Read Lord of Chaos Online

Authors: Robert Jordan

Lord of Chaos

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

“The most ambitious American fantasy saga . . . [may] also be the finest.”


Booklist

“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
Lord of Chaos

“Jordan’s talent for sustaining the difficult combination of suspense and resolution, so necessary in a multivolume series such as this one, is nothing short of remarkable.”


Library Journal

“A great read . . . Some surprising new developments . . . A spectacular kidnapping and rescue bring this volume to a (temporarily) satisfying conclusion. This series is so complex, I can’t recommend starting anywhere but at the beginning, but the volumes only get richer as they go along.”


Locus

 

 

 

 

T
HE
W
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

 

 

L
ORD
OF
C
HAOS

ROBERT JORDAN

 

 

A TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK
NEW YORK

The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied so that you can enjoy reading it on your personal devices. This e-book is for your personal use only. You may not print or post this e-book, or make this e-book publicly available in any way. You may not copy, reproduce or upload this e-book, other than to read it on one of your personal devices.

Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify the publisher at:
us.macmillanusa.com/piracy
.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

LORD OF CHAOS

 

Copyright © 1994 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 Gregory Manchess
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

 

www.tor-forge.com

 

Tor
®
is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

 

ISBN 978-1-4299-6053-3

 

First Edition: November 1994

First E-book Edition: March 2010

 

Manufactured in the United States of America

For Betsy

CONTENTS

MAPS

PROLOGUE: The First Message

  
1
    
Lion on the Hill

  
2
    
A New Arrival

  
3
    
A Woman’s Eyes

  
4
    
A Sense of Humor

  
5
    
A Different Dance

  
6
    
Threads Woven of Shadow

  
7
    
A Matter of Thought

  
8
    
The Storm Gathers

  
9
    
Plans

10
    
A Saying in the Borderlands

11
    
Lessons and Teachers

12
    
Questions and Answers

13
    
Under the Dust

14
    
Dreams and Nightmares

15
    
A Pile of Sand

16
    
Tellings of the Wheel

17
    
The Wheel of a Life

18
    
A Taste of Solitude

19
    
Matters of
Toh

20
    
From the
Stedding

21
    
To Shadar Logoth

22
    
Heading South

23
    
To Understand a Message

24
    
An Embassy

25
    
Like Lightning and Rain

26
    
Connecting Lines

27
    
Gifts

28
    
Letters

29
    
Fire and Spirit

30
    
To Heal Again

31
    
Red Wax

32
    
Summoned in Haste

33
    
Courage to Strengthen

34
    
Journey to Salidar

35
    
In the Hall of the Sitters

36
    
The Amyrlin Is Raised

37
    
When Battle Begins

38
    
A Sudden Chill

39
    
Possibilities

40
    
Unexpected Laughter

41
    
A Threat

42
    
The Black Tower

43
    
The Crown of Roses

44
    
The Color of Trust

45
    
A Bitter Thought

46
    
Beyond the Gate

47
    
The Wandering Woman

48
    
Leaning on the Knife

49
    
The Mirror of Mists

50
    
Thorns

51
    
The Taking

52
    
Weaves of the Power

53
    
The Feast of Lights

54
    
The Sending

55
    
Dumai’s Wells

EPILOGUE: The Answer

GLOSSARY

 

The lions sing and the hills take flight.
The moon by day, and the sun by night.
Blind woman, deaf man, jackdaw fool.
Let the Lord of Chaos rule.

 

—chant from a children’s game
    heard in Great Arvalon,
    the Fourth Age

 

PROLOGUE

The First Message

Demandred stepped out onto the black slopes of Shayol Ghul, and the gateway, a hole in reality’s fabric, winked out of existence. Above, roiling gray clouds hid the sky, an inverted sea of sluggish ashen waves crashing around the mountain’s hidden peak. Below, odd lights flashed across the barren valley, washed-out blues and reds, failing to dispel the dusky murk that shrouded their source. Lightning streaked
up
at the clouds, and slow thunder rolled. Across the slope steam and smoke rose from scattered vents, some holes as small as a man’s hand and some large enough to swallow ten men.

He released the One Power immediately, and with the vanished sweetness went the heightened senses that made everything sharper, clearer. The absence of
saidin
left him hollow, yet here only a fool would even appear ready to channel. Besides, here only a fool would want to see or smell or feel too clearly.

In what was now called the Age of Legends, this had been an idyllic island in a cool sea, a favorite of those who enjoyed the rustic. Despite the steam it was bitter cold, now; he did not allow himself to feel it, but instinct made him pull his fur-lined velvet cloak closer. Feathery mist marked his breath, barely visible before the air drank it. A few hundred leagues north the world was pure ice, but Thakan’dar was always dry as any desert, though always wrapped in winter.

There was water, of a sort, an inky rivulet oozing down the rocky slope beside a gray-roofed forge. Hammers rang inside, and with every ring, white light flared in the cramped windows. A ragged woman crouched in a hopeless heap against the forge’s rough stone wall, clutching a babe in her arms, and a spindly girl buried her face in the woman’s skirts. Prisoners from a raid down into the Borderlands, no doubt. But so few; the Myrddraal must be gnashing their teeth. Their blades failed after a time and had to be replaced, no matter that raids into the Borderlands had been curtailed.

One of the forgers emerged, a thick slow-moving man shape that seemed hacked out of the mountain. The forgers were not truly alive; carried any distance from Shayol Ghul, they turned to stone, or dust. Nor were they smiths as such; they made nothing but the swords. This one’s two hands held a sword blade in long tongs, a blade already quenched, pale like moonlit snow. Alive or not, the forger took care as it dipped the gleaming metal into the dark stream. Whatever semblance of life it had could be ended by the touch of that water. When the metal came out again, it was dead black. But the making was not done yet. The forger shuffled back inside, and suddenly a man’s voice raised a desperate shout.

“No? No! NO!” He shrieked then, the sound dwindling away without losing intensity, as though the screamer had been yanked into unimaginably far distance. Now the blade was done.

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