Thai Dei was a Nyueng Bao man, the brother of Ky Sahra, and the bodyguard of the Black Company mainstay Murgen. Although he was not a sworn member of the Company, he was a loyal ally for many years, and participated in many of the events recounted in the Books of Glittering Stone.
A man of few words, he was widely recognized for his excellent swordsmanship and his loyalty to the Path of the Sword. Only the master Uncle Doj exceeded him in prowess among its followers.
Bleak Seasons[]
Murgen, in Bleak Seasons, described Thai Dei as follows:
| “ | He does not look like much. He is a foot shorter than I am. I outweigh him by eighty pounds. And I am far prettier. He has crudely cropped black hair that sticks out in unkempt spikes. Skinny, lantern-jawed, taciturn and surly [...] | ” |
Thai Dei was beside Uncle Doj and Murgen during many key events of the Siege of Dejagore. After surviving the harrowing siege, he became Murgen's bodyguard in gratitude for the Old Crew's alliance, which had saved about 600 Nyueng Bao people from near-certain death. Several other swordsmen of the Path became other Old Crew bodyguards.
Thai Dei saved Murgen's life during the Company's ambush of the Stranglers at the Grove of Doom. During this ambush, he accompanied Murgen, One-Eye, Goblin, Wishbone, and some others in the hopes of capturing their chief target, Narayan Singh. Narayan was the chief Strangler jamadar who had kidnapped the newborn daughter of the Company's two highest ranking officers. Although Narayan escaped with the girl, the group wiped out a number of dangerous Stranglers with the help of Goblin's sleep spell. When 6 shadowweavers hidden nearby sent a killing shadow at Murgen, Thai Dei slammed him out of the way at the last moment. The shadow was killed by the Company's swift, fiery counterattacks, and the shadowweavers promptly surrendered. Thai Dei helped execute those which were not taken prisoner. He did not slash throats, but rather stabbed into the brain through the eye, to avoid excess bloodshed.
Thai Dei's 5-year-old toddler To Tan was murdered by veteran, rumel-wielding Stranglers who penetrated the Palace of Taglios to assassinate Croaker. Despite the death of the young boy, Uncle Doj and Thai Dei's mother, Ky Gota used the event to fake the death of his sister Ky Sahra. Their goal was to separate her from her foreign husband because of the racial shame the union brought to them personally. Thai Dei protested but not strongly enough.
She Is the Darkness[]
After the Siege of Overlook, Thai Dei was among the group of 50 people who crossed the Shadowgate and entered the glittering plain. After they accessed Shivetya's fortress, he would become a member of the Captured, frozen in stasis for 15 years in the Cave of the Ancients by Soulcatcher.
Water Sleeps[]
Thai Dei, like most of the rest of the Captured, was immobile and unconscious throughout Water Sleeps and the preceding 15 years. His sister Sahra strenuously supported Sleepy's relentless efforts to free the Captured. They finally reached the Captured after an arduous quest at the end of Water Sleeps. Thai Dei was one of the 5 Captured to be rescued during the first wave of liberations, alongside Croaker, Lady, Murgen, and the Prahbrindrah Drah.
Soldiers Live[]
Early in Soldiers Live, Croaker observed Thai Dei and Tobo perform the Crane Kada, an exercise of the Path of the Sword, at the Abode of Ravens. He believed that both men outshone even the old master Uncle Doj. He later attended the funerals of Ky Gota, who died of natural causes, and of One-Eye, who was assassinated by the forvalaka Lisa Daele Bowalk. Thai Dei feigned to be the father of "Shiki" to distract the File of Nine when the Company stole the books containing the knowledge of Shadowgate repair from Khang Phi.
Thai Dei still remained at Murgen's side after most of the other Nyueng Bao bodyguards parted ways because they developed a true brotherhood. Croaker asserted that "the obligation to protect Murgen" had simply "become a convenient fiction." Thai Dei accompanied Murgen when Croaker led a small group of Company members and allies to avenge the death of One-Eye by hunting down Lisa Bowalk in the strange Voroshk world. This group also included Lady, Uncle Doj, Willow Swan, Cletus, Loftus, Spiff, JoJo, and a group of Unknown Shadows called the Black Hounds. They were later joined by Goblin (actually possessed by an entity called the Khadidas) and the Chu Ming brothers.
Thai Dei and Murgen participated in the Protectorate war. They and Croaker were flown by their new ally the Howler on a flying carpet into Dejagore as part of a secret plan to liberate that city from the Protectorate. Later, during the Battle of the Middle Ground, both Thai Dei and Uncle Doj were killed in combat by the Khadidas, their swords unable to harm the supernatural enemy.