Chapters 13-17 Summary

Having camped in a hollow filled with ruined stone Loial believe both familiar and manmade, Rand, Loial and Hurin awaken to find the rest of the party gone and the ruins strangely rebuilt around them, with an intricately carved column of stone rising from the center. Loial then recognizes it as a portal stone, a gateway that those capable of using correctly with the One Power, can access to transport between possible worlds.

Fearing he may have accidentally triggered the portal while asleep, Rand attempts to use the One Power to reactivate it, but fails to return them to their own world. During the attempt, he experiences, for the first time, the taint the Dark One left on saidin, the male half of the One Power.

Hurin tells Rand that he can still smell the trail of Padan Fain and the...