published between FY 700 and FY 800 Oaths, Three: The oaths taken by an Accepted on being raised to Aes Sedai Spoken while holding the Oath Rod, a ter’angreal that makes oaths binding They are: (1) To speak no word that is not true (2) To make no weapon with which one man may kill another (3) Never to use the One Power as a weapon except against Darkfriends or Shadow-spawn, or in the last extreme of defense of her own life, or that of her Warder or another Aes Sedai The second oath was the first adopted after the War of the Shadow The first oath, while held to the letter, is often circumvented by careful speaking It is believed that the last two are inviolable Old Tongue: The language spoken during the Age of Legends It is generally expected that nobles and the educated can speak it, but most actually know only a few words Translation is often difficult, as it is a language capable of many subtly different meanings See also Age of Legends Padan Fain (PAD-an FAIN): Once a peddler trading into the Two Rivers, and a Darkfriend, he was transformed at Shayol Ghul, not only to enable him to find the young man who would become the Dragon Reborn as a hound finds prey for the hunter, but to ingrain the need to find him The pain of this transformation induced in Fain a hatred both of the Dark One and of Rand al’Thor While following al’Thor, he encountered the trapped soul of Mordeth in Shadar Logoth, and this soul tried to take Fain’s body Because of what had been made of Fain, though, the result was an amalgamation that was mostly Fain and that has abilities beyond what either man had originally, though Fain does not understand them fully yet Most men feel fear at a Myrddraal’s eyeless gaze; Myrddraal feel fear at Fain’s gaze Prophet, the: More elaborately, the Prophet of the Lord Dragon Title claimed by Masema Dagar, a onetime Shienaran soldier, who preaches the rebirth of the Dragon Reborn He has achieved a great following in Ghealdan and northern Amadicia, in part because of spreading knowledge that the Dragon has indeed been Reborn and in part because of the extreme brutality his followers visit not only on anyone who refuses to acknowledge the Dragon Reborn, but on those who refuse to acknowledge the authority of the Prophet as the hand and voice of the Dragon Reborn Questioners, the: An order within the Children of the Light Avowed purposes are to discover the truth in disputations and uncover Dark-friends In the search for truth and the Light, their normal method of inquiry is torture; their normal manner that they know the truth already and must only make their victim confess to it They refer to themselves as the Hand of the Light, the Hand that digs out truth, and at times act as if they were entirely separate from the Children and the Council of the Anointed, which commands the Children The head of the Questioners is the High Inquisitor, who sits on the Council of the Anointed Their sign is a blood-red shepherd’s crook See also Children of the Light Rhuidean (RHUY-dee-ahn): A great city, the only one in the Aiel Waste and totally unknown to the outside world Abandoned for nearly three thousand years Once men among the Aiel were allowed to enter Rhuidean only once, in order to be tested inside a great ter’angreal for fitness to become clan chief (only one in three survived), and women only twice, for testing to become Wise Ones, the second time in the same ter’angreal, though with a considerably higher survival rate than the men Now the city is inhabited again, by Aiel, and a great lake occupies one end of the valley of Rhuidean, fed by an underground ocean of fresh water and in turn feeding the only river in the Waste sa’angreal (SAH-ahn-GREE-ahl): Remnants of the Age of Legends that allow channeling much more of the One Power than is otherwise possible or safe A sa’angreal is similar to, but more powerful than, an angreal The amount of the Power that can be wielded with a sa’angreal compares to the amount that can be handled with an angreal as the Power wielded with the aid of an angreal does to the amount that can be handled unaided The making of them is no longer known As with angreal, there are male and female sa’angreal Only a handful remain, far fewer even than angreal Sea Folk, the: More properly, the Atha’an Miere (AH-thahAHN MEE-air), the People of the Sea They live most of their lives on their ships and strongly dislike going any distance from the ocean Relatively little is known of their customs, giving rise to an air of exotic mystery and often to fanciful tales Most seaborne trade is carried by Sea Folk ships, which include the fastest by far and most of the largest, and they are considered by the inhabitants of port cities to be bargainers who outstrip the more widely known Domani As survival at sea often depends on instant obedience, it should be no surprise that the Atha’an Miere stick strictly to their hierarchy, though there are surprising fluidities at some points The Atha’an Miere are divided into numerous clans, both large and small, each headed by a Wavemistress Below her are the Sailmistresses, the ships’ captains of the clan A Wavemistress has vast authority, yet she is elected to that position by the twelve senior clan Sailmistresses, who are referred to as the First Twelve of that clan, and she can be removed by the order of the Mistress of the Ships to the Atha’an Miere The Mistress of the Ships has a level of authority any shorebound king or queen would envy, yet she also is elected, for life, by unanimous vote of the twelve senior Wavemistresses, who are called the First Twelve of the Atha’an Miere (The term “the First Twelve” is also used for the twelve senior Wavemistresses or Sailmis-tresses present in any gathering.) The position of Master of the Blades is held by a man who may or may not be the husband of the Mistress of the Ships His responsibilities are the defense and the trade of the Sea Folk, and below him are the Swordmasters of Wavemistresses and the Cargomasters of Sailmistresses, who hold like positions and duties; for each of them, any authority outside these areas is held only as delegated by the woman he serves Where any vessel sails and when is always up to the Sailmistress, but since trade and finances are totally in the hands of the Cargomaster (or, at higher levels, of the Swordmaster or the Master of the Blades), a close degree of cooperation is required Every Sea Folk vessel, however small, and also every Wavemistress, has a Windfinder, a woman who is almost always able to channel and skilled in Weaving the Winds, as the Atha’an Miere call the manipulation of weather The Windfinder to the Mistress of the Ships has authority over the Windfinders to the Wavemistresses, who in turn have authority over Windfinders to the Sailmistresses of their clans One peculiarity of the Sea Folk is that all must begin at the very lowest rank and work their way up, and that anyone other than the Mistress of the Ships can be demoted by those above, even to the very bottom again in extreme instances Seanchan (SHAWN-CHAN): (1) Descendants of the armies Artur Hawkwing sent across the Aryth Ocean, who conquered the lands there They believe that any woman who can channel must be controlled for the safety of everyone else, and any man who can channel must be killed for the same reason (2) The land from which the Sean-chan come Shayol Ghul (SHAY-ol GHOOL): A mountain in the Blasted Lands, beyond the Great Blight Site of the Dark One’s prison sister-wife: Aiel kinship term Aiel women who are nearsisters or first-sisters, and who discover they love the same man or simply not want a man to come between them, will both marry him, thus becoming sister-wives Women who love the same man will sometimes try to find out whether they can become near-sisters and adopted first-sisters, a first step to becoming sister-wives An Aiel man faced with this situation has the choice of marrying both women or neither; if he has a wife who decides to take a sisterwife, he finds himself with a second wife siswai’aman: In the Old Tongue: “spears of the dragon,” with a strong implication of ownership The name taken by a good many men among the Aiel, but no women These men not actually acknowledge the name—nor any others, in fact—but they wear a strip of red cloth wound around the forehead with a disc, half black and half white, above the brows Although gai’shain normally are prohibited from wearing anything that would be worn by an algai’d’siswai, a large number of gai’shain have taken to wearing the headband See also gai’shain Sorilea (soh-rih-LEE-ah): The Wise One of Shende Hold, a Jarra Chareen Barely able to channel, she is also the oldest living Wise One, though not by as much as many think Spine of the World: A towering mountain range, with few passes, which separates the Aiel Waste from the lands to the west Also called the Dragonwall stilling: The removal of a woman’s ability to channel A woman who has been stilled can sense but not touch the True Source Officially, stilling is the result of trial and sentence for a crime, and was last carried out in 859 NE Novices have always been required to learn the name and crimes of all women who have suffered judicial stilling When the ability to channel is lost accidentally, it is called being burned out, though “stilling” is often used for that also Women who are stilled, however it occurs, seldom survive long; they seem to simply give up and die unless they find something to replace the emptiness left by the One Power While it has always been believed that stilling was permanent, lately a method of Healing it has been discovered, though there appear to be limits to this which are yet to be explored Stone of Tear: A great fortress in the city of Tear, said to have been made with the One Power soon after the Breaking of the World Attacked and besieged unsuccessfully countless times, it fell in a single night to the Dragon Reborn and a few hundred Aiel, thus fulfilling two parts of the Prophecies of the Dragon Talents: Abilities in the use of the One Power in specific areas Aptitude in various Talents varies widely from individual to individual and is seldom related to the strength of the individual’s ability to channel There are major Talents, the best-known and most widespread of which is Healing Other examples are Cloud Dancing, the control of weather, and Earth Singing, which involves controlling movements of the earth, for example preventing, or causing, earthquakes or avalanches There are also minor Talents, seldom given a name, such as the ability to see ta’veren or to duplicate the chance-twisting effect of ta’veren, though in a very small and localized area rarely covering more than a few square feet Many Talents are now known only by their names and sometimes vague descriptions Some, such as Traveling (the ability to shift from one place to another without crossing the intervening space) are only now being rediscovered Others, such as Foretelling (the ability to foretell future events, but in a general way), and Delving (the location of ores and possibly their removal from the ground, although the term is now also used for the variant of Healing which is used to examine someone’s health and physical condition) are found rarely Another Talent long thought lost is Dreaming, interpreting the Dreamer’s dreams to foretell future events in more specific fashion than Foretelling Some Dreamers had the ability to enter Tel’aran’rhiod, the World of Dreams, and (it is said) even other people’s dreams The last acknowledged Dreamer previously was Corianin Nedeal (coh-ree-AHN-ihn nehdee-AHL), who died in 526 NE, but there is now another Tallanvor, Martyn (TAL-lahn-vohr, mahr-TEEN): Former Guardsman-Lieutenant of the Queen’s Guards, who loves Morgase more than life or honor See also Morgase ta’veren (tah-VEER-ehn): A person around whom the Wheel of Time weaves all surrounding life-threads, perhaps ALL lifethreads This weaving is little understood except that it seems in many ways an alteration of chance; what might happen, but only rarely, does The effect can at times be quite localized Someone influenced by a ta’veren may say or what they would only have said or done one time in a million under those circumstances Events occur of seeming impossibility, such as a child falling a hundred feet from a tower unharmed At other times the effect seems to extend to influencing history itself, though often by means of the localized effects This, it is believed, is the real reason that ta’veren are born, in order to shift history and restore a balance to the turning of the Wheel Tear (TEER): A nation on the Sea of Storms Also the capital city of that nation, a great seaport The banner of Tear is three white crescent moons slanting across a field half red, half gold See also Stone of Tear ter’angreal (TEER-ahn-GREE-ahl): Remnants of the Age of Legends that use the One Power Unlike angreal and sa’angreal, each ter’angreal was made to a particular thing Some ter’angreal are used by Aes Sedai, but the original purposes of many are unknown Some require channeling, while others may be used by anyone Some will kill, or destroy the ability to channel of any woman who uses them Like angreal and sa’angreal, the making of them has been lost since the Breaking of the World See also angreal; sa’angreal Thom Merrilin (TOM MER-rih-lihn): A not-so-simple gleeman and traveler Tinkers: Properly, the Tuatha’an (too-AH-thah-AHN), also called the Traveling People A wandering folk who follow a totally pacifist philosophy called the Way of the Leaf, which allows no violence for any reason Tuatha’an who fall away from this belief are called “the Lost,” and are no longer acknowledged by any others treekillers: Disparaging term used by the Aiel for Cairhienin, along with “oathbreakers.” Both refer to King Laman’s cutting down of Avendoraldera, a gift from the Aiel, an act which violated the oaths given at the time the gift was given To the Aiel, both terms rank with the worst that anyone can be called See also Aiel War Valda, Eamon (VAHL-dah, AY-mon): An impatient Lord Captain of the Children of the Light, a man who believes you can’t make dinner without breaking eggs and sometimes it is necessary to burn down the barn to get rid of the rats He sees himself as a pragmatist, and will take whatever advantage offers itself He is sure that Rand al’Thor is only a puppet of the White Tower and very likely cannot even channel Hatred of Darkfriends (which of course include Aes Sedai) is the central pillar of his life See also Children of the Light Warder: A warrior bonded to an Aes Sedai The bonding is a thing of the One Power: by it he gains such gifts as quick healing, the ability to go long periods without food, water, or rest, and the ability to sense the taint of the Dark One at a distance Warder and Aes Sedai share certain physical and emotional knowledge of one another through the bond So long as a Warder lives, the Aes Sedai to whom he is bonded knows he is alive however far away he is, and when he dies she will know the moment and manner of his death While most Ajahs believe an Aes Sedai may have one Warder bonded to her at a time, the Red Ajah refuses to bond any Warders at all, and the Green Ajah believes an Aes Sedai may bond as many as she wishes Ethically the Warder must accede to the bonding voluntarily, but it has been known to happen against the Warder’s will What the Aes Sedai gain from the bonding is a closely held secret By all known historical records, Warders have always been men, but recently a woman has been bonded, revealing certain differences in the effects See also Birgitte weight, units of: 10 ounces = pound; 10 pounds = stone; 10 stone = hundredweight; 10 hundredweight = ton wilder: A woman who has learned to channel the One Power on her own; only one in four survive this Such women usually build barriers against knowing what it is they are doing, but if these can be broken down, wilders are frequently among the most powerful of channelers The term is often used in derogatory fashion Wise One: Among the Aiel, Wise Ones are women chosen by other Wise Ones and trained in healing, herbs and other things They have great authority and responsibility, as well as great influence with sept and clan chiefs, though these men often accuse them of meddling A good many Wise Ones can channel to one degree or another; they find every Aiel woman born with the spark in her and most of those who can learn The fact that Wise Ones can channel is not spoken of among Aiel, by custom; as a result many Aiel not know for sure which Wise Ones can and which cannot Also by custom, Wise Ones avoid all contact with Aes Sedai, even more so than other Aiel Traditionally, Wise Ones have stood outside all feuds and battle, but this custom has recently been shattered, perhaps beyond mending What this may to the protections accorded Wise Ones under the Aiel belief of ji’e’toh has yet to be seen Wise Woman: One of the fabled healers of Ebou Dar, distinguished by the wearing of a red belt Their abilities with herbs and their medical knowledge are spoken of as far away as the Borderlands as being the next best to actual Healing by an Aes Sedai Although Ebou Dar is a cosmopolitan city where outlanders frequently join the city’s many guilds, the oddity has been noted that Wise Women who actually are Ebou Dari are in truth quite rare About the Author Robert Jordan was born in 1948 in Charleston, South Carolina He taught himself to read when he was four with the incidental aid of a twelveyears-older brother, and was tackling Mark Twain and Jules Verne by five He was a graduate of The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, with a degree in physics He served two tours in Vietnam with the U.S Army; among his decorations are the Distinguished Flying Cross with bronze oak leaf cluster, the Bronze Star with “V” and bronze oak leaf cluster, and two Vietnamese Gallantry Crosses with Palm A history buff, he also wrote dance and theater criticism He enjoyed the outdoor sports of hunting, fishing, and sailing, and the indoor sports of poker, chess, pool, and pipe collecting He began writing in 1977 and continued until his death on September 16, 2007 Table of Contents MAPS PROLOGUE: Lightnings High Chasaline The Butcher’s Yard Hill of the Golden Dawn Into Cairhien A Broken Crown Old Fear, and New Fear Pitfalls and Tripwires The Figurehead A Pair of Silverpike 10 Unseen Eyes 11 An Oath 12 A Morning of Victory 13 The Bowl of the Winds 14 White Plumes 15 Insects 16 A Touch on the Cheek 17 The Triumph of Logic 18 As the Plow Breaks the Earth 19 Diamonds and Stars 20 Patterns Within Patterns 21 Swovan Night 22 Small Sacrifices 23 Next Door to a Weaver 24 The Kin 25 Mindtrap 26 The Irrevocable Words 27 To Be Alone 28 Bread and Cheese 29 The Festival of Birds 30 The First Cup 31 Mashiara 32 Sealed to the Flame 33 A Bath 34 Ta’veren 35 Into the Woods 36 Blades 37 A Note from the Palace 38 Six Stories 39 Promises to Keep 40 Spears 41 A Crown of Swords GLOSSARY Table of Contents MAPS PROLOGUE: Lightnings High Chasaline The Butcher’s Yard Hill of the Golden Dawn Into Cairhien A Broken Crown Old Fear, and New Fear Pitfalls and Tripwires The Figurehead A Pair of Silverpike 10 Unseen Eyes 11 An Oath 12 A Morning of Victory 13 The Bowl of the Winds 14 White Plumes 15 Insects 16 A Touch on the Cheek 17 The Triumph of Logic 18 As the Plow Breaks the Earth 19 Diamonds and Stars 20 Patterns Within Patterns 21 Swovan Night 22 Small Sacrifices 23 Next Door to a Weaver 24 The Kin 25 Mindtrap 26 The Irrevocable Words 27 To Be Alone 28 Bread and Cheese 29 The Festival of Birds 30 The First Cup 31 Mashiara 32 Sealed to the Flame 33 A Bath 34 Ta’veren 35 Into the Woods 36 Blades 37 A Note from the Palace 38 Six Stories 39 Promises to Keep 40 Spears 41 A Crown of Swords GLOSSARY ... Fires of Heaven Lord of Chaos A Crown of Swords The Path of Daggers Winter’s Heart Crossroads of Twilight Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson The Gathering Storm A CROWN OF SWORDS. .. This is a work of fiction All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously A CROWN OF SWORDS Copyright... for A Crown of Swords “The seventh volume of Jordan’s bestselling high fantasy series carries on the colossal, dauntingly complex storytelling established by the previous entries Fans of the