not to walk too fast, and was surprised when Tallanvor walked along. Light, is he Gaebril's man, or Morgase's? He was just beginning to feel an itch between his shoulder blades, as if a knife might be about to go in — He doesn't know, burn me! Gaebril doesn't suspect I know! — when the young officer finally spoke.
“Did you spend long in Tar Valon? In the White Tower? Long enough to learn anything of it?”
“I was only there three days,” Mat said cautiously. He would have made the time less — if he could have delivered the letter without admitting ever being in Tar Valon, he would have — but he did not think the man would believe he had gone all that way to see his sister and left the same day. What under the Light is he after? “I learned what I saw in that time. Nothing of any importance. They did not guide me around and tell me things. I was only there to see Else.”
“You must have heard something, man. Who is Sheriam? Does talking to her in her study mean anything?”
Mat shook his head vigorously to keep relief from showing on his face. “I don't know who she is,” he said truthfully. Perhaps he had heard Egwene, or perhaps Nynaeve, mention the name. An Aes Sedai, maybe? “Why should it mean anything?”
“I do not know,” Tallanvor said softly. “There is too much I do not know. Sometimes I think she is trying to say something...” He gave Mat a sharp look. “Are you a loyal Andorman, Thom Grinwell?”
“Of course I am.” Light, if I say that much more often, I may start believing it. “What about you? Do you serve Morgase and Gaebril loyally?”
Tallanvor gave him a look as hard as the dice's mercy. “I serve Morgase, Thom Grinwell. Her, I serve to the death. Fare you well!” He turned and strode back toward the Palace with a hand gripping his sword hilt.
Watching him go, Mat muttered to himself. “I will wager this” — he gave Gaebril's washleather purse a toss — “that Gaebril says the same.” Whatever games they played in the Palace, he wanted no place in any of them. And he meant to make sure Egwene and the others were out of them, too. Fool women! Now I have to keep their bacon from burning instead of looking after my own! He did not start to run until the streets hid him from the Palace.
When he came dashing into The Queen's Blessing, nothing very much had changed in the library. Thom and the innkeeper still sat over the stones board — a different game, he saw from the positions of the stones, but no better for Gill — and the calico cat was back on the table, washing herself. A tray holding their unlit pipes and the remains of a meal for two sat near the cat, and his belongings were gone from the armchair. Each man had a wine cup at his elbow.
“I will be leaving, Master Gill,” he said. “You can keep the coin and take a meal out of it. I'll stay long enough to eat, but then I am on the road to Tear.”
“What is your hurry, boy?” Thom seemed to be watching the cat more than the board. “We only just arrived here.”
“You delivered the Lady Elayne's letter, then?” the innkeeper said eagerly. “And kept your skin whole, it seems. Did you really climb over that wall like the other young man? No, that does not matter. Did the letter soothe Morgase? Do we still have to keep tiptoeing on eggs, man?”
“I suppose it soothed her,” Mat said. “I think it did.” He hesitated a moment, bouncing Gaebril's purse on his hand. It made a clinking sound. He had not looked to see if it really held ten gold marks; the weight was about right. “Master Gill, what can you tell me of Gaebril? Aside from the fact that he does not like Aes Sedai. You said he had not been in Caemlyn long?”
“Why do you want to know about him?” Thom asked. “Basel, are you going to place a stone or not?” The innkeeper sighed and stuck a black stone on the board, and the gleeman shook his head.
“Well, lad,” Gill said, “there is not much to tell. He came out of the west during the winter. Somewhere out your way, I think. Maybe it was the Two Rivers. I've heard the mountains mentioned.”