Mat's memories are explained (at least partially), and Thom Merrilin finally reveals to him the contents of the letter Moiraine gave to him. In it she reveals that she is in fact not dead, but alive and in the custody of the Aelfinn and the Eelfinn and requests that Thom, Mat and a person she does not know yet rescue her. Though Mat panics at first, he reveals to Thom, Noal Charin and Olver the memories the Eelfinn gave to him, and despite his reluctance he agrees to help them release Moiraine Damodred from the Tower of Ghenjei.

After he and his group leave Luca's travelling show, they are joined in Altara by Talmanes with several banners of mounted crossbowmen and three banners of horse, about half the Band's numbers now. Mat organizes a campaign of ruthless guerrilla warfare (greatly helped by significant improvements to the crossbow) in Altara, seeking to cause the pullback of an army that is preventing them from leaving Altara and heading north to Murandy. Suroth, in her bid to seize power and after learning of the Imperial Family's fate from Semirhage, announces that an impostor matching Tuon's description is claiming to be the Daughter of the Nine Moons thus making her an outlaw to the Ever Victorious Army.

After Furyk Karede finds the Band's camp, he realizes his mistake in thinking that Thom Merrilin is the one in charge of Tuon's kidnapping. He witnesses as Tuon finishes her half-completed marriage to Mat, apparently a union of political convenience though Mat is in fact in love with her (her feelings towards him are as yet uncertain). Tuon, escorted by Furyk Karede and his Deathwatch Guards, minus a few of them and the Gardeners, makes her way back to Ebou Dar. Her new husband Mat is left to fight an army of ten thousand men who are bent on killing "the imposter" Tuon for the one hundred thousand crowns reward. With his usual genius for battle, Mat and the Band kill the enemy to the last man, in no small part due to Aludra's discoveries which enable them to throw grenades into the enemy's ranks. After the battle is over, Musenge, one of the Deathwatch Guards left behind to aid Mat, reveals that by marrying the Daughter of the Nine Moons Matrim has become the Prince of the Ravens, a high-ranking title. In becoming so, he has inadvertently fulfilled one of Egwene al'Vere's dreams, where she saw ravens digging their talons into Mat's shoulders.

Tuon returns to Ebou Dar with the head of Zared Elbar, which Musenge and Hartha brought to her after the battle. Upon her arrivel there, she reveals to the assembled nobles that Elbar was involved in Suroth's attempt to kill her. Suroth is summarily made a da'covale in service of the Deathwatch Guards (in any way they might desire) until her hair grows back enough for her to be sold as a slave. With her most dangerous opponent out of the way, and having removed the veil (thus officially announcing herself as the Daughter of the Nine Moons) Tuon becomes Empress in all but name, a formality that must wait until the mourning is over.