The Great Hunt
Chapters - Robert Jordan
Prologue: In the Shadow
In the fortress of Fal Dara, a Darkfriend receives instructions from a mysterious figure who commands him to ensure that the Dark One's interests are served in the events to come. The prologue establishes that the Shadow's agents are embedded at every level of society, and that the Horn of Valere and a certain young man from the Two Rivers are both targets of intense interest. The sense of conspiracy and hidden menace sets the tone for a novel built on pursuit and betrayal.
POV: Rand al'Thor·On page: Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara, Moiraine Damodred, Lan Mandragoran, Thom Merrilin, Loial
Source: Dragonmount
Chapter 1: The Flame of Tar Valon
Rand practises swordwork on the walls of Fal Dara, trying to lose himself in the discipline Lan has been teaching him while avoiding the weight of what happened at the Eye of the World. The Amyrlin Seat is approaching with a retinue of Aes Sedai, and Rand is terrified that she has come for him, that she knows what he is. His attempts to flee are thwarted at every turn, and the chapter establishes his central dilemma - a man who can channel, caught between duty and dread.
POV: Rand al'Thor·On page: Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara, Moiraine Damodred, Lan Mandragoran, Thom Merrilin, Loial
Source: Dragonmount
Chapter 2: The Welcome
The Amyrlin Seat, Siuan Sanche, arrives at Fal Dara with considerable ceremony, and the fortress adjusts to the presence of the most powerful woman in the Westlands. Moiraine manoeuvres behind the scenes, and the political currents among the Aes Sedai become visible for the first time. Rand remains in hiding, desperate to avoid an audience he believes will end in his gentling or death.
POV: Rand al'Thor·On page: Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara, Moiraine Damodred, Lan Mandragoran, Thom Merrilin, Loial
Source: Dragonmount
Chapter 3: Friends and Enemies
Rand is brought before the Amyrlin Seat despite his efforts to avoid her, and the meeting proves far stranger than he feared. Siuan Sanche does not threaten him but instead tells him plainly that he is the Dragon Reborn, and that the world needs him whether it wants him or not. Moiraine's presence confirms that this revelation has been carefully managed, and Rand leaves shaken by the gap between the fate laid before him and his desire to be no one of consequence.
POV: Rand al'Thor·On page: Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara, Moiraine Damodred, Lan Mandragoran, Thom Merrilin, Loial
Source: Dragonmount
Chapter 4: Summoned
Rand tries to process the Amyrlin's declaration while navigating the social pressures of the fortress, where everyone seems to be watching him with new eyes. He resolves to leave Fal Dara and strike out on his own, believing that distance from Aes Sedai is the only way to remain himself. The chapter captures the loneliness of a young man who has been told he is destined to save the world and go mad doing it.
POV: Rand al'Thor·On page: Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara, Moiraine Damodred, Lan Mandragoran, Thom Merrilin, Loial
Source: Dragonmount
Chapter 5: The Shadow in Shienar
Egwene and Nynaeve receive word that they will travel to Tar Valon with the Aes Sedai, and both women respond to the prospect with characteristically different mixtures of eagerness and suspicion. The chapter shifts focus to the female characters and their emerging relationship with the White Tower's power structure. Egwene's excitement about becoming Aes Sedai contrasts sharply with Nynaeve's ingrained distrust, establishing tensions that will define their arcs.
POV: Rand al'Thor, Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara·On page: Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Moiraine Damodred, Lan Mandragoran, Thom Merrilin, Loial
Source: Dragonmount
Chapter 6: Dark Prophecy
In a swift and brutal night raid, Trollocs and Darkfriends penetrate Fal Dara's dungeons and free the prisoner Padan Fain, who has been held since the events of the first book. More devastatingly, the raiders steal the Horn of Valere and the ruby-hilted dagger from Shadar Logoth that Mat desperately needs to survive. The attack transforms the political situation overnight, and the hunt that gives the novel its title begins to take shape.
POV: Rand al'Thor, Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara·On page: Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Moiraine Damodred, Lan Mandragoran, Thom Merrilin, Loial
Source: Dragonmount
Chapter 7: Blood Calls Blood
Lord Agelmar and the Amyrlin discuss the theft of the Horn, and a party is assembled to pursue the Darkfriends and recover it. Rand finds himself swept into the quest alongside Mat, Perrin, and Loial, with the Shienaran soldiers under Lord Ingtar's command. The chapter functions as the formal launching of the hunt, with Rand unable to escape the pattern that keeps pulling him toward his destiny despite his resistance.
POV: Rand al'Thor, Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara·On page: Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Moiraine Damodred, Lan Mandragoran, Thom Merrilin, Loial
Source: Dragonmount
Chapter 8: The Dragon Reborn
The hunting party rides south from Fal Dara, following Padan Fain's trail through the Borderlands. Rand struggles with Ingtar's deference and the unspoken knowledge of what he is, while Mat's condition worsens without the dagger's influence being fully understood. The chapter settles into the rhythm of pursuit, establishing the geography and the tension between urgency and the practical limits of tracking across open country.
POV: Rand al'Thor, Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara·On page: Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Moiraine Damodred, Lan Mandragoran, Thom Merrilin, Loial
Source: Dragonmount
Chapter 9: Leavetakings
The party encounters a village that has been devastated by the Trollocs they are pursuing, and the horror of the scene sharpens everyone's resolve. Rand continues to resist the pull of saidin even as strange events around him suggest the Power is responding to his emotions unbidden. Perrin's heightened senses, a residue of his wolf-brother nature, prove useful in tracking, though he remains uneasy with his own abilities.
POV: Rand al'Thor, Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara·On page: Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Moiraine Damodred, Lan Mandragoran, Thom Merrilin, Loial
Source: Dragonmount
Chapter 10: The Hunt Begins
Rand has a disturbing encounter that blurs the line between reality and dream, finding himself in a strange room where a woman he does not recognise speaks to him with unsettling familiarity. The experience introduces the concept of the Portal Stones - ancient relics that allow travel between worlds - though Rand does not yet understand what has happened. The chapter deepens the metaphysical strangeness surrounding him and suggests that the Pattern itself is fraying near ta'veren.
POV: Rand al'Thor, Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara·On page: Moiraine Damodred, Lan Mandragoran, Thom Merrilin, Loial
Source: Dragonmount
Chapter 11: Glimmers of the Pattern
Ingtar pushes the hunting party hard, and the trail leads them toward Cairhien through increasingly unsettled country. Rand's attempts to keep his distance from the other members of the party only draw more attention, and his leadership qualities emerge despite his reluctance. The chapter maintains the pursuit narrative while layering in political context about the nations they are passing through.
POV: Rand al'Thor, Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara·On page: Moiraine Damodred, Lan Mandragoran, Thom Merrilin, Loial
Source: Dragonmount
Chapter 12: Woven in the Pattern
The party discovers a Portal Stone, and Rand inadvertently activates it, transporting the entire group to a parallel world where the sky is wrong and the land feels emptied of life. Loial recognises the markers of what the Ogier call alternate possibilities, worlds that might have been. The experience is deeply disorienting, and Rand must channel - consciously, for the first time with real intent - to bring them back, an act that terrifies him as much as the alien landscape.
POV: Rand al'Thor, Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara·On page: Moiraine Damodred, Lan Mandragoran, Thom Merrilin, Loial
Source: Dragonmount
Chapter 13: From Stone to Stone
The narrative shifts to Egwene and Nynaeve aboard the River Queen, travelling with the Aes Sedai toward Tar Valon. The two women begin to navigate the complex social hierarchy among the sisters and their Warders, and Egwene's training in the Power commences in earnest. Nynaeve's block - her inability to channel except when angry - is identified as a problem that must be overcome, establishing a challenge that will define her growth.
POV: Rand al'Thor, Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara·On page: Moiraine Damodred, Lan Mandragoran, Thom Merrilin, Loial
Source: Dragonmount
Chapter 14: Wolfbrother
Egwene's lessons with the Aes Sedai reveal both her raw strength and her dangerous impatience, as she pushes harder than her teachers consider safe. The chapter explores the mechanics of channelling from the female perspective, providing a structural counterpart to Rand's uncontrolled experiences with saidin. Nynaeve watches with barely concealed frustration, wanting to protect Egwene while resenting her own inability to match her progress.
POV: Rand al'Thor, Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara·On page: Moiraine Damodred, Lan Mandragoran, Thom Merrilin, Loial
Source: Dragonmount
Chapter 15: Kinslayer
The party arrives in Cairhien, a city choked with political intrigue where the Game of Houses turns every conversation into a potential trap. Rand's tall frame and distinctive colouring draw unwanted attention, and invitations from noble houses begin arriving almost immediately. The chapter introduces Cairhienin culture as a web of manipulation that will ensnare Rand regardless of his intentions.
POV: Rand al'Thor, Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara·On page: Moiraine Damodred, Lan Mandragoran, Thom Merrilin, Loial
Source: Dragonmount
Chapter 16: In the Mirror of Darkness
Rand attempts to navigate Cairhien's social landscape while searching for Fain's trail, which has gone cold in the city. He receives a letter from a noblewoman named Selene, whose beauty and knowledge seem too perfectly calibrated to be coincidental. Thom Merrilin reappears unexpectedly, alive and performing in a Cairhienin tavern, and his return provides Rand with a trusted adviser in a city where trust is currency.
POV: Rand al'Thor, Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara·On page: Moiraine Damodred, Lan Mandragoran, Thom Merrilin, Loial
Source: Dragonmount
Chapter 17: Choices
The political pressure on Rand intensifies as various Cairhienin factions attempt to recruit him as a piece in the Great Game, reading significance into his every casual action. An invitation to a noble lord's manor proves to be an attempt at manipulation, and Rand begins to understand that in Cairhien, doing nothing is as much a political statement as any declaration. His frustration with being used mirrors his larger struggle against the Pattern's designs.
POV: Rand al'Thor, Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara·On page: Moiraine Damodred, Lan Mandragoran, Thom Merrilin, Loial
Source: Dragonmount
Chapter 18: To the White Tower
Rand attends a gathering of Cairhienin nobility where the Game of Houses is played with lethal subtlety, and his blunt Two Rivers honesty is paradoxically interpreted as masterful political manoeuvring. The chapter is both comedic and tense, as Rand's ignorance of courtly behaviour creates chaos that others read as calculated brilliance. An Illuminator's firework display ends the evening in spectacular fashion, though the fires that follow may not be entirely accidental.
POV: Rand al'Thor, Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara·On page: Moiraine Damodred, Lan Mandragoran, Thom Merrilin, Loial
Source: Dragonmount
Chapter 19: Beneath the Dagger
The consequences of the previous night's events ripple through Cairhien as Rand finds himself blamed for the destruction of the Illuminators' chapter house. Forced to leave the city quickly, he picks up Fain's trail heading south toward Toman Head. The chapter marks the end of the Cairhienin interlude and returns the narrative to the hunt, with Rand now pursued by political enemies as well as the Shadow.
POV: Rand al'Thor, Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara·On page: Moiraine Damodred, Lan Mandragoran, Thom Merrilin, Loial
Source: Dragonmount