“Coming to Caemlyn, you say?” The innkeeper shook his head. “This is the last place on earth I'd expect Thom to come, excepting maybe it was Tar Valon.” He waited for a stableman to pass, leading a horse, and even then he lowered his voice. “You've trouble with the Aes Sedai, I take it.”
“Yes,” Mat grumbled at the same time that Rand said, “What makes you think that?”
Master Gill chuckled dryly. “I know the man, that's what. He'd jump into that kind of trouble, especially to help a couple of lads about the age of you...” The reminiscence in his eyes flickered out, and he stood up straight with a chary look. “Now ... ah ... I'm not making any accusations, mind, but ... ah ... I take it neither of you can ... ah ... what I'm getting at is . . . ah ... what exactly is the nature of your trouble with Tar Valon, if you don't mind my asking?”
Rand's skin prickled as he realized what the man was suggesting. The One Power. “No, no, nothing like that. I swear. There was even an Aes Sedai helping us. Moiraine was ...” He bit his tongue, but the innkeeper's expression never changed.
“Glad to hear it. Not that I've all that much love for Aes Sedai, but better them than ... that other thing.” He shook his head slowly. “Too much talk of that kind of thing, with Logain being brought here. No offense meant, you understand, but ... well, I had to know, didn't I?”
“No offense,” Rand said. Mat's murmur could have been anything, but the innkeeper appeared to take it for the same as Rand had said.
“You two look the right sort, and I do believe you were — are — friends of Thom, but it's hard times and stony days. I don't suppose you can pay? No, I didn't think so. There's not enough of anything, and what there is costs the earth, so I'll give you beds — not the best, but warm and dry — and something to eat, and I cannot promise more, however much I'd like.”
“Thank you,” Rand said with a quizzical glance at Mat. “It's more than I expected.” What was the right sort, and why should he promise more?
“Well, Thom's a good friend. An old friend. Hotheaded and liable to say the worst possible thing to the one person he shouldn't, but a good friend all the same. If he doesn't show up ... well, we'll figure something out then. Best you don't talk any more talk about Aes Sedai helping you. I'm a good Queen's man, but there are too many in Caemlyn right now who'd take it wrong, and I don't mean just the Whitecloaks.”
Mat snorted. “For all I care, the ravens can take every Aes Sedai straight to Shayol Ghul!”
“Watch your tongue,” Master Gill snapped. “I said I don't love them; I didn't say I'm a fool thinks they're behind everything that's wrong. The Queen supports Elaida, and the Guards stand for the Queen. The Light send things don't go so bad that changes. Anyway, lately some Guards have forgotten themselves enough to be a little rough with folks they overhear speaking against Aes Sedai. Not on duty, thank the Light, but it's happened, just the same. I don't need offduty Guards breaking up my common room to teach you a lesson, and I don't need Whitecloaks egging somebody on to paint the Dragon's Fang on my door, so if you want any help out of me, you just keep thoughts about Aes Sedai to yourself, good or bad.” He paused thoughtfully, then added, “Maybe it's best you don't mention Thom's name, either, where anyone but me can hear. Some of the Guards have long memories, and so does the Queen. No need taking chances. ”
“Thom had trouble with the Queen?” Rand said incredulously, and the innkeeper laughed.
“So he didn't tell you everything. Don't know why he should. On the other hand, I don't know why you shouldn't know, either. Not like it's a secret, exactly. Do you think every gleeman thinks as much of himself as Thom does? Well, come to think of it, I guess they do, but it always seemed to me Thom had an extra helping of thinking a lot of himself. He wasn't always a gleeman, you know, wandering from village to village and sleeping under a hedge as often as not. There was a time Thom Merrilin was Courtbard right here in Caemlyn, and known in every royal court from Tear to Maradon. ”
“Thom?” Mat said.
Rand nodded slowly. He could picture Thom at a Queen's court, with his stately manner and grand gestures.
“That he was,” Master Gill said. “It was not long after Taringail Damodred died that the ... trouble about his nephew cropped up. There were some said Thom was, shall we say, closer to the Queen than was proper. But Morgase was a young widow, and Thom was in his prime, then, and the Queen can do as she wishes is the way I look at it. Only she's always had a temper, has our good Morgase, and he took off without a word when he learned what kind of trouble his nephew was in. The Queen didn't much like that. Didn't like him meddling in Aes Sedai matters, either. Can't say I think it was right, either, nephew or no. Anyway, when he came back, he said some words, all right. Words you don't say to a Queen. Words you don't say to any woman with Morgase's spirit. Elaida was set against him because of his trying to mix in the business with his nephew, and between the Queen's temper and Elaida's animosity, Thom left Caemlyn half a step ahead of a trip to prison, if not the headsman's axe. As far as I know, the writ still stands.”
“If it was a long time ago,” Rand said, “maybe nobody remembers.”
Master Gill shook his head. “Gareth Bryne is CaptainGeneral of the Queen's Guards. He personally commanded the Guardsmen Morgase sent to bring Thom back in chains, and I misdoubt he'll ever forget returning emptyhanded to find Thom had already been back to the Palace and left again. And the Queen never forgets anything. You ever know a woman who did? My, but Morgase was in a taking. I'll swear the whole city walked soft and whispered for a month. Plenty of other Guardsmen old enough to remember, too. No, best you keep Thom as close a secret as you keep that Aes Sedai of yours. Come, I'll get you something to eat. You look as if your bellies are gnawing at your backbones. ”
Chapter 36
Web of the Pattern
Master Gill took them to a corner table in the common room and had one of the serving maids bring them food. Rand shook his head when he saw the plates, with a few thin slices of gravycovered beef, a spoonful of mustard greens, and two potatoes on each. It was a rueful, resigned headshake, though, not angry. Not enough of anything, the innkeeper had said. Picking up his knife and fork, Rand wondered what would happen when there was nothing left. It made his halfcovered plate seem like a feast. It made him shiver.
Master Gill had chosen a table well away from anyone else, and he sat with his back to the corner, where he could watch the room. Nobody could get close enough to overhear what they said without him seeing. When the maid left, he said softly, “Now, why don't you tell me about this trouble of yours? If I'm going to help, I'd best know what I'm getting into.”
Rand looked at Mat, but Mat was frowning at his plate as if he were mad at the potato he was cutting. Rand took a deep breath. “I don't really understand it myself,” he began.
He kept the story simple, and he kept Trollocs and Fades out of it. When somebody offered help, it would not do to tell them it was all about fables. But he did not think it was fair to understate the danger, either, not fair to pull someone in when they had no idea what they were getting into. Some men were after him and Mat, and a couple of friends of theirs, too. They appeared where they were least expected, these men, and they were deadly dangerous and set on killing him and his friends, or worse. Moiraine said some of them were Darkfriends. Thom did not trust Moiraine completely, but he stayed on with them, he said, because of his nephew. They had been separated during an attack while trying to reach Whitebridge, and then, in Whitebridge, Thom died saving them from another attack. And there had been other tries. He knew there were holes in it, but it was the best he could do on short notice without telling more than was safe.
“We just kept on till we reached Caemlyn,” he explained. “That was the plan, originally. Caemlyn, and then Tar Valon.” He shifted uncomfortably on the edge of his chair. After keeping everything secret for so long, it felt odd to be telling somebody even as much as he was. “If we stay on that route, the others will be able to find us, sooner or later.”
“If they're alive,” Mat muttered at his plate.
Rand did not even glance at Mat. Something compelled him to add, “It could bring you trouble, helping us.”
Master Gill waved it off with a plump hand. “Can't say as I want trouble, but it wouldn't be the first I've seen. No bloody Darkfriend will make me turn my back on Thom's friends. This friend of yours from up north, now — if she comes to Caemlyn, I'll hear. There are people keep their eyes on comings and goings like that around here, and word spreads.”
Rand hesitated, then asked, “What about Elaida?”
The innkeeper hesitated too, and finally shook his head. “I don't think so. Maybe if you didn't have a connection to Thom. She'd winkle it out, and then where would you be? No telling. Maybe in a cell. Maybe worse. They say she has a way of feeling things, what's happened, what's going to happen. They say she can cut right through to what a man wants to hide. I don't know, but I wouldn't risk it. If it wasn't for Thom, you could go to the Guards. They'd take care of any Darkfriends quick enough. But even if you could keep Thom quiet from the Guards, word would reach Elaida as soon as you mentioned Darkfriends, and then you're back where we started.”