“They’re bloody chasing me,” he said, glancing around the side of the tent. “Who is chasing you?” Egwene said. “Deathwatch Guards,” Mat said. “I’m supposed to be back at Tuon’s tent.” Egwene waved a few fingers, sending the other women off, except her two shadows—Gawyn and Leilwin, of all people—who remained with her. “Mat,” Egwene said in a suffering tone, “I’m glad you’ve finally decided to see reason and leave the Seanchan camp, but couldn’t you have waited until after the battle was over to defect?”
“Sorry,” he said, only half-listening. “But can we walk on toward the Aes Sedai quarter of camp? They won’t follow me there.” Maybe not. If all Deathwatch Guards were like Karede, maybe they would. Karede would dive after a man falling off a cliff in order to catch him.
Egwene started back, seeming displeased with Mat. How was it Aes Sedai could be so perfectly emotionless, yet still let a man know they disapproved of him? Come to think of it, an Aes Sedai would probably follow a man off a cliff, too, if only to explain to him—in detail—all the things he was doing incorrectly in the way he went about killing himself.
Mat wished so many of his thoughts lately did not involve feeling like he was the one jumping off the cliff.
“We’ll have to find a way to explain to Fortuona why you ran,” Egwene said as they approached the Aes Sedai quarter. Mat had placed it as far from the Seanchan as was reasonable. “The marriage is going to present a problem. I suggest that you—”
“Wait, Egwene,” Mat said. “What are you talking about?”
“You are running from the Seanchan guards,” Egwene said. “Weren’t you listening… Of course you weren’t. It is pleasant to know that, as the world crumbles, a few things are completely unchangeable. Cuendillar and Mat Cauthon.”
“I’m running from them,” Mat said, looking over his shoulder, “because Tuon wants me to sit in judgment. Any time a soldier is seeking the Empress’s mercy for a crime, I’m the one who is supposed to bloody hear his case!”
“You,” Egwene said, “passing judgment?”
“I know,” Mat said. “Too much bloody work, if you ask me. I’ve been dodging guardsmen all day, trying to steal a little time for myself.”
“A little honest work wouldn’t kill you, Mat.”
“Now, you know that’s not true. Soldiering is honest work, and it gets men killed all the bloody time.”
Gawyn Trakand was apparently practicing to be an Aes Sedai sometime, because he kept giving Mat glares that would have made Moiraine proud. Well, let him. Gawyn was a prince. He had been raised to do things like pass judgment. He probably sent a few men to the gallows each day at his lunch break, just to keep in practice.
But Mat… Mat was not going to order men to be executed, and that was that. They passed a group of Aiel sparring together. Was this group what Urien had been running to reach? Once they had passed—Mat trying to make the others walk faster so the Seanchan would not catch up—he drew closer to Egwene.
“Have you found it yet?” he asked softly.
“No,” Egwene said, eyes forward.
No need to mention what it was. “How could you have lost the thing? After all the work we bloody went through to find it?”
“We? From the telling I hear, Rand, Loial and the Borderlanders had far more to do with finding it than you.”
“I was there,” Mat said. “I rode across the entire bloody continent, didn’t I? Burn me, first Rand, then you. Is everybody going to chivvy me about those days? Gawyn, you want a turn?”
“Yes, please.” He sounded eager.
“Shut up,” Mat said. “It seems that nobody can remember straight but me. I hunted down that bloody Horn like a madman. And, I’ll mention, it was me blowing the thing that let you all escape Falme.”
“Is t
hat how you remember it?” Egwene asked.
“Sure,” Mat said. “I mean, I have some holes in there, but I’ve pieced it mostly together.”
“And the dagger?”
“That trinket? Hardly worth anyone’s time.” He caught himself reaching to his side, to where he had once carried it. Egwene raised an eyebrow at him. “Anyway, that’s not the point. We’re going to need that bloody instrument, Egwene. We’ll need it.”
“We have people searching,” she said. “We’re not sure exactly what happened. There was a Traveling residue, but it’s been a while and… Light, Mat. We’re trying. I promise it. It’s not the only thing the Shadow has stolen from us recently…”
He glanced at her, but she gave him no more. Flaming Aes Sedai. “Has anyone seen Perrin yet?” he asked. “I don’t want to be the one to tell him his wife has gone missing.”
“Nobody has seen him,” Egwene said. “I assume he is at work helping Rand.”
“Bah,” Mat said. “Can you make a gateway for me up to the top of the Knob?”