The Dragon Reborn

There was another i

"Boy," Thom muttered, "if we don't go back to The White Crescent, I am going to go to sleep here in the rain." He stopped to cough. "Do you realize you've marched right past three i

Mat stared blearily up the street at a tall man in a cloak hurrying around a corner. Light, I am tired. Rand is five hundred leagues from here, playing at being the bloody Dragon. "What? Three i

Two steps into the common room Mat saw him. The big man wore a green coat with blue stripes down puffy sleeves, but it was Comar, close-cut black beard with a white streak over his chin and all. He sat in one of the strangely low-backed chairs, at a table on the far side of the room, rattling a leather dice cup and smiling at the man across from him. That fellow wore a long coat and baggy breeches, and he was not smiling. He stared at the coins on the table as if wishing he had them back in his purse. Another dice cup sat at Comar's elbow.

Comar upended the leather cup in his hand, and began laughing almost before the dice stopped spi

The i

Mat suppressed his first urge, which was to rush over to Comar, drub him over the head with his quarterstaff, and demand to know where Egwene and the others were. Something was wrong here. Comar was the first man he had seen wearing a sword, but the way the men looked at him was more than fear of a swordsman. Even the serving woman who brought Comar a fresh cup of wine – and was pinched for her trouble – had a nervous laugh for him.

Look at it from every side, Mat thought wearily. Half the trouble I get into is from not doing that. I have to think. Tiredness seemed to have stuffed his head with wool. He motioned to Thom, and they strolled over to the i

"Not from the city, are you?" the i

"If you have never seen him before," Mat said, "how do you know he is a merchant?"

The i

"He wins, does he?" Yawning, Mat wondered how he would do dicing with another man who had luck.

"Sometimes he loses," the i

"Weighted dice," Thom said, then coughed. "When he wants to be sure of wi

"I have heard of such," the i

"Bring me two dice cups," Thom said, "and two sets of dice. Crowns or spots, it makes no difference, so long as they are the same."

The i

Thom dumped the dice from the other cup into his hand, then, almost too quickly to follow, dropped them back in and twisted the cup over to rest upside down on the table before the dice could fall out. He kept his hand on top of the cup. "Put a mark on each of them, boy. Something small, but something you'll know for your mark."

Mat found himself exchanging puzzled glances with the i

"All right," he said, setting them back on the table. "Show me your trick."

Thom reached over and picked up the dice, then set them down again a foot away. "Look for your marks, boy."

Mat frowned. Thom's hand was still on the upended leather cup; the gleeman had not moved it or taken Mat's dice anywhere near it. He picked up the dice... and blinked. There was not a scratch on them. The i