““No, Great Master.
He has vanished. But, Great
Master, one of the girls is Morgase’s nit.”
Mat half turned, then caught himself.
The soldiers were coming closer; they did not appear to have seen his
start through the thick woven rose stems.
Move, you fools! Get by so I can see who this man bloody is! He had lost some of the conversatiton. “—has been
far too impatient since regaining his freedom…See that she dies quickly,
Comar. Let her death attract no notice
at all…Those slatterns in their Towerwill have a difficult time producing her
aftetr this disappearance. This may all
be just as well. Let it be done quickly.
Quickly before he has time to take her
himself.”” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 534-535.
I think it’s here where Mat became one of my favorite
characters. To this point his plotline
in The Dragon Reborn has gone a long way to rehabilitate him due to giving
him an actual motivation and a definitive decision is made by Mat for who he
is. Throughout The Dragon Reborn he
has gone on about how he will be free of Aes Sedai, the White Tower, and the
machinations of the pattern. But in
attempting to deliver Elayne’s letter to her mother he comes across Lord
Gaebril, Morgase’s newest advisor and confidant, and the above quote
happens. Okay in the book it’s quite a
bit longer, but paired down it reveals that this Gaebril is conspiring to have
Elayne killed, placing distrust in the White Tower, and push Morgase towards a
political marriage to grab power for himself.
It’s clear at this point that Gaebril is a Darkfriend and one of the Forsaken,
though which one remains to be seen. In
terms of Mat’s character development once he is back at the Queen’s Blessing
Inn, the same inn from The Eye of the World in a case of conservation of
characters and locations that I honestly forgot about as Basal Gill is one of
those Wheel of Time side characters who really leave an impression but
only when the text mentions them, Mat declares this “I mean to be as far toward
tear as I can before nightfall.” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 550. Mat Cauthon may be many things. He is a gambler, a rogue, and a man who just
wants to get back to his life before leaving his village, but he isn’t going to
stand by and let his friends die.
There’s also the sequence inside the castle itself,
something Mat only manages to do by climbing over the wall into the garden Rand
fell into and the way he carries himself in the court is fascinating. He’s a character who has false bravado,
finding the right words to say to the right people to get an audience with the
queen herself. Gaebril clearly has some
power over Morgase that certain members of court are not taken with. Tallanvor, the lieutenant of the guard, in particular
is not taken with him and is perhaps the kindest to Mat in his own stern way
which is very important for what is to come.
Morgase, however, is not some damsel needing to be rescued. She tells Mat, who calls himself Thom
Grinwell here to keep his actual identity a secret as Gaebril’s master is after
either him or Rand, “A young man who has left his small village often finds it
difficult to return to it. I think you
will travel far before you see Comefry again.
Perhaps you will even return to Tar Valon. If you do, and you see my daughter, tell her that
what is said in anger is often repented.
I will not remove her from the White Tower before time. Tell her that I often think of my own time
there, and mis the quiet talks with Sheriam in her study. Tell her that I said that, Thom Grinwell.” – The
Dragon Reborn, p. 541. This is
especially puzzling for a number of reasons.
First, it implies that Morgase sees through Mat’s ruse, possibly understanding
more about who he is than anyone else.
This is not impossible as both names of the pseudonym used refer to Else
Grinwell, who was sent to the Tower and it is possible Morgase has heard of her
through Aes Sedai messages, and Thom Merrilin, who has a clear connection with
House Trakand and Caemlyn itself. This as
a theory is one that doesn’t entirely hold water and relies on coincidences and
happenstance we never get an answer to.
There is the message she has for Elayne, Sheriam being the Mistress of
Novices would be in charge of punishing Elayne for leaving, but the wording is
odd. As Morgase spent time in the Tower
what message she is trying to convey here is odd, possibly coded towards something
that we don’t really get an answer to.
Finally, it is another example of the political shift in The Wheel of
Time as our main characters are becoming embroiled in conspiracies of various
natures, this one dealing with royalty. Where
this goes is for another time, as next time we head to Tear and one piece of
calm before The Dragon Reborn ends.
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