The dead are walking, men die impossible deaths, and it
seems as though reality itself has become unstable: All are
signs of the imminence of Tarmon Gai’don, the Last Battle,
when Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, must confront the
Dark One as humanity’s only hope. But Rand dares not fight
until he possesses all the surviving seals on the Dark
One’s prison and has dealt with the Seanchan, who threaten
to overrun all nations this side of the Aryth Ocean and
increasingly seem too entrenched to be fought off. But his
attempt to make a truce with the Seanchan is shadowed by
treachery that may cost him everything. Whatever the price,
though, he must have that truce. And he faces other
dangers. There are those among the Forsaken who will go to
any length to see him dead--and the Black Ajah is at his
side....
Unbeknownst to Rand, Perrin has made his own truce with the
Seanchan. It is a deal made with the Dark One, in his eyes,
but he will do whatever is needed to rescue his wife,
Faile, and destroy the Shaido who captured her. Among the
Shaido, Faile works to free herself while hiding a secret
that might give her her freedom or cause her destruction.
And at a town called Malden, the Two Rivers longbow will be
matched against Shaido spears.
Fleeing Ebou Dar through Seanchan-controlled Altara with
the kidnapped Daughter of the Nine Moons, Mat attempts to
court the woman to whom he is half-married, knowing that
she will complete that ceremony eventually. But Tuon coolly
leads him on a merry chase as he learns that even a gift
can have deep significance among the Seanchan Blood and
what he thinks he knows of women is not enough to save him.
For reasons of her own, which she will not reveal until a
time of her choosing, she has pledged not to escape, but
Mat still sweats whenever there are Seanchan soldiers near.
Then he learns that Tuon herself is in deadly danger from
those very soldiers. To get her to safety, he must do what
he hates worse than work....
In Caemlyn, Elayne fights to gain the Lion Throne while
trying to avert what seems a certain civil war should she
win the crown....
In the White Tower, Egwene struggles to undermine the
sisters loyal to Elaida from within....
The winds of time have become a storm, and things that
everyone believes are fixed in place forever are changing
before their eyes. Even the White Tower itself is no longer
a place of safety. Now Rand, Perrin and Mat, Egwene and
Elayne, Nynaeve and Lan, and even Loial, must ride those
storm winds, or the Dark One will triumph.