Mat dumped the rest of the wine into his mouth, savoring the sweet, cool taste. He brought the cup down and tossed a handful of five dice. They tumbled to the wooden floor of the tavern, clacking against one another ( Read more... )

Mat was hiding as best he could in his mug of ale. He'd had to get rid of his hat as it had become too bloody distinctive. Stories about the bloody invincible and amazing Lord Mat Bloody Cauthon had been making their way through town and as the gholem, judging by the mysterious death rumors that were also percolating, was also not bloody dead, Mat ( Read more... )

Mat's plan of hit-and-fade attacks against the Seanchan had been in effect for a few days now, with Leilwin's "dragons" ("cannons", his mind kept repeating) working with more devastating effectiveness against the enemy than even their leashed da'mane could counter. It didn't mean that the Band had been able to escape the encounters unscathed. ( Read more... )

The circus had been behind them for more than a week when one of Mat's Redarms approached him: "Riders coming. One of them's Vanin ( Read more... )

Mat was starting to think that the Last Battle would begin and he would still be stuck in bloody flaming useless Altara, watching his gold disappear into Valan Luca's coffers and surrounded by a circus ( Read more... )

Mat was not bloody panicking. No indeed. He had left Tuon and the Aes Sedai (and the gleeman and the ugly child and what was left of his Redarms and far too much of his gold) under the protection of Valan Luca and his bloody traveling circus--though he'd also gotten the man to promise not to travel bloody anywhere until he returned--and then went ( Read more... )

It was pouring, because of course it would be bloody pouring, when Mat and his group arrived at the gate leading out of town.

He glanced over to Selucia--Tuon's so'jihn--and made certain that she saw the knife he had laid casually across the rolled tapestry laying across Pips' shoulders ( Read more... )

After they'd gotten the Aes Sedai free and he'd had a quick chat with the Windfinder, Mat had split off from the group to return to Tylin's room and retrieve his ashandarei--he'd paid too large a price for the thing to leave it behind--and received his second nasty surprise of the night: Tylin had returned ( Read more... )

Mat's morning and afternoon had been extremely busy: first getting the rest of his soldiers out of the city (and his manservants, and Olver, and a bloody gleeman, and a Tairen thief-catcher and Light, Mat almost missed the days where it had been just him and his cloak sleeping under a bush), then telling Beslan that tonight was the night he would ( Read more... )

When Mat had heard the Seanchan soldiers going on and on about their triumphant "Return" to the continent, he had always assumed they'd meant an army. As he was jostled through the streets of Ebou Dar as thousands of Seanchan farmers, farriers, candle-stick makers and the Light knew what else streamed from ships that completely filled the harbor, ( Read more... )