#cavan lopar

[iviarellereads]

The Dragon Reborn, Chapter 49 - A Storm in Tear

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(Dice icon) In which coincidence twists.

PERSPECTIVE: Egwene. Ailhuin returns with Juilin, a lean man with a swordbreaker almost exactly like Hurin's. He says he'll help them if he can, but he's seen men in black walking across rooftops, and he expects the High Lords may hire him to seek out thieves sooner than later, though nobody's reported a theft yet.(1)

Nyn asks what he charges, and he says a tenth of the value of some goods, or a silver mark per person, and in this case they can have the choice. Elayne distracts him by mentioning that she knows another thief-taker, a very respectful man from Shienar, who carries both sword and swordbreaker. Why doesn't he? He doesn't seem to get her reference,(2) but says there are laws against commoners wearing swords in Tear. Nyn finally counts out thirteen silver coins, probably the lightest of the silver in the purse but still thirteen.

Juilin protests, saying he'd not ask for more than coppers from them, but Nyn says she's buying exactly what she's buying: he will find the thirteen women, find them and no more. He nods, and she describes each one, giving no names because names are so easily faked. Nyn adds that at least a dozen have died at their hands so far, and they are more dangerous than he can possibly know. If they find him following them, he will die, or they will torture him to find them, and Ailhuin will likely die with them. He says he was stabbed by a woman he thought harmless once, and never makes the same mistake now. He will treat them all as if they were Aes Sedai, and Black Ajah at that. Egg almost chokes but he apologizes, and assures her that there are no Aes Sedai in Tear.(3)

He leaves, and Ailhuin assures them he's the best in the business. Nyn feels a storm coming, it will rain again before morning.(4) They go to bed, and Egg tells Nyn and El to wake her after an hour, but she goes into TAR, makes her way to the Heart of the Stone, sees Liandrin, and wakes herself up almost immediately. She tells them that the women know they're here, they're waiting for them, and outside the storm breaks.

PERSPECTIVE: Mat, playing stones with Thom, who's the clear winner. Mat asks if Thom ever loses, and he says yes, Morgase would beat him about half the time. It's said that good stones players are also good at the Game of Houses and at war.

The ship docks at Tear, the captain swearing he'll never carry anything that can talk again, and Mat pays him an exorbitant fee. He makes sure the fireworks are protected as they walk into the rainy night. Thom asks if he's ready to sell them yet, but Mat says he wants to know how they work, and won't it be fun to see him set them all off?

They set off into Tear, Mat grumbling at the mud catching his boots. He plans to get an early start of looking for Comar. Thom says there are hundreds of inns, it'll take weeks, and some of them are so small you'd never know they were there. Mat thinks of home when he thinks of small inns, thinking they should never have left Emond's Field. But, Rand surely had to, and Egwene might have died if she hadn't. Well, maybe Perrin still has a chance to go home, and if he does, Mat hopes he takes it, though, why would he? As the thought finishes, lightning strikes, and illuminates a window with herbs hanging in the window.(5)

They take rooms at an inn, Mat paying in silver since the gold is running low (the men on the ship didn't dice at all) then he and Thom go around to a couple of other inns. It's late into the night when, looking for another to check, Thom says they've just walked past three inns, can they go back and sleep now? Mat almost gives in when he swears he sees Rand up the street,(6) but looks back instead. He didn't notice the last inn, but likes the look of the name and the sign, The Golden Cup, so he goes in.

And not two steps in, he sees Comar, dicing across the room. His current dicing partner leaves and he starts calling who's next, who wants to try his luck? Mat knows something is wrong, not least because Comar is the first man he's seen wearing a sword, so he tries to think it through from all sides before rushing in.

He and Thom approach the innkeeper and ask a few discreet questions about Comar. The innkeeper assumes Comar is a merchant, thumbing his nose at the poor of the Maule, and he keeps throwing the best rolls for any game he plays. Thom shows them a trick of replacing dice by sleight of hand, and says he probably has sets of weighted dice, and is doing the same trick.

Mat tells Thom to stay at the bar, and goes to dice with Comar. He feels the luck shift as he throws his dice, and lands the winning roll. He tells Comar his luck's about used up, calls him by name, and says if he's hurt the girls, it's all gone. Comar's face goes white as he realizes what Mat just said. He lets slip that he hasn't found them, but he isn't the only one searching. Mat tells him to leave Tear, tell Gaebril anything, but leave Tear tonight. Comar takes out his sword, and Mat defeats him handily with his quarterstaff. In fact, Mat does too well, and kills him by accident. The innkeeper tells him he must go, he'll tell the Defenders it was a man he dreamed of, a tall man with red hair and gray eyes. He can show them the weighted dice now, and everyone here lost coin, they'll all attest. Mat lets himself be dragged out of the inn.

On the way back to the inn where their rooms are, Mat says he's figured out the luck: it works best when things have an element of randomness. Not much good for cards, no good at stones, too much pattern. Even finding Comar, it was a random inn. If he's going to find the wondergirls in time, he has to search without a pattern.(7)

They go back and get some sleep, but for three days and three evenings, Mat lets luck decide where he goes, picking inns at random, or sometimes just flipping a coin at an intersection and turning this way or that. Thom develops a terrible cough, so he can no longer play flute or tell stories, but he insists on going out with Mat.

He's even started to have bad dreams, especially of a man in puffy sleeves and cropped white hair, weaving a net, sometimes over the wondergirls, sometimes Moiraine, and sometimes the man held a crystal sword, only sometimes Rand held the sword. In fact, Mat dreams of Rand a great deal.(8)

Mat thinks it must just be the lack of sleep, the lack of eating regular meals, but he can't stop. He means to win his wager.

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(1) We don't have very many clues about what might be going on here, certainly nothing definitive, but remember that we're getting awfully close to the end of the book. (2) Frankly, nor do I. Anyone got an insight check here? Pretty sure I rolled a 1 and none of the wikis and databases I have access to, even as a full-spoil, are helping. My best guess is it's a joke about Hurin the Tolkien figure that I also don't get. (3) Oh, buddy. (4) Do you think it's still the rain Nyn's feeling, or the looming climax of the story? (5) They're SO CLOSE! But they're not thinking like people trying to be sneaky. Well, at least we know they're nearby when Thom finally wants something for that cough. (6) Oh right, Mat's been WELL out of the loop. He hasn't any of the Dragon-search stuff on his itinerary, he's just here for the ladies. Well, it seems Rand did arrive ahead of them all. (7) Find the pattern, even if that pattern is randomness. Luck is his superpower. (8) So, both Rand and whoever the local Forsaken is are affecting people's dreams now.