Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive #4) - Brandon Sanderson Page 0,197

child. She’d spoken oaths. She’d summoned a Shardblade and struck down her own mother, frantic to survive. And—she looked back at the cube—she’d held one of these?

She gripped the cube tightly, becoming hyperfocused on Mraize’s voice. She couldn’t think about the past. She couldn’t. Unfortunately, the sounds coming out of the cube seemed garbled to her. Her mind fixated on each syllable alone, and she couldn’t understand the Alethi as a language—it was instead a jumble of sounds.

She shook herself, and the barge seemed to lurch beneath her. She gasped, forcing Veil to take over, and Mraize’s words started to make sense.

“… have been careful,” Mraize was saying, “not to attract attention in this communication?”

“I…” Veil said. “Of course I did this in secret. You know me better than that.” What had he been saying before? She’d missed it entirely.

“It is always good,” he said, “to reinforce the behavior you want, little knife. In people as in axehounds. Your report?”

“We have landed,” she said, “and the others went out to explore a small dockside town here on the coast. We have several weeks’ further travel via caravan, hopefully as uneventful as these, before reaching the fortress.”

“Have you learned anything of interest about your fellow Radiants?”

“Nothing I’d report to you, Mraize,” Veil said. “Mostly I wanted to make sure this cube of yours worked.” She considered. “What happens again if I pry the thing open?”

“You will immediately destroy the spren that lives inside,” Mraize said.

“You can’t kill spren.”

“I didn’t say kill.”

She held up the cube. Light escaped from the corners—had the cube opened a little? “Perhaps I do have a tidbit for you,” she said. “Something I might be willing to trade for information about this cube.”

“That is not your mission, nor our arrangement, little knife,” Mraize said—sounding amused. “The hound does not withhold affection to get her feast. She performs first, and then receives her reward.”

“You tell me to be the hunter, not the prey,” Veil said. “Yet snap at me when I show initiative?”

“Initiative is wonderful, and your possession of it is commendable. However, our organization survives based on principles of hierarchy. A group of hunters working together could turn upon one another far too easily.

“And so, I respect my babsk, and you respect me. We do not strike against our own, and we do not negotiate upward. To do otherwise is to invite anarchy. So continue to hunt, but do not think to hold hostage your results. Now, is there anything else to report on the mission that might be relevant?”

He didn’t press her further on information about the other Radiants; so in essence, he conceded that point. She hadn’t been assigned to report on them, and he knew he had no right to press for that information.

Note this fact, Veil thought. There is wiggle room in this arrangement, despite what he implies.

“There have been some odd spren watching us,” Veil noted. “I only catch glimpses of them, but they seem the wrong color. As if they’d been corrupted.”

“Curious,” Mraize said. “Sja-anat extends her influence. I am still waiting for the spren she promised would bond me.”

“She promised to send a spren,” Veil said. “Not that the spren would choose you. Do not blame Shallan if you fail to secure what you want.”

“And yet, Sja-anat spies on you during this trip. These spren you see? What can you tell me about them?”

“They’re all the same variety, and they stay far away or obscured somehow. None of the others on our trip have seen them, though I’ve warned my team to watch for them.”

“Sja-anat is important, little hunter,” Mraize said. “We must bind her to us. A spren of Odium willing to betray him? An ancient creature with equally ancient knowledge? I give you this secondary mission. Watch for these spren closely, and make contact if you can.”

“I will,” Veil said. “Is there news of the tower or of Dalinar’s invasion?”

“Oh, things here are subject to their usual flares of activity and surprise,” Mraize said. “Nothing unexpected for those who have been paying attention. I will let you know if anything here requires your involvement.”

Veil nodded, feeling distracted as the sensation of holding the cube overcame her once more. She forced Shallan to take control again, to see the shadows of reflections of memories. She breathed in and out, trying to force herself to remain strong. To not run.

Should she ask Mraize whether he knew anything of her past, and whether she’d ever communicated this way before? He’d be