Crossroads of Twilight is book ten in the Wheel of Time series and was published in 2003. Thirteen years after the first book. I was lucky to jump into this series after the final book was written and I have been flying through them. It has been less than eight months since I began the series and I just finished book ten. I took a short break between book nine and ten to read another book that I had received and advanced copy of as well as to read the prequel to this series: New Spring.

I am unsure, but I think that short break threw off my rhythm of the series. I was really into things and reading the advanced copy book and then the prequel was like taking a step back. That being said, I still read this book fairly quickly, but I did come to it at a slightly different angle. Like returning to a television series after waiting for the next season.

Anyway, I am writing my thoughts about this installment. There will be spoilers so read at your own risk if you have not read the series or are not yet to this book in the series.

First, let’s talk about that prologue. Another long one at almost 12% of the actual book (RJ likes his prologues). Several things happen in the prologue. There is no mention of Black Ajah outside of the Sisters in the White Tower searching for them. Nor is there mention of the Forsaken. However, we do get a new character I am assuming will come into play later on. Rodel Ituralde, known as The Wolf, is uniting forces in Arad Doman to defend the country against the Seanchan. We also get a glimpse of Logain who goes out to recruit more Asha’man. And lastly, we get my boy Loial showing up in Cairhien. I have missed this Ogier. Dobraine is almost killed and Logain shows up in Cairhien at the end of the prologue.

We then open with Mat. He is hiding out in Luca’s menagerie just outside Ebou Dar. He learns that Tylin was killed the night they escaped and only he really knows it was the gholam that killed her. He feels immense guilt because he tied her up and left her (at her insistence). Tuon is in fact the main successor of the Seanchan throne, so I am led to believe she will inevitably inherit that throne. Furyk, a Seanchan Deathwatch guard, sets off to find Tuon early on in this book and we don’t hear from him again so I guess we may see him in book eleven. Mat gets Luca to start traveling toward Tar Valon. Mat does make headway in his relationship with Tuon during their travels. I think he is only courting her because he was told she would be his wife the day he was hanged in Rhuidean way back in book four. The last thing we get that’s interesting in Mat’s story-line is that he seemingly sees ghosts of people that no one else sees when he takes Tuon on a shopping trip. This seems like a foreshadowing since we get mentions of ghosts in Perrin’s story-line.

So speaking of Perrin, let’s jump to him. He is still one of my favorites. This entire post is going to contradict my next statement, but I felt like not a lot happened in this particular installment. Perrin is still chasing after the Shaido to recover Faile. She was captured at the end of book eight I believe. We get a quick glimpse of Faile in the Shaido camp/city. There are 70,000 Aiel in the camp/city. I think this number includes the gai’shain. Anyway, Faile is planning her own escape because she knows if Perrin attempts a rescue, he will be slaughtered.

Perrin does catch up to the Shaido though and he is scoping out the best way to get Faile back. Outside of his camp, he finds tracks of Darkhounds (which for some reason I pictured as the gargoyle dogs from Ghostbusters in this book). The last time we saw Darkhounds were outside of Illian and then in Rhuidean. Both times they had to be killed with balefire. Both times they had belonged to Sammael, who was supposedly killed in Shadar Logoth in book seven. Perrin, and Elyas, review the tracks and determine the Darkhounds are searching for something/someone else or they would have attacked them already. Perrin enters So Habor to get supplies for his camp. This town is not doing well and supposedly the people are seeing ghosts, like Mat did, and they are living much more poorly than they actually are. Perrin buys grain but has the townsfolk clean the grain for weevils before sending it to his camp. The weevil issue shows up in Egwene’s camp as well despite it being unusual for winter and the fact that her containers were preserved using the One Power so it should have been impossible for weevils to manifest. More on Egwene later.

Perrin returns from So Habor to find his scouts had captured five Shaido. He finds them being tortured by Masema’s men. Aram is with Masema at this time. Aram seems to be losing it a bit. He kind of turned fanatical after he picked up the sword initially, but he was following Perrin and things were going well. He has been slipping though since Faile was captured. I hope he doesn’t go crazy. Perrin cuts off the hand of one of the Shaido with his ax. Doing so convinces the other prisoners to tell all they know, which isn’t much. Afterwards, Perrin goes off and chucks the ax into a tree and leaves it there. I don’t think he is really abandoning the ax, but we will see.

Masema has been a bit of a background character since he joined up with Perrin. I’m sure something will happen soon with him since he is literally insane.

Not much happens with Elayne in this book. She is in Caemlyn working to secure the throne while everyone is worrying over her being pregnant with twins. There is a lot going on technically, but it is mostly political and I didn’t really care about the “lords” opposing her. At least right now. What did kind of catch my interest was that there is small mention of the Forsaken having plans afoot in Caemlyn and involving the throne, but again we have to wait to see what happens.

Book nine ended with Rand and Nynaeve cleansing saidin of the Dark One’s taint. We find out that this event takes place during the events of this book and we get a better glimpse of what the aftermath looks like. After they finished wielding an enormous amount of the One Power (supposedly it was mainly saidin with the comparison being that the amount of saidar used was like a foothill next to a mountain), all that was left of the former city known as Shadar Logoth was a giant hole roughly three miles in diameter and a mile in depth. I can’t help but wonder how this will impact Padan Fain. Will he be weaker? His source or origin of evil was from that place. Will the city being eradicated make him easier to defeat? Again, we have to wait and see, but he has been in the series since book one so I’m sure there will be a big fight or event that will mean the end of him.

Anyone who can wield the One Power is able to feel what Rand and Nynaeve did. It seemingly was like a beacon and everyone knew where it was taking place and how much power was being wielded, but no one knows what it was or what it was used for after it finally dissipates. This leads to several interesting developments we will get to in a minute.

First, let’s cover Rand’s short story-line in this book. He is hiding out somewhere in Tear recovering. He still gets dizzy when embracing saidin but it isn’t as bad. Lews Therin is still in his head. Loial, Bashere, and Logain arrive at the estate he is at and Min sees her viewings that Logain is still destined for glory, but she also sees something ominous about Bashere. That he may betray Rand or do something similarly dark or against Rand. I like Bashere, but of course now I am wary of him as well. Rand sends these three to strike a truce with the Seanchan. They return stating the Seanchan are amenable to a truce, but Rand must meet with Tuon personally. This will be interesting since the Seanchan don’t know where Tuon is right now.

We do get a few insights into Cadsuane’s angreal that she wears as ornaments in her hair. One lets her know if a man is channeling nearby, and she doesn’t even know what some of the other ones do, which makes me wonder why she has them and how she came about acquiring them as she starting collecting them only in relatively recent years.

Last thing about Rand’s story is Elza. She is an Aes Sedai sworn to Rand, but she is still Black Ajah. She has grown unusually protective of Rand recently. She apparently wants to ensure Rand gets to the Last Battle only so the Dark One can defeat him. Her Warder is also a darkfriend and likes killing.

The rest of the events of this book center around Aes Sedai. Mainly Egwene and those in the White Tower. The last time we saw Egwene in earnest was at the end of book eight when she Travels to lay siege to Tar Valon. She is outside Tar Valon in this book and has only been there for about one week. The Hall with Egwene comes to a decision that they must form an alliance with the Black Tower. This stems from a fact that many Aes Sedai have forgotten: that circles are not limited to thirteen users when a man wielding saidin is included. They all believe they must form an alliance so they can form circles large enough to combat whatever it was that destroyed Shadar Logoth. They all think it was the Forsaken using a weapon. We know it was Rand cleansing saidin, but no one else really knows this. Not even the Asha’man. All they know is that the taint is no longer there when they embrace the One Power. However, none of the Aes Sedai know that saidin is cleansed accept those who have bonded with them, which means only those in Rand’s party.

We get an interesting dynamic here. The Hall in the White Tower came to the same conclusion as well about an alliance with the Black Tower, and for the same reason. One main difference being that Tarna, who recently replaced Alviarin as Keeper to Elaida (we will talk about that soon), suggests that the Red Ajah must be the ones to make the Asha’man their Warders since they have the experience of handling men who can channel. She suggests they make all the Asha’man Warders of the Red Ajah. A crazy concept considering the Red Ajah’s reputation of having no Warders and the realization they would all have to bond several Warders each in order to include all the Asha’man. I don’t think this will happen, but I do think that the Black Tower and White Tower will form an alliance no matter who is in the White Tower after Egwene and Elaida battle it out. I think the alliance will be mutual with Aes Sedai bonding Asha’man and vice versa since Logain already has bonded a few Aes Sedai. Perhaps it will be a new type of bond that is mutually exclusive.

During the Hall’s meeting with Egwene present, Sheriam basically breaks down. She seems to be losing it. She was a strong character when she was the Mistress of Novices in the White Tower, but she has lost that strength and I think it is partially because she is being manipulated/tortured by a darkfriend, possibly Halima, because we saw her get attacked in a previous book while in the camp. Two Aes Sedai are killed in the camp as well and they learn that they died by saidin. We know Halima is a former male Forsaken reborn as a woman and can wield saidin, but no one else does so a hunt begins to find this murderer.

Egwene is last seen attempting to cut the enormous chain that is blocking one harbor into Tar Valon. She is attacked and wakes up, presumably, by an Aes Sedai of the White Tower. So she has been captured. I think this may accelerate the actual attack on Tar Valon when Gareth Bryne finds out. Her being captured also hints that she was betrayed in some fashion because they knew there would be an attempt to cut the chain.

Elaida is open to meeting with Egwene’s group for negotiations but she states that her edicts, those stating the Blue Ajah no longer exists and all rebels in Egwene’s group would face punishments from Elaida herself before being allowed back into the Tower, must remain. Egwene let’s negotiations take place only to buy time. Her only requirement was that Elaida be removed as Amyrlin. Obviously the negotiations do not progress much at all, but they do take place.

Alviarin returns to the White Tower after a month of running errands for Mesaana. She returns from a visit to Tremalking. She also admits to having a quick glance at what happened at Shadar Logoth. She comes back to find Elaida has replaced her since she was nowhere to be found when the rebel group showed up outside of the city. Alviarin reports to Mesaana that she thinks Elaida knows of the Black Ajah and may be close to obtaining evidence. We learn that the Black Ajah have apparently been within the White Tower since its founding three thousand years ago. We also learn that Alviarin is the only one who knows every member of the Black Ajah. If Pevara, part of the group formed when Elaida asked Seaine to hunt the Black Ajah, gets a hold of Alviarin, then they could get the whole lot of them.

During Alviarin’s report to Mesaana, Shaidar Haran arrives and binds Mesaana for not coming when called. He goes on to torture her after he marks Alviarin as one of his personal servants. Alviarin believes that Shadar Haran is the Dark Lord himself using a unique Myrddraal as a vessel.

That pretty much wraps up book ten. I’m on to book eleven, Knife of Dreams, which has another lengthy prologue. I’ve only just started but the opening scene is great. I’ll hopefully finish this next installment soon.