Cordwood Mather

From Glen Cook Wiki

Cordwood Mather, or Cordy Mather, is a displaced soldier from Roses. He is described as a fair individual with ginger hair. He is calm, thoughtful, and somewhat reserved, almost the exact opposite of his best friend, Willow Swan. Perhaps because of this, he takes what could be considered a submissive role in the relationship, often just going along with whatever Swan decides is a good idea. His father was a brewer, and he remembers some of the trade himself, making what is described as "third-rate green beer" in Taglios, once they realize that no one there knows what beer is.

He and Swan decided to come south from Roses about a year after the Company holes up in the city trying to kill Raker. This puts it as possibly after the Battle of Charm, though it does not seem likely that Cordy was a veteran of that battle. He and Willow end up working for Taglios as military advisors, serving both as competent mercenaries and good fall guys. Cordy helps lead armies against the Shadowmasters one year prior to the visit of the Black Company. Though it is likely Swan that originally attracts the Radisha Drah's attention, he ends up in a clandestine relationship with her.

He is one of the Captured under the Fortress of the Glittering Plain; unfortunately, for some reason he wakes up on his own before Sleepy and the remnants of the Company arrive. Confused, he touches several frozen comrades in an attempt to wake them up, breaking the stasis spells and inadvertantly killing them. He then runs deeper into the cavern, crawling through the tunnel that leads to the Books of the Dead. Unfortunately, he activates a spring trap loaded with a poison pin and dies in the tunnel. It is worth noting, though, that if he hadn't triggered the trap himself, Sleepy almost certainly would have triggered it herself, and with Croaker still frozen and One-Eye totally exhausted and unconcious, likely died. So his death, at least, wasn't totally in vain.

The Captured he accidentally kills are Wheezer, Cletus, Candles, two unidentified Nyueng Bao, and two unidentified Shadar.