The great hunt - By Robert Jordan

THE WHEEL OF TIME®

Book Two

THE GREAT HUNT

“Jordan has come to dominate the world that Tolkien began to reveal. . . . The battle scenes have the breathless urgency of firsthand experience, and the . . . evil laced into the forces of good, the dangers latent in any promised salvation, the sense of the unavoidable onslaught of unpredictable events bear the marks of American national experience during the last three decades.”

—Edward Rothstein, The New York Times

“Those who like fantasy can rejoice. This is the genuine article . . . characters you can care about, a world you can believe in, hideous monsters, battles, magic, even love.

“I only have one problem. How am I going to get by until the next volume comes out?”

—John Lee, author of The Unicorn Solution

“Rousing, slam-bang . . . full of valiant skirmishes, great heroes, and close rescues. The real war is only beginning, but this one battle at least ends with the sort of grand finale worth rereading a time or two.”

—Locus

“This is good stuff. To write one absorbing long novel [The Eye of the World] is an achievement; to write two is miraculous, and [with The Great Hunt Jordan has] achieved the miracle. . . . I shall certainly [line up] for the third volume.”

—Interzone

Praise for

THE WHEEL OF TIME®

Book One

THE EYE OF THE WORLD

“New readers are advised to start with the first book, The Eye of the World. It may take you a year of steady reading, but by next year you’ll be chomping at the bit to jump on the [newest] book.”

—Robert Knox, MPG Newspapers

“Robert Jordan writes with the stark vision of light and darkness, and sometimes childlike sense of wonder, that permeates J.R.R. Tolkien’s works.”

—The Pittsburgh Press

“The Eye of the World is the best of its genre.”

—Ottawa Citizen

“A major piece of fantasy. Jordan has not merely put old wine into new bottles: he has clothed old bones with new flesh.”

—Chicago Sun-Times

“Jordan’s world is rich in detail and his plot is rich in incident. Highly recommended.”

—ALA Booklist

“A powerful vision of good and evil . . . [and] fascinating people moving through a rich and interesting world.”

—Orson Scott Card

“Magic and pacing and detail and human involvement, with a certain subtlety of presentation and a grand central vision. Robert Jordan . . . is a lot of writer!”

—Piers Anthony

“An exciting story; the reader is drawn in early and kept there until the last page. There is adventure and mystery and dark things that move in the night—a combination of Robin Hood and Stephen King that is hard to resist. . . . Jordan makes the reader care about these characters as though they were old friends.”

—Milwaukee Sentinel

“Goodness, life, and light are always in retreat, always about to be defeated, but never quite! Don’t miss it!”

—Andrew M. Greeley

“One hell of a story. [It] kept me up past my bedtime for three nights running—and it’s been a long time since a novel’s done that. Jordan keeps the suspense acute and the surprises and invention beautifully paced. Compelling. An exhilarating experience.”

—Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine

THE WHEEL OF TIME®

by Robert Jordan

The Eye of the World

The Great Hunt

The Dragon Reborn

The Shadow Rising

The Fires of Heaven

Lord of Chaos

A Crown of Swords

The Path of Daggers

Winter’s Heart

Crossroads of Twilight

Knife of Dreams

by Robert Jordan

and Brandon Sanderson

The Gathering Storm

THE

GREAT

HUNT

ROBERT JORDAN

A TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOKNEW YORK

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

THE GREAT HUNT

Copyright © 1990 by The Bandersnatch Group, Inc.

The phrases “The Wheel of Time®” and “The Dragon Reborn™,” and the snake-wheel symbol, are trademarks of Robert Jordan.

All rights reserved.

Frontispiece by Kekai Kotaki

Maps by Ellisa Mitchell

Interior illustrations by Matthew C. Nielsen and Ellisa Mitchell

A Tor Book

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

ISBN 978-1-4299-6013-7

First Edition: November 1990

First E-book Edition: November 2009

Manufactured in the United States of America

This book is dedicated to Lucinda Culpin, Al Dempsey, Tom Doherty, Susan England, Dick Gallen, Cathy Grooms, Marisa Grooms, Wilson and Janet Grooms, John Jarrold, the Johnson City Boys (Mike Leslie, Kenneth Loveless, James D. Lund, Paul R. Robinson), Karl Lundgren, William McDougal, the Montana Gang (Eldon Carter, Ray Grenfell, Ken Miller, Rod Moore, Dick Schmidt, Ray Sessions, Ed Wildey, Mike Wildey, and Sherman Williams), Charlie Moore, Louisa Cheves Popham Raoul, Ted and Sydney Rigney, Robert A. T. Scott, Bryan and Sharon Webb, and Heather Wood.

They came to my aid when God walked across the water and