Tavos Pond

Tavos Pond was a Meanas mage, and part of the 5th squad of marines under Gesler and Stormy in the 9th Company of the 8th Legion of the Malaz 14th Army.House of Chains, Chapter 11, UK MMPB p.497 He was a tall, dark, moustached man who was probably Korelri.House of Chains, Chapter 5, US SFBC p.254
==In House of Chains==
Tavos Pond's squad was part of Adjunct Tavore Paran's punitive expedition against the Army of the Apocalypse.House of Chains, Chapter 5 On the road from Aren to Raraku, Fiddler asked Tavos Pond and Balgrid to find his missing mage, Bottle. Both could sense the mage was up to something, but were unaware of his exact location or what he was doing. When Bottle returned, he chastised the two mages for not sensing the magic gate through which Topper had entered the Adjunct's tent. Then he revealed the spoils of his eavesdropping.House of Chains, Chapter 11, US SFBC p.420
Later, Tavos Pond and Sands helped Gesler inspect the entrants chosen for the 9th Company Scorpion fights.House of Chains, Chapter 19, US SFBC p.629 He was likely either the Holder or Trainer for the 5th squad's entrant, Clawmaster.
==In The Bonehunters==
After the Battle of Raraku, Leoman led the Army of the Apocalypse westward to Y'Ghatan and the 14th Army followed. By this time, Tavos Pond had been reassigned to Borduke's 6th squad.The Bonehunters, Chapter 7, US SFBC p.294 Adjunct Tavore launched the Last Siege of Y'Ghatan by sending the army's sappers to breach the city's wall under the cover of night. The sappers were organised into groups with each group protected by a mage. Tavos Pond and Balgrid both contributed to this operation and quickly returned to Borduke's squad once the way inside was open.The Bonehunters, Chapter 7, US SFBC p.285/294 
Borduke's marines were first into the breach. But just as they cleared the wall's rubble, they were ambushed by archers and swordsmen, and Borduke, Ibb, and Hubb were killed. Fiddler launched a cusser into the archers in the windows of the building above them and the resulting explosion left Balgrid temporarily deafened and bleeding from the ears. Seeing half his squad dead and Lutes badly wounded, Tavos Pond tried to pull back with the survivors, but Fiddler ordered Pond and Balgrid to continue forward with his squad.The Bonehunters, Chapter 7, US SFBC p.285/292-296
When enough Malazans were engaged in street fighting inside the city, Leoman sprung his trap. The city's olive oil-soaked buildings were set alight and the streets quickly became an inferno. Tavos Pond fled the flames along with a mixed group of survivors from Cord's and Fiddler's squads. During an attack by Leoman's fanatics, Pond was grievously wounded in the face. Balgrid and Scant corralled the screaming mage and Scant pushed his dangling eyeball back into its socket.The Bonehunters, Chapter 7, US SFBC p.295-296/319
Tavos Pond was among the small group of soldiers who survived Y'Ghatan by tunneling their way out from under the city. They spent three days crawling on their hands and knees through the dark led by Bottle and his rat. The mage, his head wrapped in bloody bandages, was assisted in the ordeal by one of the children they rescued from the burning city.The Bonehunters, Chapter 7, US SFBC p.332/368/370
After escaping the city, Faradan Sort placed the bandaged Tavos Pond in Hellian's squad.The Bonehunters, Chapter 10, US SFBC p.427/429 He and the other survivors eventually caught up to the 14th Army west of Sotka as it embarked on Admiral Nok's Malazan Imperial Fleet to return to Quon Tali.The Bonehunters, Chapter 16, US SFBC p.669-671
==In Reaper's Gale==
Hellian's previously unnumbered squad was designated the 8th squad.The Bonehunters, Dramatis Personae Adjunct Tavore clashed with Empress Laseen at Malaz City and took the Bonehunters rogue, following the Tiste Edur fleet that had ravaged Sepik back to Lether.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 13, US HC p.356 Tavore invaded the Letherii Empire, burning her transport vessels on the shoreline and spreading the marines in isolated pairs of squads across thirty leagues of coast. The marines moved forward into the Letherii countryside with orders to kill Edur by night and stir the occupied Letherii into rebellion. Each squad had a mage responsible for hiding their presence and confusing their enemies. For the 8th squad this was Tavos Pond and Balgrid.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 13, US HC p.361-365
Upon making shore, Urb and Hellian's squads remained together.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 13, US HC p.362 After defeating a troop of unsuspecting Edur at Boaral Keep, Tavos Pond was sent to finish off a pair of dying Edur, but declared them both "dead as my sex-life." He wondered aloud to Hellian whether their squad was the first to draw blood. His comment that the Edur "weren't so hard" earned him a mild rebuke from Hellian, who argued that the Malazan ambush had been unexpected and it would not be long before the alerted Edur were laying their own traps. At Hellian's suggestion they acquired the Edur's mounts and pushed hard inland for the capital, fighting from tavern to tavern.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 14, US HC p.402-404 
Contrary to the Adjunct's expectations, the Letherii soldiers did not use the Malazan invasion to turn against their Edur occupiers.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 14, US HC p.410Reaper's Gale, Chapter 17, US HC p.481 As the marines neared Letheras fighting became more desperate, although Hellian earned the support of the Letherii slave and Indebted classes by changing tactics to slay the government officials, lawyers, and debt-holders in each village.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 21, US HC p.632 Fiddler and Gesler's squads joined them at a tavern a day's travel from the capital just in time for a force of hundreds of Edur to envelop the village the Malazans occupied.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 21, US HC p.631-636/650 Tavos Pond was cut to pieces alongside Lutes as the two soldiers tried to hold a flank in the mouth of an alleyway.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 21, US HC p.642/652
==Notes and references==
Category:Bonehunters
Category:Korel natives
Category:Males
Category:Marines
Category:Meanas mages
Category:Soldiers
Category:Y'Ghatan survivor (underground)
de:Tavos Pond