Winter's Heart: Chapter 5
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Author: Leora Oldessroth
Chapter Icon: A Wolf
Point of View: Perrin
Setting: Perrin's Camp
Characters: Berelain, Gendar, Grady, Nana, Perrin, Rosene, Santes
Outline
Perrin wakes up in Berelain's tent naked and frustrated he couldn't find Faile in the wolf dream. He and Berelain have a small fight.
Summary
Perrin is in the wolf dream, trying to find Faile. Hopper finds him and tells him that Faile is not here and that Perrin must go back. He is in the dream too strongly and for too long; if he doesn’t go back he will die. When Perrin doesn’t respond, Hopper attacks him in the dream and tells him to listen! Perrin’s eyes snap open and he is in Berelain’s tent; Berelain is there too. He asks Berelain if Faile has been found yet; she tells him that the scouts have not yet returned. She said she sent a full company out to look but they were ambushed 5-6 miles from camp.
Perrin notices he is naked beneath the blankets and demands an explanation from Berelain. She says he and his armsmen might have frozen to death if she hadn’t gone looking for them. Perrin was so numb he couldn’t hear anyone speaking. She had him brought back to camp and the blankets piled on. Annoura healed him. Perrin notices that this is both too much of an explanation and not enough. He asks why one of the Asha'man didn’t do the Healing and Berelain simply says she thought of Annoura first. Perrin gets up and asks for his clothes and food and Berelain leaves the tent. He feels very weak once stands up, his hands fumbling with even the simple task of putting his clothes on.
Berelain returns in a swirl of cold air with his food and tells him Rosene is bringing more. She tells him she knows he is hurting and offers to call a truce until Faile is found. Perrin asks why they need a truce. Berelain is affronted and simply says if that’s how he wants it then fine! She tells him that Masema’s men began arriving that morning before daylight—three or four thousand of them with more streaming in every minute. Perrin is angry because he was only supposed to bring himself and a hundred men and he says they’ll see about that! Berelain says Masema is the real danger—does Perrin know he’s been meeting with the Seanchan? Perrin asks how Berelain knows that and she tells him that Faile’s “retainers” told her. Perrin suddenly realizes that Cha Faile have been spying and that it is just like his wife to do something like that.
Berelain warmly tells Perrin she is glad he can be discreet—she hadn’t known that Cha Faile was spying in addition to Balwer. She stretches sensuously and tells Perrin he will be only the third man to share her bed; the other two were for politics but Perrin will be for pleasure. Rosene comes into the tent then with food but Perrin leaves the tent. He walks through the camp and approaches some servants who make no efforts to hide their curiosity of him leaving Berelain’s tent. He asks them where the Prophet’s men are. Laughing behind their hands they tell him. Perrin is in a foul mood but finds that everything is as he ordered.
