Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive #4) - Brandon Sanderson Page 0,143

they’d stand up and shout orders like a battle commander. Wearing the right face they’d argue politics, stand in front of a crowd, even lob insults at the mighty. But catch either of these two women alone, wearing her own face? They’d speak in muted voices and avoid crowds, seeking to curl up quietly and read.

“Beryl, Darcira,” Radiant said, interrupting the women. “I like how you are learning to control your powers—but today’s task is to practice the sword. Try to watch your footwork more than your transformations. Darcira, when you wear a male face, you always lose your stance.”

“Guess I feel more aggressive,” Darcira said, shrugging as her Lightweaving puffed away, revealing her normal features.

“You must control the face rather than let it control you,” Radiant said. Inside she felt Shallan forming a wisecrack—the Three had their own trouble with that idea. “When you’re fighting, and you intend to distract someone, don’t let that distract you as well.”

“But Radiant,” Beryl said, waving toward her side sword, “why do we even have to learn to fight? We’re spies. If we have to pick up our swords, haven’t we already lost?”

“There may be times when you will need to pretend to be a soldier. In that case, using the sword could be part of your disguise. But yes, fighting is our last resort. I would have it be a viable last resort—if you need to break disguise and abandon your cover, I want you to survive and return to us.”

The young woman thought on that. She was a few years older than Shallan, but a few years younger than how Radiant saw herself. Beryl claimed to have forgotten her real name, she’d lived so many different lives. Veil had found her after hearing rumors of a prostitute working in the warcamps whose face changed to match that of people her clients most loved.

A hard life, but not an uncommon story for the Lightweavers. Half of Radiant’s band of twenty included the deserters Shallan had first recruited. Those men might not have forgotten their former lives, but there were certainly parts in the middle they’d rather not discuss.

Beryl and Darcira took Radiant’s tips—which were really Adolin’s tips, drilled into her brain over many nights practicing—and returned to their sparring.

“I couldn’t spot her Cryptic,” Radiant said as she walked away to inspect the others.

“Mmm?” Pattern said, riding on her back, right below her collar. “Pattern? She usually rides on the inside of Beryl’s shirt, near her skin. Pattern doesn’t like to be seen.”

“I’d prefer if you used the Cryptic’s other name,” Radiant said. “It’s confusing, otherwise.” After being pressured, each of the other Cryptics had picked individual names for the humans to use.

“I don’t understand why,” he said. “Our names are already all different. I am Pattern. She is Pattern. Gaz has Pattern.”

“Those … are the same words, Pattern.”

“But they’re not,” he said. “Mmm. I could write the numbers for you.”

“Humans can’t speak equations as intonations,” Radiant said.

Like most of Shallan’s team, Beryl and Darcira already had their own spren—though they had yet to earn their swords. That meant they weren’t squires according to the Windrunner definition. Cryptics weren’t as uptight as honorspren, and didn’t wait as long to start bonds. Everyone in her team had one at this point, and newcomers got them quickly.

So her team had begun using their own terminology. Shallan was the Master Lightweaver. The others were Agent Lightweavers. If someone new joined, they were called a squire during the short time before they acquired a spren. Together, they’d begun calling themselves the Unseen Court. Both Veil and Shallan loved the title … though Radiant had noticed more than a few eye rolls from Windrunners when it was mentioned.

She completed her round of the room, the walking portion of which was shaped like a crescent. She looked over her twenty agents, and started deliberating on the true question at hand: Which ones should she take with her into Shadesmar?

She and Adolin had agreed that the team should be small. Shallan and Adolin, along with three Radiants: Godeke the Edgedancer, Zu the Stoneward, and the Truthwatcher woman who preferred to be called by her nickname, the Stump. They’d bring some of Adolin’s soldiers as grooms and guards—and he’d choose men who hadn’t been on the mission to the warcamps, just in case.

In addition they wanted three Lightweaver agents to Soulcast food, water, and other materials. It was a practical decision, and would also give some of Shallan’s people experience with