The Dragon Reborn -- the leader long prophesied who will save the world, but in the saving destroy it; the savior who will run mad and kill all those dearest to him -- is on the run from his destiny.

Able to touch the One Power, but unable to control it, and with no one to teach him how -- for no man has done it in three thousand years -- Rand al'Thor knows only that he must face the Dark One. But how?

Winter has stopped the war -- almost -- yet men are dying, calling out for the Dragon. But where is he?

Perrin Aybara is in pursuit with Moiraine Sedai, her Warder Lan, and Loial the Ogier. Bedeviled by dreams, Perrin is grappling with another deadly problem -- how is he to escape the loss of his own humanity?

Egwene, Elayne and Nynaeve are approaching Tar Valon, where Mat will be Healed -- if he lives until they arrive. But who will tell Amyrlin their news -- that the Black Ajah, long thought only a hideous rumor, is all too real? They cannot know that in Tar Valon far worse awaits . . .

Ahead, for all of them, in the Heart of the Stone, lies the next great test of the Dragon Reborn. . . .

    "And his paths shall be many, and who shall know his name, for he shall be born among us many time, in many guises, as he has been and ever will be, time without end. His coming shall be like the sharp edge of the plow, turning our lives in furrows from out of the places where we lie in our silence. The breaker of bonds; the forger of chains. The maker of futures; the unshaper of destiny.

      --from Commentaries on the Prophecies of the Dragon, by jurith Dorine, Right Hand to the Queen of Almoren, 742 AB, the Third Age"

        --From The Dragon Reborn



    "And it was written that no hand but his should wield the Sword held in the Stone, but he did draw it out, like fire in his hand, and his glory did burn the world. Thus did it begin. Thus do we sing his Rebirth. Thus do we sing the beginning.

    --from Do'in Toldara te, Songs of the Last Age, Quarto Nine: The Legend of the Dragon. Composed by Boanne, Songmistress at Taralan, the Fourth Age"

        --From The Dragon Reborn