Mat explores the White Tower’s grounds and bests both Gawyn and Galad in combat.
Matthew Broderick as Phillip Gaston in Ladyhawke
Mat rises with the sun. He’s feeling much better already, and is more determined than ever that he’s going to find a way to escape Tar Valon. And boy, is Mat back. The real Mat, the roguish gentleman I likened to Ferris Bueller and Felipe Gaston from Ladyhawke back in The Eye of the World. He dresses and eats breakfast, then saunters through the grounds of the White Tower to look for a means of escape.
Mat cozies up to a bridge guard and asks about conditions outside of Tar Valon. The guard responds with perfunctory answers and informs him that he’ll not be using any of the bridges. The guard knows Mat by name, and so do all of the other bridge guards. It looks like the Amyrlin Seat is serious about keeping him from leaving the city.
Next he comes upon Else, the girl he and Rand met at the Grinwell farm on the way to Caemlyn. She had been more interested in Rand, but her cold reaction to seeing him is still completely out-of-character. She hurries away. You would almost say it’s as though someone else was wearing her likeness as a disguise. Lanfear, I’m looking at you, bitch.
Finally, Mat arrives at the practice yard where Warders are training young men at the sword. Gawyn and Galad recognize him as Rand’s friend. They start chatting, and it isn’t long before Mat impulsively bets them he can beat them both in combat — he with a quarterstaff, they with practice swords. With the gauntness still evident in Mat’s face, they’re reluctant to accept, but he goads them into it. Whether it’s his trademark good luck, or if he really is that good with a quarterstaff, he bests both men in combat.
Wow, where in the world did that come from? Mat just returned from death’s door, and now he beats men who have been training with Warders? This is why he’s such a fun character. Rand and Perrin spend all of their time brooding and whining, but Mat takes this ta’veren business by the horns and exploits it in full.