What is this? Could it be true? Has An Enemy Spy at long last gotten to the third book of the series? At this rate it'll only be a scant twenty or so years before this series is over! Let's dig in.

P.S. Thanks to Seerow for mailing the book to me.

Prologue: Fortress of the Light
It's been... a bit of time since the battle at Falme. Two or three months maybe, I'm not sure. Winter has crept back into the land, and after all that effort our heroes took to bring on the late spring. Seasons these days, got no respect for hard work.

Our story begins in Amador, where the Lord Captain Commander Pedron Niall is in his office, examining the drawing he's been given of the latest person claiming to be the Dragon Reborn, a red haired teenager by the name of Rand al'Thor. Byar has made it back to the Children of the Light's stronghold and gives him the Cliff Notes version of Bornhald's utter annihilation at the hands of what he assumes to be the Darkfriends and their Aes Sedai allies. Because when you're a Child of the Light, everything is the work of Darkfriends and their Aes Sedai allies. Forget the pickles on their sandwich? "Die, servant of darkness!" Byar doesn't really know what all happened, just that there was a bunch of earthquaking and lightning and a bunch of folks got killed and now everyone's clamoring about Reborn Dragons and ancient heroes and invaders from beyond the sea. Byar places the blame on the notorious Darkfriend Perrin Aybara, on the damning evidence that he saw him for a brief moment. Of course Perrin is a Darkfriend. Why else would he have denied it when he was being tortured back in Book 1? That's exactly the sort of thing a Darkfriend would do!

Niall reassigns Byar to another unit and gives him permission to deliver Bornhald's message to his son(I accidentally wrote 'message' as 'massage' right there for a second, which would put a whole new twist in the story. Spelling is important, kids.). Then he ushers in the next guy he's waiting for, the Questioner Jaichim Carridin(who I'm pretty sure is Bors from the Book 2 prologue). Carridin blames the loss at Falme on what else, Darkfriends and Aes Sedai. Not only were the people that killed Bornhald Darkfriends, but so was Bornhald himself! Because when you're a Questioner, everybody is a Darkfriend, and even if they aren't, a few days of torture will have them admitting to be Shai'tan himself.

People are rallying to Rand's banner, but the host is scattered and small. Either the Taraboners or the Domani could easily wipe him out if they were so inclined, but they've started fighting each other over their endless struggle to claim the Almoth Plain. No matter, Carridin will hunt this False Dragon himself, and if he's got Aes Sedai allies, their magic won't be any use against arrows or knives in the dark.

Um, I hate to a quibbler here, Carridin, but I'm pretty sure that their magic can help protect against arrows and knives.

Anyway, Niall is pretty sick of this guys smug attitude and drops the tough question he's been holding back. Why, oh why, did you not assist Bornhald against the Darkfriends, and even worse, attempt to stop him from marching on Falme? That wipes the smug grin off Carridin's face, and he scrambles to come up with a good excuse. Niall ain't having none of it. Not only did Carridin not help Bornhald against the enemy, he also bungled his original mission to establish a Whitecloak stronghold in the uncontrolled Almoth Plain, which would have put the Children in position to dominate the entire southwestern region of Randland! Don't be so hard on him, Niall. He's a Child of the Light. Bungling missions is their bread and butter. Niall doesn't share my lax view on discipline. Why, I oughta hand you over to your own torturers, Carridan! With Carridin sufficiently cowed, Niall decides to hatch his scheme, one that will surely result in death if it should fall on the wrong ears. He wants Carridin to make sure that no harm comes to Rand too early. Rand will eventually gather enough strength to threaten Arad Doman and Tarabon and once the Children can move in and beat him, the locals will hail them as heroes, and I guess let them rule over them out of gratitude or something. It's a Children of the Light plan. A few holes in logic are to be expected. Oh, and don't think you can go rat me out and tell everyone I want to help the Dragon, Carridin, cause if I die, you're ass is going down with me.

Carridin is sent out and then another character comes out of the secret passage behind Niall. It's Padan Fain. He's going by the name Ordeith, but it's obviously Padan Fain. Even Niall knows that Ordeith is an alias even if he doesn't know Fain's actual identity. He showed up at Amador and schmoozed his way into Niall's good graces somehow. He's heard the whole secret plot, and gives Niall the 411 on the Three Musketeers, that they're absolutely servants of the Dark One and not the main heroes of the story, and that they come from the Two Rivers, which is probably a hotbed of Darkfriends because... why not? Niall thinks it over and decides that maybe when he has time he should think of doing something about this Two Rivers problem.

We shift to Carridin's perspective as he goes down the halls to his quarters. He's not having a good day right now, and when a Myrddral is standing in his room, it doesn't promise to get any better. As I'm sure you're shocked to discover, Carridin is a Darkfriend, and the Myrddral is about as happy with him as Niall is, which is to say not at all. You're a slacker, Carridin! The Darkfriend gives him a deal. Every month that Rand al'Thor is still alive, the Darkfriends will kill one member of Carridin's family, and when there's none of them left to kill, they will drag him back to Shayol Gul to be tortured to death. So Carridin's options are these: Keep Rand alive and be tortured to death by the Shadowspawn, or kill Rand and be tortured to death by the Questioners.

I wonder what Darkfriend recruitment ads say on them, because I think people who join them probably feel just a little bit lied to.