"Accident? But—"
"Through the gateway, you knothead", Pevara said, shoving him toward it. She followed, then collapsed on the other side.
"Damodred, I need you to stay where you are", Mat said. He did not look up, but he heard Galad's horse snort through the open gateway.
"One is led to question your sanity, Cauthon", Galad replied.
Mat finally looked up from his maps. He was not sure he would ever grow accustomed to these gateways. He stood in their command building, the one Tuon had erected in the cleft at the foot of Dashar Knob, and there was a gateway in his wall. Outside it Galad sat his horse wearing the gold and white of the Children of the Light. He was still positioned near the ruins, where a Trolloc army was trying to push its way across the Mora.
Galad Damodred was a man who could have used a few stiff drinks in him. He could have been a statue, with that pretty face and unchanging expression. No, statues had more life.
"You’ll do as you’re told", Mat said, looking back to his maps. "You are to hold the river up there and do as Tam tells you. I don’t care if you think your place isn’t important enough".
"Very well", Galad said, voice as cold as a corpse in the snow. He turned his horse away, and Mika the damane closed the gateway.
"It’s a bloodbath out there, Mat", Elayne said. Light, her voice was colder than Galad’s!
"You all put me in charge. Let me do my job".
"We made you commander of the armies", Elayne said. "You are not in charge".
Trust an Aes Sedai to argue over every little word. It. . . . He looked up, frowning. Min had just said something softly to Tuon. "What is it?" he asked.
"I saw his body alone, on a field", Min said, "as if dead".
"Matrim", Tuon said. "I am . . . concerned".
"For once we agree", Elayne said from her throne on the other side of the room. "Mat, their general is outmatching you".
"It’s not so bloody simple", Mat said, fingers on the maps. "It’s never that bloody simple".
The man leading the Shadow was good. Very good. It’s Demandred, Mat thought. I’m fighting one of the bloody Forsaken.
Together, Mat and Demandred were composing a grand painting. Each responded to the other’s moves with subtle care. Mat was trying to use just a little too much red in one of his paints. He wanted to paint the wrong picture, but still a reasonable one.
It was hard. He had to be capable enough to keep Demandred back, but weak enough to invite aggression. A feint, ever so subtle. It was dangerous, possibly disastrous. He had to walk on a razor edge. There was no way to avoid cutting his feet. The question was not whether he would be bloodied, but whether he would reach the other side or not.
"Move in the Ogier", Mat said softly, fingers on the map. "I want them to reinforce the men at the ford". The Aiel fought there, guarding the way as the White Tower’s men and the members of the Band of the Red Hand retreated off the Heights per his order.
The command was relayed to the Ogier. Stay safe, Loial, Mat thought, making a notation on the map where he had sent the Ogier. "Alert Lan, he’s still on the western side of the Heights. I want him to swing around the back of the Heights, now that most of the Shadow’s forces are on top, and back toward the Mora, behind the other Trolloc army trying to cross near the ruins. He’s not to engage them; just stay out of sight and hold his position".
The messengers ran to do his bidding, and he made another notation. One of the so’jhin brought him some kaf the cute one with the freckles. He was too absorbed by the battle to smile at her.
Sipping his kaf Mat had the damane make him a gateway on the table-top so he could see the battlefield itself. He leaned out over it, but kept one hand on the rim of the table. Only a bloody fool would let someone shove him through a hole two hundred feet over the ground.
He set down his kaf on a side table and took out his looking glass. The Trollocs were moving down the Heights toward the bogs. Yes, Demandred was good. The hulking beasts he had sent toward the bogs were slow but thick and powerful, like a rockslide. Also, a group of mounted Sharans were about to ride down from the Heights. Light cavalry. They would hit Mats troops holding Hawal Ford, and keep them from attacking the Trolloc left flank.
A battle was a sword fight on a grand scale. For every move, there was a counter—often three or four. You responded by moving a squad here, a squad there, trying to counter what your enemy did while putting pressure on him in places where he was thin. Back and forth, back and forth. Mat was outnumbered, but he could use that.
"Relay the following to Talmanes", Mat said, eye still to the looking glass. " ‘Remember when you bet me I couldn’t throw a coin into a cup from across the entire inn?’ "
"Yes, Great One", the Seanchan messenger said.
Mat had responded to the bet by saying he would try it once he was drunker—otherwise, there would have been no sport to it. Then Mat had pretended to get drunk, and provoked Talmanes to up the bet from silver to gold.
Talmanes had figured him out and insisted he really drink. I still owe him a few marks for that, don’t I? Mat thought absently.
He pointed the looking glass to the northern part of the Heights. A group of Sharan heavy cavalry had gathered to move down the slope; he could make out their long, steel-tipped lances.
They were preparing to charge down the slope to intercept Lan’s men as they swung around the northern side of the Heights. But the order hadn’t even reached Lan yet.
It confirmed Mat’s suspicions: Demandred not only had spies in the camp, he had one in or near the command tent. Someone who could send messages as soon as Mat gave orders. That probably meant a channeler, here, inside the tent and masking their ability.
Bloody ashes, Mat thought. As if this weren’t tough enough.
The messenger returned from Talmanes. "Great One", he said, prostrating himself nose to the floor, "your man says that his forces are completely ruined. He wishes to follow your order, but says that the dragons will not be available for the rest of this day. It will take weeks to repair them. They are . . . I’m sorry, Great One, but these were his exact words. They are worse off than a barmaid in Sabinel. I do not know what it means".
"Barmaids there work for tips", Mat said with a grunt, "but people in Sabinel don’t tip".
That was, of course, a lie. Sabinel was a town where Mat had tried to make Talmanes help him win over a pair of barmaids. Talmanes had suggested that Mat feign a war wound to get sympathy.
Good man. The dragons could still fight, but they probably looked busted up something good. They had an advantage there; nobody knew how they worked except Mat and Aludra. Bloody ashes, and even he worried that each time one went off it would somehow blow up the wrong way.
Five or six dragons were completely functional; Mat had pulled them through a gateway to safety. Aludra had those set up south of the ford, aimed toward the Heights. Mat would use them, but leave the spy with the impression that the bulk of them had been destroyed. Talmanes could instead patch them up; then Mat could use them again.
But the moment I do, he thought, Demandred will bring everything he has down on them. It had to be just the right moment. Bloody ashes, lately his life had been completely about trying to find the right moments. He was running out of those kinds of moments. For now, he ordered Aludra to use the half-dozen functional dragons to pound Trollocs across the river who were coming down the southwestern slope of the Heights.
She was far enough away from the Heights, and she would keep moving, so Demandred would have a difficult time pinpointing her and bringing the dragons down. The smoke they made would obscure her position quickly.
"Mat", Elayne said from her throne on the side of the room. He noticed, with amusement, that in shifting it about for "comfort" she had somehow gotten Birgitte to wedge it up a few inches, so she now sat exactly level with Tuon. Maybe an inch higher. "Please. Can you at least explain some of what you’re doing?"
Not without letting that spy hear, too, he thought, glancing about the room. Who was it? One of the three pairs of damane and j'uI'darrii Could a damane be a Darkfriend without her suldam knowing? What about the opposite? That noblewoman with the white streak in her hair looked suspicious.
Or was it one of the many generals? Galgan? Tylee? Banner-General Gerisch? She stood at the side of the room, glaring at him. Honestly. Women. She did have a nice backside, but Mat had only mentioned it to be friendly. He was a married man.
The fact was, there were so many people moving about, Mat figured he could have spread millet on the floor and had flour by the end of the day. Supposedly, they were all absolutely trustworthy and incapable of betraying the Empress, might she live forever. Which she would not, if spies kept slipping in.
"Mat?" Elayne said. "Someone else needs to know what you are planning. If you fall, we have to continue your plan".
Well, that was a good enough argument. He’d considered it himself. Assured that his current orders were being followed, he stepped over to Elayne. He glanced about the room, then smiled to the others innocently. They need not know he was suspicious of them.
"Why are you leering at everyone?" Elayne asked softly.
"I'm not bloody leering", Mat said. "Outside. I want to walk and take in some fresh air".
"Knotai?" Tuon asked, standing.
He did not look toward her—those eyes could drill through solid steel. Instead, he casually made his way out of the command building. Elayne and Birgitte followed a few moments later.
"What is this?" Elayne asked softly.
"There are many ears in there", Mat said.
"You suspect a spy inside of the command—"
"Wait", Mat said, taking her arm, pulling her away. He nodded agreeably to some Deathwatch Guards. They grunted in reply. For Deathwatch Guards, that was downright talkative.
"You can speak freely", Elayne said. "I just wove us a ward against eavesdropping".
"Thanks", Mat said. "I want you away from the command post. I’ll tell you what I’m doing. If something goes wrong, you’ll have to pick another general, all right?"
"Mat", Elayne said, "if you think there’s a spy—"
"I know there’s a spy", Mat said, "and so I’m going to use the fellow. It’s going to work. Trust me".
"Yes, and you’re so confident that you’ve already made a backup plan in case you fail".
He ignored that, nodding to Birgitte. She looked around them idly, watching for anyone who tried to draw too close.
"How good are you at cards, Elayne?" Mat asked.
"At . . . Mat, this isn’t the time for gambling".
"It’s the exact time for gambling. Elayne, do you see how badly we’re outnumbered? Do you feel the ground when Demandred attacks? We’re lucky he didn’t decide to Travel directly to the command post here and attack us—I suspect he’s afraid that Rand is hiding here somewhere, and he’ll get ambushed. But blood and bloody ashes, he’s strong. Without a gamble, we’re dead. Finished. Buried".