Reading The Wheel of Time: Mat Grins at Fate in Robert Jordan’s <i>Crossroads of Twilight</i> (Part 19)

Welcome back to Reading the Wheel of Time! It’s been a very rainy December here in my neck of the woods, which hasn’t been fun for me or my new puppy, but has been perfect for the atmosphere of the end of Crossroads of Twilight, and especially this week as we rejoin Valan Luca’s Grand Traveling Show and Magnificent Display of Marvels and Wonders on the road out of Ebou Dar and towards Lugard. Unfortunately for Mat, no one seems to share his sense of urgency, and he has to do his best to manage Aes Sedai and sul’dam, Juilin and Thera, Eganin, Domon, Olver and… oh yeah. The heir of the Seanchan Empress and his future wife. Chapters 28 and 29 have just about everything—romance, worry, gifts, games, revelations about the Seanchan, and even a stabbing! Mat might not be ready for what’s coming, but I certainly am!

Despite their eagerness to leave the dangers of Ebou Dar behind, Luca and his people soon lose their urgency, and they make little progress on the road, especially since Luca won’t pass up the chance to stop in any village where they might make some money. Mat frets over the slow pace, mostly made through winter rain, and over the groups of Seanchan settlers and soldiers they sometimes pass. But that isn’t the worst of his troubles.

One night, he catches the Aes Sedai sneaking back into camp, and the sul’dam sneaking after them. Mat confronts the women, but while the Aes Sedai express their gratefulness for his rescue and the sul’dam are obsequious in their offers to control “the girls” and to serve Mat, neither group follows his request to stay in the wagons and out of the towns, though both groups do inform him of whatever they learn about the movements of the Seanchan armies. Mat is at least relieved to learn that all signs—and the sul’dam’s own knowledge—point to the Seanchan turning their attentions towards Illian, which means that the road to Lugard should become increasingly clear.

Mat is more comfortable relying on Thom and Juilin for information, although Thom has been increasingly moody lately and Juilin keeps taking Amathera everywhere with him. Mat sees Amathera as a much bigger liability than the Aes Sedai and sul’dam put together, and sets Noal to follow them whenever they leave the camp.

Mat convinces Egeanin to come visit Tuon with him, telling her it’s because he wants her guidance as a Seanchan noble, but really so that he can give Tuon someone else to focus her ire upon. He also brings Tuon a Seanchan necklace he bought off of one of the performers, but his plan backfires spectacularly. Tuon and Selucia both regard the necklace with distaste. Selucia declares that it is a piece for a shea dancer to wear and throws it at Egeanin, ordering her to put it on. Mat is surprised when Egeanin obeys, and confused when Tuon and Selucia give Egeanin a new name, “Leilwin Shipless.” Egeanin takes their words like blows before asking permission to leave—she asks three times with increasing humility, finally dropping to her knees and kissing the floor before she is finally dismissed.

Mat is also dismissed before he can make a tactical withdrawal. Outside, he demands to know what that was all about, and why Egeanin would jump for a lady’s maid that way. Egeanin replies that even one of the High Blood might not dare meet the eyes of the Tuon’s so’jin, and that she isn’t of any blood anymore. She throws the necklace away into the darkness, leaving Mat baffled.

Mat decides to learn more about his enemy, and to find a different way to win. He starts coming to visit Tuon to play stones—he’s so busy trying to figure out whether Tuon would prefer to win or lose that he is beaten easily on the first game, and Tuon remarks that he doesn’t play very well. But the next day he comes back for another game, and with a gift of a beautiful paper flower which he presents to Selucia. Everyone seems startled by this move, but Tuon lets Selucia keep the flower, and Mat gets another game. He discovers that Tuon is a great player, and that he and she are about evenly matched. 

On the forth night Mat brings a cluster of silk rosebuds, and this time instead of presenting them to Selucia, he leaves the flowers beside the stones board.

Tuon tells him that she is feeling confined in the windowless wagon. Since she has kept her word not to try to escape or give the alarm, she asks to be allowed to go for walks after dark, and adds that he can accompany her. Mat decides that it’s safe enough, provided Tuon keeps her hood up. He tries to learn more about Tuon, but finds her adept at turning the conversation away from herself. He does learn that she trains horses and damane in her free time, which alarms him.

Later, Egeanin asks Mat if he really believes that Tuon will complete the ceremony. She’s startled, then shocked, when he doesn’t know what she’s talking about, and explains that the main part of a Seanchan marriage ceremony is that a woman says three times that a man is her husband, and he says three times that she is his wife. Saying this in front of witnesses is what makes a marriage. Dumbfounded, Mat points out that Tuon never said anything in return, but Egenian explains that for the Blood, who usually have arranged marriages, participants don’t even have to be in the same place, and as long as the words are said in front of witnesses within the same year of each other, then the marriage is legal.

When Tuon makes a request of him, a reminder of a promise, Mat holds out a few days just so that she won’t think she can get anything she wants from him, then agrees to take her into the salt town of Jurador. When he wakes that morning he can feel the dice rolling in his head.

Selucia accompanies them. When they reach the road, there are a lot of people on it, all moving purposefully and staring straight ahead. Mat has to dodge and weave around them. But a moment later Tuon asks him if he is practicing a dance and when he looks around he can’t see anyone else on the road. When he touches his medallion it feels normal, so he knows there was no channeling.

Mat follows Tuon and Selucia from shop to shop, but despite the fact that Jurador is a wealthy town, nothing seems to meet with their approval. As he follows the women around, he spots other members of the traveling group, including Aludra and Thom, then spots Edesina with her hood fallen off for a moment. She doesn’t seem in any great hurry to put it back up, he notes, and turns around looking for the other Aes Sedai, and the sul’dam.

It’s then that he realizes he’s lost sight of Tuon and Selucia. They might have turned a corner or gone into one of the shops, so Mat decides to trust to his luck. He closes his eyes, turns in a circle, and takes a step at random. Finding himself facing one of the shops he hurries inside, and finds Tuon and Selucia there.

Tuon proceeds to spend a lot of Mat’s money, and then Mat has to carry the heavy bundle back to camp, despite wearing his best clothes. When the reach the tents and wagons, Julin comes running up to him to tell him that Egeanin has been badly hurt. They find a group of people, including Latelle and Luca, gathered around Mat’s wagon. Egeanin is lying underneath it, cradled in Domon’s arms, and the dice are rolling louder than ever in Mat’s head.

Domon tells him that Egeanin was stabbed in the back by Renna, who has run off. Teslyn arrives a moment later, crawling under the wagon despite the mud and her claims that Joline is better at healing. Mat feels the medallion go cold, and Egeanin convulses before collapsing back into Domon’s arms.

Teslyn assures them that Egeanin will be alright. Mat expresses disbelief that Renna, who was always ready to lick his wrist, would do such a thing, but Egeanin is awake now, and she explains that she is the only one who knows the sul’dam’s secret—that Renna, Seta, and Bethamin were all leashed once. The a’dam worked on them, and it’s possible that it might work on all sul’dam.

Harnan arrives to tell Mat that Renna stole a horse, and that she could be back in the ferry town of Coramen—where there had been many Seanchan soldiers stationed—by nightfall. Mat issues hasty orders for Luca to take the money Mat promised and to move his show as quickly as he can, while Mat’s own people are to take to the forest and hide until Mat can find them. Juilin suggests leaving Tuon and Selucia in Jurador to be found by the Seanchan, but Mat refuses.

Mat and Harnon ride as fast as they can without hurting the horses, and eventually catch up with Vanin, who reports that Renna is pushing harder than expected. They can probably catch up to her around nightfall, but unless her horse founders, she’ll reach the town about the same time. His prediction proves perfectly accurate—as they approach the last ridge before Coramen, they spot Renna, who has abandoned the road for a straighter path cross-country.

Mat watches the bolts hit Renna and take her down—her body tumbles down the slope and into a stream, which carries it away. He wonders if it will reach the sea. The dice have stopped, but all Mat can think about is that he has now been the cause of three women’s deaths, and promises himself that it will never happen again.

When they return to Jurador they find the show camped right where they left it. But when they enter Luca’s wagon the find Tuon there,  sitting in a gilded chair with Selucia at her back, while Latelle offers her a plate of pastries. Tuon asks if Renna is captured or dead, and Mat replies that she is dead before trying to ask Luca what is going on.

Luca tells Mat that Tuon convinced everyone to stay, including Juilin and Thom and Mat’s men. Then he shows Mat a warrant, signed by Tuon herself, putting his show under her personal protection. He’s tremendously excited about it, calling Tuon High Lady and seemingly ready to kiss the floor at her feet. Mat feels a sudden sense of despair.

Tuon tells Mat that she made specific mention in the warrant of who is not under her protection, and asks him if he knows which name heads that list. He realizes suddenly that her smile is not malicious—it’s another of those secret smiles that holds amusement or delight in something he can’t see. And then he notices the cluster of silk rosebuds, the ones he gave her, pinned to her shoulder. He realizes that despite all his efforts he doesn’t know Tuon one bit, and begins to laugh.

What’s most interesting about this section, I think, is that we only have Mat’s perspective throughout it, which means that the reader’s sympathy is naturally going to turn in his direction. But as I went through the chapters, I found myself considering how different the events would look from other characters’ perspectives.

The Aes Sedai had no choice but to trust Mat during the escape from Ebou Dar, and it was no small amount of trust, either, to let themselves be collared and controlled by the sul’dam. Yes, he came through for them in the escape, but while Mat may trust Thom and Juilin’s reports much more than he trusts the Aes Sedai’s information, the Aes Sedai have no real reason to trust his judgement over their own. They barely know him, after all, and they know even less about the other people traveling with the show. Teslyn, Joline, and Edesina are women who are accustomed to having not only more power than most of the people they interact with but also to having more knowledge, and it’s hardly surprising they want to see things and judge situations for themselves—for all they know, Mat could be lying to them about where they are headed, or how near the Seanchan are.

Granted, it would seem to be a better plan to send the Warders to look around and report back to the Aes Sedai, but only Joline has Warders, and Teslyn is a Red. Even if she and Joline didn’t have such a fraught history, Teslyn might not be ready to trust the judgments of two men, even Warders. Come to think of it, trust between the three Aes Sedai might be pretty strained at this point—we don’t know if Joline has come around to the idea that Teslyn slipping her forkroot was what saved her from the Seanchan attack, and even if she has, that was hardly Teslyn’s intent in poisoning her fellow sister.

It would also seem that they aren’t always sticking together, since it appears Edesina was in Jurador and Teslyn wasn’t—though we can’t be sure, since if Mat and Tuon and Selucia had time to get back to the show, so did anyone else who was in town around the time that they were. But it at least seems more likely that they weren’t together.

Mat tells the three Aes Sedai and three sul’dam that staying with the wagons isn’t so much to ask, but it kind of is. He has cooped the Aes Sedai up with three women who not only view them as animals, rather than people, but who are fully prepared to imprison them as animals at the very first opportunity. In the meantime, the sul’dam miss no chance to remind the Aes Sedai of how they view them, and to encourage Mat to see the Ae Sedai in the same way. Mat is even using the sul’dam as leverage against the Aes Sedai, which, whether necessary or not, is hardly a way to ingratiate himself or make them feel comfortable with his decisions. 

I have very little sympathy for the sul’dam, however. It’s easy to see why they are so obsequious to Mat— even without Mat knowing their secret, they are well aware that they committed treason in helping him steal (as they would see it) two damane and one marath’damane and secret them out of Seanchan-controlled territory. Given how the sul’dam are accustomed to having a certain level of prestige and power in Senchan society, it makes sense that they would hope to gain a position under Mat that is similar to a position they might have held under one of the Blood. However, they have no guarantee he will see them that way, and nothing to offer besides their knowledge of the Seanchan plans (which is probably pretty limited) and their ability to use the a’dam. So of course they would want to convince him that collaring and controlling Teslyn, Joline, and Edesina is necessary. That they, the sul’dam, are necessary.

But there is even more to their continual insistence that the Aes Sedai are shifty and untrustworthy and should be collared and controlled than a desire to be useful to Mat. These three women have all been collared themselves—they know, whether they can admit it to themselves or not, that they can be controlled by the a’dam, that they themselves are marath’damane, or at least something very close to that. Every time they refer to the three Aes Sedai as “the girls,” every time they suggest that they should be using the a’dam to control Teslyn and Edesina and Joline, they are drawing a metaphorical line between themselves and the Aes Sedai, attempting to reinforce the idea that they are sul’dam, not damane. That the Aes Sedai are animals meant to be collared and they, Seta and Renna and Bethamin, are not.

Their discomfort certainly makes sense, but it is also undeniable that they were offered the opportunity to see channelers, to see damane, in a different light, but chose to double down in their prejudice instead. They are desperate to save their own skins, ready even to betray their Empire if that’s what it takes. Not that I don’t understand that part—I’d say the Seanchan deserve to be betrayed by those they would enslave, and those they would enslave deserve to escape. However, it is very interesting how quickly the sul’dam changed their beliefs. If they truly believed that collaring women who can channel is the right thing to do, that being collared is the best thing for the damane themselves, then they should have turned themselves in as marath’damne, right? But that belief didn’t hold up for Seta, Bethamin, and Renna. Not when it was their own necks on the line.

Because of this, I felt much closer to Tuon’s opinion than Mat’s about Renna’s death. Not for the same reason as Tuon, of course—I’m not loyal to the Crystal Throne—but I agree with her order to Mat that he shouldn’t beat himself up over doing what he had to do. He tried to spare Renna and the other sul’dam, and if Renna had succeeded in reaching the Seanchan it would have spelled doom for many of the other people who put their trust in Mat, those he is helping and those who have helped him.

Like Rand and Perrin, Mat was never taught to be a leader, never learned how to carry the responsibility of being in charge of other people’s lives, and, sometimes, their deaths. Just like Faile does for Perrin and Elayne and Aviendha do for Rand (Min plays a slightly different role, I think), Tuon will have to teach Mat how to be a leader, especially if he is going to be husband to a woman who will one day be an Empress. I wonder what title he’ll have—will he be the Fox Emperor, or is the Empress’s husband called something else, like “Consort” or “Husband of the Nine Moons?”

And indeed, I’d say Mat’s relationship with Tuon feels a lot like Rand’s. Min’s viewing told her that she, Elayne, and Aviendha would all be with Rand, which affected how the women approached their relationship with him as well as with each other. Mat and Tuon also have each been told their future—Tuon by a damane with an ability similar to Foretelling, and Mat by some extra-dimensional beings he tangled with on the other side of a ter’angreal doorway—and as a result, they are approaching the question of a relationship as a matter of when, rather than if. And I’ll admit, I tangled up my brain quite a bit trying to decide what, if anything, would be different if one or both of them hadn’t been given this foreknowledge. On one hand, the “Foretellings” were only readings of the Pattern, so Mat and Tuon would ostensibly have ended up together regardless of what they learned or when they learned it, even if they would have interacted with each other differently. On the other hand, Tuon would probably not have been willing to be captured, and that could have spelled doom for everyone Mat was helping, even if he himself would eventually have come out of it as her husband. Perhaps having both of them encounter these “Foretellings” before they even met was the Pattern’s way of spinning their lives in the right direction, making sure they not only met at the right time but that they made the choices the Pattern needed them to make. A true self-fulfilling prophecy, as it were.

Anyway, it’s interesting to see how Tuon compliments Mat’s personality. One thing that he really needs in life is someone who will challenge and push him, balancing out the selfish part of him that would rather have fun and shirk duty, the part of him that would run from danger rather than assume responsibility in the face of it. It’s enjoyable to see Mat pushed this way, I must say, just as it is enjoyable to see his frustration over Olver being taught certain things—like macking on girls—by his uncles. I really love that Mat has an adopted son who is just as clever, adventurous, and mischievous as he is. It’s like when parents enjoy seeing their adult children have children of their own, and watch them go through the same struggles that those adult children put their parents through when they were small.

What Mat brings to Tuon is yet to be seen, but at the least his perspective is very different from hers—he was born a commoner and outside of Seanchan, and she will need to understand and adapt to the world she has come to reclaim, even if she isn’t able to conquer it all in the way the Seanchan actually intend.

And of course, the biggest asset here will be Mat’s ability to connect the (future) ruler of the Seanchan to the Dragon Reborn. Rand already intends to try for a truce between himself and the Seanchan, and though the Seanchan are a pretty horrible society in a lot of ways, they do believe they have an important role to play in the Last Battle. I’m sure they will, and I think that the Seanchan prophecy that the Dragon will kneel before the Crystal Throne looks very different when you consider it might be Mat and Tuon, not the Empress, that he will probably be negotiating with. The fact that the Pattern has brought Tuon and Mat together makes a lot of sense, in this regard, and the alliance may be one of the most important keys in readying the side of the Light for Tarmon Gai’don.

I really wish we could see some of the courtship from Tuon’s point of view, though. It’s fascinating that she and Mat both have foreknowledge that they will eventually get married, but while we get to see how he is viewing the problem, we have no idea what she thinks about all of it. I suspect that some of her disdain for him is a show, but it’s hard to tell if her performance is just to make sure puts in work to court her properly, or if it’s because she wants to train him into certain behaviors, or if it’s for some other reason entirely. Watching Mat wonder about her motives and intentions is fun, but this feels like the perfect moment for some of that excellent Robert Jordan dramatic irony, and I’d love to be able to see both of them trying to figure out the other one. However, Jordan probably intended the reader to be a little frustrated this way, just as Mat is frustrated, and I have to respect that.

If I had to guess, the necklace that Mat got was probably exactly what Selucia said it was—a piece of jewelry made for a dancer. After all, a soldier gave it to one of Luca’s performers. Mat couldn’t have known that, I suppose, but he might have considered that the caliber and type of jewelry that a soldier could buy and bestow upon a woman he was courting might not be considered worthy of a future Empress, even if the piece was expensive and beautiful. And just because the necklace looked expensive to Mat, and just because the woman he bought it from valued it at a high price doesn’t mean it actually was expensive.

I’m not exactly shocked that Tuon managed to take over authority in Luca’s show—that woman clearly can’t be fazed by anything, and is accustomed to using the combination of fear and favor to control people. Even without the backing of her nobles and guards, even with people who have no loyalty to Seanchan or the Crystal Throne, she is able to figure out exactly what leverage to apply to Luca to have him eating out of her hand in a matter of hours.

Poor Egeanin, though. Unlike the sul’dam, she was faced with the truth about the sul’dam and also made friends with Aes Sedai, and as a result she has had her faith in her country shaken. She isn’t perfect by any means—she’s still struggling with the idea that Domon was, from the Seanchan point of view, her property, and her flight from Seanchan was motivated by self-preservation as much as anything else. But we can see she’s working on it, and that while Domon is loyal to her, he will not actually allow himself to be confined by Seanchan rules, which means that she will continually be pushed to adjust her perspective, and to grow.

I remember when we learned that Tuon trains damane, but I’d sort of forgotten about the fact that she can actually use the a’dam, and is therefore capable of learning how to channel. The irony of Mat ending up with a woman who can channel is obvious, but if the future Empress herself is revealed to be a channeler, or at least a potential channeler, that could have some incredible repercussions for the state of the Seanchan Empire and the way that damane are handled. Which would be very good, not only for the sake of the damane themselves but also for the potential of the Seanchan Empire and culture existing alongside the other nations. 

Also, does this mean that Tuon will outlive Mat by quite a bit? Or at least that she could, if she chose to learn to channel?

And what the heck is up with Noal? The fact that he just so happened to recite part of the Prophecies of the Dragon to Tuon right as Mat was showing up to see her feels like more than coincidence, as does his offer to assassinate Amathera for Mat, as does the way he appears and disappears so apparently randomly. He seems to know a lot more than he lets on, and I wonder if he isn’t hiding behind the image of an old, forgetful man the way Brown Aes Sedai hide behind the identity of scholarly scatter-brains who only care about books. He doesn’t quite feel like a bad guy, but if he isn’t one of the Forsaken in disguise or a spy for them, I can’t think of what else his secret might be.

Mat recognizes the verse as being about himself, but it’s clearly a reference to Tuon as well, given that ravens are symbols of the Seanchan and that she is called the Daughter of the Nine Moons.

Fortune? Tuon? Definitely seems that there’s something there. And while I don’t know if Mat has caught on to that part of the verse, surely Noal didn’t pick it at random. Does Tuon suspect its significance? Did Mat’s ta’veren powers summon the verse to Noal’s mind? That’s more the way Rand’s powers work than Mat’s, it seems, but you never know.

I’m also curious about Setalle, who seems more judgemental of Mat than she is of Tuon and Selucia. This surprises me, considering Setalle’s reaction to the leashing of Aes Sedai and the fact that she is probably a former sister who was burned out and had to leave the Tower as a result. Surely a former Aes Sedai wouldn’t look kindly on the leader of the Seanchan, but Mat at least perceives that she is more on Tuon’s side than his when it comes to their personal interactions, and he thinks that Selucia and Setalle have grown rather close. I’m curious to see what comes of this, but perhaps Setalle will be another influence on Tuon to change her mind about channeling.

There are a lot of interesting moments in these chapters, and even as I write I’m sure I’m forgetting some. But one is that Juilin mentions rumors that Suroth has allied with a king or some other strong ally, which is probably Masema.

There is also the mention of Tuon’s father being a gambler, who died of a bad wager. My read on that is that he was a general like Mat, who died in battle, and I’ll be interested to see if that turns out to be true.

We have one more chapter, plus the Epilogue, to cover in the next post, which will have to wait until the New Year. But I am very excited to cover it, and there are some dramatic moments yet to be had before we close out Crossroads of Twilight.

I hope every one of you has an enjoyable and restful holiday season, and I will see you all in 2025!