The Burning White (Lightbringer #5) - Brent Weeks Page 0,129

the Lesser Mirrors. Here, with the filters I found, you can point a beam of any color light you wish, anywhere, even right at the base of your own wall. Why?”

“To power your drafters in a battle?” Kip asked.

“Definitely . . . but for both religious and cultural reasons, the ancients in this city would have only had green drafters. They were at war with everyone else. So why have other color filters?”

No one answered.

Cruxer rubbed the bridge of his nose. “This is the short version, right?”

“Yes,” Ben-hadad said.

“Then, what’s the answer?”

“I don’t know,” Ben said.

They groaned.

“You’re killin’ us here, Ben,” Big Leo said.

“No, no, no,” Ben said. “Wait. I don’t know . . . but I have some guesses. I know how engineers think and how they build—even over the centuries, we all have the same kind of minds. This Great Mirror can be moved quickly. You don’t need to do that for messages—but you do in a battle. I’m certain that the Great Mirrors are defensive. They’re artillery. I think the filters are for fighting wights. I don’t know, but maybe if you shoot a huge beam of a complementary color at wights, it messes with their drafting or their minds? What does Orholam’s Glare do? It overwhelms and then destroys a drafter or wight by giving them too much light. Now, if you had enough mirrors, all working together, say, under the direction of a full-spectrum polychrome, I bet you could negate the effect of even a bane.”

“What are you . . .” Kip started.

“The ancients weren’t stupid,” Ben-hadad said. “But the Chromeria has been, in wiping out as much of the knowledge about the old gods as they could. The ancients would have known all about the bane. They would’ve known they were vulnerable to them—and they would’ve guarded against it. The Thousand Stars all over Big and Little Jasper? The Great Mirrors in the Chromeria’s towers? They weren’t meant just to give drafters a few extra minutes of light every day. The Chromeria is bristling with cannons built exactly for the kind of attack that’s coming their way. But no one knows it. They don’t even know an attack is coming, so there’s no way any of them are going to figure it out once the bane are coming over the horizon. And even if they do, I think it’d take a full-spectrum polychrome of incredible power and concentration to use the mirrors all together.”

Everyone had turned to look at Kip. He felt his face flushing.

“Breaker,” Ben-hadad said, “Kip. They need the Lightbringer.”

“I’ve never—I’ve never said I’m that,” Kip said. It was like they were trying to foist an enormous burden onto his shoulders.

“It would explain the biggest conundrum of all,” Cruxer said.

“What’s that?” Ben asked.

“It’d explain why the White King has done so much to keep Breaker here.”

“No,” Kip said. He wasn’t sure which part he was denying. “Anyway, the other reasons for him tying me up here are plenty.”

“No, it makes sense,” Big Leo said. “He’s afraid of you.”

“No, this is ridiculous. You guys, we’ve talked about this!” Kip said. “I’m not . . .” He lowered his voice, though they appeared to be completely alone up here.

“Wait, wait. What if—what if—forget all the extra stuff,” Ben-hadad said. “All the religious garbage. All the myths and prophecies. Let ’em go. The core of what made Lucidonius Lucidonius was that he gave people light. He was the light-giver. Yeah, there was all the religious stuff he did and how he became a conqueror, but how did he give people light? He was a lens crafter. He discovered how to make colored lenses, and that technological leap changed drafters’ lives forever. What if the Lightbringer is just as simple: you bring light. You physically bring light at the moment the Seven Satrapies need it most. What if that’s it?”

“The Lightbringer’s a lot more than that,” Cruxer said.

“Shut up with that right now,” Ben-hadad said. “Uh, with all due respect, commander.” He turned. “Breaker, let other people call you whatever they want. You can figure out how to counteract the bane. You can send colored light to every corner of the Jaspers as quickly and precisely as a battle demands.”

“What if it doesn’t work that way? What if counteracting the bane isn’t just a matter of directing the mirrors?”

“You’d figure it out,” Ferkudi said, as if it were that simple.

They all nodded.

“And that’s a monumental amount of drafting, even if I could figure it out.”

“So we