Mat crouched beside a fern, unseen by the dozen or so Deathwatch Guards who stood in a ring around Tuon as she went through a series of fighting stances. She was lit by a pair of lanterns that gave off a strange, steady blue glow. Something burned within them, but it was not a regular flame.
The light shone on her soft, smooth skin, which was the shade of good earth. She wore a pale a’solma, a gown that was split at the sides, showing blue leggings underneath. Tuon had a slight frame; he had once made the mistake of assuming that meant she was frail. Not so.
She had shaved her head again properly, now that she was no longer hiding. Baldness looked good on her, strange though it was. She moved in the blue glow, running through a sequence of hand combat forms, her eyes closed. She seemed to be sparring with her own shadow.
Mat preferred a good knife—or, better, his ashandarei—to fighting with his hands. The more space he had between himself and a fellow trying to kill him, the better. Tuon did not seem to need either. Watching her, he realized how fortunate he had been the night he had taken her. Unarmed, she was deadly.
She slowed, waving her hands in front of her in a gentle pattern, then thrusting them quickly to the side. She breathed in and brought her arms to the other side, her entire body twisting.
Did he love her?
The question made Mat uncomfortable. It had been scratching at the edges of his mind for weeks now, like a rat trying to have at the grain. It was not the sort of question Matrim Cauthon was supposed to have to ask. Matrim Cauthon worried only about the girl on his knee and the next toss of the dice. Questions about matters like love were best left to Ogier who had time to sit and watch trees grow.
He had married her. That was an accident, was it not? The bloody foxes had told him he would. She had married him back. He still did not know why. Something to do with those omens she talked about? Their courtship had been more of a game than a romance. Mat liked games, and he always played to win. Tuon’s hand had been the prize. Now that he had it, what did he do with it?
She continued her forms, moving like a reed in the wind. A tilt this way, then a wave of motion that way. The Aiel called fighting a dance. What would they think of this? Tuon moved as gracefully as any Aiel. If battle were a dance, most of it was done to the music of a rowdy barroom. This was done to the swaying melody of a master singer.
Something moved over Tuon’s shoulder. Mat tensed, peering into that darkness. Ah, it was just a gardener. An ordinary-looking fellow with a cap on his head and freckled cheeks. Barely worth noticing. Mat put him out of his mind and leaned forward to take a better look at Tuon. He smiled at her beauty.
Why would a gardener be out at this time? he thought. Must be a strange type of fellow.
Mat glanced at the man again, but had trouble picking him out. The gardener stepped between two members of the Deathwatch Guard. They did not seem to care. Mat should not either. They must trust the man . . .
Mat reached into his sleeve and freed a knife. He raised it without letting himself think about why. In doing so, his hand brushed one of the branches ever so softly.
Tuon's eyes snapped open, and despite the dim light, she focused directly on Mat. She saw the knife in his hand, ready to throw.
Then she looked over her shoulder.
Mat threw, the knife reflecting blue light as it spun. It passed less than a finger’s width from Tuon’s chin, hitting the gardener in the shoulder as he raised a knife of his own. The man gasped, stumbling back. Mat would have preferred to take him in the throat, but he had not wanted to risk hitting Tuon.
Rather than doing the sensible thing and moving away, Tuon leaped for the man, hands shooting toward his throat. That made Mat smile. Unfortunately, the man had just enough time—and she was just enough off-balance—that he managed to push backward and scramble between the baffled Deathwatch Guards. Mat’s second dagger hit the ground behind the assassin’s heel as he vanished into the night.
A second later, three men—each weighing roughly the same as a small building—crashed down on top of Mat, slamming his face against the dry ground. One stepped on his wrist, and another ripped his ashandarei away from him.
"Stop!" Tuon barked. "Release him! Go after the other one, you fools!"
"Other one, Majesty?" one of the guards asked. "There was no other one".
"Then to whom does that blood belong?" Tuon asked, pointing at the dark stain on the ground that the assassin had left behind. "The Prince of the Ravens saw what you did not. Search the area!"
The Deathwatch Guards slowly climbed off Mat. He let out a groan. What did they feed these men? Bricks? He did not like being called "Highness", but a little respect would have been nice here. If it had prevented him from being sat upon, that was.
He climbed to his feet, then held out his hand to a sheepish Death-watch Guard. The fellow’s face had more scars than skin. He handed Mat the ashandarei, then went off to help search the garden.
Tuon folded her arms, obviously unshaken. "You have chosen to delay your return to me, Matrim".
"Delay my . . . I came to bloody warn you, not return to you. I’m my own man".
"You may pretend whatever you wish", Tuon said, looking over her shoulder as the Deathwatch Guards beat at the shrubbery. "But you must not stay away. You are important to the Empire, and I have use for you".
"Sounds delightful", Mat grumbled.
"What was it?" Tuon asked softly. "I did not see the man until you drew attention. These guards are the best of the Empire. I have seen Daruo there catch an arrow in flight with his bare hand, and Barrin once stopped a man from breathing on me because he suspected an assassin whose mouth was filled with poisons. He was right".
"It’s called a Gray Man", Mat said, shivering. "There’s something freakishly ordinary about them—they’re hard to notice, hard to fixate upon".
"Gray Man", Tuon said idly. "More myths come to life. Like your Trollocs".
"Trollocs are real, Tuon. Bloody—"
"Of course Trollocs are real", she said. "Why wouldn’t I believe that they are?" She looked at him defiantly, as if daring him to mention the times she had called them myths. "This Gray Man appears to be real as well. There is no other explanation for why my guards let him pass".
"I trust the Deathwatch Guards well enough", Mat said, rubbing his shoulder where one of them had placed his knee. "But I don’t know, Tuon. General Galgan is trying to have you killed; he could be work
