The Shadow Rising on the map of the Westlands
Chapter by chapter through The Shadow Rising: its 86 key events and the 26 places it reaches, starting at Taren Ferry.
Each one opens the interactive map of the Westlands right where it happened, with the characters' routes drawn up to that chapter. Or open the map and step through the book chapter by chapter.
Spoiler-free by design: anything past where you are reading stays hidden until you reveal it, so you can keep this page open as you read.
The Shadow Rising · chapter by chapter
- Ch. 1
Seeds of Shadow
In Tar Valon the Amyrlin confides in Min, Whitecloaks cross into the Two Rivers, and a Seanchan noblewoman looks east across the ocean.
- Ch. 2
Whirlpools in the Pattern
On one sultry night in the Stone of Tear, Perrin's axe, Mat's playing cards and Rand's own mirrors turn against them.
- Ch. 3
Reflection
Perrin climbs through the Stone to Rand's chambers to learn whether Rand is behind the night's attacks, and finds Moiraine already there.
- Ch. 4
Strings
Late at night in his small room in the Stone, Thom is visited by a rattled Mat who talks of leaving Tear.
- Ch. 5
Questioners
In a bright room of the Stone, Egwene, Nynaeve and Aviendha press two captive Black sisters about where the women they hunt have gone.
- Ch. 6
Doorways
Moiraine tells the three young women how she hopes to steer Rand and speaks of a twisted doorframe in the Stone's storerooms.
- Ch. 7
Playing With Fire
Next morning Egwene and Elayne call on Rand and find him a difficult and alarming pupil.
- Ch. 8
Hard Heads
Elayne speaks plainly to Rand before the High Lords arrive, and Egwene, walking with Mat, warns him off a dangerous artifact.
- Ch. 9
Decisions
Three heavy days in the Stone and the city press everyone toward a choice, until an unexpected visitor appears in Rand's room.
- Ch. 10
The Stone Stands
Shadowspawn storm the Stone of Tear at sunset, and Rand fights his way through the fortress.
- Ch. 11
What Lies Hidden
With her friends watching over her bed, Egwene walks the World of Dreams to Tanchico and the Waste and meets someone who knows its ways.
- Ch. 12
Tanchico or the Tower
Awake again, the friends choose their roads, and Moiraine brings grim news and a letter that changes Aviendha's plans.
- Ch. 13
Rumors
In a dockside tavern Mat overhears news from the Two Rivers and runs back through the rain to tell Perrin.
- Ch. 14
Customs of Mayene
Perrin tells Berelain and Faile where he is bound, and their quarrel needs an Aiel chief to end it.
- Ch. 15
Into the Doorway
Mat goes down to the twisted doorway under the Stone to ask his questions, and learns he is not its only visitor.
- Ch. 16
Leavetakings
At dawn Perrin asks Loial to guide him home, the three women share out their gold for separate roads, and Lan comes looking for Nynaeve.
- Ch. 17
Deceptions
Moiraine presses Thom to follow the women to Tanchico, while in Tar Valon Min and the Amyrlin weigh two unsettling messages.
- Ch. 18
Into the Ways
Perrin slips out of the Stone with Faile, Loial and three Aiel, rides east into the grass hills, and opens the way into the dark.
- Ch. 19
The Wavedancer
Elayne and Nynaeve drive to the docks at dawn and strike a hard bargain with a Sea Folk captain for passage to Tanchico.
- Ch. 20
Winds Rising
Thom and a thief-catcher come aboard, and the Sea Folk ship runs down the Erinin and out to sea faster than any ship should.
- Ch. 21
Into the Heart
Rand gives the lords of Tear his orders, leaves Callandor in the Heart of the Stone, and tells Moiraine and Egwene where he is going.
- Ch. 22
Out of the Stone
Rand leads the Aiel and his companions east out of Tear to search the hills for a Portal Stone.
- Ch. 23
Beyond the Stone
On a scorching mountainside above a fog-bound city, Rand and Mat ask to go down, and the Wise Ones take Egwene and Moiraine in hand.
- Ch. 24
Rhuidean
Rand and Mat pass through the fog into an empty, unfinished city, and Mat finds a doorway he has seen before.
- Ch. 25
The Road to the Spear
Among the glass columns of Rhuidean's great square, Rand lives the Aiel's past one life at a time.
- Ch. 26
The Dedicated
The visions in the columns reach back to the Breaking, and Rand steps out to find Mat in trouble.
- Ch. 27
Within the Ways
Perrin's party crosses the dark Islands of the Ways toward a Waygate in the Mountains of Mist, with Shadowspawn close behind.
- Ch. 28
To the Tower of Ghenjei
Camped in the mountains, Perrin hunts in the wolf dream and follows a killer to a strange metal tower.
- Ch. 29
Homecoming
Perrin rides home through the Westwood to a burned farm and the Winespring Inn, where the news is hard to hear.
- Ch. 30
Beyond the Oak
Perrin starts planning a rescue, and Mistress al'Vere leads the party to a hidden meeting in the woods.
- Ch. 31
Assurances
At the old sickhouse, Perrin learns why two Aes Sedai have come and meets old friends, while the Whitecloak leaders quarrel at Watch Hill.
- Ch. 32
Questions to Be Asked
Perrin's scouting ride north stops at a crowded farm whose people have questions for him.
- Ch. 33
A New Weave in the Pattern
Perrin urges the farm families into the villages, gathers young volunteers, and goes into the Whitecloak camp by night.
- Ch. 34
He Who Comes With the Dawn
Rand and Mat climb out of the valley to the Aiel camps, and everyone waits for the others still inside Rhuidean.
- Ch. 35
Sharp Lessons
Egwene and Elayne trade news in the World of Dreams, then Egwene learns what a broken promise costs among the Wise Ones.
- Ch. 36
Misdirections
The Aiel leave Rhuidean in rival parties across the broken desert and take a lost peddlers' caravan in tow.
- Ch. 37
Imre Stand
The column camps at a herders' shelter found ransacked and bloodied, and a night of song is broken by an attack.
- Ch. 38
Hidden Faces
In Tanchico a foreign captain, an Inquisitor and a hidden circle of women each pursue their own ends.
- Ch. 39
A Cup of Wine
The Sea Folk ship reaches Tanchico, an old acquaintance finds the travellers lodging, and a dream search for Egwene goes astray.
- Ch. 40
Hunter of Trollocs
Days after the rescue, Perrin leads a band of Two Rivers archers after Shadowspawn into the Waterwood.
- Ch. 41
Among the Tuatha'an
The battered band is taken in by a camp of Tinkers, where Perrin hears about Faile's family and shares a secret of his own.
- Ch. 42
A Missing Leaf
Perrin goes hunting in the wolf dream, then says farewell to the Tinkers and rides into a village that is arming itself.
- Ch. 43
Care for the Living
Perrin comes home to a village full of grief and weapons, hears who is there, and is carried in to have an arrow drawn.
- Ch. 44
The Breaking Storm
Perrin wakes to find two friends gone and is drawn to the village's western edge as the Trollocs come out of the Westwood.
- Ch. 45
The Tinker's Sword
Perrin takes in battered survivors and finds himself the village's arbiter, until a column of Whitecloaks comes down the North Road.
- Ch. 46
Veils
Elayne and Nynaeve are attacked in the Calpene's streets, gain an unexpected ally, and receive an unsettling visitor at their inn.
- Ch. 47
The Truth of a Viewing
Trouble comes to the Amyrlin's study in Tar Valon, and Min looks for help in the Tower's kitchens.
- Ch. 48
An Offer Refused
Through a long march across the Waste, Rand rides beside Aviendha's lessons and watches the peddlers, until the column reaches Cold Rocks.
- Ch. 49
Cold Rocks Hold
The column enters Rhuarc's hold in a hidden canyon, Rand bows to its roofmistress, and over supper he hears how the clan chiefs are gathering.
- Ch. 50
Traps
After an afternoon among the hold's craftsmen and an uneasy sleep, Rand is woken by a night attack and resolves to leave at first light.
- Ch. 51
Revelations in Tanchico
A meal at the Three Plum Court turns tense when Domon recognises a guest, and the hunters learn where their quarry is hiding.
- Ch. 52
Need
In Tel'aran'rhiod the Wise Ones teach Nynaeve to hunt by need, and she finds what the Black Ajah seeks in the Panarch's Palace.
- Ch. 53
The Price of a Departure
As Emond's Field holds out, two friends return from the mountains, Perrin scouts the siege in the wolf dream and sends Faile for help.
- Ch. 54
Into the Palace
Disguised as servants on a morning of riot, Elayne and Nynaeve slip into the Panarch's Palace, where Nynaeve meets a dangerous enemy.
- Ch. 55
Into the Deep
The friends escape the palace through the riot with an unexpected companion and decide what to do with what they carried out.
- Ch. 56
Goldeneyes
The Trollocs throw everything at Emond's Field, and help comes from a direction the defenders did not expect.
- Ch. 57
A Breaking in the Three-fold Land
Rand leads the Taardad past the Shaido into the stone bowl of Alcair Dal and stands before the clan chiefs.
- Ch. 58
The Traps of Rhuidean
Rand chases a Forsaken through a gateway to Rhuidean and fights him in the ruins before going back to Alcair Dal.
In-world dates follow Steven Cooper's Wheel of Time chronology, reconstructed from clues in the books.