A Crown of Swords recap

The Dark One's touch has locked the world in a killing, unnatural heat, and Rand means to end it and to strike at the Forsaken Sammael, who rules the nation of Illian under a false name. In the city of Ebou Dar, Elayne, Nynaeve, Aviendha, and Mat search for the Bowl of the Winds, an ancient object that can mend the weather, working with a hidden society of runaway channelers and the sea folk's Windfinders. Rand, hardening under the strain of command and the taint on the Power, gathers Aes Sedai sworn to him and draws the notice of Cadsuane, a legendary sister with plans of her own. Rand lures Sammael into the cursed ruins of Shadar Logoth and leaves him to the evil that haunts the place, then takes Illian and its crown. The women succeed in working the Bowl, breaking the deadly heat and turning the seasons back toward their course, but as they escape, the Seanchan storm Ebou Dar, and Mat is caught in the collapse. Rand, crowned and victorious, is ambushed by Padan Fain and dealt a second wound that will not heal.

Rand al'Thor, a shepherd of the Two Rivers, was named the Dragon Reborn after he first channeled the One Power: the champion prophesied to fight the Dark One and, because he wields the tainted male Power, fated to go mad. He fought the fiery-eyed enemy in the sky above Falme, was proclaimed the Dragon before the world, drew the crystal sword Callandor from the Stone of Tear, and was accepted by the Aiel as their Car'a'carn after uncovering their hidden past. Leading the Aiel down into the heartland, he destroyed the Forsaken Rahvin at Caemlyn, though the Aes Sedai Moiraine sacrificed herself to remove another Forsaken. Rand came to rule Cairhien, Tear, and Andor, gathered men who can channel into a private army called the Asha'man, and survived a kidnapping by treacherous Aes Sedai, freed at the Battle of Dumai's Wells, after which a number of sisters knelt and swore fealty to him. Along the way Mat became a gifted battle commander; Perrin wed Faile and was made lord of the Two Rivers; Nynaeve and Elayne captured a Forsaken and learned to Heal the once-incurable severing of the gift; Nynaeve married Lan; and Egwene was raised Amyrlin of the rebel Aes Sedai gathered at Salidar, proving far shrewder than her elders expected. As this book opens the Dark One's touch has locked the land in unnatural, blistering heat, the Seanchan press inland, and Rand, hardening and ever more alone, prepares to hunt down the Forsaken who still oppose him.

Rand ends the unnatural heat and the Forsaken who most immediately opposed him, but at a cost. He lures Sammael, who has ruled Illian in disguise, into the cursed ruins of Shadar Logoth and leaves him to the hungry evil of Mashadar, then claims Illian and is crowned with its ancient Laurel Crown, the crown of swords. In Ebou Dar, Elayne, Nynaeve, and Aviendha, working with the runaway channelers of the Kin and the sea folk's Windfinders, manage to use the Bowl of the Winds to break the Dark One's grip on the weather and start the seasons turning again. But their triumph is swallowed by disaster: the Seanchan launch an assault on Ebou Dar as the group flees, and Mat is caught beneath a collapsing wall, his fate left uncertain. Meanwhile the formidable Aes Sedai Cadsuane has attached herself to Rand and his Asha'man, meaning to guide, or master, the Dragon Reborn on her own terms. And at the height of his success Rand is ambushed by Padan Fain, whose cursed dagger opens a second wound that crosses and worsens the one he already bears, an injury the Power cannot heal. Rand stands crowned and stronger than ever, the weather mended and a Forsaken dead, yet sicker, warier, and more surrounded by hidden agendas than before, as the Seanchan advance and the Last Battle draws nearer.