Master Gill winced at Thom's move and took his pipe out of his mouth. "Considering who you left with, lad, and considering the way things are now, maybe it's best I remember no more than that."
"Aes Sedai not in such good odor now, are they?" Mat set his things in one big armchair, the quarterstaff propped against the back, and himself in another with one leg swinging over the arm. "The Guards at the Palace seemed to think the White Tower had stolen Elayne." Thom eyed the roll of fireworks uneasily, looked at his smoking pipe, and muttered to himself before going back to his study of the board.
"Hardly that," Gill said, "but the whole city knows she disappeared from the Tower. Thom says she's returned, but we've heard none of that here. Perhaps Morgase knows, but everyone down to a stableboy is stepping lightly so she doesn't snap off his head. Lord Gaebril has kept her from actually sending anyone to the headsman, but I'd not say she would not do it. And he has certainly not soothed her temper toward Tar Valon. If anything, I think he has made it worse."
"Morgase has a new advisor," Thom said in a dry voice. "Gareth Bryne did not like him, so Bryne has been retired to his estate to watch his sheep grow wool. Basel, are you going to place a stone or not?"
"In a moment, Thom. In a moment. I want to set it right." Gill clamped his teeth around his pipestem and frowned at the board, puffing up smoke.
"So the Queen has an advisor who doesn't like Tar Valon," Mat said. "Well, that explains the way the Guards acted when I said I came from there."
"If you told them that," Gill said, "you might be lucky you escaped without any broken bones. If it was any of the new men, at least. Gaebril has replaced half the Guards in Caemlyn with men of his choosing, and that is no mean feat considering how short a time he has been here. Some say Morgase may marry him."
He started to put a stone on the board, then took it back with a shake of his head. "Times change. People change. Too much change for me. I suppose I am growing old."
"You seem to mean us both to grow old before you place a stone," Thom muttered. The cat stretched and slinked across the table for him to stroke her back. "Talking all day will not let you find a good move. Why don't you just admit defeat, Basel?"
"I never admit defeat," Gill said stoutly. "I'll beat you yet, Thom." He set a white stone on the intersection of two lines. "You will see." Thom snorted.
From what Mat could see of the board, he did not think Gill had much chance. "I will just have to avoid the Guards and put Elayne's letter right into Morgase's hands." Especially if they're all like that fat fool. Light, I wonder if he's told them all I'm a Darkfriend?
"You did not deliver it?" Thom barked. "I thought you were anxious to be rid of the thing."
"You have a letter from the Daughter-Heir?" Gill exclaimed. "Thom, why did you not tell me?"
"I am sorry, Basel," the gleeman muttered. He glared at Mat from under those bushy eyebrows and blew out his mustaches. "The boy thinks someone is out to kill him over it, so I thought I'd let him say what he wanted and no more. Seems he does not care any longer."
"What kind of letter?" Gill asked. "Is she coming home? And Lord Gawyn? I hope they are. I've actually heard talk of war with Tar Valon, as if anyone could be fool enough to go to war with Aes Sedai. If you ask me, it is all one with those mad rumors we've heard about Aes Sedai supporting a false Dragon somewhere in the, west, and using the Power as a weapon. Not that I can see why that would make anyone want to go to war with them; just the opposite."
"Are you married to Coline?" Mat asked, and Master Gill gave a start.
"The Light preserve me from that! You would think the inn was hers now. If she was my wife…! What does that have to do with the Daughter-Heir's letter?"
"Nothing," Mat said, "but you went on so long, I thought you must have forgotten your own questions." Gill made a choking sound, and Thom barked a laugh. Mat hurried on before the innkeeper could speak. "The letter is sealed; Elayne did not tell me what it says." Thom was eyeing him sideways and stroking his mustaches. Does he think I'll admit we opened the thing? "But I don't think she is coming home. She means to be Aes Sedai, if you ask me." He told them about his attempt to deliver the letter, smoothing over a few edges they had no need to know about.
"The new men," Gill said. "That officer sounds it, at least. I'll wager on it. No better than brigands, most of them, except the ones with a sly eye. You wait until this afternoon, lad, when the Guards on the gate will have changed. Say the Daughter-Heir's name right out, and just in case the new fellow is one of Gaebril's men, too, duck your head a little. A knuckle to your forehead, and you'll have no trouble."
"Burn me if I will. I pull wool and scratch gravel for nobody. Not to Morgase herself. This time, I'll not go near the Guards at all." I would just as soon not know what word that fat fellow has spread. They stared at him as if he were mad.
"How under the Light," Gill said, "do you mean to enter the Royal Palace without passing the Guards?" His eyes widened as if he were remembering something. "Light, you don't mean to… Lad, you'd need the Dark One's own luck to escape with your life!"
"What are you going on about now, Basel? Mat, what fool thing do you intend to try?"
"I am lucky, Master Gill," Mat said. "You just have a good meal waiting when I come back." As he stood, he picked up the dice cup and spun the dice out beside the stones board for luck. The calico cat leaped down, hissing at him with her back arched. The five spotted dice came to rest, each showing a single pip. The Dark One's Eyes.
"That's the best toss or the worst," Gill said. "It depends on the game you are playing, doesn't it. Lad, I think you mean to play a dangerous game. Why don't you take that cup out into the common room and lose a few coppers? You look to me like a fellow who might like a little gamble. I will see the letter gets to the Palace safely."
"Coline wants you to clean the drains," Mat told him, and turned to Thom while the innkeeper was still blinking and muttering to himself. "It doesn't seem to make any odds whether I get an arrow in me trying to deliver that letter or a knife in my back waiting. It's six up, and a half dozen down. Just you have that meal waiting, Thom." He tossed a gold mark on the table in front of Gill. "Have my things put in a room, innkeeper. If it takes more coin, you will have it. Be careful of the big roll; it frightens Thom something awful."
As he stalked out, he heard Gill say to Thom, "I always thought that lad was a rascal. How does he come by gold?"
I always win, that's how, he thought grimly. I just have to win once more, and I'm done with Elayne, and that's the last of the White Tower for me. Just once more.
Chapter 46
(Lion Rampant)
A Message Out of the Shadow
Even as he returned to the Inner City on foot, Mat was far from certain that what he intended would actually work. It would, if what he had been told was true, but it was the truth of that he was not sure of. He avoided the oval plaza in front of the Palace, but wandered around the sides of the huge structure and its grounds, along streets that curved with the contours of the hills. The golden domes of the Palace glittered, mockingly out of reach. He had made his way almost all the way around, nearly back to the plaza, when he saw it. A steep slope thick with low flowers, rising from the street to a white wall of rough stone. Several leafy tree limbs stuck over the top of the wall, and he could see the tops of others beyond, in a garden of the Royal Palace.
A wall made to look like a cliff, he thought, and a garden on the other side. Maybe Rand was telling the truth.
A casual look both ways showed him he had the curving street to himself for the moment. He would have to hurry; the curves did not allow him to see very far; someone could come along any moment. He scrambled up the slope on all fours, careless of how his boots ripped holes in the banks of red and white blossoms. The rough stone of the wall gave plenty of fingerholds, and ridges and knobs provided toeholds even for a man in boots.
Careless of them to make it so easy, he thought as he climbed. For a moment the climbing
took him back home with Rand and Perrin, to a journey they had made beyond the Sand Hills, into the edge of the Mountains of Mist. When they returned to Emond's Field, they had all caught the fury from everyone who could lay hands on them — him worst of all; everyone assumed it had been his idea — but for three days they had climbed the cliffs, and slept under the sky, and eaten eggs filched from redcrests' nests, and plump, gray-winged grouse fetched with an arrow, or a stone from a sling, and rabbits caught with snares, all the while laughing about how they were not afraid of the mountains' bad luck and how they might find a treasure. He had brought home an odd rock from that expedition, with the skull of a good-sized fish somehow pressed into it, and a long, white tail feather dropped by a snow eagle, and a piece of white stone as big as his hand that looked almost as if it had been carved into a man's ear. He thought it looked like an ear, even if Rand and Perrin did not, and Tam al'Thor had said it might be.
His fingers slipped out of a shallow groove, his balance shifted and he lost the toehold under his left foot. With a gasp, he barely caught hold of the top of the wall, and pulled himself up the rest of the way. For a moment he lay there, breathing hard. It would not have been that long a fall, but enough to break his head. Fool, letting my mind wander like that. Nearly killed myself on those cliffs that way. That was all a long time ago. His mother had likely thrown all those things out already, anyway. With one last look each way to make sure no one had seen him — the curving length of street below was still empty — he dropped inside the Palace grounds.
It was a large garden, with flagstoned walks through expanses of grass among the trees, and grapevines thick on arbors over the walks. And everywhere, flowers. White blossoms covering the pear trees, and white and pink dotting the apple trees. Roses in every color, and bright golden sunburst, and purple Emond's Glory, and many he could not identify. Some he was not sure could be real. One had odd blossoms in scarlet and gold that looked almost like birds, and another seemed no different from a sunflower except that its yellow flowers were two feet and more across and stood on stalks as tall as an Ogier.
Boots crunched on flagstone, and he crouched low behind a bush against the wall as two guardsmen marched past, their long, white collars hanging over their breastplates. They never glanced his way, and he grinned to himself. Luck. With just a little luck, they'll never see me till I hand the bloody thing to Morgase.
He slipped through the garden like a shadow, as if stalking rabbits, freezing by a bush or hard against a tree trunk when he heard boots. Two more pairs of soldiers strode by along the paths, the second close enough for him to have taken two steps and goosed them. As they vanished among the flowers and trees, he plucked a deep red starblaze and stuck the wavy-petaled flower in his hair with a grin. This was as much fun as stealing applecakes at Sunday, and easier. Women always kept a sharp watch on their baking; the fool soldiers never took their eyes off the flagstones.
It was not long before he found himself against the white wall of the Palace itself, and began sliding along it behind a row of flowering white roses on slatted frames, searching for a door. There were plenty of wide, arched windows just over his head, but he thought it might be a bit harder to explain being found climbing in through a window than walking down a hall. Two more soldiers appeared, and he froze; they would pass within three paces of him. He could hear voices from the window over his head, two men, just loud enough for him to make out the words.
"— on their way to Tear, Great Master." The man sounded frightened and obsequious.
"Let them ruin his plans, if they can." This voice was deeper and stronger, a man used to command. "It will serve him right if three untrained girls can foil him. He was always a fool, and he is still a fool. Is there any word of the boy? He is the one who can destroy us all."
"No, Great Master. He has vanished. But, Great Master, one of the girls is Morgase's nit."
Mat half turned, then caught himself. The soldiers were coming closer; they did not appear to have seen his start through the thickly woven rose stems. Move, you fools! Get by so I can see who this man bloody is! He had lost some of the conversation.
"— has been far too impatient since regaining his freedom," the deep voice was saying. "He never realized the best plans take time to mature. He wants the world in a day, and Callandor besides. The Great Lord take him! He may seize the girl and try to make some use of her. And that might strain my own plans."
"As you say, Great Master. Shall I order her brought out of Tear?"
"No. The fool would take it as a move against him, if he knew. And who can say what he chooses to watch aside from the sword? See that she dies quietly, Comar. Let her death attract no notice at all." His laughter was a rich rumble. "Those ignorant slatterns in their Tower will have a difficult time producing her after this disappearance. This may all be just as well. Let it be done quickly. Quickly, before he has time to take her himself."
The two soldiers were almost abreast of him; Mat tried to will their feet to move faster.
"Great Master," the other man said uncertainly, "that may be difficult. We know she is on her way to Tear, but the vessel she traveled on was found at Aringill, and all three of them had left it earlier. We do not know whether she has taken another ship, or is riding south. And it may not be easy to find her once she reaches Tear, Great Master. Perhaps if you —"
"Are there none but fools in the world, now?" the deep voice said harshly. "Do you think I could move in Tear without him knowing? I do not mean to fight him, not now, not yet. Bring me the girl's head, Comar. Bring me all three heads, or you will pray for me to take yours!"
"Yes, Great Master. It shall be as you say. Yes. Yes."
The soldiers crunched past, never looking to either side. Mat only waited for their backs to pass before leaping up to catch the broad stone windowsill and pull himself high enough to see through the window.
He barely noticed the fringed Tarabon carpet on the floor, worth a fat purse of silver. One of the broad, carved doors was swinging shut. A tall man, with wide shoulders and a deep chest straining the green silk of his silver-embroidered coat, was staring at the door with dark blue eyes. His black beard was close cut, with a streak of white over his chin. All in all, he looked a hard man, and one used to giving orders.
"Yes, Great Master," he said suddenly, and Mat almost lost his grip on the sill. He had thought this must be the man with the deep voice, but it was the cringing voice he heard. Not cringing now, but still the same. "It shall be as you say, Great Master," the man said bitterly. "I will cut the three wenches' heads off myself. As soon as I can find them!" He strode through the door, and Mat let himself back down.
For a moment he crouched there behind the rose frames. Someone in the Palace wanted Elayne dead, and had thrown in Egwene and Nynaeve as afterthoughts. What under the Light are they doing, going to Tear? It had to be them.
He pulled the Daughter-Heir's letter out of the lining of his coat and frowned at it. Maybe, with this in his hand, Morgase would believe him. He could describe one of the men. But the time for skulking was past; the big fellow could be off to Tear before he even found Morgase, and whatever she did then, there was no guarantee it could stop him.
Taking a deep breath, Mat wiggled between two of the rose frames at the cost of only a few pricks and snags from the thorns, and started down the flagstone path after the soldiers. He held Elayne's letter out in front of him so the golden lily seal was plainly visible, and went over in his mind exactly what he meant to say. When he had been sneaking about, guardsmen kept popping up like mushrooms after rain, but now he walked almost the length of the garden without seeing even one. He passed several doors. It would not be so good to enter the Palace without permission — the Guards might do nasty things first and listen after — but he was beginning to think about going through a door when it opened and a helmetless young officer with one golden knot on his shoulder strode out.
The man's hand immediately went to his sword hilt, and he had
a foot of steel bared before Mat could push the letter toward him. "Elayne, the Daughter-Heir, sends this letter to her mother, Queen Morgase, Captain." He held the letter so the lily seal was prominent.
The officer's dark eyes flickered to either side, as if searching for other people, without really ever leaving Mat. "How did you come into this garden?" He did not draw his sword further, but he did not sheath it, either. "Elber is on the main gates. He's a fool, but he would never let anyone wander loose into the Palace."
"A fat man with eyes like a rat?" Mat cursed his tongue, but the officer gave a sharp nod; he almost smiled, too, but it did not seem to lessen his vigilance, or his suspicion. "He grew angry when he learned I had come from Tar Valon, and he wouldn't even give me a chance to show the letter or mention the Daughter-Heir's name. He said he would arrest me if I did not go, so I climbed the wall. I promised I would deliver this to Queen Morgase herself, you see, Captain. I promised it, and I always keep my promises. You see the seal?"
"That bloody garden wall again," the officer muttered. "It should be built three times so high." He eyed Mat. "Guardsman-lieutenant, not captain. I am Guardsman-lieutenant Tallanvor. I recognize the Daughter-Heir's seal." His sword finally slid all the way back into the sheath. He stretched out a hand; not his sword hand. "Give me the letter, and I will take it to the Queen. After I show you out. Some would not be so gentle at finding you walking about loose."
"I promised to put it in her hands myself," Mat said. Light, I never thought they might not let me give it to her. "I did promise. To the Daughter-Heir."
Mat hardly realized Tallanvor's hand was moving before the officer's sword was resting against his neck. "I will take you to the Queen, countryman," Tallanvor said softly. "But know that I can take your head before you blink if you so much as think of harming her."
Mat put on his best grin. That slightly curved blade felt sharp on the side of his neck. "I am a loyal Andorman," he said, "and a faithful subject of the Queen, the Light illumine her. Why, if I had been here during the winter, I'd have followed Lord Gaebril for sure."
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