Robert Jordan - Crossroads of Twilight (The Wheel of Time, Book 10)

You have a reason for interrupting me, Toy? Tuon said in cool tones. It is late, and I was thinking of going to sleep.

He made a leg and gave her his best smile. He could be polite even if she was not. I just wanted to make sure you were all right. These wagons are uncomfortable, on the road. And I know you arent happy with the clothes I could find you. I thought this might make you feel a little better. Fishing the leather bag from his pocket, he presented it with a flourish. Women always liked that little extra flourish.

Selucia tensed, blue eyes sharpening, but Tuon waggled her slim fingers and the bosomy maid subsided. A little. Mat liked feisty women, by and large, but if she ruined this, he was going to paddle her bottom. He hung on to his smile with an effort, and even managed to ratchet it up a notch.

Tuon turned the bag over her hands several times before untying the drawstrings and spilling what it contained into her lap, a heavy necklace of gold and carved amber. An expensive piece, and Seanchan work to boot. He was proud of finding the thing. It had been the property of an acrobat, who had it from a Seanchan officer whose fancy she caught, but she had been willing to sell now that her officer was left behind. It did not suit her skin, whatever that meant. He smiled and waited. Jewels always softened a womans heart.

No ones reaction was quite what he expected, though. Tuon lifted the necklace in front of her face with both hands, studying it as if she had never seen such a thing before. Selucias lip curled in a sneer. Setalle set her embroidery down on her knees and looked at him, the large golden hoops in her ears swaying as she shook her head.

Abruptly, Tuon thrust the necklace back over her shoulder toward Selucia. It does not suit me, she said. Would you like it, Selucia? Mats smile slipped a little.

The cream-skinned woman took the necklace between thumb and forefinger, as if holding a dead rat by the tail. A piece for a shea dancer to wear with her veil, she said wryly. With a twist of her wrist, she hurled the necklace at Egeanin, snapping, Put it on! Egeanin caught the thing just before it hit her face. Mats smile slid the rest of the way off his.

He expected an explosion, but Egeanin immediately fumbled open the clasp and pushed her heavy wig back to fasten it behind her neck. Her face might have been molded from snow for all the expression on it.

Turn, Selucia commanded, and it was a command, without any doubt. Let me see.

Egeanin turned. Stiff as a fence post, but she turned.

Setalle looked at her intently, with a puzzled shake of her head, then gave Mat a different head shake before returning to her embroidery. Women had as many ways of shaking their heads as they had looks. This one said he was a fool, and if he did not catch the finer nuances, he was just as glad. He did not think he would have liked them. Burn him, he bought a necklace for Tuon, who gave it to Selucia right in front of him, and now it was Egeanins?

She came for a new name, Tuon said musingly. What does she call herself?

Leilwin, Selucia replied. A fitting name for a shea dancer. Leilwin Shipless, perhaps?

Tuon nodded. Leilwin Shipless.

Egeanin jerked as though every word was a slap. May I withdraw? she asked stiffly, bending in sharp bow.

If you want to go, then go, Mat growled. Bringing her in the first place had not been the best notion he ever had, but maybe he could recover a little without her.

Eyes locked on the floorboards, Egeanin sank to her knees. Please, may I withdraw?

Tuon sat there straight-backed on the floor staring through the taller woman, clearly not seeing her at all. Selucia eyed Egeanin up and down, pursing her lips. Setalle pushed her needle through the cloth stretched on her hoop. No one so much as glanced at Mat.

Egeanin dropped to her face, and Mat bit back a startled oath when she kissed the floor. Please, she said hoarsely, I beg leave to withdraw.

You will go, Leilwin, Selucia said, cold as a queen speaking to a chickenthief, and you will not let me see your face again unless it is covered by a shea dancers veil.

Egeanin scrambled backward on hands and knees and all but tumbled out the door, so fast that Mat was left gaping.

With an effort, he managed to regain his smile. There seemed little point in staying, but a man could make a graceful exit. Well, I suppose

Tuon wriggled her fingers again, still not looking at him, and Selucia cut him short. The High Lady is weary, Toy. You have her permission to go.

Look, my name is Mat, he said. An easy name. A simple name. Mat. Tuon might as well have been a porcelain doll in truth for all the response she made.

Setalle set down her embroidery, though, and rose with one hand resting lightly on the hilt of the curved dagger stuck behind her belt. Young man, if you think youre going to lounge about till you get to see us readying for bed, youre sadly mistaken. She smiled saying it, but she did have her hand on her knife, and she was Ebou Dari enough to stick a man on a whim. Tuon remained an unmoving doll, a queen on her throne somehow mistakenly dressed in ill-fitting clothes. Mat left.

Egeanin was leaning on one hand against the side of the wagon, her head hanging. Her other hand was gripping the necklace around her throat. Harnan moved, a little way off in the darkness, just to show he was still there. A wise man, to keep clear of Egeanin just then. Mat was too irritated for wisdom.

What was that about? he demanded. You dont have to go on your knees to Tuon anymore. And Selucia? Shes a bloody ladys maid! I dont know anybody whod jump for his queen the way you jumped for her.

Egeanins hard face was shadowed, but her voice was haggard. The High Lady is... who she is. Selucia is her sojhin. No one of the low Blood would dare meet her sojhins eyes, and maybe not the High Blood, either. The clasp broke with a metallic snap as she jerked the necklace free. But then, Im not of any Blood, now. Rearing back, she put her whole body into throwing the necklace as far into the night as she could.

Mat opened his mouth. He could have bought a dozen prime horses with what he paid for that thing and had coin left. He closed it again without saying a word. He might not always be wise, but he was wise enough to know when a woman really might try to stick a knife in him. He knew another thing, as well. If Egeanin behaved this way around Tuon and Selucia, then he had better make sure the suldam were kept clear. The Light only knew what they would do if Tuon started wiggling her fingers.

That left him with a job of work to do. Well, he hated work, but those old memories had his head stuffed full of battles. He hated battle, too - a man could get killed dead! - but it was better than work. Strategy and tactics. Learn the ground, learn your enemy, and if you could not win one way, you found another.

The next night he returned to the purple wagon, alone, and once Olver had finished his lesson in stones from Tuon, Mat inveigled his way into a game. At first, sitting on the floor across the board from the dark little woman, he was not sure whether to win or lose. Some women liked to win every time, but the man had to make her work for it. Some liked the man to win, or at least more often than he lost. Neither made any sense to him - he liked to win, and the easier, the better - but that was how it was. While he was dithering, Tuon took matters out of his hands. Halfway through the game, he realized she had him in a trap he could not get out of. Her white stones were cutting off his black everywhere. It was a clean and resounding win for her.

You dont play very well, Toy, she said mockingly. Despite the tone, her big, liquid eyes considered him coolly, weighing and measuring. A man could drown in eyes like that.

He smiled and made his goodbyes before there could be any thought of kicking him out. Strategy. Think to the future. Do the unexpected. The next night, he brought a small red paper flower made by one of the shows seamstresses. And presented it to a startled Selucia. Setalles eyebrows rose, and even Tuon seemed taken aback. Tactics. Put your opponent off balance. Come to think, women and battles were not that different. Both wrapped a man in fog and could him kill him without trying. If he was careless.