The Way of Kings - By Brandon Sanderson Page 0,471

suspicion on me from across the camps! You gave Sadeas an opportunity to destroy me.” He opened his eyes, looking down at the king.

“I had to know,” Elhokar whispered. “I couldn’t trust anyone.” He groaned beneath Dalinar’s weight.

“What of the cracked gemstones in your Shardplate? Did you place those too?”

“No.”

“Then maybe you did uncover something,” Dalinar said with a grunt. “I guess you can’t be completely blamed.”

“Then you’ll let me up?”

“No.” Dalinar leaned down farther. He laid a hand against the king’s chest. Elhokar stopped struggling, looking up in terror. “If I push,” Dalinar said, “you die. Your ribs crack like twigs, your heart is smashed like a grape. Nobody would blame me. They all whisper that the Blackthorn should have taken the throne for himself years ago. Your guard is loyal to me. There would be nobody to avenge you. Nobody would care.”

Elhokar breathed out as Dalinar pressed his hand down just slightly.

“Do you understand?” Dalinar asked quietly.

“No!”

Dalinar sighed, then released the younger man and stood up. Elhokar inhaled with a gasp.

“Your paranoia may be unfounded,” Dalinar said, “or it may be well founded. Either way, you need to understand something. I am not your enemy.”

Elhokar frowned. “So you’re not going to kill me?”

“Storms, no! I love you like a son, boy.”

Elhokar rubbed his chest. “You… have very odd paternal instincts.”

“I spent years following you,” Dalinar said. “I gave you my loyalty, my devotion, and my counsel. I swore myself to you—promising myself, vowing to myself, that I would never covet Gavilar’s throne. All to keep my heart loyal. Despite this, you don’t trust me. You pull a stunt like that one with the girth, implicating me, giving your own enemies position against you without knowing it.”

Dalinar stepped toward the king. Elhokar cringed.

“Well, now you know,” Dalinar said, voice hard. “If I’d wanted to kill you, Elhokar, I could have done it a dozen times over. A hundred times over. It appears you won’t accept loyalty and devotion as proof of my honesty. Well, if you act like a child, you get treated like one. You know now, for a fact, that I don’t want you dead. For if I did, I would have crushed your chest and been done with it!”

He locked eyes with the king. “Now,” Dalinar said, “do you understand?”

Slowly, Elhokar nodded.

“Good,” Dalinar said. “Tomorrow, you’re going to name me Highprince of War.”

“What?”

“Sadeas betrayed me today,” Dalinar said. He walked over to the broken desk, kicking at the pieces. The king’s seal rolled out of its customary drawer. He picked it up. “Nearly six thousand of my men were slaughtered. Adolin and I barely survived.”

“What?” Elhokar said, forcing himself up to a sitting position. “That’s impossible!”

“Far from it,” Dalinar said, looking at his nephew. “He saw a chance to pull out, letting the Parshendi destroy us. So he did it. A very Alethi thing to do. Ruthless, yet still allowing him to feign a sense of honor or morality.”

“So… you expect me to bring him to trial?”

“No. Sadeas is no worse, and no better, than the others. Any of the highprinces would betray their fellows, if they saw a chance to do it without risking themselves. I intend to find a way to unite them in more than just name. Somehow. Tomorrow, once you name me Highprince of War, I will give my Plate to Renarin to fulfill a promise. I’ve already given away my Blade to fulfill a different one.”

He walked closer, meeting Elhokar’s eyes again, then gripped the king’s seal in his hand. “As Highprince of War, I will enforce the Codes in all ten camps. Then I’ll coordinate the war eff ort directly, determining which armies get to go on which plateau assaults. All gemhearts will be won by the Throne, then distributed as spoils by you. We’ll change this from a competition to a real war, and I’ll use it to turn these ten armies of ours— and their leaders—into real soldiers.”

“Stormfather! They’ll kill us! The highprinces will revolt! I won’t last a week!”

“They won’t be pleased, that’s for certain,” Dalinar said. “And yes, this will involve a great deal of danger. We’ll have to be much more careful with our guard. If you’re right, someone is already trying to kill you, so we should be doing that anyway.”

Elhokar stared at him, then looked at the broken furniture, rubbing his chest. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“Yes.” He tossed the seal to Elhokar. “You’re going to have your scribes draw up my appointment right