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And it had been Somehow, Mat knew A part of him had known from the first time he had read that note If he had never spoken to the Aelfinn that first time, would any of this have happened? Likely, he would have died They had to tell the truth

They had warned him of a payment to come For life For Moiraine And he would have to pay it In that moment, he knew that he would For he knew that if he did not, the cost would be too great Not just to Thom, not just to Moiraine, and not just to Mat himself By what he’d been told, the fate of the world itself depended on this ht Maybe I am a hero after all Didn’t that beat all?

"I’ll pay it," Mat announced "Half the light of the world" To save the world

"Done!" one of the ht creatures leaped--as if one--fro circle, like a noose Quick, supple and predatory

"Mat!" Tho to hold the unconscious Moiraine while reaching for one of his knives

Mat held up a hand toward Tho a few steps away frolance The gold studs on the straps crossing the ht creatures were s wide

Noal raised his sword

"No!" Mat yelled "Don’t break this agreement If you do, we all will die here!"

The Eelfinn stepped up in a tight circle around Mat He tried to look at the louder and louder in his chest They were sniffing at hi whatever it was they drew frorowled "But know this is the last you’ll get of me I’ll escape your tower, and I’ll find a way to free my mind from you forever You won’t have me Matrim Cauthon is not your bloody puppet"

"We shall see," an Eelfinn rowled, eyes lustful The creature’s hand snapped forward, too-sharp nails glittering in the diht He drove them directly into the socket around Mat’s left eye, then ripped the eye out with a snap

Mat screaht, but it hurt! More than any wound taken in battle, more than any insult or barb It was as if the creature had pressed its deceitful claws into histo the ground as he raised hands to his face He felt slickness on his cheek, and he screaers felt the empty hole where his eye had been

He threw his head back and yelled into the rooony

Eelfinn watched with their horrid, almost-hu rising from Mat An almost invisible vapor of red and white

"The savor!" one Eelfinn exclai!" cried another

"How it twists around him!" said the one who had taken his eye "How it spins! Scents of blood in the air! And the gambler becomes the center of all! I can taste fate itself!"

Mat howled, his hat falling back as he looked through a single, tear-muddled eye toward the darkness above His eye socket see! He felt the blood and sera dry on his face, then flake away as he screa drunk

Mat let out one final screah he could not stop a low groan--a growl of anger and pain--fro deep within his throat One of the Eelfinn males collapsed, as if overwhelmed He was the one who had taken Mat’s eye He clutched it in his hands, curling around it The others stu their way to pillars or the sides of the rooainst theMoiraine